Doctor Woman of the Cumberlands

by May Cravath Wharton

Autobiography of May Cravath Wharton, M.D. Dr. Wharton went to Pleasant Hill, Tennessee in 1917 and stayed for more than 60 years. She talks about her medical practice and the building of a hospital and health care in a rural area.

Genres: Autobiography

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently found out that my grandmother died at Pleasant Hill TN in the late 1930’s. I knew she died from TB. A friend who lives there now gave me this book to read about the woman who started the hospital in 1921. Absolutely fascinating. She was so dedicated to helping the rural people on the Cumberland Plateau. I can’t begin to tell you how many times she put her own life in jeopardy to get to her patients in the hills and hollers and across the river where there was no bridge. A woman who was truly put on earth to love and serve! Great story!

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aged really well for being written in 1953. It's hard to write a review about the book itself without just gushing about how incredible of a person Dr. Wharton was. She really was a shining gem of a human being. Mutual respect is an underlying theme in this book and should be a major takeaway for readers.

[Kala Svensson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a perfect addition to a collection of Tennessee history. Dr May came to Pleasant Hill Tennessee with her husband to work with the community and local college. I’m from this area as well and have heard about this woman all my life. After coming to work in what is the modern day results of her and others hard work not only in Cumberland County Tennessee but also White County Tennessee finding this book in our library and reading it really gave life and a voice to the legend that Dr May is today in the area. The book is written and narrated by Dr May herself making her life very real. She brought medicine to an area that at the time was unheard of. She saved lives what would have been lost with out her and she telling the stories how she did it not always ending happy but so much better that it could have been. From the first homestead house, to riding her old horse deep into our mountain, to getting a car and building on to the homestead bring medical care into a remote coal mining community. And she speaks of the hardships of working in the mountain community as getting supplies was no easy task. Her use of herbal medicine was an testimony to her knowledge and well power and when trouble stuck on her home front the community that she had helped so much showed up to her aid as well. It’s a book of well power, hard work and community in a time long gone. But one that never has stopped being an important part of the area as her vision is now 500 acres big. Strongly recommend this book if you can find it.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick reading autobiography by May Wharton, who, as stated in the title, was a female physician who brought much needed medical services to residents of the Cumberland Mountains in the early-to-mid 20th century. Though her early years in medicine saw her practice in Minnesota and New England, Wharton and her husband settled in Tennessee when he was appointed head of a boarding school for the children of the Cumberlands and she became the school's doctor, though she often found herself tending to the medical needs of their family member as word got to her of their illnesses and injury. Following her husband's death, Wharton felt compelled to remain in the Cumberlands to keep serving the community. Thanks to a network of friends she knew from her time in the wealthier areas of the country where she previously worked, she was able to raise money for a small hospital, then eventually larger hospitals plus satellite clinics in other rural areas whose people would have difficulty reaching the main hospital in time to treat their ailments.
Overall, I enjoyed this book despite it being written 40+ years before I was born. Often, medical non-fiction books seem dated, but in this case, I knew what to expect, and Wharton's humility yet pride for her accomplishments made her writing highly enjoyable.

[Christy Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished an excellent book. It is the autobiography of Dr. May Cravath Wharton titled, Doctor Woman of the Cumberlands. This is an old book. Dr. Wharton died in 1959. I believe this was completed and first published in 1957. This story documents the work beginning in 1917 of Dr. Wharton and her husband as missionaries in a boarding school in the remote mountains of Cumberland County and ending with massive health programs started by Dr. Wharton that positively affected many in Cumberland County, especially the mountain folks. This book has story after story of the people who populated the remote mountains and hollers of the area, desperately in need of the education and medical care that she provided and expanded over the years. The dialect of the people and places sings with the Scotch Irish of my own ancestors here in East Tennessee, the stubbornness, independence, and clan mentality of the Appalachians. If you like regional history, stories of brave intelligent women, and stories of our mountain heritage you will love this book.

