WWAD: Mary Canaga Rowland, M.D.

Mary Canaga Rowland, M.D., and F. A. Loomis, ed.
As Long As Life:
The Memoirs of a Frontier Woman Doctor
(Washington: Storm Peak Press, 1994; reprinted New York: Ballantine Books, 1996)

Mary Canaga Rowland, M.D., of Salem, Oregon

Elias Canaga and Ellen Crockford gave birth to Mariam (Mary) Ellen Canaga in Red Willow, Nebraska, on June 29, 1873. Mary, her parents, and her four siblings, May, Ben, Ida, and Nellie lived on a heavily mortgaged farm. When Mary was young her mother would take care of women in confinement for some extra money. She would hide her midwifery books and Mary would read them secretly.¹ Mary Canaga would defend herself and other girls from bullies in school. She would stand up for herself for "If anything was right for me to do, I would do it, but it must seem right for me."²

Mary was determined to receive an education and she did this by attending school in Indianola, Nebraska. Eventually, she was given a job teaching in a small school twenty miles from Goodland, Kansas. This position was only for three months a year; she returned to learn in Indianola, Nebraska to further her education. Her teacher was Mr. J. Walter Rowland who was a widower with four children. Walter was almost fifteen years older than Mary. Walter did not like teaching but fell back on that after not feeling fulfilled practicing law. One of Walter's friends suggested he study medicine, and after Mary starting teaching full-time she lent as much money as she could to him for his medical school loans. Finally after five years of being interested in each other, Mary and Walter were married on March 26, 1895 in Herndon, Kansas. Walter gave Mary the deed to the house as a wedding gift claiming it was better than a diamond ring.³

Mary always went with her husband on his medical house calls to give him moral support. Mary read and studied Walter's medical books during all of her free time. It was Walter who suggested that Mary become a doctor and he supported her through medical school. Mary states in her memoirs that " she went away to study medicine because her husband wanted her to and because she was absorbed in learning about the human body".⁴ "Mary's father always claimed that his daughters were just as smart as his boy, and Mary's husband said she was capable as any man."⁵ Living around men, who did not categorize women as society did, perhaps led to the development of Mary's unique personality. The boys treated the girls as friends in the small medical school she attended in Topeka, Kansas. They would test each other and study together. Mary transferred to the Woman's Medical College and studied there for three terms from September 13, 1898 to March 20, 1901. Mary received her first MD from the Women's Medical College of Kansas City, Missouri on March 21, 1901. Most medical colleges would not admit women. They said that medicine was "indecent for women to know and study."⁶ Female physicians faced challenges of being accepted by schools and the community. Nellie, daughter of Mary and Walter, was born on Friday, April 25, 1902. Walter was murdered three days later, on April 28. After the killer was convicted at trial, Mary, out of loneliness, married August Kleint in 1904. "A desire for support caused me to make the biggest mistake of my life."⁷ They separated after a short time and she obtained a divorce in 1909.

Mary enjoyed her job and was always running between her office and home. She used outside help to care for her daughter when she could obtain it. Mary received her second MD from John A. Creighton Medical College on April 19, 1905. Creighton Medical College was much less receptive to women than the college in Topeka, Kansas.

Mary practiced in Topeka, Kansas and Lebanon, Oregon. The communities were hesitant to accept her at first, but eventually she had an equal sized practice as the male physicians. Mary tried enlisting in the Army during the Mexican-American War in 1916 but to no avail. Mary traveled to New York City in 1913 to study at New York Post-Graduate School. Mary was appointed physician for the Chemawa Federal Indian School in Salem, Oregon in 1917, and held the position until 1927.

She, as other physicians in the West, had to travel through hazardous weather conditions to their patients' houses. Family medicine was the core of Mary's practice. Mary describes many specific occasions of delivering babies. She would practice as a doctor and would act as a counselor to every patient. Mary did not do careless work throughout the many years she practiced. "A doctor deals with human life and if he is careless he loses the most precious thing an individual has."⁸

Nellie married M.T. Madsen Jr. on February 23, 1935. Carolyn, their daughter, was born on September 25, 1937. Mary encouraged Nellie to pursue an education and to become a businesswoman. Mary raised Carolyn after Nellie started running a retail business. Nellie lived near by and saw Carolyn frequently. Carolyn has a son, Scott Williams.⁹ Mary died at the age of 93 on August 1, 1966.

Notes:

¹ Mary Canaga Rowland, MD, As Long As Life: The Memoirs of a Frontier Woman Doctor, F. A. Loomis, ed. (Washington: Storm Peak Press, 1994; reprinted New York: Ballantine Books, 1996) p. 5.

² Ibid., p. 15.

³ Ibid., p. 28.

⁴ Ibid., p. 34.

⁵ Ibid., p. 34.

⁶ Ibid., p. 81; Virginia Cornell, Doc Susie: The True Story of a Country Physician in the Colorado Rockies, (Manifest Publications, 1991); Dorothy Clarke Wilson, Lone Woman: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell, The First Woman Doctor, (Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, 1970), p. 159.

⁷ Mary Canaga Rowland, MD, As Long As Life: The Memoirs of a Frontier Woman Doctor, F. A. Loomis, ed. (Washington: Storm Peak Press, 1994; reprinted New York: Ballantine Books, 1996) p. 72.

⁸ Ibid., p. 173.

⁹ Sarah Friedman, personal letter, 23 October 2000.