a biography of the day-emily elizabeth parsons (civil war nurse-incredible story)

[niyad]

Emily Parsons

Civil War Nurse from Massachusetts
When the Civil War began, Emily Parsons (1824-1880) had a strong desire to enlist in the army as a nurse, despite the physical obstacles of her being partially deaf and blind and disabled. Her father was reluctant but finally agreed, and at the age of 37 Parsons enrolled in nursing school at Massachusetts General Hospital in preparation for caring for sick and wounded Union soldiers.

Emily Parsons was born on March 8, 1824 in Taunton, Massachusetts, the daughter of Professor Theophilus Parsons of the Harvard Law School and granddaughter of the late Chief Justice Parsons of Massachusetts. She was educated in Boston, and was in her mid thirties and living in Cambridge at the beginning of the Civil War. She saw immediately that there would be a need for women to care for the sick and wounded soldiers in the hospitals.
In spite of her physical disabilities - impaired vision, some deafness from scarlet fever and lameness - Miss Parsons entered the nursing school at Massachusetts General Hospital. After eighteen months of training, she was placed in charge of a ward attending fifty wounded soldiers at Fort Schuyler Military Hospital on Long Island in October 1862. For two months, she performed the duties of hospital nurse, but her health deteriorated further.

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In this important and useful service, the women nurses needed someone of superior knowledge, judgment and experience to supervise their work, instruct them in their duties, secure obedience to every necessary regulation, and good order in the general administration of this important branch of hospital service.
Miss Parsons performed these duties for many months. The work was reduced to a perfect system, and the nurses became a sisterhood, performing a great and loving service to the maimed and suffering. Under Miss Parsons, the Benton Barracks Hospital became famous for its excellence, and for the rapid recovery of its patients. It was not often that the army surgeons gave so fair a trial to female nursing in the hospitals. Too often they allowed their prejudices against female nurses to interfere.
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Hospital for Women and Children
Miss Parsons raised money to establish her own charity hospital for women and children, which she opened in 1867 in Cambridgeport. After a year, the hospital was forced to move, but reopened in 1869 as the Cambridge Hospital for Women and Children, operating from a rented house. It closed in 1871 for lack of funds.


http://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/2008/04/emily-elizabeth-parsons.html

[MotherPetrie]

1. Thanks - that was fascinating

[niyad]

2. you are welcome. I love learning about these amazing women.

[MotherPetrie]

3. So do I... they really were incredible