fbpx
Wikipedia

Kate Pelham Newcomb

January 01, 1970

Kate Pelham Newcomb (July 26, 1885 – May 30, 1956), or "Dr. Kate" as she was known to her community, was a physician in northern Wisconsin. She practiced medicine in and around Boulder Junction and Woodruff, Wisconsin, in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. In 1954 she gained national recognition from television producer Ralph Edwards and the NBC program This Is Your Life for inspiring the "Million Penny Parade", to raise funds for a new hospital.

Kate Pelham Newcomb
Born(1885-07-26)July 26, 1885
Wellington, Kansas, U.S.
DiedMay 30, 1956(1956-05-30) (aged 70)
Woodruff, Wisconsin, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Buffalo
OccupationPhysician

Youth and education edit

Born in July 1885 to New York City attorney Thomas Walter Pelham (corporate counsel and later president of the Gillette Razor Company) and his wife Catherine Callahan Pelham, Kate Pelham spent the first years of her life in Wellington, Leoti, and Abilene, Kansas. After the death of her mother the family moved to Buffalo, New York. Pelham attended Public School 19, graduating in June 1900.[1] When her father initially refused to allow her to attend medical school, she became a teacher, serving grade schoolers in Buffalo's Public School 54, but in time he relented and allowed her to enroll in the University of Buffalo. Trained by Dr. Louise Hurrell and others, she entered medical school in September 1913. Pelham earned her M.D. in 1917, specializing in obstetrics. She completed an externship at the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children (later the Lower Manhattan Hospital) on New York's lower east side, where she attended the home deliveries (Pelham would deliver some 800 children here)[2] of the Italian and Armenian women who had come to the infirmary for prenatal care.[3]

Medical practice edit

In December 1917 Pelham moved to an internship and residency at the Woman's Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.[4] Working alongside physicians Dr. Anna O'Dell, Dr. Grace Clark and Dr. Mary Haskins, Newcomb worked in a section of the hospital donated by Henry Ford that was dedicated to unwed mothers; in time the four women would open a private practice in pediatrics.[5]

During these years Pelham met and married auto plant worker William Ferman (Bill) Newcomb (1886-1961). After Bill Newcomb was diagnosed with lung disease, in 1922 the couple moved to Boulder Junction in northern Wisconsin in search of improved air quality. Kate Newcomb gave up her medical practice to care for her husband. Already frustrated with the medical establishment's inability to address her husband's health issues, after Newcomb's first child died during labor she lost faith in the medical profession.[6]

After nearly a decade in northern Wisconsin, Newcomb eventually met Minocqua physician Thomas Torpy. Noting the well-made bandages Newcomb had applied following a small mishap involving her young son (her second child, William Thomas, born 1928), Torpy suggested she consider returning to medicine.[7] Late in 1931, unable to reach a remote patient during adverse weather, Torpy asked Newcomb to make an emergency call on his behalf. The event prompted her to resume practicing medicine. She saw patients in her home, and kept office hours in various town halls. In 1942 she purchased a home in Woodruff, Wisconsin, and practiced from there for the remainder of her career.

The only physician serving a population of about 7,000,[8] Newcomb's practice extended to Manitowish Waters, Winchester, Winegar and Spider Lake, which meant hundreds of miles of travel every week. Over the course of her career Newcomb delivered between 3,000 and 4,000 children.[9] She is well-remembered for walking miles in snowshoes to get to patients who lived in remote areas; her Model T Ford was fitted with skis. Newcomb also served as a public health office, tackling issues like water pollution and the milk supply.[10]

The Million Penny Parade edit

Newcomb's practice was hobbled by the absence of any local hospital; the closest, Sacred Heart Hospital, was more than fifty miles away in Tomahawk.[11] Newcomb saw the need for a community hospital in Woodruff, and began raising funds for construction. In 1952, mathematics students at Woodruff-Arbor Vitae High School (many delivered by Newcomb), studying the concept of a "million", decided to hold a penny drive, and collect one million pennies to fund the hospital. Letters were mailed around the county, as area resort and summer camp owners, other businessmen and area families mailed appeals to contacts nationwide. The Chippewa at Lac du Flambeau, another community Newcombe served, contributed as well. Just over 100 days later, the goal was achieved, pennies being sent in from all forty-eight states.[12] On Memorial Day weekend, 1953, a Million Penny Parade celebrated the students’ success, and the donated pennies displayed in the school gym.

