USA > Oregon > Oregon, pictorial and biographical > Part 25
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of my life. Next summer I was on the farm, milking, butter-making and doing all kinds of work on the farm. It was now 1862 and the state called upon the counties to contribute to the "Boys in Blue." Clatsop, being a dairy district, decided to contribute a mam- moth cheese. Mr. Hobson had a man who made cheese so he and I volunteered to make the cheese. Everybody contributed milk; the ends of a hogshead were sawed off and the middle was used for a hoop. After the cheese was made the hoops were filed off. The cheese was pronounced a success, and was sold and resold in Astoria and brought one hundred and forty-five dollars. I was then sent with it to the state fair where it was again auctioned off many times till it brought between four hundred and five hundred dollars, and then the money and cheese were forwarded to the Oregon soldiers. Whether they found it palatable or digestible I never learned, as such things were not as easily accounted for as now. In the fall I rented three rooms in Astoria and with scanty furniture which I procured by the proceeds from blueberry picking and other work, I set up house- keeping. I was eager for school but my expenses must be met and this is how it was done. I engaged to do the washing for two large families, and washing and ironing for one. Sunday night found George and I at Capt. C.'s. At 4 A. M. I was in the kitchen. George went to school with the children and at 10 I was there my- self. Monday and Tuesday this was repeated. The other was done at my rooms. For all this I received five dollars per week, including the kindest of treatment. This was sufficient to provide for our wants, especially as we lived on the beach, which enabled us to pick up most of our wood. And thus I was happy in my independence.
At that time there was a kind and estimable man in Astoria, a Captain Farnsworth. He was a friend of Mr. and Mrs. Hobson. He knew of my struggles for an education. One rainy evening he called. George had been tucked in bed and I was ironing at the table with my book before me. Thus I studied while I worked. My hands were trained to do their part without calling upon the brain. Removing his heavy overcoat and seating himself by the table he said, "Have you no time to talk?" "Oh, yes; I can talk and work, too." "Well," he said, "I want you to put away that work. I have come to talk to you and I want you to listen well to what I have to say." I closed the book, folded the ironing cloth and sat down, not knowing what was coming, but feeling very apprehensive. He saw this and smiling, said, "Don't you ever get tired?" "Oh, yes; but I get rested easily and quickly." "How long do you expect to go on this way?" "I don't know," I said. "I don't want to see you working in
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this way, and I have come to see you as a friend, and I want to be a true friend to you. I am alone in the world. The nearest friend I have is a nephew. I have more money than I need and I think I cannot do better than to help you." Trembling, and with moist eyes I exclaimed, "No, no; I cannot take money from you!" "Now, don't be foolish, but listen to me. I know you are thinking that it will compromise you. Besides you are a great deal too independent for your own good. I am a good deal older than you and know vastly more of the world than you do, and I want you to understand that if you accept the offer you are never to feel under any obligation to me. My offer is this: You are to select any school in the United States for as long a time as you choose. I will furnish the money for all the expenses for yourself and boy and no one shall ever know from me where the money came from. If you say so I will not even write to you." Could there ever have been a more generous or unselfish offer? I was now in tears, but my self will, independence and inexperience decided me to refuse it. I could not consent to such an obligation. The acceptance of that offer would doubtless have changed my whole life, but who can tell for better or for worse. Captain Farnsworth was thoroughly disgusted at my obstinacy, though he was still my friend, yet he did not show the same interest in me from that time and many times in after years during my hardships and struggles in my supreme efforts to get ahead, I bitterly repented my hasty decision, feeling that it was the mistake of my life.
