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Pioneer Doctor: The Story of a Woman's Work

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When Mollie Babcock stepped off the train in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1890, she knew she had to start a new life. She'd left her husband and their medical practice in Iowa, and with only a few hundred dollars in her pocket and a great deal of pride, she set out to find a new position as a physician. She was offered a job as doctor to the miners at Bannack, Montana, and thus began her epic adventures in the Rocky Mountain West.

The true story of a medicine woman who found opportunity in the wide-open spaces of America's frontier west, Pioneer Doctor: The Story of a Woman's Work, is not just a beautifully written and thoroughly researched story of a fascinating woman's life. It is also the story of an era when daring women ventured forth and changed history for the rest of us.

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

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Mari Graña

9 books3 followers

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5 stars
169 (27%)
4 stars
262 (42%)
3 stars
153 (24%)
2 stars
25 (4%)
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4 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
Profile Image for Murray.
145 reviews3 followers
October 13, 2017
I would recommend this book for anyone interested in a 2nd-hand history of women in medicine, the history of American Medicine, pioneer medicine, or Montana history. The book was a finalist for the 2006 West Willa Literary Awards for outstanding literature featuring women in the west.

The book is about Mary Babcock Atwater (Dr. Molly) one of the first women physicians in Montana, a tireless leader to improve public health and the women’s suffrage movement. It was written by her granddaughter who was inspired largely by stories told to her by her mother. She also learned a lot from one of her grandmother’s neighbors.

While the book is biographical and “guided” by actual events and people, the author took liberty to “dramatize” much of the story and obviously all of the dialog that makes up the majority of the work. While the dialog is simple and direct, it suffices to move the biography along.

This is not a book for the ages. It is not a masterpiece. It is a very personal account of a remarkable woman. I was drawn to the book as a resource for a paper I am writing. I am certain there are more authoritative sources for a serious historian, but this book was engaging and worth reading for my purposes. During medical school in 1966 I had the occasion to work with a marvelous G.P. in Boulder Montana who is the finest physician I have had the privilege to work with during my 50 years in the profession. It was fun to read about the familiar locale.
Profile Image for Apta.
18 reviews
July 29, 2016
I bought this book while on vacation in Estes Park, Colorado.

Tonight, Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination for President of the United States - she was a First Lady, is a wife, a mother and a grandmother - she also hopes to be President someday...all those things are true together. Dr. Mary Atwater is just one of the many many American women who dedicated their lives to fight for the ability of women to do all of the above. This book is timely and it is inspiring. It's also a wonderful story about the history of medicine, healthcare and the surprisingly progressive attitudes of a woman who lived over a century ago.

The best part, the story is told by her granddaughter. The best part of the book, is the epilogue - it's easy to feel dwarfed by a woman as wonderful as Mary Atwater - but a woman is a woman - and each one of us hold our value regardless of the achievements of our sisters.
Profile Image for Joanne.
829 reviews49 followers
October 25, 2017
An interesting story, poorly written. I edited as I read. I chose a random page, 309, and counted 29 corrections. The author is a freelance editor?
Profile Image for Marjorie Campbell.
81 reviews1 follower
June 16, 2010
I picked this book up at a battlefield gift shop when I was killing time, waiting for the boys. I loved this book - not for writing style which is quite simple and much in need of better editing. But this book is a fascinating glance into the life of a living, breathing first feminist - whose calling to be a physician powered her out of a confining marriage straight onto the Western frontier. It also offers a unique and touching glimpse into the lives of women living without bare necessities in frontier mining towns. The anecedotes and family history preserved here are educational, entertaining and hugely inspirational.
Profile Image for Emily.
879 reviews32 followers
August 13, 2024
This is the book that you buy from the gift shop at the tourist attraction when you're on a road trip out West, and it is an absolutely perfect memento of that time you spent fifteen hours in the car to go see Devil's Tower or Wall Drug or some town in Montana. I loved it.

