In the opinion of Mr. E.S. Jones, the time had come when a hospital was necessary. On Feb. 4, 1908, he and several citizens of the Midvalley boroughs of Archbald, Winton, Olyphant, Blakely, Dickson City and Throop met to consider how they might go about building one.
Each of the boroughs' histories goes back to pioneer times, but by 1908, the Midvalley was a thriving industrial center. Between Scranton's northern city line and the line that divides Archbald from Jermyn, various coal companies employed more than 20,000 miners. Businessmen, laborers and professionals of every type had settled in these communities, and they and their families needed modern medical care.
The hospital movement was started by William H. Davis, the Rev. P.J. Murphy and Dr. Van Sickle. The group that met in February 1908 formed the Mid-Valley Hospital Association by appointing a committee of five from each borough and electing Mr. Jones as chairman. The committee would go about the task of planning a modern hospital and raising the funds to build it. The boroughs' citizens were invited to future planning meetings.
The site they chose, a lot in Blakely's 3rd Ward, sat in the geographical center of the Midvalley. The lot cost $2,000. The amount of money required to complete the building would be $48,538. The rules planned for governing this hospital would be the same as the rules governing other charity hospitals in the state, and the hospital association asked the state for $52,548. The state Legislature appropriated $30,000 to the hospital, but Gov. Edwin Stuart vetoed the bill. With no state funding, the hospital association had to raise all the funds required to build.
The response they got suggests that residents very much wanted a hospital. Most of the fraternal organizations in the Midvalley held various entertainment functions to raise money for the hospital, a cause in which they took a deep interest. On May 6, 1909, the hospital association sent a request to all pastors in the area for help from their congregations in raising the necessary funds. Through the year 1908, coal miners and other members of the public contributed approximately $12,000. Everyone who contributed became a member of the hospital association.
The contract for the building was awarded to Mathias Stipp of Scranton, who pledged to use only union labor in the construction of the facility. Scores of clergymen from up and down the valley, hundreds of professional and businessmen, several managers and superintendents of coal companies, thousands of miners and members of many fraternal societies were invited to the cornerstone laying ceremony on Memorial Day 1909.
The hospital opened Aug. 1, 1912, with 44 rooms and with Miss Anna McLaughlin as its superintendent. Rates that year were $16 to $25 per week for private rooms. Semi-private rooms cost $14 per week. Patients in the public ward paid $1 per day. On May 28, 1926, the Jones Memorial Wing opened at a cost of $15,000, donated by Edward S. Jones as a memorial to his mother. The new wing expanded the hospital's capacity. In 1958, when the Mid-Valley Hospital Association marked its 50th anniversary, the institution had 68 beds as well as 14 bassinets for babies. Private rooms cost $11.50 to $14 per day, and ward patients paid $8.50 per day.
Statistics provided at the time of the 50th anniversary show that, from its opening until Jan. 1, 1958, Mid-Valley Hospital had cared for 72,758 patients. Births recorded from the opening of the Jones wing to Aug. 1, 1958, totaled 10,147. In keeping with its status as a charity hospital, 34 percent of all patients treated at the hospital from its opening until 1958 received free care.
Today, Mid-Valley Hospital, operating in the Peckville section of Blakely, is an affiliate of Commonwealth Health and a critical-care hospital with 25 beds.
CHERYL A. KASHUBA is a freelance writer specializing in local history. Visit her at scrantonhistory.com. Contact the writer: local history@timesshamrock.com