The Doctor Wore Petticoats: Women Physicians of the Old West Read Free Page B

eighty-six.

    GEORGIA ARBUCKLE FIX
     

FRONTIER SURGEON
     

     
    Under the care of Doctor Arbuckle Fix any person can be expected
to be nearly raised from the dead.
    — Gering Courier, May 1889
     
     
    A lone rider urged her horse up a steep embankment and into a stand of large cottonwoods. Although it was daytime, the tree covering gave an effect of an almost cathedral-like darkness. Doctor Georgia Arbuckle Fix shifted in her saddle, then checked to make sure her medical bag was still tied to the horn. She sighed a tired sigh as she cast a glance into the valley and at her home near the town of Gering, Nebraska, in the distance.
    In 1886, Georgia Arbuckle was the only doctor in a 75-mile radius of Gering. She was accustomed to traveling long miles across the open frontier to see patients. On this particular day she had been summoned to the home of a farmer and his pregnant wife. Georgia smiled to herself as she remembered the look on the young parents’ faces as they welcomed their child into the world. She looked at her pocket watch, then spurred her horse into a bit of a trot.
    The glare from the sun blinded Georgia’s view of the road as she exited the trees. She did not see the bearded highwayman lying in wait for her. The toothless crook threw up his hands. Georgia’s horse reared a bit and she eased the animal into a full stop.
     

    BY THE TIME SHE WAS FIFTEEN YEARS OLD, GEORGIA ARBUCKLE HAD COMPLETED HIGH SCHOOL AND OBTAINED A TEACHING CERTIFICATE. SOON AFTER, SHE ENROLLED IN MEDICAL SCHOOL.

     
    The man stumbled. Laughing, he reached for a nearby outcropping of rocks to steady himself. The empty bottles of whisky around his makeshift camp led Georgia to assess that the robber was drunk. He made his way over to her and attempted to pull her off the horse. She tried to kick him away, but he had a stubborn hold on her leg. The fearless, thirty-four-year-old woman quickly released the buckle on the harness that was holding her medical bag, grabbed the case by the handle, and knocked the thief across the head with it. The man yelped and staggered about like a decapitated chicken. Georgia coaxed her horse into a gallop and hurried off.
    Doctor Arbuckle Fix’s willingness to risk her own life to save the life of others left a lasting impression on the people in Douglas County, Nebraska.
    Georgia Arbuckle was born in Princeton, Missouri, on April 26. Missouri census records list the year of her birth as 1850, but school enrollment forms show that she was born in 1852. Historians speculate that the confusion surrounding her year of birth began with Georgia herself. After learning the enrollment age for medical school was thirty, she changed the year to fit the criteria.
    Georgia’s mother was Julia Ann Arbuckle. The identity of her father was never revealed to her. Thomas Reeves married Julia Ann in 1859 and raised Georgia as his own. He recognized a “keen sense of intelligence and drive” in his adopted daughter, and encouraged her to “always seek after knowledge.” By the time Georgia was fifteen, she had graduated from high school and acquired a teaching certificate, and was teaching school at a log building near the family home.
    Georgia’s talent for learning and sharing knowledge captured the attention of the local physician, Doctor Dinsmore, who persuaded the teenager to study homeopathic medicine. The doctor’s eager student excelled in the field, and her interest in medicine grew.
    Doctor Dinsmore invited his protégé to move to Nebraska with him and his wife. There, Georgia could assist her mentor in his practice and attend medical school. She eagerly agreed and in 1881 enrolled at the University of Omaha.
    Georgia was one of eight students to register to become a doctor. She was the only woman. After graduating in 1883, she opened her own practice. The following year she agreed to serve on the board of the Douglas County Medical Society.
    In May 1886, Georgia followed her brother and stepfather