Thompson School Brief History

"The Thompson School for Practical Nurses is the oldest continuously operating school for practical nurse education in the United States, opening in 1907. It was started in response to the needs of birthing mothers and the needs of women joining the workforce as shop girls, needle women, and seamstresses during the Industrial Revolution.
During the summer of 1861, while the North and South were in the throes of civil war, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Thompson vacationed in Brattleboro, Vermont. Mrs. Thompson became very interested in the women who gathered in Brattleboro to sew garments for the soldiers of very little pay. In time, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson dedicated their considerable wealth to establish a trust fund for the relief of poor seamstresses, needlewomen and shop girls in Brattleboro and Rhinebeck, New York. By court degree, two-thirds of the income from the estate was to go to Brattleboro, and one-third to Rhinebeck; although the sewing women were named as special beneficiaries, the court ruled that the will allow for other activities, including the building of a hospital in Brattleboro.
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital did not have a resident trained nurse when it opened in 1904. A group of fifteen local churchwomen were called together in 1907 by Richard Bradley, one of the three first trustees appointed for administrating the Thomas Thompson Trust Fund. This group, the Brattleboro Mutual Aid Association, had as its objective to supply those needs in sickness that are not now properly covered by current hospital service, the visiting nurses, or by unorganized private nursing.
From a house on Harris Place, a nurse training course began. The graduates were called Mutual Aid Nursing Attendants, and they cared for the sick in their homes. From this humble beginning, the Thompson School for Practical Nurses began."

Source: Vermont Technical College Student Handbook.