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2
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- Joseph Charles Brugman was born October 31, 1886 in Davenport, IA, the
youngest of four brothers. A
sister was later adopted off the orphan train when it went through
town. Shortly after her arrival
the father of the family, John Brugman, died of diphtheria, leaving his
wife Mary to raise the five children.
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3
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- All of the boys went to work before they were even teenagers, beginning
a life of hard work, ingenuity, and cooperation that would see them
through their lives. The brothers took turns working and putting each
other through school. Joe went to
the University of Iowa and then Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia
where he received his M.D. in 1910.
Frank also became a doctor, John a banker, and Bill a business
man.
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4
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- Joe began his medical career in Lost Nation, IA where he was literally a
horse-and-buggy doctor, performing appendectomies on kitchen tables as
need be. He was appointed mayor
of the town for a while. In 1913
he bought his first car and retired the horse. While in Lost Nation he met Lelia Frye
who was an itinerant milliner and they fell in love and were engaged.
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5
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- In 1916 Joe took on a medical practice in Sprague, WA. Lelia rode the train out west, they
were married in Seattle the next day, and went on to live in Sprague
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6
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- When World War I began, Joe became a navy surgeon and they were assigned
to Bremerton, WA. They much
enjoyed the social aspects of being a young married couple in the
military there.
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7
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- When the war ended, the people of Sprague petitioned the government to
release Joe from the service as they were so short of doctors. He returned to Sprague for a year or
two and then decided to pursue the specialty of orthopedic surgery. In about 1920 he went to Detroit for
advanced training in orthopedics---a six week course in those days. When he returned, he collected Lelia
and their young son, Joe, and moved to Seattle. A second boy, Bill, was
born in 1921.
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8
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- Joe maintained a solo practice in orthopedics from 1920 until his
retirement in 1961. In the early
1920’s there were about 8 orthopedic surgeons in Seattle, so Joe joined
with them in founding the Seattle Orthopedic Society. He writes, “It was quite active, and
being few in number and well acquainted with each other they did not
pull their punches on criticism which kept everybody on their toes and
this made orthopedic work in Seattle first class.
- “As the specialty of Orthopedics was not too well known in those days,
the Seattle Orthopedic Society put on a clinic day once a year, inviting
all the general practitioners in the Seattle area in order to let them
know what orthopedics was. The
day closed with a banquet. Each
year a prominent orthopedist from the East was brought out.”
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9
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- Eventually the Seattle Orthopedic Society became the North Pacific
Orthopedic Society. Joe served as president at various times. He
remained active until his advanced age made it impossible to attend the
meetings. In 1978 the society
dedicated a golf tournament and trophy to Dr. Joe Brugman in honor of
his years of service in behalf of Orthopedics in the Northwest.
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10
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- During his medical career, Joe was on the staff of Columbus (later
Cabrini) Hospital, founded by St. Francis Cabrini only a few years
before his arrival. He was head
of the orthopedics department and functioned as Chief of Staff for a
number of years.
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11
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- During his long life Joe was an avid fisherman and hunter. He was involved in the Big Game
Council and frequently wrote politicians regarding various issues
relating to big game hunting
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12
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- . He was also a master
wood-worker with a sophisticated wood-working workshop in the
basement. His projects included
a dining room set, numerous chairs, occasional tables, chests,
hand-carved mirrors, and many other items that his descendants still
cherish.
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13
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- When they first moved to Seattle, Joe and Lelia lived in the University
District but moved to Laurelhurst in the early 1930’s. They acquired the 10 acres
surrounding the farm they would call Bedside Manor in about 1945, sold
their lovely Laurelhurst home, and moved into a little shack on the
front of the property for the
next four years while they built the rustic home they would treasure for
the next 37 years.
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- At the end of World War II, lumber, plumbing, and every kind of building
material were impossible to buy as the country recovered from the
wartime economy. Not to be
deterred, Joe bought a saw mill, had many of the trees on the property
felled, and hired a man to run the mill and produce the lumber for the
house. The huge fir supporting
beams, the floor joists (some with bark still on them), the 2-by-fours,
and the maple flooring were some of the products of the mill. Although Joe continued his orthopedic
practice in Seattle, he put in many hours of work on the house and
property in his “spare” time.
When it came time to pour the concrete floor in the basement, the
workmen dumped the stuff and left.
Joe stayed up all night spreading and smoothing the concrete on
his hands and knees. In the
morning he went to Seattle, to work a full day with bleeding knees.
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- The property had an extensive orchard, including 3 cherry trees, 7
apple, 2 pear, 2 hazelnut, and 4 plum as well as grape vines. A few
acres had been a commercial raspberry farm, so for some years they sold
raspberries, hiring pickers and selling to fruit packers while also
running a u-pick enterprise.
Lelia notes, “many people from the Midwest where raspberries
don’t grow were so thrilled to see, eat, and pick them.”
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16
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- Joe had worked on farms during his Iowa youth and delighted in being a
“gentleman farmer”. He hired a
distant cousin, John Steyart, to run it for a number of years. There
were pigs, chickens, horses, and cows. There were pastures and a large
vegetable garden.
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17
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- Though the livestock were eventually discontinued, Joe and Lelia
continued to garden until Joe lost his sight at the age of 94. They canned fruit and made cider and
jam for many years.
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18
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- “The Farm” was a gathering place for the entire extended family from its
earliest days. Pappy made sturdy
picnic tables and benches from nail kegs and boards which were placed in
the shade of the fruit trees. In-laws, “out-laws”, berry growers,
beekeepers, and medical colleagues from Columbus Hospital attended huge
picnics at Bedside Manor. Grandmother noted that it was a lot of work
but they were glad to do it.
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19
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- The two sons, Bill and Joe, had moved their families to southern
California in the 1950’s to find work, but spent every summer at “The
Farm” where the 8 grandchildren roamed the rural landscape, rode horses,
picked berries, mucked about in the small lake, slept out in the milk
house, and built a treasure-house of happy childhood memories.
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- In 1984, at the age of 94, Grandmother got up from dinner, went into the
living room, sat down, and quietly passed from this life. Pappy continued to live in the home he
had built until a few days short of his 100th birthday in 1986.
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- Joe and Lelia’s grandson, Barry, and his wife, Christina, purchased the
property from the estate in 1986 and spent several months upgrading the
interior and finishing the basement. It has been their pleasure to
preserve Bedside Manor for the whole family and to share its hospitality
with the wider community.
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Notes
