Intro

Music

Jake:
[0:05] Welcome To Hub history, where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the Hub of the Universe.
This is Episode 200. Dr. Rebecca Crumpler forgotten no more.
Hi, I’m Jake. This week, I’m revisiting the subject of our 18th episode.
Back in February 2017 we ran a profile of Dr Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler as part of our very first black History Month on the podcast.
Dr. Crumpler was the first black woman to earn a medical degree in the U. S. In 18 64 and she spent most of her adult life in Charlestown, Beacon Hill and the Readville section of Hyde Park.
She devoted her career to pediatrics and obstetrics, published the first medical text by an African American author and made a point of caring for the marginalized, even traveling to Virginia to attend to formally enslave people at the end of the Civil War.
I wanted to return to her story in part because I realized how much better my research into Dr Crumpler would be now than it was in the early days of the podcast and in part because there have been very important.
Developments in the story of Dr Crumpler while we’ve been in quarantine this year, But before I talk about Dr Rebecca Davis, Lee Crumpler, it’s time for this week’s Boston Book Club selection and our upcoming historical event.

Boston Book Club

[1:27] My pick for the Boston Book Club this week is dining out in Boston. A culinary history.
Remember restaurants not take out? Not patio seating, not eating under a tent in a reclaimed parking space but riel restaurants?
I do barely.
Author James O’Connell remembers restaurants in this 2016 history of Boston’s restaurant scene. He acknowledges Boston’s lackluster reputation as a restaurant town writing.
When people think of the history of eating in Boston, some remember it being the land of the bean and the cod.
Two others Cold roast Boston comes to mind.
The most famous dish is produced in Boston have been New England clam chowder, baked beans in Indian pudding.
The region’s great contribution to America’s culinary life has been Thanksgiving dinner.
A shorthand perspective of Boston cooking tends to associate it with puritanism. This legacy helped shape Boston’s reputation as a restaurant town.
The 1977 guidebook Where to Eat in America concluded Boston is not a brilliant culinary town like New York nor a particularly distinguished restaurant region like San Francisco or New Orleans.

[2:45] O. Connell notes that despite this image of drab dining, Boston has a reputation for good dining dating back to 1800.
Over the decades, the city pioneered many features of American restaurant life, opening one of the first French restaurants.
Some of the first hotel dining rooms, Oyster House is ice cream parlors and tea rooms.
Besides advancing traditional doing on cooking, Boston adopted high end French dishes and later introduced German, Italian and Chinese items to the menu.

[3:17] And speaking of menus, O’Connell’s first chapter explains how this history of dining out in Boston is drawn mostly from the one piece of material culture that restaurants have always shared.
The menu in telling the story of Boston’s restaurants dining out in Boston focuses on the development of restaurant food.
By studying menus dating back to their beginnings in the early 19th century, we can trace the development of the city’s culinary heritage and better understand the contributing foodstuffs, flavors, recipes, dining, customs and the pressure of fashion,
written bills.
Affair, as menus were usually called during the antebellum era, appeared in American hotels in the early 19th century.
Early hotels like the tremont house used the bill of fare to establish a sequence, of course, is that were served all diners soup, fish, meat, game dessert and beverages, which evolved in gnomic later and make up over the years.
The all A cart menu, which allow the diner to select individual dishes, was used in independent eateries and was introduced to hotels by the Parker House in 18 55.

[4:27] During the 19th century and much of the 20th, the menus proffered in the bustling dining rooms of the Tremont House, Revere House, Parker House and other leading hotels were encyclopedic.
Presenting an immense array of courses and dishes they’re cooking was grounded in the traditions of Anglo America, yet often included French dishes, which helped define fine restaurant food.
The’s restaurants cultivated a mode of gourmet dining that would evolve over the decades and set a standard in Boston for other dining places to follow.
They serve some of the most lavish meals available in the country, Anthony Trollop observed with irony.
The Puritans of Boston are, of course, simple in their habits and simple in their expenses, champagne and canvasback ducks, I found to be the provision most in vogue among those who desired to adhere closely to the manner of their forefathers.
Why not read dining out in Boston while you wait for the world to go back to normal?
We are going back to normal one of these days, aren’t we?

Upcoming Event

[5:33] And for the upcoming event this weekend, featuring a lunchtime virtual talk sponsored by the Mass Historical Society.
Long time listeners know that I’m a big fan of John Adams. I spend a lot of time in the online Adams papers that the NHS has been curating since the 19 fifties.
Well, they’ve been curating the the paper since the 19 fifties. The online version is slightly more recent than that.

[5:57] I’m certainly not the only one who gets lost in the Adams papers at noon on Thursday, September 10th, University of Tennessee Knoxville PhD candidate Yoon Wang will be presenting on the topic.
John Adams and China Globalizing Really America.
The Talk draws on your Younes dissertation, which is tentatively titled Nothing But Large Portions of T Could Extinguish it.
Cultural transfer in the Consumption of Chinese Tea in Early America, the titles taken from a 17 57 diary entry by John Adams, where he notes that only Chinese tea consumed this chronic heartburn.
He was just one of many Americans who relied on T for its medical benefits prior to December 17 70.
But why did Adams and his contemporaries believed that tea was beneficial and a description of his doctoral work, Wang says, I traced the cultural ties that bound Ching dynasty, China and British North America during the 18th century.
I argue that the British colonists in North America consumed a great deal of Chinese tea before the American Revolution due to a robust global transfer of ideas, attitudes and beliefs associated with this tea.
It took multiple transoceanic networks of physicians, Jesuit missionaries and merchants to transmit academic in vernacular knowledge of Chinese tea across the globe.

[7:22] As with most MHS talks, this one is free, but advanced registration is required.
We’ll have the link you need, as well as a link to buy dining out in Boston and this week’s show notes at Hub history dot com slash 200.

