Saskatchewan Gen Web Project - SASKATCHEWAN AND ITS PEOPLE by JOHN HAWKES Vol 1I 1924


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SASKATCHEWAN AND ITS PEOPLE
1924
Volume II



         

EVOLUTION OF TOWNS AND VILLAGES.


VICTORIAN ORDER OF NURSES.


One of the risks, and a very real one, which the pioneer women in the settlements ran was the lack of medical attendance, and especially in those states in which women "love to be who love their lords." Fortu- nately in most settlements there was some "auld wife" skilled in mid- wifery. Two we may mention who brought numberless children into the world without medical assistance were a Mrs. Fergus of Northeast As- siniboia and Mrs. Joseph Cope, of Broadview. There was also a lady in the Moose Jaw district-whose name eludes us-who claimed that from first to last she had brought hundreds of cases through without losing a case. Here and there there might be a regular nurse, but the trained and certificated nurse had yet to become a regular institution. Lady Aber- deen, wife of the then Governor-General, was a lady who took great inter- est in public affairs; and she devoted a part of her wonderful energies to establishing what was known as the Victorian Order of Nurses.

The first member to be admitted in Saskatchewan was a Miss M. 0. Dahms; and we may remark that it was considered a real honor to become a member of the Order. At this time there was a Cottage Hospital in Regina at which Miss Dahms rendered exceptionally good service. The occasion of her admission was signalised by a quasi-public ceremony, which took place at Government House when Lieut.-Governor Forget pronounced the following formula: "Maud Ottelie Dahms: You have been recommended to the Board of Governors of the Victorian Order by Chief Lady Superintendent of the Order as a nurse possessing the quali- fications and training which the Order requires, and as one who has proved through your training your efficiency in all nursing work, and your willingness to observe all the regulations of the Order. Therefore, in the name of the Queen, and by the authority of the president and Board of Governors I have the honor of admitting you formally into the ranks of the Victorian Order of Nurses. May you be enabled to carry into action the true spirit of the Order, and may God's best blessing rest upon you." Those who attended the ceremony were Miss Dahms, Mr. D. J. Goggin, Dr. Low, Miss Brown, Rev. J. A. Carmichael, Mr. W. Trant, Dr. 0.C. Edwards, Rev. R. Milliken, Mrs. Milliken, Rev. Mr. Bowering, Mr. C.W. Peters, Mr. H. M. Cherry, Mrs. John A. Kerr, Miss M. Clark, Assist. Commissioner McIllree, N. W. M. P.; Mrs. McIllree, Mrs. Mc- Cusker, Mrs. Constantine, Mrs. Bell, Mrs. J. S. Dennis, Mrs. W. C. Par- sons, Mrs. J. H. Benson, Mrs. Kate Hayes, Mrs. J. W. Smith, Hon. G. H. V.Bulyea, Mrs. Bulyea, Miss Shaw, Miss Simpson, Mrs. W. Rothwell, Miss G. Douglas, Mrs. W. M. Longworthy, Mrs. F. N. Darke, Mrs. J. H. Ross, Mrs. Walter Scott, Dr. Martin and Mr. Z. M. Hamilton.

For years there was no regular hospital in the Territories, and cases had to go to Winnipeg. Then a hospital was established at Medicine Hat. We remember a case which went from Whitewood to Medicine Hat, a distance of three or four hundred miles. The man was brought in from the farm; I went with him as far as Regina. I couldn't afford to go any farther, and from Regina he pursued his way alone, receiving every kindness from the train hands. I doubted much if he could reach the hospital alive, but he did so. He had to be rested for a week before the operation, but he never rallied. We mention this as a typical case. Un- der these primitive conditions without trained nurses, and hospitals it can be imagined that the responsibility resting on the pioneer doctor was often of the most arduous kind. Perhaps he travelled a long distance to a patient, only to find that an immediate operation was necessary, an operation which would ordinarily require two doctors and at least two nurses, and this he would have to undertake in a shack with such help as he could get. The territory of a doctor in one of the small towns on the C. P. R. extended to the international boundary and as far north as there was settlement; except in such cases as Prince Albert, Battleford and Fort Qu'Appelle, and North East Assiniboia. In the whole south coun- try, afterwards served by the Souris Extension Railway, there was no doctor within a hundred miles. We should like to mention the whole of the doctors who in the eighties and nineties, often in terrific weather, braved the elements to help the afflicted, but we can only recall a few- Dr. Low and Dr. Cotton of Regina, Dr. Routledge of Moosomin, Beanish, Bird, Mordy, Elliott, Seymour, and last, but not least, Dr. Patrick of North East Assiniboia. Our immediate object is, however, to pay such tribute as we may to the women, who under conditions of isolation, and often of poverty either suffered themselves, or tended and nursed those who were suffering. Their fortitude and self-sacrifice cannot be too highly extolled. Bibliography follows:



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THE STORY
OF
SASKATCHEWAN
AND ITS PEOPLE



By JOHN HAWKES
Legislative Librarian



Volume II
Illustrated



CHICAGO - REGINA
THE S.J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1924




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