- A third steamer Cape Girardeau was christened 100 years ago (3/26/24)
- Cape Girardeau christens its namesake (3/19/24)
- The humanist philosophy of Lester Mondale (3/12/24)1
- Cape Osteopathic Hospital opens its doors (3/5/24)
- 8 killed and a million dollars damage done in 1924 tornado (2/27/24)1
- Jackson's militant priest, county recorder at odds over marriage licenses (2/20/24)
- Streaking fad comes to Cape (2/13/24)2
Coerver house becomes surgical hospital
A small note appeared in a recent Out of the Past column based on the following article from the Friday, Sept. 29, 1916, edition of The Daily Republican.
DR. SCHULZ TO TAKE OVER COERVER PROPERTY OCT. 24 -- RUMORS OF WEDDING
Dr. G.B. Schulz, who recently purchased the Coerver property at the corner of Broadway and Frederick Street for a consideration of $12,000, will move into the home Oct. 24, so reports were heard about town today. Friends of Dr. Schulz stated that he would be married some time next month and had bought the property as a home for his bride upon the return from their honeymoon. As the house is one of the largest in Cape Girardeau, it was thought by many that Dr. Schulz had in mind when purchasing the site the opening of a sanitarium. Whether this is so or not could not be learned this afternoon but the location and number of rooms in the building would make an ideal place for such an institution. Rumors of the existence of the engagement of the doctor with a nurse of St. Louis has long been circulated for several months and the buying of the property for a residence site is not surprising.
W.H. Coerver and family, who were the original owners of the property before being purchased at a trustee sale by I.H. Lake several years ago, have been requested to vacate the house by Oct. 24 so that the necessary repairs may be made as soon as possible.
One of our readers called me shortly after that note appeared, saying Dr. Schulz was largely responsible for the establishment of Southeast Hospital here. While I had heard something along those lines before, her call prompted me to dig a little deeper.
The rumors mentioned in the above article were true, and on Nov. 30, 1916, Thanksgiving Day, Dr. Schulz took nurse Alice Knight as his bride in St. Louis.
The transformation of their home into a hospital wasn't immediate. According to an article published Sept. 11, 1925, in The Southeast Missourian, they waited until the fall of 1923 to open the Alice K. Schulz Surgical Hospital.
The converted house continued to serve as a surgical medical center until the opening of Southeast Hospital Jan. 10, 1928. The following day, a small item appeared in The Southeast Missourian.
DR. SCHULZ WILL REMODEL RESIDENCE
No more patients will be admitted to the Schulz Surgical Hospital, which for the past four years has been carried on in the private home of Dr. and Mrs. G.B. Schulz at 605 Broadway. With the completion of the Southeast Missouri Hospital, and its opening for admission of first patients, the Schulz hospital was closed.
Dr. and Mrs. Schulz are planning on remodeling their former home and restoring its residence aspect. Paperhangers and plasterers are already busy at work upon the lower floor.
Friend Sally Owen of the marketing department at Southeast Hospital confirmed that Dr. and Mrs. Schulz were leaders in the effort to bring a second hospital to Cape Girardeau, Saint Francis having been established here in 1875. According to Sally, Dr. Schulz admitted the first patient to Southeast, Guy Lowes of Jackson, for a tonsillectomy. She also noted that Dr. Schultz brought with him "one special piece of equipment -- the operating table he had used at his office-hospital."
He is listed among the original incorporators of Southeast. And while he isn't on the list of Board of Trustees members, Sally did find his wife, Alice, served on the board.
The obituaries of both Dr. Schulz and his wife give more information on the contributions they made to early health care in Cape Girardeau.
Published in The Southeast Missourian Thursday, July 8, 1954:
DR. G.B. SCHULZ, CAPE PHYSICIAN, SURGEON FOR 62 YEARS, SUCCUMBS
Dr. G.B. Schulz, for 62 years a practicing physician in Cape Girardeau, a pioneer surgeon in the community and a former president of the State Board of Health, died at 11:10 a.m. today at a hospital here after an illness of 14 months. Despite failing health, Dr. Schulz continued his practice up until the time he went to the hospital.
He was born Sept. 13, 1870, in Wittenberg, son of Dr. F.B. Schulz and Augusta Zedler Schulz. When he was a small child, his family left that community, crossing the Mississippi River to Grande Tower, Illinois, to escape an epidemic of smallpox.
It was in 1876 that his doctor father moved the family to Cape Girardeau, where he was in practice until his death, leaving behind to his son the family tradition in medicine.
Educated in Cape.
Dr. Schulz attended the public schools here, attended St. Vincent's College, which then gave a course of general instruction, and then went to the Old Normal School.
His father wanted him to be a doctor, so he went to St. Louis to work in a pharmacy as a start on his profession. Subsequently, he was enrolled in the Beaumont Hospital Medical College, which later became St. Louis University Medical School. It was there that he was graduated in 1892.
