USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume I > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
384
WOMEN OF OHIO
president of the United States. Her father's family, the Collins had much to do with the development of their native city.
Harriet Collins married Dr. Samuel Ellsworth Allen in 1890. He had studied at the best European centers of his chosen science, medicine and was able to serve his city in notable ways, during his practice. The Allen family came to Cape Cod from England in 1930, as did-or at approximately the same time-Mrs. Allen's ancestors.
James Allyn-this was the original spelling of the name-born in 1752 served in the Revolutionary War, married Lydia Marston and was grand- father of Marston Allen, who came to Cincinnati in 1818 and whose three sons settled in Glendale, Ohio, thus establishing there one of the most widely connected and best known families of this Cincinnati suburb.
Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Allen lived in Cincinnati where Mrs. Allen con- tinued her home after her distinguished husband's death.
One of their two daughters, RUTH COLLINS ALLEN, studied art abroad and married Yadensz Steffen Wolkowski, noted painter. They reside in Paris. MARGARET ALLEN married Edward Smith Parsons, whose father was a president of Marietta College. They live in Cincinnati, where Mrs. Parsons is actively identified with important organizations for progress, notably the Cincinnati Peace League and the League of Women Voters. The League, in Cincinnati as elsewhere, came into being when suffragists won their cause and set themselves to be equal to their new responsibilities. So the daughter took up discharge of the obligation which the mother strove for as a right and privilege. Nor is their contribution lessened by realization that neither service can yet be called complete.
MRS. FRANCES JENNINGS CASEMENT
MRS. FRANCES JENNINGS CASEMENT (1840-1928) of Cleveland helped to organize, served as first president of the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Association and was honorary president at the time of her death. She worked for political rights and for the education of women throughout her whole life, sending many women to college, and giving freely of herself and her money to further very worthy social and political causes.
She was an active member of the Alumni Association of Lake Erie College.
KATHERINE BENEDICT CLAYPOLE
KATHERINE BENEDICT CLAYPOOL (Mrs. Edward W.) (1846-1901), of Akron, Ohio, was a member of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association, the Ohio State Suffrage Association and the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science.
385
WOMEN OF OHIO
Mrs. Claypole did pioneer suffrage work for many years in Ohio. She was the secretary of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association at the time the Ohio School Bill was passed. Her home was in Akron.
ELIZABETH COIT
ELIZABETH COIT (Mrs. Harvey Coit), is one of the Ohio women to whom all women voters of the state are largely indebted for their privilege of franchise. A friend of Susan B. Anthony Luey Stone, Frances Willard and Mary Livermore, her home at Columbus was always open to suffragists when their gatherings were anything but welcomed elsewhere. She was born at Worthington, Ohio, in 1820, married Harvey Coit when she was 21 and moved to Columbus. She worked quietly but constantly for the cause of equal suffrage and lived to see a glimpse of victory when a bill permitting Ohio women to vote for members of board of education was passed by the Ohio Legislature in 1894. Mrs. Coit was president of the first woman Suffrage Association organized at Columbus, a delegate to the state suffrage convention held in Columbus in 1884 and was treasurer of the state association when the task of raising funds for so unpopular a cause was anything but an easy one. She died in 1901.
AGNES HILTON
AGNES HILTON Of Cincinnati was chairman and for a time vice- chairman of the Cincinnati Suffrage Association until, largely from this group there was organized, following the franchise, the Cincinnati League of Women Voters, of which she was made president.
Her work in this new and highly active group was so efficient that Miss Hilton was made chairman of the efficiency in government committee of the Ohio League of Women Voters and in 1928, she was elected president of the state league.
Miss Hilton has been a member of the City Charter Committee of Cin- cinnati since its inception. She is one of the few women ever appointed trustee of the Public Library Board of Hamilton County.
MRS. FENTON LAWSON
MRS. FENTON LAWSON (Corinne Moore) (1865-1928), was a woman of much charm, independence of thought, and a most forceful and lovable personality.
She was a singer of note, but aside from her artistic career, she was deeply interested in woman's suffrage, serving as an officer of the Hamilton County Suffrage Association and from 1912-1920 was a spirited worker. She was president of the Woman's City Club of Cincinnati for two years.
