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Cincinnati Children's Archives

The Founding of Cincinnati Children's Hospital

Founding of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center  

In 1883 women from Cincinnati’s Episcopal diocese approached the Bishop for their region, Thomas Jaggar, with a request. These women – at least those we know of who haven’t been lost to history (as women often are) - were Mrs. Robert (Nellie Phillips) Dayton, Isabelle Hopkins, and Isabelle’s sister, Mary Emery.

The women had seen, first-hand, the inadequate health care Cincinnati’s children were receiving at that time, particularly in Cincinnati’s adult hospitals. And they wanted action.

They appealed to Bishop Jaggar for support in creating a children’s hospital. The Bishop agreed, and after months of planning, on November 10, 1883, seven men (and none of the women who initiated this effort) signed articles of incorporation for what would become The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Southern Ohio.

In the incorporation papers, five goals were outlined for the new hospital:

  1. To provide medical and surgical aid and nursing for sick, infirm, and disabled children, either in the wards of the Hospital or at their homes
  2. To provide (in a department distinct from that devoted to children), so soon as the funds of the corporation shall warrant, medical and surgical aid and nursing for sick and disabled adults, either in the wards of the Hospital or in their homes.
  3. To provide the instruction and consolations of religion, according to the principles and usages of the Protestant Episcopal Church, for those who are under the care of the institution.
  4. To instruct and train suitable persons in the duties of nursing and attending upon the sick.
  5. To carry into execution such other purposes and objects, incidental and kindred to those above set out, as the Trustees of the corporation may from time to time prescribe.

Four days later, on November 14, the Secretary of State of Ohio certified the articles of incorporation, and the hospital became an official entity.

Jaggar was named President of the hospital’s Board of Trustees and a Board of Lady Managers was appointed to oversee its day-to-day operations. In March 1884 The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church officially opened in a rented, and still standing, three-bedroom house on the corner of Park and Kemper Streets (now Yale) in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati.

With four volunteer doctors, a nurse, and a housemother, together with volunteers who assisted in caring for the patients, the hospital served 38 children in its first year.

Articles of Incorporation

The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, Charter, page 1 of 3

 

The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church In the Diocese of Southern Ohio

Be it known that the undersigned, Thomas A. Jaggar, Alexander H. McGuffey, Rufus Ring, William Carson, Larz Anderson, Charles W. Short, and Harley T. Proctor, citizens of the State of Ohio, have associated themselves to form a corporation, under the laws of the State of Ohio, for the purposes herein below set out.

  1. Name

The name of the corporation shall be The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Southern Ohio

  1. Location

The place where said corporation is to be located, and where its principal business is to be transacted, is the city of Cincinnati, in the State of Ohio.

  1. The Purpose

The purpose for which the corporation is formed is---

  1. To provide medical and surgical aid and nursing for sick, infirm, and disabled children, either in the wards of the Hospital or at their homes
  2. To provide (in a department distinct from that devoted to children), so soon as the funds of the corporation shall warrant, medical and surgical aid and nursing for sick and disabled adults, either in the wards of the Hospital or in their homes.
  3. To provide the instruction and consolations of religion, according to the principles and usages of the Protestant Episcopal Church, for those who are under the care of the institution.
  4. To instruct and train suitable persons in the duties of nursing and attending upon the sick.

To carry into execution such other purposes and objects, incidental and kindred to those above set out, as the

The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, Charter, page 2 of 3

Trustees of the corporation may from time to time prescribe.

4. No Capital Stock

This corporation is not created for profit, but will rely for its establishment and support on voluntary gifts and contributions of the charitable and humane, and therefore is to have no capital stock.

                                                                                                Thomas A. Jaggar,

                                                                                                Alex. H. McGuffey,

                                                                                                Rufus King,

                                                                                                William Carson,

                                                                                                Larz Anderson,          

                                                                                                Chas. W. Short

                                                                                                Harley T. Proctor

STATE OF OHIO,      }

HAMILTON COUNTY.} SS.

            I, Chas. M. Hepburn, a Notary Public for the County aforesaid, do hereby certify that the foregoing Articles of Incorporation of The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Southern Ohio were duly subscribed and acknowledged by Thomas A. Jaggar, Alexander H. McGuffey, Rufus King, William Carson, Larz Anderson, Charles W. Short, and Harley T. Proctor, whose names are thereto attached, before me on this 10th day of November, 1883, in Hamilton County, Ohio

[SEAL]                                                                                               Chas. M. Hepburn

                                                                                                            Notary Public

STATE OF OHIO,      }

HAMILTON COUNTY} SCT.

            I, Daniel J. Dalton, Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas within and for said County of Hamilton, do hereby certify that Chas. M. Hepburn, whose name is signed to the certificate hereto attached, is, and was at

The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, Charter, page 3 of 3

The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, Charter, page 3 of 3

the time of subscribing the same, a legally acting Notary Public in and for said County of Hamilton, duly commissioned and qualified, and that I am well acquainted with his handwriting, and believe his said signature to be genuine, and that he is authorized to take the depositions of witnesses, acknowledgments of deeds, &c.

[SEAL]           In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the said Court, at Cincinnati, this 10th day of November, A.D., 1883

                                                            Daniel J. Dalton,

                                                                        Clerk, H.C.C.P.O.

                                                By Richard C. Rohner, Deputy

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, OHIO

    OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

            I, James W. Newman, Secretary of State of the State of Ohio, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the Articles of Incorporation of “The Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Southern Ohio,” filed in this office on the 12th day of November, A.D., 1883, and recorded in Volume 28, pages 368, etc., of the Records of Incorporation.

[SEAL]           In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name and affixed my seal of office, at Columbus, the 14th day of November, A.D., 1883.

                                                JAS. W. NEWMAN,

                                                            Secretary of State