How the.

came to

The following history was
obtained through Heritage Park.
We were unable to determine the
authorship, but it appears to have
been written in the early 1960's.

In the year 1912 when the
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
arranged with George Little to
build their station on his
homestead, the railway doctor,
W. Trainer chose the new
Village of Terrace as his head-
quarters.

In 1918, when the flu
epidemic reached fatal propor-
tions, the recently built Terrace
Hotel was pressed into service
and so became the town’s first
emergency hospital. The
following year, Dr. Trainer
decided that the growing town
required better a¢commoda-
tion, so he erected a small
medical building on the bank,
above what is now the 5¢
-$1.00 store. This building,
which was dismantled only
three years ago, eventually
became Terrace’s first hospital.
But before this happened, Dr.
Trainer moved to Nelson, and
was succeeded by Dr. Carns
who in turn was followed by
Dr, S. Bleaker. About 1927,
when Dr. Ewart was the resi-
dent physician, the Caledonia
Society raised funds to equip
the small hospital building. A

‘hospital bed was installed along
with a small and simple X-ray
machine.

Dr. Brummitt followed Dr.
Ewart, and in 1929, Dr.
Stanley Mills arrived to take
over the one-bed hospital.
These were quiet years for the
isolated community, but in
1936 the great flood on the
Skeena forced another
emergency and this time the

- United Church manse was
rushed into use.

War clouds and the threat of
Japanese invasion in 1941
brought thousands of troops
~ and their families, presenting a
staggering problem to Dr. Mills
and his single hospital bed!
However, the army rushed con-
struction of a 300-bed Military
Hospial on the bench above the
town and allowed Dr. Mills to
admit his most serious civilian
cases. This happy arrangement
served well until 1945, when

UTES HORST,

TL Renken feet Coren Souuty
FEDS fel

hospital.
Terrace

the soldiers left abruptly and
the great hospital was stripped
of its equipment and offered
for sale. The group of
buildings was-purchased by the
Provincial Government as a
Home for the Aged, leaving the
growing Village of Terrace with
only one doctor, no dentist and
no hospital of any value.

These were the grim years
when Dr. Mills was forced to
operate upon a kitchen table,
when some U.S. soldiers, badly
injured in an automobile ac-
cient on the new Prince Rupert
highway, had to be laid out for
treatment: under the trees on
Lakelse Ave., when the Skeena
Mercantile grocery van was us-
ed as an ambulance, and .many
seriously injured workmen and
loggers were carried up the
long steps to the Doctor’s little
wooden office. With only three

_trains a week it was often

necessary to send the grocery -
van ambulance on the long
rough trip to Prince Rupert,

and on several occasions the
driver and nurse arrived with a
corpse instead of a patient.

It was during this period that .
the town nurse, Mrs. J. Sickler
made newspaper headlines with.
a daring and desperate mission
of mercy. A young boy had
been stricken with appendicitis

_and Dr. Mills decided that the

only chance for his life'was to
get him to the hospital in
Prince Rupert. The highway
was blocked with several feet
of snow and the next train
would not go through for 24
hours. As a snow plow was
clearing the line at Exstew, a
C.N.R. section man offered to
try to make the trip on his little
gas speeder. So our courageous
nurse allowed herself to be tied ©
to the seat of the open speeder
and with her young patient |
wrapped in blankets she held
him in her arms until they
eventually reached the city
hospital and the medical care
which saved the child’s life.

Many other stories could be
told of the work of this brave
nurse and the trips she made
over muddy roads and often at
night to such places as
Rosswood, 17-Mile Camp,
Remo and Usk.

Terrace Review — Wednesday, July 17, 1991 B15

AS THINGS ONCE WERE

Reports from Terrace’s Heritage Park

by Alie Toop

The military provided buildings but when the forces left the community in the 1940's they took
all the equipment with them.

The growing population
brought ever-increasing pro-
blems to Dr. Mills, a man by
now used to working with no
facilities, no electric lights, no
telephones, often no nurse
available and miles of
dangerous rutted roads to
travel. He was a pioneer in the
true sense, but eventually he

decided it was time something

was done to improve matters,
so he walked into a meeting of
the Board of Trade and
demanded that they, as
business leaders, do something
to provide a hospital for Ter-
race. This resulted in a public
meeting being held in the
1.0.0.F. Hall on Saturday, ©
Dec. 15th, 1945,

At this meeting the Terrace
Hospital Association was form-
ed with instructions to apply
for a Provincial Charter, ;
George McAdams was elected
as the first President, and a
capable executive consisted of

“W.C. Osborne, Mrs. H.H.

