Note: We are adding two bio's about Dr. John S. Massey, they are similar but do have some different details we feel are important.
...

From Find A Grave - Written by Patricia Poland (revised 2022)

John S. Massey, son of Thomas and Mary (Thrower) Massey, attended Shaw University and the Leonard School of Medicine,. Upon graduating in 1896 he wrote his "Dear Katie" (his future wife), "With high honors I have graduated from the hardest Medical College in the South". Before medical school, John was a schoolteacher - notably in the Waxhaw, NC, area.

He began practicing medicine in both Monroe and Waxhaw (NC) shortly thereafter, writing Katie from Monroe in December of 1896, "I am very busy now...". He was the first black physician of Union County (NC) and would be the first to build a hospital in the county.

He married Kate/Katie Julia Massey about 1898; their son, Clarence S. Massey was born in 1899 (per his WWII draft reg. card). Clarence would also become a physician, graduating from Howard University in 1925. John & Kate would later adopt a daughter (a niece), Thelma Massey (Mrs. Harry Gallashaw) who died in 1987 in Portsmouth, VA.

By 1899 he had begun acquiring the lots in Monroe on Windsor Street that would become his home and hospital. He was a member of the Union County Medical Society by 1903 -- unusual at the time for a black physician to be admitted into a group that had traditionally been made up of white physicians. It is believed he was the first black physician to be a member of an all-white medical society in North Carolina (but this would be difficult to prove).

Dr. Massey announced that the hospital, Quality Hill Sanatorium, for which he had planned and dreamed of, would "open its doors to the public for inspection on Monday, August 19th" of 1912 (The Monroe Journal, 7-23-1912, p.1). The address was 802 W. Windsor Street with his home next door at 800 W. Windsor.

A 1913 report for the Board of Public Charities of North Carolina published in 1914 shows he admitted 100 patients with 26 of them being charity cases, 3 being orthopedic cases. He charged fees between $1.00 and 1.50 per day and had three nurses on staff.

It was quite modern, with an operating room and by September 1915, an x-ray machine (first one in Union County as far as we know). This was learned from an online source, a digital image of "The New York Age" (NY, NY), Thursday, Sept. 16, 1915. No page number noted.

Some troubles arose earlier in 1915. This comes from an article in The Monroe Journal, April 2, 1915, p5. Information in brackets [ ] are the transcriber's:

Some obscene letters were mailed through the Monroe post office, perhaps months earlier, to Dr. Creft [believed to be the only other black physician practicing in Monroe at the time]. They came into the hands of the post office inspector who charged Dr. Massey with writing them. Dr. Massey went before the United State Commissioner Flow for a preliminary hearing. There had been a little professional friction between the two doctors and this may have been what led to the charge against Dr. Massey, however the two had settled their differences by the time of the hearing and were friendly. Also on hand for the hearing was the post office inspector, a deputy U. S. Marshal, and the Assistant District Attorney Howey. There was no evidence connecting Dr. Massey with the letter and Commissioner Flow promptly dismissed the case. The remarkable thing about the matter was the array of character witnesses who were present to testify to the good character of Dr. Massey There was fully a score of the leading business and professional white men of the town, most of them without being subpoenaed. They all gave the defendant a good character in no uncertain terms, and some of them had known him from boyhood [possibly W. C. Heath] and several of them were physicians.

This article was no doubt written by one of the Beasley brothers who owned and published The Monroe Journal. The article continued: "A man, black or white, who so lives that he can establish a reputation like this has something to fall back on that cannot be estimated in money."

The 1922 "Southern Medicine and Surgery" journal lists Quality Hill Sanatorium as having 10 beds. (Vol. 84, #1, Charlotte, NC) The hospital was successful enough to warrant an addition built by 1930.

The Beasley brothers, who rarely wrote of Quality Hill Sanatorium, again applaud Dr. Massey for the man and his hospital in an article published July 28, 1925, page 2.

Headline: Dr. J. S. Massey

"Years ago Dr. J. S. Massey settled in Monroe for the practice of his profession. He started out poor with nothing but an education. He has worked with hands and brain ever since. And he has done for this county what no other colored man has done.

While he worked he had an ambition unequaled. He conceived the idea of a colored hospital in Monroe. He did not have the means to build it. Undaunted, he went to work and put what he had himself into the project and asked help from the public, and now he has a nice hospital, a credit for any county." [end of first two paragraphs of article]

Financial problems began to accumulate before then and he would turn over both his home and hospital to the City of Monroe in lieu of payment of the taxes (actually paving assessments) in 1931. By 1932 he asked & was allowed to pay rent for his hospital as long as he was the one who operated it.

His wife, "Katie", died in 1937 and Dr. Massey later remarried Ola Sellers Brewer. By 1938 he was ready to buy back his hospital & home which was to be sold to the highest bidder in February of 1939 with bidding to start at $3,000. Dr. Massey was the "last & highest bidder" (per a 1939 deed) -- no one bid against him. His hospital & home became his own again.

In August of 1941 he was present at the dedication of the first black public Library in Monroe, accepting it on behalf of the city/county at Mt. Calvary AME Zion Church (of which he was a member). The library was housed in the basement of the church.

