A Clearer Picture of a Pioneer Female Doctor: Harriet Stemen Macbeth
Harriet Stemen Macbeth: 1873-1939 (Maternal Great-Grandaunt by Marriage)
When I look back at my first genealogy blog post, I cringe.
My little sketch, only three paragraphs in length, was sadly incomplete and in
certain respects was downright erroneous. In January 2019 when I first wrote
that post, I was just starting my journey in family history research. My
limitations and lack of knowledge back then are now painfully obvious. I feel I
did a great disservice to the subject of that first blog post, Dr. Harriet
Stemen Macbeth. Now, six years later, it is time to correct my errors and
provide a more complete picture of this amazing woman’s life.
Harriet Fontanna Stemen was born February 19, 1873 to Dr.
Christian Stemen and his wife Lydia Enslen Stemen. She was the sixth of their
seven children. Christian Stemen was a doctor and surgeon who first practiced
in Ohio where Harriet was born. Around 1875 he was appointed as a professor of
the theory and practice of medicine at the Medical College of Fort Wayne,
Indiana, so he moved his family there. He was a man ahead of his time, a
proponent of women entering medical practice, and the medical college began to
admit female students.
 |
| The building that house the Medical College of Fort Wayne when Harriet Stemen was a student |
Harriet became one of those medical students in 1893. She
completed her studies and began practicing as a physician in 1894. She first
worked as an assistant to her father, handling anesthesia during his surgeries.
On July 3, 1900, Harriet married Albert Macbeth, another
physician in Fort Wayne. She was 27 years old while he was 38. Albert was
ambitious, running the city health department and building a hospital. The
couple had no children. Census records show them living together in the 1910
and 1920 censuses. Harriet’s parents often resided with them.
Harriet was involved in the community. She was named “grand
Martha” by the Grand Matrons of the Eastern Star in the spring of 1907, a
charitable fraternal (or in this instance, sororital) Masonic group. She also
served as secretary for the group. Harriet was also active in the local
Presbyterian Church. The church listings in the Fort Wayne newspaper for May 8,
1909 show Harriet performing two solos, one at the morning service and one at
the evening service. Albert is never mentioned in articles about these
community groups; it is unclear if he participated.
Harriet faced difficulties in her life. She was sued in 1914
by an obstetrics patient, Nora Ulery, who claimed that Harriet failed to arrive
for three hours after Ulery called to say she was in labor. The child was
already born when Harriet arrived, and Ulery claimed the doctor failed to bring
necessary equipment to help with post-birth issues, and as a result Ulery
needed further surgery. She also claimed that Harriet injected her with an
unsanitary needle, leading to an infection and abscess that left Ulery unable
to use her arm.
The suit finally went to trial a year later, with a verdict
coming down January 15, 1915. The jury did not believe Mrs.Ulery, finding for
Harriet. I noticed that Mrs. Ulery was suing two other people around the same
time period over different issues—perhaps she was one of those people who like
to file nuisance lawsuits.
Harriet was also having marital problems that seems to have led
to an eventual divorce. It is unclear when she divorced Albert. On the 1920
census form they were still living together and still listed themselves as
married. My mother told me that her parents heard rumors that Albert may have
been a womanizer, but she didn’t know any details. I am embarrassed to admit
that I failed to catch the divorce when I first wrote about Harriet. I wrote
admiringly of their long marriage.
At some point in her medical career, Harriet went into
practice with her niece-in-law, Bertha Goba Macbeth, another woman doctor who
married Albert Macbeth’s nephew Robert Lyle Macbeth. The two physicians were
featured in an article on “Fort Wayne’s Women Medical Pioneers”. The author,
Peggy Siegel, wrote:
“As family physicians, Dr. Harriet Stemen Macbeth and her niece, by marriage, Dr. Bertha Goba Macbeth called on patients in their homes, often assisting at childbirth. They referred patients to hospitals only when oxygen was needed. Office hours were for follow up care when patients were well enough to get out.”
By the 1930 census, Harriet was living at 419 Wayne Street in Fort Wayne. While she still told the census taker she was married, she was obviously living separately from Albert. She owned the home and had two female boarders, a nurse and a Dictaphone operator. The house was valued at $20,000, which seems like a good sum for that era. I have found no record of Albert in the 1930 census, so I am unsure where he was living.
It is possible that Albert and Harriet never actually legally divorced, but merely permanently separated. When Albert appears on the 1940 census, he lists himself as a widower (Harriet died the year before), and his 1947 death certificate also lists him as a widower.
Harriet died March 18, 1939 at the
age of sixty-six. The only obituaries I have found for her were from Indiana
newspapers other than her hometown’s, so they were very brief, noting only that
she had practiced medicine in Fort Wayne for 44 years, and had retired from her
practice in 1937. I have found no death certificate. The obituaries said she “died…after
a long illness.”
I am sure the Fort Wayne newspaper
carried a more detailed obituary. At some point I hope to be able to find a
copy of it. Harriet Stemen Macbeth’s courageous life deserves to be properly
remembered.
Sources:
Information on Harriet’s medical school training and photo
of medical college. By Nyttend - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19364527
https://www.lostcolleges.com/fort-wayne-medical
Church Solo. Fort Wayne News and Sentinel. Fort
Wayne, Indiana. May 8, 1909 issue. https://www.newspapers.com/image/29184004/?match=1&terms=harriet%20stemen%20macbeth
“Mrs. Harriet Stemen Macbeth Honored by Grand Matrons.” Fort
Wayne Journal Gazette. Fort Wayne, Indiana. Apr 26, 1907 issue. https://www.newspapers.com/image/29251774/?match=1&terms=harriet%20stemen%20macbeth
Fort Wayne’s Women Medical Pioneers by Peggy Siegel. https://www.in.gov/history/files/Seigel-for-WEB.pdf
Photo of headstone from Findagrave.com. Photo by Barbara
Wolf. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/89385484/harriet-macbeth
Obituary. “Fort Wayne Doctor Dies.” The Star Press. Muncie,
Indiana. March 19, 1939 issues. https://www.newspapers.com/image/252181103/?article=054b117c-d
No comments:
Post a Comment