Martha G. Ripley, Pioneer Doctor and Social Reformer

MR. SOLBERG, formerly toith Macalester College, is now associate professor of history in the University of Illinois at Champaign. He has recently completed a work on religion and culture in early American history which is scheduled for publication by Harvard University Press.

Martha G. Ripley PIONEER DOCTOR and SOCIAL REFORMER

WINTON U. SOLBERG

IN THE ROTUNDA of the Minnesota Cap struggle to make the sprawling mill town itol is a plaque dedicated to tbe memory of of Minneapolis a more civilized community, Dr. Martha G. Ripley, "Pioneer Woman nor do they echo the impassioned speeches, Physician" and "Founder of Maternity Hos stormy legislative bearings, and stinging pital." Beneath the determined visage frozen letters to newspapers which marked that in bronze, a conventional list of superlatives effort. Her identification as the founder of proclaims ber to have been "fearless," "cou Maternity Hospital conveys little impres rageous," a "champion of righteousness," a sion of the stern compassion with which "noble influence," and "an enduring inspira she insisted — against an overwhelming tion." Like most such eulogies, however, the weight of public opinion — that unwed terms fail to capture the dauntless spirit and mothers were deserving of medical care. the burning dedication to justice which Martha George Rogers was born of Eng made this woman's name a household word lish and Scotch-Irish descent in Lowell, (and often a far from popular one) among Vermont, on November 30, 1843. Little is an earlier generation of Minnesotans. They known of her paternal ancestors beyond contain no suggestion of her thirty-year the fact that they were good Calvinists who arrived from northern Ireland early in ^ Data on Martha Ripley's family has been sup the eighteenth century and settled in New plied by Mrs. Leroy A. Page (Edna May Ripley), Hampshire. Her father, Francis Rogers, the doctor's youngest and last surviving daughter, was born there in 1803 and subsequently now residing in Santa Barbara, California. In letters and in several interviews during 1961 and 1962 moved to Vermont, where he became a Mrs. Page furnished information bearing on the stock farmer. Left witb two daughters upon life of her mother without which the present article the death of his first wife, he married would not have been possible. She also made avail Esther Ann George, who also came from able to the author family correspondence, news paper clippings, hospital reports, and miscellaneous Scottish stock. ^ memorabilia in her possession. This essay expands About the time that Martha, tbe first of the author's brief article in Edward T. James, ed.. Notable American Women, 1607-1950, a forth five children, was born, conditions in north coming publication of Harvard University Press. ern Vermont left much to be desired, and In an earlier version the present work benefited many New Englanders were seeking cheap from reading and comment by Mr. James and by Barbara Miller Solomon, Director, The Women's and fertile lands in the Middle West. Fol Archives, Radcliffe College. lowing this trend, the Rogers family moved

Spring 1964 THE Rogers home near Fort Atkinson, Iowa to northeastern Iowa in June, 1847, and be her mother. The wellspring of Esther Rog came part of the earliest white settlement ers' character was undoubtedly religious on what was then Indian land in present faith. She was a Freewill Baptist who read Winneshiek County, about fifty miles west through the Bible once a year and joined of tbe Mississippi River.^ a resolute concern for practical justice with Francis Rogers located his family on the deep spirituality.* Little Turkey River about three miles Both parents eagerly supported reforms southeast of Fort Atkinson, one of the seats and followed the leading issues of the age. of authority planted by the United States Before they left Vermont, Puritanism had Army on the northwestern frontier. Besides ripened into evangelical Protestantism, one promising him a market for his produce, aspect of which was a zeal for improve the fort offered security and — until civili ment often bordering on a quest for the zation advanced to the prairie — a point of millennium. Acquaintance with sodden contact with the larger world. A year after Winnebago Indians and soldiers only inten the Rogers' arrival, the army abandoned sified the enmity to liquor which they Fort Atkinson, and in 1851 the county of brought from Vermont. They also enhsted Winneshiek was organized. Francis Rogers in the abolition cause, which was becom was elected county supervisor.^ ing the leading reform of the age, and main For the next decade the twin influences tained an underground railroad station in a of a New England family circle and a stern ^W. E. Alexander, History of Winneshiek and frontier discipline continued to shape Mar Allamakee Counties Iowa, 182 (Sioux City, 1882). tha. Francis and Esther Rogers had good 'Alexander, Winneshiek and Allamakee Coun minds, and both were independent spirits ties, 170, 191, 317. who possessed conviction and courage. In •* Alexander, Winneshiek and Allamakee Coun ties, 192; Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Liver Francis these attributes — and his New more, eds., A Woman of the Century: Biographical England origins — are evident in his many Sketches . . . of Leading American Women, 610 litigations with neighbors. Fragmentary ev (Buffalo, Chicago, New York, 1893); Mrs. Page to the author, April 6, May 13, 1961; interview idence suggests that Martha was closer to with Mrs. Page, July 21, 1962.

