USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume I > Part 37
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all the intervening period she has not only held to the highest ethical standards of the profession, but actuated by a real interest in the science of medicine and prompted by a broad humanitarian spirit, she has rendered a real service to the city and has ever enjoyed the highest regard of her professional colleagues and contemporaries.
Born in Chillicothe, December 30, 1862, she is a daughter of Adam and Caroline (Feick) Greisheimer. She attended the public schools of her native city until graduated from high school and in 1879 was a student in Poe's Normal School, preparing for the teaching service, upon which she entered as primary teacher in the Adelphia public schools in Ross County, Ohio. She continued to engage in teaching until her marriage to Dr. Clinton C. Riley of Massieville, Ohio, on the 20th of October, 1887, resigning just prior to this time from the position of teacher in the German department of the city schools of Chillicothe.
Dr. Riley had previously read medicine for a year under Dr. J. M. Stanley and for one year under her husband, Dr. C. C. Riley, but her newly assumed duties as a home maker prevented her from then entering medical college. Following the death of her husband in May, 1893, she devoted three and a half years to teaching and then decided to attend the National Uni- versity of Medicine in Washington, D. C. Placing her son in the kindergarten school in Washington, she completed a four years' course of medicine, grad- uating in 1901 as the honor student of her class, having earned and received the faculty gold medal in medicine and surgery. It was soon after this that the National University and the Columbian University united as the George Washington University of Washington, D. C.
Dr. Riley returned to Chillicothe and after passing the Ohio State medical examination, she opened an office in the Foulke Block. At the death of her mother she removed her office to her home at 135 East Main Street, where she is still located. It was not long before she was well established, succeeding from the start because she loved her work, especially the work for the little innocent children who could not tell what hurt or ailed them. She continued in general practice until the World War and at the earnest solicitation of Major DeWitt, chief surgeon of Camp Sherman, and Major Dana Robinson, United States health officer of Camp Sherman and Ross County, she became assistant to the latter with the title of acting assistant surgeon of the public health service. The work was very strenuous but she continued to serve in that position for nine months or until a male physician was appointed to take her place.
Dr. Riley then resumed her private practice in which she continued until 1932, when she suffered a severe illness. However she has never retired but continues to practice to some extent and has never been sorry that she entered the field of medicine and demonstrated the ability of women to enter this field of professional work. The son for whom she labored passed
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away on December 21, 1937. She has always done her share of charity work in Chillicothe, as well as in the City Hospital and has never refused to make a call when it was humanly possible to do so. Because of her kindly ministra- tions, as well as her professional skill, her friends in this section of the state are legion.
CLARA ROBERTSON
CLARA ROBERTSON, aged 84 years, of West Elkton, oldest practicing physician in Preble County was especially invited in 1938 to make-a trip to Radio City, New York, for a unique broadcast. Experiences of her long and useful career in which radio officials were keenly interested included the delivery of more than 600 babies.
Dr. Robertson resides in a house at West Elkton which was built 98 years ago. She was born on a farm near Brookville, Indiana, the daughter of Samuel and Martha Sparks, pioneer Quakers, was educated in the high school and college of Brookville and was married in 1876 to Dr. Wm. C. Robertson. Her husband died of a heart attack in 1884 and Clara Robertson entered the Cincinnati Medical College. She was graduated in 1887. She soon began her practice which has continued for 43 years.
FLORENCE HOYT ROBINSON
FLORENCE HOYT ROBINSON, wife of Dr. Will B. Robinson, of Mt. Gilead, Morrow County, Ohio, was born in Hillsboro, Ohio, February 16, 1873, a daughter of Dr. William and Sarah Keeler Hoyt.
She is a graduate in medicine of the University of Cincinnati, where her husband also graduated. They were married shortly after graduation and spent a year abroad, studying in Vienna. Mrs. Robinson comes from a family of physicians, her father, who is now deceased, and a brother having practiced medicine in Hillsboro, Ohio, for a total period of more than seventy-five years.
A number of her uncles and cousins are physicians and her son, Dr. Gerard B. Robinson, is associated with his father as head of the Dr. Nathan Tucket Laboratory in Mount Gilead.
