Image: The Kootenay Lake General Hospital in the early 1900s. Both Isabelle and Edward Arthur would have spent a great deal of their time working in and with this hospital.

Life Before Nelson

Edward Arthur always had a passion for education, something he and his wife had in common. Edward Arthur was born in Hollowell Township, Prince Edward County, Ontario on November 29th, 1856. He started in county school but later attended high school in Brighton, Ontario. At as early as seventeen, Edward was teaching at a local public school in Sophiasburgh, Ontario. From then on, teaching became a recurring theme in his life. In 1877, he began his studies at Victoria College of Cobourg and graduated in 1880 with a Bachelor of Arts. He then returned to an educational setting and accepted a position with the Arnprior Board of Education. During this time he also  pursued his interest in mineralogy at Victoria College.

Edward’s career changed course during the fall of 1885 when he was accepted into Trinity Medical School. Unfortunately, post-graduation, it was not all sunshine and mineralogy for the newly minted doctor. During the next five years, Dr. Edward Arthur made five separate attempts at opening his own practice around Ontario, none of which were successful.

Edward Arthur as a young man

In 1889, however, his luck changed when he became engaged to be married to an intelligent and beautiful woman, Isabelle Lennox Delmage, who would later become a doctor herself. She was twenty-two and he was ten years her senior. That summer, they had a wedding described as “quaint, but delightful,” in St. Mary’s, Ontario. With a family to support, including a child on the way the couple began to discuss plans to relocate and within the year Dr. Arthur took a position as a physician with the Columbia and Kootenay Railway.

A typed version of Isabelle Arthur and Edward Arthur’s wedding announcement, July 31, 1889.

Edward arrived in Nelson in 1890 and Isabelle joined him two years later.

Settling Down

Shortly after his arrival, Dr. Arthur opened and began to advertise his new medical practice by promoting his surgical and medical skills. He also had a “Medicine Hall” in which he sold an array of miscellaneous products like drugs, chemicals, and toilet articles. After noticing the lack of an education system in Nelson, he established the city’s first classroom in an unfinished room in his unfinished house. Class begun on May 25th, 1891 and a dozen pupils showed up with the will to learn. For the duration of this time, he was writing back to his wife in glee over Nelson and everything it had to offer.

The school in Dr. Edward Arthurs house was relocated to a small Methodist Church on the corner of Kootenay and Baker.

Hardships

Sadly, Isabelle, who was still back in St. Mary’s suffered a tragic loss. Her daughter Margaret  passed away at the age of only two months and fifteen days.

“I feel lost without the little darling and don’t know how I will put in the time until I can go to you… I had looked forward with so much pleasure to the time when I could take her to you… it is very hard to give her up.” In a letter addressed to “My dear Ed” from “Your own loving Belle,” Isabelle speaks of her anguish.

After a long few months, Isabelle arrived on the Columbia and Kootenay Railway’s first passenger train to Nelson. In 1892, Dr. Arthur was offered the position of Coroner for West Kootenay Electoral District and the couple finally began to find their footing in Nelson. Unfortunately, more grief struck the Arthur residence after the loss of their infant son Edward Delmage Arthur in 1893. The loss of their two children was devastating to the couple and local historian, Ron Welwood, speculates that Isabelle’s loss was a contributing factor to her decision to attend medical school. In the end, Isabelle’s experience made her uniquely qualified for the job of a physician as she could bring an element of empathy, especially to female patients, which many others couldn’t. The next year she was a medical student at the University of Oregon.

Their Timeline

Here is a timeline of the couple and their experiences in Nelson, British Columbia.

• 1894-1897 –  While Isabelle Arthur was studying medicine, Edward was being assigned as the City’s Medical Health Officer. He also created a board to assist in funding and establishing Nelson’s first hospital. He spent his occasional off-time prospecting and making use of his education in mineralogy. Ironically he was also found guilty of violating the Board of Health’s sanitary regulations when an open septic pit was discovered behind his residence.
• Dr. Edward Arthur’s Issue with the Board of Health. In the early 1890s, Dr. Arthur ran into a legal quarrel when the Provincial Sanitary Inspector was in town and decided to charge Dr. Arthur for the violation of the Health Board’s sanitary regulations. This was because cesspits were found on the property of Dr. Arthur. Though Arthur claimed that the pits were more sanitary than box closets, it was said that as the City’s Medical Health Officer, he set an “evil example” of the sanitary regulations he was supposed to enforce. Presented with the choice of paying a fifty-dollar fine or going to jail for two months, he paid the fine.

• 1897-1899 – Dr. Isabelle Arthur returned from medical school and both of the doctors lobbied on behalf of the social issues they were concerned with. At the time, it was the rights of those living with disabilities, the pasteurization of milk and immunization of cattle, and the sanitation of the city’s watering system.

• April 19, 1899 – Margaret Isabelle Lennox Arthur is born!

  

  Dr. Edward Arthur and his daughter Margaret Lennox Arthur, 1924

• 1900 – Dr. Edward Arthur won a position on city council and often went head to head with the  notorious John Houston.

• 1909 – As a demonstration of the couple’s interest and involvement in communal organizations, the Arthurs sold their property to the “Young Men’s Christian Association.”

• 1910 – Dr. Isabelle Arthur became the first School Medical Health Officer.

• 1916 – “Captain” Arthur was posted to Bramshott, England to serve in World War 1.

  

  Captain Edward Arthur in uniform.

• 1917 – Capt. Arthur was transferred to France to provide medical treatment and care for civilians and soldiers.

• 1916-1923 – When Edward went to war, Isabelle took over and became the city’s first female Medical Health Officer. She held this post until her death in 1923. In addition to this new job, she was still she School Medical Health Officer and spent much of her time working with many different local organizations.

• 1919 – Dr. Edward Arthur arrived home only to become British Columbia’s Travelling Medical Officer and Health Inspector. His job was to visit hospitals and public institutions throughout the province and give advice on sanitation.

• 1918-1920 – Dr. Isabelle Arthur, City Medical Health Officer, is confronted with the Spanish Influenza epidemic.

  

  Dr. Isabelle Arthur in 1919 (during the Spanish Influenza epidemic).

• 1923-1932 – 
  1923 – Dr. Isabelle Arthur took a leave of absence and went to visit her daughter, Margaret, who was studying at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. She planned on staying for three months and visiting other relatives. However, she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and unfortunately died on August 28, 1923. Edward received an overdue telegram informing him about Isabelle’s hemorrhage and telling him to come immediately, but when he arrived Isabelle was unconscious. Some historians in the area have said that she never recovered from the mental and physical toll from the years fightingthe Spanish Influenza.

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  The overdue telegram that was sent to Dr. E. Arthur.

   

  1932 – After his wife’s death, Edward resumed the School Medical Health Officer and City Medical Health Officer positions. He retained these positions until his death on July 6, 1932,  of chronic myocarditis in the Kootenay Lake General Hospital.

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  Dr. Edward Arthur, in later years.