The Doctor Wore Petticoats: Women Physicians of the Old West Read online

  Patty did not solely rely on practical experience to help her with her job. She studied the pages of a medical book entitled Aristotle’s Wisdom: Directions for Midwives. The publication contained advice and counsel for delivering a baby, along with more than 300 photographs of fetuses in various stages of development. She had pored over numerous books on the subject, and in 1847 was one of the most trusted women in the midwife profession.

  ONE TIME HELPING TO DELIVER A CHILD LED PATTY BARTLETT SESSIONS TO PURSUE A MEDICAL PROFESSION.

  On Sunday, September 26, 1847, Patty assisted in the birth of the first male born in the Salt Lake Valley. Her role in the momentous occasion was predicted long before the boy was born. Her journal entry for that day does not tell who predicted the event, but the midwife was honored to be a part of history:It was said to me more than five months ago that my hands should be the first to handle the first born son in the place of rest for the saints even in the city of our God. I have come more than one thousand miles to do it since it was spoken.

  Patty Bartlett Sessions’s journey began thousands of miles from Utah in the small New England town of Newry, Maine. She was born on February 4, 1795, to Enoch and Anna Bartlett, and was the first of nine children the couple had together.

  Like all her brothers and sisters, Patty was raised on the family farm and was required to do a variety of chores. She excelled in spinning, weaving, and sewing. The intricate stitching she used on her samplers would come in handy with stitching of another kind once she entered the medical profession. Although her mother and father did not require their daughters to attend school, Patty sought out an education. She learned to read and write from the Newry schoolmistress and was a gifted math student.

  On June 28, 1812, Patty married a farmer named David Sessions. The newlyweds moved in with his parents in the nearby town of Ketchum. David’s mother, Rachel, suffered from rheumatism and required constant care. While David tended to the crops, Patty tended to her mother-in-law. The daunting responsibility inadvertently led the teenager to pursue a career as a midwife.

  Before Rachel had become disabled, she was the trained attendant who neighbors and friends sought help from with obstetrical cases. One afternoon she received a frantic summons to the bedside of an expectant mother who was very ill. Physically unable to get to the mother-to-be quickly, Rachel decided to send Patty to lend a hand. She reassured her daughter-in-law that she had the compassion and common sense necessary to be of help, and Patty agreed to go.

  When she arrived on the scene, the expectant mother was in labor and very sick. Patty thought the woman was dying. What she lacked in practical knowledge, she made up for in nerve and courage. Patty’s presence and calming attitude comforted the distressed woman. She took charge of the situation, ordering the expectant mother to breath easily through the contractions.

  By the time the doctor arrived, the baby had been born, and mother and child were resting comfortably. The pair were thoroughly examined and given clean bills of health. Patty was commended by the physician for a job well done and encouraged to enter the business. He told her the need for her skills was in great demand and promised that she would prosper in the profession.

  Patty was intrigued with the prospect, but it wasn’t until she experienced the thrill of helping to deliver another child that she decided to become a midwife.

  Her education in the field would be well rounded. She studied obstetrics under Doctor Timothy Carter, a physician in Bethel, Maine; she learned about natural herb remedies from Native Americans; and she interned with elderly midwives in the area. Patty Bartlett Sessions devoted herself to learning all she could about natural labor and prenatal care. She earned a reputation as one of the best practitioners of her kind in the territory.

  When Patty wasn’t helping to deliver babies, she and her husband were working the land on their 200-acre homestead. With dedication and hard work, they grew their farm to include a large house, two large barns, several sheds, a sawmill, and a gristmill. Over the course of their twenty-five-year marriage, the couple had eight children. Only three of their children lived to adulthood. Typhus fever swept through the area, claiming the lives of two of the Sessions children and countless other residents in the small farming community.

  Patty dealt with the loss as best she could while continuing to serve the town as midwife. David struggled to come to terms with the death of his offspring and sunk into a deep depression. The pair’s spirits never fully recovered.

  In 1833, a group of Mormon missionaries made their camp near the Sessions home and began ministering to them.

  Their message changed Patty and David’s life and brought them out of the deep pit of despair. Close to a year later, the husband and wife adopted the Mormon religion and were baptized into the faith. At the urging of the church leaders, David moved his family from Maine to Kirkland, Ohio. Patty’s services continued to be greatly required. In addition to performing her daily household duties, she attended to numerous obstetrical cases. Her journal contains several entries describing the events and their outcomes, such as this account from May of 1836:

  In 1842, the Mormon Church leaders again called upon the Sessions family to relocate. This time they were to go to Nauvoo, Illinois. While in Nauvoo, Patty and David met the town founder, Joseph Smith. Smith was also the president and prophet of the Church of Latter Day Saints. He was taken with Patty’s medical ability and the role she played as caregiver for other migrating Mormons. In keeping with the religion’s polygamist practice, Patty accepted a proposal of marriage from Joseph Smith. On March 9, 1842, the two exchanged vows.

  Smith and the Mormon Church put Patty’s skills to work, and she began teaching young wives about motherhood and the importance of a proper diet for themselves and their children. From 1842 to 1847, the accomplished midwife assisted in bringing hundreds of babies into the Mormon family. Patty continued to provide expert services to mothers after the church made a mass exodus from the Midwest to Utah.

