Phillips County Museum News for Wednesday, October 2, 2024

In 1900, the first doctor who came to Malta was George W. Clay. He was quite young, only 22 when he headed to Montana, but before George came along there were no hospitals or Doctors in Malta, everyone had to go to the closest one which was in Glasgow, and no doctor was nearer to the town. Part of that was due to the new settlement on the Great Northern Railway. It had Saloons, log cabins, and a few more conspicuous residents and Malta had no doctors, so there was no place or even a way for a hospital to be here. However, although there were no doctors, there were many midwives. These women would tend to a pregnant lady and help her give birth to her child. They would then stay after the child was born to help the woman by cooking, cleaning, and tending to her, and in return, they were only paid one dollar a day.

Thankfully, Malta did not have many epidemics, which helped a lot because getting the medical assistance they might have needed was harder. The most serious of these diseases were measles, chickenpox, and other childhood ailments. Though Malta had no doctors they did have treatments and cures. They had Chamberlain's diarrhea mixture, although that one was controversial because it contained Opium and a child died due to the mother giving it three drops when the doses for infants were 1-15 drops. Malta also had Dr. James’ Vermifuge, which was mainly used for removing roundworms, castor oil, Epsom salts, Lydia Pinkham’s medicine for women’s complaints which was used for the relief of menstrual cramps, goose grease, and turpentine, used for bronchitis, colds, wounds or the flu, fried onions to help with the immune-system mainly or as an anti-inflammatory, Flaxseed meals to help with digestive health and strips of fatty bacon to be used for poultices.

While these treatments might have been good for some things, they weren’t very useful when a person was seriously ill or injured. Not having a doctor nearby was not beneficial for those in need of urgent care, so they sent them to Glasgow on a train to get these people to a doctor and a hospital as fast as they could. Now, given the fact Malta was still a small pioneer town at this time like many others, there was a lot of brawling and gun-playing. All the men who got injured or caught a bullet would come saying it was a sure shot, unfortunately, most of the men were taken to the graveyard rather than the hospital. Finally, when Malta got its first doctor, George W. Clay came to Malta as a doctor, there were several women already available to be midwives, including Mrs. Viola Ebaugh, Mrs. Mary Robertorye, and Mrs. Anna Kjos. George Clay and Mrs. Roberorye were the ones to open up the first hospital in Malta. The same sweet Mrs. Robertorye and her husband decided to take maternity patients into their house and give them care and help with the birthing process, taking time out of their day to watch over and tend to the ladies. Succeeding the first hospital, Mrs. Viola Ebaugh opened a small one on the north side where she would care for maternity patients, typhoid fever, flu, and other cases. She conducted the hospital being very attentive and serving to the patient’s needs until the 1920s when Mabel Tucker began to take over and eventually moved the hospital into the Robertorye one. Now that Malta finally had hospitals and doctors along with nurses, the already hard-working staff in the medical field worked even harder. They did anything and everything for their patients, including the ones needing help from the Canadian line, the Missouri River, the Little Rocky Mountains, and isolated ranches in the middle of nowhere. They would travel either on a horse and buggy, a sleigh or bareback through deep snow winters, below zero kinds of weather, in blizzards and rainstorms across nearly trackless prairies to attend to their convalescents, not to mention they responded to calls at all hours of the day and/or night. To say the least, the Malta Hospital has always done amazing things, and we thank God for the new equipment and new treatments that have come a long way and have helped several patients out. The doctors have worked hard throughout the years and continue to pursue and astonish with their skills and years of dedication to their job.

Fun Fact for the week- the word hospital comes from the Latin word hospes, which means “guest” or “stranger”.