Peering at the Past – Arriving in a Hupmobile, They Never Lost a Mother or a Baby

Most Houston County babies were born at home during the first half of the 1900s. And many homes were rural. If the mother was fortunate, there would be assistance from a midwife or nurse. Doctors made house calls, but getting to the farmhouse could be arduous, especially in winter and during spring rains, especially at night.

In the in the southeastern part of the county, the creek could be so full of rainwater, the doctor and his horse-drawn buggy might have to search for an alternate route around the hills. It might take all day – or night. After her first three babies were born in that corner of the county, Mary Hill Donahue decided in 1912 that the fourth child would be born in the Caledonia Hospital. She arrived to stay in town some time beforehand.

Two decades later, in the 1930s, during the era of the Great Depression, Clara Maggart (1897-1987), a nurse who accompanied Houston Dr. W. W. Canfield on many maternity calls, remembered most births being on rural farms. During those hard times, most people did not have enough money for hospital births. And even among those with economic means, many preferred childbirth to happen at home.

Maggart had graduated from a one-year maternity course from the former Ripley Memorial Hospital in Minneapolis, receiving her cap and pin in 1922. She was active in nursing for most of four decades.

She said most maternity calls came late at night. “We drove all over God’s creation at night,” she told a reporter at age 84, long after her retirement. Although there were births that came as a complete surprise, the doctor was familiar with most maternity cases, having cared for the mothers during their pregnancies.

On these medical calls, Dr. Canfield drove a Hupmobile, a brand of automobile built by the Hupp Motor Car Company in Detroit from 1909 to 1939. Maggart said these trips were made pleasant by the doctor’s keen sense of humor. “He would joke all the way to the farm.”

When the doctor was called, he would phone Clara so she would be ready when he picked her up on his way out of town. They hurried as quickly as they could. Once there, they sometimes had to wait a while for the baby to make an appearance. Dr. Canfield would stay for the delivery unless he received another call, leaving Maggart to time contractions until he returned.

One night, the baby came before he returned, and Maggart had to deliver the newborn. Clara said she did not have time to be nervous, and the doctor did return in time to finish the procedure.

The master bedroom served as a maternity ward with just the mother, doctor and Clara present. The husband would wait in an adjacent room, and the children would be sleeping, since it was usually a late-night experience. However, there were some daytime deliveries.

Maggart always had a large pad ready to grab at a moment’s notice. After the bed was prepared for the mother, water had to be heated for cleaning following the procedure. And there had to be a place prepared for the baby, preferably a cradle if available.

Maggart said she helped both the mother and the doctor during the birth. “If they had the right kind of bed, the bed could be fixed so the mother had something to pull on. If not, they often grabbed my hands to pull on.”

If there was no one to assist the mother and family after the birth, Maggart would stay at their home for about a week, caring for the mother and baby, cooking and caring for the rest of the family. She noted that there were no Pampers back in the 1930s.

She said she did not mind the late-night calls and got used to them. She always had some things ready to take with them on short notice. If she knew she would be staying, she would pack her uniforms, which were long, starched cotton dresses. If she did not have time to change clothes before the doctor picked her up, she would go dressed the way she was.

Maggart said she made a lot of friends, since the families were so appreciative for her coming out to help so late at night. She praised the doctors, who worked long hours, and were capable while working for “peanuts.”

Born in Yucatan Township, Houston County, Clara attended the local country school and then went to the Austin Teachers College for two years. She launched her teaching career in country schools at age 17 and then seven years later, returned to school for nursing.

She said she and Dr. Canfield never lost a mother or a baby. Maggart did not know how many babies they had delivered and wished she had kept a diary. In addition to assisting Dr. Canfield in his private practice, she also worked at the Caledonia Hospital and La Crosse Lutheran Hospital.

There was one birth she regretted during which she was not able to participate. When her first granddaughter was born in La Crosse, she said,” I was on pins and needles. I was working on the floor below maternity and couldn’t get up there during the birth.”

“I enjoyed every year I worked in nursing,” Maggart added. “When I left nursing, I missed it very much. It was very satisfying work. I was doing something for people and felt really needed.”

Clara (Brevig) Maggart, wife of Henry Maggart, worked as a nurse until retiring in 1960. She died on March 11, 1987, one month before her 90th birthday.

Dr. Wayne W. Canfield came to Houston in the spring of 1929 and except for a few interruptions, practiced medicine there until 1950. From 1943 to 1945 during World War II, he served with the Armed Forces. He later served as Senior Staff Physician and Assistant Superintendent at the St. Peter State Hospital from 1950 to his retirement in 1971. He passed away in 1977.

Sources: 1981 article, “Home Births Common in the 1930s,” republished in Houston, MN, 1940-1970; From the Milk House of the Old White Barn, compiled by L. J. Vix, 2020. A Creek Runs Through Me; A History of the Winnebago Creek Valley in Southeastern Minnesota, by Barbara Scottston and Terry Atherton, 2013.