Others beside my generous friend, the Captain, had been watching my efforts. Colonel Taylor and Mr. Ingalls were the school directors, and as the wife of the principal was prevented from assisting they generously gave me the position at a salary of twenty-five dollars per month for the remaining three months. This was a wave of prosper- ity, and as one good thing sometimes follows another I was offered board and room for myself and George for the care of nine rooms in a private boarding house, which I accepted. I asked and received permission to recite in two advanced classes. I also joined a reading and singing class which met once a week. When I was given charge of the primary department I had among my pupils a young lady who was far ahead of me when I attended the Oysterville school. Before the school closed I received a call to teach a three months' school at Bruceport, Washington, at twenty-five dollars per month and board. Judge Olney was county school superintendent. With fear and trembling I applied for an examination. He said, "I know you are competent to teach that school. I have had my eye on you for a year, and I know you will do your duty. I will send you a certificate," and
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he did. This was great encouragement and made me more determined to do my best.
I accepted the school and left with my boy as soon as my school closed, and opened the Bruceport school at once. After two weeks a collection was taken up among the oyster men and a few families for a second term, and before the six months closed I had a call to teach the Oysterville school, which had the undesirable reputation of being ungovernable. It was my reputation for good government that had prompted the directors to offer me the school. My reply was, "I will engage to teach your school if the directors will pledge their sup- port to my government." They did, and I taught the school. There were three students that made all the trouble-a girl and two boys. The girl was the ringleader. About the third day one of the boys stuck a pin in a girl. I reprimanded him and told him to bring his lunch the next day and stay in noon-time. He only groaned. The next day he failed to show up and in the afternoon his older brother came dragging him in. I met him at the door and taking him by the hand attempted to lead him to his seat. He had on heavy shoes and kicked me vigorously. That was a little more than my temper could stand. I seized him by the shoulders and fairly churned the bench with him, which subdued the young gentleman in short order. At the close of the school I gave him his choice of staying in during noon hour for one week or receiving five blows on each hand with the ferrule. He chose the latter and I administered the punishment at once. The Irish girl was living with one of the directors. He told me that she came running home and said, "It's no use fooling with that teacher; she don't scare worth a cent." She was twelve and proved to be one of my best scholars both in behavior and aptitude. That was the only punishment administered in that school by me. Before the close of that school I received a call for a four months' school on Clat- sop at forty dollars per month and board myself. With my boy I moved into the old parsonage at Skipenon which had been unoccupied for a long time. This I could have free, so that with the addition of a few boards and nails made two rooms comfortable for spring and summer, so I was happy as a lark. I was an expert, as experts went in those days, with the sewing machine and crochet needle and my hands were never idle. I had in this way, so far, saved all my school money, and with this term I would have four hundred dollars. My ambition was to have a home. I had bought a half lot and engaged a carpenter to build me a little three-room house with a pretty little porch. To this, my last school, I can look back with pleasure and sat- isfaction. The neighbors and farmers were kindness itself to me. At
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the end of the term I moved in my little home. How proud I was! I could turn my hand to most anything and work came from all direc- tions.
During all these years Mr. Hill kept on writing, urging me to remarry him. One dark night while my machine was buzzing and I was singing while I sewed, a knock came. I opened the door and there stood the father of my child. He had come unannounced, thinking his appearance might overcome my opposition. But, alas! He did not find the young inexperienced child-mother he had abused, but a full-grown, self-reliant and self-supporting woman who could look upon him only with pity. He now realized that there was a gulf between us which he could never hope to cross. He said, "Can I come and take my boy down town with me tomorrow? I will not ask you to wake him up tonight." "You can if you will promise not to run off with him as you are always threatening." "I will promise." Not daring to trust him I hastened to the sheriff next morning and told him my troubles. He smiled and said, "Now don't you worry, my dear little woman. He will never get out of this town with that child."
