Om· Catlrolic Heritage in Texas
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drew the Sisters within a year by recalling them to Galveston where they were much more needed. 26 Hotel Dieu Hospital, Beamnont, 1896. At the request of Reverend McSorely, of the then small town of Beaumont, a one-street railway sta- tion, Mother Benedict, with the approval of Bishop N. A. Gallagher, sent, in December, 1896, two Sisters to make arrangements for the open- ing of a new hospital in the little town. They purchased a small cottage near the Neches and there opened Hotel Dieu Hospital in May with a bed capacity of seven. Within a year they moved into a new three-story frame building in the spring of 1898. The growth of the town was sud- denly boosted by the finding of oil and the hospital grew rapidly to meet the new demands of the prosperous and crowded community. An enlarge- ment of the facilities in 1901 proved insufficient for long to care for the increasing number of patients and fourteen years later, in 1915, a four- story brick building was put up at a cost of $250,000 with a capacity of 150 beds, which was dedicated by Bishop Gallagher on September 22. Monsignor J. M. Kirwin, in his address, declared eloquently that the Cross surmounting the hospital proclaimed to the world that here the sick and the ailing could trustingly expect to find the comfort and care that true love of humanity alone can give.z 1 Statistics to 1936 show that the staff of Sisters grew from two to twenty-eight; the number of patients a year from 548 in 1898 to 2,203 in 1935; the total number of Catholics treated in 38 years was 22,240, and the number of non-Catholics were 39,110. As all other hospitals, it has continued to grow and develop. St. Mary's Hospital, Port Artlm,·, 1929. Repeated requests had been made by various groups in Port Arthur to the Sisters of Charity in Gal- veston for them to establish a hospital in the city. Prior to 1929, 'the Sisters had been reluctant to accept the invitation, because they felt that the Mary Gates Memorial Hospital was meeting adequately the dem~nds cf the community. But when in 1928 the Board of Supervisors of the Memorial Hospital formally offered to transfer to them their equipment ~.nd funds for a modern hospital under the Sisters' direction, and another local organization promised to raise additional funds, the Sisters changed their mind and in 1929 agreed to erect a modern hospital in Port Arthur with accommodations for one hundred patients. Two public spirited cit-
:,sisters of the Incarnate Word, Diamond Jt,bilee, 41-42. 21Shelly, op. cit., 23. Cf. D;amoml Jubilee, 42.
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