MINNESOTA History cave in the bluff behind their dweUing. class teacher's certificate, and she spent a Their daughter early took her place in the total of seven terms in the schoohoom.^ struggle for equal rights by carrying food to At about this time diphtheria epidemics fugitive slaves.^ visited the community, and the young Formal schooling was not to be had in teacher was pressed into service attending Martha's early years, but she received rudi the sick. There has been some conjecture mentary instruction from ber parents. Later that the seeds of her future medical ca she attended high school, although she did reer were planted then, but the available not graduate. This meager intellectual fare evidence indicates only that she success was supplemented by the fact that the fully cared for diphtheria victims and Rogers' home was known for generous hos gained some experience in practical home pitality to friend and stranger alike. In nursing.^ Medicine was at that time a rare 1859 Francis Rogers, now a substantial and exotic occupation for women, and had farmer, erected a commodious stone house, tbe idea beckoned to her, she would no tbe first of its kind in the settlement, and doubt have dismissed it. the dwelling then became even more fa The outbreak of the Civil War changed miliar as an overnight stopping place for this situation to some extent, bringing un travelers.® precedented opportunities to American women. In June, 1861, Dorothea L. Dix AT THE END of the fateful month in which became superintendent of United States Abraham Lincoln was elected president, Army nurses, and everywhere women vol Martha Rogers turned seventeen. With her unteered for nursing duty or organized to long black hair, finely modeled face, spar- send supplies to soldiers. Martha Rogers khng gray eyes, and vivacious personality, volunteered, but Miss Dix wanted plain she was the "belle of the Little Turkey women over thirty, not pretty teen-agers. River." Although she must have had ample Thus Martha bad to content herself with opportunity for immediate marriage, she recruiting others who were eligible and chose instead to teach — practically the witb seeking money and gffts for the only career open to women on the frontier. United States Sanitary Commission. The Despite her limited academic preparation, story is told of how, early in the war, a Winneshiek County awarded her a first- farmer rejected her appeal on behalf of tbe commission with a reluctant offer to " Isaac Atwater, ed.. History of the City of Min donate all the potatoes she could dig in a neapolis, Minnesota, 260 (New York, 1893). day. The next morning she dug from earli "Atwater, History of Minneapolis, 260; Mary est dawn until shortly before noon. Then, Dillon Foster, Who's Who Among Minnesota Women, 269 (n.p., 1924); cUpping from an uni spuming the cash settlement be angrily dentified Decorah, Iowa, newspaper of 1960, in tendered her, she dug until sundown for the possession of Mrs. Page; Mrs. Page to the the Union cause.^ author. May 9, 1961; interview, July 31, 1961. 'Mrs. Page to the author, October 3, 1961. The close of the war brought many 'The assertion is made in Maternity Hospital, young men west. Among them was William 1887-1937, 4 (Minneapolis, 1937). This booklet, Warren Ripley, who took up ranching in issued in commemoration of the hospital's fiftieth anniversary, contains a biographical sketch of Dr. the neighborhood of Fort Atkinson and Ripley written by Mrs. George A. Kingsley. It is soon began to pay court to Martha Rogers. inaccurate in many respects but includes several Tall and nearing thirty, he had attended anecdotes which were probably acquired at first hand. The potato story related below is included school at Groton, Massachusetts, and came there and in other biographical accounts. from a family of comfortable means. His 'Helen E. Marshall, Dorothea Dix, Forgotten uncle owned a paper mill in Lawrence, Samaritan, 203-206 (Chapel Hill, North Carohna, Massachusetts, and by the time young Rip 1937); Willard and Livermore, eds., A Woman of the Century, 610. ley married Martha in June, 1867, he had

Spring 1964 could observe in microcosm the process that was to transform tbe entire country.^^ Beyond Lawrence was the intellectual ferment of Boston, where some of the best minds in New England — and the nation — were seeking ways to redirect the forces of reform, which for years had focused almost exclusively upon emancipation. With this goal achieved, reformers found it necessary to adjust their sights to new targets — the industrial and urban evils facing them in the postwar decades. One obvious link with the prewar equal rights crusade was the feminist movement and its offshoot, the struggle for woman suffrage. It was also a rallying point around which the ragged and bewildered reform army could temporarily unite. Yet in the woman's rights movement itself there was dissension. Personality con- fficts and rival strategies had led by 1870 to the formation of two separate groups. In Boston the American Woman Suffrage Association, an outgrowth of the New Eng land Woman Suffrage Association over which Julia Ward Howe had presided, pur MARTHA G. Ripley, about 1868 sued a moderate course which stressed a already agreed to return to New England male-supported campaign that gave pri as manager of this enterprise.^^ ority to winning the ballot in the separate His bride accompanied him, and the states. Its guiding spirit was Lucy Stone, youthful chapter in her life came to a close. and its local affiliate, the Massachusetts In turning her back on the Middle Rorder Woman Suffrage Association, was led for she left a land that often developed in its many years by James Freeman Clajrke, a daughters a great capacity for independ renowned Unitarian clergyman. The rival ence — which in tbe end it refused to grant. National Woman Suffrage Association, di As one author has recently noted: "The rected from New York City by Elizabeth wilderness may have been the frontier for Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, had American men . . . but the city was the a comparatively radical program and an frontier for American women." ^^ aloofness to male participation. It favored an aggressive campaign to secure a federal amendment granting women the vote.^^ THE TWENTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD Mrs. Ripley arrived in Massachusetts as the na '"Interviews with Mrs. Page, July 31, August 5, tion was beginning to shed its rural and ag 1962. ricultural past for an urban and industrial '^ David M. Potter, American Women and the future. Lawrence, then the sixth largest city American Character, 6 (Stetson University, Bulle in the state, was a young and raw mill town tins No. 62 —DeLand, Florida, 1962). '^ H. A. Wadsworth, History of Lawrence, Mas rapidly growing into a worsted woolen cen sachusetts, 8, 9, 88, 163 (Lawrence, 1880). ter. Sixty per cent of the ten thousand " For a history of the woman suffrage organ operatives in its textUe and other mills izations, see Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United were women. Here on the Merrimac one States (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1959).

MINNESOTA History At the time the Ripleys arrived in Massa chusetts, Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry B. BlackweU, were making the commonwealth their laboratory for politi cal action on behalf of woman suffrage. Convinced that reform must come at tbe state level first, they aimed at an amend ment to the state constitution and sought to promote organization at tbe local level as a means of bringing pressure on the legislature.^* Not for some years, however, did Martha Ripley emerge as an active suffragist. Tbe early part of her residence in Massachusetts was spent close to Lawrence and repre sented a unique interlude of leisure in her life. Tbe first of three daughters born to the Ripleys — Abigail, Clara, and Edna May — did not arrive until five years after their marriage. At about this time tbe fam ily moved from Lawrence to Middleton, where William Ripley bought a mill of his own and engaged in tbe production of writing paper. The change may well have been prompted by disagreements with Rip ley's uncle and employer, Jerome A. Bacon, WILLIAM W. Ripley, 1868 whom family tradition portrays as a tyrant. manitarian sympathies would almost inevi Contact with Bacon may also have condi tably have reacted against Bacon's attitudes. tioned Martha's feelings toward several is He was also involved through marriage with sues of the day, for the millowner beheved tbe feminist movement, which he treated that none of his hundred and more opera much as he did the laboring class, seeking tives worked either hard or long enough for in a famous lawsuit to break the will through the low wages he grudgingly paid them. A which his mother-in-law bad left a large part of Martha's free time in Lawrence had bequest to advance the cause of woman been devoted to nursing among the families suffrage. ^^ of the less fortunate workers, and ber hu- THE YEAR 1875 found Mrs. Ripley ready '* See Lois Bannister Merk, "Massachusetts and to take her place in tbe ranks of reform. the Woman-Suffrage Movement," an unpublished doctoral dissertation in the possession of Radcliffe Middleton did not at that time have an ac College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. tive suffrage group, and in order to create '"Interview with Mrs. Page, August 5, 1962; one she embarked upon a campaign of edu Wadsworth, History of Lawrence, 158; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda cation. In tbe course of this she sought to Joslyn Gage, eds.. History of Woman Suffrage, bring such prominent Bay State women 3:310-315 (Rochester, New York, 1886). The Rip as Mary F. Eastman, a noted speaker, and leys had moved back to Lawrence by 1880. Mary A. Livermore, long president of the " Mary F. Eastman to Martha Ripley, February 11, 1876; Mary A. Livermore to Martha Ripley, state temperance union and editor of September 12 [1876?]; poster announcing a suf Woman's Journal, to lecture in the area, frage rally, October 28 [1876?]. These items and and she herself, gifted with a strong, all of Mrs. Ripley's correspondence cited below are in the possession of Mrs. Page. clear speaking voice, took the platform.^*'

