Publi& Health a11d Social Welfare Work
charity and the public health of the community. The maintenance of its clinic alone costs the Sisters over $50,000 a year to operate, paid out of alleged profits of the institution, to say nothing of the thousands of charity patients who are treated without charge each year. St. Iosep/i's Hospital, Fort Wort/,, r885. Originally this institution was established by the Missouri Pacific Railroad on a tract of land purchased by the Company on August 10, 1883. Located next to the city limits on the south, the company had erected the Missouri Pacific Hospital, the first hospital in Fort Worth. Repeated efforts by the railroad finally succeeded in securing the services of the Sisters of Charity of the Incar- nate Word of San Antonio in 1885 to take charge of nursing. The Mother Superior agreed to send ten Sisters to take over the care of the patients on an arrangement similar to that made by the Sisters from Galveston in the case of the railroad hospital in Temple. The Sisters reported after their arrival in Fort Worth that the hospital was "ideally situated on an elevated plain and surrounded by extensive grounds, affording ample facilities for fresh air and light." 37 It had, however, few conveniences for efficient nursing, a matter soon remedied by the Sisters. Shortly after they had taken charge on April 5, 1885, while about half the Sisters were at Mass in St. Patrick's, fire broke out in the hospital. Before they could rush back to help, the few remaining Sisters left on duty promptly and with absolute presence of mind had every patient carried to a place of safety before help arrived. As the flames roared, a Sister rushed back into the inferno to verify that no patient stayed behind who was unfortunately overcome by the fire. The heroism and coolness displayed under adversity won the everlasting admiration and gratitude of the patients, the Company, and the citizens of Fort Worth. The hospital was immediately rebuilt. In 1889, when the railroad company, which had extended south of Fort Worth, decided to hospitalize their injured and sick in Sedalia, Missouri, the Sisters purchased the Missouri Pacific Hospital in Fort Worth. They took possession of the property on April 24, 1889, and the hospital has ever since been under their management and has been closely associated with the growth and development of the city. Immediately after the transfer was made, the chief surgeons for the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad entered into a contract for the care of 37 Dr. Tom B. Bond, "Early History of St. Joseph's Hospital," quoted in Shelly, Catholic Hos,Pitalizativn in T<1xas, 54-55.
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