[7:40] Before I move on with the show, I want to pause and say Thank you, Toe Alexander P.
R. Latest sponsor on Patri. On folks like Alexander sign up to give $2.5 dollars or even $10 a month to offset the cost of making this podcast.
Their support allows us to pay for a podcast media hosting, Web hosting and security and online audio processing tools.
It also allows us to add things like transcripts. I recently talked to someone who isn’t deaf or hard of hearing but has trouble focusing on a podcast unless they can follow along in a transcript, which made me grateful that our sponsors allow us to provide transcripts.
They also give us access to paid research databases, including two that I use this week to turn up sources about Dr Rebecca Crumpler that I didn’t have access to during our earlier treatment of the topic.
Since this is a landmark episode double zero episode, I thought, I think a handful of other sponsors, along with Alexander, our latest sponsor, I want to highlight Mariana M. Erica, A.
Michelle S. Derrick. L and Unsurprising are five longest running sponsors.
I also want to thank Georgia, be our top sponsor of all time.

[8:59] If you’d like to add your name to our list of sponsors, just go to patri on dot com slash hub history or visit hub history dot com and click on the support link.
Thanks again to everyone who supports the show.
Now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

Main Topic: Doctor Rebecca Crumpler

[9:16] Rebecca Crumpler was the first black woman to earn a medical degree in the United States and the first African American to publish a medical text.
We profiled her in Episode 18 Way back in February 2017.
Like most of our episodes back then, it was pretty sure with less than 10 minutes devoted to the story of the Crumpler.
By my current standards are research was pretty shoddy, and I felt like the episode ended with unfinished business.
Here’s how I closed out the episode of the time.

Jake From Episode 18:
[9:46] After learning that the Crumpler Zehr buried in Fairview Cemetery in our neighborhood, I walked over there this morning to take a picture of their headstones. However, after working out the grid system and comparing it with their burial records, I realized that their graves are unmarked.
In the show, notes will share copies of the burial records for Arthur and Rebecca Crumpler and a picture of the grassy plot where they’re nameless Lee entered.

Jake:
[10:11] This February, an innocent time when the novel Corona virus was just barely being reported on is a disease that could cause some trouble if China wasn’t able to get it contained.
I got an email from Victoria Gall, the president of the Friends of the Hyde Park Library.
She said that she’d heard our podcast, and she wondered if I’d like to hear more about the fundraising committee the friends put together. It was trying to raise money to get a suitable headstone for Dr Crumpler.
Well, I was interested.
I shared information about their efforts on the show. I gave a small donation myself.
They set up a public lecture about the Crumpler for mid April and tentatively scheduled a ceremony to unveil the Stone, assuming they could raise the money to coincide with the in Double A CPS National Convention in Boston in July.
Then Cove it happened. The April talk was canceled and the end of CP convention was canceled.
Despite the pandemic, the group’s fundraising efforts were more successful than expected, raising enough to purchase stones for both Dr Crumpler and her husband, Arthur.

[11:19] Fast forward to July, and I found myself in a small private unveiling ceremony at Fairview Cemetery in Hyde Park for a 2/100 episode. I’d like to retell Rebecca and Arthur Crumpler story with the help of four speakers at the July unveiling.
Now keep in mind that I recorded these folks outdoors in a pandemic with planes and trains, wind and birds and every other kind of background noise known to man.
I’ll do my best to clean up the recordings, but parts of this will be pretty rough.

[11:51] The future doctor. Crumpler was born Rebecca Davis in 18 31 in Cristiana, Delaware, a tiny town about halfway between Baltimore and Philadelphia.
Though Delaware was a slave state at the time, Rebecca was born free, the daughter of Absalom Davis and Matilda Webber Davis.
Not much is known about her early years, but she was raised across the state line in Pennsylvania by an aunt who’s calling as a healer almost certainly influenced the course of Rebecca’s life.
Here’s how Rebecca described it decades later.
It may be, well, the state here that having been reared by a kind aunt in Pennsylvania whose usefulness with the sick was continually sought, I early conceived a liking for and sought every opportunity to be in a position to relieve the sufferings of others.

[12:41] The details up until that point or hazy at best. But in about 18 48 Rebecca Davis enrolled at the West Newton English and classical school.
It was sometimes called the Allen School because it was run for decades. But the extended Allen family she may have been among the first class to enter the school after it was founded in 18 48,
inspired by Horace Mann, subject of our 160th episode, Nathaniel T.
Allen created a model school.
We’re, in the words of 18 95 school history.
All the most improved methods of instruction should be adopted and the best talent employed to develop the young and show by example what a true school should be.

[13:25] Among the most improved methods of instruction that were on display at that West Newton English and classical school in the early years was the concept of universal education.
The classrooms were racially integrated and co educational, becoming one of the first schools in the country where girls and boys learned alongside one another, much less alongside piers of different races.
In the school’s records, Rebecca Davis is listed as a special student in mathematics.
She graduated in 18 52.
That wasn’t the only change in Rebecca’s life that year. Rebecca Davis married Wyatt Lee on April 19th, 18 52 on the couple settled down at 37 Cook Street in Charles Town, not far from the location of today’s Charlestown Hi.
Their marriage will be tragic and short, as Anthony Neal, an attorney who wrote a profile of the Crumpler for the Bay State banner alluded to in his speech at the ceremony in July.

Anthony Neal:
[14:27] Why it leaves the laborer from Prince George County. He died of tuberculosis,
April 8.

Jake:
[14:40] In 18 53 why it’s young son Albert. From an earlier marriage died.
His cause of death was recorded as dropsy of the heart as Victoria Gall describes.

Victoria Gall:
[14:52] We don’t know for sure. So when Rebecca arrived, But we do know that it was around 18 52 when she married Wyatt Lee, who was a former slave from Virginia.
She then nurse quietly Son was eight years old when he died in 1853.
Back then, it was said that he died of dropsy of the heart. We probably would have been hard failing with.

Jake:
[15:24] After graduating from the Alan School, Rebecca Lee spent most of a decade working as a nurse in Charlestown. In her own words.
Later in life, I devoted my time when best I could to Nursing is a business serving under different doctors for a period of eight years, from 52 to 60 most of the time in my adopted home in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
From these doctors, I received letters commending me to the faculty of the New England Female Medical College, whence four years afterward, I received the degree of doc tress of medicine.

[16:01] At the unveiling ceremony, Doctor Joan Reede, dean of diversity and community partnership at Harvard Medical School, pointed out just how amazing Rebecca Lease early accomplishments were.

Dr. Joan Reede:
[16:13] Like Dr Crumpler, My family roots are also found in,
for me. I think of a brave young Rebecca entering the novel West English classical school known in is the Allen School in Massachusetts.
I think about Rebecca practicing as a nurse,
applying to and any acceptance to the newly founded removing female medical college and becoming it’s fully African American.
She did all of this before 18 68 with the first historically clashing Howard founded.

