[Greensboro health services history]

              In 1848, when  Dorothea Dix was  traveling over the state in the interest of the insane,
she found the old Guilford County poorhouse out of repair and utterly comfortless.    She
reported, however,  that it was being replaced by a $4,000 brick building.     Former Governor
Morehead is said to have succeeded in  getting this Guilford County Home located in Greensboro
and to have superintended its building himself.
and this plan resulted in veg.
By  1891,  a farm was established in connection with the home,/and other foods  for the
county home and the county jail; and until pasteurization was  required,  it provided mild for
the Guilford County Tuberculosis Sanitarium.
In  1903 the city was selected for the location of the Children's Home Society of North
Carolina.    Through Dorothea  Lynde  nix,  a philanthropist  and reformer who was horn in Maine,
and James  C.   Dobbin of the state legislature,  an act was passed in  1849  for the establishment
of an asylum, now known as  Dix Hill,  at Raleigh.
In 1871  an overseer of the needy was  appointed by the county commissioners to distribute
groceries  and merchandise to an average of 55  familes each month.    The 1890 records show an
expenditure of $3,747.08 on monthly allowances,  about one fourth of the county's general
budget.    This manner of neighborly assistance was  carried on until  1912 when A.  W.  McAlister
and A.  M,  Scales promoted the Interchurch Association and solicited contributions  from different citizens  for welfare work.    As this activity expanded,  the name of the organization was
changed to the Social Welfare  League and then to the Greensboro Welfare Board.     In  1919,
in accordance with a state  law,  Guilford County established a Department of Public Welfare,
At that time the Greensboro Welfare Board merged with the Guilford County Department of
Public Welfare.    This program was  followed until  1937 when the federal,  state,  and county
governments combined to expand the work.    Since its  reorganization in 1937,  the Guilford
County Department of Public Welfare has  followed the directions of a state manual  for all
public welfare work.
Health Services  among the first settlers of Guilford  fell  to the "country doctor" and
the "circuit-riding dentist."    In the 1880's,  however,  Guilford inaugurated the position of
County Superintendent of Health,  and  Dr.  William Paisley Beall was placed in that position  ii
1881-1884.    The citizens of Guilford were influential  in getting the legislature to provide
for a county Board of Health and a full-time physician to act as Superintendent of Health
(Health Officer since 1913),    Guilford was  the  first county in the state and the second in
the nation  to set up a County Health Department.    The County Health  Department was established
in  1911.     Dr.  G.   F.   Ross became the first  full-time County Superintendent of Health in North
Carolina.    Dr.  W.   Perry Reaves inaugurated in 1910-1911  the first adenoid and tonsil clinic
to be held in the state.     Dr.   Reaves  removed tonsils  for $5,  including a day in the hospital.
Dr.   Ross was  succeeded by Dr.  William M.  Jones in  1912;  and in 1924  Dr.  R.  M,  Buie became
Health Officer,  a position which he held for 25 years.    Somewhat predating the County Health
Department,  Greensboro had established a City Board of Health  (1905),    About  1890 a part-
time sanitary officer was appointed.     In 1995  a city physician,  Dr.  fcdmund Harrison, was
appointed and he began at once to plan for better sanitation and health rules.     During his ten
in office regular inspection of meat and milk became a city law.     In these efforts  to take
care of county and city health needs,much overlapping of different agencies had developed,
and in 1923 there was a complete reorganization of these services.    Under the new plan,  Or,
Carl A.  Grote was appointed Health Officer of the city, but since he served only one year
people are inclined to think of Dr.  C,   C,  Hudson, who served during the next 18 years,  as
the first full-time City Health Officer under the new arrangement.
The Greensboro Nursing Council introduced a new type of nursing program in the United
States,  one which has  received national  recognition since its  inception.