Mary Breckinridge - Wide Neighborhoods: A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service

A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service

Mary Breckinridge

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY

Copyright 1952 by Mary Breckinridge

Foreword and Afterword copyright 1981
by The University Press of Kentucky

Published by The University Press of Kentucky.

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University.

All rights reserved.

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Frontispiece photo of Mary Breckinridge by Caufield & Shook, Louisville.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the first printing of this title as follows:

Breckinridge, Mary, 18811965.

Wide neighborhoods : a story of the Frontier Nursing Service / Mary Breckinridge.Lexington, Ky. : University Press of Kentucky, c1981.

xx, 371 p., [8] p. of plates: ill.; 23 cm.

ISBN-10: 0-8131-1453-5

ISBN-10: 0-8131-0149-2 (pbk.)

1. Breckinridge, Mary, 18811965. 2. Nurse administratorsKentuckyBiographyHistory. 3. Frontier Nursing Service, inc.History. I. Title.

RT37.B72A3 1981 362.10425dc 19 81-50181

[B] AACR 2 MARC

ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-0149-1 (pbk.)

This book is printed on recycled paper meeting the requirements of The American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials

Manufactured in the United States of America

, by Marvin Breckinridge Patterson

ChildhoodBirth of a brother at the American Legation in St. Petersburg, Russia, and first encounter with a trained midwifeA backward glance at narrators own birth and family relationshipsEarly years in Washington, D.C.Summers at Hazelwood, where her interest in the Kentucky mountains was awakenedArkansas and Mississippi, with early horseback riding on Oasis plantationCanadian Nipigon.

Years thirteen to fifteen in Russia at St. Petersburg and MoscowLack of formal educationDistaste for governessesLove of reading and skatingAdolescent dreamsRussians, in the nineties.

GirlhoodSchool days in SwitzerlandKinship with mountainsThe high Alps, the Riviera, and Dresden on holidays.

Return to America and HazelwoodSchool days in New EnglandFirst beaux in the SouthThe untaught things of ones early life.

Social life of a girl in the ninetiesSouthern menRiding and huntingThe Old Indian Territory, and Indians.

The Brackens, Muskoka Lakes, CanadaKentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, ArkansasLonging for exploration, and frustration by idlenessDeaths at Hazelwood and OasisMarriage, and early widowhood.

Wish to be of service to childrenAcceptance by St. Lukes Hospital School of Nursing in New York City and three years of training thereAffiliation for obstetrical nursing at the New York Lying-InThe East Side tenementsBaby MargaretGraduationReturn to family life at The Brackens in Canada and in Fort Smith, ArkansasSecond Marriage.

Breckie and Polly

From America to FranceApplication accepted for work with Red Cross in France, but going deferred until State Department had rescinded The Brothers RulingTravels in the West for the Childrens Bureau under the Child Welfare Department of the Council of National DefenseWashington in the 1918 influenza epidemicExperience with the Boston Instructive District Nursing AssociationCancellation of sailings for Red Cross personnel because of ArmisticeA volunteer with the American Committee for Devastated France (Miss Anne Morgan, Chief) as one of the CardsRelief work in devastated FranceSmall cemeteries of American soldiers and the care of them by French peasants.

FranceCondition of French children and their mothers and work begun in their behalfFrench well-trained midwivesAmerican Womans Hospital AssociationGoatsAmerican Committee for Relief in Belgium and FranceFrench neighborsGerman prisonersForeign workmen.

Growth of work for children into Child Hygiene and Visiting Nurse Service for all the people, in the Aisne sector of devastated France, assigned to American CommitteeWell-trained nurses from the Florence Nightingale School of BordeauxCo-operation of French authoritiesInclusion of British unit at Reims in nursing serviceBrief visit back to AmericaA weeks visit in London, and acquaintance with the British nurse as a midwifeCondition of nursing in French public hospitalsWish of American Committee (with French authorities) to establish modern school of nursing in Paris hospitalsSupport of French Medical CommitteeIntensive study of Paris hospitals, with Madame CourtellemontDeep discouragementThe Riviera revisited after 25 years.

Last months in the Aisne and at ReimsCard Motor CorpsTrip to London by airVisits at Bordeaux (dedication of American Nurses Memorial building), Rouen, CamierSwiss section for French childrenEpidemics of diphtheria and dysenteryFrench good-bysAmericaDeath of mother.

American InterludeReasons for decision to work for rural children, and their mothers, most intensively from months preceding birth through first six years of lifeClosing of mothers homes in Fort Smith and in CanadaTwo semesters at Teachers College, Columbia, to learn about American methodsSummer on horseback in the Kentucky mountains to study needs of mothers and young childrenMental tests of Kentucky children.

EnglandSketch of the evolution of the nurse-midwifePostgraduate training as a midwife at the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies in Woolwich dockyard section of LondonStaunch character of East End CockneyVisits at Oxford and in CornwallExaminations under Central Midwives BoardReturn to America for brief visit.

ScotlandThe Scotch HighlandsSir Leslie MacKenzie, and the Highlands and Islands Medical and Nursing ServiceIntensive study of this Service in Perthshire, the Inner Hebrides, the Outer Hebrides.

England againPost Certificate School in Camberwell in the East End of LondonQueens Institute of District NursingStudy of its work in HertfordshireFrance revisitedLondon againYork and the anchoress.

Return to KentuckyOrganization of the Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Babies in May, 1925 (legally changed to Frontier Nursing Service in 1928) and its incorporation in NovemberWidespread co-operationGenesis of the Quarterly BulletinInitial survey of births and deaths in Leslie CountyOrganization of first branch committeeFirst house and clinic in Hyden.

Hyden and WendoverCharacteristics of Kentuckians, especially mountaineersLeading citizens in and around HydenTeddy BearDedication of Wendover, Christmas, 1925.

Commuting between centuriesEarliest meetings beyond the mountainsLouisville, New York, Riverdale, PhiladelphiaFire insurance companies and their agentsPatients and guests at WendoverTravel with inexperienced riders.