Woman of the Century/Mary E. Green

GREEN, Mrs. Mary E., physician, horn in Machias, N.Y., 6th August, 1844. Both her parents MARY E. GREEN. were of New England stock. They moved to Michigan, when she was very young, and with limited means they were obliged to endure all the hardships of pioneer life. As there were no brothers in the family, little Mary worked both indoors and outdoors, preferring the latter, until, the little house being built and a few acres about it cleared, she was allowed to think about education. She went to a neighbor's, several miles distant, where she worked for her board and began to attend school. At fourteen years of age she passed the required examination and began to teach, her salary being two dollars a week, with the privilege of boarding round. She was soon able to enter Olivet College. There she earned her own way, chiefly by doing housework, and partially so in Oberlin College, which she attended later. While yet in her teens, she realized the necessity of choosing some life work for herself, and as she desired to pursue the study of medicine, she quietly determined to do so. Undaunted by the criticism of her friends, in 1865, after one year's study with a physician, Miss Green entered the New York Medical College. She was soon chosen assistant in the chemical laboratory, and besides that work, every evening found her, knife in hand, making the dissections to be used on the following day by the demonstrator of anatomy. She entered Bellevue Hospital and remained there, in spite of the hisses and insults which the students felt in duty bound to offer any of the "weaker" sex who presumed to cross their pathway. Miss Green’s thorough womanliness, as much as her stronger qualities, won her cause. On account of its hospital advantages, the next year she entered the Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia, and for two years was an interne of the hospital. In 1868 she was graduated from that college with honor, her thesis being entitled "Medical jurisprudence." Two years before graduation Dr. Green became the wife of her cousin, Alonzo Green, then a practicing lawyer in New York, whither she went in 1868 and engaged in active practice. Outside of office hours Dr. Green's time was occupied with charitable work, as she was visiting physician to the Midnight Mission, the Five Points Mission, Dr. Blackwell's Infirmary and the Prison Home for Women. By personal effort she organized and built up a large dispensary for women and children in a neglected quarter of the city, which was so successful that, after the first year in which over two-thousand patients were cared for, it received State and city support. Dr. Green's consulting physicians and surgeons were the most eminent in the city. In 1870 she delivered part of a course of lectures on medical subjects in connection with Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Dr. Willard Parker and others. The year after her graduation Dr. Green's name was presented for membership to the New York Medical Society, and after a stormy discussion she was admitted, being the first woman in America to win that opportunity for broader work. Soon after, she became a member of the Medico-Legal Society. Wishing to pursue a higher course in the study of chemistry, she applied for admission to Columbia College, but her request was not granted. She entered upon a course of evening lectures given by Professor Chandler in the College of Pharmacy, and, although she could not graduate, as she was a woman, the coveted knowledge was gained. During those years of constant mental and physical work Dr. Green became the mother of two children. She removed in 1873 to Charlotte, Mich., where she now resides. There three more little ones came into her family. Several years ago she took up wood-carving in Cincinnati. While in New York, she attended the Cooper Institute lectures regularly, and was otherwise interested in both literary and art work. Dr. Green has been twice elected health officer of the city in which she lives, and has three times been elected delegate to the American Medical Association by the State Medical Society.