Dr. Schulz did his intern work at City Hospital in St. Louis, winning the place through competitive examination.
First Surgery in Cape.
Upon completion of his intern work, he moved to Altenburg where he practiced for 10 1/2 years. He frequently brought his patients here and at the old Saint Francis Hospital performed surgery, which in those days had not won the acceptance it has today.
Dr. Schulz frequently told of operating at the hospital by lamplight. Although his father was a surgeon in Germany, he had been forced to go to medical school here to learn general practice, the profession in those days being divided into two sections in this country. When the son practiced surgery here, he was the first in this area to operate on patients.
He occasionally remarked that he performed the first appendectomy in the city. He also performed the first Caesarean section and undoubtedly did other surgery that was first of its type.
In 1903, with his father reaching the age of retirement, Dr. Schulz came here and took over the practice.
On State Board of Health.
A close personal friend of Gov. Herbert S. Hadley, Dr. Schulz took particular pride in his four-year term on the State Board of Health to which the governor appointed him on July 10, 1910.
He subsequently served a number of terms on the Cape Girardeau Board of Education at a time when the school system was being expanded. Included were periods in which he served as president of the board.
Dr. Schulz, in the interests of his practice of surgery, took courses at the famed Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. When Drs. Charles and William Mayo each year came down the Mississippi on their yacht en route to Florida, they always stopped here and had a visit with Dr. Schulz.
He was married Nov. 30, 1916, to Miss Alice Knight of St. Louis. Being a registered nurse, she was a great assistance to her husband, particularly during the time they converted their home at 605 Broadway into a hospital prior to the erection of Southeast Missouri Hospital.
Community Health Leader.
Dr. Schulz served for many years on the Cape Girardeau Board of Health and was active in community health affairs. Having had early training in pharmacy, he filled his own prescriptions from a complete stock of drugs he maintained at his office.
He was president of the Southeast Missouri Building and Loan Association at the time of his death. Dr. Schulz held membership in the county and state medical associations and the American Medical Association.
A member of the Masonic Lodge here, he was a past patron of the Eastern Star and a member of the White Shrine. He was affiliated with Centenary Methodist Church.
Dr. Schulz is survived by his wife; two brothers, Otto Schulz of St. Louis, and Carl Schulz of Chicago, and two sisters, Mrs. H.A. Arnoldi and Mrs. John I. Sample, both of Cape Girardeau.
The body was taken to the Walther Funeral Home. Funeral Arrangements have not been completed. (Dr. Schulz was buried Saturday, July 10, 1954, at Memorial Park.)
Published in The Southeast Missourian Monday, Aug. 8, 1966:
MRS. ALICE SCHULZ DIES; HELPED ESTABLISH HOSPITAL
Mrs. Alice Ann Schulz, who was instrumental in the establishment of Southeast Missouri Hospital and was the widow of a pioneer Cape Girardeau surgeon, died Sunday evening in a Cape Girardeau hospital. She was 77 years old.
Her husband was Dr. Gustav Berhnard Schulz, who died July 8, 1954.
Mrs. Schulz, a registered nurse who assisted her husband in his practice, also had been active in civic, church and lodge work.
She was born July 17, 1888 in St. Louis and was married to Dr. Schulz on Nov. 30, 1916.
Dr. Schulz operated a hospital for a time in the second story of the family's home at 605 Broadway and Mrs. Schulz served as his anesthetist.
This was before the establishment of Southeast Missouri Hospital. Mrs. Schulz was a member of the original group responsible for the starting of the new hospital.
Mrs. Schulz was originally from St. Louis and came here with Dr. Schulz after their marriage, nearly 50 years ago.
She continued to make her home at 605 Broadway.
Dr. Schulz had practiced medicine here for 51 years before his death and had practiced for 10 years previously at Altenburg.
Mrs. Schulz was a member of the Centenary Methodist Church, the Calvary White Shrine, St. Mark's Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, the Cape Court of Amarenth and the American Rose Society. She was a member of the American Nurse's Association, the Missouri Nurse's Association and the district association. She was a graduate of St. Luke's School of Nursing.
Survivors include a sister, Mrs. Harold M. Brown, Portland, Ore.; four half-brothers, Harold E. Knight, William Benjamin Knight Jr., Robert F. Knight and Charles W. Knight, all of St. Louis; a sister-in-law, Mrs. John I. Sample, Cape Girardeau, and a number of nieces and nephews.
The body is at Walther's Funeral Home where the body may be viewed after 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Services will be held at 2 o'clock Wednesday afternoon at the funeral home by the Rev. Clyde E. Byrd, assisted by Dr. R.C. Holliday. Burial will be in Memorial Park.
A year after her death, in August 1967, the surgical equipment and 339 medical volumes of Dr. Schulz were donated to Southeast Hospital, as stipulated in the will of Alice Schulz.
The Coerver/Schulz house at it appeared in the late 1890s or early 1900s. (Southeast Missourian archive)
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