GO WEST, YOUNG NURSE, GO WEST!
By
Arletta Dawdy
Jane
Arminda Delano heeded the call from New York’s Dr. Thomas Darlington, an old
family friend and went to a “dusty mining camp in the Arizona Territory,”
sometime in 1886. She may have been there a few months or upwards of three
years for the record is lacking. Born in Montour Falls, New York in March of
1862, she was daughter of Union General George Delano and Mary Wright Delano
and younger sister of Ada. The death of Jane’s father in the fever driven death
march to the Battle of New Orleans inspired her to train at Bellevue Hospital
to become a nurse.
In
Bisbee, she had to deal with the ravages of yellow fever, typhoid and other conditions
among her patients. Raw sewage, human and animal, ran downhill from the miners’
shacks and contaminated tent camps, canals and cabins below. Tombstone Creek
carried the germ-infested liquids further afield. The sewer system wouldn’t be
built until 1919. Jane would also have treated broken bones injured backs,
crushed limbs and burns from mining accident victims. An advocate of public
health nursing, she instructed wives, mothers and madams in caring for their
own and neighbors in home visits. Issues of sanitation, nutrition, wound care
and illness came naturally to her.
One
fabled incident from her time in Bisbee has survived:
“All
one long dark night she lay awake, listening to a mystifying. terrifying sound
just outside her hut. It seemed to come, inch by inch, closer to her window.
She watched the intense blackness lighten with the dawn, expecting to see the
evil face of a marauder. When daybreak came, after an infinity of waiting for
the realization of her terrors, she discovered that it was only her burro
rubbing his sides against the corrugated tin walls of her shack.”*
The
first Copper Queen Hospital was held in an abandoned mine cave in the hillside,
probably the original Glory Hole. This would have been the “hospital” in which
Miss Delano served. Later, perhaps around 1888 and under Dr. Darlington’s
direction, the next hospital, usually referred to as the “first,” was made of
cardboard and was called “the cracker box.” It is hard to imagine how such a
structure stood the test of bad weather unless treated with a chemical
concoction.
She pushed for
professional nursing training and recognition for women. Until this time, most nurses were men and
women were seen as less than charwomen or slops-pan attendants, despite skills
developed in the habits of homemakers and battlefield caregivers over the
centuries. Miss Delano went on to teach nursing as the RN degree evolved at New
York’s Bellevue Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania
As
pestilence and war raged in the southeast with the beginnings of the Spanish
American War, Jane Delano ventured into the swamps of Florida; commandeering
mosquito netting, she was among the first to drape it over the multitudes of
deathly ill typhoid and yellow fever patients. It was a time and place when no
one in their right mind would have gone; she’d been there before Bisbee, and
knew what to expect. She insisted on sterile living environments for her cadre
of nurses, including the mosquito nets to protect them.
Little is known of her
private life. She took time from her teaching and nursing experience to care
for her elderly mother in the early 1900’s. She spent much time gardening,
reading to her mother and visiting with friends at their homes in New York and
Charlottesville, Virginia. Other than men she worked with over the years,
there’s no insight to be found as to romantic liaisons with men or women. She
appears to have led an independent, single life.
After
1900, this champion of professional nursing was called to be the First
Superintendent of Women Nurses in the Army Medical Corps (1905-1912) Her
resignation was accepted by Major General (Doctor) Leonard Wood who described
her thus:
“…gained
confidence (of officials) by her sober, solid judgment and by her willingness
to consider opposing viewpoints…usually able to get her recommendations through.”**
Jane’s
career with the American Red Cross was to once again lead the way in developing
the women’s nursing unit of that organization. She gave her energies over to
organizing, recruiting and training as well as the myriad administrative
responsibilities necessitated by a brand new organization. Mary Clark, author
of the missing biography of the exceptional Miss Delano, is quoted in the
History of the American Red Cross; she saw her friend as:
“…of
such uprightness of character, purity of life and good judgment, that they (her
staff) could be relied on to do the discreet and right thing wherever
placed.”**
Aside from charming and
uniquely elegant wordage of the early 20th century, Miss Delano
emerges as a very special person in any language.
She
died on April 15. 1919. Jane Arminda
Delano’s last words were:
“My work, my work, I must get back to my
work.”*
She
was buried in France until brought back to a heroine’s burial at Arlington
National Cemetery. An award in her name is given annually to a deserving nurse
at the Cochise County Hospital, formerly known as the Copper Queen Hospital, in
Bisbee, Arizona. A daughter of the world, Jane Arminda Delano found a brief yet
lasting place as a Sweetheart of the West.
References::
* Gladwin, Mary E., The Red Cross and Jane Arminda Delano, W.B.Saunders Company,
1931;Kessinger Legacy Reprints, date unknown
** Dock, RN, Lavinia L.
et al, History of American Red Cross
Nursing, The MacMillan Company, 1922; Kindle version available
*** Clark, Mary A., Memories of Jane A. Delano, Lakeside
Publishing Company, 1934, Out of Print
___________________________________________________________________________________
Arletta Dawdy writes from Sonoma County, CA of unusual women. Her historic tales are set in Cochise County, AZ She draws on family history, extensive research, and a strong imagination..The Huachuca Trilogy books are available on Amazon. She is currently at work on BISBEE'S GLORY.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Arletta Dawdy writes from Sonoma County, CA of unusual women. Her historic tales are set in Cochise County, AZ She draws on family history, extensive research, and a strong imagination..The Huachuca Trilogy books are available on Amazon. She is currently at work on BISBEE'S GLORY.
