Licking-Stark-Champaign County OhArchives Biographies.....Lucy (Gilbreath) Harkey-Adams May 31 1853 - January 13 1909
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ohfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Doug Gilliland genealogy@dougstheology.org February 25, 2004, 11:17 am

Author: Doug Gilliland gg-grandson of Lucy Gilbreath

Lucy Angeline Gilbreath was born May 31, 1853 in Eastern Ohio. Lucy's mother, 
Louisa Ann Gray, was from Senevaville (Guernsey County), Ohio. Lucy was the 
daughter of a Lutheran minister, Rev James Logan Gilbreath, and the 
granddaughter of a Methodist minister, Rev. Robert Gilbreath, who were both 
active preachers in Eastern Ohio. Lucy was probably born in either Guernsey Co 
(possibly Millersburgh) or Noble Co since these are the areas that her father 
was a pastor at when she was born.

Most of Lucy's childhood was spent in Newark, Ohio where her father was a 
pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church from 1860-1870. In the 1860 census the 
family is living in Licking County, Washington Twp., Ohio. In the 1870 US 
Census the family is in Licking County, Newark, Second Ward of Newark City, 
Ohio. It seems likely that her father and mother stayed put in that area while 
Lucy was growing up, perhaps to give her a stable childhood.

In 1870 Lucy's family moved to Fayette County, Illinois where Lucy is shown as 
a member of the Loogootee Lutheran Church in Wheatland Township, Fayette 
County along with her mother. She met the man who would become her first 
husband, Jacob H Harkey at Loogootee Lutheran, where she lived from 1870 to 
1875. The Gilliland family preserves a picture of Jacob and Lucy together from 
around 1875 - it was possibly a wedding portrait.

There was some trouble at the Loogootee Lutheran church and her father's 
health was failing so the couple moved back to Newark, Ohio in 1875 with 
Lucy's father and mother.

Lucy and Jacob had their only child, Mary Louisa, in Newark, Ohio. Jacob died 
of tuberculosis when their daughter was one year old. Lucy lived with her 
mother and father in Urbana and Newark, Ohio. She and her mother ran a 
millinery and dressmaking. Lucy's father died in 1880, when she was 17 years 
old. Lucy and her mother were close to Rev. William Gilbreath, Lucy's father's 
brother. Her uncle was with the family when her father passed away and wrote 
several touching obituaries for Lucy's father, Rev. James Logan Gilbreath.

Another uncle was important in the next phase of Lucy's life. Another of her 
father's brothers was Dr. Joseph Pendleton Gilbreath, of Fallsburg, Licking 
County, Ohio. He was a physician in the area for 51 years until his death in 
1904. He encouraged Lucy in her medical pursuits and she assisted him in his 
medical operations.  Dr. Lucy Angeline Gilbreath became one of the first women 
physicians in the US. She may have been the first female physician in the 
state of Ohio. 

Lucy received her medical training at the Woman's Hospital in New York City. 
In 1889, she was a physician at the Woman's Medical Clinic of Cleveland, Ohio. 
Like her travelling ministery father, she went on a circuit practice where she 
visited many Ohio cities such as Urbana, Cambridge, Chillicothe, etc. Part of 
her cures was to prescribe a custom fitting corset which would be constructed 
by her assistant. Perhaps her years as a dressmaker were now paying off? 
Initially her assistant was a female, but she later had a male assistant, a 
Mr. Walter T. Adams, who is later (1891) was listed as Dr. Walter T. Adams. 
Walter not only did measurements for coursets, he also performed electrolysis 
on unsightly hair of patients.

In Feb 1887, Lucy sold her property, the south half of Lot 171, in Newark, for 
2000.

In August 1888, she had a fierce battle with a neighbor when Lucy's dog bit 
the neighbor and the neighbor insisted that the dog be put down. The dog was 
tried and found guilty. It received the captial sentence. Lucy then retaliated 
by sueing the neighbor who's dogs were also often loose. She lost the case, 
but it did create a lot of public comedy in the local paper.

Mrs. Dr. Lucy Harkey-Adams opened a Women's Health Institute in Zanesville 
sometime before June 1890.

She spent six months at St. Vincent's Hospital sometime before May 1891.

In Canton, Ohio, in 1897 she was arrested as a quack and about 5 March 1897 
she was convicted. Sentenace was suspended pending the consideration of a 
motion for a new trial.


This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ohfiles/

File size: 4.7 Kb