McAlester's Albert Pike Hospital

By T.S. Akers

 Albert Pike Hospital, 1928

When Fort Gibson was established in 1824 in what would eventually become Oklahoma, it was essentially the end of the Earth. Life on the frontier could be particularly dangerous and this was evidenced at Fort Gibson. Between 1834 and 1835, 298 soldiers died of disease there, with 600 cases of illness reported in the third quarter of 1835 alone.[1] The situation improved at Fort Gibson by the 1870s when a post hospital was erected.[2] While physicians were scattered across the territory, institutions to provide care for people en masse simply did not exist. It would ultimately take a catastrophe in the 1890s for a hospital to be established to meet the needs of the citizens of Indian Territory.

Coal mining in Indian Territory quickly became a major industry, bringing large numbers of men to the area hoping to make a living. Mining was also dangerous and even more so in Indian Territory than the surrounding states. On average, more than thirteen miners died per million tons of coal produced in Indian Territory, the ratio in Kansas was less than half that. The worst mining disaster happened on January 7, 1892, near Krebs. An explosion at the Osage Coal and Mining Company's Mine Number Eleven left one hundred men dead and another two hundred injured.[3] While the mining operations maintained contract physicians, Krebs and the nearby city of McAlester had no hospitals that could meet the needs caused by such a catastrophe.

In response to the mine explosion, the Episcopal Church created the Missionary District of Oklahoma in 1892 and sent Bishop Francis K. Brooke to oversee missionary operations in the region. In his 1894 report, Brooke remarked that there were “20,000 people engaged in and living by the coal mining industry in a half-dozen towns in the Choctaw coal fields. There is not a single hospital or the beginnings of one.” Brooke’s plea was answered the following year by an anonymous donor with six acres provided by a Choctaw citizen for the construction of a hospital at South McAlester to be known as All Saints Hospital. In 1897 Brooke’s report indicated the hospital rendered care to 152 patients, 27 of whom were private patients and 105 of whom were contract patients from the railroad and mines. Care was provided free of charge to 20 indigent patients. The hospital would grow to have sixty-five beds and be home to a nurses training school by 1911.[4]

The expansion of All Saints Hospital included a “fireproof” wing, but its original wood frame structure remained. By 1923 the original hospital section was considered unsafe and in danger of being condemned. Bishop Theodore P. Thurston, Brooke’s successor, called for the replacement of the original hospital section, but the funds for such construction simply did not exist.[5] By this time, All Saints was not McAlester’s only hospital. The Sisters of Charity assumed operation of another small hospital in 1914 and acquired the estate of a local attorney to open St. Mary’s Hospital.[6] With All Saints on the verge of closing, the McAlester Scottish Rite Valley, realizing the need for a community hospital, stepped up to take over operations. The McAlester Valley assumed All Saints’ existing debt of $10,000 and agreed to erect a new building.[7]

On June 5, 1924, All Saints Hospital ceased to exist, and Albert Pike Hospital was born.[8] The first order of business was resolving the issue of the building in which the hospital was then housed; the original frame structure now being referred to as  a “firetrap.” There were a couple of options available to remedy this. One was to rebuild the original frame structure to the same standards as its fireproof wing, which would cost $100,000. A second option was to erect an entirely new hospital on land adjacent to where William Busby’s home stood.[9] Busby, a prominent McAlester Mason, had died in 1913 and his estate occupied nearly an entire city block.[10] While the McAlester Valley had purchased the site with the intention of locating the hospital there, this option was estimated to cost $250,000.[11] There was also a third option. As the Scottish Rite grew in popularity, the McAlester membership had expanded from 2,500 Masons in 1915 to 6,132 in 1920. With minimal hotel accommodations available, the McAlester Valley erected a dormitory in 1921 for the Brethren attending the Scottish Rite Reunions.[12] It was settled in 1927 that the three-story fireproof dormitory would be the new home of Albert Pike Hospital. The old All Saints property and Busby homesite were to be sold to offset the renovation expenses and an additional fifty-foot lot south of the dormitory was to be purchased for hospital expansion.[13] The contract for renovating the dormitory into a hospital called for the work to be completed in eighty days at a cost of $33,250.[14]

In true Scottish Rite fashion, the removal of the hospital to its new home was commemorated by naming a Reunion class in its honor. The 164 men who became Masters of the Royal Secret during the Reunion held in October of 1927 were known as the Albert Pike Hospital Class.[15] On February 15, 1928, the first patients arrived at the new hospital, twenty-four in total; there were beds available for fifty-five.[16] The dormitory expansion included a dining room and kitchen for hospital operations.[17] The nurses training program continued, a three year program based mostly on clinical experience with a handful of classes taught by the attending physicians. Two cottages were constructed behind the hospital to house the nurses.[18]

Nurses' cottages located behind Albert Pike Hospital, 1929

While the McAlester Scottish Rite Valley had assumed hospital operations, Albert Pike Hospital was to remain a community hospital. A board of control was established from the Protestant denominations of McAlester, which included the Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist, Christian, and Presbyterian Churches, along with representatives of the McAlester Lodge of Perfection (the Lodge of Perfection is the business conducting body of a Scottish Rite Valley). A.U. Thomas, who served as Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Scottish Rite in Oklahoma from 1927 to 1936, was selected as the board president.[19] In addition to being a general hospital, it was decided that Albert Pike Hospital would also be a specialized facility treating crippled children.[20] A total of 266 children were treated in 1942 alone, the largest number of admissions to any privately owned hospital in Oklahoma that year.[21] Albert Pike Hospital regularly appeared on the annual approved list of hospitals by the Hospital Standardization conference of the American College of Surgeons.[22]

Crowding at the University Hospital in Oklahoma City led the state legislature to look for a means to alleviate the situation in 1937. Legislation was being hotly debated to purchase private hospitals in eastern and western Oklahoma to meet the needs for facilities across the state.[23] Bills introduced during that session included one by Senator Deroy Burns of Mountain Park to purchase the Baptist hospital located in Clinton for $175,000 and one by Representative Huby Jordan of McAlester to purchase Albert Pike Hospital for $150,000.[24] Governor E.W. Marland, a Mason, opposed both measures stating, “It is foolish for the state to buy hospitals without money to operate and maintain them.”[25] Inspection committees dispatched by the legislature to establish the value of each institution determined the Clinton hospital to be worth $118,421 and Albert Pike Hospital to be worth $90,609.[26] The Clinton measure passed both houses of the legislature and provided that any surplus funds would be used for improvements and a nurse’s home.[27] The same group dispatched to place a value on the Albert Pike Hospital recommended that $150,000 instead be appropriated for the construction of an entirely new institution in McAlester.[28] Representative Jordan’s McAlester bill did advance to the state senate and as it did, he noted that his actual hope was for two hospitals to come into existence, with one to be located within the state penitentiary. Ultimately, the measure to purchase Albert Pike Hospital died in the state senate.[29]

Through its years in operation, Albert Pike Hospital had only a handful of superintendents. The first to arrive was Ida Norville. She left a position as superintendent of the Muskogee general hospital to oversee the transition from All Saints and the move to the old Masonic dormitory.[30] Norville left in July of 1929 in order to pursue post graduate studies in Tennessee.[31] Norville was followed by Julia Dalnwood, who may very well have saved the McAlester Scottish Rite Temple. In 1934 a fire erupted, believed to be the result of a carelessly tossed cigarette, which caused $5,000 in damage to the temple’s Blue Room. Dalnwood discovered the fire around 2:30AM as smoke began to pour through the tunnel that connected the hospital and the temple.[32] Rennie L. Moore of Ada became superintendent in 1938 and remained in that role until Albert Pike Hospital ceased operations. Active in the York Rite, he became Grand Commander of Knights Templar of Oklahoma in 1955.[33]

The state penitentiary at McAlester did eventually obtain the hospital that Representative Jordan had envisioned. Known as the Central State Hospital Annex, it was a branch of the Central State Hospital in Norman, which was an institution for the mentally ill.[34] By 1947 the state legislature was once again looking into providing money for a hospital in McAlester. This time, the Pittsburg County Medical Association was asking for $100,000 to equip the former Central State Hospital Annex, a 150-bed institution, and $75,000 for the next biennium to operate it, in order to meet the needs of McAlester. It was noted at this time that Albert Pike Hospital was looking to close its doors, but only if the state would open the former institution to the public.[35] Ultimately, the state legislature and the city of McAlester reached an agreement for creating a new hospital in the former Central State Hospital Annex and the McAlester General Hospital came into existence.[36] By September of 1950, the transfer of all patients from Albert Pike Hospital to McAlester General was complete.[37]

This was not the final chapter for the old Masonic dormitory though. From 1952 to 1972 the building returned to its original purpose, providing lodging for men attending the Scottish Rite Reunions. The structure was known as the Will Rogers Dormitory during this period. The building’s tenure came to an end in August of 1973 when it was demolished.[38] But a memory now, the Masonic dormitory that became Albert Pike Hospital was an important institution that provided for the needs of the community when healthcare in the far flung corners of Oklahoma was not easily had.

