About Us
History
The story of T.J. Samson Community Hospital begins in 1926. After reading an article about the Commonwealth Fund, an organization dedicated to the establishment of rural hospitals. C. W. Froedge, M.D. began his mission. Knowing that the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce was already actively involved in a fund-raising campaign to build an addition onto the Maple-Wood Infirmary, Dr. Froedge took the article to the Chamber with the idea of building a community hospital instead. The Chamber accepted his proposal, and on Nov. 6, 1926, the Commonwealth Fund of New York awarded its second endowment to Glasgow on a 2 to 1 fund-matching incentive.
The fund granted a $130,000 honorarium toward the establishment of a community hospital with the local community contributed the remaining $65,000. A fundraising committee was established and by January 1927 it was decided that any party donating $25,000 or more would be allowed to name the hospital as a memorial.
Smaller contributions earned other commemorations such as memorial rooms and plaques. In a meeting on Feb. 15, 1927, a member of the advisory committee, T. J. Samson, pledged his stock in the Samson Tobacco Company (worth $18,500) plus an additional $6,500 for the privilege of naming the hospital.
Construction on the original facility began the following year, and by October 1928 the Community Hospital of Glasgow was ready for inspection by the Commonwealth Fund. The building easily passed inspection, and on Sept. 3, 1929, the hospital was dedicated and opened to the public. The first patient, J. G. Russell, of Whetstone, KY was admitted on Sept. 18, 1929.
Since then, the hospital has undergone several expansions, including its most recent addition—a new wing to house an ultramodern labor and delivery floor, emergency department, cardiology laboratory, and intensive care unit. In May 1997 the hospital was designated as the site for one of Kentucky’s congressionally mandated Family Practice Residency Programs and is now home to the University of Louisville Glasgow/Barren County Family Medicine Residency.
