DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about St. John's Hospital in Tom Green County. Now, picture West Texas in 1909.
San Angelo is a town of fifteen thousand souls — not a small place, not by any stretch — and yet, not a single hospital to its name. Not one. Fifteen thousand people, and if something went wrong, well, you were on your own in ways that don't bear thinking about too long.
Somebody had to do something, and that somebody turned out to be the San Angelo Business Club — forerunner to the Chamber of Commerce — who looked around at their growing city, took stock of what was missing, and decided to make an appeal. They reached out to the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, out of San Antonio. And these were not women unfamiliar with the work.
This Roman Catholic religious order had been in Texas since 1866, and in that time they had already founded several sanitariums throughout the state. They knew what a hospital in rough country looked like. They knew what it cost.
The Sisters said yes. Land was secured at this very site — which, mind you, sat several miles east of San Angelo at the time. Out there.
And on that land, they raised a four-story, red brick building, which, if you stopped to think about it, was a serious statement of intention. This was not a temporary arrangement. St.
John's Sanitarium opened in October of 1910, under the direction of the Sisters. And here's where the story gets a little humbling — because in that first year, few patients were treated. Not because the Sisters weren't ready.
Not because the building wasn't standing. But because the roads between San Angelo and that site were so inadequate that people simply couldn't make the journey with any ease. West Texas, it turns out, had an opinion about all this.
The Sisters kept at it anyway. They were often paid for their services not in coin but in farm products. Whatever people could bring, that's what they brought, and the Sisters accepted it and carried on.
Over time, things changed. The city grew toward the hospital. The roads got better.
The patients came. And St. John's grew right along with them — as the first hospital of its size in West Texas, it became one of the region's pioneers in the use of x-ray equipment, penicillin, and other medical innovations that, in their day, must have seemed close to miraculous out on the high plains.
Additional facilities were built as demand increased, year by year. In 1970, they razed the original building. That four-story red brick structure that the Sisters had put up east of nowhere was gone.
But the institution — the thing those women from San Antonio had built starting from a Business Club appeal and a patch of land — that kept right on going, upholding the ideals and traditions on which it was founded. Fifteen thousand people and no hospital. Then the Sisters showed up, and West Texas never looked quite the same again.
What the marker says
In 1909, San Angelo had a population of 15,000 and no hospital to serve the needs of its people. That year the San Angelo Business Club, forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce, appealed to the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio for help in establishing a hospital. The Roman Catholic religious order had founded several sanitariums throughout the state since coming to Texas in 1866. Land at this site, then several miles east of the city, was secured, and a four-story, red brick hospital building was constructed. Under the direction of the Sisters, St. John's Sanitarium opened in October 1910. Few patients were treated during its first year of operation because they had to travel the distance from San Angelo on inadequate roads. The sisters were often paid for their services with farm products. As the first hospital of its size in West Texas, St. John's has served the area well. It was one of the region's pioneers in the usage of x-ray equipment, penicillin, and other medical innovations. Over the years, additional facilities have been built as demand for services has increased. In 1970, the original building was razed, but the institution has continued to uphold the ideals and traditions on which it was founded. (1985)