St. Mary's Hospital & School of Nursing, Clarksburg, WV

Prior to 1898, there was no established medical facility in the Clarksburg, WV area. Care was provided by circuit riding doctors, family members and local midwives, company doctors in coal camps, and the few established physicians licensed after the 1881 licensure law was put into effect. To meet the need for medical care in Clarksburg, a group of physicians incorporated the Harrison County Hospital in 1900. The founding doctors of the Harrison County Hospital Group were Drs. D. P. Morgan, R. L. Morrison, Waldo Goff, Nelson Peck, Fleming Howell, Robert A. Haynes, T. M. Hood, J. W. Johnson, E. N. Flowers, and Edward Wehner. The original hospital building was constructed on Washington Ave, between Sixth and Chestnut Streets, and was operational by May 1902. Considered at that time to be a state-of-the-art facility, the 25-bed hospital had steam heat, electric lights, an elevator, and an ambulance service. [1] 

Harrison County Hospital, Harrison Co., W. Va., 1911. West Virginia & Regional History Center.

After two years of operation, the Harrison County Hospital began a three-year training program for nurses. The need for trained nurses was a result of changes in the profession, where nurses were no longer simply office assistants, but trained and skilled medical professionals that could provide care. Training nurses in-house was a common practice among many hospitals, especially in rural areas, to meet the needs of staffing and patient care. [2] 

Rooms at the hospital cost between $15 and $30 a week for patients, depending on the medical services rendered, but the founding doctors had trouble managing the facility and keeping it profitable while also attending to their physician duties. In 1903 the first hospital superintendent, Dr. Edward Wehner, asked the Sisters of St. Joseph to come take over the nursing care at Harrison County Hospital. In response, four sisters arrived from Wheeling: Sisters Mary Agnes, Casimer, Aquinas, and Birchmans. When the first Sisters arrived at the Harrison County Hospital, they were given rooms on the fourth floor as their lodging and later received a separate room to use as a chapel. [3] 

The Sisters of St. Joseph began as an order in France in 1650 and were well known for their training of nurses and their care of orphans and the sick. The first diocese of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States was established in St. Louis in 1836. They then expanded to Wheeling, WV when Bishop Whelan of the Wheeling Diocese asked the Sisters to come manage the nursing at the new Wheeling Hospital. After about a decade, Bishop Whelen helped the Sisters establish a new independent apostolic congregation in Wheeling. [4]  

After two years of the Sisters of St. Joseph staffing and managing the hospital, it was still having financial difficulties. The original group of doctors and businessmen who founded the hospital determined that continuing services was not profitable. In May 1905, the Sisters of St. Joseph Corporation borrowed money from the Diocese to purchase the Harrison County Hospital and all furnishings for $21,500. After the purchase, the Corporation chartered the hospital as St. Mary’s Hospital and established the St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing. With the change in ownership, the Sisters took over all supervisory and management positions. [5] 

The Sisters and nursing students lived on-site because nursing duties were 24 hours a day and involved both cleaning and cooking duties. The original hospital did not have a labor and delivery room or a nursery, so obstetric care was integrated into the mix of patients. There was also no pediatric ward, although most children were cared for at home unless seriously ill. Nursing students needed to be trained to handle all aspects of care for various patient needs. [6] 

Despite the school being run by a Catholic order, religion was not a factor in admissions decisions. Applicants needed to have a high school education and be at least 18, or older if they had prior medical experience or were attending college. Prospective students needed to be recommended by a physician and pass a personal interview with the school’s Director and instructing staff. Accepted students did not have to pay tuition, but did have to pay for their books and provide their own uniforms. Students were expected to wear a shirtwaist style dress made from blue chambray with a white Indian-head linen bibbed apron with straps that crossed in the back. [7] 

