Women in Eclectic Medical History: The Physicians Time Forgot

Sarah Read Adamson Dolley.

(1829 - 1909) Central Medical College, class of 1851

Sarah Read Adamson Dolley belongs to the very first generation of women in the United States to earn a medical degree. She began her medical education through preceptorship, studying under her uncle, Dr. Hiram Corson, before entering the Central Medical College in Syracuse, New York, an Eclectic medical school. She was admitted in 1849 and graduated in 1851, making her one of the earliest women physicians in America.

Dolley’s career quickly broke new ground. She became the first female medical intern in the United States, serving at Blockley Hospital in Philadelphia, one of the nation’s largest public hospitals. At a time when women were rarely allowed access to institutional medical training, her appointment marked a significant professional milestone.

After marrying Dr. Lester Clinton Dolley, she practiced Eclectic and homeopathic medicine in Rochester, New York, where the couple maintained a collaborative medical practice. Dolley was also deeply committed to medical education and women’s healthcare. During 1873–1874, she delivered a formal course of lectures on obstetrics at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, contributing directly to the training of future women physicians.

Her work extended beyond private practice. In 1866, Dolley joined other women physicians in Rochester to establish the Provident Dispensary Association, created to provide free medical and surgical care for women and children in need. Later, in 1887, she participated in founding the Practitioners’ Society, one of the earliest professional medical societies organized by and for women physicians in the United States.

Caroline B. Winslow, M.D.

(1826–1906) EMI class of 1853

Caroline B. Winslow began her medical training in 1850, studying human anatomy under Rachel Brooks Gleason, M.D., in New York. She entered the Eclectic Medical College in Cincinnati in December 1851 and graduated in June 1853 as the first woman graduate of the school and the fifth woman in the United States to earn a medical degree.

Winslow practiced medicine in Cincinnati from 1853 to 1859 before expanding her training in homeopathy, earning an additional degree from the Western College of Homeopathy in Cleveland. She later practiced in Utica, New York, and served as a nurse in military hospitals during the Civil War, as women physicians were barred from formal medical appointments.

After the war, Winslow settled in Washington, D.C., where she established a medical practice and worked closely with Susan Ann Edson, a colleague and lifelong friend she likely met during her Eclectic training. In 1882, the two women opened the Homeopathic Free Dispensary — the first facility in Washington where women physicians practiced alongside male colleagues.

Winslow remained active in public and professional life, serving for fourteen years as president of the Moral Education Society of Washington and editing its journal, The Alpha, for thirteen years. Her career reflects a sustained commitment to medicine, education, and public service.

Alice Bunker Stockham, M.D.

Alice Bunker Stockham (1833–1912) was one of the most influential women physicians and health educators of the 19th century, whose work bridged botanical medicine, women’s health, and social reform. Born in 1833 in Ohio and raised in a Quaker household, she grew up in an environment that emphasized service, moral responsibility, and care for others. Her parents practiced Thompsonian botanical medicine and treated “the sick for miles around,” giving Stockham early exposure to plant-based healing.

She trained in Eclectic medicine at the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati, where she studied botanical therapeutics and reform medical principles. While studying there, she met Gabriel H. Stockham, a fellow EMI student. The two married in 1856 and practiced medicine together in the early years of their careers, working in Indiana, Missouri, and Illinois.

Stockham later went back to school and earned an M.D. in 1882 from the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. She maintained a successful medical practice and became widely known for educating women about their bodies at a time when such knowledge was often withheld or stigmatized. She authored influential books, including Tokology, a guide to gynecology and midwifery, as well as later works on marriage, sexuality, and reproductive health. These publications were widely read and touched the lives of countless women seeking practical, compassionate information about menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and sexual health.

A committed suffragist and social reformer, Stockham believed women’s health could not be separated from women’s rights. That conviction brought both influence and resistance. In the early 20th century, some of her writings on marital relations were prosecuted under the Comstock Laws. She was fined, her publications were banned, and she was forced to sell her educational retreat and withdraw from public life — not for exploitation, but for insisting that women deserved knowledge and autonomy.

Stockham’s legacy endures in the conversations she helped open and the lives she changed. Her story illustrates both the opportunities Eclectic medicine created for women and the resistance they faced when their work challenged social norms — and it underscores how women trained within the Eclectic tradition shaped American medicine far beyond the boundaries of any single institution.

Harriet A Judd Sartain, M.D.

(1830–1923) EMI class of 1854

Harriet Amelia Judd Sartain completed medical training across several reform medical institutions, including graduating from the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati in 1854. She also studied at the American Hydropathic Institute and the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, training under prominent women physicians such as Mary Gove Nichols and Harriet N. Austin.

Sartain built one of the most successful private medical practices of any woman physician in 19th-century Philadelphia. Although much of her professional life was spent practicing homeopathic medicine, her Eclectic training formed part of a broader, integrative medical education rooted in non-orthodox healing traditions.

She was a recognized leader within professional medical organizations, becoming the first woman member of the Philadelphia Homeopathic County Medical Society and later one of the first three women admitted to the American Institute of Homeopathy. In 1883, she founded the Women’s Homeopathic Medical Club and served as its president for many years, creating a professional space where women physicians could collaborate and practice openly.