On March 17, 1954, the television program This Is Your Life celebrated Newcomb's career. Told she was being flown to a medical convention to honor Sir Alexander Fleming, a London physician who had improved penicillin, Newcomb found herself the subject of the popular show.[13] Host Ralph Edwards described Newcomb's plans to build a hospital and encouraged viewers to donate, and that week, some 274 pounds of mail arrived in Woodruff, containing more than 1.3 million pennies.[14] The 19-bed Lakeland Memorial Hospital, Necomb serving as chief of staff, opened in March 1954. A second Penny Parade was held in celebration. Ninety floats and fifteen marching bands followed Newcomb in the parade, which drew an audience of 25,000. Adele Comandini's 1956 biography, Doctor Kate, Angel on Snowshoes, was a New York Times bestseller.[15]

Final years and memorialization edit

In May 1956, Newcomb fell as she was exiting the clinic at the Lac du Flambeau Indian reservation. She died May 30, 1956, in St. Mary's hospital in Wausau, Wisconsin, at the age of 70 and is buried next to her husband at the Cemetery of the Pines in Boulder Junction, Vilas County, Wisconsin.

Newcomb has been the subject of memorialization in Wisconsin. In 1988, the Dr. Kate Newcomb Museum opened on the site of Newcomb's office. There, a 15' penny commemorates the Million Penny Parade. The Lakeland Memorial Hospital was in time supplanted by the Howard Young Medical Center, and the hospital became the Dr. Kate Convalescent Center.[16] The original hospital was razed in 2011, and the site redeveloped as the "Dr. Kate Park."[17] Wisconsin Media Lab included "Kate Newcomb: Doctor of the North Woods" among their animated series of Wisconsin Biographies.[18]

References edit

  1. ^ Comandini, Adele (1956). Doctor Kate, Angel on Snowshoes; the Story of Kate Pelham Newcomb. New York: Rinehart. p. 19. hdl:2027/mdp.39015065776836.
  2. ^ "Sheboygan Press". May 31, 1956.
  3. ^ Comandini. Doctor Kate, Angel on Snowshoes. pp. 49–50.
  4. ^ Ironwood Daily Globe. December 5, 1969. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ^ Comandini. Doctor Kate, Angel on Snowshoes. pp. 60–61.
  6. ^ Comandini. Doctor Kate, Angel on Snowshoes. p. 177.
  7. ^ Comandini. Doctor Kate, Angel on Snowshoes. p. 176.
  8. ^ McCann, Dennis. . Archived from the original on August 11, 2014. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  9. ^ The Lakeland Times. July 6, 2012. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ^ Comandini. Doctor Kate, Angel on Snowshoes. p. 205.
  11. ^ Comandini. Doctor Kate, Angel on Snowshoes. p. 190.
  12. ^ "Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians". Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  13. ^ Thayer, Earl R (Spring 2005). "First in their class: Wisconsin's pioneering women physicians". Wisconsin Academy Review. 51 (2).
  14. ^ Hollatz, Tom (August 31, 2012). "Angel on Snowshoes". The Lakeland Times. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  15. ^ "Adult New York Times Best Seller Lists for 1956".
  16. ^ "Former Lakeland Memorial Hospital to be razed". The Lakeland Times. June 7, 2011.
  17. ^ Burton, Kailey (July 30, 2012). "Remembering an 'Angel on Snowshoes'". WJFW.COM.
  18. ^ "Wisconsin Biographies". Wisconsin Media Lab.

Bibliography edit

  • "A Million Pennies for Dr. Kate". Reader’s Digest, June 1954: 9-13.
  • Busalacchi, Steve. "This is your life, Dr. Kate Newcomb". Spring 2005 Wisconsin Academy Review Spring 2005: 54-55.
  • Comandini, Adele. Doctor Kate, Angel on Snowshoes. Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1956. (Full text available via the Hathi Trust)
  • French, Lewis C., Milwaukee Journal, October 17, 1948.
  • Heide, Kathryn H. Shapers of Wisconsin. Kanosha, Wisconsin: Brookwood Publishers, 1998.
  • Nangle, Eleanor. "North Country Doctor". Chicago Daily Tribune, January 23, 1955: K42-K44.
  • Pond, Alonzo W. Dr. Kate and the Million Penny Parades. Minocqua, Wisconsin: Ahlborn Printing, 1974.

