Public Health and Social Welfare Work
The Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's Hospital were efficient and progressive. In May, 1892, Mother St. Ignatius requested the Sisters to ascertain when the State Board of Pharmacy was to admit candidates for examination. Sisters St. Xavier and Athanasius made application on August 2, and took the examination on August 29, which lasted from 9 to 5 :30 "and was a rigid one," says the hospital Sisters' record. The two Sisters successfully passed the ordeal, and are among the first regis- tered pharmacists in a Fort Worth hospital. St. Joseph's Hospital continued to grow with the city. In 1898 a three- story brick building was erected. The two wings of the old frame building were removed and the two-story central portion was then moved to the back of the grounds and used for railroad patients. A three-story addi- tion, larger than the previous one, was erected in 1906, which included one entire floor and operating room devoted entirely to the patients of Doctor Bacon Saunders. That same year St. Joseph's Training School for Nurses was chartered by the State and the first class was graduated two years later on May 29, 1908. Among the graduates were Mother M. William, Sister M. Valeria, Sister M. Eugenius, Sister M. Leonide, Sister M. Helen, and Sister Marguerite Marie. It may be noted that a graduate of St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing has yet to fail the State Board Examination.' 0 During the first World War and the Spanish Influenza epidemic St. Joseph's Hospital cared for many men stationed at Camp Bowie. Twelve trained nurses from St. Joseph's School of Nursing served in hospitals in France. Development and progress has been so rapid since those days that it is not possible to recount it in detail. Since the Greater St. Joseph's corner stone was laid in 1926 by Most Reverend Bishop Joseph P. Lynch, the foundation established in 1889 by the Sisters of Charity has made great strides and become a genuine asset to the flourishing city of Fort Worth. In 1930 it was accredited as one of the sixteen hospitals in Texas approved for internship, the first in Fort Worth to receive this merited recognition. The charity done is legendary. In depression days and today, the hungry and the destitute know they will always find a bite to eat at St. Joseph's. Here thousands on the verge of starvation have been fed over the years without distinction of race or creed, and as many have been given encouragement and renewed hope. St. Antlwny's Hospi,tal, AmfN'illo, I900. The Most Reverend Bishop 4 0Shelly, op. cu., 68.
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