Maude Essig World War I Diary

On June 28, 1917, Maude Essig received a letter from Florence J. Martin, the Chief Nurse of Base Hospital #32 asking Essig to serve overseas as a member of her staff. She accepted and after rigorous training in New York, boarded the George Washington on Dec 3, 1917 to travel to Base Hospital #32 in Contrexeville, France. She received her first convoy on March 23, 1918, and cared for 82 patients on her floor with a wide variety of injuries including mustard gas burns. Essig provided extraordinary care to her patients and was dedicated to her service, usually on duty for 12 hours at a time. She was a leader on her floor of the hospital and her exemplary leadership was a quality that would be sought after by Brokaw Hospital School of Nursing when she returned home.

In 1924, the Brokaw Board of Directors appointed Essig as the director of the Brokaw Hospital School of Nursing and director of nursing at the hospital. One year prior to her appointment while she was a staff member, the Brokaw Hospital School of Nursing and Illinois Wesleyan entered into an agreement where students could receive a bachelor of science and the title of graduate nurse during a period of five years. The first two years were spent at Illinois Wesleyan and the last three at Brokaw with courses at Wesleyan as well. However, before Essig became director no students took advantage of this opportunity. During her time as director, the Illinois Wesleyan connection was strengthened as nursing students transitioned to taking all of their science classes at the university. In 1925, Essig changed the entrance requirements to the nursing school to match those of Illinois Wesleyan and in 1932, two of twelve graduates not only received their diploma from the nursing school, but their bachelor of science degree from Illinois Wesleyan. Maude Essig returned to Indiana in 1940, but her role in the integration of Illinois Wesleyan with Brokaw School of Nursing set the stage for the future formation of the IWU School of Nursing.

A Hoosier Nurse in France: The World War I Diary of Maude Frances Essig by Alma Woolley

A former student, Alma S. Woolley, published an account of Maude’s experience with some excerpts from her journal. See: Wooley, Alma S. A Hoosier Nurse in France: The World War I Diary of Maude Frances Essig. Indiana Magazine of History (a publication of the Indiana University Department of History), Volume 82, Issue 1, March 1986, pp. 37-68. Access online at https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/10683/15078