In the fall I rented my little home and went to Roseburg to visit my people at their urgent request. Roseburg was growing and they urged me to stay and go into business, so I rented a house and opened a millinery and dressmaking establishment. For two years I applied myself, and saved my earnings and bought my home and had a good, growing business. My boy was in school and work brings its reward and pleasure and I was happy. 5 A. M. never saw me in bed. Yes, I had had two years of uninterrupted success, but now a new milliner made her advent and opened next door to me. She came right in and looked me over, stock and all. She said she had been a milliner for years, had learned the trade and understood it thoroughly, and had come to stay. I was soon made to feel her power. She laughed and ridiculed my pretentions. Said mine was only a picked up business. She knew how to bleach and make over all kinds of straw. She could make hat blocks on which she could make over hats and frames, all of which was Greek to me. She came late in the fall and her husband went all over the country picking up all the old hats and advertising his wife's skill. This was not only humiliating to me, but also a severe blow to my business. I was at my wit's end to know what to do and how to do it. One beautiful day I was thinking the matter over while eating my dinner in front of a window which over- looked my neighbor's kitchen. I had seen her husband unload several boxes of old hats the evening before and now they were getting ready
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for bleaching and pressing. They sat at a table out in the sun on which they placed two new plaster paris hat blocks and now the work began not twenty feet from me. My house was above them and I could see them and hear everything they said; but they could not see me. For an hour I sat there and learned the art of cleaning, stiffen- ing, shaping, pressing and bleaching. Oh, what a revolution. My heart was beating fast and I felt that I had never learned so much in one hour in my life. I saw how easy it was and how much profit there was in it. I knew if I could get the blocks I could press the hats so I stepped down and asked her what she would charge for two blocks. She said, "Thirty dollars." "I will think of it; I did not expect them to be so high." "You do not expect me to give my busi- ness away." Then with a smile she said, "Can you press hats?" I passed out and as the door closed I heard them laughing. This roused me and I said to myself, "The day will come when I will show you that I can press hats and do several other things as well. First of all I will find out how to make hat blocks. I had a book "Inquire Within." From this I learned how to mix plaster of paris. My first attempt was a failure, but it proved I was on the right track. I slept little that night, but I had thought it all out. As soon as the drug store was opened I bought a dollar's worth of plaster paris and in less than one hour I had made my coveted block. Words could not have expressed my triumph. In less than twenty-four hours I had found and held the key to that mysterious knowledge that had charmed away my customers. I commenced at once to put my acquired knowledge into practice and resolved not to allow a soul to know how I had obtained it. The next day a lady brought me a fine old hat to be renewed. "Oh, you haven't got any of that beautiful lace fringe. Mrs. has it! Would you mind getting it?" "Not at all." When the hat was ready, I wrapped it carefully and walked into my rival's store with the pride of a full grown peacock. Laying it on the counter and lifting a pressed hat from the block that she kept for an advertise- ment on the same style, I asked, "How much of the bugle lace will it take for this hat?" "Three-quarters of a yard." I laid down seventy- cents; she measured it off. "Please stick a pin in and I will see if it is enough," unwrapping the hat and measuring with the lace. As I finished I clipped it off with my belt scissors and dropped it in my hat. "Whose hat is that?" "It is one I have just made over for a customer." "Who pressed it?" "I did." "Who made the block?" "I made it myself," I said, and I walked out. I heard no laughing then. She knew I had her secret, but never knew how I obtained it.
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I put my newly acquired knowledge into practice. All winter I worked. My work and goods were equal to hers, still the customers passed by me and bought of her. She managed to checkmate me. Thus the summer wore away and left me stranded, but not conquered. My time had not been lost and I knew I had gained much that would be of service to me in the future. I had surmounted other difficulties and I would yet wring victory out of this defeat. I had learned more of human nature than I had ever known. I saw that I must convince the community that I was not a pretender but was in reality mistress of my business and that could not be done by making over old hats and bonnets.