The three-year training program was a combination of class lectures led by doctors, graduate nurses, and Sisters, and hours working with patients in the hospital. At the beginning the lodging for student nurses was on the top floor of the hospital, like the Sisters, and there was a classroom in the basement. This changed as the program and hospital expanded over the years. Each day began with morning Mass at 6:00am (non-Catholic students were welcome to join or attend their own services) and students typically had 1 hour of lecture and 12 hours clinical practice a day. Students also occasionally worked the Emergency Room 7pm-7am shift, trained in the hospital pharmacy, and, once there was an obstetrics department, worked the Obstetrics 7pm-7am shift. Additional training included 2 days of clinical laboratory and 2 weeks of physiotherapy. [8] 

The first graduating class from St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing, 1908. Not listed in order: Beatrice Glancy, Marie Glancy, Elsie Davis, Verna Cunningham, and Nelle Manning. A Special Place, page 38; original source: Harrison County Historical Society, Clarksburg, WV.

The first class of nursing students consisted of five women: Beatrice Glancy, Marie Glancy, Elsie Davis, Verna Cunningham, and Nelle Manning. The first class graduated in 1908. The school kept enrollment to between 7-10 students per year, probably due to space limitations. New students started with a three-month probationary period. At the end of that period, students received their nursing caps in a ceremony and started earning a stipend for their work in patient care areas. A nurse’s cap was an important symbol of a student’s progression in their training and was something a nurse wore throughout their career. After the probationary period, freshmen nurses received their plain caps in a candlelit ceremony. In their second year of the program, they added a black stripe to their cap. At graduation students received their final graduate cap which was a smaller pleated cap with a thin black velvet ribbon across the top. The St. Mary’s cap was held in place with two small golden crosses, and the cap and pin identified that they graduated from St. Mary’s as they continued in their nursing career. After graduating, nurses could choose to continue to work in the hospital or go into private practice. Graduated nurses could also join the alumnae association which formed in 1911 and actively supported fundraising and programming for the school. [9] 

By 1910 the hospital already needed more space. Additions were made to the original building in 1910 and 1911, first one to the main building called the Annex and then a new wing called the pavilion wing. To make room in the hospital building and accommodate more students, the school purchased a residence in 1916 on Chestnut Street, known as Senior House, to house some of the students and Sisters. Two years later, another residence on Washington Ave, known as the Junior House, was purchased to house and teach students. The hospital still needed more space, and in 1920, a new 4-floor wing was constructed onto the building. This wing had patient care areas on all four floors, a new chapel and dining rooms on the 1st floor, the director’s office and classrooms on the second floor, and an isolation unit on the fourth floor. With the expansion the hospital now had a separate emergency room and obstetrics department. [10] 

St. Mary's Hospital, Clarksburg, W. Va. Robbins & Son, Pittsburgh, Pa. ca. 1905-1925. West Virginia & Regional History Center.

Patient demand was high, but finances were always a bit shaky because of the Sisters’ charity towards patients who could not pay for their care. The hospital also had a policy not to charge ministers of any denomination, or their families, for care. Eventually the hospital needed to ask for payment on more patient accounts to keep the hospital running. The Great Depression proved a large challenge to the finances of the hospital, because in addition to more patients unable to pay, the Sisters offered charity to the community, including feeding people from the hospital kitchen. The Depression also forced the school to discontinue the monthly stipends to student nurses, a development which occurred at many nursing schools during those years. [11] 

In 1917 the National League for Nursing Education released its first Standard Curriculum for Schools of Nursing. As a result, the West Virginia State Nurse’s Association assessed all nurse training programs during the 1920s. The assessment revealed that there was a wide variation in training hours and subjects across the state, and in 1927 the Association adopted a standard curriculum. St. Mary’s also updated their school uniform to a one-piece, all-white, mid-calf dress with short sleeves. [12] 

Since St. Mary’s Hospital did not initially have a ward dedicated to the care of children, the school had an affiliation with the Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH, where St. Mary’s students could go there to receive their training in pediatric care. This continued until St. Mary’s opened their own children’s ward in 1937. In addition to caring for patients in the hospital, students in the children’s department assisted with the Crippled Children Clinic held monthly in the physiotherapy department, which included a free meal for patients and their families. In 1948, the State Board of Nurse examiners added the care of the mentally ill to the required experiences of nurse trainees. This was not widely available at West Virginia facilities, so St. Mary’s arranged for senior students to spend three months at St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing in Pittsburgh to get that required training. [13] 

