Old Missoula

Miss Bess Hollenbeck – WW 1 nurse honored

Miss Bess (Elizabeth Emma) Hollenbeck was one of several Missoula women who served in the military during WW1. She was a graduate of St. Patrick School of Nursing and went on to a long career in the nursing field. Her early overseas career was the subject several Missoulian articles which are shown below. As with so many women, little was presented about her early life. While she was born in San Jose, Ca., census data shows her birth as 1887, while other information gives her birth as 1890. She was the daughter of A. C. Hollenbeck, a Missoula contractor and brick manufacturer. Her mother died in Missoula when she was a youngster. She attended MCHS and graduated from nursing school in 1916.

 

Montana Girl Nurse Ministers To Serbs

Miss Bess Hollenbeck Writes of Her Relief Work.Hhllllhhhh

Miss Bess Hollenbeck of Missoula, Mont., is working with the Serbian relief commission to keep alive the remnants of the Serb race left after the series of Turk, German and Austrian ravages.

A letter from her to Missoula friends describes the country as beautiful and the type of people who have survived the hardships of the last several years as the highest to be expected of the county. Miss Hollenbeck who was well-known here as a nurse in several physicians’ offices, is stationed at Razand, Serbia, one of the 11 stations maintained by the relief commission in Serbia. They deal with public health, school children, infants and class work. Miss Hollenbeck is in the dispensary.

The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on November 1, 1921.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349140220/?terms=%22Bess%2BHollenbeck%22

 

Miss Hollenbeck Tells of Labors in Near East

Miss Bessie Hollenbeck, who for the last two years has been engaged in the Near East and Serbian relief work, in Serbia and Russia, gave a very interesting account of her work to the students of the high school yesterday morning, at the regular Wednesday morning assembly.

Two years ago Miss Hollenbeck, who had studied to become a trained nurse, was called to Serbia, after services as a war nurse in France. Arriving in Serbia she found that food supplies were more plentiful and her aid was not much needed, so she took up Serbian child welfare work. Schools were first built and teachers then secured. All the children seemed very eager to go to school and some walked ten miles every day, even in the winter, to obtain an education.

Miss Hollenbeck next took up public health work among the children, going to Russia where she worked among the orphans. The orphans were taught how to make clothing and necessities at the industrial schools built there.

Miss Hollenbeck was formerly a resident of Missoula, having graduated from St. Patrick’s hospital training school as a nurse.

The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on November 8, 1923

https://www.newspapers.com/image/352381000/?terms=%22Miss%2BHollenbeck%22

 

Turks Taking Kindly To American Methods

Public Health Nurse Talks of Constantinople.

Turkish people are rapidly taking up American health methods, says Miss Bessie Hollenbeck, a public health nurse who is home from Constantinople and other cities of the Near East. Miss Hollenbeck has spent the past two years as nurse with the American hospital in the Turkish capital, and previously was with the Near East Relief. She is the guest of Mr. and Mrs. F. A. McDonald of Orchard Homes.

Miss Hollenbeck’s work has given her the opportunity to see the Turk in his home, and she finds the Turkish people hospitable, friendly and well disposed toward Americans, she says. Very few speak English, so Miss Hollenbeck learned a few words of the Turkish language to aid her in her work. Many educated Turks speak French, she relates, and she found little difficulty conversing with them in that tongue.

Constantinople, she says, is a beautiful city, with the climate resembling southern California’s. Last winter no snow fell and the rainfall was not excessive. The summers are warm, she says, but not unpleasantly so.

Miss Hollenbeck has concluded her contract with the American hospital, but is planning to return to her work in the Near East. Should she decide to continue her activities in Constantinople, she will leave Missoula shortly after the first of the year.

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on December 13, 1925.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/348904394/?terms=%22Miss%2BHollenbeck%22

 

The Story of Nurse Hollenbeck

Editor’s Note: In observance of National Hospital Week, May 6-12, tribute is paid to an outstanding graduate of St. Patrick School of Nursing, Elizabeth Hollenbeck. To many of us the word “hospital” always brings to mind the professional nurse in her crisp white uniform who can dispense comfort, cheerfulness, sympathy, concern, pills, thermometers and stern discipline . . . all without losing our admiration and respect. In tribute to hospitals and all their staff members, we offer the story of Miss Hollenbeck.

Every nursing school produces one or two outstanding nurses. Undoubtedly one from St. Patrick School of Nursing is Elizabeth Hollenbeck.

Miss Hollenbeck came to Montana from California when a small child. She attended Montana State University. She then entered St. Patrick School of Nursing, graduating in 1916.

After graduation, she worked in a doctor’s clinic in Missoula until she joined the U.S. Army and went overseas in 1917. After demobilization, she volunteered to go to Russia where for two years she devoted herself to orphanage work in Russia, Armenia and Greece.

Returning to the United States, she studied and took her public health nursing certificate from the University of Chicago. She then came west again and became the first public health nurse in Benton-Franklin counties in Washington.

Soon she received a call from Near East Relief to return to work with people still suffering from the ravages of the war. She went. In Constantinople she took charge of the nurses training school for public health in the American Hospital.

Then she went to Alexandropoulos, Greece, where she was the head of the nursing service. Here, 20,000 orphans received medical care. Of these, 12,900 were treated daily for trachoma, a disease which can cause blindness. At the end of a year, the disease rate had been cut in half.

Under the auspices of the American Hospital, an orphanage was built in the Greek island of Syra for 3,000 children. Miss Hollenbeck was placed in charge of the building of this home.

She later returned to the United States to reside in Seattle, Wash.

Miss Hollenbeck died Oct. 1, 1961. Her ashes are placed in Tacoma, Wash., where the Veterans administration has placed a plaque in her honor.

The above article appeared in The Missoulian on May 9, 1962.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349400228/?terms=%22Elizabeth%2BHollenbeck%22