Rebecca Wojahn - Dr. Kate: Angel on Snowshoes

Dr. Kate

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Dr. Kate

ANGEL ON SNOWSHOES

REBECCA HOGUE WOJAHN

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS

Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press

Publishers since 1855

2009 by State Historical Society of Wisconsin

E-book edition 2014

For permission to reuse material from Dr. Kate: Angel on Snowshoes (ISBN 978-0-87020-421-0; e-book ISBN 978-0-87020-526-2), please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users.

wisconsin history .org

Photographs identified with WHi or WHS are from the Societys collections; address requests to reproduce these photos to the Visual Materials Archivist at Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, WI 53706. All other images are property of the Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb Museum, Woodruff, Wisconsin. Please direct inquiries about such photos to the Curator at the Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb Museum, 923 Second Ave., Woodruff, WI 54568.

Designed by Jill Bremigan

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Wojahn, Rebecca Hogue.

Dr. Kate : angel on snowshoes / Rebecca Hogue Wojah.

p. cm. (Badger biographies)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-87020-421-0 1. Newcomb, Kate Pelham, 18861956Juvenile literature. 2. Women physiciansWisconsinBiographyJuvenile literature. I. Title.

R692.N49 2009

610.82092dc22

[B]

2008043263

For Don, Carl, and Eli

Publication of this book is made possible, in part, by a gift from Mrs. Harvey E. Vick of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Dr. Kate often traveled on snowshoes to visit patients.

Contents

Kate Asks Why?

In the dark cold of the night, Dr. Kates phone rang. Somewhere out in the winter woods of northern Wisconsin, someone needed a doctor. Dr. Kate pulled on her boots, grabbed her medical bag, and headed out. It didnt matter how far the journey or how late the hour. Dr. Kate was always willing to help.

One night, a snowstorm blew so hard that Dr. Kate rode to her patient in a snowplow instead of her car. When the plow slid off the road, she strapped on her snowshoes and hiked 2 more miles through the storm. She arrived at the cabin just in time to save a new mothers life. Only then did Dr. Kate tend to her own stinging legs, from her snowy hike.

Another time, the creek was the fastest to shore. Nothing got between her and someone in need.

Growing up, nobody would have ever imagined that quiet Kate Pelham would become the snowshoeing doctor of northern Wisconsin. Back then, girls were expected to get married and have children. But not Kate. At least, thats not all she wanted.

Kate Pelham, age 4, in Leoti, Kansas.

Kate was born in 1885 or 1886 in Leoti (lee oh tuh), Kansas, a small town on the . She couldnt understand where they had gone. For days, she waited on the porch for her mother to return. When she finally realized her mother wasnt coming back, Kate wanted to know why. Why did her mother and brother have to die? That awful feeling stuck with Kate her whole life.

After her mothers death, Kates grandparents moved to Leoti to be with Kate and her father. In 1890, a tornado hit Leoti. While Kates house was fine, much of the town was flattened. Kate longed to help all those people who had lost their homes and farms. The next time she visited her father at his bank, she stuffed money inside her that would make her such a caring doctor later in life.

law. The move meant Kate had to leave her grandparents behind. Leaving them in Leoti was another difficult loss for Kate.

Kate was very lonely, even though it was her job to look after all her brothers and sisters. The place where Kate was happiest was school. She had been reading since she was just 3 years old. In Buffalo, she attended elementary school and then high school. In high school, Kate was quiet and a good student. She also experienced her first heartbreak. When she was just 16 years old, she and a classmate, Robert, were secretly a secret. Her family and friends didnt realize just how serious she and Robert had become. So, all alone once again, Kate asked why. Why did Robert have to diejust like her mother and little brother?

Only this time, Kate had an idea. If she became a doctor, maybe she could help sick people so that they didnt have to die. It soon became the only thing Kate could think about. It was the thing she wanted most.

Kates father, Tom Pelham, was a banker and a lawyer.

Being a doctor, however, was not a common for a young woman 100 years ago. This was certainly something her father did not expect his daughter to become. According to Tom Pelham, medicine was no profession of a lady. And since Kate needed her father to pay for her schooling, she had to push the idea to the back of her mind. Instead of medicine, she trained for one of the few careers that women were encouraged to go into: teaching.