The Doctor Wore Petticoats: Women Physicians of the Old West Read Online Free

to western Nebraska. Taken in by the beauty of the land and its wide-open spaces, she settled down on a forty-acre homestead along the North Platte River, near Gering. After building herself a home, she offered her services to the sick and ailing in the community. She was called to attend to ranchers with broken bones and torn flesh, children with the flu and pneumonia, and the elderly suffering with arthritis.
    The novelty of a woman doctor on the male-dominated frontier did not escape the attention of the curious westerners. Georgia once responded to a call to set a cowboy’s broken limb. After riding 18 miles, she found that the man wasn’t hurt at all; he merely wanted to see a lady doctor. Doctor Arbuckle charged the man for the visit and scolded him for keeping her from someone who might really be in need.
    In 1888, a legitimate call to help a deathly ill man with typhoid fever changed the young doctor’s life. When she arrived at the patient’s home, the man introduced himself as Gwynn Fix. The two were quite smitten with one another. Georgia was attracted to Gwynn’s soft voice, blue eyes, and black hair. He was charmed by her kindness and her attention. Within six months after they met, the two were married. After a short honeymoon at Georgia’s place, the Fixes moved their home to a tree-lined plot of land 7 miles away. Gwynn worked the land and Georgia continued on with her practice. For a while they were happy.
    Oftentimes, the patients in Doctor Arbuckle Fix’s practice did not pay her in dollars and cents. She was paid in wood for her stove, fresh fruit, poultry, eggs, butter, and cattle. Five years after Georgia opened her medical practice, she had earned thousands of eggs, a flock of chickens, and more than one hundred head of cattle. Gwynn was pleased with his wife’s success, but he was becoming increasingly frustrated with the time she spent away from him while she was doing her job.
    He felt that Georgia should cut back on her workload and devote herself to creating a proper home, but Georgia lacked the talent and the desire to live out her days as a traditional housewife. She was beyond child-bearing years and acutely aware of the many medical needs in Douglas County. She was unwilling to give Gwynn what he wanted, and the marriage suffered greatly as a result. Gwynn’s attention shifted from Georgia to politics and visits to the saloon. As he drifted further and further away, Georgia focused more and more on her patients.
    The lack of medical supplies in the rural area forced Doctor Arbuckle Fix to create inventive ways to handle serious injuries. She set a busted hand using a shingle for a splint, and mended a fractured skull using a coin as a protective plate. On those rare occasions when Georgia lost a patient, she attended to their needs after they had passed away. Compassionate to the end, she helped with the burial and even gave the eulogy.
    Her reputation as a doctor was solid, but as a wife it was shaky. The more time she spent away from Gwynn on house calls, the more gossip circulated that she was involved with another man. Gwynn generated much of the gossip himself. By 1909, Doctor Arbuckle Fix had had enough and filed for divorce. Gwynn countersued and before the scandal could be resolved, he left the county, taking with him the livestock Georgia had received as payment for her work.
    Georgia survived her failed marriage and was determined to never again get involved with anyone who expected her to make concessions with her career. Her devotion at that point was solely on her beloved dogs and her practice.
    In 1910, Doctor Arbuckle Fix converted an old barn into a sanitarium. It was a place where patients could undergo physical or spiritual treatment and stay as long as they wanted. One of the first patients was a cowhand struggling with a toothache. Georgia was awakened late at night by the urgent cry of a man in great pain. He couldn’t wait for the itinerant dentist to make his way