Virginia Strickler - Civil War Veteran Wife

 

Virginia Strickler- Wife of Civil War Veteran Wm. Strickler

Post by Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Evergreen Chapel, Evergreen Cemetery,
Colorado Springs, CO.
Photo(C) Doris McCraw

Born Virginia Lipscomb in Prince William County, Virginia. Her

birth year has been listed as 1828, 1833, and 1836. Her

headstone lists it as 1829.

Not much is known about her early life. According to census

records, her grandfather, Philip Lipscomb, was a slave owner, so

her family probably had money before the war, although Philip

died in 1821. Her parents, Robert and Ann, died in 1858 and

1857, respectively.

At the time of their deaths, their son William would have been

twenty-four. Ann, Mary, Betty, and Virginia were all older, so the

running of any property would have probably fallen to all of them.

In fact, her brother, William, served in Company H of the 15th

Virginia Calvary. He enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army

in 1861. He finished as a lieutenant in 1864, according to Civil

War records, he was a POW.

Virginia met Dr. William Strickler at the second battle of Manassas

(Bull Run) in 1862, while he was treating the wounded on the

battlefield. He enlisted as a surgeon's assistant in 1861 and

served in Companies F & S of the 52^nd Virginia Infantry

throughout the war.

Photo by Ron West from Find a Grave

Virginia married William in 1865. By 1868, the couple had moved to Colorado City, where William served as a doctor. By 1874, they had moved to the new city of Colorado Springs. There, they remained until 1906, when they moved to Denver. William died in 1908. Virginia remained in Denver, where she passed away in 1915. Her death registry states her cause of death as senility.

Both she and William are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in

Colorado Springs. So far, no images of her have been found.

Until Next Time:

Doris

Evergreen Cemetery's 'Doctor's Hill'

Post by Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Photo (C) Doris McCraw

Every city cemetery seems to have that place that holds in its space the stories of the early history as told through those who are buried there. Usually, these areas are in the older sections, like the one in Evergreen.

For the purpose of this post, I will focus on three doctors who are buried there. While there is a woman doctor on the hill, the doctors discussed here are all men and were practicing in the region prior to 1900. Additionally, these three were also a president of the Colorado Medical Society.

We begin with the gravesite at the top of the hill. The headstone sits in a slight depression at the edge of a precipice where the hill has the beginning of a gully. Whether true or not, Dr. Boswell P. Anderson has a life I feel was one of living on the edge.

Dr. Boswell P. Anderson
Image from Find a Grave

Anderson was born in 1847 in Virginia. He served in the Confederate Army as a member of Mosby’s Raiders. He carried a bullet in his lung as a result of his military service. A story in the book by the

Colorado Medical Society is his meeting with General Sherman when in Colorado. It seems he’d been captured as a spy when he had met with a Union soldier to trade food/tobacco. He told Sherman that he was trading for coffee for his mother. The story goes, that he and Sherman celebrated the meeting all those years later in the fashion of the day, lots of alcohol.

Dr. William M. Strickler
Image from Find A Grave

Moving down the hill, almost straight west from Anderson is the resting place of William B. Strickler and his wife. Virginia. Dr. Strickler was also born in Virginia in 1838. Stickler also served in the Confederate Army but unlike Anderson, he was an assistant surgeon in his unit. In addition to his medical work, Strickler was also involved in politics and sheep and cattle growing. Dr. Strickler was also known as someone who was reserved but an amazing surgeon.

Dr. Samuel E. Solly
Image from Find A Grave

Samuel Edwin Solly is down a slight incline and slightly to the north of Strickler. Dr. Solly was born in 1845 in London England. He was the first British-born doctor to head the Colorado Medical Society. He arrived in the Pikes Peak Region with his wife, who like Solly suffered from tuberculous. The properties that drew so many invalids to the region helped Solly recover but not his wife. Dr. Solly focused his message on the atmosphere of the area and its healing properties.

There is a wealth of stories and information about these doctors and the others who have ‘Doctor’s Hill’ as their final resting place.

Digging Deeper

 Post (c) by Angela Raines 

aka Doris McCraw

Photo (c) Doris McCraw
all rights reserved.

On Wednesday, July 19, 2023, the day this post is published, I will present a program at the Evergreen Cemetery Chapel in Colorado Springs on the women doctors buried at that cemetery who practiced before 1900.

As I researched these fantastic women and wrote the book, I realized one thing: to tell the story it was necessary to dig deeper.

One of the first things I did, I started with the idea that women didn't have the 'horrid' issue about being a doctor that was the commonly held concept. By doing this I could look at the facts without a preconceived bias. Guess what? It allowed for deeper and more incredible research. For example:

I dug until I found the autobiography of Elizabeth Blackwell. In there, I found the following pieces of information: "Is it not perfectly true everywhere that a woman who respects herself will be respected by others..." and."...found that I had so shocked Geneva propriety that the theory was fully established either that I was a bad woman, whose designs would gradually become evident, or that, being insane, an outbreak of insanity would soon be apparent. Feeling the unfriendliness of the people, though quite unaware of all this gossip, I never walked abroad, but hastening daily to my college as to a sure refuge, I knew when I shut the great doors behind me that I had shut out all unkindly criticism, and I soon felt perfectly at home amongst my fellow students."

This sounds totally different from the commonly held idea that she was laughed at by the students of Geneva College.

I also found the autobiography of Harriott Kezia Hunt, the woman who, after studying under another doctor had a medical practice in Boston, MA. in the 1830s. Here is a link to a brief overview of this amazing woman's story Harriot Kezia Hunt - MD

By taking the opposite approach I wasn't hindered by limiting beliefs and kept digging to try to verify or disprove my thesis. That has served me well over the last ten-plus years as I continue to research and write about these pioneering women.

For those who might like to read about those doctors and medicine in Colorado Springs, CO. here is a link to my aforementioned book: Under the Stone

Until next time - Stay safe, Stay Healthy, and Happy Reading.

Doris