St. Mary's Hospital; Clarksburg, W. Va. West Virginia & Regional History Center. Caption on back of postcard reads: "St. Mary's Hospital, the former Harrison County Hospital, established by progressive physicians and taken over by the Sisters of St. Joseph, has been enlarged by the addition of several units. It has been recognized as first class by the American College of Surgeons since the organization of the College in 1905. It is equipped with the most modern X-Ray, Deep Therapy, Physio-Therapy, Fever Machines available and an up to date clinical laboratory with full time pathologist."

By 1927, the hospital treated an average of 2100 patients per year, and both the hospital and school continued to grow in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1931, the Sisters of St. Joseph gave St. Mary’s the former St. Joseph Academy building on Pike Street for use as a student residence. Then in 1937, the hospital building underwent another expansion with a new west wing added and separate buildings constructed for the powerhouse and laundry. With this expansion, and due to the baby boom after WWII, obstetrics moved to its own wing, as did the children’s department. The emergency room was able to separate into its own unit on the ground floor and there was a small, segregated ward for African American patients. Once the new west wing was finished, the original Harrison County Hospital section of the building was demolished to make way for a new east building. The renovations increased patient capacity to 205 beds and 30 bassinets. [14] 

World War II greatly affected student enrollment and training at St. Mary’s. Several St. Mary’s graduates served in the First World War, including two who died during their service, but the impact of the Second World War was greater. While the school traditionally kept their incoming classes small, enrollment jumped to 30 students per year in the 1940s. By the 1940s, students had to pay for tuition, around $144, and the school had a permanent staff of a director, two instructors, a secretary, and many doctors who lectured for the program. St. Mary’s participated in the Cadet Corps under the United States Public Health Service to train nurses for possible military service during the war. Students who participated in this program had different uniforms and training courses, worked an 8-hour day, were paid, and were expected to serve two years in the Armed Forces Nurses Corps after graduation. Cadet corps students took classes in chemistry, anatomy and physiology, and nutrition at WV Wesleyan during the summer months as part of the training program. A total of 90 St. Mary’s graduates served in WWII, including the St. Mary’s Hospital Unit under Dr. Fred Fisher, which served in the North African, Italian, and South Pacific Campaigns. [15] 

De Sales School of Nursing, St. Mary's Hospital, Clarksburg, W. Va. West Virginia & Regional History Center.

With growing enrollment, St. Mary’s finally constructed a building to house all students in the same place for the first time. De Sales Hall on Main Street was named in honor of Sister Mary de Sales Conaty, the first administrator of the hospital. Completed in December 1948, the brick building had 6 floors and could house 130 students. Students had private or semi-private rooms on the first five floors and the Sisters had their rooms on the 6th floor. Each floor had a kitchen and bathroom and on the first floor was a chapel, large living room, and smaller visiting rooms. There was also an educational wing on the first floor that contained the nursing library, classrooms, a science laboratory with equipment for teaching basic anatomy and physiology, chemistry, and microbiology, a nursing laboratory with four complete patient units, a storage unit, and an amphitheater that could seat 30 students. [16] 

St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing was a trailblazer in West Virginia for admitting African American and male students. Like most of society, hospitals and education were both segregated in West Virginia. Most hospitals either did not accept Black patients or had segregated wards, and nursing programs only accepted White students. African Americans built their own network of hospitals, physicians, dentists, and pharmacies to meet the needs of their community. Black women who wanted to train as nurses could only pursue that training within African American hospitals that had training programs. President Harry Truman mandated an end to segregation in federal offices in 1948, but that did not affect most of society. The wider end of segregation occurred after the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. A few Veterans’ Affairs hospitals began desegregating after Truman’s mandate, but most hospitals maintained their segregation policies. [17] 

Maxine Wilkinson and Marie Millner, the first two African American students accepted to St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing in 1949. A Special Place, page 56.

