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

students to serve two years as an apprentice with a licensed dentist before entering college. Lucy struggled to find a doctor of dental science who would grant her the opportunity to learn from him. Doctor Jonathan Taft, the dean of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, permitted her to work in his practice while she continued her search for a place to apprentice.
    After a year-long search, a graduate of the school offered her an apprenticeship. Upon completion of her private studies, she applied to Doctor Taft’s alma mater. Once again she was turned down because she was a woman.
    Rejection only made Lucy that much more determined to pursue her goal. The long hours she had invested poring over medical books and the practical experience she had gained at Doctor Taft’s office, pulling teeth and making dentures, made her confident that she could do the job. With nothing more than drive and belief in her abilities, she decided to open her own practice. At the age of twenty-eight, she hung out her own shingle in Cincinnati. From 1861 to 1865, Lucy had dental practices in Ohio and Iowa. She was known by the Native Americans in both locations as “the woman who pulls teeth.”
     

    ALTHOUGH SHE WAS AT FIRST REJECTED FROM DENTAL SCHOOL, LUCY HOBBS TAYLOR SUCCESSFULLY BECAME THE FIRST WOMAN TO RECEIVE A DOCTORATE OF DENTAL SCIENCE.

     
    Her reputation as a quality dentist spread throughout the Midwest. Her male counterparts respected her perseverance and dedication to the profession. She was so well liked by her peers that they made an appeal to the American Dentists Association to allow her to attend dental school.
    In November of 1865, Lucy was admitted into the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. The five years she had spent in private practice and the experience she had acquired as an apprentice prior to that allowed her to enter the school as a senior. When Lucy graduated on February 21, 1866, she became the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Dental Science degree.
    Not long after graduation, Doctor Lucy Hobbs moved to Illinois and opened another practice in Chicago. It was here that she met James W. Taylor, a Civil War veteran and railroad maintenance worker. The two fell madly in love, and in April of 1867 they were married in front of a few friends and family members. That same year, Lucy and James moved to the western town of Lawrence, Kansas, where James had a job working in the rail yards. Tired of the long hours and physical strain of manual labor, James sought out another profession. Lucy suggested dentistry and her husband agreed. James studied under his wife until he was able to get his license. Together, the Taylors had a large, successful practice.
    In addition to her business, Lucy was involved in a number of political and civic causes. She served on the state dental society as well as school and library boards, and she campaigned for women’s rights. Her efforts made it possible for many women to enter the field of dentistry. She cited the open-mindedness the new frontier possessed for allowing such progress to be made, and in 1892 wrote:
    I am a New Yorker by birth, but I love my adopted country—the West. To it belongs the credit of making it possible for women to be recognized in the dental profession on equal terms with men.
     
     
    Doctor Lucy Hobbs Taylor retired from her practice in 1886, but remained active in her community until her death in October of 1910. She was seventy-seven years old.

    MARY CANAGA ROWLAND
     

LEARNED PRACTITIONER
     

     
    My father always said his girls were just as smart as his boy, and
my husband said I was as capable as any man . . . All these ideas
made me believe in myself and made me think I could do
something worthwhile in the world.
    —Mary Canaga Rowland, 1932
     
     
    Two well-dressed men with pistols holstered to their sides crossed the dusty thoroughfare of Herndon, Kansas. Through the wavering heat and stabbing glare of sunlight, Doctor Mary Canaga Rowland