SERIES OF SMALL THINGS

Post by Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines

I came across a quote by Vincent Van Gogh that gave me a lot to think about. "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."

This year 2020 is the anniversary of the 19th amendment that guaranteed women the constitutional right to vote. The passage of the amendment was a series of events over a number of years by women and men. In Colorado, in 1893 women were given the same right via a referendum to the state constitution, the first state to do so.

As we traverse this year, there are probably so many things we want to do. Of course, writing the 'great novel' is a wonderful idea, but it doesn't just fly from our mind to the page. It takes small bits that add up to the whole.

Before I had my first story published, other than a suspense short in a regional magazine, I had a daily practice of writing seventeen syllables daily, that went to five days a week. This led to over one thousand haiku that were posted along with a photo I took. 

Rosita Colorado in Custer County (setting for the upcoming novel)

I am now working on a novel, and at least six days a week I work on it. Sometimes I'll add a thousand words, sometimes fifty. Each word leads me to the goal of finishing the story.

The point is, to get to where we wish to go requires we start the journey and add that 'series of small things' to reach our destination. Remember all the small steps that led to the beginning of the suffrage movement. Each of those steps led to the next and next. Colorado not only had women doctors who came to set up a practice here due to the healthy climate but for many, it was to help women win the right to vote.

Take your great ideas and build them step by step. Write those stories and follow those dreams. The year is just starting and who knows where your steps will lead.

I recently updated my Amazon author page biography on both the US and UK sites. A small step, but they do add up. updated biography

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

Books: Angela Raines Books

BITS ABOUT COLORADO'S MEDICAL SOCIETY AND WOMEN PHYSICIANS #history #WomenDoctors

post by Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines

Photo property of the author

The ‘Colorado Medical Society’ formed in September 1871. Initially the organization was an all-male institution. Prior to the society's formation there had been other attempts at organizing a Medical Society in the Colorado Territory/State. In 1860 there was the ‘Jefferson Medical Society, which ended a year later as the Civil War began. In 1864 the ‘Denver Medical Society’ formed, but like its predecessor it also folded after a year. In 1868 the ‘Colorado Territorial Medical Society’ was formed, but like the others, lasted for approximately a year. In April of 1871 another attempt was made at forming a ‘Denver Medical Society’, and it is still in existence today. In 1872 the ‘Colorado Medical Society’, yet another organization,  affiliated itself with the ‘American Medical Society’. The 'American Medical Society' began in 1847. 

According to Mary deMund in her book “Women Physicians in Colorado”, women were initially were rejected for membership in these Colorado medical organizations. However,  women were not without their supporters within the organization. President W.H. Williams, president from 1876 through 1877, was a former Confederate soldier and graduate of Tulane University. Dr. Williams not only pushed for the State Board of Health to reorganize and pass laws to regulate the practice of medicine, he wanted those laws to include recognizing the ‘female practitioner’. 

Dr. Williams was also a proponent of the idea that just having a diploma saying you were a doctor, or a diploma from a questionable school was not sufficient to practice medicine. He also advocated that women should be allowed to attend medical schools. At the time Dr. Williams ideas were not as far-fetched as some may think. In 1876 the 'American Medical Association' had its first female member, a delegate from Illinois: Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson. 

Pikes Peak in summer
Photo property of the author

While Williams ideas were initially scoffed at, the annual meeting of the 'Colorado Medical Society' in June of 1877, made a motion that women who had attended a regular school of medicine should be allowed to attend and participate in the meetings of the medical society. This resolution was tabled by a vote of ten to four. At this same meeting, it was decided that Dr. Alida Avery, one of the first female physicians in Colorado and who had been endorsed by society member Dr. McBeth, could not be admitted, as she was not a member of a local society. While not a win for Dr. Avery or other female physician, it was the beginning of a crack in the bastion of male doctors. By 1881 the state of Colorado, then just five years old, began licensing physicians. At that time both men and women were licensed equally. That same year Dr. Avery, Dr. Bates and Dr. Root were admitted to the 'Denver Medical Society'. 

By 1887, another of Dr. Williams' ideas came to fruition with the graduation of Dr. Eleanor Lawney from the Denver School of Medicine. Dr. Lawney, after graduation, was on the staff of St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado. 

This was just the beginning of the growth of women doctors in the state of Colorado prior to 1900.

