Suffolk-Middlesex County MA Archives Biographies.....Crumpler, Rebecca  February 8, 1831 - March 9, 1895
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
H. Lee Price tanutuva@rochester.rr.com April 2, 2016, 4:40 pm

Source: Author
Author: H. Lee Price


Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler, MD
B. 8 Feb 1831 in Chistiana, New Castle, Delaware.
D. 9 Mar 1895 in Hyde Park, Suffolk, Massachusetts

Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler, MD is the first African-American woman to earn the
Doctor of 
Medicine degree. Born in Christiana, Delaware to Matilda Webber and Absolum Davis,
she was 
raised in Pennsylvania by an aunt who cared for infirm neighbors. Rebecca later
attended West 
Newton English and Classical School in Massachusetts, one of the finest secondary
schools in the 
northeast at the time with students from all over the United States and and from
such far away 
places as Hawaii, Paris, Cuba, and China. 

She married Wyatt Lee, a Virginia native, on April 19, 1852 in Charlestown,
Massachusetts and 
began an eight year career as a nurse. A number of physicians with whom she worked
recognized 
her dedication and talent and encouged her to seek advanced medical training. On
their 
recommendation and advice she entered the New England Female Medical College in
Boston in 
1860 and was awarded the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1864. Her husband Wyatt had
died in 1863 
before her graduation. On May 24, 1865 in St. John, New Brunswick, Rebecca was again
married, 
this time to Arthur Crumpler. He was born in Virginia, but had served with the Union
Army having 
been drafted in Boston in 1863. 

Dr. Crumpler began to practice medicine in Boston, but at the close of the Civil War
she moved to 
Richmond, Virginia to serve the black community there as a medical missionary. In
Newcastle and 
Wilmington Delaware she served as a physician and teacher with the Freedman's
Bureau. By 1869 
she and Arthur had returned to Boston where she later opened a medical office at 67
Joy Street on 
Beacon Hill. In mid-December, 1870, their daughter, Lizzie Sinclair Crumpler, was
born at their 20 
Garden Street home.

By 1880 the couple had moved to Hyde Park, Massachusetts and it was there that Dr.
Crumpler 
researched and wrote "A Book of Medical Discourses: In Two Parts", which was
published in 1883. 
In it Crumpler briefly describes some of her early personal life and especially the
experiences that 
led her, first to nursing, and then to a career as a physician. Crumpler died on
March 9, 1895 in Hyde 
Park, and is buried nearby at Fairview Cemetery. Her husband, Arthur, survived her
and died in 
1910.

Bio by H. Lee Price (2016).


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