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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 283
amounts from 5 cents to $50 to be used by the building committee.
People Avere- invited to come and examine the progress of the hospital
building, being assured that Mr. Levi Till, AVIIO Avas in charge, would
welcome all comers, show them about, and exhibit the plans. To add
to the sums already available, there AA'ere given innumerable entertainments,
balls, concerts, bazaars, etc., all done in the name of sweet charity.
Ten years after the laying of the cornerstone, the hospital Avas formally
opened for patients. Ten years of storm and stress, of labor and selfsacrifice,
for at that time the maintenance of such an institution was a
/stupendous problem. Many an appeal AA'as sent out to the people, and
many a response came back to those in charge. Mr. Keech tells of the
cheer aroused by certain gifts of money, mentioning the sum of $26.67
sent by a German society, Mr. Henry Rudolph, chairman, and $87.79
from the centennial committee, July 4, 1876, not so much in the amounts
themselves as in the spirit manifested. He said, "It-shows that Ave have
a charity in our city that all classes and all denominations should aid.
The idea that Grace Church Avants all the glory iii building Good
Samaritan Hospital should be done iiAvay Avith at once and forever. The
very best, and most self-sacrificing AA'ork that has been done for the
hospital, has been done by some German ladies AVIIO never go near Grace
Church. The hospital when done Avill be open to the sick of all nationalities,
creeds and color, the only condition being, is he or she sick and
without a comfortable home and the possibility of good care?" He
further urged that one Sunday eA'ery year be set aside to be knoAvn as
"Hospital Sunday." On that day a special collection be taken up in
eA'ery church in toAvn for the hospital, and should there be more than
one, then the total amount be equally divided between them. There is
still an opportunity for the establishment in Sandusky of "Hospital
Sunday." After the hospital Avas opened, the Hospital Guild, the successor
to the Hospital Aid Society took an active part in the daily management
of the hospital in conjunction Avith the board of managers. But
forty years ago there AA'ere tAvo reasons Avhy a hospital Avas but a partial
success. One, that going there was closely akin to becoming an inmate
of the infirmary, and the other, that hospitals were intended wholely
and solely to ease the last hours of the dying, and that being taken there
AVIIS but the prelude to a Avell-conducted funeral, if by chance the Avceping
relatives received the body. For, origin unknoAvn, a ghastly tradition
gained credence in some minds, that the bodies of the dead Avere
transmuted into medicine after the manner of the hapless canine into
sausage. Hospitals of that day Avere limited in scope, besides having
many popular prejudices to combat, so it was not surprising that in spite
of the heroic efforts of the founders and supporters of Good Samaritan
Hospital and though fairly Avell-conducted by an efficient matron, it Avas
deemed advisable, after a short term of United States goA'ernmental
control for marine patients, to close the institution after having been in
active operation seventeen years. Seventeen years later through the
efforts of an intrepid leader, Dr. Carrie Chase Davis, backed by an
equally intrepid aggregation of Avomen, Good Samaritan Hospital again