By Mary Dodge Allen
Doc Susie was one the first women physicians in Colorado. She practiced medicine in the rugged, rural mountains of Grand County for nearly 50 years. She was dedicated to serving her patients, making house calls in all types of weather.
Susan Anderson was born in January 1870 in Nevada Mills, Indiana. Her parents, William and Mary Anderson divorced in 1875, when Susan was a young child. She never forgot the heated argument she witnessed between her parents at the railroad depot. Her father, William literally pulled Susan and her three-year-old brother John away from his wife Mary, moments before he jumped on the train as it was pulling out of the station.
William took his two children to Wichita, Kansas, where he began homesteading with his parents. Susan and John were largely cared for and raised by their grandmother. Although William worked as a rancher, he had always wanted to be a doctor, and he was determined that one of his children would choose that career. His son John wasn’t interested in medicine, he was more interested in roping cattle and ranch activities.
But Susan loved watching her father - a self-taught veterinarian - tend to the ranch animals. She wasn’t interested in her grandmother’s lessons on manners, housework, sewing and cooking. Susan developed a keen interest in medicine, which her father encouraged.
In 1891, after Susan graduated from high school, her father remarried. Later that year, he moved the family from Wichita to a booming mining camp near Cripple Creek, Colorado, after he heard that gold had been discovered there.
In this era, it was rare for a women to pursue a medical degree. But Susan’s father encouraged her to apply to universities. In 1893, Susan began attending the University of Michigan, and she graduated in 1897 as a licensed physician.
Susan moved back to the Cripple Creek mining camp to be near her family, and she set up her first practice. For the next three years, she treated patients in the mining camps. Although Susan was petite, she was also quick-witted, and she treated her patients with skill and empathy. Susan even saved a miner’s arm, after a male doctor had insisted it had to be amputated.
In 1900, Susan was engaged, but her fiancé left her at the altar. That same year, her brother John died. Heartbroken, Susan decided to leave Cripple Creek. She moved to Denver, but she had difficulty setting up a practice because patients resisted being treated by a woman doctor. Susan finally secured work as a nurse in Greeley, Colorado.
In 1907, while working in Greeley, Susan contracted tuberculosis. She moved to Fraser, Colorado - elevation 8,500 feet - hoping the cold, dry climate could make her well again. Gradually, the clear mountain air began restoring her health.
area that she was a doctor. But somehow, word got around, and people began coming to her with their ailments. Susan soon began treating local families, loggers, railroad workers, and even farm animals in Colorado’s Grand County area. Her patients began calling her “Doc Susie.”
To treat patients in this rugged area, Doc Susie needed to make house calls – but she never owned a horse or a car. In winter, she’d put on layers of clothing and hip boots and then trudge through deep snow in freezing temperatures to reach their homes. Since the railroad track ran near her cabin, she’d sometimes flag down a train and ride, free of charge, wherever she needed to go.
One time, to reach a woman who was due to deliver a baby, she hiked eight miles to a ranch on snowshoes. After Doc Susie delivered a baby girl, the family’s young son had an appendicitis attack. She knew she needed to get him to Denver for surgery.
Doc Susie traveled with the desperately ill boy by train. But during the night, a blizzard hit and blocked the tracks at Corona Pass. Passengers helped clear the tracks, but the train didn’t arrive in Denver until the next morning. She had no money for taxi fare to Colorado General Hospital, so the passengers chipped in. After the boy’s surgery, Doc Susie stayed with him and then brought him home. He made a full recovery.
People in this area had little money, so they paid Doc Susie by giving her firewood or bartering their services. She was often paid with food or hot meals, which she appreciated, because she hated doing any cooking or housekeeping.
Doc Susie found herself swamped with patients during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-19. She traveled from one sickbed to another, with many patients dying.
From 1923-25, during the construction of the Moffat Railroad Tunnel through the Rocky Mountains, Doc Susie treated many injured workers. During this time, she became the Coroner for Grand County. While in this position, she met with the Tunnel Commission and confronted them, citing the poor working conditions and numerous worker accidents. During the five years of tunnel construction, hundreds were injured and many died.
Doc Susie practiced medicine in Grand County for over 49 years, and she retired in 1956. Although she never married, she delivered a large number of babies and claimed them as her children. In fact, she considered all of her patients in Grand County as her family.
The Cozens Ranch Museum in Winter Park, Colorado has a section describing Doc Susie’s long career as a frontier doctor, complete with a display of her medical instruments.
Doc Susie was beloved by the residents of Grand County for her life of dedicated service. She passed away in 1960 at the age of ninety, and she was buried in Mount Pisgah Cemetery in Cripple Creek, Colorado. When the Grand County residents found out her grave had no headstone, they took up a collection and arranged for an engraved marble headstone to be placed at her gravesite, to honor her memory.
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Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers.
I love everything about your post today, Mary! Thank you so much for telling of Doc Susie!
ReplyDeleteHi Connie, It was a joy to write about Doc Susie! She led a life of service to others, and tended to her patients in all types of ruggeld weather and circumstances.
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