By Harold Fuller
Doctors C. E. Schwartz and C. E. Nelson set up their Lucky Boy Drug Store on Haller Avenue in the spring of 1909 and began to do a pretty good business. They had both come highly recommended as druggists, medical doctors and surgeons, and it wasn’t long before they believed that a small hospital was warranted. In June they proceed to add on to the rear of their building, between Mitchell and Main Streets. They put in a building suitable for a five-bed unit and prepared for business. They had a plan and they believed a good one. They were offering a health insurance policy for one dollar a month. That included medicine and treatment required for sickness and any necessary stay in the hospital. Miss Grace Mann was the head nurse and responsible for the daily, and nightly operation.
The plan sounded good, but the miners just wouldn’t buy it. The Lucky Boy Mining Record reported on August 13th: “The hospital which Drs. Schwartz and Nelson were conducting here in Lucky Boy on the $1.00 a month plan for services and medicine closed down on account of the lack of support. It is regretted that the citizens of Lucky Boy did not appreciate an institution of this kind enough to extend their financial support, and they’re not doing so, shows a tendency to get all the money they can and spend as little as possible; or in other words, a disposition to not spend anything for Lucky Boy.There will be, possibly, several sick before the summer is over, who would have made the venture a success and possibly saved themselves some money. We are all liable to be sick sometimes and pone can never tell the hour”.
The doctors stayed at Lucky Boy for just a short time before selling out and moving on to somewhere they might be more appreciated.
