Madison County's northern community of Elwood holds  the distinction of having the first medical institution in the  area, dating back to 1892.

The Elwood Institute for the Cure of Dipsomania was founded in 1892 by J.W. Crismond who perfected an alleged cure for drinking, wrote Dr. Howard M. Faust in "The History of Medicine in Madison County, Indiana."

Faust wrote that the second definite hospital in the county was the Emergency Hospital, which also was founded in 1892 by Dr. Fred Jenner Hodges, a direct descendent of Edward Jenner, discoverer of the smallpox vaccination.

The third hospital in Madison County was the current St. John's Medical Center.

In 1894, John Hickey donated his two-story farmhouse and 10 acres of his farm to the Sisters of the Holy Cross for a hospital, as an expression of gratitude he felt for the care and medical attention the sisters gave him and his wife, Maria, during the winter of 1893.

Maria had contracted pneumonia and her husband, John also was ill. Sister Victoria, a former Civil War nurse and directress of St. Mary's School was among those who provided care for the couple.

For two months, the sisters cared for Maria, but she did not recover. It was Maria's wish that some part of their lives be dedicated to charity. She and her husband had no children, and had made their modest fortune from running a restaurant/grocery store in Anderson for 41
years. They also prospered after the first natural gas well was discovered on their farm.

The Hickeys wanted to give back to the community.

The Sisters of the Holy Cross were grateful, and began immediately preparing the house for patients. They added running water and a sewer, as well as bedding and furniture.

The hospital was ready in 69 days. The short span of preparation time and the opening days brought many problems. Sister M. Leonine gave this account of the event: "I taught school at St. Mary's in the morning, cleaned the hospital in the afternoon. The house was in terrible condition. There were cobwebs from one room to another. There were two rooms without windows.  Under the carpets there were pounds of straw. We had a great struggle to provide for ourselves and the patients and there were no modern conveniences. The patients brought their own beds and everything they could to help out."

One historical book in the Indiana Room of Anderson Public Library, featuring historical recollections by John Jones, noted the hospital was initially known as St. Mary's Hospital before being named St. John's, and the hospital was directly opposite St. Mary's cemetery.

Clarence Wilson of Anderson found in his family's possessions a postcard of the hospital's early years, in which the words "St. Marys Hospital, Anderson, Ind." is printed on the front of the card. The black-and-white photo depicts the same hospital building St. John's archives' depict in its early years.

The hospital started with eight beds and 80 patients the first year. Seven sisters provided care, with Sister M. Victoria O'Keefe as the hospital's first administrator.

During the first year, the hospital's monthly operating expense was $25. The first surgery also was performed in 1894, when Dr. Walter Hunt, strained over an army cot (which was substituted for an operating table) amputated a man's leg. The patient was a victim of a Big Four railroad accident. Another early surgery involved the removal of a 50-pound tumor from a woman.

According to the first medical records ledger in the archives of St. John's, the sisters comforted patients with consumption, typhoid fever and diphtheria.

Other ailments seen the first year included rheumatism, blood poisoning, gall stones and pneumonia and measles. Also in the early years, patients paid $8 to $15 per week for a room, or $5 to $7 per week for a ward bed.

The Sisters of the Holy Cross knew from the beginning that the house was too small to accommodate a growing number of patients and plans were made to build a new structure. In 1895 and 1900 the hospital expanded, with John Hickey's financial assistance.

Hickey lived at the hospital and continued to support the hospital's growth. He remained there until his death in 1906 at age 81. Before he died, Hickey asked for his lock box and burned the mortgages, notes and bills due to him.

Hickey was recognized for his generosity by local newspapers, calling him "Anderson's most distinguished philanthropist."

According to St. John's records, the Sisters of the Holy Cross named the hospital St. John's in honor of John Hickey's patron saint, John the Evangelist, the apostle to charity.

In 1904, the hospital staff consisted of 11 sisters, one paid night nurse, one maid and three workmen.

The first baby was born at the hospital in 1907, to Mr. and Mrs. A.E. Drakes. The 8-pound baby and her mother stayed at the hospital for two weeks.

In a general report to the public in 1907, the sisters described the hospital's accomplishments:

"The workings of the institution may be judged for the fact that St. John's Hospital during the year from July 1906 to December 1907, ministered to 344 patients, of  which number 43 were charity patients. One hundred and sixty-one operations were performed with but 17 deaths out of the whole number. ... St. John's Hospital is working according to Mr. Hickey's intention, for the good of the people."

In 1909, the nursing program received its first class, with Myrtle Newkirk as the first graduate.

Disaster struck the hospital in 1910, when its barn burned beyond repair. The patients' diets depended a lot on the dairy products provided by the cows, as well as produce from the garden. In addition, the Anderson City Council abandoned its policy that year of providing free electric light and water to charitable organizations.

Despite the setback, the hospital established a room to care for the poor.

"So long as we have crust of bread, we will share it with God's poor," the administrator, Sister Beniti is reported to have said when the sisters were asked to care for a sick destitute woman.

X-ray equipment came to St. John's in 1912; however, not much could be seen other than broken bones and hard foreign objects. And, in 1915, on the eve of the United States' entry into World War 1, St. John's opened a new wing, known as the Center Building. It was the largest building erected during the year in Madison County. The new three-story building housed a 13-room operating suite, six-room X-ray suite and
 two-room laboratory. The expansion brought the bed count to 100.

Many of the hospital's doctors were called to service in World War I, and Dr. Weir Miley wrote letters from France to Sister Louis at St. John's. "Anderson certainly  has sent more than her allotment of doctors to the war, and I imagine the people feel a shortage, especially in
 the line of surgery," wrote Miley. "I think after the war is over, and we all return home, that we will be better doctors. ... This war will bring about great improvement in the medical profession, in that it will have offered opportunities for study that many of us otherwise not have received."

After the war, the worldwide influenza epidemic reached the United States with the nation's returning soldiers. Influenza crowded St. John's. The Board of Health used the third floor of the main building city patients who had to be hospitalized. Not a case was lost, the Board of Health proudly reported.

Also during the early years of the century, there was another medical facility called Home Hospital, which existed for a few years on Eighth Street near Funk Park.