Free The Doctor Wore Petticoats: Women Physicians of the Old West by Chris Enss

body using natural herbs and foliage. She served as an officer on the Council of Health, an organization that believed that the “Creator placed in most lands medicinal plants for the cure of all diseases incident to that climate.” Patty was an expert at mixing natural concoctions that calmed the senses and eased a myriad of pains.
    Throughout her life Patty maintained meticulous lists that included the activities of the Mormon Church as they made their way west, the families she assisted, the babies she helped bring into the world, the classes she taught, and the other healthcare tasks she performed from day to day. Archivists consider her on-the-spot chronicle of the Mormon trail experience and life in early Utah a great contribution to history.
    After having lost both her husbands, Joseph in 1844 and David in 1850, Patty married for a third time. In March of 1852, she pledged her devotion to John Parry. John was the first leader of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They were married seventeen years before he passed away.
    Patty’s career as a midwife and healthcare provider crossed over several states and spanned seven decades. In that time she helped deliver close to 4,000 babies.
    Doctor Patty died of natural causes on December 14, 1892, in Bountiful, Utah. A biographical sketch of her life, published in the Utah Journal on the day of her death, notes the legacy she left behind:
    She lived to see her 4th generation and has left two sons, thirty-three grandchildren, one hundred and thirty-seven great-grandchildren, and twenty-two great-great-grandchildren. Total posterity, two hundred and fourteen. She was ever a true and faithful Latter Day Saint, diligent and persevering, her whole soul, and all she possessed being devoted to the Church and the welfare of mankind. She has gone to her grave ripe in years, loved and respected by all who knew her.
     
     
    Doctor Patty is recognized by the Mormon Church as the “Mother of Mormon Midwifery.”

    NELLIE POOLER CHAPMAN & LUCY HOBBS TAYLOR
     

DENTAL PIONEERS
     

     
    If we ignore them and downplay their efforts they will be forced to
abandon the idea of being part of medicine.
    —Doctor A. E. Regensburger, in his address to the
California State Medical Society, regarding women
as doctors and dentists, 1875
     
     
    Frantic pounding on the front door of Nellie Pooler Chapman’s home forced the petite woman out of a deep sleep, off of her bed, and onto her feet. She quickly lit a nearby candle, threw on her robe, and hurried to answer the desperate person knocking and calling out for help.
    As soon as Nellie opened the door, a scruffy miner pushed his way inside. His left hand was holding his left cheek and tears were streaming down his face. “I’ve got to see the doc,” he pleaded. Nellie left the door standing open as she brushed her mussed hair from her face. “The doctor isn’t here,” she informed the man. “He’s in Nevada looking for silver.” The miner groaned in pain and cried even harder. “You’ve got to help me,” he insisted. “I’ve got a bad tooth and it’s killing me.” Nellie stared back wide-eyed at the suffering man. “I’m not a dentist,” she told him. “I don’t know how to remove a bad tooth.”
    The man drew in a quick breath and winced. He was in agony. “You’ve watched him work, though,” he reminded her. “You know what to do. Please,” he begged. Nellie thought about it for a moment, then ushered the tormented patient into the dental office in the back of the house. “I’ll try,” she told him.
    Nellie’s introduction into the field of dentistry was dramatic, but it suited her. Prior to helping her husband with his busy practice, she had aspired to be a poet. After working as his assistant for some time, she realized her calling was in an area of medicine few women had sought to enter.
    Nellie Elizabeth Pooler was born in Norridgewock, Maine, on May 9, 1847. Like many families of that time, the Poolers traveled west