THE RISE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE

 By Caroline Clemmons

I’ve enjoyed Angela Rains posts on early women doctors in Colorado. She always posts interesting information. So, copying her, I intended to highlight early women doctor in Texas.  I’ve done enough genealogy to know that the story family passes down, frequently gets convoluted into something else. My intention was to feature the sister of someone who married into my father’s family.

The family story is that Necolena “Lena” Snedal McCrarary was one of the first women osteopaths in Texas and the first one to practice in North Central Texas. Following the birth of her children, she moved to Beeville, Texas, where she and another doctor purchased on old hotel and turned it into a hospital and clinic. When her daughter Evalyn joined her and the other partner retired, Lena and her daughter continued to operate the hospital and clinic. Finding corroborating records has been… not easy.

Here’s what I found instead:

In Beeville, Texas, Dr. Christian Bors-Hall, an osteopathic physician and surgeon, purchased the old Thurston Hospital on January 1, 1944, and operated it under the name of Bors Clinic. In 1958, Dr. Evalyn Kennedy, daughter of Dr. Lena McCraray (both osteopathic physicians and surgeons), bought the clinic and is presently operating the business. (Dr. Evalyn McCrarary Kennedy died in 2002.) An earlier osteopathic physician here was Dr. Catherine Compton, and when she moved to San Antonio in 1927, Dr. McCraray took over her patients. 

Lena McCrarary, D.O.

What I think I know is this:

Nicolena Snedal was born 17 May 1879 to Andrew/Andreas and Guru Anna Snedal, who had come from Frosta, Norway, two years earlier. Lena graduated in 1905 from A. T. Still’s American College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Missouri. She first practiced medicine in Hardeman County between Quanah and Vernon, Texas.  

In 27 February 1908, she married Dozier Alonzo McCrarary. They became the parents of twin girls in 1909,Lena Rivers McCrarary and Elizabeth W. McCrarary. In 1910 Troy Bivens McCrary was born. Evalyn Blanche McCrary was born in 1920. Lena moved to the coastal area of Bee County, where her brother Haakon Snedal lived. Soon, she divorced her husband.

In Beeville, she established a very successful medical practice. Eventually, her daughter Evalyn joined her practice. Lena continued to practice medicine until shortly before her death in 1961.

Osteopathic Medicine

Beginning as a reformation movement in search of an alternative to standard medical practice, osteopathy claims a formal beginning in 1874 with Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO. A frontier physician known as the “Father of Osteopathy,” Dr. Still served an apprenticeship under his father and referred to himself as a licensed frontier physician (MD) and went on to establish the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri. 

While medical schools and male medical doctors were (in general) still resistant to female doctors, osteopathic medicine (in general) accepted women.

Early nineteenth century osteopathic philosophies, such as shifting the treatment of medical conditions away from prescription medicine and focusing on utilizing a whole body approach to treatment, are widespread in current health care practices. Publications of pamphlets and postcards from these early years showcase fundamental osteopathic principles and provide historical references about the practice of osteopathic physicians and early osteopathic hospitals, infirmaries, and sanitariums. Preservation of these physical artifacts extends the collective record of medical history and lays the foundation for current osteopathic medical practices.

In these early years, osteopathic information was circulated by way of pamphlets, leaflets, and brochures. The archives in the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences D’Angelo Library contain pamphlets and postcards that predate or are contemporary to the first published osteopathic medical history. These early publications have been designed with striking illustrations and photographs and describe new (at the time) medical theories such as the interrelated nature of bodily systems and musculoskeletal treatment techniques (e.g., osteopathic manual manipulation), with an overall emphasis on wellness and disease prevention.

Dr. Stanhope Bunting became a pioneer for disseminating early osteopathic information. He became impressed with Dr. Still’s movement after travelling to Kirksville, Missouri, to write a story for a Chicago newspaper in the mid-1890s. He eventually enrolled in the school and graduated in 1900, setting up a practice in Chicago and beginning two monthly publications, Osteopathic Physician for the practitioner only and Osteopathic Health for the general public. These publications document historical philosophies and practices of osteopathic medicine.

 

Sources:

Ancestry.com

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6920009/