Remember this? Old-fashioned healthcare

Remember the hay service station near Tancred Street?

Neither do we!

But apparently a log cabin just east of that spot on Queen Street played a pivotal role in the early days of health care in Sault Ste. Marie.

As did Maria (Wiley) Plummer, wife of early Sault businessman and politician William Henry Plummer.

The following is a letter written to the Sault Ste. Marie Council of Women in 1925 regarding Maria Plummer's contributions to the cause:

Perhaps in no branch of social service has the kindly influence of our sex been more evident than in the care of the sick.

Not only as nurses for which it is admitted, we seem eminently fitted by the qualities of kindness, tact and sympathy and by some apparently subtle intuition as to what is the right things to do to quiet a patient and make him or her comfortable, but in all lines of work that pertains to the care of the suffering. 

There were not special regulations for the care of the men’s health in the lumber camps in those days, and the condition of many of the camps was rank.

Every winter more or less men from these camps would drift into town, to be driven in, all hoping to see a doctor for there were none in the camps then and were taken care of as chance might direct.

The most frequent malady with which these were afflicted was typhoid fever.

One year so many came to the town, it was found absolutely necessary to care for them in one place and a “hospital” was opened in an old log cabin on the north side of Queen street, just east of the hay service station near Tancred Street. 

Mrs. Plummer was active in having the hospital opened and in getting what suitable supplies could be had to furnish it the best possible and Miss Kathleen Sullivan, daughter of the Anglican Bishop here then, was the nurse.

What a task it must have been to take care of at one time fourteen inmates in that small place, here again though my memory may be at fault, all typhoid patients and none of the conveniences and equipment we now think so necessary in the care of the sick.

There were some deaths I do not remember how many, but think of the heroism of the young women much of the time alone under such conditions.

Another time there was a diphtheria epidemic, and an old shack was used on the south side of Queen Street, a little east of what is now McGregor Avenue south.

In this case though, I believe, a man acted as nurse for the short time.

Find out more of what the museum has to offer at www.saultmuseum.com

You can also check out LOCAL2's new Friday feature, Back In Time, that features historical images and video courtesy the Sault Ste. Marie Museum. This week's episode focuses on the Soo Greyhounds.