“I don’t feel so good.”

For hundreds of years, health care depended on healers (usually women) who had learned how to treat diseases, set broken bones and ease suffering. There was generally a stoicism in the face of illness and discomfort, as well as an acceptance that illness and discomfort were just part of life. There was also an unfortunate reaction to these women because of their skill. Too many were branded witches. The title “Doctor,” on the other hand, carried more respectability. Becoming one, however, didn’t guarantee a better health outcome for the patient. A young man (but certainly not any young women!) who wanted to become a doctor apprenticed himself to an established doctor, read text books and assisted for a year or two. Medical schools were abundant, and not all of them were good. 

The first doctors to practice in Hillsdale County—about 1840—were Joel and Franklin French in Hillsdale and Theodore Manning in Jonesville. John W. Falley, whose family home was where the Carriage Park Apartments now stand, graduated from the Cleveland Medical College in 1842 and began practicing in Hillsdale in 1844. In 1848 a smallpox epidemic threatened the county and, along with Dr. Alonzo Cressey, Dr. Falley was ordered by the authorities to visit every home and vaccinate anyone not already protected by that means.

War often leads to advances in the medical treatment most employed on the battlefield. The Civil War was no exception. One of the surgeons on the front of the Union lines was Dr. Arvin Whelan. At the outbreak of the war, Arvin entered the army as an assistant surgeon in the 11th Michigan Infantry, later becoming the surgeon of the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters. His medical credentials firmly established, he ultimately became surgeon-in-chief  of the Third Division of the Ninth Army Corps. Arvin returned to Hillsdale after the war and built a large medical practice. He became a pillar of the community and was widely respected. In 1900 he was tasked with implementing the requirement that all doctors in Michigan register their licenses.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s flim-flam men preyed on the need for medical treatment. “Patent medicines” were sold by snake-oil salesmen who moved from town to town—often just ahead of the sheriff. Chief Long Wolf, along with his wife Princess Red Feather, lived at 147 River St. for the last three years of his life. He was a Paiute who was born in 1877 and died in 1925. He advertised himself as a purveyor of Indian herbs and medicines — and his death certificate indicates his occupation as “doctor of medicine.” That may have been a generous designation. Prior to coming to Hillsdale, Long Wolf and his wife were in vaudeville … probably a good place to hone his skill in peddling his medicine. And this was quite a medicine! It boasted the ability to treat pleurisy, chilblains, burns, goiters, corns, allergies lumbago and 18 other maladies. 

As questionable as his “medicine” was, the Chief, whose Christian name was Sewall William Sampson, displayed impressive patriotism during The Great War. He and his wife visited many Indian tribes in the United States to encourage people to buy Liberty Bonds and Thrift Stamps, as well as to enlist in the military. Native Americans (ostensibly) govern themselves. They weren’t subject to the draft, but across the country over 37,000 men volunteered and over $14,000,000 were invested in Liberty Bonds and Thrift Stamps by the tribes. Considering how the first people in North America were treated by the United States government, that was remarkable.

Health care in the 1800s and into the 1900s mostly consisted of doctors making house calls. Several also had offices, often on the second and third floors above downtown stores. The first hospital in the county was a private institution known as a sanitarium. It was opened in 1915 in Hillsdale by Mrs. T.H. Midgley and stood where Davis Middle School now is. Until the lease expired in 1920, the sanitarium boasted a list of impressive-sounding therapies whose names gave little hint to what they entailed. Mrs. Midgley emphasized the cleanliness of her facility and assured that only so many patients as could be well cared for were admitted.

After the demise of Mrs. Midgley’s sanitarium, a group of concerned citizens petitioned the Hillsdale Common Council to form a publicly owned hospital. In January 1921 the Hillsdale City Hospital was opened in the former William Waldron home on North Manning Street (just north of the Elks Lodge). An addition was built in 1931, and in 1932 the hospital gained an x-ray department after the equipment was moved there from Dr. Walter Sawyer’s office after his death. The facility became the Sanderson Hotel in 1937, when Common Council approved participation in a program sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation to build a new 50-60 bed hospital. An entire city block on the southern end of Howell Street was purchased for $13,024, and in 1940 the Hillsdale Community Health Center was dedicated.

Health fads have come and gone. At one time it was thought that removing tonsils—even without signs of an infection—was the best way to keep kids healthy. An efficient tonsil-removal assembly line was set up on the second floor of the building that was originally the Pinkham and Wright Ford Dealership, then became Montgomery Ward and is now the Midtown Building. The clinic was run by the Health Department. The year isn’t known when scores of tonsils were removed, but many children carried a lasting memory of losing theirs.

Isolating people who were ill in their homes was a way to limit disease spread. In 1942 a scarlet fever outbreak caused several homes to bear a “QUARANTINE” sign on their front door. It was usually a mild disease, but as it was easily spread, the best way to stop it was to keep those infected separate. Until the availability of a vaccine for polio, that disease could have life-altering consequences. The only thing that could be done to protect people who were exposed to someone with polio—usually children—was to have them rest, quarantine and to be alert to symptoms. Until the vaccine for Covid-19, we returned to the time when staying away from others was the best way to protect ourselves and them. Today it’s not unusual for schools to close for a long weekend when illness creates unacceptable absenteeism. Many schools have mid-winter breaks as a good way to interrupt the cycle of kids infecting each other.

Hillsdale County is a rarity in a time when rural counties don’t always have a hospital. Through the years, the Hillsdale Community Health Center added departments and services … and became the Hillsdale Hospital. With the purchase of existing clinics in villages throughout the county, it now touches the lives of almost all the citizens.