Mrs. Robinson is a devoted member of Trinity Methodist Church in Mount Gilead; was one of the organizing members of Mount Gilead Chapter D. A. R. ; is a member of Sorosis and is much interested in all civic and club activities. She is the mother of three daughters and two sons.
MARGARET HACKEDORN ROCKHILL
The family background of MARGARET HACKEDORN ROCKHILL,, owner and publisher of the Medical Woman's Journal, is Scotch, English and Dutch. This ancestry produced strong, sturdy physical and mental characteristics combined with creative ability, love of the best in music, art
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and literature, together with those intensely feminine attributes which are exemplified in devotion to home and friends, but which, at the same time, can take in the whole human family.
Margaret Hackedorn Rockhill was born in Ohio, the oldest child of her father's second marriage. Her mother's early death made it necessary for her to accept the responsibility of a younger brother and sister, both of whom, however, died in early adulthood.
She received a high school education, graduating with high honors at the age of sixteen years, and was ready to enter Vassar College when she had to relinquish this ambition to take more personal care of her invalid sister whom she was not willing to turn over to the care of servants. So she studied under a highly endowed private tutor who took her through a rigorous college regime, including Latin and Greek.
During this period she assisted her uncle who was publishing a news- paper in Toledo, Ohio. There she acquired a practical knowledge of publish- ing which enabled her a few years later to lay the foundation for what subsequently became the Medical Woman's Journal. In Toledo she came in contact with Dr. Elmina Roys Gavitt, one of the pioneer medical women of Boston and Ohio, who wished to issue a small periodical to be distributed to women physicians as a means of communication and to further their profes- sional progress.
At the time women physicians constituted but a handful of women who had entered the medical profession under difficulties of a nature un- known at the present time. Although at that time Margaret was barely out of girlhood, with the audacity of youth, she suggested that a publication similar to those conducted by medical men could be followed by one in the interests of medical women.
Thus was born the MEDICAL WOMAN'S JOURNAL with Dr. Gavitt as the first editor and Miss Hackedorn responsible for the production and publishing. It was the first scientific monthly Journal published to forward the interests exclusively of women physicians. At the death of Dr. Gavitt two years later, she requested Miss Hackedorn to carry on the periodical. Feeling a deep responsibility for the life of this publication which had meant so much to Dr. Gavitt and to medical women, Margaret Hackedorn secured as editor Dr. Eliza H. Root of Chicago, Dean of Northwestern University, who continued with the JOURNAL until her death in June, 1926.
In 1906 Miss Hackedorn married Dr. Charles Sumner Rockhill, a dis- tinguished physician of Cincinnati, Ohio, a specialist in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. Dr. and Mrs. Rockhill soon became identified with the cultural and social life of Cincinnati and with various clubs and organizations including the Cincinnati Country Club, the University Club and other civic and professional groups. Dr. Rockhill subsequently established his own sanatorium. After the World War he was called upon by the Gov-
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WOMEN OF OHIO
ernment to assist in the care of the many tubercular soldiers. Arrangements were made to place many of the veterans in the Rockhill Sanatorium. Dr. Rockhill who was recognized as a national authority in tuberculosis died in March, 1925.
Although Mrs. Rockhill was actively associated with her husband in his work at the Sanatorium she continued to devote unstinted time and energy to the Medical Woman's Journal in which she always had Dr. Rock- hill's sympathetic co-operation.
Other matters of civic and educational importance challenged her active interest, both in the city and the state. She originated and carried on the publicity of the Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs for more than three years. She organized the first press bureau for club women and her articles were syndicated in forty newspapers throughout Ohio. Because of this unique service Mrs. Rockhill was made a member of the press committee of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, being assigned to the press work of six states. Mrs. Rockhill is now an honorary member of the American Med- ical Woman's Association, a director of the board of the Better Housing League of Cincinnati, a member of the Cincinnati Woman's Club, the Women's Art Club, charter member of The Town Club, charter member of the English Speaking Union and is identified with other civic and professional organi- zations. She is also a member of the National Arts Club and the Pen and Brush Club of New York City.
As editor and publisher of the Medical Woman's Journal, she soon recognized the necessity of an organization of medical women, not only for their mutual protection but as a means of adding to their formal medical education by taking part in meetings, writing scientific papers, in short, doing professionally what medical men had been doing for many years, that their work might be better known along strictly ethical lines.
