Pioneering Women Physicians of WyomingDr. Lillian Heath Nelson, Dr. Florence DeWitt Patrick
Two women who became pioneering Wyoming physicians both graduated in the 1890s from the same medical school in Keokuk, Iowa. They weren’t the first in the U.S.; Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell has that honor. She graduated from medical school in New York in 1849. Also, an intriguing listing in the earliest Laramie City Directory by J.H. Triggs, published in 1875, shows “Mrs. Babcock, doctoress.” So far nothing more has been found about her, she does not turn up in any other Laramie records that have been consulted.
Despite whatever credentials Mrs. Babcock might have had, the person who is credited as the first woman physician in Wyoming was Lillian Heath (1865-1962) of Rawlins. She was single when she apprenticed as a nurse for five years before getting her medical degree. In 1893 she opened a medical practice in Rawlins. Possibly second, was Florence DeWitt Patrick (1858-1952), a Wisconsin native who opened her practice in Laramie in 1902.
Dr. Heath was fortunate in having a mentor in Dr. Thomas Maghee, Union Pacific Railroad physician who was often in Rawlins. He trained her as his nurse and assistant. He recommended her for the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Keokuk, Iowa. She married Lou J. Nelson in 1898 and henceforth was known as Dr. Lillian Heath Nelson. In 1908 she closed her practice after 10 years of marriage but kept her license current for the rest of her life.
Florence DeWitt was one of 10 born to a Canadian couple who emigrated to Wisconsin, where Florence grew up. In 1878 at age 20, she married a Canadian, James DeWitt, and moved to Canada. Her three children were all born there. A vague 1928 entry in “Women of Wyoming,” by Cora Beech, says she was “left with the care and support of her children.” After a stint as a schoolteacher, she enrolled in the medical college in Keokuk, graduating in 1897, just four years after Dr. Heath.
Dr. Patrick practiced medicine in Iowa for five years before moving to Laramie. Her children came too, in 1902 they were Benjamin, age 20; Luella age 17; and Thomas, age 15. They all married and stayed in Albany County most of their lives. Dr. Patrick remained in Albany County too for the next 50 years of her life also. She never remarried though newspapers often linked her with eligible bachelors in social columns. In 1919 she moved her practice to Rock River, closer to the ranch she had purchased on Horse Creek in east-central Albany County . She retired in 1925 and went to live at Garrett, Wyoming, with daughter Luella who had married Robert Noel Garrett in 1913.
There is no evidence that doctors Nelson and Patrick even knew each other let alone having an opportunity to commiserate about being female pioneers in the practice of medicine. There might have been much to talk about, had they had the chance.
In an oral history recorded the year before she died, Dr. Nelson recalls that it was “rough going” at times. Both women were called often to out-of-town locations. Dr Nelson carried a revolver with her that she never had to use.
Dr. Patrick suffered a burglary at her Laramie home once while she was away on a call. She had to take some months off for an injury suffered when a buggy overturned when she was returning from another evening rural house call. She moved her Laramie office often, suggesting money was tight, though she did splurge on purchasing the Horse Creek ranch and was very active in that close-knit ranching community.
One of the items reported stolen from her was an opera cape, now on display in the front foyer of the Laramie Plains Museum at the Ivinson Mansion in Laramie. It was purchased about 60 years ago at a Laramie garage sale, where the owner told the purchaser (who later donated it to the museum) that it had once belonged to Dr. Patrick.
There is no indication that either woman suffered local prejudices against female physicians. While the earliest doctors in Laramie had been men, they were employed by either the military or the Union Pacific Railroad. Some stayed, but most moved on to practice elsewhere, so the services of these women were valued in Wyoming where physicians were scarce. Often, they were called upon to treat illnesses of children and women, though men who needed medical help would have been treated too. There is no mention in the records of either female physician employing a nurse, though that might have been the case.
Coincidentally, both women were born in Wisconsin, but Dr. Nelson came to Laramie as a child in 1873, then moved to Rawlins with her parents—her dad was a UPRR employee. She became a medical doctor at the age of 27 in 1893. Dr. Patrick was an early example of a non-traditional student. She received her medical degree in 1897 while a single mother of three. At age 39 she received her medical degree, and was 44 when she established her medical practice in Laramie.
By Judy Knight
Editor’s note: Judy Knight is Collection Manager at the Laramie Plains Museum and is retired from the Home Economics faculty at the University of Wyoming. She has lived in Laramie for 59 years.
Left: Dr. Lillian Heath, Rawlins, c. 1893, Right: Dr. Lillian Heath Nelson, c. 1940, holding top half of the scull of executed prisoner “Big Nose George” given to her by her mentor, Dr. Tom Maghee. Photographers are unknown and undated, both are courtesy of the Carbon County Museum.
Dr. Florence DeWitt Patrick, Rock River, Wyoming, c. 1920, Rock River, from Beach, Cora, 1928, “Women of Wyoming”
Opera Cape said to be Dr. Patrick’s, among goods stolen from her Laramie home in April, 1917, as reported in the Laramie Boomerang, shown when on display in the Laramie Plains Museum in 2024, after it was donated to the LPM. Photo credit: Judy Knight