I Can’t Help Myself

Post written and copyrighted by Doris McCraw

I confess I can’t help myself. When I find an interesting subject I have to dig in and find out all I can. As those of you who read my post, this is history, women’s history.  Well I found another trail to follow and just had to share. As I continue to research and prepare for speaking engagements I scour city directories, old newspapers, death records and more. Recently I found one of the early women dentists in Colorado. Yes a woman dentist practicing prior to 1900.

Her name is Anna D. Chamberlain. I initially found her in the 1896 Colorado Springs city directory listed with her husband Frank C. Chamberlain, also a dentist.  Their office was #12 in the bank building with a residence at 1451 N. Nevada Ave.

Anna was born in 1866 to John Shaw and Hellen B Shaw in Harlan, Page County, Iowa. Her father was from Ireland and her mother was born in Ohio. She married Frank in 1887 and they had three children by 1900. She died in 1914 at the age of forty-eight.

According to her obituary she and her husband were associated with dentistry since 1888. There are indications they practiced in Colorado Springs, Colorado City and Manitou Springs.   She was one of the first women and in the first graduating class in the field from the University in Denver. Her husband was also an M.D. and received his license in 1892 although there is no mention of his pursuing this field in Colorado Springs. That would make sense since there were numerous physicians in the area. His brother Fred who was a dentist in Cripple Creek in the 1890’s but also ended up in Colorado Springs. On a side note, Fred also married a woman named Anna B.

In addition to a dental practice and raising three children, she was also active in the church and the WTCU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) and in the late 1890’s was president of  the local organization.  She and her husband along with Wm. H. Dewey and Oscar J. Fullerton created the Fullerton Consumption Cure Company with an initial investment of $30,000.

After her death her husband moved to California and remarried. After his death in 1928 his second wife returned his body to Colorado Springs. He is buried with Anna in Evergreen Cemetery.

That’s it until the next time I find something I just have to share.  Keep telling your stories, keep writing and keep letting people know, that is the greatest gift in my opinion.

For more of what I do:

http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com

“Film & Photography on the Front Range” can be purchased online at: http://www.amazon.com

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