First Woman
Physician
By WILLARD doLlE
WASHINGTON. N.
С.—
1 had lo
come a»av down here into tidewater
North Carolina, and to this little old
town that is proud of having been the
first community to bear the name of
the Father of His Country, in order
to learn how Dimock St. in Roxbury.
got its name.
Close to the middle of Washington,
which is strung out along the Pamlico
and Tar rivers (which are really one,
though called the Pamlico below the
bridge on which the highway crosses,
and the Tar above it»— close to the
middle of it. in East Main St.. 1 found
a prominent marker set up on a pole
by the State Historical Commission,
“Dr. Susan Dimock. Native of
Washington, Zurich graduate. Head of
a Boston hospital. First woman mem¬
ber N. C. Medical Society. 1872. Her
girlhood home was here."
A guide-book added “A street in
Boston
Ь
named for her." And the
National Cyclopedia of American Bi¬
ography gave me more of her story —
which I suppose is correct; even if
it docs have her bom in Washington.
D. C.
That’s a mistake easy to make,
which they try to avoid hereabouts.
When I went to the bus station back
in Edcnton. and asked for a ticket to
Washington, the ticket-seller said.
"Little Washington?"
“Yes,” said I. I wanted the original
Washington, and not her Johnny -
come- lately rival on the banks of the
Potomac.
• • •
Two buses were scheduled to come
this way. I noticed. So I got aboard
the first to start— which promptly
headed in the wrong direction.
The F-dcnton-Williamston-Washing-
ton main route crosses a bridge over
the Chowan River, off to westward of
Edcnton. but we were traveling east
... and a look at my map showed
me what was up. We were just taking
the long way 'round.
In six or seven miles we were at
a lower bridge — not over the Chowan,
which was then miles away, but over
Albemarle Sound.
I'oolloost1 in Kaxlern Carolina
Sif,
«I
IS. D,~»l So mi in WosWfloo.
The bridge was a long one — two or
three miles long, it seemed; set up on
piles in the shallow water.
"Scuppcrnong." said a road sign
near the south end of it. pointing the
way east, where we then turned west.
"Scuppcrnong!" Then I remembered
that somewhere in this territory is the
homeland of the famed green grapes
of that name, and the boasted wine
that is made from them.
• • •
But Scuppcrnong meant more than
that, because through it runs one
route to Roanoke Island, where North
Carolina’s history begins on a tragic
note.
You’ll remember the story of how
Sir Walter Raleigh, having been pre¬
sented with practically the whole
south-Atlantic shore by his lady-friend
Ouccn Elizabeth, undertook to estab¬
lish a settlement here.
In the second attempt (when Vir¬
ginia Dare, the first English child born
in America, made her appearance) a
group of colonists was set ashore on
Roanoke Island. H>c year was 1587.
When supply -vessel* returned in
1590 all trace of the settlers was gone.
TSU
»
i*ol«'r • wrl #• »r travel ar-
tlcl»« puSIWl.e in iliv -Iteitea Glob#" and
r.prlnt.d bv •P~UI prrnlulon out#» mu
Only the word “Croaloan” carved on a
tree was left there, possibly as a mes¬
sage that the colonists had gone off lo
live with the Indians.
A pageant-drama of The Lost
Colony is now a popular Roanoke
Summertime feature.
• • •
Our course, as I’ve said, turned
away from that historic spot — and with
many twists and turns that carried
through Plymouth, Acre and Bunyon
towns, got us to Washington . . . and
to that Susan Dimock sign in East
Main St.
Susan Dimock was one of a group
of women who in the middle 18004
hammered at the male-guarded doors
lo the medical profession, and man¬
aged lo break through them. And she
helped make hospital history in
Boston.
She was born here in 1847. her
father Henry a State o’ Maine man
from Limington who had been head¬
master of Roxbury School in the
1830’s. Then he came lo North Caro¬
lina. taught school, studied law. and
married Mary M. Owens. So the book
says.
The historical marker is correct in
saying that Susan's girlhood home
"was" here.
"This isn't the house she lived in."
said Annie B. Jarvis, who, with her
THE
ШТАТЕ.
ICPTCMDCb IO. I9SS
13