Spring 1964 The success of her efforts can be traced in settled. She noted the rapid changes occur the pages of the Woman's Journal, which ring in the condition of women. They could shows Middleton developing into a strong now enter any profession and succeed if hold of the movement. they had the ability, she said. If Harvard Education proceeded in both directions, would not accept women, they could ac however. In the course of organizational quire the necessary knowledge in "other work at the grass roots level, Mrs. Ripley places of learning." After this — perhaps as observed that the abstract right called suf a result of it — Lucy Stone invited her to frage meant far less to ordinary members address the spring meeting of the New Eng of her sex than did a specific reality, such land association, telling her: "Say your own as a vote on temperance or a voice in school genuine say."^" elections.^'' The lesson was not lost upon Entrance into the circle of suffrage lead her, and she became a permanent convert ers was a vital step in Martha Ripley's to the moderate approach advocated by education, for she formed lifelong friend Lucy Stone. This placed her in the main ships with members of the immediate group stream of the trend which stressed woman and with other prominent reformers as well. suffrage not only for its own sake, but as She became a favorite and frequent visitor the means of achieving other reforms. in the Dorchester home of the Blackwells, Success at the local level won Martha and her committee associates also included Ripley a place in the inner councils of the professional women such as Mercy B. Jack state and regional associations. "We hope," son and Marie E. Zakrzewska, who were wrote Henry BlackweU in the spring of both doctors. These relationships gave her 1876, "you will make it a point to speak a fresh perspective on woman's role in ... in regard to the work to be done & the American society and helped prepare the way to do it. We need new voices & new ground for her own entrance into a career.^^ workers & you can aid much by telling your own experiences."^* THE FIRST STEP in this direction was tak In her debut at the annual convention of en in October, 1880, when she enrolled in the New England Woman Suffrage Associa tbe Roston University School of Medicine. tion, she took issue with a statement that Her immediate reason for seeking medical women could not convert members of their training was to care more competently for sex as well as men could, and citing her her own family and for the families of the Middleton labors, she pointed the moral: mUl hands who still called upon her for help keep the woman's rights movement practi in times of sickness and distress. She had en- cal. At the same meeting she was given a place on the executive committee of the " Woman's Journal, June 3, 1876, p. 181. "BlackweU to Mrs. Ripley, May 25, 1876. organization, and a few months later Lucy " Woman's Journal, June 3, 1876, p. 181; Sep Stone informed her of her election to the tember 16, 1876, p. 301, 304; October 13, 1876, state central committee of the Massachu p. 325; January 26, 1878, p. 32, 184; February 8, 1879, p. 48, 183; May 29, 1880, p. 173; June 5, setts Woman Suffrage Association. She was 1880, p. 179; May 28, 1881, p. 172, 173; January re-elected annuaUy to both posts untU her 21, 1882, p. 18; June 3, 1882, p. 176; January 27. departure for Minnesota in 1883.^^ 1883, p. 31; June 9, 1883, p. 183; Lucy Stone to Mrs. Ripley, May 8, 1877. She must have been a spirited figure at '"Woman's Journal, February 5, 1881, p. 51; suffrage gatherings. At the January meet Lucy Stone to Mrs. Ripley, May 4, 1881. ing of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage ^ Her intimacy with the Stone-Blackwell family is evident in her continued correspondence with Convention in 1881 she criticized a speaker them. Writing to Mrs. Ripley on the occasion of who blamed women for men's shortcomings, Henry Blackwell's eightieth birthday, his daughter and declared that such meetings spent too Alice Stone BlackweU commented: "You are one of the people he is fondest of." (Letter dated April much time discussing questions already 27, 1905.)

MINNESOTA History '"'IWl'tlllfinn «» m l!'9V9|lftu

THE Boston University School of Medicine (left) and the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital as they appeared in the 1880s gaged willingly in this charitable work until everyday and from every person." Perhaps a baby she was caring for choked to death the little Latin she acknowledged was boned witb membranous croup. Shocked, she then up for the occasion. Even so, tbe essay she insisted that she would either have to study wrote would probably by itself have won medicine or abandon nursing. The broader her admission.^^ humanitarian implications of the healing An original composition on "The Women profession also undoubtedly attracted her of 1880," it opens a window on her essential as they did ber prominent classmate, Anna interests and reveals the aspirations of H. Shaw, who, seeing "the splendid work women reformers. "Could the people who women could do as physicians," gave up inhabited this city even a hundred years the ministry for a long and distinguished ago be permitted to look in upon us today, career in medicine and social reform. An what astonishment would be theirs!" she other influencing factor may have been Mrs. wrote. "And bow many questions would Ripley's sister Clara, who was already a have to be asked and answered before they practicing doctor in Lawrence.^^ could be made to comprehend that women Her entrance application gives a reveal have at last begun to find out why God ing glimpse of both the matron and the created them with brains equal in capacity medical education of the day. She lacked a to those of their brothers." Imagine their high school diploma, but she was not defi feehngs when told that tbe "great and hon cient in preparation by contemporary stand ored offices" of doctor, lawyer, and minister ards. Her experience undoubtedly counted, are often filled — and well filled — by as did ber "eager desire for knowledge" and women. She granted that these were excep ber "habit of trying to learn something tional women, just as really great men were exceptional men. "But with tbe re "'' Ahce Stone BlackweU, "The Lesson of a Life," stricted educational and political liberty in Woman's Journal, June 22, 1912, p. 196; inter women of tbe present enjoy, save in a few views with Mrs. Page, July 31, August 5, 1962; noble instances like Boston University 'The Anna Howard Shaw, The Story of a Pioneer, 141 (New York, 1915). First Medical College for woman'; our ad "=Her application, including a completed ques vantages have been few for a higher edu tionnaire and her essay, dated October 6, 1880, is cation." However, she saw a brighter vista in the archives of Boston University.

