Moline City Hospital
In 1891 Judge John M. Gould framed a bill and went to Springfield asking the Legislature for a two-mill tax to be levied for hospital purposes for cities under 100,000 inhabitants. After the bill was passed, a home association was formed in 1892 and directors appointed, consisting of Doctor A. H. Arp, Doctor W. K. Sloan and W. B. Inman. The directors looked up a site, and during the time until 1898 the tax accumulation and donations enabled them to build. and open the hospital that year with three patients. Prior to this the ladies had formed a society, giving entertainments, the proceeds of which were used in furnishing the hospital. Private individuals furnished private rooms, among which are the Swedish Ladies room of the Swedish Lutheran Church, the Allen room, Charles R. Stephens room, George Arthur Stephens room, the Deere room, the Children’s room (furnished and kept by the late Mrs. Sarah L. Atkinson), the S. H. Velie room, and the Athletic Club room. The Ladies Hospital Association have kept up the furnishings. The location selected was the old Hiram Pitts home, where the school was started for the instruction of nurses, and is now called the Nurses’ Home. The training school for nurses is supported by the Ladies’ Hospital Association, which furnishes their uniforms, and when they graduate gives each of them one hundred dollars. The superintendent of nurses is Miss Margaret Rooney; the matron, Miss Margaret Howe of Muscatine, Iowa; and there are ten nurses in attendance. The first board of directors (appointed by the mayor) was William Butterworth and Doctor August H. Arp. The number of patients treated since 1898 to August, 1908, amounts to 2,695. The hospital is supported by taxation and fees of patients, and is in very flourishing circumstances, with property in good condition, and self sustaining. The heating plant of the hospital is of the Vacuum Vapor System. A new bill has been presented to the State Legislature praying for the two mill tax to be increased to three mills. At present William Butterworth is president of the association, and Mrs. Florence D. Sleight, secretary. The staff consists of twenty of the leading physicians of the city. According to the law under which the hospital was established, any licensed physician in the state can take his patients to this hospital and treat them.
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908