Our History: 70 years of serving Fulton County and the surrounding communities

Our History...

70 years of serving Fulton County and the surrounding communities

Editor’s Note: This historical look was originally produced in book form in 1976 as part of a dedication. It is reprinted with permission.

Along Cove Creek’s rippling southerly itinerary where it marks the lowest elevation of the Great Cove Valley between Tuscarora Mountain and Scrub Ridge, there is a stretch where for some distance the narrow waterway marks the western-most boundary of the Borough of McConnellsburg. In the early summer of 1949, Mack Morton’s sloping field of pasture grasses framed the southwestern quarter of the borough there. And about 500 yards up the slope from where the waters of Cove Creek lapped the soil and grasses of Morton’s cow pastures, grazed about a score Guernsey milk cows. A party of land surveyors made their way through the field, shooing away the cattle as they went. The surveyors set up their tripod and transit and the elevation rod was hustled from point to point. Metes and bounds were duly logged in an engineer’s notebook. And when the surveying party went home that day, each step they took brought Fulton County closer to the realization of a dream. The party had laid out the site of Fulton County Medical Center.

The dream first took form almost a half-decade before. Fundraising drives were already in full swing. Two other sites in McConnellsburg had been considered and rejected. A non-profit corporation had been formed and a board of directors had been named.

In 1945, McConnellsburg was the county seat, as it is today. And it was, and still is, the center of commerce for this rural and predominantly agricultural county. At that time, more than a quarter of a century ago, the borough boasted a motion picture theater, two banks, two weekly newspapers (a third’s 70-year lifespan had already come and gone), a water works, electric lights, and a volunteer fire company, which one early historian noted, even had a fire alarm. But nowhere in McConnellsburg, nor in all of Fulton County, was there erected a hospital – not even a dispensary or small clinic.

There were three physicians, all general practitioners, in the county then, two with offices in McConnellsburg and one in Needmore. These hardy physicians served the villages and crossroads of the hinterland, delivering babies in farmhouse bedrooms and plucking tonsils from infected young throats in parlors and kitchens. Hard-pressed clients sometimes offered geese or sides of bacon in payments of “professional services rendered.” Three doctors from Hancock, Md., included in their rounds many clients from the lower end of the county. But Hancock, too, was without a hospital.

The closest institutions of higher medicine were all at least 10 miles from the county line, and some were two or three or more times that distance. And depending on where in Fulton County one lived, those distances might have doubled or tripled again. More importantly, geographic barriers lay between the hospitals and their Fulton County clients. To the east, Cove and Tuscarora mountains guarded the approach to the Chambersburg and Washington County (Md.) hospitals, as did Sideling Hill and Town Hill Mountains block the passage to Dr. Sipes’ small hospital in Everett. To the south, the Potomac River lay between Warfordsburg in southern Fulton County and War Memorial Hospital in Berkeley Springs, W.Va. Time, naturally, was of the essence and bad weather could turn a simple hour’s drive into an eternity of apprehension, or worse – death.

A doctor’s dream

Many people fail to appreciate the effect geography and topography have on a community’s development. Most people’s knowledge of these disciplines stems from obscure memories of junior high school social

1940s

Oct. 7, 1946: Dr. E.H. MacKinlay was a guest of the Green Hill Civic Club where he discussed the need and possibility of establishing a clinic or maternity home in Fulton County. Feb. 21, 1947: The Fulton County Medical Center was tentatively organized. April 17, 1947: Board of Directors elected: Mr. James Kendall, Mr. J. Edwin Palmer, Mrs. J.J. Palmer, Mr. William Wakefield, Mrs. Max Mellott, Miss Blanche Swope, Mrs. Lena McClain, Mr. Bruce Douglas, Mr. Arlen Hebner, Mr. Bruce Fore, Mrs. Harvey Stunk, Mr. Albert Foster, Dr. MacKinlay and RD. Sherwin

April 17, 1947: Land donated to build the center by Mrs. Chris Shimer and Mr. Merrill Nace at the 216 S. First Street location. 1947

August 1947: Certificate to register name was purchased and permission to solicit funds. August 9, 1947: A “Cake Festival” was the first fundraiser held to raise funds for the new FCMC; it raised $329.22. Nov. 25, 1947: Corporation Bylaws adopted.

studies courses. Even then, in most courses, geography always seemed to be someone else’s problem — the steppes of Central Asia, the fiords of Norway. Yet so much depends on “the lay of the land.” In Fulton County rise first the parallel waves of the ancient Allegheny Mountains. The rippling waves of peaks have for centuries measured the will and the strength of those who sought to cross them. These Allegheny foothills comprise much of the natural beauty of Fulton County, and their very existence has isolated and preserved this beauty. But this isolation has historically deprived the community of more extensive commerce and, more recently, of many public services and institutions long enjoyed by its neighbors.

