Historical Marker
Site of Railway Hospital
Historical marker location:
Columbus, Texas
( Spring & Live Oak Sts., Columbus)
Marker installed: 1973
Dr. Robert Henry Harrison (1826-1905), graduate of the Botanico Medical College, Cincinnati, and Alabama Medical College, moved to Columbus in the 1870s, while the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (later Southern Pacific) railway was building Columbus- San Antonio line. Physician to G.H. & S.A. president T. W. Peirce, he was 1880-87 medical and surgical director, Atlantic Division of the Southern Pacific. In 1880 he built a hospital for railway employees at this site. Staff included Drs. J. H. Bowers, A. S. McDaniel, and R. H. Harrison, Jr. About 1886, hospital burned, and was not rebuilt.