My 2nd great-grandmother,
Nancy Smith Johnson, was a Granny Woman. She practiced midwifery and the healing arts in the hills and hollows of Donald County, Missouri. Her obituary notes, "The nights were never too dark nor the times
too hard for Nancy Johnson to willingly lend a helping hand in time of need.
She could count the dozens of babies she helped into the world and the lives
she practically saved. Her cheerful disposition and pleasant smile made her
most enjoyable to all around her."
Nancy was short and petite,
with black hair, a thin face, a sharp jutting chin, and high cheekbones. She
bore five children: Chloe Adele, Eva Oder, Otis Benjamin, Ollie Francis, and
Osie May. She passed away in 1949 at Rocky Comfort, Missouri. Her parents were
Benjamin Franklin and Anna Smith. Here is a photo of her with her daughter, Ollie.
Her Smith family sailed from
England to settle in the British Colonies before migrating to Northern
Missouri. Here is a photo of the Benjamin Smith family.
In 1943, her daughter, Ollie, returned to the old home place to care for Nancy. This photo is of Nancy, her husband, Tom, Ollie, Ollie's son and two sons. The little boy standing is my father.
Women have always been the
backbone of families. They served many roles, including caring for their children, husbands, elderly parents, siblings, neighbors, and friends.
Homemakers did not need a job outside the home, for homemaking included
everything from making soap and doing the laundry to caring for the needy and
the ill to helping perform the farm work when needed.
In days long gone, women
learned from their mothers and grandmothers how to care for the sick and help
bring babies into the world. Their medicine usually came from the earth; the
plants, flowers, and trees provided remedies to cure the sick and afflicted.
The most knowledgeable and
experienced of these women were healers and midwives, often called Granny
Women. They were known everywhere for their giving service and helping hands.
Folks depended upon them to come when the need arose, and they relied on the
Granny Woman's unique knowledge of herbs, roots, and concoctions. Those women
had the skills and the wisdom to use the native plants for healing.
In the early days, doctors sometimes
traveled a great distance to reach a patient, which was a hindrance for the gravely ill. Before the turn of the century, many doctors needed
to be trained about germs and their deadly consequences. The states lacked
standardized licensing requirements, and the quality of their education varied,
so their medical practices were managed with crude effectiveness.
Many women preferred the
familiar Granny Woman to treat them with mild herbal remedies and deliver their
babies. Traditional midwives met the concern for modesty during the birthing
process, an important consideration in areas where the use of male doctors
might offend an entire community.
Some midwives carried a
"midwife's book" to reference when complicated childbirth procedures
arose. Sometimes, they used superstitious rituals to give mothers psychological
relief, such as having the mother hold something that belonged to her husband
to symbolically bring him into the delivery room. Their use of herbal remedies
and teas helped speed up the birth process. Still, they might also use morphine
tablets or quinine if the medicine was available.
After the baby's birth,
the Granny Woman might stay a week or longer to help with the housework and
allow the new mother time to heal.
Many times, Granny Women were not paid with
money. Instead, they accepted whatever offering the family could provide at the
time, possibly giving her meat or chickens, vegetables from the garden, or
enough material to make a dress. If the family had nothing, that was all right,
too.
As midwives became certified
within their home state, they could charge money to attend births. The going
rate in 1906 was $3.00. Granny Women knew how to prepare
herbs, roots, tree bark, and other native plants and flowers to make healing
ointments, teas, poultices, and concoctions.
For example, Southwest
Missouri Ozarks midwives combined sage, peppermint, black walnut, slippery elm
bark, pokeroot, horseradish, elderberries, and dill weed with honey, black
strap molasses, lard, onions, vinegar, and whiskey to make tonics, potions,
plasters, poultices, and teas. Many a child with an earache had tobacco smoke blown into their ears as a cure. (I’m one of those children.)