The idea, when first presented by Mrs. Rockhill, was less than popular. After a period of several years, however, and following a sequence of events, which proved the value of her judgment, the Medical Women's Association was formed in 1915.
Mrs. Rockhill was asked to assist in the formation of the organization, drafting the constitution and by-laws and was the secretary of the Association for more than two years. Because of problems following the World War, in 1919 the National Young Women's Christian Association invited women throughout the world to take part in a congress to be held in the United States. Medical women from nineteen countries arrived to participate in this Congress. Mrs. Rockhill recognized that this was the psychological moment to press for an international organization of medical women. She presented her views to some of the foreign and American women physicians who enthusiastically welcomed this opportunity to effect an International Association. Mrs. Rockhill, as the representative of the MEDICAL WOMAN'S
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JOURNAL on this occasion, wrote the tentative constitution and by-laws which, after a few changes, subsequently became the rules of order. Thus the International Association of Medical Women was formed in 1919, the FIRST international organization of women physicians.
Mrs. Rockhill is not herself a physician. Her success emphasizes the opinion, now general, that the point of view of the publisher and editor, divorced from the professional standpoint, is on the whole more conducive to editorial efficiency and permanence.
Margaret Rockhill has carried on the MEDICAL WOMAN'S JOURNAL throughout its existence without missing a single issue. It reaches all women physicians and is said to be the first and only scientific monthly record of the work of medical women throughout the world. It constitutes outstanding evidence of the progress of women in medicine. The files of this JOURNAL form a permanent record of such progress. In it is written their history from the time of the Blackwell sisters; the history-step by step-of their suc- cessful efforts to prove that there is no sex in medicine and that women have a distinct place to fill; that they can acceptably and honorably fill positions in universities, colleges and hospitals; that they have the ability, character and temperament to become successful physicians and to carry on the high traditions of that profession.
It is difficult to realize that in but little more than half a century in the face of most determined opposition and bitter prejudice, they have reached a point where such opposition is but dimly remembered and they are with- out question accepted as colleagues.
Some time the annals of women in medicine may record the faithful work of one woman-not a physician-who loved and held high the banner of that science of healing long ago disclosed to mortals by Aesculapius.
ELIZABETH SHRIEVES
After ELIZABETH SHRIEVES, of Wilmington, the daughter of the late William Randolph Shrieves, had taught school for two years and been a substitute teacher eight years, she decided to study medicine. More than one mother, probably many, in Wilmington, may be very glad she did. She has been a general practitioner since 1900 and is also an assistant surgeon-but Dr. Shrieves specializes in anaesthesia, especially in a development of "twi- light sleep" which she has found highly successful.
When the first public library association was organized at Wilmington, in 1899, Dr. Shrieves became a member and has served continuously ever since. She was for eight years a member of the Board of Education, president for five years of the League of Women Voters, charter member of the Six and Twenty Literary Club, active in other cultural and educational organi- zations. When something of public benefit is to be pushed through in Wil- mington. approval and support of Dr. Shrieves is usually one of the first things sought.
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CONSUELO CLARK STEWART
CONSUELO CLARK STEWART, former Cincinnati physician, was the daughter of Peter H. Clark, principal of the then Gaines High School.
Consuelo studied medicine in Boston, Mass., one of the first women of her race to do so. She returned to Cincinnati opened an office and developed an extensive practice. She continued in her chosen profession until her marriage and removal to Youngstown, Ohio. There she devoted her effort and energy to civic and welfare service in which she was active to the time of her death.
ESTHER BOGEN TIETZ
ESTHER BOGEN TIETZ (Mrs. Julius B. Tietz), staff physician of the Longview State Mental Hospital, and lecturer on physiology of the nervous system at the Longview School for Nurses, has established, through natural ability and aptitude, thorough training and patient research, an enviable reputation in her chosen profession.
She was born at Woodbine, N. J., the daughter of Boris D. and Elizabeth Bogen, took her M.D. at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. her M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati and became research assistant at U. C. in 1934. Dr. Tietz is the author of numerous published monographs and medical papers and her articles are featured in leading pro- fessional journals.
