a convent and school. He instructed Rev. Marcoux to
determine what structural changes would be necessary
to accomplish the tasks and report the findings back
to him. What the bishop and Rev. Marcoux had not
considered was how receptive the Little Franciscans of
Mary would be to this idea.
Above: Dr. William V. Kirk
By 1906 with the hospital construction
completed, Rev. Marcoux approached the Little
Franciscans of Mary to establish a mission to care for
the sick at his new hospital. In January of that year, five
sisters left Baie St. Paul by train to Clair, New Brunswick
and finished the journey by horse and wagon to Eagle
Lake. When they arrived at their new home, they
discovered that the hospital was but a shell of a building
yet to be finished and furnished. With no other resources
available, the sisters began begging from house to house
for furniture and bedding. It was reported that in the
first month they raised $41.50 to purchase absolute
necessities and within three days of arrival had begun
providing nursing services. Rev. Marcoux, in a letter
to Bishop O’Connell in March 1906, reported that
twenty patients had been served in the first two months
of operation. By the end of the first year, 175 patients
had been treated and twenty-five operations had been
performed. This would not have happened if it had not
been for the sisters’ persistence, dedication, and strong
belief in the mission.
So it was no wonder that the sisters were cool
to the bishop’s thought of converting the hospital
into a convent and school. On November 11 and 12,
1914, the bishop scheduled an emergency meeting at
Eagle Lake to discuss the hospital issue. He met with
the sisters and a group of parishioners on the question
of keeping the hospital open. Although there are no
records of what transpired at the meetings, the idea of
closing the hospital did not materialize. By 1920 the
hospital was now a 32-bed facility, staffed by fourteen
sisters and a resident physician. The physician was a
young man from Baltimore by the name of Dr. William
V. Kirk. He had arrived in November of that year.
In an interview with Charles Kihimire of the
Bangor Daily News in 1946, Dr. Kirk stated, “When
I left Baltimore the sun was shining and the birds were
singing. When I got to Eagle Lake there was 18 inches
of snow. If I had had money enough in my pocket to
get back to Baltimore, I would have caught the same
train out.” It was fortunate for the hospital that he was
broke. Dr. Kirk was a graduate of the University of West
Virginia and of the University of Maryland Medical
School with three years as a resident in surgery at St.
Joseph’s Hospital in Baltimore. The sisters’ prayers had
been answered with Dr. Kirk’s arrival. The hospital now
had a resident physician and surgeon. With Dr. Kirk
on staff, the hospital began to flourish and by the 1940s
WINTER 2012 Northern Maine General 43