My grandmother Elizabeth Fitzpatrick ran a maternity home in St. Vincent from 1943 into the late 1950's. I don't know if any unwed mothers ever gave birth there, but plenty of married ladies did. While growing up, I met many women, some even from my church, who were either born there, or had their children there. When I was looking up general information on maternity homes, all references were about homes for single mothers to give birth in, and usually to arrange adoptions of those babies. This was not the kind of maternity home my grandmother ran.Here's some information I tracked down - thanks to Cindy at the Kittson County Museum - about the Fitzpatrick Maternity Home...
From SCHEDULE A - GENERAL DATA
[Prepared June 4, 1946]
Fitzpatrick Maternity Home
Established 1943
Owned/Operated by Mrs. Albert Fitzpatrick
Location - St. Vincent, Kittson County, Minnesota
Types of Services/Licensed as - Maternity
Building - Frame, built 1906
Water - Cistern/city waterFacilities - Outdoor toilet
Beds - 1 Room, 2 beds
Bassinets - 2
Number of patients for last year - 4 admissions
Number of births - 11
Number of stillborn - 1
Physician Visits - Daily
Administrator - Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, age 58, Practical Nurse (15 years experience)
Charges - $3.00 per day for care of mother & baby
Maternity Services - Patients deliver in room with assistance of Practical Nurse/Doctor
Types of Therapy offered - Diathermy, Massage, Hyperthermia
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| This record is from the St. Vincent Birth & Death Register book, recently rediscovered by Kris Baldwin Ohmann in St. Vincent's town shed; this record shows the birth of my older sister, Betty at the Fitzpatrick Maternity Home in 1950... [Click to Enlarge...] |
Thank you for your kind words. I definitely plan to keep the town alive, and show that in this little corner of the world, there was a town, and the town may have been like many others, but it was ours. And even with that said, all towns have their own special stories, and I intend to help keep telling them and pointing in the directions of others who have told them...
ReplyDeleteThis information is helpful. I', not all that familiar with the area, but did the babies born at the Fitzpatrick Maternity Home, list St. Vincent as place of birth or was it Hallock?
ReplyDeleteWhere there other maternity homes in the area? If so, were they seperated by religious affiliation?
I'm a 1968 adoptee and I'm not finding a lot of information out in cyber land on this subject.
I haven't seen a birth certificate of someone born at the Fitzpatrick Maternity Home, but I would assume it would say born in St. Vincent, not Hallock...
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to learn about what our ancestors did in life. It appears that your grandmother an angel in disguise, if there is such a thing. Keep writting and digging and St. Vincent will continue to live.
ReplyDelete