- The first patient admitted was William Zims in April 1903; the first surgery, an appendectomy, was performed on Fred Wiseman that same month.
- When the hospital opened, Theodore Roosevelt was president. Popular products included Ivory Soap and Edison phonographs. An Oldsmobile cost $650.
- Macomb’s population was about 6,000 in 1902-03. Western Illinois State College had just opened.
- The sisters bought 12 acres total to create a “hospital farm” supporting the facility.
- Sister M. Thaddeus served from 1907 as nurse and later as hospital procurator in 1960.
- Five sisters and local doctors cared for 135 patients in the first year, rising to 170 the next.
- Some locals resisted the Catholic sisters, who wore distinctive black and white habits.
- Surgery was feared; most emergency operations were for ruptured appendices or railroad accidents.
- Early on, few babies were born in the hospital; home births were common and cheaper.
- The nursing school opened in 1913 and later trained cadet nurses during WWII.
- The sisters worked without pay, balancing nursing, household, and farming duties.
- When the hospital closed, the sisters urged the city to preserve the building as elderly housing, but it was demolished instead.