386
WOMEN OF OHIO
LAURA B. POE
Two outstanding Zanesville women who have achieved enviable records and whose passing has been greatly mourned are LAURA B. POE, veteran newspaper woman and one of the first members of the Muskingum County Suffrage Association, and DR. MARTHA McBRIDE, one of the first women physicians in Zanesville and with Miss Poe, one of the organizers of the first suffrage group, the Business and Professional Women's Association, the League of Women Voters and charter members of the Young Women's Christian Association of Zanesville. They were close friends and from their youth until their deaths were militant soldiers in the cause of women's in- terests and activities. Miss Poe was a member of the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association.
HELEN CLEGG WINTERS
HELEN CLEGG WINTERS (Mrs. Valentine Winters) a leader of the woman's suffrage movement, was born at Dayton, Ohio, the daughter of the late Charles Bailey Clegg and granddaughter of Horace Pease, noted Ohio pioneer. In 1816 Pease left Connecticut for Cincinnati and in 1823 moved to Dayton where he established the long famous Pease Mill.
Helen Clegg married Valentine Winters, former president of the Winters National Bank of the Dayton City Railway and of the Dayton Railway Com- panies.
In 1912 Mrs. Winters was a member of the Dayton City Suffrage Asso- ciation, and the next year participated in the Washington suffrage parade. She later broke with the conservative organization and threw her support to the national suffrage amendment campaign, which later became the national woman's party.
At the time of her death in 1938, Mrs. Winters was a member of the National Council of the Woman's party of which she was past state president.
On September 22, 1930, a bronze memorial tablet was unveiled in the main corridor of the Hamilton County Court House, Cincinnati, in honor of the pioneer suffragists of the county. James A. Green, Court House Commis- sioner, accepted the tablet on behalf of the County Commissioners, and gave an eloquent address of congratulation to the assembled members of the Pioneer Suffrage Association. He said in part :
This tablet is "in commemoration of the forward looking women and men of this vicinity, who labored to achieve the ballot for women. They yielded neither to discouragement nor to ridicule. They believed that men and women were equally endowed by the Creator, and that women of right, should at the ballot box have an equal share with men in the responsibilities of government. To these pioneers in a great movement, now crowned with success, this tablet is erected."
387
WOMEN OF OHIO
Dr. Louise Southgate, head of the association unveiled the tablet, amid the tumultous applause of attentive spectators. The committee on the dedica- tion of the tablet consisted of Messrs. Harry G. Pounsford, Howard L. Bevis, Fenton Lawson, Louise Southgate, M.D., and Mesdames Mary B. Corwin and Lillie M. Gorman. After the unveiling exercises, members held a memorial service for members no longer living, whose names were also inscribed on the tablet.
Speakers included Judges Stanley Struble and Thomas H. Morrow, Ruth Neely France, Dr. Louise Southgate, Miss Alma Burke, Dr. Annie Yates, Mrs. Lillie M. Gorman, Miss Emily L. Fessel, Mrs. Emma B. Weaver and Mrs. M. B. Corwin.
Names inscribed on the tablet are: Dr. Glenn Adams, Sarah Shrader, Emma B. Weaver, Dr. Martha Williams, Dr. Sarah M. Siewers, E. Stewart Allen, Howard L. Bevis, Margaret D. Bigelow, Dr. B. Linkmeyer Brate, M. McClellan Brown, Ellen C. Buttenwieser, Dr. Moses Buttenwieser, Mary Bea- trice Corwin, Nora Grotty, M. D., Sarah T. Drukker, Bertha Durand, Louise Eastman, M.D., Dora Easton, Emily L. Fessel, Ruth Neely France, Lillie M. Gorman, Judge Frank M. Gorman, James A. Green, Anna S. Hall, George S. Hawks, Augusta V. Hinckley, Corinne Moore Lawson, Fenton Lawson, Judge William Littleford, Salle B. McLean, Emelie McVea, Helen Wise Molony, Matilda M. Murray, Gussie D. Ogden, Edna C. Ohnstein, Edith Weld Peck, Isabelle E. Pendleton, Nannia Neal Piper, Harry G. Pounsford, Laura A. Pruden, Carl Rankin, Imogene F. Rechtin, Mary Rennick, Susan Rennick, Mary Bertrand Ross, Mary C. Sherwood, John L. Shuff, Ricketts Snell, Louise Southgate, M. D., Dr. Kate Sprague, Dr. Byron Stanton, Judge Stanley Struble, Charles L. Swain, Betty Wilson, Floyd C. Williams, Flora E. Worth- ington, Dr. Annie Yates, Mary Yeager and Amelia Seymour.