In November, of 1869, I left my boy with a minister and his wife who occupied my house, borrowed two hundred and fifty dollars and left for San Francisco, having previously advertised in the paper that I would spend the winter in the best millinery establishment for the purpose of perfecting myself in the work and would return in the spring bringing the latest and most attractive millinery. I carried that out to the letter. I sent out posters. Had a grand opening and swamped my rival and she left in disgust. I cleared one thousand, five hundred dollars that year and business continued to increase as long as I conducted it. In 1870 I placed my son in the University of California. I had a love for nursing. Mother said I was born a doctor and was always feeding the rag dolls with a spoon. Now my time was beginning to be encroached upon by calls from friends and doctors. One evening I was called by a friend. The old doctor came and was trying to catheterize her poor, suffering little girl by his bung- ling attempt. He had lacerated her tender flesh. At last he laid down the instrument to wipe his glasses. I picked it up and said, "Let me try, doctor," and passed it instantly with perfect ease, bringing instant relief. Her mother, who was in agony at the sight of her child's agony, threw her arms around my neck and sobbed out her thanks. Not so, the doctor. He was displeased and showed his displeasure most emphatically. A few days later I called on my friend, Dr. Hamilton, confided to him my ambitions and asked for the loan of medical books. As I came out of his private office in his drug store, I saw Hon. S. F. Chadwick, who had heard the conversation. He came up, shook me warmly by the hand, saying, "Go ahead. It is in you. Let it come out. You will win." The Hon. Jesse Applegate, my dear father's friend, who fondled me as a baby, was the only other one who ever gave me one word of encouragement. Realizing the opposi- tion, especially from my own family, I decided not to mention my plans. I began at once to arrange my business affairs so that I could
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leave in eighteen months. I worked and studied as best I could. In due time I announced my decision. I had expected opposition, but I was not prepared for the storm of opposition. My family felt that they were disgraced and even my own child was made to think that I was doing him an irreparable injury. Most of my friends seemed to think it was their Christian duty to try to prevent me from taking the fatal step. That crucial fortnight was a period in my life never to be forgotten. I was literally kept on the rack. I had provided a home for my now seventeen year old boy in Portland.
My business, all in good shape, was entrusted to a sister who had been with me for a year. The day I left two friends came to say goodby. One said, "Well, this beats all! I always did think you were a smart woman, but you must have gone stark crazy to leave such a business and run off on a wild goose chase." I smiled. "You may change your mind when I come back a physician and charge you more than I have for hats and bonnets." "Not much. You are a good milliner; but I'll never have a woman doctor about me." Choking back the tears, I replied, "Well, time will tell." As a fact both of those ladies receive my professional services, and we laugh together over that goodby conversation. 11 P. M. came at last and found me seated in the California Overland stage beginning my long journey across the continent. It was a dark and stormy night and I was the only inside passenger. I was alone with my thoughts. I realized that I was starting out into an untried world alone with only my unaided resources to carry me through. All rose up before and all that I had left behind tugged at my heart strings. My crushed and over-wrought soul cried out for sympathy and forced me to give vent to my pent up feelings in a flood of tears, while the stage floundered on through a flood of mud and slush and the rain came down in tor- rents as if sympathizing nature were weeping a fitting accompaniment to my lonely, sorrowful mood. I had time to reflect. I remembered that every sorrow of my life had proved a blessing in disguise and had brought me renewed strength and courage. I had taken the step and I would never turn back. Those cheering words from my faithful attorney came to me then as a sweet solace to my wounded spirit. "Go ahead. It is in you. Let it come out. You will win." How many times have those inspiring words cheered me on through the dark hours of my life. I resolved that if there was anything in me it should come out and come what might I would succeed. That decision com- forted me.
