HARRIET E. GARRISON, M. D., DIXON, ILL.

Harriet E. Garrison, of Dixon, Ill, was born on a farm near her present home on the 20th of October, 1848, her father being William Garrison, and her mother Amelia Oman, prosperous farmers of that county. Dr. Garrison passed her girlhood gaining health, strength and skill in domestic pursuits. Until fourteen years of age the district school furnished her with the necessary mental tuition, and after she had passed through this routine she entered the Dixon Seminary, where she spent four months.

When the doctor attained her majority, her spirit of independence led her to provide for herself, and she began teaching country schools in vacation, until she had sufficient means to finish her college course. Then came some years of farm life, wherein Harriet Garrison's butter became one of the famed products of the village and the pride of its maker. Believing thoroughly in the maxim of doing each thing best, Miss Garrison made every step a stepping stone towards better things.

In 1872 she entered the office of Dr. John Williamson, of Dixon, as a student, and two years later Dr. Garrison matriculated at the Woman's Hospital Medical College of Chicago, now known as the North-Western University Medical College for Women. At that time the curriculum provided for but two courses of lectures so that Dr. Garrison graduated on Feb. 29, of 1876, the Centennial year.

Immediately after graduating Dr. Garrison was requested to go to Franklin Grove, Ill., to take charge of a local practice, which she managed successfully until the return of the owner.

In October of that year she returned to her native city of Dixon and began practice, building up day by day and gaining in public esteem, until now Dr. Garrison is one of the most prominent general practitioners in the city. Beginning when the city numbered about 2,500, she has done all that came to her, driving night and day in country and town, taking the common as well as the uncommon things that were offered, doing major and minor surgery, assisting all who desired her aid, hers has been an active life.

Dr. Garrison has been an able writer, and among her more prominent productions was a paper on "Scarlet Fever, treated with Antefebrin," N. Y. Med. Record, Oct. 22, 1892; "Some Clinical Reflections on the Treatment of Diptheria," Dietetic Gazette, Feb. 1893; "Roseolo and Rothelin," American Medico Surgical Bulletin, Oct. 1894; "A Case of Exopthalmas in the Infant of Three Months," The Journal of the American Medical Association, report of the proceedings of Paediatrics in the forty-fifth annual meeting; "Establishing a Practice," written for the "Woman Physician," not yet published.

Dr. Garrison is an active member of the North Central Illinois Medical Association. Her portrait, which we present, shows a woman in the prime of life, with kindness, determination and vigor strongly developed.

In 1890 Dr. Garrison took the post graduate course at the Post Graduate School of New York, thus further accentuating her skill and becoming familiar with later devices and newer theories, all essential in these days of progress.

The young women of the profession find ready counsel and sound advice always waiting for them when sought of her; and to us all, her life is an inspiration.

Source & Notes

Transcribed from pp. 105-106, The Woman's Medical Journal: A Monthly Journal of Medicine and Surgery 5 (1896), in June 2010. This is a full and exact transcription. I have checked it twice against the original, and it is identical in every character--except for the following corrections:

• I changed "North-Western University Medicel College" to "North-Western University Medical College";
  
• closed the quotation marks around "Roseolo and Rothelin."
  
• I corrected "Medica" to "Medical" in "North Central Illinois Medical Association."
  
• I changed "woman" to "women" in "The young women of the profession."
  
• For clarity's sake, I replaced a comma with a semicolon in "sound advice always waiting for them when sought of her; and to us all."

Biographical Sketch, 1914

Transcription

HARRIET E. GARRISON, M.D.