CHAPTER NINE
Women in Medicine
CHAPTER NINE
WOMEN IN MEDICINE
By MARGARET H. ROCKHILL Editor Woman's Medical Journal
Women appear in medicine in very ancient times, for even in mythology we find health and childbirth presided over by female deities -Iris among the Egyptians-June, Lucius and Hygeia among the Romans. There is reason to believe that as early as eleven centuries before the Christian Era, a college of physicians existed in Egypt, and that both sexes attended the school.
In Greece it was not until the eighth century B. C. that schools of philosophy began gradually to take the practice of medicine out of the hands of the priests of Aesculapius, and to these schools women were admitted. From primitive times they had complete charge of obstetrics an art which they evolved and taught themselves, and to that science several have contributed. Hippocrates, the author of the famous Hippocratic Oath and which is used today as an expression of the high ethics of the medical profession, was the son of a midwife, as was Socrates. In Greece and Rome, women did not serve as mid- wives only-they practiced general medicine as well.
In the middle ages women physicians or, as they are invariably called by historical writers "doctresses" are mentioned in the eleventh century, in connection with the great Salerno school of medicine which reached the zenith of its fame and greatness between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, remaining, during all that time, the medical mecca of the world. The women physicians connected with the Salerno School were numerous and we are told that they were highly esteemed by the professors, who quoted freely from their writings.
In Paris, eight women doctresses were established in the year 1292 and because of that fact the edict of the Faculty of Paris, for- bidding the practice of medicine to all who were not members of that
391
392
WOMEN OF OHIO
body (to which only unmarried men were admitted) remained dead letter for many years.
By special decree of Frederick the Great, the University of Halle granted a medical degree to Frau Dorthea Erxleban in 1754, the first in the history of any German University. Frau von Siebold and her daughter took the degree of doctor of obstetrics, at Giessen in 1816 and 1809 respectively. Both had very large practices in obstetrics, the mother officiating at the birth of Queen Victoria.
In the American colonies, the history of medical women began deplorably for it is recorded that in the colony of Massachusetts Bay was one Margaret Jones, a female physician accused of witchcraft. Is it not poetic justice that to Massachusetts should belong the credit of establishing the first school of medicine for women in the world?
The history of medicine in America since 1849, when Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell graduated at Hobart College, Geneva, New York, is a fa- miliar tale that cannot be told too often. How she was refused per- mission to study at all colleges in Philadelphia and New York until finally the faculty of Geneva put the matter before the student body and they voted to extend to her a unanimous invitation to become a member of their class.
The New York Infirmary for Women and Children was established in 1857 by the sisters Dr. Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell and a group of those who believed in them; later followed by the opening of the Woman's College of New York Infirmary in 1865.
The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania had been founded fifteen years earlier and was the first college in the world established for the medical education of women. Its first graduating class con- sisted of eight members.
The Paris E'cole de Medicin, actually, though not nominally, closed to women for centuries, was opened by Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi of America and Dr. Garrett Anderson, dean of the London Medical School for Women in 1867.
It would take too much space to enumerate the college and hospital positions held by women physicians in the world today. All medical colleges in the United States, with the exception of two, receive women
393
WOMEN OF OHIO
as students. This is true with but few exceptions in all countries in the world.
A fairly complete list would read as follows :-
Admission to medical degrees for women was accomplished first in the United States in 1849. Switzerland followed in 1864, France in 1867, Sweden in 1870, Holland in 1873, England in 1877, Finland in 1879, Scotland in 1886, Belgium in 1890, then Portugal, Bulgaria, Roumania, Greece and Mexico, then Austria in 1897, and finally Ger- many in 1900 admitted women to their colleges.
The history of medicine has never been without the names of women practitioners, a fact which proves their merit and endurance. Obstetrics is the specialty practiced by them most extensively, since it was the medical art in which their services were most needed.
However, the last forty years of the 19th century and the past three decades since the turn of the 20th, more general recognition has been accorded women, in general medicine, in gynecological surgery -in anatomy, pathology and bacteriology and other branches of medi- cine.
The greatest need of medical women today is for hospital oppor- tunities, both as internes and attending physicians and members of hospital staffs.
