Mennonite Deaconess Home and Hospital was founded in Beatrice, Nebraska, as the result of a jubilee celebration on 27 January 1905, which commemorated the founding of the Mennonite church in the Beatrice community and the 25th anniversary of the ministry of Gerhard Penner and Peter Reimer. A block of ground in the city of Beatrice was donated to the Mennonite church as a site for the proposed hospital. The church elected a group of 12 men to serve as a board for the building and operation of the hospital. Building operations began in 1910 and on 16 July 1911, the hospital was dedicated. The work of the hospital was conducted by a small group of deaconesses.

A nurses' training school was conducted by the hospital for a number of years, which was later reorganized on a two-year basis and for a number of years trained practical nurses. The hospital sought to serve the church as a means of expressing Christian love and concern for our fellow men through care of the sick, and was a means of interpreting Mennonite principles to the community.
The hospital in 1956 was engaged in a building program which would result in a new hospital building of 50 beds. The existing building would then be used for chronically ill and convalescent patients.

In 1956 the administrator was Edmund P. Zehr; the superintendent of nursing was Martha Thimm, with a staff of five deaconesses.

In the early 1980s, because of changing medical and economic conditions and the size of the community, it became apparent that Beatrice and its surrounding communities could not continue to support both the Mennonite Deaconess Hospital and a similar Lutheran hospital. In 1982, the Lutheran Hospital was purchased by the Mennonite Hospital, and the combined hospitals became known as the Beatrice Community Hospital. It had a community-based Board of Directors.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 620. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

©1996-2008 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.

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