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| Cortland Hospital on North Main Street. |
Cortland
Evening Standard, Thursday, January 14, 1897.
THE CORTLAND HOSPITAL.
The
Trouble Over Matron Banks' Dismissal.
The STANDARD has not thought best to give
prominence to the differences between Matron Banks and the manager of the
Cortland hospital, believing that the matter was one which did not call for
public notice and that the less said about it the better. But the sensational
and erroneous articles which have been sent out for publication in Syracuse
papers seem to make necessary a plain statement of the facts in the case.
In December last the service committee of
the hospital association—which has the hiring and dismissal of those employed
about the institution—decided that a change should be made in the place of
matron. The matter had fully gone over, and it was believed that the change was
demanded by the interests of the hospital. The reasons for this conclusion it
is unnecessary to state, but it is enough to say that they did not involve the
professional competency of Mrs. Banks as a nurse.
The president of the association, Mrs. Julia
E. Hyatt, was accordingly requested to ask for Mrs. Banks' resignation. This
she refrained from doing until Jan. 6, hoping that conditions would change and
that possibly it might not become necessary to ask for the resignation at all.
When the resignation was finally requested, Mrs. Banks asked if she was to
understand that the board concurred in this request, and Mrs. Hyatt replied
that she might so understand it. Mrs. Hyatt then said first that she was acting
under instructions from the service committee but that if Mrs. Banks wanted to
meet the full board she could do so.
Mrs. Banks then asked on what grounds the
resignation was asked for, and Mrs. Hyatt mentioned unkind treatment of
patients. Mrs. Banks asked if there were others and Mrs. Hyatt said there were,
but that this was sufficient. Mrs. Banks, however, did not tender her
resignation. Mrs. Hyatt then called a meeting of the executive committee at her
residence last Saturday. At this meeting every member of the committee was
present and they unanimously endorsed the action of their president. The same
day Mrs. Banks sent Mrs. Hyatt a letter requesting that a meeting of the full
hospital board be called, together with the advisory board, that she might meet
them. Mrs. Hyatt accordingly called the meeting thus requested. The time for
the meeting was fixed for Tuesday afternoon. Instead of only twelve of the
twenty-two members of the board of managers being present, as stated in the
Syracuse Herald, seventeen were present, together with one of the advisory
board, Police Justice E. E.Mellon.
It may be well to say right here that other
matrons of the hospital have been asked to resign since the institution was
opened, and that in no instance before has it been deemed necessary for any committee
save the service committee, or for the board of managers or advisory board, to
be called on for consultation or action. When resignations have been asked,
they have always been tendered.
At the meeting on Tuesday afternoon the
Cortland reporter of the Syracuse Herald was
on hand, and the three nurses of the institution also came in with Mrs. Banks.
Objection was made to their presence, but Mrs. Banks insisted that the nurses
remain. While the board was willing to hear all that Mrs. Banks had to say in
her own behalf, they regarded the relations between themselves and the matron
as something with which only the parties directly interested had anything to do,
and nurses and reporter were therefore requested by Mrs. Hyatt, with the
approval of the board, to retire.
Mrs. Banks protested and declared that if
the nurses were not allowed to remain she would retire with them. Justice Mellon
advised Mrs. Hyatt that she had the right to control as to who should be present,
and reporter, matron and nurses then left the room. The board of managers then
voted unanimously to endorse the action of the service and executive committees,
and two members of the service committee were requested to notify Mrs. Banks of
this action and to request her resignation as soon as possible. Mrs. Banks
replied that the notification and request should come from the secretary in her
official capacity, and the ladies promised her that this should be done, and so
reported to the board. The, secretary accordingly sent Mrs. Banks the, following:
CORTLAND, Jan. 12, 1897
Mrs. Mary S. Banks, Matron Cortland
Hospital:
MADAM—At a special meeting of the board of
managers of the Cortland Hospital association, held on the afternoon of Jan.
12, 1897, the following resolution was offered, duly voted upon, and unanimously
carried:
Resolved, That the service committee be instructed to notify Mrs. Mary S. Banks that
she is hereby dismissed from her position as matron of the Cortland hospital,
and that she be ordered to leave the hospital at once.
ELLA M. BUCK,
Secretary, Hospital association.
