Caroline Brown Winslow 1822 - ?

Caroline Brown Winslow 1822

• ? was the first woman medical graduate west of Allengeny Mountains in 1853 and she became a skillful surgeon in Utica New York before moving the Washington to train as a homeopath.

Winslow was born November 19th, 1822, in the parish of Appledore, county of Kent, England. She came to the United States when four years old. Her parents were cultivated, intellectual, and highly respectable. Her father, Samuel Brown, was a scrupulously honest man, a profound thinker, and a severe student, to the advanced age of eighty-one years and three months. He died in Utica, in the State of New York, June 10th, 1857.

Her mother was a faithful wife, a true and affectionate mother, an exemplary Christian woman, and lived with her husband for fifty years and four months. She died at the age of seventy-six years.

Miss Brown resided in Utica, N. Y., until her maturity, at which place she was educated, but in consequence of ill-health, her school days were not numerous. In the spring of 1850, she commenced the study of human anatomy under the supervision of Rachel Gleason, M. D., at Glen-Haven, N. Y., Water Cure (Elmira), and found it a healthy mental exercise, a sort of intellectual gymnastic.

While there, her health gradually and steadily improved, so much so, that in December, 1851, Miss Brown went to Cincinnati, O., to attend a course of lectures in the Eclectic Medical College. After attending three full courses of lectures, she graduated with honor, in June, 1853. It is worthy of note that Miss Brown was the first female graduate in medicine, west of the Allegheny Mountains.

In July, 1853, Dr. Brown opened an office at 178 Race Street, Cincinnati, where she obtained a good practice. Here, her attention was called to the homeopathic system of practice, and after a careful examination of its principles, and testing its efficacy in her own practice, she became a convert to its sublime doctrines.

For the purpose of becoming more thoroughly acquainted with this new system, and enjoying the advantages of the most competent instruction, in October, 1855, Dr. Brown matriculated in the Western College of Homeopathy, at Cleveland, O. She graduated with distinguished honor, February 28th, 1856.

Her father having become enfeebled by age, and the sudden death of a sister, leaving an infant to her charge, determined her to return to Utica, N. Y., her parents’ home. Here Dr. Brown opened an office for the practice of homeopathy, where she gained the confidence and esteem of a large circle of friends. Dr. Brown, having made the study of surgical diseases a prominent feature in her medical education, gave particular attention to the treatment of such diseases, and during her residence of nearly eight years in Utica, performed successfully several important and difficult operations.

On the death of her parents, being left free from their care, she, with a little girl left to her charge by the death of her sister more than seven years previous, removed to Washington, D. C., where, during the last year of the war, Dr. Brown was a daily visitor to the military hospitals in and about that city, and by her skillful treatment, using homeopathic remedies covertly, because of the iniquitous ruling of the Surgeon-General, excluding that practice from the army (temporarily) , she thus became directly instrumental in saving many soldiers from an untimely grave. Her labor in the hospitals was performed under the auspices of the New York State Agency.

Much of her time was devoted to doing business for the sick and wounded soldiers, writing letters for them, and providing such comforts and delicacies as were needed, and which could not he obtained under army regulations.

Since the close of the war, the subject of this notice has practiced homeopathy in this city (Washington, D. C.), giving especial attention to the diseases of women and children.

On July 15th, 1866, the doctor married Mr. Austin C. Winslow, an artisan of good abilities, skill, and cultivation.

Dr. Caroline Brown Winslow is a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, and of the Homeopathic Medical Society of the District of Columbia, also corresponding secretary of the Moral Education Society of this District.

After the American Civil War, Winslow and Susan Edson stayed in Washington and helped to organise the Homeopathic Free Dispensary, the National Homeopathic Hospital and the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Homeopathy.

Winslow was elected as Vice President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1873 and founded the Moral Education Society, two associations to whom almost every woman homeopath in Washington belonged. Winslow went on to establish the District Women Suffrage Association.