MAE EMERY WHITE
MAE EMERY WHITE, a physician of Canton, who began practice in 1899, was born in Leipsic, Putnam County, Ohio, a daughter of Joseph and Maria Louisa Emery. The father, a native of Ohio, engaged in the practice of dentistry at Leipsic for a number of years and there died at the age of fifty. He married Maria Louisa Lowery, a daughter of Robert and Olive (McConnell) Lowery, the former a merchant of Leipsic. There Mrs. Emery was reared, attending the common schools of her native county and later she was graduated from the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati. For a time in early womanhood she was a teacher in the public schools. At the age of eighteen years she was married and during the remainder of her life followed her profession, being one of the early women physicians of the state. She died at the age of fifty years. She was the mother of two daughters. Myrtle. a resident of Canton, and Mae E.
The latter attended the public schools of Putnam County and then desirous of taking up the profession in which her mother had won so enviable a posi- tion, she directed her further studies toward that end. She was graduated from the physical department of Oberlin College, at Oberlin, Ohio, with the class of 1896 and then enrolled as a student in the Eclectic Medical College
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of Cincinnati, where she won her M.D. degree as a member of the class of 1899. Since that time she has practiced in association with her husband save for the period which she has devoted to rearing her children. She has taken post graduate work in Chicago and New York City and attended the Inter- national College of Anaesthetics, and in that line of professional work has specialized for the past ten years.
In 1899 Mae Emery became the wife of Dr. W. A. White, who was born in Weston, West Virginia, a son of Marcellus and Flora (Gibson) White. The family was established in America by his great-great-grandfather, who fought in the Revolutionary War and the Whites are of Irish lineage. Dr. W. A. and Dr. Mae E. White have two children, Margaret and W. A., Jr. The former was graduated from Antioch College and taught for a time in Mrs. Day's private school. She married Adna H. Karns, who was a student at Yale of dramatics and production. The son, W. A. White, Jr., is now a medical student at Harvard and is thus following in the footsteps of his ancestors, for many of the family have become representatives of the medical profession. The grandfather of Dr. Mae White was a physician as were two of her uncles who drove to Ohio from New Hampshire, one of them becoming the first doctor in Carroll County, while the other later established himself in the practice of medicine in Illinois. The Lowery family was founded in Newburyport, New Hampshire by two brothers, John and Anthony, who came from England. Dr. White has visited the cemetery at Newburyport and found there a marker bearing the dates 1598 and 1682, showing that at an early period in the colonization of the new world they had crossed the Atlantic to establish their homes in America and that her ancestors were among those who fought in the war for independence is shown in the fact that Dr. White is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also belongs to the Canton Woman's Club, the Quota Club of Canton, the Young Women's Christian Association and the Presbyterian Church. She is also a member of the council of Girl Scouts, while along strictly professional lines she has connection with the local medical society, the County Medical Society and the Ohio State Medical Society and is also a Fellow of the American Medical Association, and thus she keeps in close touch with the progress that is being continuously made in medical practice and procedure.
MIRIAM PIERCE WILLIAMSON
MIRIAM PIERCE WILLIAMSON, one of the first practicing physicians in Ohio, was born in Wilmington, in 1822, the daughter of Richard Pierce, ardent abolitionist, one of the editors of the Advocate of Peace and Mary Fallis Pierce, both early Quaker settlers in Ohio-coming to Wilmington in 1813.
At 18 years of age Miriam Pierce married Dr. Francis Williamson, of Virginia birth, a brilliant graduate of Rush Medical College at Philadelphia.
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The young couple made their home first in Wilmington and later in Waynes- ville. They had six children, and family cares pressed hard, for the young husband, "while kindly and sympathetic, felt that the material side of life was secondary."
Miriam possessed a strong character and a remarkable capacity for physical and mental exertion. She set to work to study medicine from the books in her husband's library, and under his direction. Possessing a natural magnetism of personality with an aptitude for healing, she began to practice medicine in her own right-a possible career when licenses were unknown. At the outset of her professional work, a "female physician" was considered a novelty, an irregularity, an innovation, and the people of the rural com- munity looked on such a one with a degree of suspicion, but the fact soon became apparent that there was some power in this modest, upright, energetic and resolute little woman.