Ohio has had a number of famous women physicians-Dr. Eliza- beth Blackwell and her sister Dr. Emily Blackwell having at one time been residents of Cincinnati.
Dr. Elmina Roys Gavitt, the first editor of the Medical Woman's Journal-was born in Boston, came to Toledo soon after graduation and practiced medicine there most successfully. She was an extra- ordinary woman-with great vision and high ideals for women in medicine. It was because of the need for means of communication between the widely scattered women then practicing medicine that this publication which is the first and is now the only scientific monthly medical journal for medical women, was founded. Because of that need, Dr. Roys Gavitt became its editor.
Dr. Lillian G. Towslee and Dr. Fanny Hutchins in Cleveland made history by their devotion to the best for medical women.
394
WOMEN OF OHIO
In various other parts of the State are women physicians who have made distinguished records of public service.
At present there are 311 women practicing medicine in Ohio with the respect and confidence of their respective communities. They are honorably and acceptably filling responsible positions on college and hospital staffs, and daily demonstrating that women have the ability, character and temperament to successfully practice medicine and to carry on the high traditions of that profession. The following short sketches are representative of women of Ohio who are now successfully practicing medicine are but a few of the women physicians of the state who have won the esteem and in many instances the devotion of their patients and their fellow-citizens. Because of her remarkable career, alphabetical order is waived as regards Dr. Mary R. H. Lewis, who heads this list of women physicians of Ohio.
MARY R. H. LEWIS
MARY R. H. LEWIS, Medical Director of The Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia is one of Ohio's most brilliant women physicians. She was born in Sabina, Ohio in 1879.
Doctor Lewis graduated in medicine at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1911. She has a B. S. from Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio and an honorary degree of Fellow of the American College of Hospital Administrators, as one of its one hundred Charter Fellows. She was lecturer in hygiene and physician to women at Swarthmore College for eleven years and served as assistant public school inspector in Philadelphia five years. Previous to the merger of the Woman's Hospital and the West Philadelphia Hospital for Women she was a chief in obstetrics on each staff. During these years she practiced in West Philadelphia. Doctor Lewis has been continuously associated with the Woman's Hospital since her interneship there in 1911-1912.
Doctor Lewis has a keen interest in various organizations for the advance- ment of women. She is also a member of many medical and hospital associa- tions, among which are the American Medical Association, the International Medical Women's Association, the Philadelphia Hospital Association, Penn- sylvania State Hospital Association, American Hospital Association, the Phila- delphia County Medical Association, to list only a few. She is a member of the Society of Friends.
Her parents were lineal descendants of associates of William Penn in the founding of Pennsylvania. Later generations were pioneers in the Middle West.
395
WOMEN OF OHIO
Her hobbies are swimming and travel. Her most recent trip was to Edin- borough in 1937, when she and Doctor Grim were delegates to the International Congress of Medical Women.
VIVIEN MILLAR AMIDON
VIVIEN MILLAR AMIDON (Mrs. Charles S. Amidon) not only chose medicine for her career but married into the same profession. Until recently, when she moved with her husband and family to Texas, she practiced, as did Dr. Charles S. Amidon, in Cincinnati.
Dr. Vivien Amidon was born in New York, the daughter of John and Susan Emma Stanley Millar. The family moved to Cincinnati during her infancy. Vivien was educated in the public schools, took her A. B. at the University of Cincinnati and her B. M. and M. D. at the University College of Medicine.
She was married in 1920 to Dr. Charles S. Amidon and three children, Elizabeth Milward, Charline and Charles Stanley were born to the union.
In addition to the heavy responsibilities of a physician Dr. Amidon has given service as director of first aid of the Cincinnati Chapter, American Red Cross and in numerous other capacities. She is a member of the National Medical Women's Club, of the Cincinnati College Club, the American Asso- ciation of University Women, D. A. R., Early American Colonists, Delta Zeta Sorority, Alpha Epsilon Iota and of University of Cincinnati Alumnal Asso- ciation.
MARY ELIZABETH ANDERSON
MARY ELIZABETH ANDERSON (Mrs. William V. Anderson), physi- cian of Hudson, Ohio, was born at Franklin, Pa., and took her M. D. at the Michigan College of Medicine and Surgery. She was formerly in the extension work department of the University of Ohio and the University of West Vir- ginia. Dr. Anderson has served a number of times as president of the Summit County Board of Education. She was an enthusiastic worker for woman's suffrage and served as treasurer of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association. Her home is at 83 Division Ave., Hudson, Ohio.
