As more and more homesteaders and settlers arrived in south central Montana, the need for medical care became apparent. To say medical care and facilities were primitive on the frontier is a bit of an understatement, but communities did what they could to treat their own from common conditions that plagued pioneers, such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and the flu.

In the young, growing town of Hardin, the first hospital was in the home of Elvira Gilmore. Several rooms were furnished for hospital use and several doctors would treat patients there. One of those doctors was O.S. Haverfield who was born in Illinois in 1886. He graduated from the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1909 and moved west to Montana to practice medicine. Within a few years he became the county physician, health officer, and coroner.

In October of 1915, Dr. Haverfield made a promising announcement. He had plans to construct a modern hospital and broke ground immediately. It was completed a year later and the Haverfield General Hospital was open for business. Modern medicine had officially arrived in Big Horn County.

A little white house, previously used as a Catholic rectory, was moved behind the new hospital to serve as a home for nurses, a place for them to rest between hectic night shifts. When a new community hospital was built in 1959, the Haverfield Hospital became a nursing home and the little white house started yet another life as a rental property. In 1991, it was moved to the Big Horn County Museum and now houses medical items from a bygone era.