Moline City Hospital
In 1891 Judge John M. Gould framed a bill and went to Springfield
asking the Legislature for a two-mill tax to be levied for hospital
purposes for cities under 100,000 inhabitants. After the bill was passed,
a home association was formed in 1892 and directors appointed, consisting
of Doctor A. H. Arp, Doctor W. K. Sloan and W. B. Inman. The directors
looked up a site, and during the time until 1898 the tax accumulation and
donations enabled them to build. and open the hospital that year with
three patients. Prior to this the ladies had formed a society, giving
entertainments, the proceeds of which were used in furnishing the
hospital. Private individuals furnished private rooms, among which are the
Swedish Ladies room of the Swedish Lutheran Church, the Allen room,
Charles R. Stephens room, George Arthur Stephens room, the Deere room, the
Children's room (furnished and kept by the late Mrs. Sarah L. Atkinson),
the S. H. Velie room, and the Athletic Club room. The Ladies Hospital
Association have kept up the furnishings. The location selected was the
old Hiram Pitts home, where the school was started for the instruction of
nurses, and is now called the Nurses' Home. The training school for nurses
is supported by the Ladies' Hospital Association, which furnishes their
uniforms, and when they graduate gives each of them one hundred dollars.
The superintendent of nurses is Miss Margaret Rooney; the matron, Miss
Margaret Howe of Muscatine, Iowa; and there are ten nurses in attendance.
The first board of directors (appointed by the mayor) was William
Butterworth and Doctor August H. Arp.
The number of patients treated since 1898 to August, 1908, amounts to
2,695. The hospital is supported by taxation and fees of patients, and is
in very flourishing circumstances, with property in good condition, and
self sustaining. The heating plant of the hospital is of the Vacuum Vapor
System. A new bill has been presented to the State Legislature praying for
the two mill tax to be increased to three mills.
At present William Butterworth is president of the association, and Mrs.
Florence D. Sleight, secretary. The staff consists of twenty of the
leading physicians of the city. According to the law under which the
hospital was established, any licensed physician in the state can take his
patients to this hospital and treat them.
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908