Nurse Ella Smith and Chariton's Mercy Hospital

You'll find no tombstone for Ella Smith, founder of Chariton's short-lived but pioneering Mercy Hospital, at Mount Calvary Cemetery, just south of Melrose, but she is buried here on the family lot near this big stone that marks the grave of her parents, James E. and Bridget (Mahoney) Smith.

Only 38 when she died of tuberculosis, probably contracted while caring for patients, she was widely known in life for her skills both as a nurse and an administrator --- and as the founder of Lucas County's first free-standing hospital. In death, however, she seems to have been almost entirely forgotten.

Miss Smith was working as a private-duty nurse headquartered in a cottage in north Chariton during 1909 when the opportunity arose to implement a long-standing dream. She was able to purchase from Fred C. Stanley, former grocer in the building now occupied by Piper's on the northeast corner of the square, his large home on North Grand Street. The deal was made during October of 1909 and soon thereafter the Stanley family moved to Minneapolis.

Work began almost immediately and by January of 1910 the hospital was ready to serve patients, as reported in The Chariton Leader of Jan. 13 under the headline, "New Hospital for Chariton."

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The Mercy Hospital on North Grand street was opened Tuesday evening, under the supervision of its founder, Ella Smith, a graduate nurse of St. Mary's Hospital in Chicago. The large and commodious residence of F.C. Stanley was purchased by Miss Smith last fall, for this purpose, and since that time she has had competent men at work remodeling and making necessary additions and now this city can boast a hospital equal to those of larger cities.

It has been in the past that cases that required an operation would have to be removed to other cities, not on account of the lack of capable physicians to do the work at home, but on account of inconveniences which existed. The new hospital has a large, well lighted and ventilated operating room, with every convenience, and six beds for patients.

The opening on Tuesday evening consisted of a two course banquet, the guests being the members of the Physicians Club of Lucas county. Table talks were made by the different members and each had an encouraging word, and pledged himself to the support of Mercy Hospital of Chariton. The donations have been quite liberal, and at some future time the names and amounts of the donors will be given.

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By all accounts, the hospital was a success --- but during November of 1911, Miss Smith's health began to fail as tuberculosis took hold. During the spring of 1912, the hospital was closed, the home it had occupied returned to residential use and Ella moved in with her sister. She died there during mid-July and was commemorated on the front page of The Leader of July 25 as follows:

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It is with sadness we chronicle the death of Miss Ella Smith, of Mercy Hospital, which occurred at the home of her sister, Mrs. Frank Hambsch, in southeast Chariton, Thursday morning, July 18th, at 5:30 o'clock, following an illness of eight months with tuberculosis of the lungs.

She was born near Melrose, April 25th, 1874, and was one of a family of eight children; two are gone, one brother and one sister, and a father and mother. Three sisters, Mrs. Lizzie Lyons of Whitebreast township, Mrs. Kathryn Hambsch of Chariton and Mrs. Fred McManaman of Melrose, and two brothers, James of Melrose and Andrew of Ottumwa, are left to mourn her untimely death.

The deceased received her education in the Melrose schools, later taking a three years course in the nurse's training school at St. Mary's hospital in Chicago. After graduating from that institution more than ten years ago, she spent about eight years in private nursing in Burlington and Fairfield. She was energetic and entered into her work with earnestness and zeal, never shirking from her post of duty.

Over two years ago she purchased the Stanley residence on North Grand Street and converted it into a hospital, making additions and other changes. Her ambition was to have a hospital where patients could be cared for in Chariton instead of having to send them to neighboring cities. During the two years at Mercy hospital, she cared for many patients who bear testimony to her untiring efforts and her kindness in ministering to their needs.

Her thoughts were not for self, but for the good she could do to others, and her ambition was greater than her strength, hence the breaking of vitality in early life. She has gone, but her good deeds follow her.

She was a devoted member of the Catholic church and died as she had lived in the assurance of a life beyond the grave. Funeral services were held from St. Mary's Catholic church in Chariton, Saturday morning, July 20, 1912, at 9:30, conducted by Rev. Father McGillan, assisted by the Catholic choir of Melrose, and the remains were taken to Melrose on No. 6, where they were laid to rest in the family lot beside her parents and brother and sister, who had gone on several years before.

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The Doctors Yocom, Albert Lee Sr. and Albert Lee Jr., had been operating a smaller "hospital" consisting of an operating room and a couple of short-term-care beds in their office suite on the second floor of the Dewey Block on the southeast corner of the square, and they moved to fill the void left when Mercy Hospital closed.

Within a few years, they had opened a free-standing hospital of their own, just off North Main Street, and in 1925 opened the state-of-the-art Yocom Hospital a block east of the square on Braden that served Lucas County for nearly 50 years.

But Ella Smith certainly deserves a  place of honor among Lucas County's medical pioneers.