Jake:
[16:53] When Rebecca Davis started at the Allen school, it would have been all but unthinkable for a woman to study medicine.
In a 2012 article on the history of Women in medicine held a, Lindemann wrote.
In 18 73 Dr Edward Clark, a professor of medicine at Harvard, published Sex and Education, or A Fair Chance for the Girls, which went through 17 additions over the next few years.
Clark surveyed the best medical thinking regarding women and, after scholarly reflection, concluded that the mental exertion required for higher education sapped a woman’s body of its vital forces to such an extent that her uterus would atrophy,
putting a woman’s brain too masculine use with thus maker in a sexual monster.
However, in 18 48 the same year the West Newton English and classical school opened, another school opened in Boston.
The New England Female Medical College was founded in November of that year by a doctor, Samuel Gregory, with an announcement in the Boston Evening Traveler and other papers that,
the object of this association is to educate females for the practice of midwifery, for the treatment of the diseases of women and for nursing the sick to aid in accomplishing this object, the society shall establish in Boston as soon as practicable.
Ah, Female Medical Institute and in connection with it, a maternity hospital.

[18:21] A 1951 history of the New England Female Medical College fills in some of the blanks.
For centuries, women and labor were attended by midwives and physicians who assumed that function were scornfully called men. Midwives.
Physicians strenuously opposed the entrance of women into the profession.
Accordingly, when Gregory opened the college, he had great difficulty in obtaining not only teachers but also trustees and other personnel.
Facilities for teaching were meager, and instruction was fragmentary.
Until 18 52 there were only two teachers. Sessions were held twice a year and lasted 12 weeks.
On several occasions, the institution was subjected to reorganization.

[19:06] Despite these challenges, the college did eventually expand to include a more robust curriculum.
The program included a year of classes and then a two year apprenticeship with a final thesis and exam.
Throughout its 27 year history, over 300 women attended classes and 98 received doctoral degrees.
In 18 73 Boston University merged with the New England Female Medical College becoming the first accredited coeducational medical school in the US As an interesting side note, Dr Mariza Shrubs Co.
Who is featured in Episode 1 11 for Inspiring the First Playgrounds in Boston and founding the Dem A Community Health Center, was on the faculty from 18 59 to 18 62.

[19:53] Unfortunately, Dr Zack was likely gone before Rebecca Lee matriculated at the Medical college, preventing a full on crossover episode.
On March 3rd, 18 64 The Boston Herald published a brief peace covering the graduation ceremony for the New England Female Medical College.
This institution closed its annual term yesterday. The exercises were open with prayer by Reverend J. W. Parker.
President Charles Demand conferred the degree of doctors of medicine upon the graduates.
Mary Lockwood Allen of Williston, Vermont, Elizabeth Kimball of Reading and Rebecca Lee of Boston.
An interesting communication was read from referent Dr Kirk sent in and consequence of his inability to be present.
As expected, Excellent addresses were made by Reverend George H. Hepworth and Reverend Dr Randall, and appropriate remarks by Dr Parker and the President.

[20:52] The interesting communication from Dr Edwin in Kirk that was read in his absence dealt mostly with the suitability of women to the role of physician, with one specific mention of our protagonists as well.
We ask of those who look with disfavor on the aims and operations of this school, whether they really do disapprove of woman’s studying any one branch of our creator’s works,
whether it is unbecoming in her whom God hath made the nurse of human infancy, to acquaint herself with that exquisite organism committed to her care toe, understand scientifically those diseases over who’s sad progress.
She is to watch to know what provisioned God has made in nature storehouse of remedial power, to remove those ills.

[21:37] As to the want of memory or comprehensiveness of you or patients to continue her studies through life or of judgment in dealing with cases.
We cannot see any reason from puting these to our mothers and sisters.
On the contrary, we firmly believe that for the medical profession, woman has some peculiar adaptations which will make her labours a peculiar public blessing.
We believe that in that portion of the practice, which even ancient Egypt had the wisdom and delicacy to commit to her.
We would do well to imitate their example in regard, then to the position female physicians air to occupy in society and the limits which propriety requires to be fixed of their professional practice.
We entertain no apprehension.
It is one of those things which take care of themselves.
If anyone had said 50 years ago, that unmarried lady was going to leave her English home and following Army in its campaigns,
and past days and nights unprotected by anything but the dignity of her own presence amid the horrors of the battlefield in the rough realities of camp life and the rude scenes in the military hospital,
it would probably have excited, more apprehension, more questions, more opposition than our movement has encountered.
And yet it has been done, and the name of Florence Nightingale has become the talisman that awakens all There is of reference and paternal love in a soldier’s heart.

[23:01] We have then no fears in this direction. Individuals may make great mistakes and bring some discredit on themselves and their alma mater, but there have been indiscreet members of the medical profession of the other sex.
Yet the profession lives notwithstanding this and will live and retain its hold on the public confidence and respect, while flesh continues to inherit its birth rate of maladies.
Reverend Hepworth spoke of this as a great pioneer movement destined to be completely successful in accomplishing its aims.
His observations among the soldiers hospitals at the South had led him to mark the superiority of female nurses and to think of the importance of there being educated in an institution like this,
patriotism should prompt women to qualify themselves and engage in the work.
He rejoiced that among the graduates on this occasion was one of another color than those who had hitherto received the honors of a medical school,
doubtless the first instance of the kind the college had done nobly and thus opening its doors to students without regard to color a race.

[24:10] It’s clear from his comments that the administration was aware of Rebecca’s pioneering position is the first black woman to earn the title of Doc Tress.
The title seems quaint, doesn’t it? You might think, given Doctor Kirk’s address that Doc Tress was a holdover from an earlier time already destined for the dustbin of history.
You’d be wrong, though. A January 18 64 article in The Ladies Home Journal makes it clear that Rebecca Lee, in her to fellow members of the Class of 18 64 were the first to receive this title, while earlier graduates of the same institution,
had simply been called doctors.