JULIA MARCH BAIRD
JULIA MARCH BAIRD, Youngstown, Ohio physician, was born at Franklin, Ohio, the daughter of Henry and Sarah Jane March. She took her Ph. B. and her Ph. M. at Mt. Union College, her M. D. at Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania and did graduate work at New York Post Graduate College and New York Polyclinic. Dr. Baird is medical examiner for girls of the Y. W. C. A., also of the Juvenile Court and was for 10 years a high school teacher. Her home is at Youngstown, Ohio.
396
WOMEN OF OHIO
HELEN SIDNER BROGDEN
For eight years DR. HELEN SIDNER BROGDEN has engaged in the practice of medicine in Canton and her ability is more and more being recog- nized in a steadily growing patronage. A native of Cincinnati, she pursued her early education in the public schools of this state and then attended Ohio Northern College, while subsequently she enrolled as a student in Ohio State University, where she won the Bachelor of Arts degree and later her profes- sional degree. While a junior in medical college she became the wife of Karl Stean, from whom she later secured a legal separation, and at the time she received her diploma she was the wife of Dr. William S. Brogden. An un- written law of her medical college advocated the use of her married name which she has done.
About 1931 Dr. Brogden opened an office in Canton, where she has since continued in her professional work, and as the years have passed her practice has steadily grown in volume and importance. She is also connected with both the Aultman Hospital and Mercy Hospital in Canton and she keeps in close touch with the forward steps that are constantly being made in medical science through her membership in the Canton Medical Society, the Stark County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Association and the American Medical Association. She is greatly interested in anything that tends to bring a knowledge of that complex mystery which we call life and her reading covers a wide scope, thus constantly promoting her efficiency. She is not identified with any clubs or organizations, for her profession makes full demand on her time and energies.
ELIZABETH CAMPBELL
DR. ELIZABETH CAMPBELL, who is known far beyond the boundaries of Ohio, because of her contributions to the progress of medical science and the maintenance of health conditions, has continuously practiced in Cincinnati, since completing her medical education. Born in Ripley, Ohio, February 2, 1862, she is a daughter of William and Mary (Leavitt) Campbell, both natives of Cincinnati. Her grandfather, Daniel Leavitt, was one of the men who laid out Cincinnati and was prominent among the early pioneers. He became one of the prosperous builders and contractors of the city, erecting the old Vine Street Congregational Church and other notable structures of the early days. He was also one of those who established and maintained the "underground railroad" in ante bellum times, thus aiding many negroes in reaching safety and freedom in Canada. About the time of the Civil war he removed to Ripley, this state, where there was a house built in which to keep the escaped colored people, and after the close of hostilities between the north and the south he returned to Cincinnati. William Campbell, the Doctor's father, was a lumber merchant of Ripley and was active in public affairs there.
397
WOMEN OF OHIO
Dr. Campbell pursued her preliminary education in the schools of Ripley, passing through the grades to the high school, and then spent three years in the medical department of the University of Michigan, after which she spent a year as a student in the medical college of the University of Cincin- nati and gained her professional degree. She has since taken post graduate work in the University of Michigan, specializing in internal medicine. She has always remained in Cincinnati, where she has ranked with the active and prominent physicians for many years, and in addition to her private practice she holds the important position of internist on the staff of Christ Hospital of Cincinnati.
One of the major contributions of Dr. Campbell to the progress of her community was her long continued effort, finally successful, whereby visiting nurses associations and social hygiene societies have been established. These achievements have been paralleled in more recent years by the founding of the Maternal Health Association of Cincinnati and its clinics for expectant mothers, in the varied and important services of which, Dr. Campbell is still closely cooperating. For years she has been an advocate and worker for birth control, studying the question from the scientific health standpoint. For a period she was vice president of the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine and from 1915 to 1934 she was a member of the executive committee of the Public Health Federation of Cincinnati. She is the author of medical papers and other articles published in professional journals and in magazines of country- wide circulation and her reputation is virtually nation wide in its scope.
PHRANIA CHESBROUGH
PHRANIA CHESBROUGH, widely known physician of Willoughby, was born in 1870 at Madison, Ohio, the daughter of the Rev. George and Jane Boyd Chesbrough.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.