Glenn Bunn led the gathered former employees of the Ragland-Fenlaw-Ford Clinic Hospital, Ragland family members, and friends down memory lane as he told the story of the red brick building which stood from 1933 to 1981 at the corner of Cass and Davis Sts. in Gilmer. The Texas State Historical Marker dedication ceremony for the site was held Sunday, starting in the Fellowship Hall of the First Baptist Church and continuing across the street where the marker was unveiled.

Bunn was the third administrator of the hospital, following Richard Gates and J.R. Rickles, arriving in Gilmer with his wife, Nina, and children in 1967.

Grandchildren of Thomas Scott Ragland, including Mary Ann Ragland Patterson, Sara Ragland Jackson, and H.M. “Butch” Ragland Jr., stood alongside when Mayor R.D. “Buck” Cross and Jim Daniels unveiled the historical marker. Daniels is chairman of the Upshur County Historical Commission. Sisters Mary Ann and Sara are the daughters of Dr. Madison Ragland, and Butch is the son of Dr. Hugh Ragland.

Following the invocation by Dr. David Jenkins, Mayor Cross reflected on times as a young Texas Highway Patrol trooper he had come to the hospital where the doctors did their best to repair the damage done in car wrecks and other incidents to patients arriving at the facility.

“Dr. Madison Ragland knew how to run a hospital efficiently and with care,” Bunn said as he reflected on those early days.

Each year, the hospital staff and doctors would get together for activities which would help cement the family cohesion which everyone felt.

While Bunn was with the facility, the hospital applied for accreditation and got it, one of his prized accomplishments as the administrator.

“We worked really hard, and we were a family,” said Mattie Finch, who started to work at Ragland-Fenlaw Hospital as a 17-year-old. Mrs. Finch and her late husband, Junior, trained as Licensed Vocational Nurses at the hospital, moving into patient care. Both moved to the new Ford Memorial Hospital, now East Texas Medical Center-Gilmer, in 1981, when the new facility opened.

“When Mrs. Ford was sick and Junior wanted to visit, Dr. Ted Ford said, ‘He’s family,’ and we let him in.”

Ann Loyd, a nurse who worked with Mrs. Finch those many years, was sitting with her in the audience at the reception room of the First Baptist Church’s Fellowship Hall.

Another speaker was Vivian Cox, Dr. Madison Ragland’s nurse for many years.

“I still get calls from old patients who ask me where can they go to find a doctor like he was,” Mrs. Cox told the group.

Also in the audience was Dr. Eugene Foster, who was among the doctors Bunn recruited to Gilmer.

Butch Ragland shared a story on his father, Dr. Hugh Ragland, who went one rainy winter’s night to deliver a baby. When he returned, his brother, Madison, asked if he had been paid.

“They had no money, but I got this fine [fountain] pen,” the youngest Ragland doctor explained. “There will always be patients who cannot pay, but we have to take care of them.”