Editor's note: This is Part 2 of a two-part column.

Though the Western Maryland Home and Hospital in Cumberland was by and large a charity hospital, charity was lacking there in 1894 for at least one doctor, G.L. Carder.

A group of doctors had petitioned Gov. Frank Brown to remove Carder as surgeon-in-chief at the hospital in January.

Three weeks later, following the publication of the meeting, a group of businessmen from Cumberland traveled to Annapolis to have their own meeting with the governor and legislature. This group included George Pearre, an ex-state senator and manager of the hospital; B.S. Randolph, superintendent of the Consolidated Coal Co.; C.J. Orrick, wholesale grocer; J.N.M. Brandler, orphans court judge; P.H. Daughtrey, wholesale grocer; David Sloan, Lonaconing Savings Bank; Henry Rehs, magistrate; Merwin McKaig, president of McKaig Shafting Works; John Avirett, Cumberland Evening Times editor; E.J. Cooney, merchant; Willie Cooney, son of E.J. Cooney; T.S. Kean, tax collector; and William Shepherd, president of the Third National Bank of Cumberland.

Pearre told the governor that the doctors who had come to Annapolis in January wouldn't tell Pearre what sorts of charges they had leveled against the management. However, the doctors did claim they had been misrepresented in the newspaper.

"But, knowing that reporters, while they may not get all that is said, generally are accurate in what they do get, and, further, that the various newspapers agreed as to what took place, I had faith in the published reports," Pearre told the governor as reported in the Cumberland Evening Times.

The group's request of the governor was that the current management of the hospital be maintained, the hospital get its normal governmental appropriation and grant a special appropriation to pay off the hospital's debt.

Brown told the group what the doctors had charged against the hospital. He then said he wouldn't make a decision either way until he visited the hospital in April.

"The charges made, while without the slightest foundation in fact, might do some harm if we did not refute them before our request for continuance of our appropriation comes before the Legislature. After this vicious act on the part of the physicians, it appeared that all had been postponed until April but we want to contradict the charges before they go any further," Pearre was reported to have said.

He further went on to tell the governor that none of the local doctors had been appointed surgeon-in-chief because none of them had applied for the position. So the board of directors had sought a doctor outside of the area and Carder had come highly qualified. Even then, Pearre said that the hospital still wanted local input.

"We wanted the Cumberland doctors to form a consulting staff to aid Carder, but instead, they formed, as one of my colleagues wittily said, an 'insulting staff.' Since then the work of the institution has been misrepresented," Pearre said.

The doctors formed an association opposed to the hospital management and demanding changes that the board thought was a usurpation of the hospital authority, such as control of the nurses at the hospital.

Apparently, someone had a change of heart about Carder between February and April. On April 18, the Cumberland Evening Times reported that the board of directors of the Western Maryland Home and Infirmary asked for Carder's resignation.

"At the investigation it was found that Dr. Carder had failed to be present at an operation, which was to have taken place at the 'Home.' Dr. Carder will tender his resignation within the next 60 days, the time granted him according to his contract with the institution," reported the Cumberland Evening Times.

Even on his way out, Carder still proved he was a more-than-capable surgeon. In May, the Cumberland Evening Times reported the story of Lewis Davis of Barton. The young boy took ill and began losing weight. At Easter, he weighed only 18 pounds and couldn't speak. Area doctors "pronounced the case of the little fellow hopeless." Lewis was admitted to the Western Maryland Home and Hospital as a last-ditch effort. On May 19, the newspaper reported that Lewis was as "agile as a kitten" and his weight was up to 25 pounds. The reason for his recovery was that Carder had diagnosed the boy's illness and removed a rib from him, which was apparently the source of the problem.