No. 22162 Helen Isabel Doherty, M.D.
From Skteches of Representative Women of New England. (Boston, 1904),
Helen Isabel Doherty, M.D., whose noble and efficient service in the Spanish-American War has made her widely known and loved, was born in Boston, October 24, 1871. She is the daughter of Colonel Thomas Francis and Mary (Kerwin) Doherty, both natives of Boston. She received her early education in the city’s public schools, being graduated’ when very young from the high school and immediately entering upon the advanced course. Her desire to adopt the medical profession was not at first encouraged by her parents, but, as Colonel Doherty perceived that the longing was no whim hut a steadfast purpose, he examined the workings of various colleges, and placed his daughter in the Women’s Medical School of Philadelphia, where she was graduated in 1895, the youngest in her class. It is interesting to note that on her mother’s side of the family there is a long line of physicians.
Dr. Doherty began practice at the South End in Boston in 1896 and probably few physicians so young as she have had the varied and wide experience that is hers today. She does a large amount of examining for insurance companies, and was the first woman to be employed by the leading fraternal societies. She is examiner and visitor for the patients in the Free Home for Consumptives in Dorchester. Boston was the first city to build free gymnasia for women and children, and the first medical director appointed in any of these was Dr. Doherty.
In August, 1898, the Spanish War being practically over, typhoid and Cuban fever were raging, and pestilence-stricken troops to the number of forty-five thousand were quarantined at Montauk Point, Long Island. Skilled I treatment was necessary. There was need of woman’s care and wit. In answer to telegrams sent by General Wheeler, Drs. Laura A. Hughes and Helen I. Doherty directly reported for duty, taking with them some thirty or forty nurses. At Detention Camp and the general hospital on the bleak hill-top this young woman, fresh from a home of refinement and luxury, lived the life of the common soldier, ate from the same rations, and proved every hour of the day that the oath of allegiance she had taken was no empty vow. She did all the desk work, answering letters and telegrams, preparing all the official records for the Major, to be sent to Washington. Beside taking charge of the Red Cross supplies, distributing fruit and receiving visitors, she kept herself accurately informed of every man’s name and condition, for she had frequently to identify mothers’ sons for them, so sadly changed were they by the ravages of disease. So perfectly did she have this work in hand that, as each captain came to the hospital. she could lead him to his own men. Naturally systematic and possessed of more than ordinary executive ability, she was surely the right woman in the right place. She was always practical; and Moffett, in his magazine “Camp Stories,” thus spoke of her resourcefulness and her varied activities: ”She not only nursed the sick, but looked after accounts, made out hills, was clerk, dressmaker, and laundress, and kept such a mass of detail in her head that the nurses all went to her for all sorts of things, from a tooth-brush to a bottle of ginger ale.”
She kept at her post so long as a patient remained, and unfortunately brought with her to Boston the seeds of typhoid. Weakened by constant work day and night, she was brought very low by the illness, and for weeks ,it looked as if her devotion to duty was to cost her her life. But youth and vitality conquered, and she is to-day actively engaged in her profession, which she loves, and in which she has already made for herself a name.