There is a corollary, or if you will, a moral to this historic fact of geography. This relative isolation has fostered among the county’s inhabitants a sense of independence and self- reliance that even today is embedded almost as a cultural trait among local residents. The people have long known that local needs, by necessity, must be provided from within their own geographic walls.

By fall of 1946, Dr. Edgar H. MacKinlay was a Fulton County institution. No, he wasn’t a native, but he had that kind of native American character that mixed well with a rural country heritage. Thirteen years before, he had graduated from the Columbia University Medical School and had accepted an arrangement to fill-in for ailing McConnellsburg physician, Dr. John W. Mosser. After a short stint in the county, Doc MacKinlay was to have returned to take up a residency in a New York hospital. He never made it back, and he never regretted it. A hard-working, cigar-chomping country doctor who always carried with him on his rounds a pair of hip boots — because the Lord wasn’t always willing and the creek did rise — MacKinlay gave unselfishly of himself to his patients and to the community. Doc MacKinlay became part and parcel of the place. Being about the biggest baby doctor in the county — his deliveries numbered 15 to 20 a month — hardly a week went by that he didn’t wish himself up a big modern maternity ward complete with delivery room, the latest equipment and a staff-trained specialist and nurses. MacKinlay knew full well the dangers of delivery in a mother’s bedroom, and he hated the race against time and mountains when an emergency case had to be rushed to the nearest hospital, usually in Chambersburg, more than 20 miles away. MacKinlay knew and MacKinlay wished. “If wishes were fishes, we’d have a bunch fried.” Bah. But MacKinlay also knew if his dream were to come true, he would need help. Dr. MacKinlay began to confide the dream he envisioned to his friends and whenever opportunity permitted, he would speak at meetings of various clubs and organizations.

During social evenings with friends, the conversations often turned to the problems of medical practice in the isolated hills and valleys of Fulton County. At these times, MacKinlay would confide his professional hopes and fears. He spoke of extended periods of crisis when time and distance and geography meant the difference between life and death for his patients. He feared he would lose some of them. The hurried, tightlipped journeys to the maternity home at the Chambersburg Hospital were a recurrent theme at these discussions. Once, a close friend was the object of a midnight scramble to Chambersburg when an acute attack of abdominal pain signaled the need for an emergency appendectomy. And there were other cases, too, many others.

MacKinlay shared his wish; that selfless, lifesaving wish of having a small hospital big enough to handle emergencies and maternities, but not too big for this community of farmers and merchants to handle. A vision began to form itself in the minds of a small circle of friends.

Once, MacKinlay complained that no one else shared his wish. He had gone to several community groups in the county in the hope that they too would make his wish their own, but he had been discouraged. The project was too big, they told him. It had never worked before. How was it to be done? Who had the time to undertake such an enterprise? Maybe he had seen these things happen in New York, other places, but who could say that could happen here?

Others, however, heard MacKinlay’s pleas and shared his dream. On Oct. 7, 1946, he was scheduled to speak at a meeting of the Green Hill Civic Club. The turnout was bigger than usual. It had been made known that the respected physician was to address the group and was to speak on a vital and consequential matter. Dr. MacKinlay spoke straightforwardly on the need of a medical clinic and on the possibility of constructing the same. Would the people present at Green Hill support such a project?

They would, and vision took root and grew in Green Hill.

‘Community is just what we make it’

The president of the board of directors of the Fulton County Medical Center Corporation sat nervously in his seat on the wooden speakers’ stand. It was not a particularly hot day, July 16, 1949, and even though he had worn a light-colored suit, beads of perspiration multiplied and collected to form tiny rivulets of sweat under his crisp white shirt. Old Glory fluttered sporadically in the lazy breeze above a dozen or so local luminaries who were crowded on and in front of the bunting- wrapped platform. The crowd had grown to about 200 now, having picked their way through the pasture grasses of Mac Morton’s field south of the old

January 7, 1948: Building Fund Goal set at $100,000. March 1948: The first meeting held to establish the Fulton County Medical Center.

