At 601 S. 1st Avenue in downtown Sioux Falls once stood a little hospital with a big story — Dunham Hospital, founded by Dr. Whitfield Otis Dunham, a Canadian‑born physician whose life was equal parts groundbreaking medicine and full‑blown melodrama.

Dr. Dunham arrived in Sioux Falls in the early 1900s, and by 1903, with the city’s population hovering around 25,000, he opened a clinic that promised “the care and comforts of home” with the latest medical advancements. And he meant it. Dunham Hospital boasted one of the region’s earliest infant incubators, a cutting‑edge device that saved countless premature babies. One child was so tiny that a cigar box served as a crib, a handkerchief as a diaper, and a wedding ring was too large to fit around the baby’s arm — and that baby survived. Sioux Falls needed this hospital, and Dr. Dunham delivered.

He also delivered drama.

In a 1908 newspaper ad, Dunham proudly claimed 800 surgeries in five years — an eye‑popping number for the era. In 1910, he survived a deadly train derailment and, despite his own injuries, helped treat survivors. More than 40 people died in that wreck, and many more would have without the doctors on board.

But while his medical career soared, his personal life… derailed.

Dr. Dunham married Clara Fowler in 1890. Nineteen years later, he was arrested — twice — for adultery with a woman nearly 25 years younger. Both couples filed for divorce, and Dunham married his mistress the day after his own divorce was finalized. Messy doesn’t even begin to cover it. Like sands through the hour glass so are the Day of Our Dunham.

By 1913, financial trouble hit. Dunham filed for bankruptcy, the hospital was sold, and he attempted a smaller practice nearby. It didn’t last. In early 1914, he fell ill — first thought to be influenza, later confirmed as typhoid, a preventable but deadly disease. Dr. Dunham died on February 18, 1914, at just 53, and was buried at Mount Pleasant.

Dunham Hospital may be gone, but its story — equal parts innovation, scandal, and grit — still lingers in Sioux Falls history. Doctor's really aren't God, they just play one on TV.