Submitted Photo This is the cover of Ellie Davis’ new memoir, “Moving On: Remembering my Turbulent Years (1919-1948) ”

In a new memoir, Eleanor “Ellie” Hinig Davies vividly describes her recovery from tuberculosis at Newton Memorial Hospital in Cassadaga, in 1947-1948 when she was only 27.

It was in this unlikely location that a talented Chinese doctor, Dr. Timothy C. H. Liang, began pioneering the use of the antibiotic streptomycin and achieving “almost miraculous” results, according to a New York Times article in 1948.

The memoir begins with a prologue reflecting on Ellie’s “life’s happenings that had culminated in that narrow hospital room in that bare little room.” Later, she writes that she “had a spiritual, emotional, and psychological healing to accompany the physical one within those sanitarium walls.”

“This memoir is a welcome addition to our local history,” said Michelle Henry, Chautauqua County Historian. “Chautauqua County’s role in the treatment of tuberculosis was substantial, primarily due to the groundbreaking efforts of Dr. Walter Rathbun, and later Dr. Timothy C. H. Liang, resident doctors at Newton Memorial Hospital. Eleanor Hinig Davies’ memoir of her time at Newton, although brief, provides us with a patient’s view of the hospital, treatments, and staff. Davies writes eloquently about her fears, grief, and loneliness, as well as the hope and optimism that new medical treatments offered.”

Ellie Davies grew up in Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, Ohio, in the 1920s and 1930s, and her memoir describes how she transcends a series of family tragedies during the Great Depression and World War II. Her father, Benjamin C. Hinig, was a prominent builder who built 26 houses in Cleveland Heights between 1910 and 1928, a dozen of them on prestigious Fairmount Boulevard. Following his bankruptcy in 1928, Davies’ family demonstrated exceptional resolve by “moving on” with their only asset of 20 rooms of furniture into a series of “other people’s houses” — all sitting vacant and for sale in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Ellie Davies, who was regular visitor to Chautauqua Institution and participated in many writer’s workshops there, moved to Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1943 where she lived for the rest of her life.

Dr. Liang’s results contributed to making sanitariums like Newton Memorial Hospital obsolete by the 1950s. The hospital closed in 1958.

 The book, “Moving On: Remembering my Turbulent Years (1919-1948)”, is available locally at the Chautauqua Bookstore and Off the Beaten Path Bookstore in Lakewood. It is also available online at lulu.com.