[24:49] Women are beginning to assert their own style. Entitle, a brilliant correspondent, thus calls our attention to it.
Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale and Goodies Ladies book for the present month in a notice of the New England Female Medical College Speaks his follows.
The board of trustees deserve a commendation for the good judgment shown in the change they have adopted in the style and title of the Diplomas conferred on women,
here after it is to be doc tress of Medicine, equivalent to the Latin Term Medicine A Dock Tricks.
The college in Philadelphia has also adopted this style entitle for its graduates, so there will be no more foolish assumptions of the masculine form of address by women practicing medicine.
Dr will signify a gentleman of the profession. Doc Trice, a lady physician.

[25:41] For our newly minted Doctors of Medicine. Graduation must have been bitter. Sweet La Rebecca was studying at the female medical college.
Why it? Lee died of tuberculosis in April 18 63.
Rebecca’s new life seemed tinged with grief, but a new romance would soon blossom.

[26:02] Arthur Crumpler was enslaved at birth on a plantation in Virginia because of his enslaved status because of careless record keeping.
And because his enslave family would be broken up and scattered to the winds, it can be difficult to retrace. The earliest days of Crumpler is life.
At the dedication ceremony, Anthony Neil explained how the most basic details even Mr Crumpler age can be hard to confirm.

Anthony Neal:
[26:32] See.

[26:34] In 18 35 way I really don’t know.

[26:41] It is true in the 18 78 86 reports Age.
35 45. Perspective jested Born in.

[26:55] But Boston Sunday Globe Particle of April 3rd 18 98 title brought his oldest pupil, 74.
He goes claims that he was then 74 years old, suggesting that he was born about 18 24.
It also states in the body of the article, however, that he was 71 least the oppression that he was born in. 18 27.
Further complicating Matters. Kids in 18 63 Civil War Draft registration records, which Mrs Ages 26 suggesting that he was going around 18 37 and finally the City of Boston.
Death certificate. Mrs Age 71 which would lead us, including born in 18 39.

Jake:
[27:47] That profile in the April 3rd 18 98 edition of The Boston Globe carries the most widely accepted version of Arthur’s origin story.
Arthur Crumpler is well preserved and fine looking. His speech appears to be that of the average Northerner.

[28:04] He was born a slave in Southampton County, near Jerusalem Courthouse, Virginia, two miles from the Tucker Swamp meeting house on the estate of Robert Adams, a large Virginia land and slaveholder.
His father, Samuel, was a slave on the estate of Benjamin Crumpler, which had joined the Adam’s estate.
His mother was a part of the Adam’s estate and Arthur Crumpler as well asses other brothers and sisters following the condition of the mother, according to the Slave Code of Virginia, became it birth a portion of the Atoms estate.
Arthur grew up in South Hampton County on the Adam’s estate.

[28:39] One day, Robert Adams fell ill and shortly afterward died.
Arthur was then about nine years old, according to the fashion in Virginia.
In those days, the estate was partitioned, are sold out At this sale, both parents, as well as his sisters and brothers, were sold away, and none of them has been seen from that day.
To this, Arthur was not soul but bid in by John Adams, son of the elder Adams, who took a fancy to him because he managed to out wrestle his young master.
He tells the incident. Thus we were all standing around waiting to be sold.
I went up to John and said to him in a boyish, defiant way, John, I can wrestle you down.
I was very strong when a boy he said, I couldn’t well, we had a good tussle, and I tussled him so hard that he would not let me be sold, but took me for himself.
And until the war kept me ever near him.

[29:36] Crumpler went to live with his young master at Smithfield, Virginia, in the Isle of Wight County.
There he stayed, one year after which he was bound for four years, to Tom Ripley, a slave trader at four squares in the same county.
Almost that the expiration of that time John Adams married the daughter of Benjamin Chapman, who lived about six miles from Foursquare’s.
Crumpler went then toe live with John Adams wife’s family.
His master finally bound him out to a blacksmith named Robert Barrett in Smithfield, Crumpler chose blacksmithing as he had the choice between carpenter ring shoemaking and bricklaying.
Under Barrett, he served all but five months of his trade, finishing with Abraham Lehman, another blacksmith about five miles from Smithfield.
At the ceremony, Mr Neil also related how Arthur Crumpler escaped from slavery.

Anthony Neal:
[30:31] Shortly after we started with Civil War are the Crumpler escaped. Bonded.
He and other fugitive fugitive slaves sought refuge at Fort Monroe in Hampton County in Hampton, Virginia.
They call this street and portrait because those ladies who reached it with and what return to their home, Fort Monroe was then under command of Major General Benjamin F.
Butler when time would become the governor.

[31:06] Black stiff by trade at the Crumpler forces for the Union Army.
On July 6th, 18 62 he left Fort Monroe for Boston, showing up in this city three days later.

Jake:
[31:21] The article in the April 3rd 18 98 Globe elaborate. It’s after learning his trade. He worked for a year, a $250 and clothing.
Crumpler wanted to go away from Smithfield to another part of the county, but his master, although kindly disposed toward him, would not consent.
His master set him up with a shop, however, which he ran until the war broke out.
And then he, with a number of other slaves in Isle of Wight County, ran away and took refuge on the gunboat Cumberland and was transported to Fort Monroe, where he shot horses for general wool.
He also shot horses for general McClellan in the seven days battles on the peninsula,
he told the Globe. On July 6th, 18 92 I left Fort Monroe for Boston and landed here July 9th, 18 62 on reaching Boston. Crumpler was cordially received by the anti slavery people.
He was given a job, is a blacksmith, and the Edward Kendall works at Cambridge.
There he worked four years, and since that time has made a good living taking care of stores in Boston, an occupation he’s now following.
Continuing the narrative, Anthony kneel, describes how Crumpler ended up in Boston and connects the dots between the self liberated slave and the educated Doc Tress with a straight line running through the founder of the AL in school.

Anthony Neal:
[32:46] On reaching his destination. You see by the abolitionists educator and philanthropist Daniel Allen,
Allen Road is back in his diary on February 20th, 18 63 that a number of black contraband,
migrated to West News, just outside of Boston, find employment much to the disgust of Irish labourers,
and that among them was from Alan befriended Crumpler and took him in, allowing him to sleep in his barn and performed short,
according to Abbas biographer Mary Ann Green. Whoa!
In November 18 63 are the cast his first vote after being challenged in every popular ground.
The authority’s trumped up going to the prejudice gives him every Southern colored man screen. Further noted this. The Allen was his firm champion. Saw him safe.

