Women in Medicine - Part Two

 

WONDERFUL COUNTRY DOCTOR; Dr Frances Olsen served the patients of the Valley Health Center in East Corinth from 1958 to 1981. She served a wide number of patients, many of whom had never been to a woman doctor before. It was said that her super power was that she listened carefully to those who sought her care. 

AN INSPIRING DOCTOR: Dr. Elisabeth Berry joined the Wells River Clinic in 1962 and became the first woman doctor at Woodsville Cottage Hospital. She was described as excellent and inspiring doctor to her many patients. She retired in 1985. The hospital board of directors offers an annual scholarship in her memory.    

 Women Physicians   

Journal Opinion Dec 25, 2024

“But it appears entirely absurd to expect to raise up a class of educated female physicians. She is not fit by nature for the toil and exposure of that profession…”

That statement appeared in Newbury’s Aurora of the Valley on Nov 7, 1850. It reflects the reaction to women struggling to enter the medical profession in the mid-19th century.

In the Nov 27 edition, I profiled area midwives and nurses dating, working, and living in the area from the 18^th century to the 20^th century. Midway through the last century, women started to fill the role of country doctors.

 The decline of female midwifery generally left only male physicians to treat women’s medical needs. No medical colleges accepted women. Some women became unlicensed physicians by apprenticing under experienced doctors.  

In 1849, British-born Elizabeth Blackwell graduated from a small rural New York medical college, the first American woman to receive a medical degree.

Not long after, Lucinda Capen Hall of Concord, NH became that state’s first woman physician when she graduated from the newly opened Boston Female Medical College. The college, which had originally prepared midwives and physicians, expanded to include a full medical curriculum for women.

Some chartered medical schools began to admit small numbers of women after 1870.  The three medical schools in Vermon, however, were not among them.

It was not until 1879 that Vermont had its first female physician.  A graduate of Pennsylvania Medical College, Dr. Laura Platz open her practice in Putney.

Even as schools admitted women, there was the issue of mixed classes, especially in anatomy.

As male physicians struggled to retain their control of the profession, attempts were made to deny licenses or open medical societies to women. There was a prevailing opinion that female doctors should limit their practice to women and children.

Despite these roadblocks, there were over 7,000 female doctors in America by 1900, a number which rose to 13,000 by 1910.

In 1924, Vermonter Dorothy Lang became the first woman to graduate from the UVM College of Medicine. Still, over the next 50 years, the annual number of female medical graduates was never more than three. Today, more than half of medical students are women.

The life stories of three women who practiced medicine in the local area follow. They came to the area as the first women in their field.

They stayed for decades caring for their patients, participating in their communities, and paving the way for future generations of female doctors.

Jean Henderson was born in 1905 in Kings, New York, to Alfred and Ethel Henderson. Her father was a doctor. She followed suit, graduating from Smith College in 1926 and Columbia Medical College in 1931.

After practicing medicine in Connecticut, Henderson became a captain in the Women’s Army Medical Corps in 1943. As women doctors were not permitted, she served as a nurse.

 Dr. Barbara O’Mara of Orford portrayed Capt. Henderson in a reenactment for the Orford Historical Society, and shared her research with me.

Henderson’s unit was deployed to the South Pacific where she continued through war’s end.  There she and other nurses treated wounded and ill service personnel, as well as freed prisoners of war. Sometimes, the hospital had to be protected from enemy snipers. She was discharged in March 1946 and was decorated for her service.

After the war, she practiced for a short time in Connecticut and then moved to the area in 1948 to work with Dr. William Putnam of Lyme. The following year, she opened her practice in Fairlee where she remained until her retirement.

In 1951, she had a new home and office built on what was then known as Sargent Road in Fairlee and employed a part-time nurse.

Rev. Robert Robb, formerly of Orford, described Dr. Henderson as “warm, wonderful and approachable.”

Dr. Henderson made frequent visits to my family home in Orford. My mother was recuperating from tuberculosis, and I recall the tenderness of the care she received.

Calista Diane of Fairlee recalls the care her dying grandmother Florence Chapman received in 1965. Henderson and Diane stayed at Chapman’s bedside for over 24 hours. The doctor’s compassionate comfort care for the dying woman, Diane recalled, reflected “what a great doctor can be.”

Henderson’s caring approach reached out to the surrounding area beyond just medical issues.  She worked on blood drives, and immunization clinics.  She was on the board of the Valley School in North Thetford.

She led fund drives for the Salvation Army and the Vermont Children’s Aid Society. Never married, Henderson participated in the international Foster Parents Plan and sponsored at least one child in Greece. 

Around 1960, she temporarily left her practice due to illness and spent several months in Tucson AZ. She spent the winter of 1961-62 in Boston doing part-time chemical work on arthritis. She resumed her practice in June, 1962.

In 1969, construction of I-91 took her house, and she relocated near the Connecticut River in South Fairlee.  She became a library trustee and f the Rondo women’s club president in 1968 as retirement activities.

She describes retirement in a letter to her Columbia alumni magazine, writing that she performed “mostly useless sedentary activities…”

 The serenity of retirement was interrupted in Nov 1975 when three railroad cars carrying liquid propane on the nearby rail line exploded. She had to be rescued from her home.

She spent her last years at Hanover Terrace and passed away on May 27, 1980.

Several area residents describe Dr. Frances Adams Olsen of East Corinth as being a “wonderful country doctor.” Frances Adams was born in 1916 in Binghamton, New York. In 1938, she graduated from New York City’s Bernard College and worked as a medical technician on Staten Island. 