Below is a partial list of women physicians who were among those who arrived prior to 1890:

Elnora Anderson, Ellen J Bell, Flora M Betz, Mary Bradner, Henrietta L Buckner, Kate C Bushnell, Stella M Clarke, Clara a Cox, Martha E Cunningham, Emma F Drake, Sarah Edson, Dora Fugard, Ella M Gilchriest, Helen M Hannah, Mary M Hatfield, Charlotte Hock, Julia R Howe, Lizzie E Joy, Addie M Kester, Mary Glover Lowery, Harriet Leonard, Julia E Loomis, Esther B. Holmes, Julia G McNutt, Anna Marsh, Celestia D Messinger, Blanche Movre, Augusta Nelson, Mary Ogden, Kate Bardwell Peterson, Anna L Potts, Marah S Putnam, Lydia Ross, Clara B. Rowe, Sarah E Somerby, Eleanor Van Atta.

For those who would like to read more, here are two books about medicine, and women physicians in Colorado: 

“A Century of Colorado Medicine, 1871-1971.” 

" Women Physicians of Colorado" by Mary De Mund 

Of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my Agate Gulch novellas

Doris Gardner-McCraw

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

WOMEN DOCTORS IN THE COLORADO MOUNTAINS -1870s

Post (c) Doris McCraw

Continuing the story of Early Women Doctors, this post will take a look at two women who practiced in the mountains of Colorado in the early days.

In the 1879 Leadville City Directory, Dr.Mary Helen Barker Bates is the only woman listed among 34 physicians. Prior to her moving to the mountain town, she lived and practiced in Utah. Family stories have called her 'the doctor to Brigham Young'. She left Utah and moved to Leadville with her husband George C. Bates, an attorney. The two remained there until his health caused the couple to move to Denver, Colorado around 1881.George Bates died in 1886 after a long and distinguished legal career, including an appointment by President Grant in 1871 as the district attorney of Utah.

After her husband's death, Dr. Bates remained in and practiced in Denver. While living there Dr. Mary Helen Barker Bates made history as the first woman in Colorado to be appointed to the staff of the Women's and Children's Hospital in 1885. Dr. Bates went on to serve as a member of the Denver Board of Education, as Vice-President of the Colorado Medical Society, and as Colorado's Delegate to the 1904 Pan-American Medical Congress.

In 1878, Dr. Julia A. Adams originally from Oneida, New York moved to Colorado take up residence in Chaffee County at the Cottonwood Hot Springs. Dr. Adams had received her MD from the Homeopathic Medical College in Cleveland, Ohio. She was forty-eight when she graduated. 

Dr. Adams and her second husband the Reverend J.A. Adams purchased the Cottonwood Hot Springs about six miles from what is now Buena Vista, Colorado .Shortly after this purchase, half interest went to George K. Hartenstein, a Buena Vista attorney and the husband to Dr. Adam's daughter. They invested around $50,000 to build a hotel/resort on the property. All materials were hauled to the site over the mountain from Colorado Springs as no train ran through that area. The Rev. and Dr. Adams, after leaving the region and moving to California they became involved with Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science movement. Some records say it was Rev. Adams who coined the phrase ‘Christian Science.

The springs were originally used by the Indians for their healing properties. The two story 'resort' served as medical offices and lodging. The primary focus of Dr. Adams was on respiratory, digestive and rheumatic issues. 

For those who would like to know more about the history of these women and the areas they practiced, below are options for additional reading.

James Alexander Semple, Representative Women of Colorado: a pictorial collection of the women of Colorado who have attained prominence in the social, political, professional, pioneer and club life of the State (Denver: Alexander Art Pub. Company, 1914)

History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado. O.L. Baskin & Company, 1881

Doris McCraw who writes under the pen name Angela Raines is an Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in Colorado and Women's History

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Photo and Poem: Click Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

Every step you take should be a prayer.
And if every step you take is a prayer then you will always be walking in a sacred manner. 
Oglala Lakota Holyman.

COLORADO'S EARLY WOMEN DOCTORS - Pikes Peak Region 1870s

Post (c) Doris McCraw

Cheyenne Mounain,just west of Pikes Pike Colorado at sunrise

Last months post was about Dr. Alida Avery, one of Colorado's early female physicians, who had her practice in Denver, Colorado. But what of the women in the Pikes Peak region, which included Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs and Colorado City. Here is the story of four of the very early women who came to the Pikes Peak region to practice their profession.

As previously noted there were women physicians who moved to and made Colorado their home during the 1870s. In Colorado Springs, a new town which began in 1871, was home to Dr. Julia E. Loomis. Family stories have her living there as early as 1876. Documents, such as ads in the local Gazette newspaper, show she definitely was living there by 1878. Dr. Loomis was an 1870 graduate of the Cleveland Women’s Homeopathic College. This institution was one of the women medical colleges that started up to offer education to women who wanted to pursue medicine. This and other women medical colleges is a result of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwood, her sister, Dr. Emily Blackwell, and Dr. Maria E. Zackrzewka who began a hospital in 1856-1857 in New York, and offered hands-on education and experience to women in a practical setting Although Dr. Loomis may have been practicing medicine prior to her two years at Cleveland’s college, that she went to school after the death of her only daughter at the age of 52, shows a desire to be more, to also be one of the women who could and would practice medicine as the men did.