[33:50] Are they? Crumpler probably protected association with Daniel now it founded the Western Using Fast School.
Properly known at the album, Dr Crumpler had prior contact to be educated before studying mathematics at his school in the mid 18 70 she married Arthur Crumpler, a little over a year after she graduated from,
within three years of his arrival in.

Jake:
[34:18] According to her yearbook from the West Newton English and classical school, Dr Rebecca Lee went Arthur Crumpler in Saint John, New Brunswick, on May 24th, 18 65 of this period, Rebecca wrote,
I then practiced in Boston, but desire ing a larger scope for general information.
I traveled toward the British Dominion.
Perhaps that indicates that the racism in the British Dominion what we now call Canada’s maritime provinces was somewhat less crushing than it wasn’t home, allowing for more freedom to study and to practice.
In her book, she also worried about the secret of happiness in marriage, indicating that there may have been more than simply professional reasons for the happy couple to spend time in Saint John, she wrote,
I will just add here that the way to be happy after marriage is to continue in the careful routine of the courting days till it becomes a well understood thing between the two.

[35:18] Dr Crumpler went to Canada seeking additional educational resource is in a chance to practice, and she would soon find ample enough opportunity to practice in an entirely different realm, Dr Reid said.

Dr. Joan Reede:
[35:37] Itude and a belief in South. I believe that she could and that she should make a difference,
including the world of those foreign slave. We know that on the Civil War she actually joined the treatments zero Virginia,
where she was witnessed to and actually experience pain and suffering associated with racism.

[36:05] Both in Virginia and on her return to Massachusetts, Dr Crumpler continued to commit her life’s work.
Those who live in the margins both were and are still today often neglect women.
So four for belief, hard working enable Doctor Crumpler dream of making a difference in the world to come for reality, for safety.
For me, she is a role model, an example of findings, one living one’s purpose.

Jake:
[36:47] Dr Crumpler herself wrote After the close of the Confederate War, My mind centred upon Richmond, the capital city of Virginia, is the proper field for real missionary work,
and one that would present ample opportunities to become acquainted with the diseases of women and Children.
During my stay there, nearly every hour was improved in that sphere of labor.
The last quarter of the year, 18 66 I was enabled to the agency of the bureau under General Brown Toe have access each day to a very large number of the indigent and others of different classes in a population of over 30,000 colored,
the couple state in Richmond through at least 18 67 and, according to Victoria Gall, is research there are back in Boston. By 18 69 they made a home on Joyce Tree on the north slope of Beacon Hill, Dr Crumpler wrote.
At the close of my services in that city, I return to my former home Boston, when I entered into the work with renewed vigor, practicing outside and receiving Children in the house for treatment.
Regardless, in a measure of remuneration, Anthony Kneel describes this time in the lives of the Crumpler Hours.

Anthony Neal:
[38:01] Medicine greasy and bought before moving to Richmond, Virginia, where, as an assistant position she treated ill free people to the Freeman.
Upon returning to Boston in 18 69 she and her husband, Arthur, initially boarded at 68.
I would like you don’t know what the home of often pit. They move not far from his house, 20 gardens using the following year.

Jake:
[38:29] By 18 70 the couple had moved to Garden Street, also in the north slope of Beacon Hill, while they lived in Beacon Hill.
The Crumpler began attending the 12th Baptist Church, which is an incredibly historic congregation with roots in the original African meetinghouse, as Reverend Arthur T. Gerald Jr.
The 13th pastor of the 12th Baptist Church, explained at the dedication ceremony.

Reverend Arthur T Gerald, Jr.:
[38:57] Started out or,
behind because bad.

[39:06] That’s with.

[39:11] And off got.

[39:18] At that time. First. After comedian,
see out of the first African meeting house several churches in Boston.

[39:33] Course number one. Because I’m the past.

[39:41] We also share lineage with also people that located also, and Child Street A M E Church has some groups in the first.
Now, if you ever come to the campus of 12 you will find that are major office building is called the Second African Meeting,
because of our tribute and lineage.

Jake:
[40:19] After the church split off from its parent congregation in 18 40 the early membership rolls read like a who’s Who of Beacon Hills black abolitionists.
They include many subjects of our February 2017 Siris on Boston’s Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act, including Shed Wreck, Mencken’s Anthony Burns and Thomas Sims, along with Luis and Harriet Hayden and their pastor, Leonard Crimes,
under Grimes.
This leadership, the church had been a stop on the Underground railroad prior to emancipation, and it continued to push for black civil rights after the Civil War.
This advocacy was still ongoing when a young BU divinity student named Martin Luther King Jr attended 12th Baptist Church in the 19 fifties, and it continues today,
with little documentation to build on. Anthony Neal explains that Arthur Crumpler is club memberships imply that he was carrying on the church’s activist tradition.
He also explains how the lack of records implies yet another tragedy in the lives of the Crumpler.

Anthony Neal:
[41:23] One child,
Crumpler was going to the couple in December. Heavy now, listen likely died in childbirth. You’re making Found about her.
Arctic proper was employed at the quarter at 1 20.

[41:45] Often on the Finance Committee of Grant and Wolf in Love Number one, an organization formed in 18 72 by black Republicans of Ward.

Jake:
[41:57] For a few years in the 18 seventies, the Crumpler lived apart.
At least some of the time was Rebecca taught in Wilmington in Newcastle, Delaware, and Arthur stayed in the Siris of boarding houses?
Well, a separation like that would mean trouble for many couples. It seems to have indicated foresight on the part of the Crumpler.
During this period, they began buying land, and by 18 80 they had moved into a house on Sunnyside Avenue in the independent town of Hyde Park.
Today its Solaris Road, the last street in the Reedville section of Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood before crossing the Denham Town line.

[42:37] It was soon after the Crumpler is moved to Hyde Park that Dr Crumpler published her book, marking another significant first in her life, as related by Victoria Gall.

