Butte County Infirmary
Butte County, California
This Site is part of the Butte County, CAGenWeb
"Report Of The Butte County Infirmary"
Some time ago, I received an email asking me if I would like to have some “old death records from the Butte County Infirmary”. Within a couple of weeks there came an envelope with these old documents. It is to my embarrassment that I do not have the name of the wonderful woman who donated these records; she lives in Hollister, California. If you see this site, please contact me as I wish to put your name here as contributor of these historical documents.
Ok, this has taken me some time to figure out what to do with them as they are oversize and hand-written. The best idea was to scan them and make a name and date of death index. The names on the Index below are linked to the jpeg images.
A word of caution – since the documents are hand-written and old [some as much as 100 years! ] I have done the best I could to get the names correct. I welcome any corrections you may have if and when you find a family member.
The information that may be available: Name, Date of Death, Birth Location, Cause of Death, and Burial Arrangements. There does not appear to be Cemetery information.
I have also scanned the front of the folded document as well as the ‘Expenditures’ which is the front page. The papers are beginning to fall apart. I am going to scan all 3 pages of each document so that if you find family and want the whole document, you can send me a note and I will send you the jpeg images.
There are no official seals, nor any other identifying nomenclature. The Official Title of the Documents is: ‘Report of the Butte County Infirmary”
THE COUNTY HOSPITAL AND INFIRMARY.
In January, 1857, the board of supervisors decided to purchase a building for the use of Butte county, to be devoted to the reception of the indigent sick, who were becoming very numerous, and fixed upon the Western Hotel, at Lynchburg, as a suitable building for such purpose. The building fronted on the southwest corner of the plaza, and the lot on which it stood fronted sixty feet on the plaza, running back one hundred and twenty feet. County judge Lewis appointed H. B. Lathrop, D. D. Harris and Thomas Wells to appraise the property. On the tenth of January they reported to the board, fixing the value of the property at twelve hundred dollars; whereupon the board issued an order purchasing the building and lot of J. Q. A. Thurber, and appropriating six hundred dollars to be paid to him in hand, the remainder to be paid in five months.
The rules adopted at a subsequent session provided for the appointment of a resident physician, to be ex-officio superintendent of the hospital, holding his office one year; they constituted the board of supervisors an examining committee to grant certificates of admission and manage the affairs of the institution ; they allowed the admission of all indigent sick persons who had resided in the county thirty days, and instructed the superintendent to discharge from residence at the hospital each patient whenever he shall have sufficiently recovered to be able to pursue the ordinary avocations of life.
Dr. T. J. Jenkins received the first appointment of resident physician and superintendent of the hospital. By the terms of agreement, he furnished all the food, bedding and necessary medical attendance, in consideration of one dollar and fifty cents per day for each patient. In February, 1858, Dr. Jenkins was re-appointed superintendent of the hospital, with Dr. H. M. Phipps as examining and discharging physician.
Dr. James O'Brien received the appointment of superintendent August 12, 1858. In something more than a year the hospital had doubled its number of patients, and henceforth became a very important and expensive institution of the county. Numerous repairs and improvements had been made. On the eighteenth of August, Drs. Jenkins and Phipps resigned their positions in the hospital, having previously given notice of their intention.
At this time the duties of furnishing the hospital with provisions, and of supplying medical attendance, were very properly delegated to different persons, and Owen Murphy became the first general provider, with a monthly salary of fifty dollars. In 1859, Dr. William Wilson became superintendent and physician. He was followed, in 1862, l>y Dr. T. J. Edwards, and he, in 1863, by Dr. H. V. Mott.
The following order issued from the board on the nineteenth of November, 1864: " It is hereby ordered by the board, that the institution known as the county hospital of Butte county be, and the same is hereby abolished, and that said institution, from and after the first day of January, 1865, be known as the Butte county infirmary, in conformity with an Act entitled ' An Act to Authorize the
Establishment of County Infirmaries,' etc., approved April 18, 1860," Dr. Mott was appointed infirmary physician. The board, in February, 1865, constituted itself a board of directors of the county infirmary. Dr. Mott resigned on the first of July of that year.