Spring 1964 ahead, concluding with the assertion that which bad opened in 1869 under Methodist "what we have been able to get, bas been sponsorship and affirmed from the outset its a blessing to the world, to our homes, and full faith in equal rights by admitting wom to each individual. Let 'Excelsior' be our en to all its departments. Of these, the mottoe." medical school alone was laggard in taking shape. The trustees of the university were HER ENROLLMENT in the Boston Uni therefore receptive to opportunity: their versity School of Medicine launched Mrs. commitment to education for women en Ripley on a current formed by the conflu abled them to assimilate Gregory's mori ence of three streams: medical education for bund school, and their sympathy for another women, homeopathy, and professional train beleaguered minority as well as the assur ing in a university. The first of these is ance of professional aid from that quarter closely related to the history of midwifery, a led them to open the medical school in 1873 field which men entered only in the late as a homeopathic institution.^* 1700s when improved medical education af Homeopathy, a system of medicine forded them instruction in obstetrics. In tbe based on the theories of the German phy following century, however, romantic sensi sician Samuel C. F. Hahnemann, had tivities and heightened female modesty never become influential in Europe. In the made male midwives an embarrassment; United States, however, where its teach thus when the tide of equal rights started ings were introduced in 1825, homeopathy rising, women found this door to the medi found a more favorable environment. The cal profession standing ajar. climate of reform, as well as certain medi Among the reformers agitating for female cal trends after the 1840s, favored its medical education in the first half of the growth. Although allopathic (or regular) century, the most prominent was Samuel medicine retained its pre-eminence, ho Gregory. He was the author of many po meopathy for a time became the country's lemical pamphlets in which he defended second leading school of medical thought. women's sensibilities against male doctors The American Institute of Homeopathy, and attacked the evils of a profession which formed in 1844, antedated the American he saw as attracting prurient men because Medical Association by three years.^^ of the liberties presumably afforded. Yet de Subsequently, however, the development spite his vivid imagination, Gregory's con of American medicine along empirical lines cem for medical education was eminently undermined the speculative and theoreti practical and led in 1848 to the opening of cal foundations of homeopathy. Although the Boston Female Medical College.^* The institution initially thrived, dissemi ^^ William Frederick Norwood, Medical Educa nating among women valuable medical tion in the United States Before the Civil War, knowledge and teaching measures for pro 407-409 (Philadelphia, 1944); Thomas Woody, A History of Women's Education in the United States, moting health at a time when sickly females 2:340-362 (New York, 1929); Stanton, Anthony, abounded. Its patrons included Boston's and Gage, eds., History of Woman Suffrage, 3:299. ranking literary and reform lights. But -"Wilham Harvey King, ed., History of Homoe despite its success and the opening of simi opathy and Its Institutions in America, 3:159-165 ( New York, 1905); Norwood, Medical Education, lar schools in New York and Philadelphia, 409, 412, 414, 415. the future of women in medicine was still '^"King, ed.. History of Homoeopathy, 3:165, by no means assured.^^ 181. "' Henry E. Sigerist, American Medicine, 195 By the time the pioneering Gregory died (New York, 1934); Henry BurneU Shafer, Ths in 1872, the New England school was fal American Medical Profession, 1783 to 1850, 243 tering and in need of outside help. This (New York, 1936); Richard Harrison Shryock, Medicine and Society in America, 1660-1860, 144 was forthcoming from Boston University, (NEW York, 1960).

8 MINNESOTA History it continued for years to remain both a year period, meant that she received popular and effective form of medicine, three times as much formal instruction as numbering many successful physicians in had Elizabeth BlackweU, the country's first its ranks, it was eventually reduced from woman to earn a medical degree. One third a respectable system to tbe status of a he of Mrs. Ripley's class consisted of women, retical cult. and they often dominated the student prize Perhaps because of their own minority competitions. Nevertheless, equal rights suf standing, homeopaths seem to have more fered when the faculty allowed men stu quickly recognized the right of women to dents to monopolize the best appointments. practice medicine than did other profes As her friends told the story (probably with sional healers. In New England during embellishment), Mrs. Ripley faced the chal the 1870s women were admitted to ho lenge by brandishing a backbone she was meopathic organizations but excluded by dissecting, and asserting that this was what the regular medical societies.^* The home the faculty needed. The situation was soon opathic tradition was also well adapted corrected.^^ to affiliation with a university where pro As her training advanced, her increased fessional training in an atmosphere of medical responsibilities in Roston widened advanced knowledge was at this time be Mrs. Ripley's education as an urban re ginning to replace the old apprenticeship former. Seniors did the maternity work of method in medicine and law. the homeopathic hospitals and visited At Boston University an academically homes on sick call."*^ Here among paupers distinguished faculty of some thirty mem and slums, life reached out and provided a bers included Dr. Conrad Wesselhoeft, crucible for testing the theories held in po once president of the American Institute lite reform circles. of Homeopathy. Wesselhoeft had trans lated Hahnemann's works into English and THE GENTLE picture of a weU-to-do-ma- sought in his own prolific writings to for tron giving medical care to her own family mulate the principles of homeopathy in the and to others upon a voluntary basis was dis light of modern science.^^ He made a deep sipated when WiUiam Ripley was injured impression upon Mrs. Ripley, as did Dr. in a mill accident and was forced to retire Mary J. Safford, one of tbe five female from business. This threw upon his wffe members of tbe faculty, "a mite of a the responsibility for earning income.^^ woman with an indomitable soul," who She graduated with honors in the spring was famed for her philanthropic work in of 1883, and late that August departed the Boston slums.^^ alone on a scouting trip to Minneapolis. When Mrs. Ripley entered Boston Uni Her husband had relatives there, and no versity, laboratory instruction was replac doubt Minnesota's burgeoning industrial ing lectures and the twenty-four-month city promised more opportunity than the curriculum, which was spread over a three- settled communities of New England. Per haps also she was drawn by a desire to try ^'King, ed.. History of Homoeopathy, 3:169- out her new role on tbe home ground of 173; Woman's Journal, January 7, 1882, p. 3. ber native Middle West. ""King, ed.. History of Homoeopathy, 3:183; Dictionary of American Biography, 20:4 (New Reaching Minneapolis, she called first York, 1936). upon Dr. Adele S. Hutchison, an earlier ™ Shaw, Story of a Pioneer, 142. graduate of tbe Boston University medical ^'-King, ed.. History of Homoeopathy, 3:183- 189, 193-211; BlackweU, in Woman's Journal, June school, who was practicing in the city. 22, 1912, p. 196; letter from Alice Stone BlackweU Probably not overjoyed at the prospect of in the Boston Transcript, May 11, 1931. a competitor. Dr. Hutchison gave ber a cool '''King, ed.. History of Homoeopathy, 3:191. ''Interview with Mrs. Page, July 31, 1962. reception and discouraging reports. Never-

