Sisters to surgeons: Whitman Hospital celebrates 125 years in Colfax

Whitman Hospital and Medical Center today.

Over 125 years the fortunes of the hospital in Colfax have been much like the hills of the Palouse, rising and falling again and again. Yet, even at the lowest points, the community it has served has been there to turn fortune around to create what is now Whitman Hospital and Medical Center.

The hospital’s story begin in 1892 when Rev. Father Jochren of Uniontown went to Vancouver to request the Sisters of Charity of Providence open a hospital in the Palouse region. Colfax, Pullman and Palouse all vied for honor. Mother Godfrey, Provincial, and Mother...