Written by Dr. Mollie Babcock's granddaughter, this is an amazing narrative by someone who definitely is not a professional writer. The dialogue is wooden and the scene-setting is cardboard, but Mollie Babcock shines! The DIY writing really does add to the narrative, as Mollie gets her MD, divorces her stupid husband, and moves out west. A mine owner with a delicate, pregnant wife takes a chance on her, and Mollie becomes doctor in a mining camp with no electricity or back-up. Mollie handles the rough and tumble, alcoholic, getting shot on a Saturday night miners with aplomb, while trying to educate the women about limiting their pregnancies because they want to, but they can't, because they are ignorant, and the Comstock Act means they can't send away for meaningful information or devices. They just have to keep having the babies, or attempting abortions with toxic patent nostrums that can kill them. Mollie does what she can.

When the mines move, Mollie moves to a larger mining town where she can move in middle class social circles again, and she finds a husband even though she absolutely wasn't looking for one, and starts working on public health and suffrage issues. But the collapse of the silver standard is the collapse of Montana's mining economy and Molly and her husband move to Butte, where they are social butterflies and professionals. This part of the book flagged a bit, just because reading about attending a suffrage meeting in someone's parlor is less adventuresome than setting a broken leg in a cabin in the middle of the night assisted only by a drunk man. When Mollie accidentally gets pregnant at 43, she has to give up doctoring because the risk of passing a disease like measles or polio to her child is too real. But she stays in the game and helps a small town survive the Spanish Flu epidemic. And her work for Montana suffrage is incredible. Mollie Babcock is a hero who lived a fascinating life. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
7 reviews
October 14, 2016
A fascinating book about a very inspiring, trailblazing woman whose work on infectious diseases, women's rights and the suffragette movement was nothing short of amazing.
Profile Image for Kristin.
18 reviews2 followers
October 15, 2017
I wanted to like this book, but it lacked in many ways. I read Doc Susie by Virginia Cornwell several years ago and was impressed by the way in which Cornwell brought Dr. Susan Anderson to life. It was well thought out and well written. I was expecting more of the same; the life story of another woman in this profession. However, I had difficulty getting through this book. It started out well enough, but quickly declined.

The writing style was very pedestrian. At times, this could have been written for a fifth or sixth grader. The storyline has so many time jumps, that at times it gets confusing as to what the plot is. The jumps also seem to be a way that the author may have skirted around character development. Of course, it's difficult to turn someone's life into a novel without much information, however, the bibliography at the back is so long, she could have prized more information from them.

The length of the biography is also an issue in that some parts felt like they were pulled from a history book. These portions lack dialogue and character insight. It seems to me that if the topics were of such importance to Mollie, the author could have had more personal thoughts than just, yeah my Grandmother was a suffragette and worked in public health. The book's epilogue is strange. I would have rather have found it as a preface. It didn't make sense putting the pages at the back. It's almost as if the author felt if the reader knew some of the information, they would have disliked Mollie. As it was written, it was difficult to like Mollie, as the book was written. She comes across as arrogant and incredibly self-absorbed, not the woman she supposedly was.
Profile Image for Lora.
775 reviews14 followers
October 25, 2015
A fascinating read. I found the most interesting part the arguments that were being made to discourage people from voting for women's suffrage. I have studied this many times and really had no idea. Also found interesting the discussion about birth control and the restrictions that were placed on it so that it wasn't available to the average family even though it was "available." "Underlying all this...was the drive to disempower women. Perhaps the greatest fear of the more fervid of the bigots was the thought that if women could regulate their reproduction , they would have more free time to meddle in the affairs of men-why, they might even want to vote!" (pg. 110). "Doctors who defied the law, whether out of moral conviction or simple greed faced the possibility of not only, social and professional stigma, but also prison." (pg. 111).
Profile Image for Jane Mettee.
304 reviews7 followers
June 25, 2017
Non fiction women's history/herstory. Written by her granddaughter who gave a well researched account of her amazing grand mother's life. She was a medical doctor in days when women were generally not allowed in medical school. She had to go Montana in the late 1800s to find a job that would hire a woman. She was caring for miners and their families in a rural area riding a horse to make home visits at all times of day or night. Eventually in the early 1900s she was instrumental in starting a Public Health Program for Montana. This came about in response to out of control tuberculosis, diphtheria and influenza epidemics.
She also was one of the leading woman to campaign for women to have the vote in Montana. This took an unbelievable 22 years of hard work to achieve.
Excellent book. A great piece of frontier herstory!
63 reviews2 followers
January 18, 2020
An interesting book about the author's grandmother & her quest to become a professionally trained physician in the 1880s. Her ability to leave an unhappy restrictive marriage & strike out on her own in the wilds of Montana mining "camps".

It follows her fight for medical reform & sanitation in Marysville, Montana & her pioneering efforts to improve the treatment of TB patients fighting the mining companies who feared law suits because it was a common disease among miners as well as ranchers whose sick cows produced contaminated milk causing children to contact the disease.

She also became a staunch fighter for women's suffrage & rights to adequate health care & contraceptives.

The book ends with a brief synopsis of the advancements in medicine during her lifetime.
Profile Image for Kayrene.
284 reviews20 followers
October 7, 2019
This appeared to be more of a non-fiction about Mollie Amherst's life, but actually, it's quite a novelization, reads very much like a fiction novel. I did enjoy the history of women in medicine and the work towards the right to vote.
36 reviews
February 15, 2011
It was a little too political for me. also a little bit prejudice. but her experiences were interesting
Profile Image for Zola.
50 reviews11 followers
June 11, 2019
Loved reading about a strong, independent, divorced women in the 1890’s. It also has a lot of references and info about her and her work as a suffragette.
Profile Image for Maureen M Carlson.
2 reviews2 followers
August 3, 2017
Pioneer Doctor: The Story of a Woman’s Work by Mari Graña is a book that I would recommend for anyone, especially women and girls. It is a colorful biography written like a story in the point of view of Doctor Mary “Mollie” Babcock Atwater, which I feel Graña was able to portray extremely well. I felt as if I were right next to Doctor Mollie the whole time. A pioneer feminist, Doctor Mollie attended medical school at the Women’s Hospital Medical College of Chicago where she graduated in 1887. As though she had an endless supply of energy, she constantly fought for people’s health, particularly women’s health and safety in childbirth and contraceptives, she fought tirelessly for women’s rights as a suffragist (about twenty years until women finally got the vote!), and when she surprisingly became pregnant in her forties, something she’d been careful about avoiding in order to keep her career as doctor, she fought to be the best mother she could and raise her daughter to be strong and fight for herself as well. She believed women to equal to men, not below or above, which really stood out to me. I believe feminism today has gone too far, beyond the definition itself, even to belittling men. I believe men and women to be equal but different, still having very important defining characteristics.
Mari Graña, the author of Pioneer Doctor, is the main character’s granddaughter. Graña was able to find a neighbor of her grandmother’s, Fanny, who told her stories that helped lead her in the creation of this fascinating book in honor of Doctor Mollie. Graña captures the life of her grandmother in the most beautiful way. She is a wonderful storyteller, and if I didn’t know who the author was, I may have guessed that her grandmother wrote the book herself. It is a wonderful book full of adventure, the successes and hardships of life as a woman pioneer and doctor in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, and one of great love as well, written in a tasteful, modest manner. Doctor Mollie was an inspiration to all who knew her and still inspires many after death. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.
Profile Image for Maureen.
4 reviews
August 8, 2025
Devoured this book in 2 days, couldn’t stop reading. Not only is the content so fascinating, this woman did so much throughout her life, helped countless people with endless compassion…but the way it’s written, it draws you in and keeps you captivated. Mari Graña is a fantastic author and it was well researched!! Would give it 10 stars if I could.
8 reviews
January 18, 2020
The subject's life was very interesting and well worth reading about. This book is also an excellent view into what was happening in the decades of her medical education and practice: in medical science and practice, in the details of how women moved into the credentialed medical world, the economic and social world, and the often-overlooked political battles over suffrage. My one complaint is that some scenes seemed stilted and unnatural, especially those with dialogue. However, I think the author had a good feel for the story of her grandmother's life, and brought imaginative skill to fleshing out her relationships and motivations based on the details she learned.
Profile Image for Meegan.
399 reviews16 followers
November 12, 2018
To be honest, I only read 3/4 of this book. It seemed that a lot of people disliked this book because the author attempted to write it like a novel despite it being a biography. I actually liked that...I'm not a biography person despite loving history. The reason why I didn't finish it was because things turned too political. Politics is my least favorite topic whether it's about modern times or the past. BUT if you like reading about how women fought for the right to vote and hold office in a state setting, this is the book for you!
67 reviews1 follower
April 16, 2020
The author is the granddaughter of the pioneer doctor in question. It is a very interesting story. I'd love to know more about whether some of what is written was based on letters which had been saved and found, etc. I'm pretty sure that there was an exhaustive search of newspaper articles etc. It's definitely a case where an opportunity to take an oral history from a true historical figure was lost (probably because Dr. Atwater moved to California in her early 70's, and no one there would have known that she'd lived such an interesting and impactful life in Montana).

