011,r Catleo/ic ll,witage in Texas
Edward J. Dunne of Dallas pleaded with the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio early in 1900 to open a hospital in Amarillo, far up in the Panhandle of Texas. Doctor David R. Fly, a prominent physician of Amarillo joined the good Bishop in pressing the urgent need for a hospital in this remote area. As an inducement, two city blocks were donated by Glidden and Sandborn for the purpose. The Mother Superior in San Antonio agreed to send Sisters and work was begun at once on the erection of a two-story, red brick building with accommodations for ten patients. Such was the humble beginning of St. Anthony's Sanatorium, as it was originally called, the first hospital built in the entire Panhandle and at that time the largest building in Amarillo. It is difficult to realize today that only half a century ago this now flourishing city was but a village, with no telephone, no electric lights, no paved streets or roads. Very Reverend David H. Dunn, pastor of St. Mary's Church in Clarendon laid the cornerstone in the Fall of 1900 and on February 13, 1901 the Sisters took charge of the hospital. Not until March 28 was it formally dedicated by Bishop Dunne. To the plains of North Texas went four pioneers: Mother Cleophas, Sister Eugenius, Sister Winifred and Sister Conrad. The bleak, wind- swept prairies in February and March can be forbidding, and were truly desolate in those days. The Sisters underwent great hardships and sacri- fices without complaint. The hospital seemed to be miles away from the town, alone and apart in the "Great American Desert," as geographers then called the Panhandle region. The road leading into town was un- paved and it was difficult to secure supplies over it. There was no resident priest; the Sisters were able to have Mass said at the hospital only once a month. At other times they had to go to Clarendon on a slow train that took several hours to make the trip. On one occasion the Sisters lost their way after their return, while walking out from Amarillo to the hospital in a cold blizzard. They wandered for hours over snow-covered prairies. Winter is hard in the Panhandle. On one occasion, a sudden severe change in weather caused the one lone pipe that supplied the hospital with water to break. The Sisters collected the snow that lay deep all around and melted it to supply water to the patients and for the other needs of the hospital. Not infrequently, when provisions ran short and could not be replenished, they went without a meal or two a day so that the sick might not want. Slowly the people scattered over the boundless prairies came to realize what a blessing St. Anthony's Hospital was. Under the efficient manage-
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