Mary Edwards Walker

Mary Walker married Albert Miller, a fellow physician, in 1855 but divorced him after thirteen years.

On 21st February, 1919, she died a natural death at her home at Oswego, New York. She was at 87 at the time of her death. She was buried in Oswego, New York, at the Rural Cemetery.

Mary Walker was born on 26th November, 1832 in Oswega, New York, to Alva Walker and Vesta Whitcomb Walker as their fifth daughter among seven children. She was born.

She received her primary education in Fulton, New York, at the Falley Seminary. As a child she worked at the family farm and wore men’s clothes during work as she felt women’s dresses were very restraining for work. She taught as a school teacher to pave her way out to pursue a degree in medicine.

In 1855 as the only female student in class, she graduated as ‘Doctor of Medicine’ from Syracuse Medical College.

After completing her graduation in medicine she relocated to Columbus in Ohio to start private practice but returned to Oswega in a short while. Soon after she married Albert Miller, her fellow physician and both shifted to Rome, New York, to start joint practice. The joint practice was not successful as during that era female physicians were not honoured or considered trustworthy.

In 1860, Mary Walker attended ‘Bowen Collegiate Institute’ in Hopkinton, Iowa, for a short time. The institute was later called the ‘Lenox College’. She became a part of debating society of the school, which till then comprised of only male members and was later suspended from school when she did not agree to resign from the society.

In 1861, she volunteered to serve the ‘Union Army’ during the American Civil War, at a time when women were regarded incompetent for ‘Union Army Examining Board’. In the beginning she was permitted to serve as a nurse only and worked in Manassas at the ‘First battle of Bull Run’ and in Washington, D.C. at the ‘Patent Office Hospital’.

She worked as an unpaid surgeon at the ‘Battle of Fredericksburg’ and ‘Chattanooga’ where she worked in close proximity of the Union front lines.

In-between war she completed second medical diploma from ‘New York Hygeio-Therapeutic College’. She also worked at Warrenton and Fredericksburg war zones in tent hospitals.

After the war she advocated causes including women’s rights, health care, women’s suffrage movement and women’s dress reform through her writings and lectures. She remained a crusader of the suffrage movement till her death.

In 1920, one year after her death the ‘Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution’ was passed that guaranteed right to vote for women.