BOOTJER HOSPITAL in Crawford or Chadron
Greetings:
I have been trying to find information on the Bootjer Hospital which was founded by the wife of a distant cousin of mine in the 1930s. This came to light when I found an obituary for their son, Melvin Herman "Butch" Bootjer who was born in Crawford on 28 August 1910. His obituary states in part:
"Upon graduation, he returned to Crawford where he met and married Beryl Koch in 1936. They lived for several years on a farm just outside of town, where Butch raised chickens for market and worked a variety of part-time jobs to help make ends meet. He also had the unique opportunity to work in Bootjer Hospital, founded by his mother to care for wounded soldiers. Helping to care for these men had a profound effect on him."
This would lead one to assume Bootjer Hospital was in Crawford, but I have found other references to it being in Chadron. His mother was Eurena or Lorena (Roberts) BOOTJER, whose husband was Herman Theodore BOOTJER. They both died in California and I don't know when they left Nebraska.
Any help or insight to this would be greatly appreciated. If you know of any organization or person I may inquire, please let me know. I found an email address for the Chadron Record and have sent them this inquiry as well. Do you know ifthere is a newspaper in Crawford?
Bob Anderson
Omaha, NE