Aerial photograph of McAlester showing the expanded Scottish Rite Temple and Albert Pike Hospital, 1930

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[1]  Richard C. Rohrs, “Fort Gibson: Forgotten Glory,” in Early Military Forts and Posts in Oklahoma, ed. Odie B. Faulks, Kenny A. Franks, and Paul F. Lambert (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Historical Society, 1978), 26-31.

[2]  "Renovations set for historic Fort Gibson military hospital," Tahlequah Daily Press (Tahlequah, OK), Nov. 24, 2018.

[3]  Steven L. Sewell, "Coal-Mining Disasters," The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed April 26, 2020, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CO004.

[4]  Fred S. Clinton, "The First Hospital and Training School for Nurses in the Indian Territory, Now Oklahoma," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 25, no. 3 (1947): 219-221.

[5]  Clinton, 222.

[6]  "History," McAlester Regional Health Center, accessed April 26, 2020, https://www.mrhcok.com/welcome/history/.

[7]  Clinton, 222.

[8]  Ibid., 227.

[9]  "New Albert Pike Hospital," The Oklahoma Mason 17, no. 10 (1927): 2.

[10]  Mike Cathey, "Colonel William Busby: The man of the sesquicentennial," McAlester News-Capital (McAlester, OK), Dec. 27, 2019.

[11]   "New Albert Pike Hospital," The Oklahoma Mason.

[12]  Tom Crowl, "Albert Pike Hospital, before and after" (presentation, McAlester Scottish Rite Valley, July 29, 2013), https://youtu.be/U7Nm4bSFL94.

[13]   "New Albert Pike Hospital," The Oklahoma Mason.

[14]  "A.F. Stewart of Oklahoma City has been awarded...," The Allen Democrat (Allen, OK), Jul. 21, 1927.

[15]  "164 In Scottish Rite Class at McAlester," Miami Daily News-Record (Miami, OK), Oct. 13, 1927.

[16]  Crowl.

[17]  "New Albert Pike Hospital," The Oklahoma Mason.

[18]  Crowl.

[19]  "Thomas Named Head of Hospital Board," News-Capital and Democrat (McAlester, OK), Mar. 1, 1928.

[20]  "Hospital Planned for Crippled Children," The Allen Democrat (Allen, OK), Jul. 8, 1927.

[21]  "99 Crippled Kiddies From Tillman Co. Given Treatment," The Frederick Press (Frederick, OK), Feb. 6, 1942.

[22]  "Cushing is Again Upon Hospital List," The Cushing Daily Citizen (Cushing, OK), Oct. 14, 1938.

[23]  “The legislature in its closing days…,” The Big Pasture News (Grandfield, OK), Apr. 29, 1937.

[24]  “State Purchase of 2 Hospitals Sought,” The Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City, OK), Mar. 25, 1937.

[25]  “Plans to Buy State Clinics Draw Frowns,” The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK) Apr. 24, 1937.

[26]  “Hospital Deal,” Miami Daily News-Record (Miami, OK), Apr. 28, 1937.7

[27]  “Plans to Buy State Clinics Draw Frowns,” The Daily Oklahoman.

[28]  “Yesterday in the Legislature,” The Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City, OK), Apr. 29, 1937.

[29]  “Legislator Predicts 2 Hospitals to Grow Where One Is Planted,” The Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City, OK), May 5, 1937.

[30]  “State Briefs,” The Kiowa Chronicle (Kiowa, OK), Aug. 26, 1926.

[31]  “Superintendent At Albert Pike Hospital Resigns,” News-Capital and Democrat (McAlester, OK), May 23, 1929.

[32]  “McAlester Temple Damaged By Fire,” The Ada Weekly News (Ada, OK), Jan. 4, 1934.

[33]  “Ada Man Heads Pike Hospital At McAlester,” The Ada Weekly News (Ada, OK), Apr. 7, 1938.

[34]  Oklahoma Writers’ Program, Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1947), 303.

[35]  “Hospital Plans Hinge on Funds,” The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK), Feb. 15, 1947.

[36]  E.H. Shuller, "Medicine in Pittsburg County," The Tobucksy News 31, no. 3 (2014).

[37]  “Transfer of patients from the old Albert Pike Hospital…,” The Cushing Daily Citizen (Cushing, OK), Sep. 5, 1950.

[38]  Crowl.