Adaline Melinda Willis Weed (1837–1910), known as Ada Weed, was an American hydropathic medicine practitioner and lectured on women's issues while advocating for women's rights.
Biography
editShe was born Adaline Melinda Willis in Marion, Illinois in 1837.[1] She started at the New York Hygeio-Therapeutic college in 1856, and while there she met Gideon A. Weed whom she married in 1857. The wedding description in Water-Cure Journal indicates they both graduated and had their M.D. degrees, and they were "now united in hands, hearts, fortunes, and diplomas".[2] Following the wedding they moved to California where they planned to practice hydropathic medicine.[2] Weed would go on to publish about her experience with water-cures and travel.[3]: 72 Ada Weed would become the first female physician in Oregon.[4]
Weed was also known as an advocate for women's rights,[5] lecturing about the possibility of women being doctors and lawyers in 1858,[6] though the news about her lectures also raised comments from her as she did not agree with the portrayal of her words.[7] She also lectured on diseases specific to women.[8][9]
With her husband, they recruited patients in Sacramento, California[10][11] and Oregon.[12] The Weeds moved to Seattle in 1870,[13] where he would twice be elected mayor.[14] She stopped practicing medicine, became the director of the Library Association, and started hosting charitable events as a society lady.[15]
She died on September 8, 1910, in Berkeley, California.[16][1]
Selected publications
edit- Weed, Adaline M.W. (March 1861). "Water-cure travel on the Pacific Coast". Water-Cure Journal. 31 (3): 40.
References
edit- ^ a b Haarsager, Sandra (1997). Organized womanhood : cultural politics in the Pacific Northwest, 1840-1920. Norman : University Of Oklahoma Press. pp. 76–78. ISBN 978-0-8061-2974-7.
- ^ a b A wedding on hydropathic principles, vol. 24, Open Court Publishing Co, 1857, p. 107
- ^ Cayleff, Susan E. (1987). Wash and be healed : the water-cure movement and women's health. Philadelphia : Temple University Press. ISBN 978-0-87722-462-4.
- ^ Edwards, G. Thomas (1977). "Dr. Ada M. Weed: Northwest Reformer". Oregon Historical Quarterly. 78 (1): 4–40. ISSN 0030-4727. JSTOR 20613557.
- ^ Peterson del Mar, David (2003). Oregon's promise : an interpretive history. Corvallis : Oregon State University Press. pp. 93–94. ISBN 978-0-87071-558-7.
- ^ "Weekly Oregon Statesman". Newspapers.com. November 9, 1858. p. 2. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ "Letter to the paper". Weekly Oregon Statesman. November 30, 1858. p. 1. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ "Lectures". Daily National Democrat. December 18, 1860. p. 2. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ "Clipped From The Hydraulic Press". The Hydraulic Press. December 1, 1860. p. 3. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ "Clipped From The Sacramento Bee". The Sacramento Bee. March 20, 1861. p. 3. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ People in history : an index to U.S. and Canadian biographies in history journals and dissertations. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO. 1988. pp. 186–187. ISBN 978-0-87436-493-4.
- ^ Fermoile, Kristin Sohn (November 29, 2022). "Drs. Ada & Gideon Weed" (PDF). University of Nevada School of Medicine. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 29, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ "Voters re-elect Gideon A. Weed as mayor of the City of Seattle on July 9, 1877". historylink.org. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ "Obituary for Gideon A Weed". San Francisco Chronicle. April 25, 1905. p. 13. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ Fermoil, Kristin Sohn (November 29, 2022). "Drs. Ada & Gideon Weed, Part 2" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 29, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ "Mrs. Adeline Weed Dies". The San Francisco Examiner. September 9, 1910. p. 3. Retrieved November 29, 2022.