  Patty Bartlett Sessions Smith was forty-nine when she arrived in the Great Salt Lake Basin. Her medical duties expanded well beyond her initial training and duties as a midwife. Using a medical guide called The Family Physician, she now provided a wide variety of healthcare treatments to members of the congregation. Those whose health she had helped restore lovingly referred to her as “Doctor Patty.”

  The leaders of the Mormon Church wholeheartedly approved of Patty’s title and work, and would later encourage other females to enter the profession. In January 1868, Brigham Young announced, “The time has come for women to come forth as doctors in these valleys.” Patty adhered to the church’s practice of healing the body using natural herbs and foliage. She served as an officer on the Council of Health, an organization that believed that the “Creator placed in most lands medicinal plants for the cure of all diseases incident to that climate.” Patty was an expert at mixing natural concoctions that calmed the senses and eased a myriad of pains.

  Throughout her life Patty maintained meticulous lists that included the activities of the Mormon Church as they made their way west, the families she assisted, the babies she helped bring into the world, the classes she taught, and the other healthcare tasks she performed from day to day. Archivists consider her on-the-spot chronicle of the Mormon trail experience and life in early Utah a great contribution to history.

  After having lost both her husbands, Joseph in 1844 and David in 1850, Patty married for a third time. In March of 1852, she pledged her devotion to John Parry. John was the first leader of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They were married seventeen years before he passed away.

  Patty’s career as a midwife and healthcare provider crossed over several states and spanned seven decades. In that time she helped deliver close to 4,000 babies.

  Doctor Patty died of natural causes on December 14, 1892, in Bountiful, Utah. A biographical sketch of her life, published in the Utah Journal on the day of her death, notes the legacy she left behind:She lived to see h
er 4th generation and has left two sons, thirty-three grandchildren, one hundred and thirty-seven great-grandchildren, and twenty-two great-great-grandchildren. Total posterity, two hundred and fourteen. She was ever a true and faithful Latter Day Saint, diligent and persevering, her whole soul, and all she possessed being devoted to the Church and the welfare of mankind. She has gone to her grave ripe in years, loved and respected by all who knew her.

  Doctor Patty is recognized by the Mormon Church as the “Mother of Mormon Midwifery.”

  NELLIE POOLER CHAPMAN & LUCY HOBBS TAYLOR

  DENTAL PIONEERS

  If we ignore them and downplay their efforts they will be forced to

  abandon the idea of being part of medicine.

  —Doctor A. E. Regensburger, in his address to the

  California State Medical Society, regarding women

  as doctors and dentists, 1875

  Frantic pounding on the front door of Nellie Pooler Chapman’s home forced the petite woman out of a deep sleep, off of her bed, and onto her feet. She quickly lit a nearby candle, threw on her robe, and hurried to answer the desperate person knocking and calling out for help.

  As soon as Nellie opened the door, a scruffy miner pushed his way inside. His left hand was holding his left cheek and tears were streaming down his face. “I’ve got to see the doc,” he pleaded. Nellie left the door standing open as she brushed her mussed hair from her face. “The doctor isn’t here,” she informed the man. “He’s in Nevada looking for silver.” The miner groaned in pain and cried even harder. “You’ve got to help me,” he insisted. “I’ve got a bad tooth and it’s killing me.” Nellie stared back wide-eyed at the suffering man. “I’m not a dentist,” she told him. “I don’t know how to remove a bad tooth.”

  The man drew in a quick breath and winced. He was in agony. “You’ve watched him work, though,” he reminded her. “You know what to do. Please,” he begged. Nellie thought about it for a moment, then ushered the tormented patient into the dental office in the back of the house. “I’ll try,” she told him.

  Nellie’s introduction into the field of dentistry was dramatic, but it suited her. Prior to helping her husband with his busy practice, she had aspired to be a poet. After working as his assistant for some time, she realized her calling was in an area of medicine few women had sought to enter.

  Nellie Elizabeth Pooler was born in Norridgewock, Maine, on May 9, 1847. Like many families of that time, the Poolers traveled west in search of a better life in the California Gold Fields. Arriving in the Gold Country in 1855, fourteen-year-old Nellie met and fell in love with forty-four-year-old dentist Allen Chapman. The pair married on March 24, 1861.

  Doctor Allen Chapman established his practice in Nevada City, California, in 1856. Shortly after their wedding, Nellie began training as his assistant. Her duties included sterilizing the dental equipment, applying iodine and pain relievers to patients, and handing her husband the tools he needed to work.

  Allen proved to be a wonderful teacher, sharing his knowledge of dentistry with his wife and encouraging her to acquire a license of her own. After eighteen years of marriage, the bulk of which was spent learning about dental health, Nellie decided to make it official. In 1879, she became the first licensed woman dentist in the West.

  The Comstock strike in Nevada attracted many fortune-seekers to the hills around Virginia City. In 1865, Allen Chapman was one of the thousands who hurried to the new state to strike it rich. Not only was Allen a miner in Virginia City, but he ran a dental practice there as well. Confident that Nellie could handle the practice alone with the training that he had given here, Allen turned his attention to mining.

