Cora Belle Brewster

{{Infobox medical person

| name = Cora Belle Brewster

| honorific_suffix = M.D.

| image = CORA BELLE BREWSTER.jpg

| caption = Portrait from "A Woman of the Century"

| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

| pseudonym =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = September 6, 1859 (or February 16, 1859)

| birth_place = Almond, New York, U.S.

| death_date = July 25, 1937, Dover

| death_place = Dover, New Jersey, U.S.

| resting_place =

| occupation = {{hlist|physician|surgeon|medical writer|editor}}

| residence =

| nationality = American

| citizenship =

| education =

| alma_mater = {{hlist|Alfred University|College of Physicians and Surgeons (Boston, Massachusetts)}}

| period =

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| subject =

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| notable_works = {{hlist|The Baltimore Family Health Journal|The Homeopathic Advocate and Health Journal}}

| spouse =

| partner =

| children = Victor Brewster ({{ne}} Victor Hamilton)

| relations = {{hlist|Flora A. Brewster (sister)|William Brewster}}

| awards =

| signature = Cora Belle Brewster, M.D., signature (cropped).jpg

}}

Cora Belle Brewster (1859 – July 25, 1937) was an American physician, surgeon, medical writer, and editor. She worked as a gynecological surgeon and co-founded two medical journals with her sister, Flora Alzora Brewster, M.D.

Early life and education

File:Coat of Arms of William Brewster.svg

Cora Belle Brewster was born in Almond, New York, September 6, 1859.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=118}}{{sfn|Shepherd|1898|pp=694-99}}{{efn|According to The Salisbury Truth (1898), Brewster was born February 16, 1859.{{cite news |title=Cora Belle Brewster's Sanatorium |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/67839606/?terms=Cora%20Belle%20Brewster&match=1 |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=The Salisbury Truth |via=Newspapers.com |date=21 September 1898 |location=Salisbury, North Carolina |page=9 |language=en}} }} She was the third daughter of Ephraim J. Brewster (d. 1868) and Mary Burdick Brewster. Mary Brewster was a member of the Seventh Day Baptists.

On the paternal side of her family, Brewster was descended from the Campbells of Scotland, hence a mixture of English and Scotch heritage.{{sfn|Shepherd|1898|pp=694-99}} She was a lineal descendant of Elder William Brewster, chief of the Pilgrim Fathers. Her lineage was traceable into English history before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.

Brewster's siblings included sisters, Alice Delphine Brewster (b. 1861), Fidelia Adeline Brewster (b. 1865), Flora Alzora Brewster, M.D., as well as brothers, Luther Palmer Brewster (b. 1858) and Leonard Thorpe Brewster (b. 1868).{{cite news |title=Woman Dead on Tracks - Miss Fidelia Brewster Crushed Under North Avenue Bridge |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/371069942/?terms=Cora%20Belle%20Brewster&match=1 |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=The Baltimore Sun |via=Newspapers.com |date=2 January 1903 |page=12 |language=en}}{{sfn|Jones|1908|p=412}}

While in preparatory school, Brewster was known by her middle name, "Belle."{{cite web |title=1871 Catalog |url=https://aura.alfred.edu/bitstream/handle/10829/3366/1871%20Catalog.pdf |publisher=Alfred University |access-date=11 December 2021 |location=Alfred, New York |page=11}} She was educated partly at Alfred University, where she studied for five years.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=118}}

Early career and medical school

Brewster left school and worked as a teacher for several years, including at the high school in Smethport, Pennsylvania.

In 1877, Brewster moved to Chicago and took a special course in the Northwestern University. After leaving school, she began working as purchasing agent for a large millinery in Chicago.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=118}}After three years in Chicago, she fell ill and moved to Baltimore, Maryland. There, her health improved, and she began to study of medicine.

Brewster graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Boston in May, 1886. During her course of study, she spent eighteen months working in Bellevue Hospital in New York City.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=118}} She then went to Paris, France and finished her studies.

