- Dates
- 1953-01-16 – 1953-03-16
- Kind
- Meeting
- Where
- Saint James
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- communitygovernancehealthcare
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
A later Beaver Island local-history account reports that residents convened at the Parish Hall on January 16, 1953 to address the absence of a doctor and the prospect of providing a modest hospital. It says a temporary board then prepared a constitution and plan, and that an Island-wide February 4 meeting approved the documents and elected a Board for the Beaver Island Civic Club, soon called the Beaver Island Civic Association.
The same account says the group selected Dr. Harry Vail as its preferred candidate, raised and sought pledges, investigated three sites, and agreed on March 16 to buy a site for a Medical Center. This records the reported organizing and site-selection sequence, not a completed facility or the later reported 1954 opening.
Evidence and limits
The sole held source is a retrospective local-history narrative published decades after the reported meetings. It gives dates, reported attendance, named officers, fundraising figures, and site negotiations, but the project does not yet hold the 1953 meeting notices or minutes, constitution, bylaws, corporate filing, deed, fundraising ledger, doctor agreement, building plans, permit, state subsidy record, or licensing record needed to independently verify those details.
This event therefore does not establish the Civic Association’s legal creation, continuous identity, full membership, land conveyance, Medical Center construction, opening, staffing, services, or public funding.
Open questions
- Do Civic Association papers, parish records, or local newspapers preserve the January and February meeting notices, minutes, constitution, or election?
- Which recorded instrument identifies the Medical Center site, its conveyance, construction, opening, legal status, and relationship to later institutions?
See also
Sources
- A later local-history account says residents held a January 16, 1953 general meeting at the Parish Hall, formed a temporary board, approved a constitution and bylaws at a February 4 meeting, and elected a board for the Beaver Island Civic Club, soon called the Civic Association. It further reports fundraising, site investigation, and a March 16 agreement to buy a site for a Medical Center. It is not contemporaneous meeting minutes, a charter, deed, fundraising ledger, construction record, or licensing record.
Added 2 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Reported Civic Association formation and Medical Center organizing drive, 1953”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-civic-association-formation-and-medical-center-drive-1953/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Island Net, “The Beginning of the Beaver Island Medical Center,” Part I, circa 1999–2017..
Last revised 2026-08-02. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
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