308 reviews5 followers
October 2, 2020
Interesting, easy to read account of a determined woman who became a doctor, first working in a mining camp where men were leery and eventually became active in the advancement of women in society, i.e., medicine, suffrage, etc. Well-researched and written by her granddaughter.
653 reviews
December 12, 2017
For anyone who has listened to grandmothers relating stories from their mothers, this is particularly interesting. Add the Montana aspect, prohibition, suffrage, and just medical progression and it keeps your interest. I want to give it 3 1/2 as it needs to flow a bit more and the writing is (as someone also said) somewhat pedestrian. But how wonderful it would have been to be the granddaughter who learned so much about her own grandmother's part in this part of history.
25 reviews14 followers
February 15, 2021
I was hoping for more details about her work as a pioneer doctor or even her day-to-day living but there was very little about her medical career in the book. Much of it was about her marriages and her work in the earliest feminist movement, which may interest others. However, I was in the medical field and have a great interest in the history of medical so this book was a disappointment in that area.
Profile Image for Nan.
279 reviews6 followers
October 25, 2017
Read this for one of my book groups, and glad that I did. While the writing is not the best, I found inspiration and admiration for the courage of Mollie. Her strong will carried her through an amazing life as a pioneer doctor, mother and suffragette.
319 reviews2 followers
June 1, 2018
The Story of Dr. Mollie Atwater, an physican in Montana in the 1890's. She was also a fighter for women's rights, and public health. It was interesting to learn what life was like for her, and the women of her time. It made me thankful for people like her that fought for women's rights.
Profile Image for Kristine.
450 reviews19 followers
June 3, 2011
This was a pretty interesting story, despite the writing. I felt like I was reading a book written by a teenager.
Profile Image for Stacey.
178 reviews8 followers
October 10, 2017
I really enjoyed reading about Dr. Atwater, a pioneer in many respects: a scientist, a feminist, and a public health champion who was well ahead of her time.
Profile Image for Coyla.
80 reviews
May 19, 2019
Fantastic book... I thought it started out kind of dull but it quickly became a great education
Profile Image for Nicole.
87 reviews1 follower
January 19, 2023
Not enough focus on medical

While I value the importance of women gaining the right to vote, I was hoping for more detail on what it was like to be a doctor.
Profile Image for Maria Brooks.
11 reviews
April 21, 2023
I tried really hard not to be too harsh about this book. But as someone who has been writing creatively myself for a very long time, this just does not cut it for me.

