Grandfield doctor

January 17, 2012

Early medical advertisement

Dr. Fuqua cared for Grandfield

Dr. W.A. Fuqua served the medical needs of the people of Grandfield for decades.

When Vol. II of The History of Tillman County was published in 1978, the late Vera Colyer of Grandfield wrote an account of Dr. Fuqua’s devotion to medicine and the Grandfield community.

The eastern part of Tillman County, part of the 488,000-acre Big Pasture, was opened to settlement by sealed bid in 1906, the last major Oklahoma Territory land opening. W.A. Fuqua and his wife Bessie settled on a farm ten miles west of Grandfield, and they also established a drug store on their farm.

Fuqua wanted to be a doctor, so attended the University of Oklahoma to study toward that goal, while his wife remained at home to operate the farm and store. He then attended medical school and completed a residency at Tulane University in New Orleans.

With his medical education complete, he returned to the Tillman County farm and practiced as a country doctor.

Oil development was big business in the Grandfield area in the decades after settlement. Dr. Fuqua’s successful investment in oil interests allowed him to acquire the capital to build his dream – a hospital in Grandfield.

In the years prior to 1920 Fuqua formed a partnership with Dr. Harper Wright and Dr. H.C. Harris, and they built the three-story Grandfield Hospital at 211 South Simpson. The fourteen-bed hospital had an operating room on the third floor and a living quarters for the Fuqua family.

Bessie Fuqua worked with her husband as a nurse at the hospital.

The three doctors eventually dissolved their partnership. Dr. Harris left to work in veterans’ hospitals. Some years later Dr. Wright moved his practice to Oklahoma City.

Dr. Fuqua continued his surgical and medical practice in Grandfield, serving many families with his medical knowledge and his surgical skill.

Dr. O.J. Box was associated with Dr. Fuqua for many years before starting his own medical practice in Grandfield. Dr. Box eventually left Grandfield to work with the Veterans’ Administration.

Dr. Fuqua loved Grandfield and invested heavily in real estate and business interests in the city and the Grandfield area. He also served as the mayor of Grandfield and was active in many community affairs.

He mentored many young people and provided financial assistance to help numerous Grandfield youth to continue their education beyond high school.

On the death of his wife Bessie, Dr. Fuqua married Evelyn Parris.

Writing of Dr. Fuqua, Vera Colyer said that he “was a successful physician-surgeon at work, a farmer, financier, and philanthropist who operated a hospital-surgical service with a great talent and love for humanity.”

Tillman County Memorial Hospital

Column sent to Frederick Leader and Frederick Press

October 6, 2009

Architect's 1953 Drawing of Proposed Tillman County Memorial Hospital

Memorial Hospital Plans Announced in 1953

For more than half a century, one of the most important buildings in the lives of Tillman County residents has been Memorial Hospital on East Josephine in Frederick.

The building was in its early stages in 1953 when Tillman County Commissions and the hospital board worked together to approve its plans as designed by Oklahoma City architect Walter T. Vahlberg and to accept bids for construction.

The new hospital would replace the then-hospital building at 9^th and Floral in Frederick (which now houses the Department of Human Services).

In August and September 1953 Frederick newspapers published the architect’s rendering of the modern new hospital, and told of the planned building’s wonderful features. The hospital would be constructed during 1954 and would be a $500,000 project.

County commissioners in 1953 were S.D. Jackson, Fred Stevens, and H.T. Caroll. Members of the hospital board were B.W. Kent, Wade Watson, Amos Ridings, Billy Gist, and Merle Crawford.

On August 31, 1953, the Frederick Leader described the planned hospital as follows:

“Tillman County Memorial Hospital will be of fireproof construction throughout, built of tile walls, buff brick exterior and plastered walls and ceiling with steel roof beams. All windows will be of aluminum, reducing exterior painting to a few minor decorative pieces.

“The structure will have refrigerated air-conditioning throughout, including all patient, surgical, emergency, office, nurse, lobby, corridor and other rooms except for the boiler room, laundry and kitchen.

“Each room will be served by a separate telephone through a central PBX switchboard. Incandescent lighting is included throughout the building.”

“Among other modern features is its central oxygen room, in which all oxygen will be stored with supplies piped to each patient room, the surgery and emergency wing.

“Included in plans, and the specifications, are spacious concrete drives for ambulance and patient service.

“A cafeteria is included as part of the central kitchen layout, accessible for patient and personnel service. Large stock rooms and storage areas are incorporated into the building.”

“All interior walls, except the furnace room, will be plastered, or finished with ceramic or natural glazed tile surfacing. All floors are to be some flexible tile finish.”

“One wing will house the County Health Unit, providing one of the most modern centers of its kind in the nation.”

The new hospital opened in 1955, and serves as the basic building for the hospital that exists today.

During the years since, it has been remodeled numerous times; expanded with addition of patient, clinic, and nursing home wings; and reconfigured to better serve patients and the public.

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Joe Wynn is a member of the Tillman County Historical Society’s board of directors. He can be contacted by email at jawynn @cableone.net.