News

San Haven's history in saving lives with TB

By Scott Wagar

12/04/2012

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bottineau Courant is conducting a series which is looking at the history of San Haven, North Dakota’s only state run sanatorium, which was operated in the Turtle Mountains for the majority of the 1900s. This week, the newspaper looks at the founders of the sanatorium, which will end the series on San Haven.

Dr. Fannie Dun Quain and Dr. James Grassick are two of the most important individuals in caring for tuberculosis in the state of North Dakota.  These two individuals established the North Dakota Tuberculosis Association in 1909 and went on to lobby for a state run sanatorium, which opened as San Haven in November of 1912.

Quain and Grassick each lived distinctive and remarkable lives that lead to their partnership in lowering the number of TB cases in North Dakota, which they were successful in through education and proving that a sanatorium could save lives.

DR. FANNIE DUNN QUAIN:

Dr. Fannie Dunn Quain was born in 1874 in Bismarck while North Dakota was still a territory. Her father, John Dunn, was a pharmacist and her mother, Christina Seelye Dunn, was a dress and hat maker.

Quain went to school at Bismarck High School and earned her teaching degree from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Although an educator, Quain’s interest was in medicine and she wanted to pursue a career as a physician, but women in this time were deeply frowned upon in pursuing a medical degree and her parents were of humble means and could not afford to send her to medical school.

However, Quain was a determined person with aspirations in attending medical school. To raise the money, she taught school while at the same time working other jobs. In 1894, she entered the University of Michigan Medical School at Ann Arbor, Mich. and graduated from the institute in 1894, making her the first female from the state of North Dakota to hold a doctor of medicine degree.
After graduating from medical school, she conducted her internship in Minneapolis, Minn., and then moved back to North Dakota to practice medicine.

In the beginning of her medical career, she traveled throughout the state caring for patients, often in some of the worst winter weather the state had seen in its history.

One of the best stories about Quain and the seriousness she held in caring for patients took place when a man was traveling on Northern Pacific Railroad and came down with an acute appendicitis and needed medical  attention immediately.

Quain was informed of the medical incident. To treat the man she obtain a railroad hand car and cranked the 600 pound car by herself down the track six miles, over the Missouri River on the Northern Pacific Railroad Bridge, to the train coming down the rail line. She then escorted the man to the local hospital and saved his life.

While working at St. Alexius Hospital in Bismarck, Quain was introduced to Dr. Eric Peer Quain, a surgeon in the medical facility. The two married in 1903. (Dr. Eric Quain was one of the founders of the Quain and Ramstad Clinic, which today is known as the Q&R Clinic in Bismarck.)

Quain continued to practice medicine after she married and became a major player in the fight against TB in the state due to an appointment made by Governor John Burke who sent Quain as a delegate to the First International Congress on Tuberculosis, which was held in Washington D.C.

She was accompanied to the conference by Grassick and it was there the two found an enthusiastic interest in eradicating TB from their home state.

Quain was so impressed with the conference and its exhibits she personally bought all the exhibits and had them shipped back to North Dakota. She then originated a traveling exhibit which traveled throughout the state educating individuals about TB.

In 1909, she and Grassick established the North Dakota Tuberculosis Association. She served as the association’s secretary from 1909 to 1921, vice president from 1921 to 1928 and 1948 to 1950, president from 1928 to 1936. She also was the treasurer of the organization from 1939 to 1948.

In 1909, Quain and Grassick began lobbying state legislatures for a state run sanatorium and were able to acquire funding to purchase property for a treatment facility. In 1912, San Haven opened in the Turtle Mountains due to the location personally chosen by the two physicians.

Quain’s work in TB continued after San Haven was established through public awareness of the disease and promoting victims of the disease to be treated at the San.

She also served on the North Dakota State Board of Health from 1923 to 1933 and was the board’s president for a number of years.

To assist women in the medical field, she became the regional director of the Medical Woman’s National Association from 1933 to 1934 for the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.  

To improve nursing training in the state, Quain chaired the Nurses Training School Committee at Bismarck Evangelical Hospital from 1920 to 1940 and was the president of the training school in the 1930s.

Along with TB, the children had a special place in heart of Quain, so much so, she established the first baby clinic in the state.

Quain passed away on Feb. 2, 1950, at the age of 75 in Bismarck.