May 17, 1948: FCMC Auxiliary formed. July 8, 1949: Signed contract for Dan Winters to build FCMC. July 16, 1949: Ground-breaking Ceremony held at 2 p.m.

1949

June 6, 1948: Dr. MacKinlay was featured in the cover story for the Pittsburgh Press magazine.

creamery building in McConnellsburg. Albert Foster was Fulton County’s District Attorney. He was also president of the Medical Center Board of Directors.

The main speaker that day, marking the groundbreaking ceremonies for the construction of Fulton County Medical Center, was the Honorable W.C. Sheely, Judge of the Fulton County Court. If one was watching from just the right angle, the towering boom of a steam shovel behind the speakers’ platform appeared to grow right out of the Judge’s shoulder — a third mechanical arm, without which construction of the Medical Center would be a monumental labor indeed. Human hands and human sacrifice had brought the hospital project to this stage, and now those hands were prepared to master the machinery that would build this hospital.

Sheely spoke: “A community is just what we make it. We are, in fact, the community, and it will be good or bad as we are good or bad, and will benefit or stagnate according to what we put in it or what we withhold from it.”

Those remarks held a special, silent meaning for Foster, who had nurtured and guided the Medical Center Corporation since its inception some two years before. Much had been put in the project, and much had been withheld. His thoughts drifted back to an evening in March 1947…

Foster had been in Fulton County, a busy year by then, locating offices and finding a home for his young family. The 33-year-old fledgling attorney had an apartment above the office of Dr. MacKinlay. When the good doctor insisted that Foster join him at a public meeting in the local court house that March evening, the young attorney had no idea that MacKinlay had picked another “outsider,” like himself, to lead a campaign which was now in full swing, if only in the doctor’s dreams. The Green Hill Civic Club had met again since that first meeting in October of 1946, when the subject of a hospital for Fulton County had first been broached. A coordinating committee had been formed, and the public meeting in the court house was the result of its efforts. That night MacKinlay nominated Foster as chairman of the Medical Center Association, as the group meeting that night later became known. Though a newcomer to the county, Foster was elected, perhaps on the strength of Doc MacKinlay’s recommendation. The community, as it turned out, had nothing to fear in Foster’s election. He plunged himself deeply into the work which he had not anticipated nor sought. Foster presided as committees were named and strategy was mapped. The proposed hospital was named that night.

It was to be the Fulton County Medical Center.

In the succeeding months, the committees began to function. Foster handled the legal work, and in August of that year, the association was chartered as a non-profit corporation. Foster initiated an aggressive campaign to attract federal and state funds for the project. Though he spent a lot of time in Harrisburg, he had no luck with the state. The finance committee hired a New York-based professional fundraising outfit, and William Wakefield of Brush Creek Township was named chairman of the fund drive. Fundraising committees were set up in McConnellsburg and the eleven townships, in the county. As word of the project spread, donations began to come in even before the finance committee kicked off the formal campaign in February 1948. J. Oram Wible, a former resident of Todd Township and then president of Union Electric Steel Company of Pittsburgh, made the first substantial contribution in January of 1948, donating $5,000. So, when the first official fund drive began, the committee already had pledges for some 10 percent of its $100,000 goal.

Nine months later, in the fall of 1948, the U.S. Department of Public Health announced that the Medical Center project had been granted preliminary approval for federal funding. The health department said it would make available matching funds, one dollar for every two dollars raised locally, if the project met federal standards. An architect from Carlisle was hired to draw up the plans. He produced blueprints for a $125,000 institution. But the February fund drive had not been successful. By April, the drive had secured only about half of the $100,000. Funds from other sources had continued to come in, but even by February of 1949, the Medical Center Corporation could produce little more than $60,000 in cash and pledges, and some of the pledges were questionable. Perhaps the community was still a bit fearful of a project headed by “outsiders,” no matter how hardworking and dedicated, and of a fund drive run by some highfalutin’ New York outfit. Portions of the community had dedicated themselves to the project, make no mistake about that. The women of the county had done an outstanding job, a job that will be taken up later in this history. And the Medical Center Corporation itself had worked with highly commendable zeal. But the community at large was still not convinced. Local contributions began to be hard to come by, and as we will see later, continued so.

So when the Department of Health, in February 1949, declared that the county would have to approve plans meeting federal requirements by April of the same year, the Medical Center Corporation suffered its first great crisis. The corporation had a “soft” total of $66,000 to work with and needed another $59,000 to construct a $125,000 federally-approved hospital. Even taking into consideration that the project would receive its federal share of $42,000, the members of the corporation

1950s

Sept. 2, 1950: Dedication of the first hospital building in Fulton County. Oct. 3, 1950: The first patient to be treated was 3-year-old Judy Daniels of Waterfall, just one day before the center was officially open for business. Judy received three stitches from Dr. Whitsel after falling from an automobile. Oct. 4, 1950: FCMC opens its doors with 14 beds and 10 bassinets. Oct. 5, 1950: Mrs. Raymond Martz of Hustontown, Pa., was the first patient admitted at 4:30 a.m. Oct. 6, 1950: The first baby born at the center was a 4 lb. 11oz. daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Victor Cutchall of Hustontown, Pa., delivered by Dr. MacKinlay.

1951

Dec. 21, 1950: Auxiliary receives 1,200 jars of food from the local school children from their gathering of fruits, vegetables and juices to furnish food for the patients at the new center. 1952 1953

July 28, 1951: The first set of twin boys, John and Tom, were born to Mr. and Mrs. John W. Johnston of Needmore. The twin boys were delivered by attending physician Dr. Gerald Lorentz. Oct. 31, 1951: Oneyear anniversary dinner attended by 250 at the Green Hill Sewing Club. 1954

March 20, 1952: Blood bank began with American Red Cross.

were still not completely confident that they could raise the additional $16,500. In fact, they were so discouraged with the results of the earlier fund drive that the only question they considered was whether to scrap the project entirely, and return all money so far collected, or go ahead with a more modest project without federal funding. For many, it was a bitter decision, indeed. The corporation met in late April. All hope for federal aid had vanished. The deadline had passed and no plans had been approved. The atmosphere in the meeting room was somber. Some of the members argued that there was no use in going on. The project had not succeeded, they pointed out. But there were others in the room that were not yet tired. Maybe it was the naiveté and eagerness of a few of the board members that brought the issue to a vote. Or maybe it was simply that the board wished to avoid the personal embarrassment of giving up. Whatever the reason, or reasons, the vote was taken. By a margin of a single vote, the corporation agreed to continue the struggle. The board was not quite ready to call it quits. Yet, perhaps some of the earlier enthusiasm had vanished along with the federal funds, because the strategy now became highly conditional. They would continue only if a scaled down version of the hospital could be built. Adopting a wait-andsee attitude, the corporation paid off their original architect and began looking for someone who could build a medical center for the price they were able to pay.

Foster made the decision public. He told the community that the new plans called for building a hospital to the less stringent state requirements, rather than federal standards. He called on the assistance of a number of local men skilled in the construction trades who had earlier volunteered their services. That help was now needed, he said, to build a hospital at a cost of about $66,000, the funds contributed to date. The response was not long in coming. A local engineer, Daniel Winter, came fourth and declared that he could build such a hospital, with the help of volunteer labor, at a cost of $70,000, or less. If the cost of construction turned out to be less, he said he would split the difference with the corporation. Offers of volunteer labor began to appear at such a rate that confidence and enthusiasm returned to the members of the corporation. Three separate offers of land, at no cost to the corporation, were made. The offer of Mr. and Mrs. Mack Morton of Hagerstown was finally accepted. The Mortons owned a cow pasture to the southwest of McConnellsburg, just behind the old creamery. In consideration of the sum of $1, the deed to one-and-a-half acres of Morton’s field was turned over to the Medical Center Corporation. Winter drew up the blueprints and had them approved in Harrisburg. Things began to move quickly now. The site was surveyed and subcontractors were awarded contracts. The hospital was to be built at a cost of $70,000, less the value of free labor which had been promised. Then, on very short notice, the date was set for the groundbreaking.

Women form backbone of fundraising effort

The words of Judge Sheely again caught the attention of Albert Foster.

“It is important to us what happens to our neighbor in another part of the county. We are strong when we unite for the common good. We are weak when we allow ourselves to become divided and selfish.”

Thinking about those words for a moment, Foster reflected on one part of the community that had not been weak, nor selfish, during the Medical Center campaign: The women. It seemed that in unison, they had worked hard for the common good. Foster began to muse on how the women really formed the backbone of the local effort in this project.

