Officers and trustees for the Minnesota Hospital for the Insane. William Schimmel is seated at left and Rev. Aaron H. Kerr is seated at right. Addison L. Sackett is the seventh man from the left in the back row. Schimmel and Sackett were prominent businessmen in St. Peter.
Several patients are recuperating in the 10-bed ward at Saint Marys Hospital. A large spittoon is located in the center of the room surrounded by beds and wooden dressers. A crucifix and religious paintings are hung on the wall. The two nurses are Sister Joseph Dempsey and Sister Constantine Poutal.
As early as 1878 while prospecting for a site to establish a college for men in the Dakota Territory, Abbot Alexius Edelbrock, OSB, became aware of the need for a hospital in the still undeveloped area of Mandan and Bismarck. In 1885 he bought the Lamborn Hotel in Bismarck and succeeded in interesting Mother Scholastica Kerst in converting it to a hospital. It was a challenge to change the settlers' prejudice against hospitals as institutions for the wayward and shiftless. However, after five years and with the expertise of Dr. E. pageQuaine in surgery and Sister Boniface Timmers, OSB, in administration, the hospital gained favor and grew from a primitive institution to one of the finest hospitals in the land. With the help of a donation from St. John's Abbey, the Benedictine sisters were able to repay the abbey for the debt incurred by the original purchase and they named the hospital St. Alexius. By 1913, they were able to build a new hospital and to organize a school of nursing there (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 126-137).