Spring 1964 theless, Dr. Ripley visited the new homeo years.^* This choice of a person then absent pathic hospital on Ninth Street and began and unknown to the local women is ac to look for housing and office space.^* counted for by the fact that the Minnesota The search was disappointing. Most of organization that year shifted its allegiance what she saw was either "small and cheap" from the Stanton-Anthony faction, with or too remote, and despite the building which it had previously been aflBliated, to boom, houses were taken "about as soon as the American Woman Suffrage Association. the cellar is dry." Land was fabulously ex Not only did the women vote for the more pensive, with lots reputedly doubling in moderate strategy of the Stone-Blackwell price in a few weeks. "'Margins and cor group, but they went one step further and ner lots' is about all you hear of," she wrote accepted (perhaps in the absence of other in perplexity, wishing that Mr. Ripley were local leadership) a new president "who there to make the decision. Such vexations comes to us highly recommended by H. B. reminded her that tbe trip was in earnest, BlackweU and Lucy Stone." ^'^ and "not like a visit." Minnesota was not Massachusetts, how It was a lonely and difficult period, and ever, and during her tenure Dr. Ripley her spirit faltered briefly before the new scored only limited gains. One of these was responsibilities she faced. Her letters to ber effecting an alliance between woman suf family reveal the high price paid to be a frage and temperance forces in the state. "woman of 1880." She also succeeded — probably through her "I am very tired anxious etc." she wrote Boston connections—in bringing the seven in one, going on to say that she was ex teenth annual convention of the American hausted "mentally and physically" and be Woman Suffrage Association to Minneapo lieved that she had been for years and had lis in 1885.^* Not long afterward she gave just discovered it. She was without ambi up the presidency of the Minnesota suf tion, hated to speak to anyone or walk frage organization, but only to intensify her even a block, and felt like drifting. Reset assault on other fronts of the woman's with cares, she imagined that she "should rights struggle. like to live at the papermill all my life," The ballot was to her but one aspect of although even that "might be full large for the larger quest for equality and was above me." This delayed reaction was the pro all else an avenue toward correcting the test of strength pushed to its outer limits. discriminatory laws and social attitudes Minneapolis gradually exerted a tonic which facilitated the exploitation of women effect, however. "The place grows upon by men. Medical practice brought to her one," she admitted, cautiously adding that attention daily the helplessness of women she hardly thought she should ever be as enthusiastic about it as were her hus '* This and the material in the following four band's relatives with whom she was stay paragraphs is from three letters written by Dr. Rip ley to her family. The first was from Chicago, ing. Instead, she shared the opinion of one dated August 29, 1883, and the other two from who liked it very much "but will not say Minneapolis, August 30-31 and September 2. that she likes it better than Boston." Shortly ^"Wcmians Journal, November 24, 1883, p. thereafter Dr. Ripley and her family moved 368. "" Sources differ as to exactly how long she held to Minneapolis.*' the office. Most of her biographers say six years, although her last term apparently ended in 1888, which would make five years, and as early as 1887 EVEN before she arrived permanently the communications in the Woman's Journal are signed cause of women reached out to claim her. by Ella M. S. Marble as president. In October, 1883, she was elected presi " Woman's Journal, November 24, 1883, p. 369. dent of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage As " Stanton, Anthony, and Gage, eds.. History of Woman Suffrage, 3:659; 4:411-417 (Rochester, sociation, a position she held for several New York, 1902).

10 MINNESOTA History to protect their homes, their children, and since the age of consent under the 1858 themselves in a society which accorded constitution was but ten years. An example them an inferior position. of the resulting injustice was a case in Brushing aside the conventional coward which a women's organization learned with ice which forbade the discussion of "deli dismay that tbe existing law prevented it cate" subjects. Dr. Ripley flaUed the lax from adequately prosecuting a man for vi public attitude which indulged the double olating his eleven-year-old stepdaughter. standard. Excoriating male seducers who Nevertheless in 1889 the legislature not insisted upon the chastity of their own only rebuffed an attempt to raise the age brides, she demanded equal personal purity of consent but passed a law empowering of men. As a physician she announced her fathers to will away their unborn children. dissent from the views of those doctors who This, Dr. Ripley declared publicly, was insisted that men needed sexual intercourse "worthy of the Dark Ages." She also pointed for health. She also asserted that the un out that existing statutes aUowed Minne derlying cause of much female ill health sota fathers to bind out children without and mortality would be found by study of the mother's consent.*i the life and habits of women's fathers.'*^ In 1891 the legislature was deluged with When a young Minneapolis woman shot petitions to raise the age of consent to the man who ruined her under the promise eighteen years; the lawmakers placed it of marriage, Dr. Ripley exclaimed that no at fourteen. Four years later another vig poor working girl should be obliged to do orous campaign was launched to secure an for herself what the law should do for adequate law. A meeting in the First Bap her. Existing statutory punishments for tist Church of Minneapolis on January 30, crimes against women she declared a dis 1895, endorsed a bill which raised the age grace, noting that in Minnesota the per to eighteen. Dr. Ripley served on a general sons of girls were not as well protected committee to "carry on the work and to as their property.*" appoint press and finance committees." There was much truth in the statement. Working with her was Professor Maria Sanford of the University of Minnesota, ^ Letter from Dr. Ripley to the Minneapolis and among the religious leaders who sup Times, an undated clipping in the possession of ported the effort was Archbishop John Mrs. Page; Martha G. Ripley, "Practical Mid Ireland.*^ wifery," in Medical Century, 8:289 (October 1, 1900). The fight was carried into the judiciary *" Letter from Dr. Ripley to the Minneapolis committee of the state senate. In earlier de Tribune, an undated clipping in the possession of liberations within the circle of crusaders. Mrs. Page. " Letter from Dr. Ripley to the Minneapolis Dr. Ripley had differed with those who Times, an undated clipping in the possession of feared that boys or innocent men might be Mrs. Page; letter from Dr. Ripley to the Minne made liable to blackmail or jail at the in apolis Tribune, February 24, 1891; Minnesota, General Laws, 1889, p. 120; Statutes at Large, stance of designing servant girls. At the 1878, p. 621. Capitol, however, she insisted on distin "Minnesota, House Journal, 1891, p. 213, 262, guishing between types of offenders and 274, 289, 366, 373, 427, 441, 492, 547, 548, 566, stressed tbe need to incarcerate older, more 567, 579, 615, 675, 691, 709; General Laws, 1891, p. 161, 162; Minneapolis Tribune, January 27, 31, wicked culprits for over a year — and not 1895. There was some ambiguity in the 1891 laws, merely in a county jail. Despite all efforts, and opponents of change argued that because grad the measure failed to pass. Then, calling uated penalties were provided for carnal knowledge of children up to age sixteen, this was in fact the attention to tbe injustice done women, Dr. age of consent. Ripley personally petitioned tbe senate for *' Minnesota, Senate Journal, 1895, p. 124, 499, the right to vote — a gesture which the 765, 785; Minneapolis Tribune, January 31, 1895; Minneapolis Journal, April 11, 1895. lawmakers met with laughter and ridicule.*-^