One woman’s group was known simply as the “Fulton County Women,” forerunner of the county Federation of Women’s Clubs. The group met in July 1947 to plan one of the first fundraising projects for the Medical Center. At the meeting, the women organized a cake festival to be held the next month at McConnellsburg school grounds. There would be cakes, cookies and cupcakes for sale. The baked goods, as an incentive to all the “white thumbs” in the community, would be judged and prizes would be awarded. There would be a lunchstand offering sandwiches, sodas, watermelon slices, peanuts and ice cream. The McConnellsburg Volunteer Firemen agreed to be in charge of setting everything up and would help with the cakewalk and bingo games. It was Saturday, Aug. 9, at 1 p.m. Three cars arrived at the school and parked near the Girl Scouts’ room. The scouts piled into the car and drove off to collect the food that had been solicited

March 20, 1956: Mary Trout was hospitalized for the first time in her life on March 20, 1956, and said “it was almost worth being ill to receive such kind treatment.” She is with nurses Alice Pittman and Beatrice Barmont.

1956 1957

Aug. 4, 1957: Laying of Cornerstone for annex addition. 1958

March, 2 1958: Dedication Service for annex.

1959

for the festival. The firemen began erecting the booths and stands. And then, perhaps symbolic of the many obstacles the Medical Center project would have to overcome, a hard summer rainstorm came up and drenched the school grounds. With the determination to succeed that marked the project throughout its days, the festival was saved. The firemen had suggested the festival be moved indoors, inside the firehall. The move was accomplished, and the festival continued. By the end of the evening, donated food included more than 200 cakes and dozens of cupcakes and cookies. Some had been used for bingo prizes, and the surplus had been auctioned off. All told, the evening netted $329.22 for the Fulton County Women.

At the club’s next meeting, the decision was made to turn over the proceeds to the Medical Center Association’s treasurer, John Kelso. The women made plans for a fashion show to raise additional funds.

That’s the way it went. Women’s groups throughout the county pitched in. Some clubs sponsored “socials,” church groups held suppers, local schools sponsored essay contests. The women of Fulton County proved their mettle. When the first official door-to-door Medical Center fund drive was held in February of 1948, the naming of the township chairpersons perhaps says it all. Although a New York firm had been hired to plan the drive and a man, William Wakefield, had been named as overall chairman, without exception, the township fund drives were headed by women.

In April, at the end of the drive, the women, who had provided most of the legwork and physical effort, served refreshments at the close of the business meeting which marked the end of the drive. The same night those dedicated ladies formed the Fulton County Medical Center Ladies’ Auxiliary. The first funds in the Auxiliary’s treasury were generated from the sale of cakes left over from the fund drive meeting. In ensuing years, funds collected by this group and turned over to the Medical Center totaled in the tens of thousands of dollars, and that doesn’t include thousands of hours of donated labor and supplies, like hand-sewn linens and gowns repaired during hundreds of weekly sewing sessions.

The early organizers had much to remember as ceremonies progressed during the groundbreaking — and more to anticipate in the future.

Pioneering spirit

And so, a hospital was built in Fulton County. For the dedication ceremonies on Sept. 2, 1950, the Medical Center board called in Bedford

1960s

1961

March 28, 1960: The operating fund balance was $29,773.06, and the balance in the debt fund was $628.99. 1962

County Judge J. Colvin Wright to herald the opening of the Fulton County’s first, and only, medical institution. But it was more than just that; it was the culmination of a dream. It was the brick and mortar reality of a vision born of the mind and imagination of a country doctor - the fruition of the efforts of a score of people who worked to make the dream come true.

The text of Judge Wright’s remarks has been lost over the years, but one can be sure that he had much praise for this rural community. A community without great wealth in money, but endowed with a richness of personal pride and character, much like the pioneers who originally settled this territory.

The pioneers were not rich, but their spirit, their dedication and their hard work carved a civilization out of the wilderness. Fulton Countians were not rich, but they had the spirit, the dedication and industry of their earliest forbearers, and that’s why the Medical Center became a reality.

Doc MacKinlay, whose dream the Medical Center was; Albert Foster, who headed the first board of directors; and, with lone exception of Dr. Palmer, the Fulton County physicians who staffed the hospital — none were natives of Fulton County. They were adoptive sons who worked to gain the respect of the community. But on the other hand, they alone could never have accomplished this project. They captured the imagination of a core of local citizens with progressive ideas. These citizens formed the backbone of the Medical Center drive, and the women were foremost among them. The women pioneered the idea, spreading the word throughout the county. Their fund drives and money-making projects never ceased, and their energy never flagged. But when the project reached construction stage, a band of skilled and generous men proved their dedication as well. Carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, heavy equipment operators, laborers and craftsmen of all types poured their energies into the building of the Medical Center. Through their volunteer efforts, the hospital was built at a cost that the community could afford. Without them, too, the Medical Center would have remained a country doctor’s dream.

But let’s get back to the events as they unfolded. Following the naming of the young McConnellsburg engineer Daniel Winter as construction contractor prior to the groundbreaking ceremonies, the Medical Center Board of Directors, still headed by attorney Albert Foster, appointed James McKelvey Jr. as hospital administrator. McKelvey at this time was the administrator of the Chambersburg Hospital, and he agreed to act as consultant for the Fulton County institution. Then, in November 1949,

July 27, 1964: Administrator Bruce Douglas stated in the annual membership meeting “in 1950, we built the original center, and in 1957, we added a wing, all without federal help, and plans are now underway to add more rooms, this also without federal aid.” July 1964: Since the opening of FCMC 14 years prior, there were 14,349 patients admitted; 3,239 babies born.

1963

July 1962: Dr. R.C. McLucas delivered baby number 2,500 at the Fulton County Medical Center. 1964

the board of directors initiated their second campaign to raise funds for construction of the hospital. The townships and borough were once again organized, and the goal was set for $75,000. In the meantime, volunteers on the construction project set to work, donating hundreds of hours of their time.

Dr. J.J. Palmer, the dean of the county medical community, was named president of the future staff of the hospital. Dr. Gerald Lorentz was named vice president, and Doc MacKinlay was elected as secretary. Palmer, however, after 46 years of practice, died during the hospital’s first year of operation. He was succeeded by Dr. Lorentz as chief of staff, and another young doctor Theodore Whitsell, was added to the team of physicians.

The second fund drive was even less successful than the first, making a bank loan necessary. The hospital’s board of directors backed the note with their own signatures, such was their dedication and their trust in the future of this community’s institution. When the drive formally ended in December 1949, only $37,000 had been raised. Fortunately, money-raising activities didn’t end with that. Informal fundraisers continued. Perhaps foremost among the money raisers was the Medical Center Auxiliary, now almost two years old, and comprised of representatives from civic groups throughout the county. That winter the Auxiliary began a project that continued for many decades, the weekly sewing sessions. With $600 from their treasury, auxiliary members purchased yards and yards of material. For six months they spent needle and thread, until May 1950 when they had produced enough linens to supply the hospital on opening day. As if that wasn’t enough, the women continued their money-raising projects and purchased enough equipment to set up a fully-automatic commercial laundry in the Medical Center. The Auxiliary still holds sewing sessions, now in their own room at the hospital.

But the Auxiliary wasn’t the only group to continue raising money for the Medical Center. Other organizations contributed liberally. The McConnellsburg Lions Club gave a one-time donation of $4,000, the American Legion gave $1,000 each year for four years and the Green Hill Civic Club continued its active involvement, supporting for a number of years a full ward in the new hospital. Memorial donations, supporting single rooms or groups of rooms, or for the purchase of some needed piece of equipment, began to grow in number as the Medical Center neared completion. Businesses in Fulton and neighboring counties lent their support to the project. One firm, Miller’s Garage of Hustontown, offered for sale a 1948 Chevrolet sedan, the proceeds of which were turned over

June 27, 1966: FCMC approved for Medicare patients by the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare. July 25, 1966: Buchart Associates named architects for the new expansion project.

1966 1967

July 1967: Completed plans for a new north wing submitted. to the hospital board. Other firms supplied construction equipment. Individuals continued to donate money and labor, or both. Doc MacKinlay promised to equip the hospital’s laboratory.

Meanwhile, the Medical Center Board of Directors made other preparations for the opening of the hospital. In July 1950, the board made two important appointments. Two individuals recruited from the villages of Fulton County, Richard Wright from Waterfall and Thelma Bergstresser of Hustontown, were hired to fill top administrative and staff positions. Both were graduates of Hustontown High School. Wright, who was named as assistant administrator and who would assume the chief administrator’s post shortly after the hospital opening, received his post-secondary training at Chambersburg Business School. Bergstresser was an experienced registered nurse who received her training at Harrisburg General Hospital. She was named Director of Nursing. The selection of these two was sufficient testimony that Fulton County was not without expertise and leadership ability among its own sons and daughters.