Victoria Gall:
[42:49] She continued to care for local women and Children during and after the period. She wrote her common sense for Ah, Book of medical discourses in two parts.
It was published in 18 83 and was dedicated to nurses.
Mothers in all may desire to mitigate the afflictions off the human race.
My chief desire writing this was to impress on somebody’s mind the possibility of prevention.
This is 18 three.
This book is thought to be the first medical book by an African American off.
Now, in this book, there is a recipe for a healthy on this in which Janet made some for you and there’s some samples from the team arrested Thanks gender for your many testings,
warned when I bagged my head gloves and,
they’re from the 18 of your the rest.
But if that doesn’t make you feel good, we also had made by seasons catering a lemon thyme honey shortbread.
It would go with 2020 so you get a little.

Jake:
[44:13] As the podcast audience. You can’t sample doctor Crumpler Zahn sweetened biscuits, but you can peruse your book.
Ellen Bed in online copy of the book in this week’s show. Notes.
The families moved to Hyde Park didn’t break their bond with the 12th Baptist Church.
And a series of news articles from 18 91 about a scandal within the church highlights that the couple were leaders in the congregation. By that time.
That February, The Boston Globe reported that something untoward had happened between Reverend H. H. Harris, the sixth pastor of the church and a teenage choir member.

[44:51] The trouble among the colored people of the 12th Baptist Church of this city is creating a great deal of excitement.
It is perhaps the greatest church scandal ever created among the colored people here.
It has made all the more prominent, as this church includes, in its membership some of the most influential and wealthiest colored people in this city.
It was the first color church to become united with the North Baptist Convention. It has the largest membership and has money in the bank. It is the opinion of a large number of people that it would be a very bad thing if the church is rent in Twain.
For several weeks, past meetings have been held. A young woman, Miss Mamie Armistead, besides being a member of the society, was one of the choir leaders.
Miss Mamie is one of the prettiest girls in the church. She is about 18 and has a peach blow complexion with snapping black eyes in glossy hair and a reserve manner.
It was last April when, upon a statement by Miss Armistead, charges were brought against acting Pastor Harris.
For this, she was retired from the church role.
Mr. Harris, who was temporarily filling the pulpit made vacant by the death of Mr Fairfax, hastily resigned his position and left the city.

[46:10] A few months later, Reverend Harris was back in town demanding that the church clear is good name.
The elders of the church weren’t having it. Dr. Rebecca Crumpler was one of the church leaders who signed her name to a letter to that effect.
As Reverend. Jail is quick to note, Arthur was also a leader serving as a member of the board of trustees.

Reverend Arthur T Gerald, Jr.:
[46:31] Rebecca and also active author, was on the trustee.
Now I guess he was a forerunner for me because my name is often from the same way. That name not off for.
And I have a particular connection to the trump No, in terms of name, but also in terms of being their past.
They didn’t know me that way before my time, but I claim them as some of the rich heritage and history of the 12 Baptist Church.

Jake:
[47:15] Despite the bond that Reverend Gerald feels the scandal around Reverend Harris would eventually lead the Crumpler out of 12th Baptist.
As the controversy raged on, supporters of Harris selected new members of the church board of trustees despite the fact that the old ones, including Arthur Crumpler, had not resigned.
The situation came to a head in August 18 91 with the Globe reporting on a near siege of the church.
It was between two and three o’clock yesterday morning that a young man living in the neighborhood was wending his way homeward when his attention was attracted by a moving light in the church.
As he drew near, he heard the sound of hammering within, making the best investigation possible from the exterior.
He soon became convinced that the opponents of the youthful clergymen were putting the temple of peace and religion in a condition to withstand a siege.

[48:10] This early scout, who’s friendly to Mr Harris at once notified Sexton Michael Brown, who in very short time mustered a force of a dozen or more.
Then the order was given on to Phillip Street.
They came, they saw they conquered, but by peaceful and persuasive means they could not enter by the main doors that was barred to those, but they finally obtained in gris through the back windows.
Once within the building, the invaders found that they outnumbered the obstructionists almost 2 to 1.
There were seven of thes, namely Henry Clark, William Cook, Edmond F.
Jones and Arthur Crumpler trustees, a man named Barnett, another named Taylor and J. H. Franklin.

[49:01] Somebody offered the suggestion that they should reason together. The anti Harris people, being in a woeful minority, were with very little difficulty persuaded that this would be the better course.
So it was determined to put the matter of possession of the premises to a vote. And, of course, the invaders carry the day or rather, the night.
Then the obstructionists retired gracefully in with full honors. The pro Harris people then began to look about them were closely, they found that the main door had been secured with a stout bar of would firmly fastened with screws.
There are also placards in the name of the board of trustees announcing that the church will be closed until further notice.

[49:45] Harris is supporters won the day and the Church state open a Municipal Court judge would eventually hear a case determining which competing board of trustees would control the church.
Arthur Side lost, and he left the church. He soon joined the Calvary Baptist Church, and by 18 96 he was among the leadership in that church.
In February 18 96 the Globe reported on a special service to install the new officers of the church, and Arthur Crumpler was among the new members of the board of trustees.

[50:21] No photos or likenesses created during Rebecca Crumpler is lifetime survive, so the only way we know what she looks like, it’s from descriptions like this one that was published in The Boston Globe in 18 94.
Read here at the dedication ceremony by Victoria Gall.

Victoria Gall:
[50:38] So far, here’s a challenge to everyone. No one has found a photograph or an illustration over.
What we’re using is a circular alert, generic image of an African American.
But in the 18 in 18 94 The Boston Globe described her as a very pleasant, intelligent intellectual woman and an indefatigable church work.
She’s tall, straight with light brown skin is right here and has made an enviable place for herself in the ranks of the medical fraternity.

Jake:
[51:21] Unfortunately, that would be the last year of Rebecca’s life.

Victoria Gall:
[51:26] Dr. Crumpler died on large 9 18 95 at the age of 16.

[51:35] Her cause of death was fine. Roy tours,
whether or not it was planned on Dr Crumpler, is very in view off home, on the other side of love.
So in spring and fall and on the back table, there’s a map from 1912 of the cemetery Street used to be called Sunnyside. Now it’s floors in the house is still.

