195:'s Church Aid Society. In 1876, while serving as president of the Women's Aid Society of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, she led the effort to establish the Charlotte Home and Hospital, later renamed St. Peter's Hospital, which was the first civilian hospital in North Carolina. The building she secured for the hospital was a two-room structure on East 7th Street. Wilkes kept records of religious affiliation, diagnosis, surgical procedures as well as method of payment for all patients. She opened a nursing school at St. Peter's in 1899. She served as secretary, treasurer, and president of the hospital. As was the law at the time, St. Peter's Hospital and School of Nursing served exclusively the white citizens of Charlotte. Wilkes, who saw a need for a hospital for the Black community, spearheaded a fundraiser in 1892 to open Good Samaritan Hospital. Good Samaritan Hospital opened later that year, and opened a nursing school for Black women in 1902. Good Samaritan was the first hospital for African-Americans in North Carolina.
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191:. Wilkes and the other women volunteers formed the Ladies Hospital Association to provide volunteer nurses at the Confederate hospitals. She helped establish two hospitals in Charlotte, St. Peter's Hospital and the Good Samaritan Hospital, serving on the board of managers for the former. She pushed for the creation of a hospital, suggesting the need for one through the
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She was active in church societies and charities, including the
Episcopal Churchwomen and the Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions of the Episcopal Church, serving as the executive secretary of the latter's chapter in the North Carolina Diocese from 1882 to 1895. In 1906, she was appointed as
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to Carl Gustav
Smedburg, a wealthy Swedish merchant, and Isabelle Renwick Smedberg, of English and Scottish parentage. She was the seventh of thirteen children. Her family accumulated a large fortune through her father's shipping business. She grew up on her family's estate in the
226:, until the 1870s, when they moved to West Trade Street in Charlotte. They had nine children: Charles, Jeanie Jeffrey, Rosalie, Agnes, John Frank, Paul, Eliza Isabella, James Renwick, and Isabella. Her husband owned and managed a flour mill, an iron mill, and a cotton mill.
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Protestant
Episcopal Church, Diocese of North Carolina, Journal of the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of North Carolina (1887–1906), and Episcopal Church-women, Annual Report and Handbook of Information
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She married her first cousin, Captain John Wilkes, on 20 April 1854. Her husband was the son of her mother's sister, Jane
Jeffrey Renwick Wilkes. She and her husband first lived near St. Catharine's Mill, in
199:"Permanent President" of the organization, having previously served as president from 1904, and continued in the role until 1909. She previously served as the Auxiliary's honorary secretary in 1897.
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and as president of the Women's Aid
Society of St. Peter's Episcopal Church. In 1867, she co-founded St. Peter's Hospital, the first civilian hospital in North Carolina. Like other hospitals in
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Marion
Frances Alston Bourne, "Seventy-five Years of Service," Woman's Auxiliary to the National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church: Seventy-fifth Annual Report and Handbook (1957).
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North
Carolina, St. Peter's didn't admit Black people. In 1892, she opened Good Samaritan Hospital, the first hospital for African Americans in North Carolina.
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Wilkes died at her home on
January 19, 1913. Her funeral, held the following day at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, was conducted by The Right Reverend
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A 7.5 foot-tall statue of Wilkes, weighing 800 pounds, was installed on East
Morehead Street in Charlotte in 2014. A
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367:"Jane Renwick Smedburg Wilkes - Confederate Nurse and Founder of the First General Hospital in N.C."
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She was also involved in the founding of
Charlotte's first orphanage, the Thompson Children's Home.
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for Good Samaritan Hospital mentioning Wilkes and her contributions was also erected in Charlotte.
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446:"Good Samaritan Hospital: Paving the way for progress | Charlotte Mecklenburg Library"
126:(November 22, 1827 – January 19, 1913) was an American nurse and civic leader. She was a
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142:. After the war, Wilkes served on the Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions of the
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The Wilkes enslaved over thirty people, most of whom worked in their mills. When the
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soldiers at the Wayside Hospital and the Confederate Military Hospital in
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and her father-in-law provided money and supplies for the Union cause.
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NC History Center on the Civil War, Emancipation & Reconstruction
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518:"The Renwick-Wilkes Connection | Charlotte Mecklenburg Story"
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Wilkes was born Jane Renwick Smedburg on November 22, 1827, in
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and was a parishioner at St. John's Episcopal Church in
346:"The Renwick Family | Charlotte Mecklenburg Story"
233:began in 1861, Wilkes and her family supported the
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467:"Jane Renwick Smedberg Wilkes – Trail of History"
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554:"Good Samaritan Hospital Historical Marker"
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244:Upon her marriage, Wilkes joined the
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598:American people of Scottish descent
261:Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina
211:United Daughters of the Confederacy
205:Wilkes was an active member of the
193:Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina
603:American people of Swedish descent
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663:Women in the American Civil War
428:"Jane Renwick Smedburg Wilkes"
413:North Carolina Nursing History
409:"Jane Renwick Smedburg Wilkes"
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124:Jane Renwick Smedburg Wilkes
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588:American Civil War nurses
426:Pollitt, Phoebe Ann PhD.
140:Charlotte, North Carolina
64:Charlotte, North Carolina
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536:"The Jane Wilkes Statue"
257:Joseph Blount Cheshire
623:American slave owners
613:American women nurses
175:Nursing and charities
42:Jane Renwick Smedburg
16:American civic leader
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136:Confederate Military
115:Carl Gustav Smedburg
608:American socialites
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618:Women slave owners
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181:American Civil War
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250:High Shoals
235:Confederacy
185:Confederate
179:During the
128:Confederate
99:John Wilkes
572:Categories
279:References
239:Union Army
154:Early life
148:segregated
80:Occupation
628:Clubwomen
189:Charlotte
112:Parent(s)
104:Children
267:Legacy
96:Spouse
66:, U.S.
83:nurse
540:Clio
57:Died
38:Born
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