DR. NILES T. QUALES

Dr. Quales led the efforts to establish the Norwegian Old People’s Home Society, now known as Norwood Life Care Foundation. Born in Hardanger, Norway on January 17, 1831 Dr. Quales was 65 years of age when the Society was founded and he had already enjoyed three careers, first studying agriculture and managing farm estates, then studying and practicing veterinary medicine before emigrating to the United States and arriving to Chicago with Iver Lawson, his future wife’s uncle, on July 6, 1859.

For the next two years, Dr. Quales worked in a railway office until the outbreak of the Civil War when he enlisted and served with Company B, 1st Illinois Artillery. On his return to Chicago, he attended Rush Medical College where in 1866 he earned his medical degree. Following graduation, he was appointed the first intern at Cook County Hospital and served as Chicago’s City Physician from 1868 to 1870. On May 26, 1870, he married Carrie Lawson of Chicago. That same year, he was appointed Head Surgeon of the U.S. Marine Hospital until it was destroyed in the October 1871 Chicago Fire. Thanks in part to the efforts of Dr. and Mrs Quales, all 67 patients of the hospital were safely evacuated. In addition to his private practice, he volunteered as a visiting physician with the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, and from 1891 to 1893 as physician to Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess Hospital.

In 1893, Norwegians were among Chicago ’s largest ethnic populations and the number ranked second only to Oslo, the capital of Norway. In response to the needs of the elderly who were without resources, the Chicago Relief and Aid Society founded Chicago’s first Old People’s Home shortly after the 1871 Chicago Fire. It offered 72 beds for "worthy old people" without restrictions to nationality or religious beliefs. By 1896, only four Norwegian women had been admitted.

Dr. Quales recognized the need for a better alternative. "The difficulty of obtaining permission was not the only drawback," he later wrote. "The language, the customs, the religious exercises etc. were foreign to our people, so that they could not find themselves entirely at home in this institution. Hence the need of a home of our own was the more keenly felt. During the thirty or more years in which I had been going from house to house in the pursuit of my calling as a physician, I often met with persons whom I was at a loss to know what to do with. They were men and women generally well up in years, persons who by hard work and by saving had managed to lay aside a few hundred dollars. They had now come to that stage of life when their working days were at an end, and when they had to look out for a home in which to spend the remainder of their days. They had no one in particular to depend upon, and there was no family who was willing to give them a permanent home for the few hundred dollars which they possessed.

"Not being sick, they were not subjects for a hospital, neither were they yet paupers, hence could not be sent to the poorhouse. Their small capital would not last them long if they should subsist on that. Renting a room to live in cost $4 a month, living expenses were another $5 a month. If a person had set aside $500 for old age, the savings wouldn’t last more than five years, but he or she might live for 10 or more years. Should they end their days in a pauper’s almshouse, buried in the unnamed potter’s field? The only remedy I could think of was to establish a home for this class of person," Dr. Quales continued. "Their condition impressed itself so forcibly upon my mind, that I resolved to do what I could for them."

The first opportunity to address the problem came in 1892 with the formation of the Norwegian Lutheran Tabitha Society, twelve branches of which were founded within the city’s Norwegian community. Dr. Quales was a member of the committee drafting a constitution and by-laws. One of the original objectives for the group was to establish a home for the aged, added at Dr. Quales’ urging.

Over time a serious split in philosophy occurred and five ( Bethlehem , Concordia, Trinity, Wicker Park and Zion) of the original twelve branches split and regrouped as the Norwegian Old People’s Home Society of Chicago. A constitution and by-laws were drafted and adopted. The Society was formally organized in the chapel of Trinity Church at Huron and Noble Streets on March 31, 1896 and incorporated on April 24, 1896. The first Board of Directors met April 8, 1896 at the home of Dr. Quales and he was elected president.

At the first organizational meeting, the Norwegian Old People’s Home Society’s new Board of Directors voted unanimously to buy or rent a property and the three story Norwood Park Hotel offered many advantages. The purchase price was $20,000 but the owner, donated $1,500 to the Norwegian Old People’s Home Society to reduce the price. The Board would have only three years to complete the purchase. "As the property was very desirable, and after (having) fully satisfied ourselves that the price was reasonable, the Board of Directors decided to buy," Dr. Quales reported later.

As they organized the Home, Dr Quales and the Board would have liked to be charitable and offer reduced rates for the needy, but they had to be fiscally responsible too. Dr. Quales explained, "The object of our Society was the establishment of a Home for the old. A Home for worthy elderly men and women, who in full measure have borne life’s heat and burden. A Home where their last days might be spent in peace and quiet, exempted from worry and sorrow, a Christian Home where they can enjoy not only physical care, but also spiritual care, solace and consolation.

"The establishment of such a Home is a responsible undertaking. An undertaking requiring close care, deliberate forethought and vigorous work. An undertaking demanding patience, love and Christian forbearance.

"Just now, it may seem a very simple task to feed and take care of some worthy men and women, minding themselves and their own affairs. But if in imagination we will permit ourselves to be carried forward for five or ten years, what do we find?

