BIOGRAPHY: Gertrude Hammond Harper; Monsey, Rockland co., New York

transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for USGenWeb Archives

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Portrait and Biographical Record of Rockland and Orange Counties New York
Containing Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens of the Counties.
Together with Biographies and Portraits of all the Presidents of the United
States.
New York and Chicago; Chapman Publishing Co., 1895

GERTRUDE HAMMOND HARPER, M. D. The general public is not familiar with woman
in the leading professions, and until recently her appearance there has met
with considerable opposition, but the general public is not slow to recognize
merit wherever found, and the result is that woman, when once thoroughly
qualified, no longer has to combat public opinion, but finds her patrons among
the most intellectual and refined. That such is the case is due, in no small
degree, to the efforts of Dr. Harper, the pioneer lady physician of New York,
who at the outset of her career met with distrust and opposition, but who
gained the victory and established a place for women in the medical profession
in this state.

Dr. Harper studied the profession under her first husband, Dr. Gerard B.
Hammond, formerly one of the most successful physicians of Rockland County. He
was born at North Tarrytown, June 14, 1824, and on the maternal side traced
his ancestry to Cornelia Beeckman, granddaughter of Lady Beeckman. The family
is also connected with the Van Rensselaers, who owned immense tracts of land
and large estates in Westchester County, together with the manor house known
as Phillips Manor at Tarrytown. Dr. Hammond remained in the vicinity of
Tarrytown until eighteen years old, and there he attended the public schools;
he also for a time had a private instructor. He studied medicine with Dr. Law
at Tarrytown, and for four years followed the sea, being ship physician on the
"Lady Franklin." Upon settling in Rockland County, he soon gained a large
practice, extending to Nyack, Ramapo, Haverstraw and other places, and
requiring the use of four horses. He died April 5, 1876, and was buried in Oak
Hill Cemetery, Nyack.

Our subject, who was born in Vienna, Austria, came to America a political
refugee, at the age of twenty-two, and settled at Monsey, Rockland County.
Under her first husband's guidance she made a study of the medical profession,
and in 1865 was graduated from the New York Medical College for Women, being
the only graduate at the time. Her diploma, received the following year, was
given her only after great opposition on the part of male physicians, who,
though conceding that she was entitled to it, thought that a woman should not
be allowed to practice. She has always advocated the doctrine of woman's
advancement in the intellectual world, and has been the means of putting in
motion a series of events that have culminated in giving a place to women in
the professions. Hers it has been to fight the battle; her successors will
reap the advantage of her labors.

As a proof of the success Dr. Harper has met with in the profession, it may be
mentioned that, out of more than twenty-five hundred cases obstetrics, she has
never lost one - a record equalled by no physician in the state. In addition
to other qualifications for the profession, she has a peculiar and wonderful
gift of hypnotism, and possesses remarkable power over the mind as well as
matter. Without the use of medicine she can accomplish much toward relieving
pain and quieting the distressed. She has a large practice in Spring Valley,
where she resides, and is well known throughout the entire county. She is
gifted with an evenly balanced mind, a strong character, steady nerve, keen
eye, and the firm but gentle touch of the true physician, and her success
vindicates her choice of a profession, if vindication is needed.