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The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier

Women heading West with their families in the mid-1800s were responsible not only for preparing food and making it last through the journey but were also in charge of the overall healthcare for the others. Armed with herbal medicine kits and journals filled with remedies, women administered doses of juniper berries, garlic, and bitter roots to cure the ailing. These “granny remedies,” as they were called, were antidotes for a variety of illnesses from nausea to typhoid. There were a combination of superstition, religious beliefs, and advice passed down from generation to generation.

The following are a few of those “granny remedies” that explains why historians refer to this time period as the “Golden Age of Medical Quackery.”

The hot blood of chickens cures shingles.

Carry a horse chestnut to ward off rheumatism.

Sassafras tea thickens the blood.

The juice of a green walnut cures ringworms.

To remove warts, rub them with green walnuts, bacon rind, or chicken feet.

Mashed snails and earthworms in water are good for diphtheria.

Boiled pumpkin seed tea for stomach worms.

Use wood ashes or cobwebs to stop excessive bleeding.

Mashed cabbage for ulcers or cancer of the breast.

Owl broth cures whooping cough.

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The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier

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The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier

More than two dozen women dressed in high-collared, mutton-sleeved blouses and gray or black skirts, all members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, occupied the chairs around a conference room at the Woman’s Exponent newspaper office in the Salt Lake Valley in 1878. Most of the women were talking quietly among themselves; some were flipping through medical books and making sure they had paper and pencils. Others were studying an announcement in the morning edition of the publication. “Mrs. Romania B. Pratt, M.D., continues her interesting and instructive free lectures to the Ladies’ Medical Class every Friday afternoon,” the announcement read. “All ladies desirous of obtaining knowledge of the laws of life and how to preserve their health, and rear children, and how to determine the cases of illness should improve with these opportunities and not fail in punctuality.”

The eager, makeshift classroom of women turned its full attention to Dr. Pratt when she entered. The coal-haired instructor with dark eyes and a broad nose smiled at the students expecting to learn something about anatomy, physiology, and obstetrics from the first female doctor in Utah. As she took her place in front of the group, she couldn’t help but see herself reflected in the beginners. Five years prior to agreeing to act as a medical instructor, Romania had been encouraged to become a doctor by Mormon leader Brigham Young.

The plea for women to pursue the study of medicine had been issued from the pulpit in 1873. Romania answered the call not only because she was enthusiastic about learning but also because she had personally experienced death and wished she’d been able to intercede.

The death of a dear friend helped influence her decision to become a doctor. “I saw her lying on her bed, her life slowly ebbing away, and no one near knew how to ease her pain or prevent her death,” Dr. Pratt recalled in her memoirs. “It was a natural enough case, and a little knowledge might have saved her. Oh, how I longed to know something to do, and at that moment I solemnly vowed to myself never to be found in such a position again, and it was my aim ever afterward to arrange my life work that I might study the science which would relieve suffering, appease pain, and prevent death.”

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The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier

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The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier

Dr. Jenny Murphy flipped the collar up on the thick, gray coat she was wearing and tightened the grip she had on the medical bag in her lap. It was below freezing when she left Yankton, South Dakota, in November 1894, on her way to a homestead in Nebraska, and temperatures continued to plummet. An anxious farmer had burst into her office in the afternoon and pleaded with her to accompany him to his home to help his wife deliver their first child.

The man’s farm could only be reached by crossing the Missouri River. Dr. Murphy followed the expectant father to his canoe anchored at the river’s edge and climbed inside. The water was cold, and chunks of ice clung to the shoreline. The farmer pushed off from the bank and quickly paddled into the middle of the water. He avoided most of the chunks of ice pulled downstream with the strong current. Just before they reached the other side of the river, a massive hunk of ice slammed into the boat, and it overturned. The doctor and the farmer were dumped into the water. Still holding on to her medical bag, Dr. Murphy fought her way to the bank of the river and onto dry land.

The frazzled farmer also managed to get out of the water. He gave the doctor a moment to recover from the near-drowning experience before hurrying her along to his homestead. When the pair arrived at the farmhouse, Dr. Murphy’s clothes were still wet from the swim in the river. Peeling off her coat and apron, she rushed to the bedside of the farmer’s wife.

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The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier

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The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier

Woman Doctor demonstrates operation to class – 1883

Two well-dressed men with pistols holstered to their sides crossed the dusty thoroughfare of Herndon, Kansas. Through the wavering heat and stabbing glare of sunlight, Doctor Mary Canaga Rowland watched the pair check to make sure their six-shooters were loaded. “This office is about to get busy,” she said to herself as she watched the men square off against a couple of ranch hands standing in front of the telegraph office.

Mary couldn’t hear what the men were saying, but she could tell they were arguing. The quarrel quickly turned violent. One of the ranch hands reared back to throw a punch, but was stopped dead in his tracks by a bullet. The second ranch hand was just as quickly gunned down. The gunmen fled, firing their pistols in the air as they rode off. One of the injured men was carted off to the hotel and the other was delivered to Doctor Rowland.

The doctor’s patient was covered in blood and writhing in pain. Mary tore the faded blue shirt away from the wound so she could begin the examination. Once the saturated material was removed, she began soaking up the blood with strips of material. The bullet had gone through the man’s forearm and struck his suspender buckle, leaving an egg-sized lump just below his heart.

As Mary started dressing the piercing, the ranch hand pulled his arm away from her. “You’re a woman doctor,” he said incredulously. Mary stared down at him and offered a partial smile. “I know what you’re thinking,” she said. “Every man to his trade, but every woman to the washtub, right?” The ranch hand merely groaned. “I could just let you bleed to death,” Mary added. He could tell she was serious and didn’t resist as she gently lifted his injured arm onto a fresh sheet.

To learn more about Dr. Rowland and others like her read

The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier

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The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier

Eighteen-year-old Nellie Mattie MacKnight stepped confidently into the spacious examination room at San Francisco’s Toland Hall Medical School. Thirty-five male students stationed around cadavers spread out on rough board tables turned to watch the bold young woman enter. The smell of decomposing corpses mixed with the tobacco smoke wafting out of the pipes some of the students were puffing on, and it assaulted Helen’s senses. Her knees weakened a bit as she strode over to her appointed area while carrying a stack of books and a soft rawhide case filled with operating tools.

To her fellow students, Nellie was a delicate female with no business studying medicine. Determined to prove them wrong, she stood up straight, opened her copy of Gray’s Anatomy, and removed the medical instruments from the case. It was the spring of 1891. She nodded politely at the future doctors glowering at her. A tall, dapper, bespectacled professor stood at the front of the classroom, watching Nellie’s every move. The sour expression on his face showed his disdain for a woman’s invasion into this masculine territory.

The assignment the students were required to complete within an hour was the dissection of male cadavers’ heads, upper torsos, and pelvic regions. The part of the body Nellie was given to dissect was the pelvis. She studied the corpse lying before her, then nervously flipped through her anatomy textbook.

The students at the other operating tables around her were busy cutting and slicing, but Nellie couldn’t bring herself to pick up a scalpel. The annoyed instructor strode over to her, his brows furrowed. “Do you expect to graduate in medicine or are you just playing around?” he snarled. “I hope to graduate,” Nellie responded in a small voice. All eyes turned to watch the exchange between the professor and the first-year student.

To find out if Nellie was able to complete the assignment read

The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier