Pioneering doctor was a social reformer
Star Tribune
July 30, 2005
By Susan E. Peterson
Though her accomplishments have largely faded into obscurity, Dr. Martha Ripley played a crucial role in helping to turn a rough-and-tumble Minnesota milling center into a civilized city.
Ripley was a social reformer as well as a pioneering maternity doctor. At the Minneapolis maternity hospital she founded in 1886, her patients came from all walks of life, from the wealthy to the destitute, and she insisted on treating unwed mothers, a scandalous notion in the 1880s. She was among the first to offer hospital deliveries and natural childbirth options to her patients, with impressive results -- her hospital's maternal death rate was a quarter of the average at that time.
Born in 1843 to a Vermont farm family, she married a Massachusetts mill owner, had three daughters and became a leader of the New England women's suffrage movement, according to a 1964 biography of Ripley written by Winton Solberg. She spent part of her time nursing the mill workers and their families, and after a child in her care died of the croup, she became determined to study medicine. At the age of 37 she enrolled in the Boston University School of Medicine, graduating with honors three years later.
After her husband was injured in a mill accident, she moved her family to Minnesota and opened her medical practice in downtown Minneapolis, becoming the family breadwinner. She focused on reducing the deaths of mothers and babies in childbirth, establishing sanitary practices such as hemming her skirts shockingly short -- above the floor -- and keeping her hair cut short for practicality.
"She didn't care what people thought of her -- she was interested in making sure things got done, and got done right," said Ripley's great-granddaughter, Jacqui Gardner of Minnetonka, who heard stories from her grandmother, Martha Ripley's daughter. "She was a very stalwart person, firm in her beliefs -- my grandmother was the same way."
As demand for maternity services grew, Ripley moved her hospital to a larger site in north Minneapolis in 1896. In 1911 she began a $50,000 fund drive for a new main hospital, but she died before the building was completed in 1915. Her ashes are embedded in the hospital's cornerstone (she was an early crusader for cremation, too).
The hospital continued to operate until the 1950s, when it was sold to a nursing home operator. Proceeds of the sale were used to establish the Ripley Memorial Foundation, which these days is focused on funding programs for preventing teenage pregnancies, said Paula Soholt, president of the foundation's board.
The foundation is supporting the hospital property's redevelopment, Soholt said. "We appreciate the historic preservation, and we appreciate that families and children will benefit," she said. And the recognition for a remarkable historic figure is a welcome plus.
"Dr. Ripley was a pioneer in so many areas," Soholt said. "We wouldn't have the opportunity to be working women today if it wasn't for her and others like her."
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