Spring 1964 11 ing bases of support and a change-over in leadership. In her hospitable Minneapolis home she entertained former associates and met younger women, among them Carrie Chapman Catt, a gifted leader whose star in the woman suffrage movement was then rising.** This was the generation des tined to carry suffrage through to success in the nineteenth amendment — a victory which Martha Ripley did not live to see.

MEDICINE was, however. Dr. Ripley's reason for settling in Minneapolis, and it mo nopolized her time and energy. She became a highly successful obstetrician and won a place of distinction in the medical history of the city. Licensed on the last day of 1883, she was preceded by at least seven women doctors in Minneapolis and a total of twenty in the state. The prominence which accompanied her suffrage activities DR. Martha G. Ripley, about 1900 brought patients in its wake, and tbe city's large immigrant population included many There were numerous other facets of the women who, perhaps recalling old-country equal rights struggle upon which she voiced customs, took kindly to lady doctors. Con her opinion or took vigorous action. Among temporary sources agree that her practice them were the need for matrons on tbe was extensive and lucrative. It included at Minneapolis police force, the right of fe least one male allopath, and devoted pa male domestics to organize a union, and tients seem to have overlooked her ho the right of women to seats on the board meopathic connection, although she actively of education. Many statements before the maintained it in writing, lecturing, and Minneapolis school board and letters on teaching.*" the editorial pages of the city's newspapers As a professional woman the former Iowa reflected ber sustained interest in the pub beauty wore her skirts well above the lic schools — both as a mother and as a ground as a sanitary measure, and probably defender of the largely female teaching staff. Her concern also extended to tbe " All of these activities are reflected by undated other end of the social spectrum, where clippings in the possession of Mrs. Page. See also. women were even more open to exploita Woman's Journal, October 8, 1892, p. 326; Octo ber 15, 1892, p. 332; Atwater, History of Minne tion. As a member of the Women's Rescue apolis, 261; Minneapolis Journal, August 8, 1904; League she participated actively in efforts Minneapolis Tribune, October 25, 1904; Minne to reform and rehabilitate the city's pros apolis Times, October 28, 1907. titutes.** «= Dr. Ripley to her family, June 10, 1901. *" Nellie N. Barsness, "Highlights in Careers of She remained faithful to the cause of Women Physicians in Pioneer Minnesota," in Jour woman's rights until the end of her life. nal of the American Medical Women's Association, 13:19 (January, 1958); Stanton, Anthony, and By virtue of ber age and long residence Gage, eds., History of Woman Suffrage, 3:976; she became a link of continuity after the Shryock, Medicine in America, 147; BlackweU, in turn of the century between the pioneers Woman's Journal, June 22, 1912, p. 196; Materni ty Hospital, 5; Horace B. Hudson, ed., A Half in the movement and their successors at a Century of Minneapolis, 206 (Minneapolis, 1908); time of internal strain resulting from shift Ripley, in Medical Century, 8:289-292.

12 MINNESOTA Htstory for a similar reason she cut her dark but apolis had reason to know, her conscience graying hair unfashionably short. Witb ber imposed "the duty of not keeping silent firm profile, her height (five feet six inches, when . . . wrong exists."** In addition, well above average for her generation), and therefore, to her lifelong crusade for wom her air of quick determination, she must an's rights, she campaigned for a wide va have been a commanding figure.*^ riety of reforms related to public health, Despite her many professional and com although her idealism and social viewpoint munity responsibilities she was, her daugh at times evoked strong opposition and ter recalls, a good wffe and mother — one even ridicule. Newspaper reporters fre who could be counted on when the family quently teased the well-known public fig needed her. In her moments of relaxation ure, but on occasion they could be ber she enjoyed both cooking and poetry; she champions as well. "Hurray for Martha," was a member of the Plymouth Congrega chortled one, when she emerged victorious tional Church, which the family usually at from a dispute with a dogmatic and un tended together. William Ripley was a part popular city health officer.*^ ner who greatly aided her. Not only was he As an individual and also as chairman of sympathetic to her professional and reform the fourth ward committee of the Minne ing careers, but be also assumed much fam apolis Improvement League, she conducted ily responsibility. Never returning to active a war on filth and a battle for pure water. business, he was able to spend considerable In letters to the newspapers she also con time with the children, and a daughter re demned food adulteration and added her members that he often drove tbe doctor on voice to that of the Minneapolis Tribune her night calls in a buggy heated with against crowding patients with different warmed soapstones. contagious diseases into one small, unventi- Society in the narrow sense of the term lated room in the city hospital. A letter did not attract the Ripleys, and their house published in 1890, outlining tbe inadequa hold always remained modest. It was never cies of the city's sanitation system, drew theless a center of generous hospitality. In from William W. Folwell, former president addition to suffrage and reform leaders, of the University of Minnesota, an answer there were other frequent guests; on occa complimenting her on "so much good sion weddings were hastily arranged in the sense'' in such small space.*" parlor; and one girl was informally adopted As a corollary to her crusade for public into the family circle. Ahogether their do health, she became an enthusiastic advo mestic life suggests warmth and unity. It cate of cremation. Sanitary means of earth was, one suspects, a refuge and source of burial had not yet been devised, and as strength rather than a drain upon the doc urbanization advanced, it became impos tor's energies. sible to remove crowded graveyards out CharacteristicaUy, she approached her side the limits of cities. This not only community responsibility as a medical prac endangered public health, but imposed an titioner with deep earnestness. As Minne- economic hardship on the landless urban masses for whom the costs of traditional "The information in this and the paragraphs interment became increasingly prohibitive. immediately following is from various interviews The modern cremation movement with its with Mrs. Page, especiaUy that of July 8, 1961. emphasis on sanitation was, therefore, one ''Letter from Dr. Ripley to the Minneapolis Tribune, undated clipping in the possession of Mrs. aspect of the rise of the city. Page. It was also a part of the late nineteenth- "Unidentified newspaper cUpping, in the pos century reform syndrome. In Europe it was session of Mrs. Page. ""Minneapolis Times, April 7, 1904; Minneap associated with liberalism, socialism, and olis Datiy News, July 1, 1908; WiUiam W. Folwell free thought, while in the United States it to Dr. Ripley, August 9, 1890. Spring 1964 13 first gained support in radical reform cir temity facilities were limited, since mosl cles, such as the Bostonians with whom Mar babies were still delivered at home, and tha Ripley had become associated in the no city hospital admitted an unmarried 1870s. Her friends Mary Safford and Anna woman for confinement. Such persons were, Shaw both favored it, and in 1893 Lucy in the view of the day, deserving of pun Stone was the first person to be cremated ishment, not help. Since family homes were in New England.*^ also frequently closed to erring daughters, On one occasion Dr. Ripley read a paper the alternatives were few and grim. about cremation before the Minneapolis The only Minneapolis institution open Homeopathic Institute. Concerned with its to such cases was Bethany Home for the social and humanitarian rather than its re Friendless, established in 1875 by a soci ligious aspects, she defended it on sanitary ety for reforming women. The city gave it and economic grounds. She urged that the financial support and sent charity cases city assume responsibihty for building a there. Young "innocents" were thrown with crematory on correct scientific principles, hardened older women, and punishment and she described the process of incinera rather than redemption was the keynote.** tion, drawing upon her own observation Although she did not condone immoral of the reduction of two friends to ashes. In ity, Dr. Ripley was keenly aware of the closing she suggested three advantages of injustice inherent in the situation. Possibly, the custom: cremation meant safety to the too, experience in medical practice had living, was less costly than earth burial, given her a social view of behavior which and, she added, with grim but certainly un made her less certain than many others of conscious humor, it "allays all fear of bein her day as to just how guilt should be ap buried ahve."*^ portioned in a complex society. The rap Her commitment to the cause was total, idly urbanizing community of Minneapolis for she asked that her family return her was both complex and fluid in 1886 — a body to Boston ff she died before she fact reflected in the diversity of the first could be incinerated in Minneapolis. This, three patients taken under the doctor's however, proved unnecessary, as the city's wing. One was a teacher, another the first crematory went into use in 1909, three daughter of a clergyman, and the third a years before her death.*^ very young Scandinavian girl, homeless, friendless, and destitute.** THE UNIQUE achievement which set Mar Whatever the circumstances of their tha Ripley apart from a host of other dedi pregnancies, they needed care, and Dr. cated reformers in her generation was the Ripley met the situation by renting a small establishment of Maternity Hospital. Long house on Fifteenth Street and hiring a a Minneapolis landmark, the institution re nurse. The first three patients were quickly flected the two dominant themes in its joined by others, and within a month it be founder's life: concern for the welfare of came evident that the building was too women, and the physician's responsibility small. Friends of the doctor and others who to give medical care wherever it was needed. It reflected also a compassion "Alice Stone BlackweU, Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman's Rights, 285 (Boston, 1930); John Storer which reached out to touch young lives on Cobb, A Quarter-Century of Cremation in North an intensely personal level, regardless of America, 1, 12, 23 (Boston, 1901). social disapproval or financial sacrifice. °^ Unidentified newspaper clipping, in the pos session of Mrs. Page. In nineteenth-century Minneapohs — as •"Interview with Mrs. Page, July 8, 1961. elsewhere at the time — unwed mothers " Stanton, Anthony, and Gage, eds.. History of approached childbirth with immense physi Woman Suffrage, 4:780; Atwater, History of Min neapolis, 249. cal and psychological hazards. Hospital ma "'' Maternity Hospital, 8.

14 MINNESOTA Hlstory sympathized with the project rallied to her stress was keen. "We have been warmed aid, and one of them provided temporary and fed from day to day," wrote the secre rent-free quarters in an eighteen-room house tary in her report for 1888, and tbe long on the north side of town. The admission of list of contributions makes this abundantly nineteen patients during the next four clear. Nothing was refused — from five months clearly demonstrated the need for hundred pounds of flour donated by Charles a permanent hospital.*^ A. Pillsbury to the "grapes and I goose" Dr. Ripley organized her forces, and in given by one Anna Reynolds.*' July, 1887, a corporation was formed to The hospital's most substantial benefac "provide a lying-in hospital for the con tor was Levi M. Stewart, a bachelor lawyer finement of married women who are with who habitually parried appeals witb a re out mean or suitable abode and care at quest for time to discuss tbe matter witb the time of child-birth," and which might "Mrs. Stewart." These conferences resulted "admit girls who have previously borne a in many contributions, including an emer good character, but who, under promise of gency loan which saved the building at a marriage, have been led astray." It was also time when payments could not be met."" to "care for destitute children born in this Some irritations inevitably arose as Dr. institution." The only nonamendable ar Ripley strove energetically to conquer the ticle of incorporation specified that the many financial and ideological obstacles in medical department was to be "under the the path of Maternity Hospital. Briskly ef care and control of homeopathic woman ficient, impatient of red tape, and pressed by physicians," although any doctor of good other duties, she was capable of disconcert standing could treat patients there.*'' On ing some allies. A skilled beggar, she re the board of directors were prominent served certain prospective donors for herself women Dr. Ripley had met through her and did not relish interference such as that various activities, including homeopaths of one meddlesome associate who rushed suffragists, school board candidates, and a beyond her depth and permanently re lawyer. The name chosen was simply "Ma buffed a wealthy giver. When he refused ternity Hospital," and this it remained, al her request, tbe irate supplicant had though there was an early suggestion that taunted tbe man, whose habits she knew too it be changed to "Frances Willard Hos well, by declaring that he above all others pital"— perhaps with the thought of dis should support a maternity hospital! "^ guising its true purpose.** Setbacks such as this could be countered A permanent location was urgently by unceasing labor. More difficult to over needed, and the corporation quickly pur come was the substantial body of public chased for $8,500 "a new brick-veneered building, containing twenty large, sunny THE house at Western and Penn Avenue and home-like rooms, at 2529 Fourth Ave North, occupied from 1896 until 1916 nue South. Since only a few hundred dol lars were available for a down payment, the property was subject to liens and mort gages, and for a few years the financial

^ Maternity Hospital, 8; Maternity Hospital, An nual Report, 1887, p. 2. °'"Articles of Incorporation of the Maternity Hospital," in Annual Report, 1888, p. 22. ''Annual Report, 1888, p. 2, 6. "'Annual Report, 1888, p. 8, 19, 21. "^ Annual Report, 1888, p. 8; 1912-13, p. 16. " Interview with Mrs. Page, August 22, 1961.

