A Tribute to Adella

Yesterday marked the 90th anniversary of the opening of St. Mary's Ringling Hospital in our community.  This first official hospital in Baraboo was originally a mansion belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Alf T. Ringling, of Ringling Bros. Circus fame.  In 1922, Mrs. Adella Ringling decided, with the encouragement of her physician and her priest, to donate her mansion to the Sisters of St. Mary (today the Franciscan Sisters of Mary) in St. Louis.  Seven Sisters arrived that year to open the hospital on November 2, 1922, providing a service badly needed in our growing community.  The mansion served our residents well for decades, first as a hospital, later as a nursing home and even later as a convent for retired Sisters.  The mansion was renovated, added onto and eventually razed for even more construction.  Today, the mansion is gone and the additions to it stand empty, but the legacy of Mrs. Adella Ringling and the brave Sisters who turned her spacious home into a wonderful hospital for our community stands stronger than ever.  In gratitude to them....