Headstone for Dr. Julia E. Loomis- Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, CO

Manitou Springs, a near neighbor and also new town, had Dr. Harriet Leonard. Like Dr. Loomis, family histories place her in the region in 1876. Dr. Leonard graduated from the Keokuk School of Physicians and Surgeons in Keokuk, Iowa. This school was the first co-ed schools in the nation. Originally located in LaPorte, Indiana, in 1849, the school moved to Keokuk and began classes in November 1850. The school was the Medical Department of the State University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. As a result of this association, when the University became the first publicly supported university to be co-educational in 1870, the school in Keokuk, by mandate had to accept female students into the medical program.

Headstone for Dr. Harriet Leonard, Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, CO

These two women were shortly joined by Dr. Esther B, Holmes, 1878 and Dr. Clarabel Rowe, 1879. Dr. Holmes was born in 1844 in Rhode Island. Dr. Rowe around 1833 in Massachusetts. Dr. Rowe received her license in 1881 and Dr. Holmes 1882, shortly after Colorado started its licensing process. Dr. Rowe was also active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, giving talks and traveling on behalf of the organization. Dr. Holmes, who remained in Colorado Springs, was fondly known as 'the baby doctor'. Were these women and Dr. Loomis friends? Quite possibly. The death card for Dr. Loomis was signed by E. B. Holmes. In 1888 Dr. Rowe and Dr. Holmes traveled together on a trip through Southern California.

While Dr. Loomis was building her practice and taking care of her extended family, Dr. Leonard was working as the proprietor at the Manitou Spa. As far as records of any other female physician preceeding Dr. Loomis or Dr. Leonard in the Pikes Peak region, none have been found. Of the four women who were pioneers in the Pikes Peak region, only Dr. Rowe moved away. After the death of her husband, Dr. Rowe, moved to California. 

Doris McCraw, pen name Angela Raines is an Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Photo and Poem: Click Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Post by Doris McCraw

It's the first Sunday of the month and time for another post. I pondered what I would write about. There are a lot of things on my plate these days.So I've decided Random Thoughts will be my theme. Those who truly know me, well, hang on.

1. My story 'North Star' is in the recently released Medieval Anthology "One Hot Knight". Deciding to participate, I needed to find my story. As someone who loves history, I looked at non-traditional areas for the story setting.There was the large tome about Medieval Spain that was just calling for me to pick it up off the library shelf. What a gold mine. Moors, Spaniards, Italians, French, a Pope and the Reconquista had the story off and running in my head. Hope you all enjoy it.

2. I'm trying to finish up a paper for the Pikes Peak Library District on Doc Susie, Dr. Quinn and the myth of the lone female doctor who had to fight for everything they got. While it was not always easy, the facts and events give lie to some of that myth. If I didn't have to always cite my resources I would have had this paper done weeks ago.

3. And speaking of Female Doctors in Colorado before 1900, for someone who is not fond of doctors, the stories of these women and what they accomplished continues to fascinate and draw me in. An advertisement for a woman doctor appears in the Denver paper in 1873 and the ad cites many male doctors as her references, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

4. Recently was Helen (Hunt) Jackson at the local cemetery walk. I've neglected Helen over the past couple of years. That is sad, for she has many wonderful things to say that are just as important today as they were in the 1800s. Her poetry, stunning. If you ever get a chance, read 'Last Words', 'Two Truths' and 'Emgravit'.You can search online for most of these. Her "Bits about Home Matters" can be found on the Project Gutenberg site.

5. If you haven't read "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters, go do it right now! You can also this on the Project Gutenberg site.

6. I'll end with some of my favorite quotes:
          Marcus Aurelius:
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.

          Mark Twain:

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

          Dorothy Parker:

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.

Don't look at me in that tone of voice.

I hate writing, I love having written.

So those are my random thoughts as I head back to the paper, the novel, the short stories and the photos and haiku. Who says life is boring? Too many stories to tell and books to read. Have a great July! OH, and by the way, don't forget to get your copy of "One Hot Knight". I don't think you will be sorry. **GRIN**

Angela Raines is the pen name for Doris McCraw. Doris also writes haiku posted five days a week at – http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com and has now passed one thousand haiku and photos posted on this blog. Check out her other work or like her Amazon author page:  http://amzn.to/1I0YoeL

BUY LINKS  B&N     Smashwords     Kobo     iTunes