Historical Marker
Collingsworth County Hospital
Collingsworth County · Texas
Erected 1972
The hospital was part of a town remaking itself after the railroad came. The Wichita Falls and Northwestern reached Wellington in 1910, when it had about 600 people, and the town incorporated that December. W. H. Mims built the first electric power plant in 1912, and a public water system was in by 1916. A larger courthouse went up in 1931, the year the Fort Worth and Denver Northern arrived. By 1934 Wellington had paved streets, sewers, natural gas, a cotton compress, an ice plant, a creamery, three banks, a hospital and 3,570 people.
What the plaque says
Collingsworth County Hospital Original hospital on this site (first in county) was built in 1917 by L.H. Stall. One of the two surgeons then practicing here, Dr. Elmer Wood Jones (1891-1962), bought the facility in 1924. In 1935 he built a 15-bed hospital of fieldstone on the same block, vacating old building. In 1936, Dr. Jones gave his hospital to the Sisters of the Dominican Order, Springfield, Ill. Renaming it St. Joseph's, the sisters obtained accreditation (1950) and in 1951 doubled its size by adding a wing. They sold it (1972) to the people of Collingsworth County. (1972)
Where it stands
34.84891, -100.21234 · Directions