Finally, on the last day of the celebration of Fulton County’s 100th anniversary, Sept. 2, 1950, the complete Fulton County Medical Center was dedicated. Early newspaper accounts described the hospital as a two-story, red brick structure of “contemporary colonial style.” One article gave this description:

“It has fifteen beds for adult patients and ten bassinets for newborns. Included in the structure is a waiting room, offices, an operating room and delivery room; also, additional space for clinics or wards, a spacious modern kitchen and a space for a modern laundry.

“The furniture for each bedroom included a bed, bedside stand, dresser, over-bed table, plus chairs and foot stools, all of which are of wood in a walnut finish. Other equipment purchased includes an operating table, obstetrical table, an incubator, ten bassinets and all the necessary instruments for a modern center. The kitchen is equipped with a large institutional gas range, commercial type coffee urns and toaster and all utensils, dishes, etc., necessary for the proper cuisine for patients and personnel.

“The Medical Center is surrounded by spacious grounds which have been graded. A limestone covering has been used and this adds to the beauty of the building.”

A triumph for the community

Man, the reasoning animal, characterizes his work, or at least tries to, with a certain degree of organization. A creature of nature, he learned that it is logical to assume that nature will not be logical. Nature refuses

July 1968: Total cost of the expansion set at $435,666. July 28, 1969: New expansion 90 percent complete.

1968

1969

Nov. 16, 1969: Open house and tour for the new wing of FCMC. A new laboratory, emergency room, OB delivery suite, and operating room/recovery suite were added.

to submit to man’s logic. That paradox was conveniently illustrated on the eve of the Medical Center’s opening to the public. The hospital was scheduled to admit its first patients on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 1950. But nature was not to be denied its prerogative to dictate its own terms. On Tuesday evening a call came in to Dr. Whitsell’s office. Judy, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Daniels of Waterfall, had fallen from a moving automobile. When she was taken to the doctor’s office at Hustontown, it was learned that Whitsell was at the Medical Center on business. The doctor advised the parents by telephone to bring the girl to the hospital. When she arrived, the doctor sutured Judy’s head wound with three stitches, and she was released. Nature, after all those years of planning and hard labor, still held sway over man’s fortune and misfortune. It was rather a fitting circumstance. After all, was not the Medical Center built to insulate members of this rural community – the type of community perhaps closest to nature of any of man’s establishments – from the vagaries and predictableness of nature.

The Medical Center was a triumph for this community. It served well the purpose for which it was established, and it was proper that the man whose dream the Medical Center was, Dr. E. H. MacKinlay, should deliver the first baby born in that institution – the four-pound, eleven-ounce daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Victor Cutchall of Hustontown. Other patients came and went. Some came and were healed. Some came and could not be helped. Some came and departed this life there. But all received the best that the community could offer them.

Someone once said that anything worth having is worth waiting for. But no one ever said that one has to enjoy the torments of the wait. The first year of the Medical Center’s operation was certainly no joy for the hospital’s board of directors. During that maiden 12-month period, the hospital teetered, financially and administratively, between hope and despair. Even before the year’s first quarter ended, the Medical Center Board was obliged to find a new chief administrator. Richard Wright, who had assumed the post shortly after the opening in October, found himself compelled to resign. Wright, purely an accountant at heart, found the broader duties of administrator not to his liking and perhaps more demanding than he had imagined. The situation was successfully resolved late in December when Bergstresser, the director of nursing, agreed to assume the additional responsibilities. Financially, well, the Medical Center was almost always financially strapped, as we have seen. And the first year was no different, but it is fair to say, and ought to be said, that the first year of operation was the toughest. The hospital was in debt when its doors opened, and to keep from sinking even further in

1970s

February 1971: Statistics for the month of February 1971: Total number of lab tests was 2,002; 14 blood transfusions; 327 x-rays; 152 admissions and 144 discharges.

December 1970: Medical staff agreed to start making rounds at Decker nursing home. 1971

April 1971: 977 ER visits since February 1971. 1972

the red, the hospital required a patient load of at least a dozen patients a day. Budgetary gymnastics were the rule of the day for the hospital board. As monetary donations were funneled into the building fund one day, quite often they were channeled into payroll or expenditure accounts the next. Fortunately, the board was soon able to repay the building fund with patient income and new donations from the community. Some four months into the first year, the red ink gradually began to fade from monthly statements. By the end of the year, the hospital actually showed a surplus of almost $3,000. It is to the well-deserved credit of the hospital and the community that only once the hospital suffered a year-end net loss. And that was during the economic crunch of the 1974 recession when inflation leaped into double-digit figures.

