Posted: 2/5/03

Dr. Ruggles opened first FL hospital; a remodeled home overlooking the lake served for years

(Editorís Note: The following Reflections column was first published February 9, 1988 and is reprinted here as part of the newspaperís on-going coverage during its 100th year.)

Elsie Vogel
Times Staff Correspondent

The invitations read:

ìDistrict Memorial Hospital cordially invites you to share in honoring George Ruggles M.D. in appreciation for his forty-eight years of service to the community. There will be an open house reception Sunday, December Sixteenth, two to five P.M. at District Memorial Hospital.î The year was 1979 and Dr. Ruggles was retiring from active practice in Forest Lake. It was a well-attended reception as friends, staff and patients gathered to honor him for his years of dedication to the community. They shared remembrances and wished him well in his retirement.

Dr. Rugglesí story

In the Dec. 6, 1979 issue of the Times I wrote the doctorís story from the start of his practice in Forest Lake, January 1932, until his retirement.

It was a story of a ìfamily doctorî; some of his patients were third and fourth generation members of one family.

It was a story describing the trials and experiences of being a country doctor during the changing era of our times. I will recall a few of those incidents today.

Traveling to answer house calls

He was a familiar figure at the bedside of patients in a wide area of the countryside. Both Dr. Poirier and Dr. Ruggles used horse-drawn sleighs during the snowy season to reach their patients, but many a sick call was answered by Dr. Ruggles arriving at the door wearing snowshoes!

When they no longer used horses, he made emergency trips on a vehicle resembling a snowmobile. (There were sled runners in front and dual wheel track in back). This was built by Frank Arndt, one of our local mail carriers and Arndt drove the doctor through the deep snow to hard-to-reach places, when the need arose.

Medical Care at gunpoint

The prohibition and gangster era of the 1930s was a time of whiskey running and ìgangland shoot-outs.î One night the notorious ìMa Barker Gangî came to Dr. Rugglesí home and at gunpoint forced him to accompany them to his office, which at that time was above the now demolished Herzberg building.

While they pointed their gun at him, Dr. Ruggles removed a bullet from the shoulder of one of the gangsters. They paid him well, but threatened him to remain silent before they left.

Army doctor

America went to war and doctors were drafted also. Dr. Rugglesí number, which was drawn out of the fishbowl, was number 10. He was inducted into the Army in 1942.

With Dr. Ruggles off to war, Dr. J.A. Poirier and Dr. C.M. Niles were the only doctors left to care for the civilian population. Many older residents will recall the strep throat outbreak that swept through the town during the winter of 1942.

Dr. Ruggles spent his wartime service in the Pacific, where he served as a staff officer in command of his medical unit on an attack transport on almost every landing from Guadalcanal to Okinowa.

After his discharge in December 1945, he returned to Forest Lake to start his medical practice once again.

Changes After The Way

After the war, Dr. Ruggles found he had to cope with problems of admittance when he attempted to bring patients into the city hospitals. One of the reasons given was because he was not on the city staff.

As his frustration increased he decided on a tremendous new undertaking... starting his own hospital... in Forest Lake.

Search for hospital site

Charlie Beard owned a big two-story house on the south shore of the lake. It was just the kind of house Dr. Ruggles had in mind for remodeling into a hospital. A sale was made and the ìForest Lake Clinic Hospitalî became a reality.

The hospital was opened in February 1948 and of course there was a ìGrand Openingî for the public.

Tour of the hospital

At this time I would like to take you on a tour of the hospital just as the public saw it during the ìGrand Opening.î

The word ìHospitalî blazed in red neon at the entrance. As you entered, you found yourself in a tastefully decorated lounge with a stone fireplace. Nearby was the nursesí station.

There were two large patient rooms, with windows facing the lake; each room contained four beds.

This was also the floor on which the well-equipped emergency room was located. The emergency room included x-ray department.

Second floor

This was the obstetric floor with a labor room and a delivery room. Mothers, resting after their deliveries, could enjoy the ever-changing lake scene from the windows. There were two large rooms, each room held four beds. There was also one private room.

Meanwhile, in a delightfully-decorated nursery containing six little cribs, the nurses fed, burped and petted the new little arrivals. On this floor was also the autoclave for sterilizing instruments.

There was an attic for storing supplies; but there was another use for the attic the first winter, before the clothes dryers were installed. Laundry was hung up there to dry.

Follow me to the basement area

There was a full-equipped large kitchen. Meal trays were sent to the two upper floors on a large dumb waiter.

There was a cozy dining room for the staff. They sat around a big round oak table enjoying the meals that were served family style.

Emergency room

It didnít take long after the hospital was opened to realize how important this institution was going to be, not only to Forest Lake, but to the surrounding towns as well.

The age of speeding cars and trucks on our busy roads and highways was here and with speed and carelessness came many horrible accidents. One area of many bad crashes was south of town, where highway 8 (now county 23) converged with heavily-traveled highway 61. At that time there were no signal lights at that intersection.