The story itself seems very interesting, and I do enjoy learning about a forgotten historical figure, but the writing itself is lackluster at best.

The best way I can describe this quality is… a fanfiction written by an amateur. I’ve found the story to not be very dialogue heavy, yet when there is dialogue it feels stiff and unnatural, not like anything an actual person would say, even taking into account the time period.

There aren’t any pauses between the characters when they speak, as well. One of the most crucial things I use to judge the quality of a book is the author’s ability to create a realistic mental image. And this one just… doesn’t do that at all. There are no sentences describing the “characters”’ actions. If a character has a reaction or an emotional response to something, it gets maybe one short sentence, no more than 5-6 words. Which is not enough! I need more detail.

It confuses me, because it appears to me that choosing to write this in a novel format rather than a normal biography is a deliberate choice in order to make the reader connect with the subject of the book more. But it fails miserably. I feel no emotional attachment to her, nor do I feel any of the emotions I’m supposed to feel towards the other people depicted in the book. I don’t feel ANYTHING, in fact.

The style of writing feels… juvenile, to say the least, but the author will randomly throw in big fancy words to try to spruce it up. It doesn’t really work, and all I can think is that it feels wildly out of place.

The narrator will randomly veer off into exposition-y tangents without proper setup, which just feels jarring. The book itself is incredibly fast paced, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does come off as strange to me. The flow of the book is overall just very choppy. Nothing transitions well into the next. It doesn’t work.

I recognize I’m being quite harsh towards someone whose first career choice is likely not a writer. Perhaps I sound pretentious, and if I do I’m sorry. I just find it frustrating, because I do really want to like this book.
Profile Image for Rrshively.
1,590 reviews
March 18, 2022
This is an amazing biography of a woman who got her medical degree in the late 19th Century when few women got higher education of any kind. Escaping a bad marriage, she ends up practicing medicine in mining camps in Montana where she earns the respect of the miners by efficiently treating a stab wound and begins to be concerned with women's issues as she treats miner's wives and, yes, prostitutes. One great concern is the women's ignorance of birth control and the restrictive laws that forbid the sending of any of the known birth control devices through the mail. Eventually she meets a man who encourages her profession and her crusading spirit. When the mines begin to close, they move to Helena where she then sets up practice. The birth of her daughter changes the course of her life, and she begins to crusade for the right for women to vote and for public health issues, especially treatment of tuberculosis. It's through her leadership along with other women that Montana established a health department and a tuberculosis sanitarium. Taking us through the 1918 flu epidemic and the passage of the right for women to vote on until Mary's death in California, this book was interesting throughout. One of the main things I learned was the repressive conditions under which women lived at the turn of the 20th Century and the many false narratives about women's physical capabilities that ran rampant.
Profile Image for Sissy.
Author 2 books6 followers
October 3, 2020
I couldn't get through this book. I'm sorry. I LOVED the first 1/4th of the book, but once I got past the middle, I couldn't shut up my inner editor. I'm also a writer. I don't know who was responsible for the editing of this novel, but this should be addressed if this book goes through another edition. The narrator would think something to herself, and then on the next page she'd tell her friend the same exact thing that she had just been thinking for another whole page. There are better ways to tackle something like that. And I'm really not sure if this was due to the writer's modern opinions, or if there were diaries from the deceased narrator, but it really really was repetitive and irksome to keep hearing her disparage every single man she met who talked to her-- regardless if they were being polite or not. I understand that things were tough for women back then, but sometimes the men were just interacting with her and weren't being condescending at all, and she'd already have her hackles raised. I'm not sure if this was meant to be a character flaw-- to be constantly on guard-- or not. And I'm not sure what happens in the remainder of the book (I gave up after she was going to get married due to the lack of editing) but I was interested in a book about a doctor treating her patients, and it kind of became a book about politics only. So, if that's your thing, you will probably like this book more than me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews

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