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The two story Kern County Hospital, located at the corner of 19th and Oak streets, was the only hospital in Bakersfield 100 years ago. Built on 6 acres purchased by the County in 1895, it was a beautiful, 2 story, gabled-roofed, 40 bed structure, recognized State wide, for it's up-to-date surgery.

In the early 1900's, tragically, hospitals were generally regarded as pest houses, and a place to die. For many years, people had been conditioned to home bedside care provided by the family doctor and not realizing that most patients admitted to the hospital were already near death, concluded it was a place to die, when in reality it was a place of healing.

The family doctor made house calls in his little one horse Shay and they were indeed rugged men to go out in all kinds of weather, day and night, to treat their rural patients. It didn't matter what illness you had, a hundred years ago, this doctor couldn't do much more than give you comfort until your body fought off the disease or the sickness won. The good doctor had only a few remedies in his black bag; morphine and aspirin to ease the pain, digitalis for heart failure, ether to put you out and quinine to fight the chills of malaria. The doctor was called to a home only for serious health problems, mom and dad were the everyday body repair technicians. Lard or butter on the burns, whiskey and an old bed sheet bandage on the infected cuts, Sloan's Liniment on the sore muscles, soothing syrup to get some sleep and eucalyptus and mint oil in steam to relieve the croup. If mom and dad didn't know about a remedy for the current ailment, their neighbors surely did. The most frequent serious injuries to the pioneers were caused from being thrown from horseback or other livestock related accidents.
 
Our dirt roads of that era were either a foot deep in alkali dust or a foot deep in mud which was a challenge to a country doctor anytime of the year. At the turn of the century, automobiles were still considered as impractical machines and the roads to fit their needs were far in the future. Later on Henry Ford built a special Model T designed for these noble mobile physicians dubbed "The Doctor's Coupe".

The mountainous Kern River Valley was home to many pioneer families living on large cattle ranches from Kernville to Walker Basin. No doctors or hospitals were up there in those days so needing the services of a doctor in an emergency, in this remote country, required a unique plan of operation to speed the doctor from Bakersfield to the patient in Kernville, Onyx, Isabella, Havilah or some remote mining settlement. Kern Canyon road didn't exist back then, the only road ran through Caliante, then northeastward over the Tehachapi Mountains to Kern River Valley.

To import a doctor to this area, in an emergency, the following routine was used after 1876, the year the Southern Pacific built the railroad over Tehachapi; The station agent at Caliente was notified of the emergency need of a doctor from Bakersfield to treat a patient in Isabella who had suffered a severe head injury. The Caliente agent would telegraph the SP station agent at Sumner, (East Bakersfield), informing him of the type of injury and the location of the patient. The SP railroad had a standing agreement that when a doctor was needed in the Kern River Valley area, the Southern Pacific Company would, at no cost, immediately furnish a steam engine for transporting a doctor to Caliente at full speed.

Upon the doctor's arrival at Caliente, the mountain neighbors had previously arranged to have a carriage and driver at the station to speed the doctor up the steep road to an awaiting second horse and wagon of a series of 3 or more relay transfers not unlike the old Pony Express relay system of getting fresh horses to maintain speed. This way maximum speed was attained all the way to the critically ill patient. Many times this "doctor's dash" from Bakersfield saved the life of some grateful mountain resident.

The Mercy Hospital was opened in 1910 in the old St. Clair home on 16th Street between G and H Streets. It soon out grew this residence and a new building was constructed in its present location on Truxtun Avenue. The new structure was three stories and contained 36 private rooms. The San Joaquin Hospital was also opened in 1910, at 2628 Eye Street. It was a three story building owned by two professional nurses from Philadelphia. This hospital was noted for its outstanding surgical facilities and featured the first operating table in Bakersfield that could be adjusted to any angle or height.

Just look how the modern physicians black bag has grown in the last century! There are medicines and treatments for nearly every known disease. The doctor of today has at hand an arsenal of drugs, vaccines and electronic diagnostic tools that could not have been imagined 100 years ago when old Dobbin and the one horse Shay took the doctor on his house calls.