The spirit in which Mrs. Banks and the hospital
authorities have respectively treated the matter appears from the above
statement, as well as from the interviews with Mrs. Banks published in the
Syracuse Herald, in which she criticizes and accuses the hospital managers in
various ways, assumes to say who are
proper patients and who are not, announces that "it would be proper for
the board to demand the resignation of Mrs. Hyatt as president for her
irregular ways," and says that she "proposes to remain in Cortland
long enough to teach President Julia E. Hyatt a lesson." Mrs. Banks is also
reported to the Syracuse Herald
as saying:
When I was engaged to act as matron here, it
was with the understanding that the institution was to be conducted as a hospital
and not as a poorhouse, and I believe the good people of Cortland who have
contributed more liberally to the institution than was ever done before in my
knowledge, to a hospital, supposed it was to be for hospital purposes and not to
maintain paupers that did not require medical attention. Mrs. Hyatt has
persisted in sending people here to be maintained at the expense of the
hospital who were fit subjects for the poorhouse. I don't claim to be competent
to run a poorhouse, but do believe I know something of what is fitting in the conduct
of a hospital. It is the old fight of "Woman against Woman," and I am
prepared to keep my end up in the scrimmage.
In answer to the above, it is enough to say
that there is only one charity patient in the hospital at the present time, who
was taken at the earnest request of two physicians. Three of the patients who
are named as charity patients by Mrs. Banks, we are informed by Mrs. Hyatt,
have paid from $2.50 to $5 per week during the entire time of their stay in the
hospital. With a state of feeling like this on the part of Mrs. Banks, it would
seem that no matter how competent she may be, her period of usefulness at the
hospital has ended.
On Saturday last The STANDARD, on the authority,
as we understood it, of one of the officers of the Hospital association, published
the statement that Mrs. Banks had resigned. It is due her to say that there was
some misapprehension or mistake in this information, and that we were in error
in publishing it. Her resignation had been asked for, but had not been handed
in. It is also due her to say that Saturday evening, following the announcement
of her resignation in The STANDARD, the medical and surgical staffs of the
hospital, except Dr. E. M. Santee, passed and signed the following resolutions:
WHEREAS, We have learned by the public
prints that Mrs. Mary S. Banks has resigned her position as matron of the
Cortland Hospital to take effect Jan. 25,
Resolved, That we, the medical and surgical staff of the hospital, express our deep
regret in losing the services of such an efficient matron and nurse.
We are prompted to make this expression of
opinion from the fact that we have found her to be so well fitted and competent
to discharge the duties of the position.
The resolutions are signed by Doctors H. T.
Dana, F. W. Higgins, F. D. Reese and S. J. Sornberger, composing the surgical staff,
and Doctors E. A. Didama, P. M. Neary, W. J. Moore and A. G. Henry, composing
the medical staff.
As stated above, the hospital managers have
never questioned Mrs. Banks' efficiency or competency, but they believe that
these are not the only qualities demanded in a matron.
It may not be out of place to say that neither
Mr. Hugh Duffey nor the editor of The STANDARD is, or ever has been, a member
of the advisory board of the hospital, as stated in the Syracuse Herald. The
only interest which The STANDARD has in the matter is the interest which every
citizen ought to have in the success and prosperity of a beneficent public
institution. The ladies having it in charge have given time, thought and labor
unselfishly to it. Its welfare is certainly as dear to them as to any one else.
They are charged with and are responsible for its management, and can be
trusted always to do what they believe for its best interests.
A change of matrons is never pleasant, and
the finding of a new and satisfactory one is no easy task. The ladies would
certainly not undertake it unless they felt compelled to. And in the present
instance they seem to have shown abundant patience and forbearance in their
action, and it is unjust to question their motives, as it is unwise to
criticize their judgment, without knowing all the facts upon which their action
is based.
A representative of The STANDARD called on
Mrs. Banks at the hospital this noon, and learned from her that the interviews
with her as published in the Syracuse Herald were substantially as she gave
them to the reporter, though she did not approve of some of the statements in
the Herald articles, and some of the things credited to her were not as she put
them.
To the inquiry as to what course she proposed
to pursue in the matter from this time on, she said she had placed herself under
the direction of an attorney, and referred all inquiries to him. Her attorney
declined to make any statements, except that Mrs. Banks' pay to the end of the
current month had been called for, and had been paid by the hospital authorities.
Rumors of one or more slander suits to be
brought by Mrs. Banks are in the air, but lack confirmation.
Regarding
Dr. White's Death.
The Ithaca News says in regard to the recent
death of Dr. A. J. White: "Dr. White was
a leading citizen of Newfield for many years and amassed a handsome competence.