Sartain remained active in medicine, education, and women’s reform movements well into later life. Her career reflects the fluid boundaries between Eclectic, hydropathic, and homeopathic medicine in the 19th century — and the role Eclectic institutions played in launching women into long, influential medical careers.

Rose V. LaMonte Burcham, M.D.

(1857–1944) EMI class of 1884

Rose Victoria La Monte Burcham earned her medical degree from the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati in 1884. Shortly after graduating, she moved west for her health and settled in Southern California, where she became the first woman physician in San Bernardino — a remarkable distinction in a rapidly growing frontier city.

Burcham established a successful medical practice and quickly became a respected figure in both professional and civic life. She invested in real estate, including orange groves, and was active in intellectual and cultural organizations such as the Ebell Club of Los Angeles, the Southern California Academy of Science, and the Fine Arts League, reflecting a broad engagement with science, culture, and public life beyond medicine.

In 1895, her life took an unexpected turn when she financed her husband’s prospecting expedition in the Mojave Desert. The discovery of gold at Randsburg led to the creation of the Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Company, one of the most productive gold mines in California history. Rose La Monte Burcham became the company’s secretary and business manager, and after 1914, she was the sole surviving original officer of the company. She personally kept the mine operating for several years before selling it in 1918.

Contemporary accounts described her as a woman of exceptional intelligence and executive ability. In 1904, the Los Angeles Times listed her among California’s “Men of Achievement,” a telling reflection of how success was gendered — even when achieved by women.

Susan Ann Edson, M.D.

(1823–1897) EMI class of 1853

Susan Ann Edson studied at the Eclectic College of Cincinnati, graduating in 1853, and went on to earn an additional degree from the Cleveland Homeopathic College in 1854. 

During the Civil War, Edson served as an army nurse in Washington, D.C., Fort Monroe, and Virginia, where she was credited with improving sanitation and significantly reducing mortality rates in military hospitals. Like many women physicians of her time, she was barred from serving officially as a doctor, despite her medical training.

After the war, Edson established a large and highly active medical practice in Washington, D.C. She became especially well known for her care of women and for the sheer scope of her work — contemporaries noted that she made more house calls than nearly any other physician in the city.

Edson achieved national prominence as the personal physician to President James A. Garfield and First Lady Lucretia Garfield. She was at the president’s bedside more than any other physician following the 1881 assassination attempt and was a trusted medical presence within the White House. Despite her expertise, her medical advice was frequently dismissed by male colleagues, a reflection of the professional barriers women physicians continued to face.

A lifelong collaborator and close friend of Caroline B. Winslow, Edson was also active in women’s rights and suffrage work. Together, they petitioned Congress for women’s voting rights and supported broader efforts to expand women’s access to education and professional life.

At the time of her death in 1897, newspapers described Susan Ann Edson as “one of the best-known physicians in the United States.” Her career stands as one of the most visible examples of how Eclectic medical education helped launch women into national prominence.

Bethenia Owens-Adair, M.D.

(1832–1904) EMI class of 1856

Bethenia Owens-Adair was one of the earliest formally trained women physicians in the American West, building a long medical career against extraordinary personal and professional obstacles. After an early marriage, divorce, and the responsibility of raising a child on her own, she returned to school and pursued medicine at an age when many women of the era had few viable paths to independence.

At age 31, after being denied admission to conventional medical schools because she was a woman, Owens-Adair enrolled in the Eclectic Medical College of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1874. Eclectic medical education offered her an entry point into professional medicine that was otherwise closed, providing rigorous training grounded in botanical remedies, practical care, and emerging medical science.

She returned to Oregon and established a medical practice at a time when women physicians were still rare, particularly in the western United States. Owens-Adair practiced medicine for decades, earning a reputation for skill, determination, and authority. Seeking to expand her surgical training, she later earned a second medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1880, an achievement that further strengthened her professional standing.

Throughout her career, Owens-Adair supported herself and her family through medical practice, at times traveling extensively to treat patients across Oregon and Washington. Her life as a physician was inseparable from her role as a mother, and she remained committed to providing education and opportunity for her children while sustaining a demanding medical career.

Sarah A Colby, M.D.

(1824–1904) Eclectic Physician

Sarah Ann Colby built a long and respected medical career during the 19th century, moving deliberately across medical systems as her knowledge and experience evolved. Born in New Hampshire in 1824, she initially trained and practiced in allopathic medicine, but for a significant portion of her early professional life she practiced Eclectic medicine, relying heavily on botanical remedies and patient-centered care.

Colby established a successful practice in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she gained the confidence of both patients and fellow physicians. After nine years, she moved to Boston seeking a broader field and began focusing more deeply on gynecology, becoming one of the early women physicians practicing in the city. Her reputation grew to the point that she was regularly consulted by leading male physicians throughout New England — a rare professional acknowledgment for a woman doctor of her era.

During the first fifteen years of her medical career, Colby described herself as eclectic in practice, selecting treatments based on observation and outcomes rather than rigid doctrine. Later, influenced by her sister, Dr. Esther W. Taylor, she studied and adopted homeopathy, reflecting the fluid and adaptive nature of 19th-century reform medicine.

Colby’s career illustrates an important truth about Eclectic medical history: for many women physicians, Eclectic medicine was not simply a school or label, but a working philosophy — one that allowed them to build thriving practices, specialize in women’s health, and adapt their methods in service of their patients.