External links edit

  • Dr. Kate Museum of the Million Penny Parade
  • Encyclopedia Entry, Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians

January 01, 1970
kate, pelham, newcomb, july, 1885, 1956, kate, known, community, physician, northern, wisconsin, practiced, medicine, around, boulder, junction, woodruff, wisconsin, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1954, gained, national, recognition, from, television, producer, ralph, e. Kate Pelham Newcomb July 26 1885 May 30 1956 or Dr Kate as she was known to her community was a physician in northern Wisconsin She practiced medicine in and around Boulder Junction and Woodruff Wisconsin in the 1930s 1940s and 1950s In 1954 she gained national recognition from television producer Ralph Edwards and the NBC program This Is Your Life for inspiring the Million Penny Parade to raise funds for a new hospital Kate Pelham NewcombBorn 1885 07 26 July 26 1885Wellington Kansas U S DiedMay 30 1956 1956 05 30 aged 70 Woodruff Wisconsin U S EducationUniversity of BuffaloOccupationPhysician Contents 1 Youth and education 2 Medical practice 3 The Million Penny Parade 4 Final years and memorialization 5 References 6 Bibliography 7 External linksYouth and education editBorn in July 1885 to New York City attorney Thomas Walter Pelham corporate counsel and later president of the Gillette Razor Company and his wife Catherine Callahan Pelham Kate Pelham spent the first years of her life in Wellington Leoti and Abilene Kansas After the death of her mother the family moved to Buffalo New York Pelham attended Public School 19 graduating in June 1900 1 When her father initially refused to allow her to attend medical school she became a teacher serving grade schoolers in Buffalo s Public School 54 but in time he relented and allowed her to enroll in the University of Buffalo Trained by Dr Louise Hurrell and others she entered medical school in September 1913 Pelham earned her M D in 1917 specializing in obstetrics She completed an externship at the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children later the Lower Manhattan Hospital on New York s lower east side where she attended the home deliveries Pelham would deliver some 800 children here 2 of the Italian and Armenian women who had come to the infirmary for prenatal care 3 Medical practice editIn December 1917 Pelham moved to an internship and residency at the Woman s Hospital in Detroit Michigan 4 Working alongside physicians Dr Anna O Dell Dr Grace Clark and Dr Mary Haskins Newcomb worked in a section of the hospital donated by Henry Ford that was dedicated to unwed mothers in time the four women would open a private practice in pediatrics 5 During these years Pelham met and married auto plant worker William Ferman Bill Newcomb 1886 1961 After Bill Newcomb was diagnosed with lung disease in 1922 the couple moved to Boulder Junction in northern Wisconsin in search of improved air quality Kate Newcomb gave up her medical practice to care for her husband Already frustrated with the medical establishment s inability to address her husband s health issues after Newcomb s first child died during labor she lost faith in the medical profession 6 After nearly a decade in northern Wisconsin Newcomb eventually met Minocqua physician Thomas Torpy Noting the well made bandages Newcomb had applied following a small mishap involving her young son her second child William Thomas born 1928 Torpy suggested she consider returning to medicine 7 Late in 1931 unable to reach a remote patient during adverse weather Torpy asked Newcomb to make an emergency call on his behalf The event prompted her to resume practicing medicine She saw patients in her home and kept office hours in various town halls In 1942 she purchased a home in Woodruff Wisconsin and practiced from there for the remainder of her career The only physician serving a population of about 7 000 8 Newcomb s practice extended to Manitowish Waters Winchester Winegar and Spider Lake which meant hundreds of miles of travel every week Over the course of her career Newcomb delivered between 3 000 and 4 000 children 9 She is well remembered for walking miles in snowshoes to get to patients who lived in remote areas her Model T Ford was fitted with skis Newcomb also served as a public health office tackling issues like water pollution and the milk supply 10 The Million Penny Parade editNewcomb s practice was hobbled by the absence of any local hospital the closest Sacred Heart Hospital was more than fifty miles away in Tomahawk 11 Newcomb saw the need for a community hospital in Woodruff and began raising