"Why, the old people have grown older, and with the advance in years, helplessness has resulted, together with sickness and impatience. They have been compelled to remain in bed, are fretful and difficult to care for, and demand attention day and night. They have to be nursed; must be lifted in and out of bed. They must be kept clean. Extra help is needed. They cannot, as in a hospital, be discharged as cured, improved in health or incurable. No they are there for life. They are under our care and in our keeping, whether their days be few or many. There will be no question as to whether they have paid much or little: all demand the same care and attention.

"And when at last their time shall have come:
When death’s sad shadow is densely cast
Upon the dim and the lusterless vision;
When nature’s beauty and charms have past,
Life’s joy they hear, but it bears no mission:

then it is, that a loving, a tender and helpful hand is needed to make the bed soft and moisten the parched lips. A loving hand to wipe away the salt tears and the cold perspiration from pale, wrinkled cheeks. A loving hand to close the broken eyes when the angel of death shall have recorded the last breath. And finally loving hands and kind hearts are required to carry and escort, in a worthy and Christian manner, the soulless body to its last resting place."

A plea went out to Norwegian-Americans for funds. So successful were the efforts that by 1898 there were 411 members of the Society and two more branches, United and Moreland, were added.

The History of the Norwegians of Illinois reported, " The unceasing efforts of Dr. N.T. Quales and others has grown to proportions of which its founders could hardly have dreamed of at its inception."

Dr. Quales visited the Home almost every day. Birger Osland, who joined the Board in 1911, noted that the doctor provided the residents with medical attention without charge―and probably with free medicine as well.

The monthly directors’ meetings at the Quales’ home in Wicker Park were like "pleasant family gatherings," Osland reported, with coffee and cake served by Mrs. Carrie Quales and their daughters, Nellie and Mattie.

Dr. Quales headed the Society for nearly two decades, with only one interruption. His fellow Wicker Park delegate, Andrew P. Johnson, served a two-year term as president in 1898-99.

In 1906, the Board of Directors agreed to expand the hotel buildings and by 1909, there were 52 residents and a list of applicants waiting to enter Norwood Crossing. The Board of Directors decided it was time to again expand and the first building fund was organized to help pay for the expansion. Two weeks before the dedication, a fire destroyed the building.

With the help of donations and a $28,000 insurance payment, they were able to rebuild the gutted structure. The November 26, 1910 dedication was a triumph to the courage and commitment of the Society and its leaders.

On January 20, 1911 , Dr. Niles Quales reported: "The building was badly needed. To rebuild could be done, but where can we get the money. Our Society was heavily in debt. The only way would be to make an appeal to our fellowmen. This we did, and it is with pleasure we can bear witness to the fact that our appeal was not made in vain. Assistance came from far and near, among others a large donation from the heirs of Mrs. Christian Jevne. For this sympathy and assistance so kindly shown us we hereby beg to express our most sincere and hearty thanks"

With the successful recovery from the 1910 fire, Norwood Crossing also began a new era of its history. Electricity brought new innovations, and in 1912, the laundry and "bake-room" were updated with new equipment. Dr. Quales presided over the Board of Directors but only two of the original Directors remained active. Board secretary L. Crook called Dr. Quales "our tireless president." But in 1913, at age 82, Dr. Quales decided it was time to retire citing his "advancing years and a gradual loss of health."

Also, Dr. Quales declined to continue as Society president, so the Board honored him with the title "Honorary President." A local Norwood Park physician, Dr. Leon Bowes, was recruited to serve as house physician, but Dr. Quales continued as consulting physician. "During the summer of 1913 it was my privilege to accompany Dr. Niles T. Quales while he made his rounds of calls upon the sick at the Home in Norwood Park ," Dr. Bowes remembered in 1932. "While making these visits he would discuss the various ailments of the residents, inform me of the many difficulties in organizing such an institution, and also of his plans and high aims for the future of the old people.

"Finally, he informed me that, on account of his growing infirmity, it was becoming more and more difficult for him to make the long trips to Norwood Park, and that it was his wish that I take up the burden and carry on in the work.

"While I fully realized that it was impossible for any individual to take the Doctor’s place, I felt greatly honored that he should ask me to succeed him as the attending physician of the Norwegian Old People’s Home."

One of Dr. Quales’ last requests to the Society was that it add to the efforts of the Young Ladies Aid Society, and build the permanent Reserve Fund. An endowment fund of $100,000 was started in February 1917 to serve that purpose. The appeal was extended beyond Chicago to reach the "thousands of Norwegian farmers and businessmen with wealth in abundance," through Skandinavn, the principal daily newspaper for Scandinavians with a national circulation.

The Society passed a resolution to celebrate Dr. Quales’ 83rd birthday on January 17, 1914 . Before the end of the year they were mourning his death. "His loss is great and his example is a monument for all to follow," wrote his successor The Honorable Consul for Norway , Oscar H. Haugan. A bust of Dr. Quales was donated to the Home in 1916 and each January 17, Dr. Quales is remembered and his legacy cherished at a Founders Day celebration held here at what is now known as Norwood Crossing.