During the first fifteen years of the 20th century, most Cecil Countians lived tranquil lives, far removed from growing tensions in distant Europe and the terrible impact of deadly epidemics. However, one group of young ladies preparing to become healthcare professionals at the end of the horse and buggy era would soon learn about these disturbing things.
In 1908, Union Hospital opened and a Canadian nurse, Maida Campbell, became the superintendent. The trained medical professional managed all facilities, while also supervising a small staff of aides and orderlies. By 1911, it was decided to establish a nursing school to supply more skilled caregivers.
Young, unmarried women twenty to thirty years old with one year of high school could apply for admission to the inaugural classes. Once accepted into the three-year program that led to a nursing diploma, students received lectures, practical experience, and room and board, along with a monthly stipend of $5. There was no charge for tuition as the ladies exchanged their labor for the clinical experience.
The first six students enrolled in October 1911, and three years later the Cecil County News observed that an “event in local history” had taken place in June 1914, when the first class of credentialed nurses graduated.
At the ceremony, Alice Denver, Stella Graves, Mary King, and Georgia May Miller proudly dressed in white uniforms, received the coveted Union Hospital caps and diplomas while standing on the stage of the Elkton Opera House.
However, for several of these people, troubling, distant matters would have a dramatic impact on their lives. About the time they graduated, war was spreading across Europe, and in 1917 the United States entered the conflict, fighting alongside European Allies. Of course, with the casualty rate growing nurses were needed to staff battlefield hospitals in France. Some from Union Hospital responded, caring for fallen soldiers on distant fronts.
World War I
One was Miss Campbell. In 1918, the superintendent resigned, enlisting as a nurse in Canada’s Military Hospital Service. The year before, she received word that her brother, who was a member of the Canadian troops, was killed in a battle and a second brother had a leg amputated. Alice Denver also answered the call. She had taken a position at the Rockefeller Institute in New York after graduating. However, in 1918 Miss Denver volunteered for war duty in France, nursing wounded and sick soldiers. She returned safely home in May 1919.
Stella Graves’ life took a different path. She married Dr. Victor L. Glover in 1914 and they resided in Inwood W. VA., where the physician practiced medicine. She died on Nov. 14, 1917, of tuberculosis, a disease she contracted while assisting the physician. The 1918 annual report of Union Hospital noted that two graduates had died “of disease contracted in their professional work.” Research hasn’t identified the other person yet.
With the passing decades, the memory of field hospitals, trench warfare, mustard gas, and rumbling artillery on the French Countryside, as well as dangerous epidemics, grew a little dimmer, although the world had changed in startling ways. Surely, the remaining two members of the class of 1914 never forgot their colleagues and friends. As young ladies growing into adulthood in a gentler time, they collectively faced the challenges of becoming degreed nurses in a newly emerging profession, but they also confronted grave, new risks. Some of them gave their lives in the service of others.
Union Hospital School of Nursing
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For an additional article see – Thoroughly Modern Early 20th Century Nurses Meet the Old Civil War Surgeon
The Graduates of the Union Hospital of Cecil County School of Nursing 1914 – 1926