Jake:
[52:07] Having survived his daughter and beloved wife, Arthur, was left to carry on alone.
Unlike Rebecca, we do have a surviving likeness of Arthur Crumpler. It Ran is part of a profile of him in the April 3rd 18 98 edition of The Boston Globe, under the headline Boston’s oldest pupil.
The story described how he had been attending the Franklin Evening School in the South End for years because he had been enslaved.
Both law and custom in Virginia. Prohibited anyone from teaching Arthur to read and write when he was young.
When is in slaver had him run a blacksmith shop. Arthur tried to teach himself to read in secret, but the task was too hard to take on alone.
He told the Globe reporter that his lack of literacy cost him the wages he was supposed to earn while working as a blacksmith for the Union Army at Fort Monroe after his escape from slavery.
When I came away from that fourth, the government owed me $160 for eight months work shoeing horses.
That’s what I agreed to work for. I was told that they had not made any preparations for the payment of Contra bands, and they said that they would give me $35.36 if I would settle.
Then they took hold of my hand and held it well. I made an X to some written and printed matter.
I don’t know what it waas. I suppose it was some sort of release, though. After I did it and received so little money, I made up my mind. I would never make an X again beside my name written by someone else.

[53:36] After moving to Boston and marrying Dr Crumpler, Arthur tried again to learn literacy and failed again has told him the dedication by Anthony Neal.

Anthony Neal:
[53:49] I’m sure many of you know it was a crime was laid to learn to read or write, unable to read or write. Arthur extended well school at night and his wife suggested.
But then eyesight brought him knows, except being our husbands disappointment.
Dr. Crumpler told him that he would do all his reading.

Jake:
[54:13] The Globe picks up the story from there quoting Arthur, saying that Rebecca did all this reading and writing for him down to the time of her death about four years ago.
When she passed away, I found that I should have to depend upon myself if I wanted to learn anything.
I could not read the newspapers during the last war, but if we have a war now, I shall be able to read all about it myself.
I can do my own signing, and I’m not making any more crosses.
Thes Boston schools are a great institution, and I’m sorry that more of my people are not taking advantage of thumb.
One is not too old to learn how to read and write and figure.
Yes, I could do something in arithmetic. I have considerable time now, and I find considerable pleasure in reading my Bible in papers and books.
I sit down and practice my writing lessons and write my own letters, and then I sit down and add up, subtract, multiply and divide my figures all by myself.
There is nothing to excuse any colored man or woman in the city of Boston from learning how to do these things.

[55:16] As I dug into the scant sources about the Crumpler is again for this episode with increased access to research materials. Thanks to our patri on sponsors, I realized that versions of Arthur’s profile were picked up by papers around the country.
First, there was a version used by many papers as filler. When old timing newspaper editors would lay out their stories, There would sometimes be small gaps between pictures, stories and ads.
Nobody wanted to see blank space in a newspaper, so wire services offered filler stories by the end, ranging from a few words to a few paragraphs.
Thes stories filled in the gaps between the actual news and a two sentence version of Arthur’s Knight School education ran us filler and dozens of papers.
What was more interesting, however, was to realize that at least two papers in different parts of the country ran explicitly racist and anti racist versions of the same story.
Down in Bryan, Texas, the Daily Eagle printed a version of the story that took up about a quarter of a column and followed.
The fax is printed in the Boston Globe, Pretty close lady in the middle of the story, a bit of commentaries interjected, describing Arthur’s progress After enrolling in night school,
he was admitted, but his progress was so painfully slow for two years that his teachers despaired of even teaching him the alphabet.
There was a keen, bright old man and shows evidence of having been the equal and intelligence of the ordinary slave.

[56:43] In other words, even the smartest ex slave is too stupid to learn how to read, so why bother teaching them?
Contrast that with coverage in the Appeal, a ST Paul, Minnesota based black owned newspaper that had national circulation.

[57:01] Crumpler was born a slave in Virginia. Like many persons who can neither read nor write, he has a graceful enunciation acquired by contact with persons of culture.
His penmanship shows careful, inpatient effort. The copy itself is something wonderful, considering his age and the age at which he began.

[57:22] Arthur Crumpler is death followed 15 years after Rebecca’s on May 8th, 1910.
He, too, was buried in Fairview Cemetery and the plot alongside herds within sight of the home that they shared for the last 15 years of her life.
Unfortunately, with no heirs and few assets, no headstones were placed upon their deaths.
The first black woman to earn an M D in America with languish in an unmarked grave for 125 years.

[57:53] Until this July that IHS we gathered at Fairview Cemetery to celebrate the Crumpler. Zand unveiled their headstones.
The front of the Stones air simple with the couple’s names and dates and align, noting that Rebecca was the first black woman to earn a medical degree in the U. S.
On the backs of the Stones. That committee wanted to include something more descriptive.
The inscription on the back of Arthur Crumpler Stone drew from his profile as the oldest pupil, which described his life after Rebecca’s death.
Mr. Crumpler is a member of the Calvary Baptist Church. He now lives in a single room, 43 Piedmont Street, around the walls of which are shelves containing many books and pictures on the table.
In the center of the room rests a large Bible, the source of delight and comfort to one who, although born a slave, resolved despite great obstacles to learn to read the Bible and the newspapers and to write so that he wouldn’t know what he was signing.
Two ciphers. That he could keep his account straight and was not afraid to begin at 70.

[59:01] Based on that description, I suggested the following inscription, which the committee was kind enough to use on the back of Arthur Stone. Almost unchanged.
Enslaved it. Birth, Escape to freedom. A Man of Faith, Man of Letters, Boston’s oldest pupil,
at the dedication, Victoria Gall pointed out.

Victoria Gall:
[59:24] Rebecca Crumpler was truly a remarkable first. Who believed this is a quote from a both it. If you didn’t ask a question, you wouldn’t get an answer.
Not the Crumpler likely didn’t think she was important or realize their significance, but we all.

Jake:
[59:43] Reverend Gerald committed to bringing the story of the Crumpler is back to the 12th Baptist Church.

Reverend Arthur T Gerald, Jr.:
[59:49] So today is your gathering. You did. My heart is my glory rejoices because of what you’re doing.
Keep the dream alive.
I just would like to get some of the information that’s good being she and our good historian she and bring that back home to us. It open.
So those younger people at church,
they get a greatest sense of the real historical achievement people of code who did things before it was even appropriate to do.
We now celebrate the fact that black lives matter, but we realized way back when Dr Crumpler went to medical school, that was the first graduate.
Of course, that is a significant chief,
and I thank her for tenacity, your willingness to stick in there and to become that all that God would have to come.
And we are blessed way are real by your life and commit.

