In less than seven years, these dedicated Christians united men and women from government, business and medicine and from almost every Protestant denomination to build Temple’s first community hospital. The Temple circle members came from varied religious backgrounds - Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian, Baptist, Lutheran and Disciples of Christ.
Temple, slightly more than a decade old, quickly earned a rowdy boomtown image, complete with crime and poverty of an upstart railroad town.
The International Order of the King’s Daughters and Sons, a worldwide interdenominational group formed in 1886 in New York City. Temple’s Whatsoever Circle began in 1893, quickly launching projects from food pantries to financial help for single mothers.
They believed Jesus’ teachings could be applied directly to solve the social problems of their day. It was part of the social gospel movement, a prominent idea of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their mission was to use their understanding of the gospel of Christ to help eliminate poverty, inequality, liquor, crime, slums, child labor and sickness. Above all, they opposed rampant individualism and called for a socially aware religion.
In general, the Temple area members came from educated, socially prominent and well-to-do backgrounds. Many were either unmarried or childless married women. Although the order admitted men, women held most leadership positions and bore most of the work. The circle met weekly for interdenominational Bible study devoted mostly to Jesus’ parables, prayer and meetings to manage their growing mission.
By early 1895, The Temple Times effusively praised the circle: “In the year past (the circle has) carried relief and sympathy to not a few homes where want and suffering had almost extinguished the light of hope. Our citizens cannot do a nobler thing than to encourage these great-hearted women by their sympathy and money.”
Members identified themselves by a distinctive silver Maltese cross. Three legs of the cross bore the letters “I H N” - “In His Name.” The cross signified that they did everything in the name of Christ their King, and they were merely his servants. The circle also owned a block of graves in Hillcrest Cemetery, complete with borders bearing Maltese crosses.
One circle member heard of a seriously ill transient man in 1896. Since he had nowhere to go, she enlisted the aid of a local physician and rented him a room in a West Elm Street house. Circle members volunteered nursing care, food and furnishings.
Soon, the circle heard of other poverty-stricken sick people. The circle then rented the entire house as the patient numbers grew. Circle members wrote back to the national headquarters in New York that the West Elm house had became the city’s first community hospital.
By 1896, the international order had branch organizations in 26 states and circles in nearly every country in Europe, Japan, China, Syria and India. Temple’s successful hospital mission buoyed the national headquarters, which frequently touted the work in its monthly magazine.
Spurred by these examples of selfless devotion to the sick and needy, Temple citizens responded generously. Different churches had pitched in: The Junior Endeavourers of First Christian Church and the Children’s Society of First Presbyterian donated beds. The Episcopalian Children’s Society screened the windows. Also in keeping with the King’s Daughters’ commitment to ecumenical cooperation, ministers from various denominations took turns conducting Sunday afternoon worship services.
At least eight Temple area physicians provided medical skills and other women volunteered to care and cook for patients. Women bore most of the burdens of day-to-day responsibilities. Physicians and civic leaders petitioned the city government to provide financial support and a better building, but elected officials were reluctant to commit tax dollars to such a charitable enterprise.
Prayers were answered for Catholics and Protestants alike when the Roman Catholics moved to a larger church building and converted its former wooden Catholic church into a boarding house. The circle realized the former church would be just right for its hospital. In August 1897, the Whatsoever Circle paid $10 a month to rent the seven rooms large enough to hold 10 beds and cots. The building also had one indoor toilet - called “an unaccustomed luxury” by one member.
Ministers from all denominations rallied to the King’s Daughters’ cause. Circle member Dr. John Hill Luther, president of what would become the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, published a sermon in The Temple Times, extolling the work of the King’s Daughters as it worked “to establish a home for the homeless, a refuge for the sick and friendless.”
In the first 18 months of operation in its new quarters, the King’s Daughters had cared for 65 patients and collected $700 in donations. “We thought we were doing remarkably well when we could have as many as three paying patients,” recalled Dr. Arthur Carroll Scott, one of the original eight physicians.
Considered one of the best hospitals in the order’s constellation of charitable programs, the Temple hospital received financial support from circles in Texas and around the nation. However, the financial needs far exceeded the hospital’s income. The women and their churches were constantly conducting fundraisers and pleading for more donations.
Building expansions - necessary but expensive - further taxed their fundraising efforts. By 1912, the International Order of King’s Daughters and Sons lost control of the hospital in a mortgage foreclosure, and the King’s Daughters Hospital Association formally assumed oversight.
Chagrined at losing control of its charity hospital, the international order requested that its name be removed from the hospital. However, the international order had never registered its name when it was formed in 1886 in New York, so the name King’s Daughters remained with the Temple hospital.
Thus, the “King’s Daughters” name is the only vestige of the dedicated churchwomen, on fire for their King, who rescued the city’s sick and dying and created Temple’s first community hospital.
pbenoit@temple-telegram.com
Editor’s Note: King’s Daughters, which will change from an acute care hospital to a children’s hospital under a recent agreement with Scott & White Memorial Hospital, has a long and storied history in Temple. Many misconceptions exist about the origins of King’s Daughters Hospital. It was never a Roman Catholic hospital, nor was it established by nuns.