DR. JAMES GRASSICK

Dr. James Grassick was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on June 29, 1850. His father, Donald, passed away in 1851 and his mother, Helen Edward Grassick, migrated to Huron County, Ontario, with her eight children where he attended public school in Stanley, ON, where he graduated from high school.

Grassick became a teacher in Huron County for a number of years, but his goal in life was to become a physician. While teaching, Grassick studied medicine through the office of Dr. J. McDiarmid of Hensall, ON. He went on to attend Rush Medical College in Chicago, Ill., and graduated from the school in 1885.

After graduating from medical school, Grassick spent the summer of 1885 attending lectures and clinics in two hospitals in Toronto before moving that fall to Buxton, N.D. where he practiced medicine for 20 years and became the first permanent physician in the community.

Grassick was a kind and caring physician and dedicated to his job which sent him throughout the Buxton area. This was shown in the late 1800s when he was called to a rural farm one night to care for a sick individual in the wintertime during an extreme cold spell that had hit the area.

Grassick set out for the farmstead with sleigh and horses and was overcome by a blizzard that came up quickly.

Due to the heavy snow fall and winds, the trail he was on became invisible due to a white out, but he continued on his way. With no visibility, the horses fell into a ravine where the sleigh became lodged.
Grassick unhitched the horses and let them go, and he continued on his own in hopes of finding shelter. After hours of walking he began to lose his strength and started to fear death, but as he lost hope he heard a mule. First, Grassick though he was dreaming but then heard the mule again and followed the sound of the animal until he walked into the farmyard the animal was in. He first noticed his horses and then went to the door and knocked.

The homesteaders of the farm house opened a door with a lamp in hand and asked who it was in Norwegian. Grassick stepped inside and collapsed. The next day he awoke in the cabin still weak from the night before. He spent a few days recovering and after going back to work, Grassick return to the farmstead to thank the homesteaders and the mule which saved his life.

The mule’s name turned out to be Ole and his reward in saving Grassick’s life was a bundle of corn, which Ole enjoyed greatly. Because the mule enjoyed the corn, Grassick, throughout the remainder of the winter, made sure the mule was supplied with corn for his kindness to him.

In 1889, Grassick married Christina McDougal of Brucefield, ON, and the couple had two children, Donald and Jessie Christina.

In 1905, Grassick moved his practice to Grand Forks and within a two year period Burke named Grassick the superintendent of the North Dakota Public Health Office, an position he held for six years.

In 1908, he attended the First International Congress on Tuberculosis with Quain. It was here where Grassick gained a great insight on TB and dedicated his life to ending this disease in North Dakota. He stated in his personal journal that the conference made a “direct influence in shaping the activities in my life.”

Once back in the state, he and Quain established the North Dakota Tuberculosis Association where he served as its president and they went on to establish San Haven.  

He became the editor of the “Pennant” a monthly periodical that focused on the caused, prevention and cure of TB. The “Pennant” had a circulation of 4,000 and sent to every state in the county and all the provinces of Canada.

Grassick also established a traveling clinic where he and nurse traveled across the state diagnosing patients with TB while educating the public on prevented measures with the disease.

Grassick had a love for children like Quain, and in 1928 Camp Grassick was established, which was a summer camp for the underprivileged which were more susceptible to TB.      

Beyond TB, Grassick was appointed the University Physician at UND in 1917, a position he held for numerous years where he was a special lecturer. He also originated the University Dispensary for students to seek out advice, be given physical examinations and treatments at no cost. Grassick was appointed the university’s contract surgeon for S.A.T.C Contingent and served in that capacity during one of the worse epidemic known in the world, the 1918 Flu.

In 1923, Grassick was elected the president of the North Dakota Medical Association and he also served as a board member and director for Buxton’s First State Bank for a long period of time, even after he left Buxton for Grand Forks.

On Dec. 20, 1943, Grassick passed away at the age of 90.

Even though Quain and Grassick are no longer amongst us, their early beginnings with eradicating TB can still be seen in North Dakota. The North Dakota Tuberculosis Association is now the American Lung Association of North Dakota and Camp Grassick is still in operation caring for children with lung aliments.

Through the Quain and Grassick’s hard work they also eliminated around 99 percent of TB in the state, and with them leading the way TB is now a controllable disease with very little chance of taking anyone’s life in the state, which says a lot about these two pioneer physicians who faced danger straight in the face and made a difference.