J.D. Reid, principal of the Colored Graded School, was also secretary/treasurer of Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Home (later known as Mercy Hospital) and its chief fundraiser. The institution was meant to encompass two sites — an intown hospital and a “tubercular home” on a farm just outside of Wilson. More about the latter in a future post.
Wilson Daily Times, 9 December 1913.
Wilson Daily Times, 23 November 1913.
[The land was surely purchased from Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, not W.S., and I intend to figure out exactly where it was.]
[Update, 20 February 2023: actually, per deed, Samuel H. Vick sold the hospital the acreage for $5000 in November 1913. He had purchased it several years earlier.]
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Journal of the National Medical Association, volume 21, number 4 (1929).
Wilson Daily Times, 1 May 1935.
In 1935, Garner-Tarkenton Drug Store published a list of 27 recommended physicians and surgeons. The final three on the list were African-American — Drs. William A. Mitchner, Joseph F. Cowan, and Boisey O. Barnes (thus, B.O., not T.O.)
Wilson Daily Times, 13 March 1924.
In early 1924, Wilson native Dr. Joseph H. Ward, a major in the Army Medical Corps and a pioneering physician in Indianapolis, was appointed first African-American chief surgeon and medical director of a Veterans Administration hospital. The appointment was poorly received by many in Tuskegee, Alabama, and the displacement of former personnel by a nearly all-Black staff was initially stiffly resisted.
Wilson Daily Times, 3 December 1930.
After struggling financially for many years, in 1930 the African-American hospital on East Green Street reopened as non-profit Mercy Hospital, the name by which it is best known, with support from the Duke Foundation and the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. Though Mercy did not admit white patients, it had an integrated Board of Trustees. Its president and vice-president were white, but William Hines, secretary/treasurer, retained his duties as chief hospital administrator.
Wilson Daily Times, 29 September 1936.
“Darden and Family at Pharmacy.” This unattributed photo is posted at “First Black Doctor in Opelika, AL,” Valle Vision News blog, 22 February 2018. Dr. Darden is at center, with his wife Maude Jean Logan Darden to the left, standing in front of his Opelika pharmacy. The man at far right may be J.B. Darden, a pharmacist who worked in his brother’s shop before settling in Virginia.
Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
Wilson Daily Times, 1 October 1915.
In 1915, Dr. Frank S. Hargrave was invited to speak at a tuberculosis conference in Columbia, South Carolina.
Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
Wilson Daily Times, 4 June 1930.
Charles H. and Dinah Scarborough Darden‘s son John W. Darden established a thriving medical practice in Opelika, Alabama, that lives on in the city’s J.W. Darden Wellness Center.
Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
Me, this morning, standing in front Dr. Frank S. Hargrave‘s house, pointing to Samuel H. and Annie Washington Vick‘s house next door. The contributions of both Hargrave and Sam Vick have been memorialized by historical markers erected by the Wilson County Historical Association.
Many thanks to Priscilla Morello for the image.Â