Struggles and Triumphs

A History of the Tarrant County Medical Society - A Stouthearted Young Society - 1904–1914
By Margie B. Peschel, MD

The newly organized TCMS (Tarrant County Medical Society) met monthly in the assembly hall of the Medical College. The Fort Worth Medical College had been founded in 1893 by a group of Fort Worth physicians. It was the third-oldest medical college in Texas. A young man (there were few, if any, women medical students) could get a medical degree without leaving Fort Worth. Annual tuition was $75. The tuition for four years plus $25 graduation fee totaled $325.00. The medical college was never endowed adequately, requiring a constant search for funds. In 1911, the medical college merged with Texas Christian University as the Medical Department of that institution. This merger lasted until 1918 when the medical school closed and its students were moved to Baylor Medical College in Dallas. This school provided many of the doctors for our community in the early twentieth century. (The second TDexas Christian University Medical School opened in 2018 with the new allopathic medical school's col- laboration with the University of North Texas Health Science Center.)

During the early years of the newly-formed medical society, resolutions were sent from TCMS to Texas legislators in support of the Medical Practice Act and the Anatomical Bill which would advance science and Medicine.

The public owed a real debt of gratitude to the doctors of TCMS for demanding the purification of the city's milk supply. A committee of Tarrant County Medical Society doctors inspected the dairies and found 83 percent of milk from 30 dairies were exposed to filth and flies; only two were truly sanitary. This led to the Fort Worth Milk Ordinance. (Today all dairies selling raw milk or raw milk products are licensed by the Texas Department of State Health Services. This license reassures the public that the dairy is inspected at least twice every six months by a registered sanitarian and their raw milk and raw milk products are sampled at least every six weeks.)

There was no city-county hospital in Fort Worth in 1910. At the March 1910 TCMS meeting, Dr. I.C. Chase presented a paper entitled "A County and City Hospital." The paper reviewed the needs of such a hospital. Attending were Fort Worth Mayor W.D. Davis, County Judge John Terrell, county commissioners, and community leaders. All agreed there was a need and money could be secured. However, the following two years were spent in controversy. The disagreement was whether the hospital would be located downtown or on land on Main Street across from St. Joseph’s Infirmary that had been donated by John Peter Smith for a hospital for the poor. The city and county finally decided to locate the new hospital downtown and the site selected on April 6, 1913, was Fourth and Jones Street. A $20,000 bond issue was voted by the city for the erection of the hospital, and county commissioners agreed to match funds. The hospital had about 50 beds and 10 bassinets, with a basement for an outpatient clinic.  In July 1939, a hospital building and nurses' home was completed at the 1500 South Main Street location. It had a capacity of 166 beds and 20 bassinets. Much space was allocated to an outpatient department and to the emergency service.  In 1944, the name was changed from City-County Hospital to John Peter Smith Hospital. John Peter Smith Hospital has grown over the years and is a renowned hospital that provides care for the citizens in Tarrant County in need.

In 1902 the first automobiles came to Fort Worth. Doctors were quick to see the advantage of a horseless carriage in making house calls. The speed limit was set at 12 mph, and in the business section of the city, speed could not exceed 8mph.

Next month we will look at TCMS during WWI and the flu epidemic of 1918