 In 1939, she married Hugh Olsen, and they had four children. In 1956, she graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania and began an internship at Philadelphia’s General Hospital.

During her six years of training, Hugh remained home as a house husband. This unusual arrangement caught the attention of the Ladies’ Home Journal for their series “How America Lives.”  In May 1958, the Olsens were featured in an article entitled “Mother is a Doctor Now.”

At that time, the Valley Health Center in East Corinth was looking for a resident doctor. Although the article had led to “many favorable offers from all over the country,” Olsen accepted an offer from the Center.

Sarah Polli of East Corinth said that her father, John Williams, as committee chair, was instrumental in getting Dr. Olsen to come. Over the years, the Olsens lived in several houses adjacent to the Center and Hugh continued to assume the role of house husband. 

The Corinth town history included the following: “She came on alone, working long hours to take care of the many patients in an area far greater than originally contemplated. It can honestly be said that the people of the area expressed respect and confidence for the capabilities of Dr. Frances Olsen.”

In those days, doctors were always on call and, often, made house calls. Gerald Colby of Fairlee recalls that his father went to Olsen, but, somewhat of a curmudgeon, he refuted her diagnosis of appendicitis. At home, his condition deteriorated. In the night, Olsen came to his house, and, with the help of family members, sent him to the hospital, saving his life.

That was only one of many lives saved. Joe Sampson of Bradford recalled that as a youngster, she twice saved his life, once from accidental poisoning and then from drowning.

She also cared for expectant mothers and delivered many babies., “It was her favorite part of being a doctor.” Corinth’s Sarahjane Dooley recalls the wonderful care she gave. Listening was “Dr. Olsen’s super power.” “She listened and heard everything said and the way it was said whenever we spoke,” Dooley said.”

As with others mentioned in this two-part series, Olsen was also active in the community, including the East Corinth Congregational Church and the Valley Health Center Auxiliary.

She retired from the Center in 1981. At the time, she said, “I used to see a lot of people who had never been to a doctor, but that isn’t true anymore.” It might also be said that many had never been to a woman doctor before receiving care from her. 

 In her retirement, she worked part-time, filling in for other doctors, and also worked at the LBJ Hospital in American Samoa. Olsen passed away in East Corinth on February 4, 1991.

Elisabeth Mandigo was born in Cambridge, Vermont in April 1911. She was a pioneer at the University of Vermont Medical School where she was the only woman in the graduating class of 1936. 

She was quoted: “If you want to become a doctor, girls, then be prepared to give up love and romance, at least until you graduate,” she said.

She was an intern and resident at the Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, New York. In 1942, she married Rev. Kenneth Berry and went into private practice. Rev. Berry was a counselor, and for several years, they jointly operated a clinic in Burlington.

In 1952, Dr. Berry transferred to the White River Valley Clinic and Gifford Hospital in Randolph as an internist and family physician. She had special interests in geriatrics and the ethics of terminal care.

In 1962 she decided to move to Wells River to join Dr. Harry Rowe, whom she had known since their years at UVM, at the Wells River Clinic.

The Randolph community was so devastated by her plans to leave that a petition with 580 signatures was presented to the hospital pleading to keep her in Randolph. “Her leaving would be a grave injury to the quality of medical services.” the petitioners said. Calling her “warm and understanding,” they said “the community will be poorer for her loss.”

It was to no avail. Berry left for Wells River in September, 1962 and by December became the first woman doctor at Woodsville’s Cottage Hospital.

 In 1978, Governor Snelling appoint Berry to a three-year term on the Vermont Board of Medical Practices. She was often called on to make public presentations on heart disease and cancer.

She remained at the Clinic until her retirement in 1985.

Woodsville’s Brenda White, who worked with Dr. Berry for many years, said that Berry “was a tiny woman,” and, at first, some patients looked at her “and wondered if she could care for them. But soon she had the respect of many many people!”

White commented on Berry’s strong personality, “She was very much matter of fact but an excellent doctor.”  “It was her way or the highway.” They worked together in the ER, sometimes retrieving eyes from donors for the eye bank.

Dr. Donald Kollisch of Hanover described Berry as “an inspiring doctor” who was “deeply committed to justice and fairness.”

He recalled that Berry marched in the Woodsville/Wells River 4th of July parade in 1988 in opposition to the presidential candidacy of General Alexander Haig, feeling him unsuited for office.

“Dressed in a lovely suit and accompanied by her leashed Corgi, Dr Berry, a universally-loved and admired doctor, proudly declared her convictions and beliefs.”

Patients often had letters of thanks printed expressing their gratitude toward Dr. Berry. Words such as thoughtful, wonderful, and expert care were included in those letters.

Typical of his sense of humor, my friend Wayne Dickey, formerly of Woodsville recalled going to Dr. Berry with an injured finger. When she inserted a needle to relieve the pressure, Dickey said, blood was spattered on her face and down the front of her pretty pink dress.

After retirement, the Berrys returned to Randolph, where he died in 1987. Dr. Berry remained in the advisory committee for the Gifford Hospital until she moved to Kendall in Hanover. She died there in 1991.

The area has not forgotten the Berrys. In 1989, Dr. Berry donated a piece of land in Wells River for community use. In 1994, the Kenneth Berry Memorial Field was dedicated. 

The Cottage Hospital Board of Trustees established the Elisabeth M. Berry, M.D. Health Career Scholarship awarded annually to a local student.  

My next column will deal with non-athletic school clubs in local high schools before to 1971.  If you have a story about student councils, yearbooks, student newspapers, honor societies, winter carnivals or class office in local high schools during the period, please send them to me at larrylcoffin@gmail.com.