St. Clair County People of Interest


 

DR. RUTH SEEVERS (1883 – 1985)

Dr. Ruth Seevers
Photo was taken in 1906, the year Ruth graduated from the Missouri School of Medicine.
Photo submitted by: Carl Lightfoot.

Ruth Seevers was the daughter of Dr. John B. & Fidelia E. (Freeborn) Seevers. She was born 6 September 1883 and died 13 October 1985.

For further information, see Dr. John B.  Seevers and Dr. E. Watson Sullivan.

Historic Osceola Calendar, Limited Edition, 1995:

In 1881 Dr. John Seevers and his family moved to Osceola from Iowa. In 1890 they purchased the home now affectionately called “Dr. Ruth’s house”. (The home was built in ’83 to ’85.) Dr. Seevers practiced medicine there until his death in 1909. His youngest daughter Ruth graduated from University of Missouri Medical School in 1906 and joined her father’s practice. “Dr. Ruth” continued to practice medicine out of her home until her retirement in 1977 at the age of 94. Dr. Ruth lived to be 102 years old.

Picture from St. Clair County Library Files
Durl Barnett Collection

1900 St. Clair Co., MO Census – Osceola Twp., Osceola City:
Dist. 150, Page 9A, Line 37, 13 June
186/187 Seevers, John, head, white male, born June 1844, age 56, married 31 years, born IA, parents born OH, Physician, can read & write, speaks English, owned home free
Fidelia E., wife, white female, born June 1852, age 48, married 31 years, 7 children, 6 living, born OH, parents born OH, can read & write, speaks English
Iowa, daughter, white female, born August 1869, age 30, single, born IA, father born IA, mother born OH, teacher, employed 8 months, can read & write, speaks English
Roxie, daughter, white female, born August 1876, age 23, single, born IA, father born IA, mother born OH, teacher, employed 8 months, can read & write, speaks English
Ruth, daughter, white female, born September 1883, age 16, single, born MO, father born IA, mother born OH, at school 8 months, can read & write, speaks English
Glover, son, white male, born June 1893, age 7, single, born MO, father born IA, mother born OH, at school 8 months

1920 St. Clair Co., MO Census – Osceola Twp., Osceola Town:
Dist. 6, ED 146, Page 8B, 13 January, living on Poplar Street
70/75 Seevers, Fidelia E., head, owned home free, white female, age 68, widowed, can read & write, born OH, parents born OH, speaks English, no occupation
Iowa, daughter, white female, age 50, single, can read & write, born IA, father born IA, mother born OH, speaks English, no occupation
Ruth, daughter, white female, age 36, single, can read & write, born MO, father born IA, mother born OH, speaks English, Medical Physician, General Practice

1930 St. Clair Co., MO Census – Osceola Twp., Osceola City:
Dist. 10, ED 96-15, Page 8A, Line 8
196/217 Seevers, Iowa, head, owned home, $6000 value, owned radio set, not living on farm, white female, age 60, single, not attending school, can read & write, born IA, father born IA, mother born OH, speaks English, no occupation
Ruth, sister, white female, age 47, single, not attending school, can read & write, born MO, father born IA, mother born OH, speaks English, Physician, General Practice, at work yesterday

History from St. Clair County Library Files and Missouri Alumnus, by Jane E. Bennett:

Dr. Ruth Seevers
Just off the town square in Osceola is the Doctor's office. Old split bottom chairs are provided in the waiting room and Grandma Moses Prints hang on the walls.
The office belongs to Ruth Seevers, M.D. '06, who, at 90, is probably the oldest practicing woman physician in Missouri.
There has been a Dr. Seevers in Osceola since 1881. First was Dr. John Seevers and then his youngest daughter, Dr. Ruth. Ruth was his last hope in having someone follow in his footsteps, her siblings (four other daughters and a son) chose different directions.
Ruth liked to do for people and when her father brought the sick into his home for care, she liked helping them. She enjoyed going wih her father on his calls to "see what he did for the sick person".
They made the calls in a buggy drawn by Alice and Topsy. The horses were pure Hamiltonian sisters. The buggy was made comfortable with pillows, so the doctor could rest during his travels. If he were quite tired, young Ruth would drive.
Ruth's mother didn't want her to become a doctor. She thought the life was too hard, but "I was my father's girl, so I said I'd give it a try" Dr. Ruth recalls.
Ruth Seevers was willing to become a doctor but, for a time, the University of Missouri school of Medicine was not. The only requirement for entrance in 1902 was two years of high school Latin. Osceola High school offered only one.
She went to Columbia anyway. The University entrance examiner interviewed her and discovered Ruth's latin course had covered the first two books of Caesar. They accepted her and study began.
She remembers her four years at the University as filled with "hard mental work". Dr. Seevers started her medical education by taking chemistry, physics, anatomy, bacteriology, physiology, embryology and pathology. No English, history or music appreciation were included in her curriculum, although she did take a course in climatology - weather forecasting.
"We went to class at eight in the morning and went to school six days a week. We were supposed to have Thursday afternoon off, but we were usually far enough behind in laboratory work that we had to put in that time, too."
She was elected president of her freshman class which was composed of 25 students. At graduation time in 1906, only six students had completed the four year course. She was the first woman to graduate from University of Missouri School of Medicine.
"Money was kind of scarce, so I graduated from medical school in my high school graduation dress. My sister made it for me, and it was white with lace insets."
Dr. Seevers returned to Osceola for two years of preceptorship with an older doctor, a requirement at that time for becoming an M.D. The older doctor was her father, Dr. John Seevers.
"When I came home from Columbia, I got off the train at 3 o'clock. At 4:30, I was on my way to my first call. I've never been really idle since." Her first call was to help a woman with articular rheumatism, known today as arthritis. Dr. Seevers put ice packs on the woman's swollen joints, administered some drugs and something to ease the pain. She took her dog in the buggy with her as she made house calls. He would carry her small medicine box, raising his head so that it would not drag the ground.
Dr. Ruth's father died three years after she completed medical school. The horses, Alice and Topsy, became hers. To keep warm during the cold buggy rides, Dr. Seevers used a lap blanket made of an Angus steer hide, lined with velvet. Many house calls were made over the years with horse and buggy until she purchased her first automobile in 1917, a Model T Ford. "If I got stuck in the mud, a couple of farm wagons would come by and help me out, and on I'd go." She usually covered a radius of 15 miles - farther than that and she ran into another doctor's territory.
Dr. Seevers prepared prescriptions, taking the pills from plastic jars conveniently placed beside her chair on the floor of her consultation room. She wrote each person's name, name of medication and directions on the envelope containing the medication.
Appointments were not scheduled. Patients come in and wait their turn. The office opened about 10 o'clock each morning and remained open until about 4:30 in the winter. Some days there were two or three patients, other days 25 to 30.
Dr. Ruth retired in 1977.

St. Clair County Library Files
Durl Barnett Collection

Obituary:
St. Clair County Library Files
Longtime physician, Dr. Ruth dead at 102
Osceola and St. Clair County residents are mourning the loss of a long-serving citizen.
Dr. Ruth Seevers, who was 102 only last month, died Sunday (October 13, 1985) at Truman Lake Manor Nursing Home in Lowry City.
“Doc Ruth”, as many referred to her, was born Sept. 6, 1883 in Osceola and practiced medicine in the area from 1906 until she retired in 1977.
She was one of the county’s distinguished residents being the first woman to graduate from the University of Missouri School of Medicine in 1906.
Doc Ruth followed in the footsteps of her father, who had been a doctor in the Osceola area since 1882. She said in a 1975 interview that her father offered to pay for her medical education if she promised to complete her education before marrying.
She never married and graduated from the medical school in 1906 as president of her class. She returned to her home of Osceola and immediately began to practice using a horse and buggy to travel across St. Clair Counties and the surrounding.
She graduated from Osceola High School in 1902.
Doc Ruth devoted her lifetime of service to many a community organizations. She had been a member of the St. Clair County Library Board until she retired in May 1978.
She also served on the Sac-Osage Hospital Board and Osceola School Board.
She was a former member of the Osceola Cemetery Association, the St. Clair County Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Osceola Garden Club and the Sac-Osage and Springfield, MO Button clubs.
She was a member of the Osceola Presbyterian Church.
She was a former member of the Order of the Eastern Star in Osceola and was a member of the local chapter of Business and Professional Women.
She was commissioned a Missouri Squire in 1963.
She is survived by a nephew, Dr. John J. Sullivan, Osceola; a niece, Mrs. Eleanor Lightfoot Jones, Lamar, CO; her sister-in-law, Mrs. J. Glover Seevers, Lamar, CO; George Hampton, Osceola; great nieces and nephews.



St. Clair Co., MO Cemetery Records:

Osceola Cemetery
Seevers, Austin Flint, 22 May 1881 – 2 October 1882
Seevers, Dr. John, 30 June 1843 – 27 July 1909
Seevers, Dr. Ruth, M.D., 6 September 1883 – 13 October 1985
Seevers, Fidelia Esther, 29 June 1851 – 28 November 1926
Seevers, Iowa, 21 August 1868 – no death date
Seevers, Lola Conant, 9 October 1893 – 22 July 1918

St. Clair County Library Files
Durl Barnett Collection

Ruth Seevers (right) was a sophomore in 1903-04 when this picture of her medical class was taken. The woman on the left is Carolyn McGill, who was a student assistant in physiology. She graduated a year after Dr. Ruth and became a well-known diagnostician.