  Allen divided his time between working his claim, running his office, and traveling to visit his wife and two children. Once Nellie received her license, she assumed full control of the growing California practice. She outfitted the office with her own equipment, which featured the best, most up-to-date products available.

  Her patients made themselves comfortable in a grand red velvet chair, fitted with a porcelain bowl on a stand, an aspirator, and a holder for a crystal water glass. The drills she used were the most sophisticated on the market. It was powered by a treadle, which worked like a flywheel as it was pumped. A large wooden cabinet in the corner of the room held medieval-looking dental tools and leather-bound copies of The Principles and Practice of Dental Surgery and Gray’s Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical.

  As the only dentist in a wide range of northern California, Nellie’s dental practice was in high demand. She was recognized by most in the community as a qualified doctor who always made her patients feel at ease. Nellie continued to practice dentistry until her death in 1906. She was fifty-nine when she passed away.

  DR. NELLIE POOLER CHAPMAN’S WEDDING PORTRAIT

  DR. NELLIE POOLER CHAPMAN ATTENDS TO A PATIENT IN THE DEN OF HER HOME.

  While Nellie Pooler Chapman was carving out a place for herself in history as the first licensed dentist in the West, Lucy Hobbs Taylor was making a name for herself as the first woman in the world to earn a Doctorate of Dental Science degree.

  Born on March 14, 1833, in Franklin County, New York, Lucy Beaman Hobbs’s interest in medical studies began at an early age. Her mother and father were killed when she was twelve years old. The ten children they left behind were forced to fend for themselves to stay alive. Although times were difficult, Lucy rarely missed a day of school, and helped support her family by working as a seamstress.

  After graduating in 1849, she relocated to Michigan and took a job as a schoolteacher. Her desire was to become a doctor, but at the time, there was a very narrow range of occupations deemed socially acceptable for women. She decided to remain in the more traditional role of teacher until she could afford to challenge the world’s conventional view of working women, and until she had enough money to apply to medical college.

  In 1859, she sought admission to the Eclectic College of Medicine in Cincinnati, but was denied entrance because of her gender. Struck by her tenacity and drive, one of the professors at the college offered to give her private lessons in general medicine. At his suggestion she entered the field of dentistry.

  Dental schools required students to serve two years as an apprentice with a licensed dentist before entering college. Lucy struggled to find a doctor of dental science who would grant her the opportunity to learn from him. Doctor Jonathan Taft, the dean of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, permitted her to work in his practice while she continued her search for a place to apprentice.

  After a year-long search, a graduate of the school offered her an apprenticeship. Upon completion of her private studies, she applied to Doctor Taft’s alma mater. Once again she was turned down because she was a woman.

  Rejection only made Lucy that much more determined to pursue her goal. The long hours she had invested poring over medical books and the practical experience she had gained at Doctor Taft’s office, pulling teeth and making dentures, made her confident that she could do the job. With nothing more than drive and belief in her abilities, she decided to open her own practice. At the age of twenty-eight, she hung out her own shingle in Cincinnati. From 1861 to 1865, Lucy had dental practices in Ohio and Iowa. She was known by the Native Americans in both locations as “the woman who pulls teeth.”

  ALTHOUGH SHE WAS AT FIRST REJECTED FROM DENTAL SCHOOL, LUCY HOBBS TAYLOR SUCCESSFULLY BECAME THE FIRST WOMAN TO RECEIVE A DOCTORATE OF DENTAL SCIENCE.

  Her reputation as a quality dentist spread throughout the Midwest. Her male counterparts respected her perseverance and dedication to the profession. She was so well liked by her peers that they made an appeal to the American Dentists Association to allow her to attend dental school.

  In November of 1865, Lucy was admitted into the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. The five years she had spent in private practice and the experience she had acquired as an apprentice prior to that allowed her to enter the school as a senior. When Lucy graduated on February 21, 1866,
she became the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Dental Science degree.

  Not long after graduation, Doctor Lucy Hobbs moved to Illinois and opened another practice in Chicago. It was here that she met James W. Taylor, a Civil War veteran and railroad maintenance worker. The two fell madly in love, and in April of 1867 they were married in front of a few friends and family members. That same year, Lucy and James moved to the western town of Lawrence, Kansas, where James had a job working in the rail yards. Tired of the long hours and physical strain of manual labor, James sought out another profession. Lucy suggested dentistry and her husband agreed. James studied under his wife until he was able to get his license. Together, the Taylors had a large, successful practice.

  In addition to her business, Lucy was involved in a number of political and civic causes. She served on the state dental society as well as school and library boards, and she campaigned for women’s rights. Her efforts made it possible for many women to enter the field of dentistry. She cited the open-mindedness the new frontier possessed for allowing such progress to be made, and in 1892 wrote:I am a New Yorker by birth, but I love my adopted country—the West. To it belongs the credit of making it possible for women to be recognized in the dental profession on equal terms with men.

  Doctor Lucy Hobbs Taylor retired from her practice in 1886, but remained active in her community until her death in October of 1910. She was seventy-seven years old.