Results tagged “George Holtzapple” from York Town Square

York Hospital started sprawling along the hillside south of York, Pa., from its earliest days after its move from West College Avenue in 1930. That move marked its 50th year of operation. Now, the hospital's parent is reaching into Harrisburg. This week, officials at WellSpan said they would explore a merger with PinnacleHealth of Harrisburg. This photograph comes from longtime York Hospital surgeon Ray Kehm's book "The Birth of a Surgeon." Also of interest: Doctor wrote about oxygen use to aid 'average country practitioners' and Spanish flu epidemic in York: 'People died one right after the other' and Civil War hospital: A master's thesis waiting to be written and West Side Sanitarium, later West Side Osteopathic and later Memorial Hospital born in The Avenues in York.

"One winter day in December 1879, a man named Small acted upon a not-so-small idea and began the serious planning that would before long culminate in a hospital for York, Pennsylvania."

So began the preface of Florence La Rose Ames' "That Sovereign Knowledge," a history of York Hospital's first 100 years.

A hospital was needed in post-Civil War York County... .

Here's a hint to answer part of York County Smarts quiz, Part IV: This former York County legislator made history when she became the first woman elected to the General Assembly in the 1960s. (See additional photo below). York County smarts quiz, Part I, Part II, Part III.

Since its beginning, Pennsylvania has accomplished awesome results in the civilized arts -- more so than other areas of the United States of comparable size.

So says Philip Klein in his "History of Pennsylvania."

"Every region generates some creative people," he and co-author Ari Hogenboom wrote, "but Pennsylvania produced them by the hundreds."

Why?

Credit it to a diverse population, William Penn's quest for liberty and a varied, resource-rich geographic landscape.

Benjamin Franklin is Klein's Exhibit A of a Pennsylvania who showed original thought coupled with practical experiment.

All this could help explain why York countians have long made their mark on the state and national landscape... .

This ticket to the nation's Centennial celebration of 1876 is part of Robert Shaub's collection. It was recently printed in the Codorus Valley Chronicles, a monthly publication of the Codorus Valley Area Historical Society. The newsletter wraps up the society's activities each month and reports on events of other historical groups. Background posts: Good stuff found in Codorus Valley Chronicles, Who was that slain Yankee messenger at Green Ridge? and Abandoned Codorus Railroad not just any railroad.

The Codorus Valley Area Historical Society does something that other local historic groups miss.

The Jefferson-area group (Codorus is the name of Jefferson's post office) gives other historical societies an opportunity to report on their activities - Northern Maryland and West Manchester are two of those groups.

They do so in the business part of their meetings.

And in their newsletter... .

The large-scale outdoor panel, part of the Murals of York series, shows Dr. George Holtzapple deploying oxygen to treat a Loganville pneumonia patient. Background posts: Looking for a local history research project? and Of surgical saws, bloodletting.

George Holtzapple, longtime physician at York Hospital, has been credited in local lore as the very first user of oxygen for treatment of pneumonia in 1885.

As a young physician, just out of medical school, Holtzapple (1862-1946) used a primitive experiment to produce oxygen to save the life of 16-year-old Frederick Gable.

Well, two York Hospital researchers, writing in the Journal of Medical Biography in November 2005, have clarified Holtzapple's achievement... .