During WWII, his hospital was used as a place to stay by the visiting families of black soldiers stationed at Monroe's temporary U. S. Army camp, Camp Sutton. During that time, around 1942-43, Dr. Massey became ill, more-or-less forcing him to end his practice - he would die in 1946. His son, Clarence, who practiced in Wadesboro, NC, died seventeen months later on October 15, 1947. The home and the hospital eventually fell out of the family's hands as their was really no family left in the area.

Preservation efforts were made to save both buildings in the 1980s; however a fire destroyed the home in March of 1985 and severely damaged the hospital which had been almost completely remodeled. The lots remained empty until around 2019 when two homes were built.

On August 24, 2021, the City of Monroe erected a marker to honor Dr. John S. Massey. The marker is between the 800 and 802 W. Windsor Street addresses.

.....

From The Heritage Room - of The Carolinas Genealogical Society - Article written by Patricia Poland, Dickerson Genealogy & Local History Room, Union County Public Library, March 2008 Revised January 8, 2014

Dr. John S. Massey, First Black Physician of Union County, NC (Updated 2025)

John Massey, son of Tom and Mary J., was born in South Carolina, most likely the Lancaster area, in 1866. He would become the first black physician of Monroe and Union County, NC and the first to actually build a hospital for the area. The hospital, pictured here before 1930, was known as Quality Hill Sanatorium. Erected at 802 W. Windsor Street, it would serve the community for some thirty-odd years.

The hospital would "open its doors...for inspection" on Monday, August 19, 1912. Dr. Massey placed an announcement in The Monroe Journal on July 23rd, thanking "the many friends who have made the existence of the institution possible by the generous contributions" and inviting the public to attend the open house.

Massey trained at Leonard Medical School, a defunct part of Shaw University in Raleigh, NC. Graduating in 1896 he settled in Union County, possibly in Waxhaw before coming to Monroe. (Note: Supposedly a metal cabinet that was once in the hospital was donated to Shaw University)

He may have already been a student at Shaw University before entering Leonard as he was employed as a schoolteacher; this was gleaned from a copy of letter written to Katie in 1891 (he references that he is "teaching at my old stand" in Waxhaw, NC).

He would later marry Kate "Katie" Julia Massey of Van Wyck, SC, about 1898. There son, Clarence Sherman Massey who would also become a physician, was born in June of 1899.

Sometime around 1900 he built a fine home next to his hospital at 800 W. Windsor Street. It is easy to imagine a man completely immersed in his career and community.

By 1915 he purchased an x-ray machine (article in New York Age, Sept. 15, 1915) - probably another first for the area! In 1917, the Annual Report of Public Charities (NC) showed he has 14 beds, admitted 200 patients in the previous year and that "crippled & deformed children" were treated. By 1922 the number of beds would drop to ten (per "Southern Medicine and Surgery", June 1922, Vol. 84, No. 1, p.324 - accessed at www.archive.org).

Katie would die in September 1937. Dr. Massey would remarry, to a widow named Ola Brewer.

There would be problems with tax payments (street assessments) and he would actually lose the hospital yet the City of Monroe would allow him to stay on and 'lease' the property. Eventually he would ask to redeem his property but instead, the property was to be sold to the highest bidder on February 3, 1939.
No one bid against him and Dr. Massey would win back his property for $3,000. (Union County Deed Book 85, p. 47)

He died May 12, 1946 after some years of illness. He was survived by his adopted daughter, Thelma Gallashaw and son-in-law, Henry; son Clarence and daughter-in-law, Susie; at least two grandchildren (Reginald Gallashaw and Mary Massey).

Sadly, son Clarence, practicing in Wadesboro, NC, would die in October (15th) 1947.

Many years later, after several owners and eventual neglect, both the home and former hospital won historical designation in 1984 through efforts of the Monroe-Union County Historic Properties Commission. Sadly, the day after photos were taken by the State for a different application for the National Register of Historic Properties, a fire destroyed the home and gutted the medical facility on March 27, 1985.

Around 2020, two homes were built on the lots that had remained empty up to that point. In August of 2021, the City of Monroe recognized the importance of Dr. John S. Massey and his hospital by installing a historical marker between the two addresses on West Windsor Street.

The photo of the old hospital in this post was taken before 1930. It is cropped from a postcard that was probably in the possession of Ethel Helms Dennis Stokes (or her family), who ran a boarding house/hotel in the former hospital.

We like to think that Dr. Massey is seen in the photo but we have no verification for this. This "cropped" postcard photo is owned by The Heritage Room of the Carolinas Genealogical Society. The North Carolina State Archives has a copy as well plus the photos taken by the state just before the fire.

The library purchased the 1985 digital images taken by the state - most of these have been printed and have been placed in a smaller booklet next to "John S. Massey, First Black Physician of Union County: A Scrapbook" compiled by myself for the Dickerson Room of the library.

It can be found at R 921 Massey and contains copies of the letters written by John Massey in his 'courting days' and his time at the Leonard School of medicine (shared by a collector), articles found from diligent web searches by a helpful patron, local articles from the Monroe paper, some copies of deeds, a timeline for Dr. Massey and more.

Visit the The Dickerson Genealogy & Local History Room of the Union County Public Library, 316 E. Windsor St., Monroe, NC. The Heritage Room, located in the historic courthouse of downtown Monroe on N. Main Street, also has two files on "Quality Hill Sanatorium" with invaluable information.