Hidden Treasure and Hometown Heroes: The Surprising Origins of Small-Town Hospitals

Many hospitals in small towns today are either closing or becoming part of a larger conglomerate. In some areas of the country, this has led to what’s called a “medical desert”—where patients cannot access certain medical services, especially trauma care, within a 60-mile radius. While this is difficult and, in some cases, tragic in today’s developed society, it is somewhat reflective of medical care in earlier years. Smaller communities in the 19th century often relied on local doctors' homes, churches, or charity-run facilities before hospitals were formally established.

Although every community was different, the two hospitals in my hometown of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, serve as examples of how “modern” facilities came to many towns.

Hopkinsville is located in the western part of the state in the area known as the Pennyroyal Region, and is about seventy miles northwest of Nashville, Tennessee. Although the town had an infirmary in the late 1800s, its first hospital developed shortly after the turn of the century following the heartbreak of a local doctor.

Hidden Treasure and a Broken Hip

Dr. Edward Stuart had graduated from St. Louis Medical College in 1851. He practiced medicine from his home in the little village of Fairview, about 10 miles from Hopkinsville, for 67 years. Because of his dedication, he dreamed of building a hospital in the area.

Jennie Stuart, beloved wife
 who inspired and unknowingly
 helped fund a new hospital

But when his beloved wife Jennie fell and broke her hip while in Hopkinsville, his dream became personal. Initially, she was treated at the primitive infirmary. Despite his own physical handicap, Edward climbed steep stairs to visit her daily.

Jennie asked him during his visits if he had her keys, which she had worn tied around her waist. Several days later, she succumbed to her injuries. When the doctor used Jennie’s keys to enter a locked room in their house where she spent time “puttering around,” he learned why she’d been so concerned. She had earned money from selling eggs, butter, and milk, and had invested gold coins the doctor gave her. Hiding her treasures behind gas pipes and pictures, and in the back of a closet, all labeled with dates and amounts, Jennie had accumulated around $25,000.

Dr. Stuart donated the money, and some additional funds, to build a hospital in her memory. Jennie Stuart Memorial Hospital was incorporated in 1913 and completed in 1914. It was a small brick building with twelve private beds and four wards of four beds each. Dr. Stuart planted trees on the lawns and transplanted roses from Jennie’s garden.

Patients were charged $4.50 a day for private rooms, or $3.00 a day for beds in a ward. The first superintendent called it a place where “the orphan child or the poor man or woman may have the same care that is provided for their more fortunate fellows.”

Care for the Unserved

Like most institutions during segregation, however, the hospital was not available to people of color. In 1944, Dr. Philip Carruthers Brooks Sr. opened a second hospital, specifically for African-Americans, in his hometown.

Dr. Brooks, who opened
a hospital for African-Americans

Brooks earned his medical degree from Howard University and hoped to set up a medical practice in Toledo, Ohio. But he needed $2,000, so he returned to Hopkinsville hoping to borrow the money. With no assets to secure a loan, he waited tables until he found a job treating patients for $150 a month.

According to a 1959 interview, he walked three miles to his position as a staff doctor at a hospital for mental patients outside the city. At night, he walked throughout Hopkinsville making house calls.

But Blacks in the region had to travel more than an hour to obtain care for more serious conditions. Recognizing this need, Brooks built an addition to his home and opened Brooks Armorial Hospital in 1944.

From the beginning, he served any patient in need of care. In 1958, Brooks received national attention when he treated a white race car driver injured in an accident. After the man waited more than an hour at Jennie Stuart to be seen, he went to Brooks Memorial and was treated within 10 minutes for cracked ribs and multiple lacerations. A complaint against the white hospital filed with the state medical board was reported in Jet Magazine.

This baby bassinet from Brooks Memorial
Hospital is displayed at the Pennyroyal
Area Museum in Hopkinsville, KY

Brooks Memorial Hospital became a 30-room hospital and drew patients from throughout Kentucky and surrounding states. After Jennie Stuart integrated in the 1960s, Brooks became the first black physician on staff there. However, he continued to operate his hospital until 1977, when financial issues and the lack of need for two hospitals led to its closure.

Have you ever wondered how the hospitals near you started? You may discover an interesting tale, even if it doesn’t involve hidden treasure.

Sources:

“A Country Doctor Who Dreamed of Helping Others,” History - Jennie Stuart Health

“Brooks, Phillip C.,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed March 4, 2025, https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/797.

Uncommon History: Alissa Keller on Hopkinsville’s Brooks Memorial Hospital | WKMS

The healing legacy of Dr. Philip Carruthers Brooks, HoptownChronicle.org

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, placed second in the inspirational category of the nationally recognized Maggie Awards. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

Her historical short story, “All That Glitters,” was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes.