People

Legendary midwife, Orlean Puckett, delivered over 1,000 babies in the Appalachian Mountains of southern Virginia.

Victor Heiser was a flood survivor who went on to become a doctor helping to cure many diseases.

A physician and women's rights activist, Dr. Harriot K. Hunt pushed the boundaries in both her professional and social life. Hunt became renowned for her medical knowledge in treating women's illnesses, as well as for her yearly protests to the City of Boston, in which she petitioned for political representation.

Dr. Forbes Barclay operated the Fort Vancouver medical office and trade store from 1840 to 1850.

Jonathan N. Rucker was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1892. He graduated from medical school in 1916. He served in France with the 317th Motor Supply Train during World War One. After being honorably discharged he worked as an educator, doctor, minister, and civil rights activist in Gallatin, TN and Natchez, MS. He died on February 8, 1970 and was buried at the Gallatin Cemetery.

Hunloke Woodruff was a prominent surgeon and physician during the American Revolution and in his chosen home in Albany, NY. He was known as a skilled physician and generous neighbor. During the Siege of 1777 at Fort Schuyler, he was the American garrison's primary doctor and treated several dozen injuries.

Urbane F. Bass was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1880. He graduated from medical school and eventually started his medical practice in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was commissioned into the Army as a first lieutenant in 1917. During World War I, He served as a doctor in the 372nd Infantry Regiment during fighting near Beausejour, France, when he was hit by artillery fire at a forward aid station. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Aileen Cole was an African American nurse during World War I. She was one of eighteen Black nurses accepted into the Army Nurse Corps. Cole was stationed at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio on December 1, 1918. Though she arrived after the Armistice, she and other nurses helped troops infected with the Spanish Flu and those wounded overseas.

Della Keats was born in 1907 in Usualak, a settlement on the Noatak River, where her family participated in the Iñupiaq subsistence lifestyle. The seasonal camps that were home to Della and her people are the same lands now protected in Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Noatak National Preserve. She practiced subsistence throughout her life and would raise three children while working as a traditional healer.

Henry John Minthorn, physician, educator, missionary, and businessman, was the older brother of Hulda Minthorn, Herbert Hoover’s mother. Young Herbert lived with Dr. Minthorn and his family in Oregon from 1885 until 1891.