It is unnecessary to form a chronological statement of the physicians and superintendents who have served at the hospital. Among the former occur the names of Dr. Jenkins, Dr. Smeades, Dr. Green, Dr. Mansfield, Dr. Achuff, and Dr. Miller. Dr. Miller has had the position of visiting physician since 1875, having filled it creditably both to himself and to the county. Under his management the institution has become one of the finest in the state.
In August, 1877, the board began to cast around for another site for a new infirmary building. Oroville being desirous of keeping the institution at that place, the citizens filed a bond to the following effect: " The conditions of the above obligation are such that, if the board of supervisors of the county of Butte select, for a location to build the new infirmary or hospital, the southerly portion of the southwest quarter of section 6, town 19, range 4 east, containing forty acres, then, and in that event, the obligors will give to the said county of Butte, free of all expense, for and in consideration of the said location, the southerly portion of the south-west quarter section 6, town 19, range 4 east, containing forty acres; also the waters of a spring situated on the south-west quarter of section 31, town 20, range 4 east, and the right' of way to lay pipes to conduct the water from the said spring to the said forty acres. It is understood that the said obligors will give a good and sufficient title to the said tract of forty acres and the water and the right of way, provided the said county, through the board of supervisors, make the location and commence the building of a hospital or infirmary on said land."
The bond was signed by J. M. Brock, B. Marks & Co., N. Goldstein, E. A. Kusel, Max Brooks, Jas. C. Gray, M. Reyman, A. Goldstein, Fred. Hecker, A. Howard, D. N. Friesleben, E.W. Fogg, Sam Ostroski, A. Maurice, Jr., L. W. Hoops, Jacob Rebscher and Perkins, Logan & Co. The proposition was accepted by the board, and Supervisor Ward was appointed to superintend the digging of a trench from the spring to the hospital site. J. M. Brock was awarded the contract of furnishing two-inch pipe to carry the water. The board advertised for plans and specifications in December, and in January, 1878, accepted the plan submitted by Sparks and Sovereign, for a brick building to cost not more than $18,000. On the eighth of April the contract to erect a two-story building of brick, one hundred and twenty feet long and thirty feet high, was awarded to McDonald & Lawrence for $13,008. Abram Conant was appointed by the board superintendent of construction. On the sixteenth of August the contractors pronounced the work completed. With the extra work put on it, the cost was brought up to $16,000. The hospital is built in the form of a right angle. The wing is 33x36 feet, and the main building 128x33 feet. On the ground floor are the dispensary, consulting-room, superintendent's apartments, dining-room, kitchen and eleven bed-rooms for women. This floor is also abundantly supplied with water for all uses. On the second floor are the infirm ward, the medical ward and the surgical ward, with a capacity of fifty-six beds. There are also a nurse's room and a surgery with the necessary appurtenances. The building is very pleasantly situated, nearly a mile west from Oroville. The grounds are tastefully ornamented, while the lands belonging to the institution are utilized for pasture, garden and orchard.
At present there are thirty-four patients in the infirmary. The monthly average is thirty-five. The average number of deaths per year is seventeen. About two hundred and fifty patients are cared for in the asylum every year, and when is taken into consideration the advanced stage of disease of most patients before they are willing to be taken to the hospital, the mortality is exceedingly low. In the course of the past few years, several very difficult surgical operations have been successfully performed by Dr. Miller. Before patients are discharged, they are required to do a certain amount of work, by which means the garden is kept in perfect order, and such improvements are made as necessity demands or taste suggests. As the amount of work required is established with strict regard to the sanitary condition of the individual, this, while it saves expense to the tax-payer, is to the patient a gradual step to a resume of his daily avocations. The superintendent of the hospital at present is Mr. Davis.
The old infirmary building at Lynchburg was sold at auction and torn down in the spring of 1879.
History Of Butte County – By Harry
L Wells & W L Chambers
Harry L Wells, - 617 Clay Street, San Francisco, 1882
Transcribed by: Martha A Crosley Graham – Pages 149 - 151
Site Updated: 2 May 2011
Rights Reserved - 2010
