The Jewell General Hospital

     Jewell had a General Hospital of 18 beds which only operated from December, 1947 through 1950.   A number of area physicians used the Jewell Hospital for doing medical procedures for the residents of Jewell, Ellsworth, Stanhope, and the surrounding rural area.

     The Doctors included Dr. Carl Heise, Dr. Ernest Light, Dr. Dwayne Anderson of Stanhope, and Dr. C. E. Semler of Story City.   Procedures in the Jewell Hospital included minor surgeries such as obstetric, tonsillectomy and other minor procedures.   297 babies were born in the Jewell General Hospital.
 

This birth article was published March 22, 1950.

     The Jewell couple Oliver Dewey Smotherman and Grace Evelyn (Caudle) Smotherman (a registered nurse) operated this private hospital which was located on Main Street in what is now the second house north of the Jewell Cemetery.

      Grace Evelyn Caudle (Smotherman) was born October 15, 1920, in Ellsworth.   She grew up in Hamilton County, attending school in Blairsburg and graduating from Jewell High School in 1938.   She then went to the Mercy School of Nursing in Sioux City, graduating in 1941.   Grace was a veteran of WWII, serving in Pearl Harbor as a nurse in the U.S. Navy, where she attained the rank of lieutenant.   After the war she returned to Jewell, working as a nurse at hospitals in Jewell, Story City, Webster City and Ames.

Grace Smotherman also owned and operated the Coffee Cup Cafe in Jewell for 10 years.
 

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