Note: Bluffton sixth graders in the 1953-54 school year (graduating class of 1960) created a booklet titled "The Bluffton Story." The following article is part of that booklet, which is now in the history collection at the Bluffton Public Library. This series continues each week on the Icon.
By Bernadine Mullet and Emily Hochstettler
The Bluffton Community Hospital has ranked Bluffton as one of the leading medical centers of Northwestern Ohio.
Bluffton has been very fortunate that the men of leadership in the community years ago saw the need for such a hospital. The old Bluffton Hospital that many of the readers of this article will remember was located on the corner of College Ave. and Main St. It was in this hospital that many of Bluffton's present adult population first saw the light of day. The old hospital was first named the Mennonite Deaconess Hospital, but this name was changed to the Bluffton Community Hospital in March, 1924.
With the concentrated efforts of Dr. J. S. Steiner, Dr. S, K. Mosiman and others in the new hospital was made possible when it became apparent that the old one was not big enough to carry the load that was required. It had 9 beds in 8 rooms. May, 1937 saw the move to the new building at 139 Garau St. This building completed at the end of the depression by the W.P.A. was a large improvement to the medical facilities of the community. The present hospital boasts of fourteen rooms and twenty-three beds for the accommodations of patients. There are eleven cribs in the nursery. The hospital has a modern surgery and delivery room. There are 14 registered nurses employed at the hospital and 12 doctors use it as their residence. The great popularity can be noted in the admittance records with patients being admitted from North Baltimore, McComb, Ottawa, and other towns of equal distance.
To read previous part of this series, click here.