Smith, Mrs. N, Sherwood, C.
Haugland, C. Giggey and Mrs.
Ivan Frank. Their first problem
was to obtain a building
suitable for a small hospital,
but. their total capital was only
$710. (made up of $600. left by
the late W. Johnston as a trust
fund, and $110. handed in by
Mrs. Betty McAdams as the
proceeds of her first fashion
show.)

The War Assets Corporation
was selling off the Terrace Ar-
my Building, so Sunday, Feb.

The Red Cross outpost hospital was established in Terrace only a after extraordinary efforts by

local people.

17, 1946 found the new com-
mittee holding a meeting on the
steps of the Brigade Head-
quarters Officer’s Mess. This
building was later bought for
$2938. and the town’s founder,

‘George Little, donated the land

for $1.00.

The Committee now had a
very good building, but how
could they obtain the money
‘and assistance required to turn

_it into a hospital? They knew

that only a miracle could help
them, and unbelievably a
miracle did happen!

The Terrace Red Cross sent

- Mrs, Ida Robinson to the an-

nual convention in Vancouver,
and on hér way down by boat
she read in the papers that the
Red Cross had funds available
to open several outpost
hospitals. So this demure little
Terrace lady made the Van-
couver headlines by standing
up in the general assembly at
the convention and asking for a
Red Cross Outpost Hospital
for Terrace! As a result the
Red Cross took over the army
building and spent $18,000. to
adapt it for hospital use.

On March 1, 1948, the
“‘miracle’’ reached fulfillment
when a modern 10-bed hospital
was opened. At this time, Dr.
Mills received assistance, as Dr.
Frank McGillvry, one of New
York’s leading surgeons had
brought his family to Terrace
and set up practice here.

Two years later, two young
doctors arrived in the persons
of Dr. M. Wier and Dr. Roger
Hicks, and now at last with a

‘ 10-bed hospital and four doc-

tors, the town felt reasonably
secure,

Rapid expansion and growth
of the district soon overtaxed
the 10 beds, so in 1951 the Red
Cross decided that in view of
the better communications, the
town should own and operate
their own hospital. On Dec. 1,
1951, the Terrace and District
Association took over and
agreed to pay the Red Cross
the sum of $5000. as part of
the original cost. A new
organization was set up, known
as the Terrace Hospital Fund,
and with B.R. Dodds, as
Chairman and Miss E. Head as
Secretary, the money was soon
available. Six months later the
hospital was doubled in size by
the addition of 10 new beds.

These were donated by various
lodges and service clubs, also
private citizens who provided
one bed each.

By 1953, the Board realized
that a new and larger building
would soon be required, so
steps were taken to form a ;
Hospital Improvement District.
In the summer of 1954, the
tedious work of canvassing
every property owned in the
area was completed by a hard-
working committee and the

new organization was set up by .

decree of the Lieutenant Gover-
nor in Council. °

About this time, the Hon.
Eric Martin visited the Terrace

~ Hospital and after expressing
- amazement at its dilapidated

condition decided immediate
action was necessary. He ob-
tained government approval in
principle, and soon a firm of
architects had been hired by the
Terrace and District Hospital
Board and a site chosen by
government engineers, Now
came the long and difficult
period when the plans were
altered and shuttled from Vic-
toria to Ottawa and back to
Terrace. Because three partners
were involved, — the Provin-
cial Government, the Federal
Government and the Terrace
Board — arguments, changes,
and delays were inevitable, but
finally in the fall of 1959, a
contract was given to Peter
Kiewit and Sons, who started
construction on Feb. 6, 1960.
The beautiful new building
which is now ready for use is
equipped with 40 beds but the
rooms are available and ready
to increase the capacity to 50
beds. In addition, the construc-
tion is arranged so that a new
wing to accommodate 25 more
beds can be built at minimum
cost and without the need to
increase central services such as
Kitchen, laundry, heating, etc.

The people of Terrace and
District will join with their
Hospital Board as they look
back over 16 years of dif-
ficulties and hard frustrating
effort and rejoice in the success
which has now crowned their
efforts.

Alie Toop is a long-time resident
of Terrace whose writings on local
history appear every week in the
Terrace Review.

ry a

i et en a ee

how MR og ues