[Marcia Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

So interesting! Her descriptions of the conditions she lived and worked in put the reader right there in the cold of winter, the heavy rain, the flooded creeks. I could imagine the scary bridges and the fear of falling. In the homes with paper lined log walls in the back of beyond. What a difference she and her staff made in the lives of the people of “The Cumberlands”!

[Jeffrey Philips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about the hardships and lives of the people living on the Cumberland Plateau in the early 1900s and of Dr May's dream of quality health care.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my great grandmother’s doctor in the deep hills of Tennessee ! What an amazing story. Also, she’s a dandy little writer. I can envision exactly where she is describing!

[Em Chitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

May Cravath Wharton, an early female M.D., transformed the landscape of the Upper Cumberland Plateau from her arrival at the end of World War I to the 1950s, when she was able to open the area's first real hospital.

Wharton was a doctor, not a writer, so there is no purple in her prose. But the narrative she tells is arresting enough for anyone, with the additional benefit that it is true.

She describes, as if writing case notes, the utter poverty of the Appalachian people at the time--people so poor that almost no actual cash passed through their hands in the course of their lifetimes; people so poor that their children never saw a dentist, their women often died in unattended childbirths; the logs of their cabins were papered with newspaper to try to keep out the wind; they had to slog through mud and over slippery single-log bridges to get anywhere at all, traveling four or five hours to go a couple of miles across country in a wilderness of unmarked trails.

This was just 100 years ago, not long, a blink of an eye. She frequently referred to the people she found near Crossville, Tennessee as "lost Americans." In an era when government only tentatively extended its fingers toward the residents of the Cumberland Plateau, private charities were unaware of them and could not help them; in fact, the "missionary funds" of most Northern and mid-Western churches could not be applied to helping in the Appalachians. So the people simply lived, suffered, got sick, and died. Quietly, stoically. But they died. And their deaths never rippled the satin dresses of flappers during the Roaring Twenties.

When we envision the world as polemicist and novelist Ayn Rand imagined it--the other side of the gilded world of "strivers" and "makers" in a competitive, ruthless economy--the Appalachia of the 'teens and '20s is the world she would have argued for, at least for the losers in the equation. This is what she wanted. This is what her disciple Paul Ryan wants: luxury for the elite, hopeless and inescapable misery for the poor.

Wharton's story is worth reading both on its own merits as the autobiography of a fearless and strong woman, and in its description of a world that is perilously close to us if, as a nation, we accept the arguments of the newly ascendant right.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book suggested by one of my church book club members who lived at the Uplands retirement community, the ultimate result of Dr. Wharton's efforts. It is an interesting book about the woman who came to the mountain community and created a medical network of hospitals, outreach clinics, and health centers. It was amazing what she was able to do with a little faith and some very helpful friends. I found the book interesting, especially the role faith played in the success of the venture. Just when things looked darkest, answers came forth, I believe, because of prayer. I probably would not have read this book if it weren't a book club selection, but because it had a connection to someone I know, it was relevant.

[Rachel Weis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't put this down. A completely captivating autobiography written by a true pioneer. Dr. Wharton single-handedly brought healthcare to Cumberland County, Tennessee. She left a comfortable life in New England to brave mud roads, rope bridges, wilderness terrain to bring medical care to people who desperately needed it. Thanks to her lifetime devotion to this task Crossville, TN has a large modern hospital today. Inspiring and humbling true story.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting autobiography of a woman Dr. who went to a rural area in the Cumberlands to practice as a Dr. and how she built a hospital and health care in a area where little was available. At times I would have liked a little more details about the illness's described (I am a nurse). Amazing what one person can do. The book covers 60 years from 1917 up to almost the present.

[Dulci · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a neat book. Living very close to the area where these events took place, I found Dr. Wharton's account of life in rural Tennessee in the early 1900's very interesting. Recommended by my librarian. Thanks, Ms. Carolyn!