Little more than a generation ago woman had no place in the business world. She was supposed to be concerned only with the duties of the household, save that she was given the instruction of the young as a teacher in the schools--a work but little removed from the household and family cares. Today there is practically no avenue of activity closed to her and she has proven herself equal to the representatives of the sterner sex in all that calls for intelligent comprehension and skill, save, perhaps, only in the point of physical strength. None today deny her prominent place in the medical profession and among the more successful physicians of Dixon is Dr. Harriet E. Garrison, who was born in Lee county, October 28, 1848. Her parents, William and Amelia (Omen) Garrison, were both natives of Pennsylvania, but left the east in 1845 and made their way to Illinois, with Lee county as their destination. They traveled overland by team, bringing with them their seven children, the eldest at the time being ten years of age. They were also accompanied by Mathias Garrison, brother of William Garrison. Their route lay at times through dense forests or over open uncultivated prairies and they saw much wild game while upon the way and after their arrival in this county. On reaching Illinois, Mr. Garrison obtained a tract of government land upon which not a furrow had been turned or an improvement made. With characteristic energy he began its development and converted it into productive fields from which he annually gathered good crops that enabled him to provide a comfortable living for his family. He continued upon his farm until death called him. At one time he removed to Ogle county, Illinois, where he operated a sawmill for a brief period and then returned to Lee county, where his remaining days were passed. After the arrival of the parents in Illinois four more children were born, making eleven in all. Dr. Garrison was trained to the usual household duties but the parents were ambitious to give their children good educational opportunities and she was anxious to take advantage of such. Accordingly she supplemented her public-school course by study at Mount Morris, Illinois, and also in the Rock River Seminary. By this time she had determined to engage in the practice of medicine and pursued her studies at the Women's Medical College of Chicago, from which she was graduated with the class of 1876. She also took a six months' hospital course and thus gained the broad knowledge and experience which only hospital service can bring.

On the 5th of October, 1876, Dr. Garrison came to Dixon and opened an office and has since engaged in practice here, although she went to New York city in 1890 and again in 1891 for post-graduate work. In this and other ways she has continually broadened her knowledge and increased her skill. She traveled in Europe with a party of physicians in 1897. She was the only general practitioner among them and when Dr. Senn, a noted surgeon of Chicago, became ill she was called upon to attend him. Her trip was made for the purpose of attending the International Medical Association at Moscow, Russia, and in 1900 Dr. Garrison again went abroad attending the International Medical Association at Paris. She has attended five different meetings of the American Medical Association and she is also a member of the Lee County and the Illinois State Medical Societies. She has largely specialized in the treatment of diseases of children and is a recognized authority on many points relative thereto. Articles which she has written have appeared in various leading medical journals of the country and many prominent men of the profession have borne testimony as to their merits. She has ever held to the highest professional standards and step by step has advanced to a conspicuous, prominent and honorable position in the ranks of the medical profession in Illinois.

Source & Notes

Transcribed from vol. 2, pp. 302-306 of Frank E. Stevens' History of Lee County Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1914) in June 2010. This is a full and exact transcription. I have checked it twice against the original, and it is identical in every character. The image that appears alongside my transcription was published alongside the original as a plate, which occupied pp. 303-304. I downloaded it from the Internet Archive (see publication link) and haven't altered it from the version posted there, apart from adjusting the contrast slightly.

I should say a few words about the factual accuracy of this sketch. I believe that the information about Harriet's professional achievements is probably correct, but this account of her parents' movements is not quite right. Here it states that, shortly after arriving in Illinois, her father "obtained a tract of government land" in Lee County, then left briefly to operate a sawmill in Ogle County before returning to Lee County. There he resumed residence on the same tract he'd previously left, living out the rest of his days upon it. An 1881 bio sketch of William Garrison, however, states that he sold the land he'd obtained from the government in order to fund his Ogle County sawmill operation, then purchased an entirely different piece of farmland when he decided to move back to Lee County.

I did some checking, and the version of events in William Garrison's sketch--not Harriet's--seems to hold up. A search of digitized land patent records at the Bureau of Land Management's website reveals that, on March 1st, 1847, William Garrison was granted 120 acres in the northeast quarter of Section 35, Township 22, Range 9 East "in the District of Lands subject to sale at Dixon." In William's 1881 bio sketch, however, he was said to have been farming the northwest quarter of Section 30, Township 22, Range 10 East--NOT his government homestead. This seems to confirm the story that he sold his homestead before moving to Ogle County, then purchased a different Lee County tract after closing his sawmill.

Another discrepancy worth noting is the number of children William and Amelia Garrison are said to have had. This sketch of Harriet Garrison states that seven children moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois, where four more (including herself) were born, making eleven kids in all; William Garrison's 1881 sketch states that he and Amelia had had fifteen children, only nine of whom were still living at the time. Only the nine William's sketch mentions are ever named in census records, so I conclude that those children who died--whether there were two or six of them--must have been very young. At least two Garrison offspring must have died in Illinois, and I wonder whether their deaths--whether or not she was alive to witness them or old enough to remember--influenced Harriet's focus on childhood diseases.