Upon reaching Philadelphia I matriculated in the Eclectic Medical School and employed a private tutor. I also attended the lectures
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and clinics in the great Blockly Hospital. In due time I received my degree and returned to Roseburg. A few days later an old man with- out funds died and the five doctors decided to hold an autopsy. When they met, Dr. Palmer, who remembered my impudence in using his catheter, made a motion to invite the new Philadelphia doctor. This was carried, and a messenger was sent for me with a written invita- tion. I knew this meant no honor for me, but said, "Give my compli- ments to the doctors and say I will be up soon." The messenger left and I followed close behind and waited outside till he went in and closed the door. He said, "She said to give you her compliments and she will be up in a minute." Then came a roar of laughter. I opened the door and walked in, went forward and shook hands with Dr. Hoover who advanced to meet me and said, "The operation is to be on the genital organs." I answered, "One part of the human body should be as sacred to a physician as another." Dr. Palmer stepped back and said, "I object to a woman being present at a male autopsy. If she is allowed to remain I will retire." "I came by written invita- tion and I will leave it to a vote whether I go or stay; but first I will ask Dr. Palmer the difference between a woman attending a male autopsy and a man attending a female autopsy?" Dr. Hoover said, "I voted for you to come and I'll stick to it." No. 2, "I voted yes and I'll not go back on it," and "So did I." Dr. Hamilton said, "I did not vote, but I have no objections." Dr. P., "Then I'll retire," which he did, amid the cheers of forty or fifty men and boys.
Inside of the old shed the corpse lay on a board, resting on two old saw bucks, wrapped in his old gray blankets. One of the doctors came forward and offered me an old dissecting case. "You do not want me to do the work, do you?" "Oh, yes; go ahead." I took the case and complied. The news of what was being done had spread to every house in town. The excitement was at fever heat. When I had finished, the crowd, not the doctors, gave me three cheers. When I passed out and down to my home the street was lined with men, women and children, anxious to get a look at the terrible creature. The women were shocked and scandalized, and the men were dis- gusted and some amused at the good joke on the doctors. Now that I look back I believe that all that saved me from a coat of tar and feathers was my brothers, Flem and Josiah. They did not approve of my actions any more than others; but they would have died in their tracks before allowing me to suffer such indignities, which that community well knew. I did not at the time stop to consider the con- sequences. I was prompted by my natural disposition to resent an insult, which I knew was intended. I closed up my business as soon
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as possible and taking my sister moved to Portland and opened my office. I frankly admit that I breathed more freely after I had bid adieu to my family and few remaining friends, and was aboard the train, for it did seem that I was only a thorn in their flesh; but I will say right here that that affair was the means of bringing me many patients, especially from that locality, in after years, which added much to my purse and reputation.
For four years I practiced and got ahead far better than I had expected. I had given my sister a course in Mills Seminary; my son a medical education and set him up in business. I had eight thousand dollars at interest. I was thirsting for more knowledge. The old school would not recognize the Eclectic School, which was a thorn in my flesh. I said, "I will treat myself to a full course in Allopathy and a trip to Europe. Again my family and friends objected; saying, "You will soon be rich. What do you want to spend all you have got for?" But I was deaf to all entreaties. I must and would drink at the fountain head. This time I armed myself with letters from governors, senators and professors, and on September 1, 1878, I sailed for San Francisco. In due time I matriculated in the Univer- sity of Michigan. After arriving there I was in my seat the next day but one. During the next nine months I spent sixteen hours a day excepting Sundays, in attending lectures, clinics, quizzes, and hard study. During vacation I spent ten hours a day in hard study. Most of the time was given to Professor Ford's question book on Anatomy, which was a "bugbear" for medical students. This book contained only questions and covered Gray's Anatomy from beginning to end. I completed it except a few answers which I could not find. When the term began I took it to Prof. Ford to get the answers. He took the book and examined it carefully. "And you have done this? You have done what no other student of this University has done and I never expected them to do, and you have done it while they have been enjoying a vacation, and I shall not forget it. It will be of great value to you in the saving of time and fixing the facts in your mind."
It was my custom to rise at 4, take a cold bath, then exercise, then study till breakfast, at 7. I allowed myself one-half hour for each meal, between lectures, clinics, quizzes, and laboratory work, two good sermons on Sunday, now and then a church social, the time was fully and pleasantly occupied. The constant change brought rest and acted as a safety valve to my overheated brain. At the end of two years I received my degree and sent for my son, and with him and two lady physicians sailed for Europe. My letters with state seals always secured us open doors as travel was not then as it
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