Representative women of New England/Mary P. Putnam
MARY PARKS PUTNAM, M.D., was born April 28, 1841, in Charlestown, N.H., known at the time of its settlement as Township No. 4. She is the eldest of the three daughters of the late David Whipple and Jane (Ellison) Parks, and is of English descent. The ancestral kin on the paternal side includes physicians, lawyers, and teachers, beside several persons who were highly skilled in trades. Her father was a soldier of the Civil War in the sixties of the nineteenth century, and did his full share toward the preservation of the Union.
Having an inherent love for study and investigation. Dr. Putnam's professional career was early foreshadowed. When barely fifteen years of age she became a teacher under the old district-school system in her native town and its vicinity. Such was her success that her services were in constant demand, and she made the record of fifty-three consecutive terms in the same school-room. While pursuing this vocation, she began the study of medicine, reading extensively by herself and then taking a three years' course in a school well-known at that time. Later entering the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Boston, she devoted three more years to study, and was graduated at the age of fifty-three. She immediately opened her office in one of the best residential districts of Boston, where her practice has steadily increased and become firmly established.
Doctor Putnam has always been ready to extend a helping hand to young women and girls. To one she gave the protection of her home and the same education and liberal training that she bestowed upon her own daughter, and to many another has she given encouragement and opportunity to gain higher education and development. She is interested in training-schools for nurses in Boston and elsewhere, also in numerous philanthropic, educational, and charitable movements. Needless to say, she has a large circle of friends. In the progress of modern science she keeps well posted, particularly on all lines relating to her chosen work.
She married during her .service as school-teacher Mr. Wesley D. Putnam, of her native town. For many years Mr. Putnam has been connected with one of the leading manufacturing houses in Massachusetts. He has always given his hearty sympathy and encouragement to his wife in the attainment of her professional ambition, and their home on Commonwealth Avenue has been a happy one, its sole shadow having been the death of their only child, a beautiful and accomplished young lady, wife of one of the rising young business men of Boston.