Yoakum Community Hospital

Yoakum Community Hospital. . , The City of Yoakum incorporated in 1889. By 1896, it was a thriving town of 3,000 residents, many businesses and institutions, and 12 practicing doctors. Dr. Edward H. Schwab was said to have operated the first hospital in 1910 in an area bound by Coke and East Morris Streets. Dr. James D. Gray, Assistant Medical Director for the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway (SA&AP), opened the second hospital in the W.L. Burton Building on Grand Avenue in 1916. , When German immigrant and Yoakum resident Willhelmena Huth died in 1912, her husband, John L. Huth, purchased land on Hubbard Street for a future community hospital site. Efforts to proceed were hindered by family lawsuits contesting Willhelmena's will and estate and additional legal actions contesting John's will after he died in 1916. Plans went forward in 1918, when John Huths cash donation was finalized and when Yoakum citizens voted to issue $50,000 in bonds to erect a building. The John Huth Memorial Hospital (later Huth Memorial Hospital) opened in 1922 in a two-story brick facility on Hubbard Street. The city operated the facility until 1933 when the city contracted with Four Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament in Victoria. The building and inventory remained property of the city, while the sisters managed the operations, an arrangement which continued for 50 years. An auxiliary board formed in 1934 raised funds for equipment and supplies and continues to support the hospital. , At its Hubbard Street location, the hospital continued to serve the community until 1997. Beginning in 1984, hospital ownership reverted to the City of Yoakum, while the Sisters assumed sponsorship of what was renamed Yoakum Community Hospital. A new facility was dedicated in 1997 on Carl Ramert Drive, continuing the hospitals legacy of care.