That exemplary fiscal record is due in large part to the continuing efforts of community organizations who never lost their faith in humanitarian ideals and in the need for the local hospital. Though the hospital never had what could be termed the unanimous support of the community at large, it did attract, under the leadership of the board of directors and the never-ceasing efforts of the Medical Center Auxiliary, a large enough following to make the Medical Center a viable and healthy institution. When the call went out for help, there always seemed to be response enough to see the hospital through. School children throughout the county were asked by teachers cooperating with the Auxiliary to go to their parents and entreat them for donations of fresh fruits, vegetables and juices to stock the hospital’s pantries. Families from every corner of the county heeded the call and sent back to school with their children more than 1,000 jars of produce gleaned from the autumn’s harvest. One man even donated lumber to the build the cupboards and shelves on which the bounty would be stored. This grass-roots effort is what saw the Medical Center through.

A country doctor had shared his dream, and enough country people had believed in that dream to make it come true.

Once, not long after the hospital completed its first year, a vacationing couple passed through McConnellsburg on the way to distant parts. They were just leaving the east skirts of town, traveling along the old Lincoln Highway, when the gentleman suddenly slumped over the wheel of the car. His wife managed to maneuver the vehicle safely to the side of the highway, and she hailed a passerby.

“I think my husband just had a heart attack,” she called out. “Do you know where the nearest hospital is?” The passerby allowed that he had heard a hospital had recently been built in the town, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember where it was.

July 1973: Inhalation Therapy Department started.

1973

1973 - 1974: The FCMC Auxiliary held a holiday mart to raise funds for the new extension. January 1974: Dr. William Milroth of Pittsburgh was welcomed by the community to practice medicine in McConnellsburg.

1974

In those days perhaps, the Medical Center was still regarded as an extravagance, or something of a novelty. If the reader, today, however, should be passing through any hamlet within the confines of Fulton County, and should need to know the whereabouts of the local hospital, he’ll not despair. Let him ask directions from anyone, because today everyone is proud to know the answer. ■

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8933 Waterfall Rd., Hustontown, PA 717-485-BEER (2337) hustontownbeverage.com

February 1975: Hospital opened skilled care unit. At this time, FCMC offered three levels of care: acute, skilled and long-term care. November 1976: FCMC becomes a 102-bed institution, 54 LTC beds and 48 newly renovated acute-care beds. James McKelvey, Jr. .............11/1949 - 10/1950 Richard I. Wright...................10/1950 - 12/1950 Thelma Bergstresser ............12/1950 - 07/1952 Harry Crow, Jr. ......................07/1952 - 06/1953 Robert Raker .......................06/1953 - 08/1958 Woodrow Strait.....................08/1958 - 04/1972 David Moses........................04/1972 - 07/1975 Charles Smith ......................07/1975 - 12/1976 Thelma Bergstresser ...........12/1976 - 02/1979 Gregory Gordon ....................02/1979 - 03/1983 Joanne Wible .......................03/1983 - 08/1983 Michael Ehler.......................08/1983 - 09/1985 Brock Slabach (HMP)............09/1985 - 12/1985 Robert Pierce (HMP) .............12/1985 - 06/1986 Thomas Fite (HMP)...............06/1986 - 03/1989 Richard Hoeth (HMP) ............03/1989 - 06/1989 Edward Pfeiffer (HMP) ...........06/1989 - 11/1989 Cathleen Otto .....................11/1989 - 04/1990 Scott Berlucchi.....................04/1990 - 04/1995 Robert Swadley....................04/1995 - 08/1997 Robert Murray......................08/1997 - 01/2005 Jason Hawkins.....................01/2005 - 07/2005 Diane Palmer .......................07/2005 - 08/2006 Jason Hawkins.....................08/2006 - 09/2006 John McElwee ......................09/2006 - 01/2007 Jason Hawkins.....................01/2007 - 09/2017 Deb Shughart/Kim Slee........09/2017 - 06/2018 Michael Makosky..................06/2018 - present

July 24, 1978: recommended starting salary of LPN - $3.70

1976

Nov. 14, 1976: Dedication ceremony held for the $2.9 million, 22-month construction project. 1977 1978

January 1977: Semi-private room rate was increased from $65 to $85 and private increased from $70 to $105. Jan. 27, 1977: PA State Police chopper assists FCMC medical staff in saving infant’s life. 1979

1977: The FCMC Physical Therapy Unit opens.