Since the first of the year 1923 the Herkimer Emergency Hospital has been under the capable superintendency of Miss Hazel Nell Schwartz, a graduate nurse of many years experience. Indeed, so satisfactory has her administration been to the hospital board, medical profession and the general public that she has been offered the superintendency of the new Herkimer Memorial Hospital, which is now in the course of construction. She was born in Gouverneur, St. Lawrence county, New York, and was educated in this state. Her father was the late Harry Scott Schwartz, D. D., a clergyman in the Baptist church, who was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and died on January 9, 1920, at Clinton, New York. He was educated in Colgate University of Hamilton, New York, and Bucknell University, taking a degree in each of these well known institutions, and from the time of his ordination into the ministry until his death he was active in his church as a clergyman in various places in New York state. His widow, Mrs. Jessie (Muzzy) Schwartz, continues to reside in Clinton.
As a girl Hazel Nell Schwartz attended school in Boonville, Holland Patent and Clinton, New York, graduating from the high school in the latter place in 1906. She took her nurses' training course in the St. Luke's Hospital of Utica and graduated therefrom in the class of 1911. For four months prior to her graduation and for some time afterward Miss Schwartz was in charge of the operating room of St. Luke's in the capacity of assistant superintendent. On the 1st of October, 1920, she resigned her position in the hospital to take a much needed rest from her exacting duties.
It was on the 22d of January, 1923, that Miss Schwartz took formal charge of the Herkimer Emergency Hospital as superintendent. This hospital has ten beds. There is no training school in connection with it, but five graduate registered nurses are kept on the staff all the time, thus insuring the best of professional care to patients. In a large measure the village owes the acquisition of this hospital to the generosity of one of its citizens, the late Levi Lawton, who gave part of the money for the establishment of the institution. The town appropriates twenty-five hundred dollars annually towards its support, but it is the women of the town and village who have been the "backbone" of the hospital. They have worked with steadfast zeal for its maintenance and have so far succeeded in their efforts that the present hospital has not only been kept going efficiently, but plans have been laid for a better and bigger one. The Emergency Hospital has no regularly organized medical and surgical staff, but all the doctors of the town have the privilege of bringing their patients to it.
Late in 1924 or early in 1925 the hospital board hopes to have the new Herkimer Memorial Hospital in operation. The building is now in the course of construction and will represent the latest and most approved methods of hospital architecture. The capacity will be three times that of the present hospital, or thirty beds, and it will have a regularly organized staff. The money for this fine memorial has been raised by public subscription. It is a tribute to Miss Schwartz and her assistants that the general public has come to a realization of the benefits of a well conducted institution of this sort, even in a small town, and is willing to help support such a hospital by contributions from its private resources.
Miss Schwartz has had the opportunity of studying instrumental music under Professor Elliott of The Elliott School of Music and taking vocal lessons from Miss Irene Coggeshall, a well-known teacher of Utica, and this has contributed immeasurably to her own enjoyment and afforded her friends many pleasant hours. Miss Schwartz is fond of outdoor sports, particularly hunting and fishing. Her political affiliations are with the republican party and, true to her upbringing, she is a member of the Baptist church of Clinton, New York. She is a member of the Alumni Association of St. Luke's Hospital of Utica and in Herkimer is identified with the Women's Business and Professional Club.