virgin valley medical care
When a person died, burials were quick due to lack of embalming methods. Women cleaned and dressed the body while men dug graves, sometimes spending hours breaking through rocky soil. Coffins were handmade and lined with available cloth. The community provided meals and help for grieving families.
In 1908, Dr. Ship, a female doctor, was sent by the church to train local women in first-aid and nursing. The first resident doctor, Dr. Gilbert, arrived in 1924. A hospital opened in 1944. Despite limited resources, Dr. Gilbert and Nurse Bertha Howe delivered over 35 babies.
Virgin Valley’s first dentist, Dr. Daryll Leavitt, traveled weekly from Las Vegas to provide dental care.
General medical practices
The people living on Mesquite Flats had their personal favorite remedies for injuries and illnesses. However, they also had a very personal and spiritual method of healing. Relying on their faith in Jesus Christ, every home of members of the Church had a small bottle of extra virgin olive oil dedicated to the healing of the sick and injured through the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood held by most of the husbands in the valley. The sick or injured person was blessed by two worthy Melchizedek Priesthood holders. One would anoint the sick or injured with the authorized olive oil and then was given a blessing of healing by the second priesthood holder. This special method of healing is still commonly used by church members today. There are many examples of the healing power of this holy oil blessing.
delivering babies
Life on Mesquite Flats was no exception. Each community had a woman who had the empathy and desire to help pregnant women in the birth of their children. There were no doctors on Mesquite Flats. There were men who had learned through farming experience or army experience how to set broken bones, extract infected teeth, and even amputate appendages. However, few of these medical skills had any knowledge of how to control infections or ease pain.
On the Mesquite Flats, the need for mid-wives was met with the Bishop of a ward, calling an experienced or willing woman as the ward’s mid-wife. Their training was far from adequate. Mostly, women who had had children would meet in the Women’s Relief Society meeting rooms and tell each other about their births. What helped the birth and what hurt the birth. Then, using this gathered information, the mid-wife proceeded to perform her duties and learned firsthand those things which seemed most to help a birth along.
A mid-wife would leave her home for up to a month when she went to the aid of a pregnant woman. The mid-wife would take over the mother duties in the home before the birth and would remain with the mother until her strength would allow her to return to her duties as a wife and mother.
Living on Mesquite Flats was always harder than living in Las Vegas or St. George. Each of these cities had hospitals staffed with trained doctors and nurses. But on the Flats, no such blessing existed. There were mid-wives called and set apart in Beaver Dam/Littlefield, Mesquite and Bunkerville. In Beaver Dam/Littlefield, Minerva Leavitt McKnight was the mid-wife. In Bunkerville Maria Huntsman Leavitt was the mid-wife. In Mesquite Lena Hughes and Carmelia Burgess Hughes served as mid-wives. Carmelia helped deliver over 200 babies without losing one child.
death and burial
When a person died, burial was performed within hours due to the inability to embalm the dead. The women of Virgin Valley were the ones who took care of the dead. Through the Relief Society auxiliary of the Church, the women in each community would go to the home of the dead person and wash and clean and dress the body for burial. Each community had someone who would build the coffin out of pine wood. The sisters would line the coffin with whatever cloth they had available and place the body in the coffin. While these services were being performed the men of the community would prepare the grave site. Digging graves in Bunkerville took a group of six men nearly six hours due to the cemetery being located on an area of large rocks and gravel. The digging of graves was easier in Mesquite due to the town being built on blow sand. Burial would be held the next day. The Relief Society women would cook meals for the family and clean the home. They would provide this service until the family could take over for themselves.
formal training
It was not until the year 1908 that any formal training for home nursing became available to the families of Mesquite Flats. In that year, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sent a woman doctor, Dr. Ship, from Salt Lake City, Utah to Mesquite to train the Relief Society sisters in nursing care and first aid. In 1924, Dr.L.L.Gilbert moved to Mesquite and became the first doctor to live and practice on Mesquite Flats.
The first hospital in Virgin Valley started off as a library. It was constructed under the National Youth Administration. The NYA was designed much like The Civilian Conservation Corps to provide jobs and training for the young men of the country. Walter W. Hughes oversaw building this new library and it was constructed from the natural rock from the desert and pine lumber from Hancock Peak, above Littlefield, Arizona. When WWII began, the Mesquite Town Board, under direction of Lenord Reber, received permission to change the library to a hospital. Reber contacted Dr. J. Cherry of the Las Vegas Hospital and was able to purchase some unused hospital equipment to be used in the Mesquite Hospital. Each family in Mesquite was asked to donate $35.00 to purchase this old used equipment. With the help of Dr. Cherry and Dr. Gilbert, the County hired a nurse who had moved into Moapa Valley from New York to work in the Mesquite Hospital. Her name was Bertha Howe. From June, 1944 through July, 1948 Dr. Gilbert and Nurse Howe delivered over 35 babies in this hospital.
Virgin Valley’s first dentist was Dr. Daryll Leavitt, a graduate of Virgin Valley High School who had completed dental school and was practicing in Las Vegas. He would drive from Vegas to Mesquite once a week to provide dental care at the hospital.