The Early Formation of Mayo Clinic: Saint Marys Hospital and the Mayo Team

Mayo Clinic, known in Chinese both as Miaoyou Medical International and the Mayo Clinic, originated in Rochester, Minnesota. William Worrall Mayo began practicing there in 1864, and his sons William James Mayo and Charles Horace Mayo later joined the family business. It gradually developed into a medical institution with specialist teams and teaching and research organizations.

The year 1889 marks the opening of Saint Marys Hospital. The Sisters of St. Francis built the hospital, with the Mayo physicians providing medical services. The family practice and the sisters’ hospital cooperated while retaining distinct organizational foundations. Recruitment of additional doctors, shared records and expanded teaching subsequently developed the multispecialty organization known as Mayo Clinic.

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A tornado devastated Rochester on August 21, 1883. The Mayos and other medical workers treated the injured in temporary facilities, including hotels and a dance hall, with sisters helping provide nursing care. Afterward, Mother Alfred Moes proposed a permanent hospital and asked the elder Mayo to lead its medical work. He initially doubted that the small town could sustain a hospital, but eventually agreed to cooperate.

The sisters raised and saved money and acquired land west of town. The elder Mayo and his sons visited other hospitals and helped plan the new institution, while the sisters undertook construction and nursing. Saint Marys opened on September 30, 1889, with the two brothers as physicians and their father as a consultant. Its simple facilities required substantial labor to carry water, deliver meals, wash linen and provide overnight care. It admitted patients from different religious and financial backgrounds, and its partnership crossed the religious divide between Catholic sisters and Protestant physicians.

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As patient numbers grew, the brothers needed assistance and wanted to preserve time for learning elsewhere. The experienced Augustus Stinchfield joined in 1892, mainly handling diagnosis. Henry Plummer joined the partnership in 1901, and the practice moved into new downtown premises combining physicians’ offices, examination rooms and shared supporting facilities.

This division of work allowed patients to be assessed by people with different expertise, without leaving every task to the brothers. A new building specifically designed for the practice opened on March 6, 1914, using the Mayo Clinic name at its entrance. The name had previously also described teaching demonstrations attended by visiting doctors; it increasingly identified the entire group practice.

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With more specialists, records kept separately in each physician’s ledger scattered information about the same patient. Plummer introduced more standardized forms in 1904, followed in 1907 by consecutive numbering and central filing. Each registered patient received a number, and physicians’ notes and reports about that person were collected in one file, for both outpatient and hospital care.

The system served treatment and research together. The next physician could continue from earlier notes, while a team reviewing a category of cases no longer had to search individual private ledgers. A diagnostic index introduced in 1910 made similar cases searchable and comparable for lectures and papers. Shared files, indexes and support staff became everyday foundations of cooperation, with research material accumulating through continuing medical practice.

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Accumulating records also required people to organize them into results that could be shared. In 1907, the Mayo brothers hired Maud Mellish for library and editorial work, helping physicians prepare articles. Medical illustrators also contributed, bringing clinical observations into an organized publishing process.

Papers published separately were subsequently collected into annual volumes. The first Collected Papers by the Staff of Saint Marys Hospital, Mayo Clinic, published by W. B. Saunders in 1911, contained contributions by multiple staff members and specialist illustrations. The foundation formed in 1915 worked with the University of Minnesota to place specialist training and research within a more formal educational arrangement. The institution’s work expanded from receiving patients to preserving experience, training physicians and circulating knowledge.

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The early practice was still privately operated. Formation of the Mayo Properties Association in 1919 moved it toward a nonprofit structure. Physicians received salaries, and surplus practice income supported education, research and patient services. Research and training could thus receive continuing support from collective clinical work rather than depending entirely on individual physicians’ arrangements.

Mayo’s early formation proceeded through several stages: private practice in 1864, hospital cooperation in 1889, a purpose-built clinic in 1914, educational cooperation in 1915 and nonprofit reorganization in 1919. Its organizational character linked physicians, nurses, medical-record staff, library editors and teaching activities, allowing specialized work to remain centered on shared patient information and common objectives.

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