The Sisters of St. Joseph were the first to make the change in West Virginia nursing education. St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing accepted two African American students in 1949, Maxie Wilkinson and Marie Miner, who both graduated successfully in 1952. Thirty more African American students were admitted between 1953 and 1969, with 22 graduating. The Sisters of St. Joseph earned a reputation for treating all students equally, which was not typical for the time in a southern state. Black students began applying from outside of West Virginia due to the lack of similar opportunities in the southern states. [18] 

St. Mary’s was also the first nursing school in West Virginia to admit male students, as nursing was traditionally a female profession. The first male student was Donald Newlon, who was accepted in 1957 and graduated in 1960. After Newlon, there was at least one male student in each class. Male students were typically older and already had some education or military background prior to enrolling in nursing school. The male students had their rooms on the fifth floor of the hospital, separate from the female students housed at De Sales Hall. [19] 

Donald Newlon was the first male nursing student accepted at St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing in 1957. A Special Place, page 59.

The 1950s and 1960s were decades of change for St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing. In the 1950s there was another accreditation movement, and the Sisters of St. Joseph had to prepare their programs to meet new accreditation standards. The Director at the time, Sr. Mary Ruth Owen, added new personnel for the school, including an assistant instructor in education, an assistant in nursing service, a physical science instructor, a social science instructor, and a health director to provide central healthcare service for students. Enrollment increased again to 40 students admitted each year and tuition costs were up to $710 plus fees by 1956. The Sisters’ preparations paid off. St. Mary’s hosted a consultant from the League of Nursing who approved of their progress and encouraged them to apply for accreditation. St. Mary’s was granted temporary accreditation in 1954 and full accredited in 1957, the first nationally accredited school of nursing in West Virginia. Unfortunately, the League of Nursing also directed the St. Frances School of Nursing in Pittsburgh to end out of state affiliations for psychiatric affiliations, which St. Mary’s relied on, and as a result, St. Mary’s had to send their students to Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Louisville, KY. [20] 

Despite the increase in demand, St. Mary’s faced increasing competition in the 1960s. More colleges were offering 4-year programs with clinical experience at local hospitals which allowed students to combine a 4-year degree with the start of their medical training. St. Mary’s Hospital hosted students from WV Wesleyan and Salem College for their clinical training in nursing. In response, St. Mary’s School of Nursing began consolidating their program into two years to be in-line with new 2-year college programs. The final three classes all graduated under this accelerated program. Even with trying to compete with new college programs, enrollment was declining at St. Mary’s and the board of directors announced that the students entering in 1966 would be the final class for the school. The final 18 students graduated on May 29, 1969 at a ceremony that was combined with a school reunion. Over the 63 years of the school’s operation, 960 students graduated as nurses. [21] 

The hospital was also starting to face challenges in the 1960s. The physical plan of the building needed to be modernized, and the Sisters of St. Joseph decided to construct a new hospital near the existing building. They began fundraising in 1968 and worked to purchase several adjacent properties. However, they were never able to secure the additional land they needed. The $1.5 million that the Sisters had raised was invested for the future when they could find a suitable location for the new hospital. At the same time, the Union Protestant Hospital was also fundraising for a new facility. Neither hospital could raise enough individually, so in 1970 the two hospitals merged into the United Hospital Center. St. Mary’s Hospital became the Downtown Division of the United Hospital Center until a new joint medical center was constructed and opened in 1977. UHC later moved to Bridgeport in 2010. [22] 

De Sales Hall was repurposed into a family practice clinic in 1970 under the new Department of Family Practice, the first of its kind in the state. In 1977 the properties of De Sales Hall and the St. Mary’s Hospital were sold to Empire National Bank in Clarksburg and the buildings were demolished. The original school medallion was salvaged by an alum during the demolition and was installed as a monument near the original site, now the Caperton Center of Pierpont Community & Technical College. [23]