Baltimore

File:Cora Belle Brewster's Sanatorium.png

On her return from Europe, in 1886,{{sfn|Shepherd|1898|pp=694-99}} Brewster moved to Baltimore, and began the practice of her profession in the treatment of female diseases, establishing a sanatorium at 1027 Madison Avenue. It was completely fitted up with all that was required for a fully-equipped institution of this character, and included a corps of trained physicians and nurses. Surgical and electrical treatment was administered as well as medicated baths.{{sfn|Shepherd|1898|pp=694-99}}

In 1889, in partnership with her sister, Dr. Flora A. Brewster, she began =the publication of The Baltimore Family Health Journal. In 1901, the name of the journal was changed to The Homeopathic Advocate and Health Journal, and made a hospital journal with a corps of ten editors.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=118}} The partnership between the sister physician was dissolved in 1892.{{sfn|Shepherd|1898|pp=694-99}}

In 1890, Brewster was elected gynecological surgeon to the Homeopathic Hospital and Free Dispensary of Maryland, under the auspices of the Maryland Homeopathic Medical Society.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=119}} She was a member of the District of Columbia and Maryland Clinical Societies, of the Maryland State Medical Society, and of the American Institute of Homeopathy.{{sfn|Shepherd|1898|pp=694-99}}

Personal life

Brewster never married. In July 1898, she adopted an infant, Victor Hamilton, and changed his surname to Brewster.{{cite news |title=A Degree Of Adoption |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/371181433/?terms=%22Cora%20Belle%20Brewster%22%20adopted&match=1 |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=The Baltimore Sun |via=Newspapers.com |date=4 July 1898 |page=7 |language=en}} She was a member of the Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church.{{sfn|Shepherd|1898|pp=694-99}}

Brewster was involved in several personal lawsuits. In 1900, Flora Brewster alleged that her sister, Cora, opened Flora's letters without authority, but did not prosecute.{{cite news |title=Did Not Prosecute |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/365275207/?terms=Cora%20Belle%20Brewster&match=1 |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=The Baltimore Sun |via=Newspapers.com |date=30 January 1900 |page=10 |language=en}} In 1903, Christiana Burrlls sued Cora Brewster in the Superior Court to recover {{USD|5000}} damages for injuries allegedly sustained while engaged in carrying coal from Dr. Brewster's cellar.{{cite news |title=$32,500 Damaged Wanted |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/371298562/?terms=Cora%20Belle%20Brewster&match=1 |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=The Baltimore Sun |via=Newspapers.com |date=8 October 1903 |page=10 |language=en}} In 1905, Cora and Flora each had a servant arrested on charge of larceny.{{cite news |title=Sisters In Court. Each Has A Servant Arrested On Charge Of Larceny. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/371127518/?terms=Cora%20Belle%20Brewster&match=1 |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=The Baltimore Sun |via=Newspapers.com |date=25 March 1905 |page=7 |language=en}} In 1906, Cora Brewster was charged with striking a child in her employ and fined {{USD|5}}.{{cite news |title=Dr. Brewster Fined $5. Charged With Striking Child In Her Employ. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/370623758/?terms=Cora%20Belle%20Brewster&match=1 |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=The Baltimore Sun |via=Newspapers.com |date=7 March 1906 |page=7 |language=en}}

Cora Belle Brewster died July 25, 1937, at Dover, New Jersey of chronic myocarditis.{{cite web |title=United States Deceased Ph...ian File (AMA), 1864-1968 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89QG-5GWZ?i=1458&cc=2061540&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AWQGK-ZRMM |website=familysearch.org |access-date=5 January 2022}}

Selected works

Family Health Journal
Homeopathic Advocate and Health Journal

Notes

References

=Attribution=

{{Source-attribution| {{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Emma C. Brewster |title=The Brewster genealogy |date=1908 |publisher=Рипол Классик |isbn=978-5-87093-940-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsEGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA412 |language=en}} }}
{{Source-attribution| {{cite book |last1=Shepherd |first1=Henry Elliot |title=History of Baltimore, Maryland, from Its Founding as a Town to the Current Year, 1729-1898: Including Its Early Settlement and Development; a Description of Its Historic and Interesting Localities; Political, Military, Civil, and Religious Statistics; Biographies of Representative Citizens, Etc., Etc |date=1898 |publisher=S.B. Nelson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZgUyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA694 |language=en}} }}
{{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last1=Willard|first1=Frances Elizabeth|author1-link=Frances Willard|last2=Livermore|first2=Mary Ashton Rice|author2-link=Mary Livermore|title=A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life|chapter=Cora Belle Brewster |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Century/Cora_Belle_Brewster|edition=Public domain|year=1893|publisher=Charles Wells Moulton}} }}

External links

{{wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Cora Belle Brewster}}
[https://mdhistoryonline.net/2018/06/02/md3884/ Cora Belle Brewster, 1859–?] at Medicine in Maryland, 1752-1920

Category:1859 births

Category:1937 deaths

Category:People from Allegany County, New York

Category:19th-century American women physicians

Category:20th-century American women physicians

Category:20th-century American physicians

Category:19th-century American non-fiction writers

Category:19th-century American women writers

Category:Alfred University alumni

Category:American gynecologists

Category:Medical journal editors

Category:American medical writers