When Mollie Babcock stepped off the train in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1890, she knew she had to start a new life. She'd left her husband and their medical practice in Iowa, and with only a few hundred dollars in her pocket and a great deal of pride, she set out to find a new position as a physician. She was offered a job as doctor to the miners at Bannack, Montana, and thus began her epic adventures in the Rocky Mountain West. The true story of a medicine woman who found opportunity in the wide-open spaces of America's frontier west, Pioneer Doctor: The Story of a Woman's Work, is not just a beautifully written and thoroughly researched story of a fascinating woman's life. It is also the story of an era when daring women ventured forth and changed history for the rest of us.
This is the story of one woman's persistence and success against social norms that limited women's role in society in the western US during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Not only was this woman a doctor when there were very few women doctors, she also participated in the womens' suffrage movement in Montana and lived through many social changes in that state. As the only doctor in a frontier mining town she saw many hard situations and some of the most poignant stories are about her attempts to help and care for the town prostitutes. When the mining boom died in that area, she moved to Helena to open another medical practice and there she joined the sufferage movement. The book is written in a very readable narrative style and includes information from her personal records and interviews with personal friends and family.
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