March 1, 1945 (Thursday)
- Jill Johnson Tewsley
- Mar 1, 2024
- 2 min read
EDNA TAKES RED CROSS HOME NURSING COURSE
March came in like
a lamb, nice mild
day.
I took the day off
and visited the Home
Nursing Class at L.A.S.
Hall.
The class served a
very lovely cooperative
dinner - I also enjoyed
a review of the
lesson. Mrs. Pfarrer is
a very good teacher.
The following were members
Edwina, Edna Lott, Roxie Seese,
Joy Weeks, Mary Krebs,
Mrs. Everett Richardson,
Mrs. Howard Lite, Mrs. Geo. Howard,
Laura Blough.
During WWII, the Red Cross provided a variety of services overseas and on the home front. Offering training in first aid, nutrition, and home nursing in communities of all sizes, including small rural area like Bowne Center, were a few of services they offered.
You can read a brief history of the efforts of the Red Cross during WWII here: https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/National/history-wwii.pdf.
A short article in the Lowell Ledger for March 8, 1945 confirmed that the home nursing course Edna documented was indeed a Red Cross course.
I love that historical copies of the Lowell Ledger are archived online. It is wonderful to find little tidbits that support Edna's journal entires and that add more to the story or clarify questions I have.
It isn't always easy deciphering Edna's handwriting. In this entry, she mentions that the course instructor was a good teacher. I couldn't make out the last name. I thought, perhaps, it was Pfarva or Pfarna.
When I came across the Bowne Buggle Notes column, I uttered out loud, "Thank you, Myrtle Porritt and thank you Lowell Ledger." Myrtle documented the details and the Lowell Ledger published them.
Pfarrer was the name. Mrs. E. Pfarrer to be precise. Mrs. E. Pfarrer, R. N.
Elizabeth VanDam married Ernest Pfarrer in 1915 in Chicago, Illinois. They had three children. One was still born. Caroline and Frederick long outlived their mother, Elizabeth, who passed away in 1972.
When Elizabeth Pfarrer, R.N. taught the home nursing class at Bowne Center in 1945 she had been a widow for more than 20 years. Her husband, Ernest, died in 1924. According to his death certificate, he died of of a cerebral hemorrhage after having been accidentally struck by a car.
Two years after Elizabeth Pfarrer instructed the home nursing class at Bowne Center, Dr. R.J. Harrington went missing.
According to a Muskegon Chronicle article, Dr. R.J. Harrington legally dead, but disappearance generates some controversy (republished by MLive in 2014), Harrington was declared legally dead in 1954, on the seventh anniversary of his disappearance.
There was a brief mention of Elizabeth Pfarrer in that article,
Seven years before he disappeared, the state health commissioner had removed Dr. R.J. Harrington as director of the Muskegon County Health unit for "failure to conduct a proper immunization program" and "the lack of a proper health program and failure to properly trace sources of venereal disease within his jurisdiction."
Named director in 1936, Harrington did not start his duties untilAugust 1938 after completing a course in public health at the University of Kentucky. He was removed less than two years later.
The state first began looking into Harrington's performance as director after he fired the health unit's supervising nurse, Mrs. Elizabeth Pfarrer, who in turn brought charges of "dissention and lack of cooperation" against Harrington.
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