Bertha Elizabeth (Wikoff) Berry (1876–1954) was a nurse and the founder of the Berry Hospital in

Ekalaka, Montana Ekalaka is a town in and the county seat of Carter County, Montana, United States. The population was 399 at the 2020 census. History Ekalaka was named after a Sioux girl, Ijkalaka, who was the wife of David Harrison Russell, a scout. Ijkal ...

Early life

Bertha Wikoff was born in

Adams County, Ohio Adams County is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,477. Its county seat and largest village is West Union. The county is named after John Adams, the second President of the United States. Geogr ...

, to a family of French extraction. Her parents were Hosea and Anne Belle Wikoff.www.Old-Timers-USA.com
At age 21 Berry moved with her family to Chandler,

Oklahoma Territory The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as ...

Marriage

In Oklahoma, Bertha met a sawyer from Colorado, Charles Berry. The two married in 1900 and had three daughters. In 1910 the family moved to Ekalaka in search of lumber, there two more daughters were born.

Education

Berry began studying nursing in 1924, taking a

correspondence course Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

in the subject from The Chautauqua School of Nursing.

Berry Hospital

Less than two years after beginning her studies, Bertha Berry purchased a large house in Ekalaka and opened the Berry Hospital, which was the first hospital to operate in Ekalaka. The Berry Hospital was primarily a maternity hospital, and was the only formal medical facility in the town until 1942, when the Dahl Memorial Hospital, now the Dahl Memorial Healthcare Association, was opened.

Death

Charles Berry died in 1943, a year after the Berry Hospital closed its doors. Bertha Berry survived another 11 years, dying at age 77 in 1954.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Bertha 1876 births 1954 deaths People from Adams County, Ohio American nurses American women nurses People from Carter County, Montana Activists from Ohio People from Chandler, Oklahoma