Living history: St. Mark’s, the first hospital in Utah Territory

On April 30, 1872, St. Mark's Hospital opened its doors as the first medical facility in the Utah Territory. Overseen by Episcopalian Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle, the hospital was housed in a rented adobe structure at 500 East and 400 South in Salt Lake City. Equipped with six beds and tended by a sole physician, Dr. John F. Hamilton, its first patient was a miner.

During the pioneer settlement of the Intermountain West, medical care was primitive and often limited to spiritual healing, "the laying on of hands," oils, roots, herbs and common sense, some of which worked.

"Many frontier doctors practiced with little or no formal education," Robert T. Divett wrote in "Medicine and the Mormons." Trained doctors were looked upon with suspicion or condemned as "poison doctors." Thomsonians who based their medical practice on the lobelia plant were favored and influential among Mormon leaders.

By the 1860s, modern medicine made its way westward as Utah veered from agriculture to embrace industrialism. The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, mass infusion of immigrant laborers and the expansion of commercial mining with its custom mills, smelters and railways transformed Salt Lake City into the "mining center of the West."

"Mining for metals, coal, hydrocarbons and minerals was a vital aspect of Utah's economic, industrial, political and social growth, population and development," noted historian Philip F. Notarianni.

But mining was a dangerous occupation. Being ill without having insurance was devastating. And lead poisoning caused by the inhalation of dust in mining camps was a killer.

Furthermore, immigrant miners did not trust the competency of camp doctors nor did they feel respected by them. If crushed in a mining accident, they worried an ill-informed but common diagnosis for amputation would cripple and rob them of their livelihood.

So when Bishop Tuttle stressed the number of accidents that occurred during mine openings and expansions, and the urgent need for a hospital to provide skilled medical treatment and surgical care, his parishioners listened.

For the small Episcopalian community that held services in the basement of Independence Hall until they laid the cornerstone for St. Mark's Cathedral in 1870, education was a high priority. As early as 1867, they began opening schools throughout the northern territory.

Now, several members — many involved in the mining industry — decided to establish a hospital.

Among them were Warren Hussey, a banker who had discovered gold at Pike's Peak in 1858 and been superintendent of the scandal-ridden Emma Mine in Little Cottonwood Canyon; Major Edmund Wilkes, who saw first-hand the escalation of industrial injuries and people suffering from lead poisoning; and Dr. Hamilton, a former New Englander who often worked without pay and was married to a staunch Episcopalian.

By November 1872, the hospital treated 116 patients, primarily miners and smelter workers. By 1879, it served 2,000 more people from all walks of life and faith. Quickly overcrowded, mattresses on the floor stood in for beds.

Incorporated that year, the hospital moved to a larger brick building one block north. Its bed capacity was doubled but not enough to stem the growing medical demand.

According to Bishop Tuttle, "each succeeding month has brought a larger number to us than the one preceding."

Annual balls were held to support the hospital. St. Mark's Charity Association women sewed and wrapped bandages. Mining companies donated substantial funds; they prepaid a dollar a month for miners' healthcare that was deducted from the miners' wages. Gentiles, excommunicated Mormons and railroad entities helped ensure the hospital's good health.

In 1893, the hospital moved to a newly built, $20,000 facility at 803 N. 200 West. Boasting an operating room, "drug closet" and 35 beds, it sat close to the warm "healing waters" of Wasatch Springs.

Over the years, St. Mark's Hospital founded Utah's first School of Nursing, continued to pursue "medical breakthroughs," and 143 years later remains a prominent institution on the cutting edge.

Eileen Hallet Stone, author of Hidden History of Utah, a compilation of her Salt Lake Tribune Living History columns, may be reached at ehswriter@aol.com. St. Mark's Hospital now is located at 1200 East and 3900 South in Salt Lake City. Sources: "St. Mark's Hospital, 1872-1997: A 125-Year Legacy of Quality Health Care in Utah" and Philip Notarianni's "Mining," in "Utah History Encyclopedia."