The Missouri Medical College
was initially organized in 840 as the Medical Department of Kemper College. It
was the first medical school established west of the Mississippi River. In
1845, it became the Medical Department of the University of Missouri. There are
a few midwives listed on the Missouri History Program website, all of whom
lived in St. Louis, Missouri, for the years 1888-1892.
The American Medical
Association was founded in 1847, and doctors eventually began to resent
midwives. They looked upon the granny women as competition for business. The
medical profession grew and insisted upon education, standard examination
procedures, and licensing requirements for all practicing physicians. Doctors
waged a campaign throughout the nation to run midwives out of business. They
portrayed the women as being ignorant of medical procedures and lacking
cleanliness.
Even though European
countries were establishing schools of midwifery, American doctors were
refusing to admit women to medical schools. When the American Medical
Association demanded that all people practicing medicine be trained and
licensed, midwifery was demolished.
However, Granny Women
continued to use their skills to serve their communities into the twentieth
century. Ozark's folklorists have collected information about these women and
their healing practices.
Until the New Deal programs
and World War II changed the region's financial system and transportation, bad
roads and the lack of money forced most country people to rely on native
remedies prepared by the family's womenfolk.
Eventually, pregnant women
began to enter hospitals to give birth, and Granny Women went by the wayside.
The science of medicine scoffed at the nurturing and holistic care midwives provided
for their family, friends, and neighbors.
The era of women's healing art in domestic medicine is now history. But if we look closely into our family history, we will find Granny Women.
Among the McDonald County
Historical Museum acquisitions, I found a midwife certificate. Issued on
October 20, 1884, at the State Board of Health in Hannibal, Missouri, it
certifies that Mrs. Delphia Hall Laughlin had practiced midwifery for ten years
and was legally authorized to practice in the state. Laughlin received her
certificate at Powell, Missouri, on January 1, 1885.
Today, midwifery is an
internationally recognized profession. The American College of Nurse-Midwives
includes the primary health care of women and their newborn children. A
Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) is a woman who is educated in nursing and
midwifery and who has certification according to the requirements of the
American College of Nurse-Midwives.
The nurse-midwifery practice
manages women's health care, focusing on pregnancy, childbirth, the postpartum
period, care of the newborn, and the family planning and gynecological needs of
women. The Certified Nurse-Midwife practices within a health care system that
provides consultation, collaborative management, or referral as shown by the
client's health status.
Despite the evolution of
medicine, Granny Women continued to practice the healing arts that had been
handed down from mother to daughter. Instilled in the women, they did whatever
was necessary to care for their family and friends, in sickness and health.
The herb garden was grown
right alongside the vegetable garden. In the fields and woods, native plants,
trees, and flowers grew abundantly, offering healing properties for those who
gathered and gleaned.
In this modern world, some scoff
at and become quite angry with the thought of people seeking holistic health
and "folk," "home," or "natural" remedies. And,
of course, after doctors spend countless years of study and pay for it all,
they do not want to hear of someone seeking backwoods cures.
But herbs are a big industry.
Herbal stores and natural food stores run a brisk business. Women have always
known how to care for themselves. I remember my grandmothers using herbs and
plants to put a meal on the table and to heal what ailed us. I remember the
herb garden near the smokehouse in the old home. I'm proud to have documentation of a Granny Woman in my family history, and I celebrate my 2nd
great-grandmother, Nancy Smith Johnson.
References for this article
Missouri History Museum:
Genealogy and Local History Index
Missouri Medical College
(http://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/missouri); an online workshop, "Herbal
Lore and The Historic Medicinal Uses of Herbs"
The obituary of Nancy Johnson
from the Wheaton Journal on DVD, courtesy of the MO Historical Society, of
which I own a copy
Disclaimer: In
writing this article, I make no claims to persuade people to choose folk
remedies over a medical doctor should a person have an illness. I write
historical articles about exciting topics and especially enjoy researching
women and history. With that in mind, I will give you information about
midwifery in Southwest Missouri.
