Collingsworth County Hospital
Welllington, Collingsworth County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Original hospital on this site (first in county) was built in 1917 by L.H. Stall. One of the two surgeons then practicing here, Dr. Elmer Wood Jones (1891-1962), bought the facility in 1924. In 1935 he built a 15-bed hospital of fieldstone on the same block, vacating old building. In 1936, Dr. Jones gave his hospital to the Sisters of the Dominican Order, Springfield, Ill. Renaming it St. Joseph's, the sisters obtained accreditation (1950) and in 1951 doubled its size by adding a wing. They sold it (1972) to the people of Collingsworth County. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The county's first hospital rose on this site in 1917, and in 1924 surgeon Dr. Elmer Wood Jones bought the facility. He built a new fieldstone hospital here in 1935 and the next year gave it to the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois, who renamed it St. Joseph's. The sisters won accreditation in 1950, doubled its size in 1951, and served the community until selling it back to the people of Collingsworth County in 1972.
Why it matters
The hospital shows how a rural county secured modern medicine, and how an order of Catholic women religious sustained health care on the Texas plains.
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Related people
- · Dr. Elmer Wood Jones
- · L. H. Stall
Themes & tags
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