She made a success of her chosen profession. She also made a living for her husband and family, and became a popular and honored figure in her community. At the time of her death, in 1890, we may judge of the success of her venture in practical terms from the following item in the local Waynes- ville press :
"After having been absent on professional duty most of the late spring and summer, Dr. Mrs. Miriam Williamson was summoned here a few weeks ago on account of sickness in her own family. Then, her ministrations being no longer necessary, she came, one day of last week, to her home in this place, for a little rest and preparation before leaving on the following Monday for Richmond, where sick ones anxiously awaited her coming. Last Saturday forenoon she was out in town attending to affairs of her household, and in the afternoon she was at home, entertaining friends and sewing, and appar- ently in her usual health. But at 4 o'clock she was taken suddenly and violently ill, and, in spite of prompt and skillful medical attention, before six o'clock 'the silver cord was loosed, the golden bowl was broken', and her spirit, freed from its tenement of clay, had soared away to the realms of beatific rest."
PAULINE ZINNINGER
DR. PAULINE ZINNINGER has engaged in medical practice in Canton since 1926 and has spent practically her entire life here. She is a daughter of George F. and Kittie M. (Maser) Zinninger, both natives of Ohio and the former still a practicing physician of Canton. Dr. Pauline Zinninger is the eldest of four children, the others being Max M., who is a physician of Cincinnati, Ohio; Mrs. Fritz Brechbuhler, living in Canton, Ohio; and Kath- erine, the wife of P. W. Endriss of Mansfield, Ohio, who is with the Westing- house Corporation there.
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Dr. Pauline Zinninger attended the public schools of her native city and was graduated from the Central high school of Canton as a member of the class of 1912. In the same year she matriculated at Oberlin College, where she completed her studies in 1917, having majored in French and music. Desirous of taking up the practice of medicine, in 1919 she enrolled as a student in the Johns Hopkins Medical School at Baltimore, Maryland, where she won her professional degree at her graduation in 1923. She spent two years thereafter as an interne in San Francisco, California, and in 1925 returned home to Canton.
The following year she began practice here and has since continued her professional work in Canton, specializing in diseases of children. She has made a close study of this branch of medicine and is constantly broadening her knowledge and promoting her skill through her membership connections with the American Medical Association, the Ohio State Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Dr. Zinninger belongs to the Lutheran Church of Canton. She also has membership in the Quota Club and she finds her recreation and diversion in travel.
INDEX
Abbott, Arletta Maria A
234
Ackerman, Isabelle K. 739
Acknowledgements 11
Acton, Mrs. C. J. 431
Adams, Jean 1225
Adams, Louise H. 676
Adams, Mary Taylor
810
Adams, Maude 487
Addams, Jane
1085
Adelaide, Sister 539
Adolphine, Sister 468
Adventure and Travel, Women in 1127
Agnes, Mother Mary 547
Akeley, Mary L. Jobe. 1127
Alacoque, Sister Mary 536
Albray, Sarah A. 88
Albrecht, Mother Maria Anna 480, 561
Albrecht, Sister Rosa 480, 561
Albright, Jane 213
Alburn, Mrs. Cary
1011
Alexis, Sister
540
Allen, Mrs. Alfred
1010
Allen, Clara
728
Allen, Florence Ellinwood
portrait of
9, 11, 641
Allen, Mrs. Francis K.
937
Allen, Harriett Collins
381
Allen, Margaret
384
Allen, Maria Storts
363
Allen, Nancy Grimes 1146
portrait of
6
Allen, Phoebe 276
Allen, Ruth Collins 384
Allison, Henry
41
Allison, Dr. Richard 41
Allman, Margaret
1032
Allyn, Helen 1143, 1146
portrait of
7
Alma, Sister 590
Aloysi, Sister
523
Aloysia, Mother
532
Alter, Bishop Karl J. 614
Amadeus, Mother
571.
588
Amann, Katherine R. 290
American Mother of 1939. 947
Amidon, Dr. Vivien Millar 395
Amos, Katherine 1146
Amos, Sally 1146
Anderson, Mrs. C. V. 433
Anderson, Druzilla 93
Anderson, Harriet Ludlow 41
Anderson, Margaret Ellen 235
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