Henderson history: Horse

May 25, 2023

There was once a time when if you got hurt two horses would pull a mahogany-paneled ambulance to the scene and rush you off to the hospital.

Seventy-five years ago, that same ambulance had long since been retired, but it was on its way to the Kentucky State Fair as part of a Kentucky Highway Patrol exhibit about traffic safety.

This is the way The Gleaner began its story Aug. 23, 1947:

"Memories of days, not so long ago, when two white chargers raced through the streets of Kentucky towns carrying an ambulance to the scenes of accidents will be recalled by those who attend the Kentucky State Fair at Louisville when the old horse-drawn ambulance of the Rudy-Rowland Funeral Service will be on display there."

The ambulance, which had last seen service during the World War I era, was replaced by "the second motor-driven ambulance in Kentucky" and the first one in Western Kentucky.

That wasn't Rudy-Rowland's first motor-driven vehicle, however. The Henderson Journal of Oct. 28, 1914, advertised the business had an "Auto for hire, by day or by hour. Reasonable rate." To the best of my knowledge, Rudy-Rowland was the first local business to rent cars.

That 1914 rental car was a natural outgrowth of the business, which originally combined a funeral home with a livery business at First and Green streets. The Gleaner of Feb. 12, 1908, reported W. Given Rudy's funeral business (which had roots as far back as 1879 as the Henderson Coffin & Embalming Co.) was merging with the livery business of brothers Horace Gilbert "Gillie" and James H. Rowland.

For much of the next decade the livery business flourished. "Rural kids coming to Henderson for school would leave the animals at the stables to be cared (for) and fed," James Rowland said in the Evansville Courier & Press of Feb. 13, 1955.

By 1920, though, the automobile had surpassed the horse and Rudy-Rowland wasted no time in motorizing both its funeral and ambulance operations.

In its day, though, that horse-drawn ambulance could move. "When we used this old ambulance, we never missed a wreck or an accident," James Rowland said in the 1947 Gleaner story. (His brother died in 1925.) "We were always the first to arrive on the scene."

During its last decade of use it was pulled by matched white horses named Gillie and Nick, which were sold to a farmer when the business motorized.

"The horses cost $700 a pair, and their harness was $160 for two sets," The Gleaner story said. "While patients were being moved white mesh nets were thrown over the horses."

James Rowland drove those horses, as well as Logan Stone, Henry Brown and Nat Stone.

The ambulance itself was plush; its wheels turned on roller bearings. "It is painted white, with gold lettering and the brilliant red cross." The interior was tall enough for most people to stand in and was paneled in mahogany veneer. It was equipped with a water cooler, kerosene lanterns and "special ventilating devices."

It had been built by the F.M. Miller Co. of Quincy, Illinois. The original price is a little fuzzy. In the 1947 Gleaner story Rowland recalled it was $1,410 but in the 1955 article he said it was $1,050. In 1947 Rowland reported the firm had recently bought a new ambulance/hearse for $6,200. "Prices have changed a lot," he said.

When it was retired is also unclear. The Gleaner story says it was 1918 while the Courier & Press article says it was 1919.

The most tragic accident the ambulance responded to came toward the end of its career. On June 6, 1917, a car with six high school students on their way to pick cherries collided at the Watson Lane crossing with the interurban streetcar that ran to Evansville. There was some speculation that the students may have been racing the streetcar to the crossing.

The Rudy-Rowland ambulance, drawn by Nick and Gillie, rushed to the scene. "We made six trips to the accident," Rowland recalled.

"The automobile was ground to bits beneath the traction car," the Henderson Journal of June 7 reported. "The force of the collision was so great that all six were hurled into the air and their bodies fell on both sides of the right-of-way."

Marvin Griffin, 16, who had been driving Dr. Silas Griffin's car, survived, as did Frank Cheaney, 17, although both sustained fractured skulls and were knocked unconscious. They were transported to the hospital by automobile.

Killed outright were Duncan Clore, 17, Louise Holloway, 16, and Nellie Baskett, 15. Clore and Holloway were horribly mangled, Holloway so badly she could not at first be identified.

The sixth occupant of the car was Jennie Milner, 16, who was transported downtown by the traction car and "tenderly placed in an ambulance and rushed to the hospital in an effort to save her life." She died an hour after the accident.

Rowland retained the ambulance as of 1947, and kept it insured for $300, but the 1955 article says it had been "sold in recent years." The buyer was the Palm Beach Historical House in Florida, which apparently no longer exists, so I can't tell you where the ambulance is now.

Some younger readers may be wondering what the heck a funeral home was doing in the ambulance business. It was the local norm up until 1977. Coroner Bruce Farmer began in the funeral home business as a teenager and later transitioned to the city-county ambulance service, where he spent 42 years. He filled me in on the finer points of the transition.

The Gleaner of Jan. 15, 1975, made its first mention of local governments taking over the ambulance service. At that time, Farmer said, there were four funeral homes that ran ambulances, although Maynard Glunt had the only operation licensed by the state. None of them charged for carrying patients; that didn't begin until Medicare began paying the cost, he said.

It took a while for the transition to take place. Vehicles mostly paid for with a grant had been ordered, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 27, 1976, although four of them didn't arrive until later that year. They stood unused for more than a year.

There was a lot of back and forth about who was going to operate the service – and pay for it. The upshot, according to The Gleaner of Jan. 21, 1977, was that the city and county governments would jointly hold the license – and make up for any deficit – although Methodist Hospital would operate them.

The operation of city, county and hospital began operating the four ambulances on April 29, 1977. At that point, the ambulances run by the funeral homes ceased operation.

In fiscal year 1977-78 the local governments reimbursed the hospital $114,000. For years they had no control over costs – which resulted in much complaining – but when Deaconess Hospital took over the local hospital July 1, 2020, a flat fee was instituted.

The city and county governments each pay $65,000 a year, which makes budgeting much easier, according to Judge-executive Brad Schneider.

A fire at the Sinnett & Fitzgerald grocery at Clay and Adams streets reported in the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer of Aug. 21, 1922, a cause that I’ve never heard of.

"Sinnett said he believed the fire was started by rats biting on matches and setting fire to straw in the building."

Also, in the Aug. 25 edition, the M-I reported the city of Henderson was in a legal battle with junk dealer Abe Cohen, trying to force him off the riverfront at what is now Audubon Mill Park.

"Cohen for a number of years has had piles of all kinds of old iron and metal junk scattered over the site…." The city was moving toward creating a tourist campground there; that didn't occur until the spring of 1923.

Henderson Fiscal Court, after 14 days of silent protest and one day before it would be subject to a lawsuit, grudgingly granted approval to the Henderson County Board of Education to levy a tax on all public utilities, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 22, 1972.

County School Superintendent Lewis Johnson had estimated the tax would bring in about $180,000 annually. "A more likely figure would be around $300,000 a year," said Magistrate Jim Buley.

The tax currently accounts for about 4 percent of the school district's revenues; in the fiscal year that ended in mid-2020 it brought in more than $3.8 million.

Planned Parenthood's new Henderson Health Center at 435 First St. had scheduled an open house for Sept. 7, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 24, 1997.

The office was a joint project of Planned Parenthood organizations in Louisville and Central/Southern Indiana.

"Its services will include birth control, pregnancy testing, health screenings, education and counseling."

The center lasted a relatively short time; the nearest Planned Parenthood office is currently in Evansville.

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at [email protected] or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.