He had a large and profitable ride as physician in Newfield, Enfield and
surrounding towns. He was several times elected as supervisor of Newfield and
made an excellent and popular member of the board of supervisors and town
boards. He resided in Ithaca for a short time prior to going to Cortland. Dr.
White had hundreds of warm friends in Ithaca and they will sincerely regret his
early death.
 |
| David Forrest Wilber. |
MR.
WILBER TALKS.
Says His
Marital Troubles All Result From His Wife's Temper.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14.—Mr. Wilber said in
reference to the suit: "This suit is simply a duplicate of the action
begun against me by my wife in the supreme court in the county of Onondaga, N.
Y., last summer. As soon as my arrest was submitted to the court Mrs. Wilber
abandoned her case.
"The fact is, that the allegations
contained in the bill so far as they charge me with abandonment, drunkenness
and nonsupport are absolutely without foundation. We have not lived together
since June 15, 1895. Two months before that, I made over to her absolutely a
house and lot worth $36,000. She then sent me word to stay away from her house
as she did not want anything more to do with me.
"As to the charge I have refused to pay
her the portion of interest on bonds which is due her, I have only to say as I
am one of the three trustees, that no demand has been made upon me and that the
money is due and payable in the Wilber National bank in Oneonta and by the
terms of the will, as construed by the other trustees. It cannot be paid
anywhere else.
"As to the control of our child, Mrs. Wilber
twice drove the little one from her home and a short time ago the surrogate of
Otsego county, upon petition of the child, appointed me her guardian and I am
under $5,000 bond to protect the person and property of the child.
"Yesterday my daughter was abducted
from the school in which I had placed her in this city.
"I think that when the time comes I can
fully substantiate the fact that Mrs. Wilber is a woman of ungovernable temper;
that she has repeatedly done all in her power to humiliate me in the presence
of others, and that she has upon several occasions told mutual friends that all
the differences which have arisen between us were due, not to any cruel
treatment on my part, but to her own uncontrollable temper."
A BOND ISSUE
AUTHORIZED
BY THE VILLAGE FATHERS
To Pay the
Balance for Paving Railroad-st.—Property Owners Who Have Paid Their Assessments
—Franchise Not Touched Upon.
The principal business transacted by the village lawmakers in session last night was that pertaining to the
issue of short term bonds in payment of the balance for the paving of
Railroad-st. There were present President Benton and Trustees Webb, Warfield
and Glann, and, owing to the absence of Trustee Wallace, action on the proposed
Elm-st. franchise for the electric road was deferred until another meeting.
A report of [Cortland] Village Treasurer G. V. Clark
[was made] as to the tax already paid by the individual property owners on
Railroads-st . to cover their share of the expense of paving. The report showed
that the following payments had been made:
S., B. & N. Y. R. R. Co., $940.89
Martha Roe, 274.67
J. T. Barnes, 226.73
V. A. Bolles, 781.41
J. L. Freeman, 266.61
T. A. Price, 329.99
A. J. Goddard, 78.75
Wickwire Bros, 1,887.15
H. Seymour, 270.47
Emerald Hose Co., 157.55
H. F. Benton, 360.22
Total, $5,574.84
Deducting this amount and the Central school
assessment, which is borne by the village, from the total cost there is left a
balance of $5,321.03 yet unpaid, and for which bonds were issued.
The assessment against Mrs. S. T. Cole w a s
$176.655 and she had paid $27, but Judge Knox counselled the board that they
should not receive partial payment of taxes, and this amount was credited back
to Mrs. Cole.
On motion of Mr. Glann, seconded by Mr.
Warfield, it was ordered that there be issued ten short term bonds of $532.11
each, payable in ten equal annual payments one on Sept. 1 in each year, dated
Jan. 16, 1897, and bearing interest at 4 per cent per annum from Jan. 9, 1897.
An application from the village assessors for
the return of a tax of $4.71 to J. C.
Seager was read, but was referred back to the assessors for correction.
A
Satisfactory Adjustment.
The loss sustained by G. J. Mager & Co.
by the fire on the morning of Jan 4, was satisfactorily and amicably adjusted yesterday
afternoon. The fifteen companies by whom the firm was insured were represented
by ten adjusters. G. J. Mager & Co.
presented to them an itemized statement of the loss and damage, as well as all
their books, papers, balance sheets, etc., all of which were thoroughly
examined and found correct and satisfactory and highly complementary comments
bestowed upon them.
