SANFORD HOSPITAL

Although medical care was available to the residents of Burnsville in the Twin Cities and in Shakopee, the name most often heard in this connection from older residents of the town is Dr, James A. Sanford of Farmington. Dr. Sanford, for whom the new Sanford Memorial Hospital in Farmington is named, practiced general medicine in this area from 1901 to 1954. A resident first of Farmington and later Orchard Lake, he built the first hospital in the area in 1925 in Farmington. This hospital was most likely used by many people from Burnsville.

Dr. Sanford is remembered today as a man who inspired great affection in his patients. They appreciated his willingness to sacrifice personal comforts for them, and the friendship and personal care he often bestowed on them. He had a deep and genuine love for his fellow man. In a book that he published at the end of his career entitled, A General Practitioner Speaks, he recalled that he had entered the medical profession because he believed he "could do more good in the medical field than in any other profession."

He was influenced too, according to the book, by a girl he fell in love with at age sixteen who wanted him to go to India with her as a medical missionary. Although they eventually parted and she went to India with another man, he did enter medical at the University of Minnesota and graduated after four years at the age of twenty-one. He couldn't afford to interne; only one-third of his class found internships, he immediately began to practice in the Twin Cities.

At first he found it difficult to make a living. There was an abundance of doctors at this time, even the smallest towns often had one or two, and the competition for patients who could afford to pay their bills was fierce. He reported that sometimes eight to ten doctors would answer an emergency call.

He quit his practice for a time to sell medical books and did improve his financial situation. He enjoyed visiting the general practitioners in their offices as he traveled from town to town and found them, again quoting from his book, "unselfish, noble, and inspiring. They were doing the most of the charity work and getting very little pay for it."

His admiration for the small-town doctor, together with the fascination he found in the doctor-patient relationship, eventually drew him back into practice himself, and he came to Farmington in 1909.

He built up a large country practice. At first this meant a great deal of time in a cutter or a horse and buggy, since most patients preferred to be cared for, even operated on, in their own homes. In those early years he charged fifty cents for an office call, a dollar for a house call, and fifty cents a mile for house calls in the country. Deliveries, or confinements, as they were called then, were ten dollars. He reports doubling as a dentist and charging fifty cents to pull a tooth.

According to his book, Dr. Sanford had a firm belief that a doctor should be a patient's friend, be willing to give personal service. This he lived in his early practice as he traveled to and from the homes of his patients in all kinds of weather, often sitting many hours at the bedside of a mother in labor or of someone seriously ill. He did all his own dressings, occasionally bathed the patient, and performed other personal care. No doubt this kind of care was typical of many country doctors of this period.

During the flu epidemic at the time of World War I he recalls that he "practically lived in a cutter." Going from home to home he would catch a little sleep while riding. At times he kept three drivers going day and night and was in his clothes for days at a time.

In town, he eventually had an office consisting of a reception room, consultation room, and operating room with a small laboratory in a building he built himself on Third Street. The need for a hospital became apparent, however, when a seriously injured man who had tried to commit suicide was brought in and treated. He needed nursing care and was placed in a small room adjoing the laboratory since there was no other place for him. From the modest beginning Dr. Sanford's hospital grew to seven beds. Later, a large, old-fashioned house on Sixth and Oak, still standing today, became his hospital, accommodating from fifteen to twenty patients.

Then in 1924 he persuaded the community to help him build a hospital. The Community Clinic was formed and a lot was purchased on the corner of Oak and Fourth Streets. In the spring of 1925 a building, forty by one hundred feet, was erected at a cost of $115,000 which housed the hospital and the Jefferson Hotel. Later, the hospital occupied the entire building and provided space for thirty to forty beds. In its time it was considered to be very modern and was definitely a source of community pride.

In spite of a large practice, Dr. Sanford never became wealthy. Many of his patients were unable to pay and he kept a number of older people on the top floor of his hospital because they needed someplace to stay. He gladly received produce from farmers who had no cash for medical bills. A great deal of his own income went into building and maintaining the hospital.

Toward the end of his life he built a home and office at Orchard Lake. There he lived and continued to see patients in the summer, spending the winters in Hot Springs, Arkansas .

He died in 1954 at age 75. He had just completed the book, previously quoted, in the importance of encouraging the general family practice of medicine, in an age of increasing medical specialization.

Sara S. Daly