his tiny office and in the homes of his patients; there had simply been no
demand for a hospital, and Dr. Mayo was likely one of the few people in
town who had ever seen a hospital.
Will Mayo (1861–1939) was born in Le Sueur, Minnesota, within weeks
of the Civil War’s first major battle, and Charlie (1865–1939) was born in
Rochester within weeks of the great conflagration’s last major battle. Even
as children, Will and Charlie accompanied the “horse and buggy”
physician on house calls, even assisting in surgery. Will Mayo graduated
from the University of Michigan in 1883, returning home to Rochester to
join his father whose office was in “downtown” Rochester; Charlie was in
medical school at Chicago Medical College at that time, and it was
assumed he, too, would join the family business.
On August 21, 1883, all three Mayo men were in town the day the
monstrous cyclone destroyed Rochester. Dozens perished and hundreds
were injured, and the lack of any type of health care facility meant that the
injured were triaged in the local school, small hotels, and the dance hall. It
didn’t take long for the leader of the Sisters of St. Francis, Mother Alfred
Moes, to approach Dr. Mayo, offering to help build a hospital. Catholic
sisters were partnering with town fathers across the country, and in the
face of tragedy, Mother Alfred was inspired to build a small hospital on
the plains.
Later, Dr. Mayo recalled, “I told her too that the erection of a hospital
was a difficult undertaking and required a great deal of money, and
moreover we had no assurance of its being a success even after a great
deal of time and money had been put into it. ‘Very true,’ she persisted;
‘but you just promise me to take charge of it and we will set that building
before you at once. With our faith, hope, and energy, it will succeed.’ I
asked how much money the Sisters would be willing to put into it, and her
reply was, ‘How much do you want?’ ‘Would you be willing to risk forty
thousand dollars?’ I said. ‘Yes,’ she replied; ‘and more if you want it.
Draw up your plans. It will be there at once.’”^9
In the five years it took for the Sisters to raise enough money to buy
land and begin the construction process, Dr. Mayo and Dr. Will (as he
became known) toured East Coast hospitals and met with architects. While
the tornado had been a catastrophe, the timing was fortuitous. Thirty years
before, hardly a soul lived in the area, but in the mid-1880s a small band
of determined visionaries thought that building a local hospital was worth