The adjustment will enable the insured to
sell the remainder of their stock at a tremendous sacrifice, a notice of the
sale of which will appear in these columns as soon as the store and goods can
be arranged and put in proper order for the sale.
BREVITIES.
—There will be a special conclave of Cortland
commandery No. 50, K. T., to-night.
—New advertisements to-day are—Warner Rood,
"Trip to Chinatown" page 5.
—The "Peck's Bad Boy" Co. arrived
in town at 10 o'clock this morning from Binghamton.
—Hoyt's "Trip to Chinatown" will
be the attraction at the Cortland Opera House Tuesday evening, Jan. 19.
—The Cortland STANDARD has sent out one of
the most artistic of all the calendars of the year.—Dryden Herald.
—Assemblyman Stewart has introduced a bill
in the legislature to amend the charter of the city of Ithaca providing for the
charter election to be held in November instead of in the spring as at present.
—In the appointment of assembly committees at
Albany Speaker O'Grady has placed Assemblyman Saunders of Cortland upon three
committees—banks, public education and printed and engraved bills.
—Cortland's sewerage system is about nine
miles in length, and there are 167 private residences connected. The system has
forty-one flush tanks, but only twenty-six are in use, as continued use of those
in the eastern part of the village is not necessary. Each twenty-four hours 48,518
gallons of water are used in the system.
—School Commissioner N. L. Miller is holding
examinations at the Normal today for second and third grade certificates. Seventy-five
candidates are trying the examinations, ten of whom are trying for entrance to
the Normal [school] and the remainder for certificates to teach. The
examinations continue through tomorrow.
—Mr. Henry S. Hakes of Cortland and Mrs.
Etta S. Bentley, formerly of Otselic, were married Tuesday evening by Rev. John
T. Stone at the residence of the latter. Later in the evening a wedding supper
was served at the home of the groom's parents, Mr. and Mrs. D. F. Hakes. Mr.
and Mrs. Hakes will reside at 9 ½ Schermerhorn-st.
HOMER.
Gleanings of News From Our Twin Village.
HOMER, Jan. 14.—The interest
on the permanent fund has enabled the managers of the Old Ladies' Home to
reduce the price of board to $2 per week.
The seniors will hold their
second declamation exercise in the academy on Friday afternoon at 1:15 o'clock.
A large audience assembled in the
Army hall last evening to hear Jeremiah, the colored Salvation Army prophet. He
is one of the most interesting speakers in his line of work that the people of
Homer have the pleasure of listening to very often.
The regular monthly meeting of
the board of managers of the Old Ladies' Home was held at the Home, Tuesday afternoon.
Don't forget that Prof. Gold
Eagle will begin his series of exhibitions in the window of C. A. Skinner &
Co.'s pharmacy to-morrow afternoon.
Mrs. Libbie McClure Murray and
daughter Gladys, who have been visiting Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Shultz, have returned to their home in Delphi,
Onondaga Co.
Joseph Livingston of Cortland,
who for some time past has been in the employ of the Homer Manufacturing
company, has rented the Gates house on Grove-st. He will move his family about the middle of January.
Trade is somewhat enlivened by
the recent fall of snow which has made it possible for the farmers to come into
town in sleighs.
Teachers' examinations are in
progress in the academic room of the academy and are to continue until
to-morrow afternoon. The examinations are given under the direction of I. W.
Van Buskirk of Preble, the school commissioner of this district. There are about
sixteen present, all from out of town. The examinations are for those who wish
to secure second and third grade certificates.
Mr. Lyman Heberd and daughter
Jessie left for Binghamton this morning and before they return they are to
visit friends in Utica and Syracuse.
The annual meeting of the
King's Daughters occurred at the home of Mrs. Geo. Daniels on North Main-st.
last evening.
The annual meeting of the
Flower association of Homer which was to have been held Tuesday evening was
postponed to some future time on account of the incapability on the part of the
management to secure the use of a suitable room in which to hold the meeting.
At the annual meeting of
Tempest Hose Co., No. 8, held at their rooms last Friday night, the following
officers were elected for the ensuing year:
President—Thos. Knobel.
Foremen—Michael Sweeny.
Assistant Foreman—Milford
White.
Secretary—W. D. Eadie.
Treasurer—W. J. Watson.
Delegate to C. N. Y. V. F.
A.—W. E. Signor.