Jake:
[1:01:13] The inspirational nature of Dr Crumpler is life, and our status is the first black woman to earn a medical degree in the US Inspired this inscription on the back of her stone.
The community and the Commonwealth’s four medical schools honor Dr Rebecca Crumpler for her ceaseless courage, pioneering achievements and historic legacy.
As a physician, author, nurse, missionary and advocate for health, equity and social justice,
Dr Joan Reede reflected on the importance that Dr Crumpler holds to the black women who have followed in her footsteps and the black and brown girls who will do so in the future.

Dr. Joan Reede:
[1:01:56] Another way of seeing are beginning to comprehend the enormity.
Dr. Crumpler is the place.

[1:02:07] In 18 60 there were only 300 positions in the United States in 1920 there were only by Gary E. Mail.
In addition, the United States in two days black female represent 2% of all.

[1:02:32] When I think of where I am today at Harvard, but I think of a reflective proper.

[1:02:44] But I also think of the hundreds of thousands that,
and less than 300 black female professors, plus 145.

[1:03:00] As a black woman as a pediatrician as someone who was actually born in Boston. Rarity.
Who’s got parents and family members lived or currently live in Dorchester and Mattapan.
I worked in a local community health center whose grandchildren attend schools in Dorchester and Roxbury, and his current work focuses on breaking down barriers, providing access, opportunity,
nurturing and educating Children and youth,
eliminating disparities in health and confronting racism, sexism and discrimination.
Dr. Crumpler Sample,
she was doing this work long before others before it was written about your books for years.

[1:03:58] Found itself.

[1:04:03] Living. Nichols found in a bee. I am harder and your principles of primacy of patient, wealthier, full of economy and principle of social justice.
These principles and actualize in someone’s life.
Oh, Dr Crumpler, over here with us today because what she would still.

[1:04:33] But I believe she would tell us there are more young group like that.
More black and brown Children ward youth living in poverty.

[1:04:47] War individuals waiting to be found nurture encourage men waiting to make your different to have their dreams will build.
She would tell those youth to persevere, work hard their ability She would tell all of us that it is our responsibility guy to help the youth of today and tomorrow.

[1:05:18] Break down walls on a cheap there,
It will be good for them. It would be good for us. It would be good for him there.

Wrap-Up

Jake:
[1:05:38] To learn more about Dr Rebecca Davis, Lee Crumpler and Arthur Crumpler, check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 200,
I’ll have an online copy of Dr Crumpler is book as well as pictures of the couple’s headstones.
I’ll also include a picture of Arthur Crumpler, a picture of the campus of the New England Female Medical College and a picture of the West Newton English and classical school,
a link to the sources I use this week, including a scrapbook of clippings about the female medical college, The Boston Globe articles I quoted from racist and anti racist versions of Arthur’s oldest pupil Profile and Vicky Goals.
Research into the Crumpler is Residences in and around Boston.
Plus, I’ll include links to stories about the dedication ceremony from the Boston Globe and NBC News.
And of course, we’ll have links to information about our upcoming event and dining out in Boston. This week’s Boston Book Club Peck.

Listener Feedback

[1:06:38] Before I let you go, I want to share some recent feedback we’ve gotten from listeners.
Somebody who goes by E. F on Twitter is waiting through our back catalog and just got to an episode where we shared feedback about Episode 19 which profiled Boston Harbor, Hermit and Windsor Sherwin and the Hermit of Hyde Park. James Gaitley.
Episode 20 in Notes mentions the city archaeologist wanting to dig the hermit house in Hyde Park. Did that end up happening?
Unfortunately, E f. It did not. I think the bureaucratic tangle of jurisdictions between state and city made that plan a pipe dream at best.
E f also listened to our very first interview with Brooke Barbie, a an episode 22 said hilariously, As soon as guest number one said she want to be with Paul Revere. I was like, She’s gonna call my man John Adams. Insufferable, isn’t she?
I would 100% find Revere insufferable.

[1:07:34] Finally, E f listen to Episode 18 saying Just finished Episode 18 So the Crumpler have headstones yet?
Well, you know how that one turns out. Now.
Michelle s listen to our story about bleeding Kansas An episode 1 95 and reached out on Twitter Just caught up on my listening today.
Great episode per usual.
I learned a special Boston by foot walking tour on abolitionists a few years ago.
I had no education on any of this. It was eye opening. Thanks for filling, in my knowledge, on the Immigrant Aid Society.
Thanks, Michelle. I’m glad I could fill in a missing chapter of Boston history for you and hearing our discussion of Esther Forbes biography of Paul Revere in Episode 1 93. She commented again.
Jake just caught up on my listening and heard you ponder this book. It is excellent.
I was given a first edition by a friend. It’s one of my treasured possessions.
Ford’s Deserve That Pulitzer Prize. Most certainly the folks at the Paul Revere House also heard Episode 1 93 and said,
This whole episode of Hub history is fascinating, but we really love the shutout toe are Paul Revere biographer BFF Esther Forbes for a classic work, Paul Revere in the World.
He lived in the out of print for a few years. It still are. Go to I would say, thanks to both of you, but it’s really Esther Forbes, who deserves all the credit for that one.

[1:09:03] Finally, recent podcast guest Judy Cataldo heard me mention the Museum of Science flying a dinosaur around dangling from a helicopter in 1984 and emailed me with a memory Hi.
Not sure if someone else who’s old enough to remember mention this. But the reason there are so many photos that Dino soaring above the Charles is that the Museum of Science had flooded the various media with ads telling people to come out on the fourth and see a dino sore.
It was a big deal, and I was really annoyed I had to miss it.

[1:09:36] I, on the other hand, was five years old and living in deepest Appalachia at the time, so I don’t have any memory of the sea. A dino sore promotion.
How about you? Do you have any other listeners to remember this one?
We love getting listener feedback. Whether you want to ask obscure questions about four year old episodes or share obscure facts about 35 year old marketing campaigns,
we’re happy to hear your episode suggestions, factual corrections and alternate sources that we missed.
If you’d like to leave us some feedback on this episode or any other, you can email podcast hub history dot com.
We air hub history on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or go to hub history dot com and click on the Contact US link while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode.
If you subscribe on Apple podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review.
If you do drop us a line, we’ll send you a Hub history sticker as a token of appreciation.

Music

Jake:
[1:10:39] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.