De Smet

Operations on kitchen tables and babies born in sod shanties and homes was the fate of the families who made up this settlement. When a country doctor arrived and hung out his shingle in De Smet, he found he had competition from home remedies and patent medicines. What the doctors, dentists, chiropractors, and veterinarians in those early days lacked in skill, they often made up in compassion. Picture here is the Avera De Smet Memorial Hospital.

Kingsbury County Hospital opened for business on April 8, 1910. The large home was leased from Elizabeth Sasse, and Louise Knapp was hired as superintendent. Doctors Bostrom, Haberman, Dyar, Davies, and Jamieson were among some of the early physicians and surgeons. The building is located on Joliet Avenue and Third Street.

The background of this picture shows how the hospital seen in the previous image slowly became the Bee Hive Apartments. Long known as the Bee Hive, it derived its name from the many families that moved in and out of the building. This 1944 picture shows Howard Schultz on leave from the Navy with his two children, Donald and Sharon. The apartment complex remains on Joliet Avenue and Third Street.

Pictured here as the home of Boyd and Delores (Anderson) Pratt, Anderson Nursing and Maternity Home was created in the late 1920s and operated through 1930. This was Axel Anderson’s home, and it was operated by Wallace (Mrs. Axel) Anderson, a nurse who had been with the Kingsbury County Hospital. Maternity, appendectomy, and tonsillectomy cases were often done on Sunday afternoons by local physicians. The site of this building is north of De Smet, on South Dakota Highway 25. The house was razed in 2003.

The stately home of A.N. Waters overlooks Second Street just a bit east of Sherwood Avenue. It became Memorial Hospital when it was purchased in 1947, and was ready for use by 1949. It has been reclaimed as a private residence.

The world of early medical practice in De Smet often collided with the dire need for money, of which the City of De Smet did not have an abundance. But De Smet undertook to cure this malady by purchasing the A.N. Waters home and remodeling it as a hospital. Pictured is Ruth Zeller, a nurse.

In 1950, it was reported that 72 babies had been born since the hospital opened a year before. It was a grand celebration when the mothers and babies returned to the Memorial Hospital for a one-year celebration.

A Tschetter family album produced this picture of Dr. Paul Tschetter and his son, Richard. Posed on the steps of their brick home, located on Fourth Street, they make a handsome pair. Dr. Paul practiced medicine in De Smet from 1930 to 1945. The home remains a private residence.

Veterinarian ? Betke stands in the yard of Harold Fritzel’s farm, located on US Highway 14 and Prairie Avenue in De Smet. The house has been remodeled, but part of it still stands as a private residence.

Mildred Warne (left), superintendent of nurses, and Judy (Nelson) Johnson are shown at the nurses’ station of the newly built De Smet Memorial Hospital on Prairie Avenue.

Men who had a part in planning the new hospital were the tour guides at the hospital’s open house in 1960. Pictured, from left to right, are Arthur Poppen, Fred Peschl, Neal Meyer, Ed O’Keefe, G.S. Barnes, Floyd Abrahamson, George Kreiger, Maurice Wika, Marvin Ketelsen, Lawrence McKibben, and Gerhard Magnuson.

The new operating room equipment is being inspected in 1960 by, from left to right, Dr. Robert Bell, chairman of hospital board; Maurice Wika; and Dr. William Hanson.

Taking part in the open house for the newly built hospital are, from left to right, (first row) Vera Abrahamson, Alice Williamson, and Marge Jensen; (second row) Myrtle Barnes, Evelyn Krieger, Eva McKibben, Adeline Springer, Norma Wika, and Audrey Meyers.

Some of the staff of the 1960 De Smet Hospital include, from left to right, Harriett Albrecht, LPN; Lorene Washburn, cook; ? Stensland, RN; Ruth Zeller, RN; Inez McAdaragh, laundry worker; ? Gilbertson, NA; Etta Penney, custodian; and Emma Serfling, cook.

Posed for the camera at the entrance to the new hospital are, from left to right, Dr. Robert Bell; Dr. William Hanson; Maurice Wika, chairman of the hospital board; George Krieger, vice chairman; Gerhard Magnuson, secretary-treasurer; Harriett Albrecht, administrator; G.S. Barnes, mayor; and Edward O’Keefe, board member.