DR. ALIDA AVERY: DOCTOR AND WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE LEADER

Post (c) Doris McCraw

For this First Sunday post, I will continue to share information about early women doctors, focusing on Colorado. Dr. Alida C. Avery was one of the first medical school graduates to arrive in Colorado. As you can see, she left her mark.

Dr. Alida C. Avery was not only a women doctor of formidable skills, she played a major part in the struggle for women’s rightsin the West. Her story, while unique, also is universal. Women, by the nature of following their passion to study medicine and become doctors, were in their own way promoting the equality of women.

Dr. Avery was born June 11, 1933 in Shelburne, New York. Her parents, Deacon William Avery and Hannah Dixon Avery were abolitionist leaders. She began teaching school at the age of 16. She began her formal study of medicine in 1857. She attended the Philadelphia Women’s Medical College for one year, 1858. She concluded her study at New England Female Medical College in Boston, graduating in 1862.

In 1865 she joined the faculty of Vassar, which was founded in 1861 as the first degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. She remained at Vassar until1874, when she resigned to take a job as Superintendent of Hygiene for the state of Colorado, in addition to opening a private practice in Denver, Colorado. Her income was reported to have been $10,000 a year.

Prior to her arrival in Colorado, there had been attempts at equality in the territory. In 1868, territorial Governor Evans and Mr. Richards attempted to secure women’s suffrage in the territorial legislature but failed. Again in 1870 Governor McCook addressed the legislature in which he stated:

"our higher civilization has recognized women’s equality with man in all other respects save one –  suffrage. It has been said that no great reform was ever made without passing through three stages – ridicule, argument and adoption. It rests with you to say whether Colorado will accept this reform in its first stage, as her sister’s territory of Wyoming has done, or the last; whether she will be a leader in the movement or a follower; for the logic of a progressive civilization leads to the inevitable results of a universal suffrage.”

Despite attempts at suffrage, the movement did not gain much momentum until 1876. It was then the subject of suffrage began in earnest as Colorado moved toward statehood. On January 10, 1876 a convention was held at the Unity Church in Denver, with attendees coming from a number of towns and regions throughout the state. As a result of the convention the Territorial Woman’s Suffrage Association of Colorado was formed. Its first president was Dr. Alida Avery. The honorary Vice-presidents were J.E. Washburn, Willard Teller, and Greeley, Colorado founder Nathan C. Meeker.

Dr. Avery traveled, spoke and attended national conventions and meetings. She continued her involvement with the movement after her retirement from medicine in 1887. She moved to San Jose, California and in 1901 to San Francisco. After surviving the 1906 earthquake she returned to San Jose where she passed away on September 22, 1908 at the age of seventy-five.

Many were the women who campaigned for suffrage until the passage and ratification of the 19^th amendment in 1920. In later years the campaign became more militant, with marches on Washington with women spending time in jails and prison. In the book “Jailed for Freedom” by Doris Stevens, published in 1920, is a list of the women who were jailed. In that list were Women Doctors who continued the efforts of women like Dr. Alida Avery.

For those who would like to read more, here are some links to additional information:

http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/colosuff/doc2.htm

http://chin-rcip.canadiana.ca/aclod/view;jsessionid=1imwlkf0mzms41lbepkebxeohx?uri=objects%2FMCCDI-47005.1

https://sites.google.com/site/denvercountycogenweb/biographies/1880-history-of-denver/avery-m-d-alida-c



Doris McCraw, pen name-Angela Raines, is an author, speaker, historian who specializes in Colorado and Women's History.

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