funds for construction In 1952 mathematics students at Woodruff Arbor Vitae High School many delivered by Newcomb studying the concept of a million decided to hold a penny drive and collect one million pennies to fund the hospital Letters were mailed around the county as area resort and summer camp owners other businessmen and area families mailed appeals to contacts nationwide The Chippewa at Lac du Flambeau another community Newcombe served contributed as well Just over 100 days later the goal was achieved pennies being sent in from all forty eight states 12 On Memorial Day weekend 1953 a Million Penny Parade celebrated the students success and the donated pennies displayed in the school gym On March 17 1954 the television program This Is Your Life celebrated Newcomb s career Told she was being flown to a medical convention to honor Sir Alexander Fleming a London physician who had improved penicillin Newcomb found herself the subject of the popular show 13 Host Ralph Edwards described Newcomb s plans to build a hospital and encouraged viewers to donate and that week some 274 pounds of mail arrived in Woodruff containing more than 1 3 million pennies 14 The 19 bed Lakeland Memorial Hospital Necomb serving as chief of staff opened in March 1954 A second Penny Parade was held in celebration Ninety floats and fifteen marching bands followed Newcomb in the parade which drew an audience of 25 000 Adele Comandini s 1956 biography Doctor Kate Angel on Snowshoes was a New York Times bestseller 15 Final years and memorialization editIn May 1956 Newcomb fell as she was exiting the clinic at the Lac du Flambeau Indian reservation She died May 30 1956 in St Mary s hospital in Wausau Wisconsin at the age of 70 and is buried next to her husband at the Cemetery of the Pines in Boulder Junction Vilas County Wisconsin Newcomb has been the subject of memorialization in Wisconsin In 1988 the Dr Kate Newcomb Museum opened on the site of Newcomb s office There a 15 penny commemorates the Million Penny Parade The Lakeland Memorial Hospital was in time supplanted by the Howard Young Medical Center and the hospital became the Dr Kate Convalescent Center 16 The original hospital was razed in 2011 and the site redeveloped as the Dr Kate Park 17 Wisconsin Media Lab included Kate Newcomb Doctor of the North Woods among their animated series of Wisconsin Biographies 18 References edit Comandini Adele 1956 Doctor Kate Angel on Snowshoes the Story of Kate Pelham Newcomb New York Rinehart p 19 hdl 2027 mdp 39015065776836 Sheboygan Press May 31 1956 Comandini Doctor Kate Angel on Snowshoes pp 49 50 Ironwood Daily Globe December 5 1969 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a Missing or empty title help Comandini Doctor Kate Angel on Snowshoes pp 60 61 Comandini Doctor Kate Angel on Snowshoes p 177 Comandini Doctor Kate Angel on Snowshoes p 176 McCann Dennis Dr Kate s Parade Marches On Archived from the original on August 11 2014 Retrieved August 7 2014 The Lakeland Times July 6 2012 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a Missing or empty title help Comandini Doctor Kate Angel on Snowshoes p 205 Comandini Doctor Kate Angel on Snowshoes p 190 Changing the Face of Medicine Celebrating America s Women Physicians Retrieved August 7 2014 Thayer Earl R Spring 2005 First in their class Wisconsin s pioneering women physicians Wisconsin Academy Review 51 2 Hollatz Tom August 31 2012 Angel on Snowshoes The Lakeland Times Retrieved August 7 2014 Adult New York Times Best Seller Lists for 1956 Former Lakeland Memorial Hospital to be razed The Lakeland Times June 7 2011 Burton Kailey July 30 2012 Remembering an Angel on Snowshoes WJFW COM Wisconsin Biographies Wisconsin Media Lab Bibliography edit A Million Pennies for Dr Kate Reader s Digest June 1954 9 13 Busalacchi Steve This is your life Dr Kate Newcomb Spring 2005 Wisconsin Academy Review Spring 2005 54 55 Comandini Adele Doctor Kate Angel on Snowshoes Rinehart amp Company Inc 1956 Full text available via the Hathi Trust French Lewis C Milwaukee Journal October 17 1948 Heide Kathryn H Shapers of Wisconsin Kanosha Wisconsin Brookwood Publishers 1998 Nangle Eleanor North Country Doctor Chicago Daily Tribune January 23 1955 K42 K44 Pond Alonzo W Dr Kate and the Million Penny Parades Minocqua Wisconsin Ahlborn Printing 1974 External links editDr Kate Museum of the Million Penny Parade Encyclopedia Entry Changing the Face of Medicine Celebrating America s Women Physicians Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Kate Pelham Newcomb amp oldid 1124163839, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.