Prompt arrival of Dr. Rugglesí ambulance and the immediate emergency care available at the hospital saved many lives.

Dr. Ruggles was known for his skill in suturing; his delicate touch saved many faces and limbs from permanent disfigurement. Former nurses remember patients returning to thank him for doing such fine work.

In conversation with Dr. Ruggles, he recalled perhaps the worst single accident case. It happened at Journeys End Airport, south of Forest Lake, a young boy was hit in the head by an airplane propeller. The man lives today, thanks for Dr. Ruggles and a neurologist specialist.

Visiting physicians were impressed with the emergency equipment in place in this small-town hospital.

ìBaby Boomî years

Nurse Beulah Tolzmann recalls an unforgettable wild night on the obstetrics floor, she even remembers the date. It was Feb. 18, 1949... the night five babies were born!

In addition to the babies already there, the nursery was soon over-flowing with babies, so they improvised and used dresser drawers and boxes for these little new arrivals.

There were 366 babies born the first year the hospital was open.

Family atmosphere

In my conversations with many of the hospital employees, I found them using the phrase ìit was like belonging to a familyî as they described their time and work at the hospital.

Here are a few highlights and remembrances from Marie Pedersen who was the cook for 13-1/2 years.

Her day started at 6:30 in the morning with breakfast preparations; the big meal was served at noon. Nannie Spjut and Gerda Bates were the evening cooks who prepared a light supper.

Fish was served every Friday and the special dessert treat was Marieís lemon pie. (Marie chuckled about one lady due to be discharged on Friday, but she wouldnít leave until after her dinner so she could have her lemon pie).

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The nursing staff also have special remembrances and many have to do with the food. Marie baked her own rye and white bread. Nurses, unable to resist the tantalizing aroma of fresh baked bread, could hardly wait to sneak downstairs for a slice. (Phyllis Bohleen always wanted the heel of the loaf).

They remember how pleasant and homey it was to hear Gerda Bates singing in Swedish as she went about her duties in the kitchen, the songs carried up through the dumb waiter.

Sitting around the round oak table in the staff dining room is a treasured memory of all the staff. Many times Dr. Ruggles joined them and told interesting stories of his life and episodes during the war.

Tribute to Dr. Ruggles

The work was hard and the responsibility was great, but it is a tribute to Dr. Ruggles as a man and a doctor that his staff regarded him so highly. He was described as intelligent, thoughtful, experienced, talented and dedicated to medicine and a doctor that demanded the best care for his patients.

14 Years of Care

During the 14 years the Forest Lake Clinic Hospital served the needs of the community, it handled the usual and unusual illnesses. There were the stroke and heart patients, the broken bones, pneumonia, and burns in addition to the emergency and maternity care.

The hospital costs during this time were in the $10 a day range and nursery beds were $3.50.

Proposed Community Hospital

In the summer of 1955 there was great interest generated in building a community hospital. Telephone surveys in Forest Lake plus the surrounding villages of Hugo, Centerville, Lino Lakes, and Coon Lake Beach proved such a project would have support.

Dr. Ruggles gave his stamp of approval in a statement to the hospital committee at a preliminary meeting. He stated that he was in favor of the community hospital, that he would prefer to see someone else operating a hospital and he would support it whole-heartedly.

Dr. Mensheha commented the hospital would attract more doctors to Forest Lake. At the present there was only Dr. Ruggles and himself to take care of the growing community and the outlying territories.

Dr. Ruggles signs with Memorial Hospital

In the summer of 1959, Dr. Ruggles signed an agreement with the hospital association. They would purchase his equipment for $40,000, of which $15,000 would be deducted as a gift to the new hospital by Dr. Ruggles. The balance of $25,000 was to be paid in annual installments of $5000. Much of the equipment was of excellent quality and the delivery room table is still in use today.

Under the agreement, Dr. Ruggles would operate his hospital until the new hospital was operational and he would then use the new facilities.

Closing the Forest Lake Clinic

Many nurses, L.P.N.s and aids from the old hospital were already at the new hospital preparing for the opening on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 1962.

Lil Webster, L.P.N., was the last person on duty the last day at Forest Lake Clinic Hospital. There was only one patient left, a man who was a paraplegic and he was waiting to be transferred to the city. All that was left to do was pack a few more boxes.

When the doors were closed that day, it closed on a very important facility that many people, including myself, would always be grateful for because it was there when it was needed.

Next weekís story will be about the community effort in establishing District Memorial Hospital.

Additional Staff

In addition to the people mentioned in this story and those who are pictured, there was a host of other workers at the first hospital. The list of hospital staff also includes Mildred Mattson, Maxine Goltz, Alice Schroeder, Inez Johnson, Willie Gamelin, Marilyn Lakamp, Phyllis Guttson, Betty Matheson, Marie Stokes, Mary Hagen and Inez Johnson. I sure hope I have mentioned everyone.

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