Frozen Frames: Capturing the Cold, Snowy Beauty of Goessel's Bethesda Hospital

This afternoon the Fauxtographer and I went to Goessel, Kansas, on the well-intentioned suggestion of a coworker of hers. Now, I have lived in Kansas forEVer and have never once been to Goessel, so it was a welcome excursion. I knew absolutely nothing about this little town, and what I recently learned, I now share with you:

In 1874, Goessel was a villiage called Gnadenfeld by the German Mennonites that settled there from Russia. In early 1895, a doctor named Peter Richert had decided Gnadenfeld needed a hospital, and was rejected by the Postal Department for the name of “West Branch” for the township. Around the same time, on January 30th, 1895, in the English channel the “Elbe”, the North German Lloyd steamship, was cruising along minding it’s business when it was rammed by another ship at 5 a.m. The Elbe sank in 20 minutes, drowning 350 people, and sending 22 very chilly survivors lifeboating to the shore. The Captain of the Elbe, Captain Kurt Von Goessel is said to have “calmy gave orders, and finally, saluted as he went down with his ship”. 

Of course, this was big news all over the word, and the story of the tragedy trickled its way back to Kansas and to Dr. Richert, who decided that because of the purported impeccable character and heroic sea rescues of Mr. Captain von Goessel, he would name the township “Goessel”, which on April 13th, 1895 (apparently the postal service has always crept at a snail’s pace) was accepted by the U.S. Postal Department. 

Four years later, in 1898, the first North American Mennonite Hospital, Bethesda Hospital Society, was formed. The building is now the historical landmark of Goessel, that you see here in my somewhat lopsided photograph. (Yeah, so nobody's perfect, and it looked straight when I shot it.)

In another quick crumb of trivia, the “Four Sixes Tornado” passed down Main Street and destroyed 3/4 of Goessel. Four Sixes? Sixth month, sixth day of the month, year 1906, at 6 in the evening. I sense a conspiracy. 

Anywhoo, Goessel has a population of 553 (2023) and is 242 acres, which if you're useless with measurements, never fear! I've done the work for you. Two hundred and forty two acres is 0.378125 square miles. That's pretty small as far as towns with actual inhabitants go. As you can tell, I don't exaggerate when I say that Faux and I saw - literally - the entire town.

To the Goessel-inians that saw us suspiciously cruise by multiple times at an extremely slow and creepy rate of speed, we're sorry, and we're not (particularly) unstable. I promise. And what's the deal with your strange little center-of-town, in-the-backyard cemetery?

Now that you've had your unsolicited daily history lesson, please bask in the rest of my Goessel photographs.

Until we meet again, my Fellow Adventurers!