WOMEN AND HEALING

Post copyright by Doris McCraw writing as Angela Raines


What to share with everyone is a question I have pondered for a bit. What part of history should I share? Although I write historical romance, another part of my life is spent researching and telling the stories of early Colorado women doctors. In my novella, "Home For His Heart" there is no town doctor, but there is a midwife who is the closest thing they have. Much has been written about how difficult it was for women in the medical profession in those early days. That does not always seem the case. In Colorado women doctors were an important part of the growth of that state. Here then is a bit about four of those early pioneers.

The first documented woman physician in Colorado appears to be Alida C. Avery. Arriving in 1874, two years before statehood, she set up practice at 339 Twentieth Street, in Denver. Her office hours were 10-12 and 3-5. Prior to arriving in Denver, she was a member of the faculty of Vassar College as a professor and resident physician. In the Rocky Mountain News article, they stated " during her tenure not a single death occurred among her pupils".

1873 photo of Alida Avery. Image: Vassar College

In the early days of her career, Mary Helen Barker Bates, practiced in Salt Lake City, Utah. There are some family stories that state she was Brigham Young's physician. It was in Salt Lake City she met her husband, attorney George Bates. They were married in 1876 and by 1878 the couple moved to the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. Dr. Bates was active in the medical community there, but by 1881 the couple moved to Denver for George's health. In Denver, Dr. Bates remained activin the health community. She eventually introduced the Colorado Law for the Examination and Care of Public School Children, that went into effect in 1910.

Leadville, Colorado, mining district, subject of an early mining-geology study, 1879. pubs.usgs.org

Harriet Leonard became the proprietor of one of the spas in Manitou Springs, Colorado. According to family sources she arrived in Colorado in 1876. She was a graduate of the Keokuk School of Physicians and Surgeons, an early coed school, located in Keokuk, Iowa. Dr. Leonard was always learning and working to find ways to help the sick. When she arrived in Colorado, the area was growing as a region for health seekers, especially those suffering from lung ailments.

Headstone for Hariet Leonard

Julia E. Loomis was the first woman physician in Colorado Springs. Although some sources say she arrived in 1876 also, the first documentation is in 1878. Dr. Loomis attending the Cleveland Womens  Homeopathic College, in Cleveland, Ohio. Although she may have practiced the healing arts prior to attending college, she graduated in 1871 with her MD. Dr. Loomis was in her fifties at the time.

Headstone for Julia E Loomis

So there you have some early women pioneers in the area of medicine. Women were always in the healing field, but after Elizabeth Blackwell graduated medical school in 1849 the floodgates opened and women were able to practice the healing arts with the MD following their names.


"NEVER HAD A CHANCE" , second in the Agate Gulch stories, in the Prairie Rose Publications "A COWBOY CELEBRATION" anthology http://amzn.to/1GzwJhw


HOME FOR HIS HEART the first in the Agate Gulch stories. http://amzn.to/1GJhpSu

Author Page: http://amzn.to/1I0YoeL

Angela Raines is the pen name for Doris Gardner-McCraw, Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History. She also posts a photo and haiku five days a week at:http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com