Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1949-12-01
Written By the late

VFWCoB w Tue tUCe
Reuben Brigham of Sandy Spring
for Farm and Fireside July 1926,
When my boys grow older, I am
going to take them over to our
county hospital and get Doctor Bird
to tell them how it started. They
can read in a lot of places about
men who have made millions of
dollars. But right here at home
we have a real success story, and
| want my boys to know about it
first hand.
j. w. Bird is 40 years old now.
He was making a brilliant start
as surgeon in Baltimore, 81 miles
away, when for his health's sake
he took country practice.
That was sixteen years ago. Soon
he was busy with calls and feeling
the need of a place where he could
operate and where he could keep
patients who needed professional
nursing. The hospitals in Wash
ington and Baltimore were as Of
ten as not full up and closed to
outside cases, especially charity
cases.
At this time Miss Sophie
Featherstone, a trained nurse,
graduated from the hospital of the
University of Maryland and came
out here to live. DR.. Bird encour-
aged her torrent an old house and
make it into private hospital.
She ran it two years, taking pa
tients at $25 week and handling
a few charity patients besides.
When she gave it up, DIR. Bird
took it over and ran it on six
room basis. He kept a close &C
count and found that at the end of
eighteen months he had made a
slight surplus. This clinched his
bellef, that larger hospital, the
size the county needed, could be
made self-supporting.
By this time he was carrying
the heaviest practice in county,
but he took it upon himself in
addition, and made it his main job
in life, to get that hospital. Some
of us think that, above all other
reasons, he wanted it as living
memorial to his wife. She had died
shortly after he came out here.
We have in this county physi-
clans social club. Once a month,
on the Friday night of the full
moon, the country doctors get to-
gether to talk shop and tell yarns.
DR.. Bird was at this time the
member of this group.
He laid his plan before the other
doctors. Most of them liked it
but few believed that it could really
be done.
DR.. Bird went ahead anyway. In
April, 1918, he proposed his plan
to group of nineteen men called |
together for the purpose. There
were doctors; the rest, local farm
ers, bankers, preachers and mer-
chants. They gave him their per-
sonal pledges for $4,000 as a
starter.
Then they called larger meet
ing and organized community
corporation, offering non-profit
stock at $40 a share. Subscriptions
to this stock amounted of course
to contributions.
A board Of directors was elected.
lust local people-Dr. Bird, the
secretary of the local mutual fire
company, a housewife,
the assistant cashier of the bank,
a retired farmer. They put on a
quiet campaign and sold, right here
in the county, 1000 shares to 1,400
people.
That gave $4,000, enough to
start with. The next step was to
BUY 13 acres of land, including the
residence of DR.. William E. Nc
a country physician of
shirty-four years. service, who had
lied the year before. The land
was well located, suitable for the
purpose and cheap at the price.
The directors announced the buy
and held community inspection
lay. Three hundred people came.
Some Of them began to talk in
;erms of three-story hospital. DR..
Bird jumped up on stump and
made speech. He said that two
more stories meant just that many
more night nurses. The fewer
,loor levels the more efficient the
he said. He offered to
AXE anybody who required proof to
bo paxu TaLoY,no DorL bocntfo1 IN