Spring 1964 opinion which resisted the hospital's hu incorporation, it developed over the years manitarian work because of a conviction three distinct divisions, each operating in that it encouraged vice and illegitimacy. dependently but in close co-operation. One This attitude led at least one prominent was tbe hospital proper, serving both pri Minneapolis woman to try dissuading a vate and welfare patients. A residence for friend from membership on the board of unmarried mothers and an infants' home directors, and in later years the hospital's were eventually housed in separate build association with unwed mothers prevented ings and were operated under the social many "respectable" women from taking ad service department, which also supervised vantage as paying patients of its truly out tbe admission of welfare patients."-' standing medical facilities. For many infants, deserted wives, and As guiding spirit and attending physi wronged girls this shelter was the only cian. Dr. Ripley established an enviable home they bad known. Dr. Ripley's experi record by insisting upon aseptic practices, ence convinced her that young unmarried by excluding contagious diseases, and by mothers needed rehabilitation. She once establishing the cottage system when the noted in a medical report that a death at hospital moved in 1896 to its final location tributed by the attending physician to heart on a five-acre tract at the corner of Western failure was in fact "from a sense of shame and Penn Avenue North. Not one child was and disgrace" which so preyed upon the lost during actual birth in the eleven years patient's mind that "life became a burden to 1899, and the standards set by Dr. Rip too heavy for endurance.""* ley were maintained throughout the life of During their stay in the hospital youth the hospital. For tbe decade ending in 1937 ful transgressors were surrounded with the maternal death rate there was 1.35 wholesome inffuences and asked to attend a per thousand as compared to a state-wide religious service on Sunday and often on average of 4.5."^ Thursday also. For those who kept their Dr. Ripley not only led tbe institution to babies, training was offered in the care of distinction in the field of hospital and medi infants, and an effort was made to find em cal care but also in recognizing the close ployment for the ones who faced the need relationship between social service and to support themselves after leaving. As the medical treatment. Maternity was the first Minneapolis hospital to establish a separate "'•'Maternity Hospital, 10, 21; Annual Report, social service department. Following the 1899, p. 8. °' Maternity Hospital, 12, 15. threefold purpose set forth in its articles of "'Annual Report, 1888, p. 10.

THE Ripley Memorial Hospital and the nursery cottage years passed. Maternity Hospital remained cared for a total of 5,200 patients. During in the vanguard of the national trend to that period Dr, Ripley was the heart and ward more extensive and sophisticated so soul of the enterprise. In an anniversary ad cial work. By the mid-1920s guidance and dress in November, 1911, she reviewed its counseling services were offered, as well as history and opened a drive to raise fifty opportunities for vocational training, and thousand dollars for a new hospital build each case was followed up for a number ing."* But her time was running out. of months by a trained field worker."* Shortly after Christmas she ignored her Joining the infants born in the hospital own advanced years and tired body to were foundlings often left there and babies brave inclement weather and support some properly admitted for medical attention. humanitarian measure at tbe Capitol in St The institution operated as an informal Paul. The resulting respiratory infection adoption agency long before an 1893 law brought on an illness which proved fatal. permitted it to consent to adoption of aban "Is everything all right at the hospital?" doned or destitute children. The committee were her last words before she died on in charge sought "good Christian temper April 18, 1912. Two days later she was ance" homes and appears to have placed as cremated, and when in late 1915 the cor many as half tbe babies that came under nerstone was laid for tbe new Martha G. its care. Early procedures were disarmingly Ripley Memorial Building of Maternity simple. At the turn of the century a man Hospital, her ashes were placed within it."" obtained a blue-eyed, flaxen-haired boy Dr. Ripley's contribution to the develop along with the assurance that he could ex ment of Minnesota reached beyond Mater change him for a dark-eyed girl when the nity Hospital, however, and it was therefore supply permitted."" Commenting on the fitting that a memorial plaque in the Capi progress in later life of these adopted tol should permanently honor her. A surviv children. Dr. Ripley observed that '"environ ing daughter and many devoted friends — ment is the greater factor in peoples' lives by then scattered throughout tbe nation than heredity." "^ — secured approval to dedicate this on June 29, 1939.^" AT THE CLOSE of 1911, twenty-five years In its inscription, as in the minds of her after its founding. Maternity Hospital had contemporaries, the emphasis is on Mater nity Hospital. That achievement, a practical °'Annual Report, 1888, p. 5; 1899, p. 9; 1907, fruit of a well-spent life, was constantly her p. 5; Maternity Hospital, Bulletin, 1926, p. 3. ""Annual Report, 1899, p. 11; 1910-11, p. 9-12; preoccupation after 1887. It should not de Minnesota, General Laws, 1893, p. 113-116. prive her, however, of the additional signifi "''Annual Report, 1910-11, p. 11. cance which contemporaries could perhaps ""Annual Report, 1910-11, p. 12. "" Interviews with Mrs. Page, July 8, August 5, see less clearly than the eyes of posterity. 1961. Maternity Hospital continued in operation Rom in the same decade that the humani until March 1, 1956, when, beset with financial tarian reform and woman's rights move difficulties, it was closed and the property sold to the Children's Hospital of Minneapolis. The build ments first gathered momentum, she lived ings were later remodeled and are now in use as with those symbols of the quickening hu a nursing home for elderly people. man spirit through the difficult transition ™ A commemorative booklet, published at the from a rural to an urban and industrial or time the memorial plaque was unveiled, and en titled Martha G. Ripley, M.D. (n.p., n.d.) contains der. In assuming active and continued re the addresses delivered at the dedication service. sponsibility for improving the condition of THE DRAWING on page 2 is from the pamphlet women and helping her fellow man to ad on Maternity Hospital, cited elsewhere, and the just to a new age, she committed herself to etching on page 7 is from King, ed., History of extending tbe area of human freedom and Hcrmoeopathy, 3:161. The pictures of the Ripleys and Maternity Hospital were loaned by Mrs. Page. equal rights for all.

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