Page 40 Cont’d from pg. 36 In 1937, Dome decided that it was time to build a modern hospital and it sought funds from the public. The institution was to be named the Por - cupine General Hospital. The Dome provided the site, 40 acres, and $25,000. The Hollinger and the McIntyre each contributed $5,000, without being asked. Frederick Schu - macher of Ohio who had made a for - tune buying and selling properties in the Porcupine Gold Camp tossed in $50,000. He is best rememb ered for his estate providing the children of Schumacher with an annual Christ - mas party where each receive s a pres - ent Altogether the Dome raised $100,000. Then it was realized that another $10,000 was needed for a nurses’ residence. Dome‘s general manager Joe Stovel, the man behind the idea of a new , proper hospital, talked the provincial government into providing the funds. That was no small feat in those days. The new hospital opened March 1938 with 22 beds and was as well equipped and modern as any in T oronto. Expansions raised the total of beds to 53. It provided active care to the public until 1988. By Gregory Reynolds No one today would recognize the name of Miss Laura Keon. She was a heroine, one who should be held up as an example to the nation. Instead she is for gotten. In November of 1918, the Spanish Flu began its two-year deadly sweep around the world, kill - ing between 20 and 40 million people. In Canada,50,000 lost their lives. When it struck The Porcupine Gold Camp, Miss Keon was one of the frst volunteers to tend to the ill by enter - ing the packed boarding houses and hotels where the mainly single miners and bush workers lived. She also was among the frst to die. She gave her young life to try and help people she didn’ t know and most of whom spoke languages strange to her . In a history of the Dome, the company provides a breakdown for one year of its workforce by ethnic background. The fgures would be roughly the same for all the gold mines so they are quoted: Anglo-Saxon 43 per cent, Central Eu - ropean 17 per cent, French-Canadian 16 per cent, Italian 15 per cent and Scandinavian nine per cent. T immins town council thought highly of her brave deed and especially her example of helping at a time when dozens of people were dying. She was not the only medica l worker or volunteer to die but she got public recognition. Councillors voted in December 1918 to erect a monument to her . Where is that monument today W as it ever built No one knows . The fu killed people so quickly the area ran out of coffns. The bodies were wrapped in blankets, taken in wagons to the several existing cemeteries and dumped into trenches until the epidemic was over and proper burials could be conducted. The local death toll was placed at over 100 but the true total is in dispute. There were people living in bush camps who died elsewhere. Since there was no hospital in South Porcupine or Porcupine, authorities took over Golden A venue Public School in South Porcupine to house fu patients. Also used as a hospital was the newly built Schumacher Public School. The doctors and nurses in the area were overwhelmed so their ranks were increased by hundreds of volunteers who risked their lives to tend to the ill in homes, boarding houses, hotels and other dwellings. At the time, the public was told to stay in their homes in order to escape the fu but that was not practical as the men had to work and the women had to buy food. If a member of a family became ill, oth - er family members and friends rallied around and took turns tending to the ill. There was no way to isolate the sick. Each of the numerous mines had homes on site for management personnel and also bunkhouses for single workers. These mines had no company doctors or medical staf f and help for the sick was usually volunteers from among the wives of staf f. There were no class distinctions in times of peril. The spirit of the pioneers was the strength that made life in the early com - munities bearable. Hero gives life for strangers in fu epidemic Schumacher Public School was used as a hospital during the infuenza pandemic – it had just been built and not opened yet when pressed into service “The Porcupine Camp” 100 Y ears of Mining Page 38