Arthur Edward Spohn, M.D. and Spohn Hospital
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of three brothers who became doctors, A.E. Spohn (1845-1913) was born in Canada and studied medicine in Michigan and New York. He came to the Texas Gulf Coast in 1868 as a U.S. surgeon in charge of military quarantine. He settled in Corpus Christi after his marriage in 1876 to Sarah Josephine Kenedy (1857-1918) daughter of steamboat captain and rancher Mifflin Kenedy. A prominent local physician, Dr. Spohn was also a leader in numerous medical organizations. The first hospital named in his honor was Spohn Sanitarium, built in 1905 on North Beach, with funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. John Gregory Kenedy, Mrs. Henrietta King, Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Kleberg, and other leading citizens. Dr. Alfred G. Heaney, an associate of Dr. Spohn, admitted the first patient to the facility, operated by Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. After a hurricane damaged the structure on North Beach on September 14, 1919, Mrs. Henrietta King, widow of Capt. Richard King, founder of the King Ranch, donated five acres at this site for a new hospital. From a three-story brick building erected here in 1923, Spohn Hospital has grown into a modern medical complex. (1977)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Canadian-born and trained in Michigan and New York, Dr. A. E. Spohn arrived on the Texas coast in 1868 as a military quarantine surgeon and settled in Corpus Christi after marrying into the prominent Kenedy ranching family. He grew into the region's leading physician, and in 1905 a sanitarium bearing his name opened on North Beach with backing from local ranching and mercantile fortunes. After a 1919 hurricane, Henrietta King donated land for a new hospital, and from a 1923 brick building Spohn Hospital grew into a modern medical complex.
Why it matters
Spohn's story shows how the fortunes of South Texas cattle kingdoms were channeled into building lasting institutions—here, the medical infrastructure of a growing Gulf Coast city.
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Related people
- · Arthur Edward Spohn
- · Mifflin Kenedy
- · Henrietta King
Themes & tags
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