An awful nice feller. That's what people said about Dr. Alexander V. Boston, the dentist who in the 1930s brought kindness and compassion into the lives of people during the Great Depression.

Dr. Boston and his wife Julia moved to the Appalachian Mountains in 1931. Medical services were scarce in this region during this time. Carrying their medical supplies, the Bostons walked the remote mountain trails and creek banks of Pike County to provide needed medical attention to rural folks. After arriving at a home, they would stay all night providing everything from "delivering babies to making dentures".

Driven by the abundant need for more health services, Boston built the fifty-bed Virgie Community Hospital in 1947. He also recruited doctors to the region and helped some women become trained nurses. Such a generous man, Boston even paid the college tuition of some students and financed one young man's dental education.

The Virgie hospital ran until 1957 and is survived today by a clinic on the same spot. " When Dr. Boston died in 1971 at age 74, mourners overflowed the Missionary Baptist Church in Virgie. His wife Julia died several years later, they were both buried in Nashville.

Source:

Courier Journal. Crawford, Byron. " Black Dentist Proved to be Angel for Piketown." March 2, 1997, page B-1.