The history of Minnesota’s Medicine usually starts and ends with the Mayo Brothers. The fact is the beginnings of Minnesota’s Medical history is along the St. Croix River with Dr. Christopher Carli. Dr. Carli came to the Valley in 1841 and practiced medicine here for several decades. He was the first of many physicians that would come to Minnesota and the St. Croix Valley.

W.W. Mayo opened his practice in Rochester in 1864. His sons, William and Charlie, joined their father’s practice. In 1889, the sisters of St. Francis approached the Mayos and constructed a hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, which would develop into the world-renowned Mayo Clinic. However, in Stillwater, a group of eight women organized and opened Stillwater City Hospital nine years before the Mayo’s in Rochester. Moreover, since that time the Stillwater City Hospital, later renamed as Lakeview Hospital, has been treating the sick and injured with many doctors practicing at the institution.

  

Brent Peterson is executive director of the Washington County Historical Society, wchsmn.org.

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