Founded in 1901,
the Forney Sanitarium was originally run in a small clinic on the top
floor of Walter D. Adam's drug store. In 1910, doctors Eugene M. Fowler
and David H. Hudgins moved the business to a large 2-story house on
Cedar street, formerly the women's dormitory of the Lewis Academy.
In 1917, the doctors,
along with other local physicians, Lonnie B. Sowell and Percival C.
Shands, organized a group of shareholders to undertake the building
of a $20,000 facility on Trinity Street. The large 2-story plus basement
red brick building soon became a Forney landmark. The facilities included
rooms for 25 patients, an operating room, a dining room and an X-Ray
machine.
Other physicians
employed by the sanitarium included Dr. W.M Bailey, a dentist, Dr. John
L. Preston and Dr. J.S. Hamilton, and head nurse Harriet S. Bobo. Other
staff included Addie McKinney, Ethel Clary, Lillie "Sandy"
Sanders and Deana Bobbitt.
The Sanitarium closed
it's doors in the 1930's and was later used as an apartment building
before being torn down in the 1950's.
