Drama in Time: Lungers and the first automobile in Tucson

“Tucson: A Drama in Time,” by John P. Warnock, professor emeritus of English at the University of Arizona, will soon be published, but it has its beginnings as a volume of the Journal of the Southwest.

We are publishing excerpts on the fourth Monday of the month.

As people learned that the dry climate of Tucson and Southern Arizona was beneficial for those with tuberculosis, they came in droves seeking, if not a cure, an easier life.

Dr. Hiram Fenner, who treated many of these health seekers, was also known for bringing the first automobile to Tucson.

From “Tucson: A Drama in Time”:

1890s

Tuberculosis continues as a scourge in the United States, the cause of 1 in 6 deaths during the second half of the 19th century. The idea has caught on across the country that living in a dry, sunny climate can be helpful to “lungers” and the advent of the railroad has made it possible for numbers of them to come to Tucson as health seekers.

The city does not have enough housing for all who come and tent cities have begun to spring up.

1900

At its site west of the Santa Cruz River, St. Mary’s Hospital opens a large circular sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, designed by Fenner. At Fort Lowell, three of the officers’ quarters and their kitchens are purchased by Mrs. Dolly Cates and her two nieces for use as a sanatorium. Shortly afterward, Dr. and Mrs. Swan begin operating a sanatorium called Swan Ranch out of the old Post Trader’s Store (and bar) that “Pie” Allen had opened next to the new fort in 1873.

In the 19th century, tuberculosis had been the leading cause of death: 1 in 4 in the first half, 1 in 6 in the second half.

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1899

The first automobile appears in Tucson, a Locomobile steamer, imported by Fenner, an Ohioan who had arrived in Tucson in the 1880s, now a member of the Owls Club.

In 1905, Dr. Fenner will receive the first driver’s license in Tucson and in 1914 or 1915, he will, according to Roy Drachman, become the first doctor to make his rounds in an automobile.

It is not known who was the last to do so.

Source: “Tucson: A Place-Making,” Volume 58, Number 3, Autumn 2016, of the Journal of the Southwest.