Collingsworth County Hospital

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, out here in Collingsworth County, most things take a while to get started, and then once they do, somebody steps up and makes them something worth remembering. This is one of those stories.

It starts back in 1917, when a man named L.H. Stall built the first hospital this county had ever seen, right here on this very site. First one.

That's worth sitting with for a moment. Before 1917, you were pretty much on your own. Now, two surgeons were practicing in the area at that time, and one of them, Dr.

Elmer Wood Jones, born in 1891, he took a particular interest in that facility. Enough of an interest that in 1924 he bought it outright. Now a man who buys a hospital isn't just buying a building.

He's buying a responsibility. And Dr. Jones seemed to understand that, because he didn't stop there.

In 1935, he built a brand new fifteen-bed hospital on the same block. Fieldstone. Solid, deliberate, built to last.

And with that new building standing, he vacated the old one. Then comes 1936, and here is where the story takes a turn that you don't see coming. Dr.

Jones gave the hospital away. Not sold, not leased. Gave it.

To the Sisters of the Dominican Order, out of Springfield, Illinois. The sisters renamed it St. Joseph's, and they got to work.

By 1950 they had obtained accreditation for the facility, and then in 1951 they doubled its size by adding a wing. One year after accreditation, they doubled it. That is not a group that rests on its laurels.

The sisters kept St. Joseph's running for years after that, until 1972, when they sold the hospital to the people of Collingsworth County. The people.

Not a corporation, not a developer. The county itself. So what started as one man's investment became a doctor's life work, then a gift, then a mission, and finally, something that belonged to everybody.

That's a building with a story worth carving in stone.

What the marker says

Original hospital on this site (first in county) was built in 1917 by L.H. Stall. One of the two surgeons then practicing here, Dr. Elmer Wood Jones (1891-1962), bought the facility in 1924. In 1935 he built a 15-bed hospital of fieldstone on the same block, vacating old building. In 1936, Dr. Jones gave his hospital to the Sisters of the Dominican Order, Springfield, Ill. Renaming it St. Joseph's, the sisters obtained accreditation (1950) and in 1951 doubled its size by adding a wing. They sold it (1972) to the people of Collingsworth County. (1972)