Amelia Yeomans (née Le Sueur; March 29, 1842 – April 22, 1913) was a Canadian physician and suffragist. She and her adult daughter Lilian B. Yeomans, M.D., were the first female physicians in Manitoba.[1]
Amelia Yeomans | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Amelia Le Sueur March 29, 1842 Quebec City |
| Died | April 22, 1913 (aged 71) Calgary |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Spouse | Augustus A. Yeomans (1860-1878, his death) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Peter Le Sueur Barbara Dawson |
Early life and education
editYeomans was born on March 29, 1842, in Quebec City, Canada East, to Peter Le Sueur and Barbara Dawson. Her father was a civil servant. She was privately educated. Le Sueur married Augustus A. Yeomans, a medical doctor, on October 16, 1860, in Quebec City. They had two daughters.[2]
After Augustus's death in 1878, Amelia Yeomans, along with her daughter Lilian, decided to enter the medical profession.[2] Since Canadian medical schools did not accept women students, Yeomans and her daughter enrolled in the Ann Arbor Medical School at the University of Michigan. Yeomans received her degree in 1883. She then moved to Winnipeg, where Lilian was already practicing midwifery and medicine. Yeomans's second daughter, Charlotte, became a nurse and joined the family in Winnipeg in 1890.[3]
Career
edit
As physicians, Yeomans and her daughter frequently treated sex workers, homeless women, and others being held in the local jail. These experiences led Yeomans to write a pamphlet educating women about sexually transmitted diseases. The pamphlet was released by the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).[3]
The WCTU was the first English-speaking organization in Manitoba to espouse women's suffrage. In 1893, the first year of recorded WCTU activity, Yeomans served as an officer for the organization. On February 9, 1893, Yeomans and the WCTU staged a mock parliament in the Bijou Theatre in Winnipeg, organized by Arminda Myrtal Blakely, and invited the Manitoba legislature to attend.[4] Yeomans played the premier, while other members, including Nellie Letitia Monney and Ella Cora Hind, presented pro and con arguments.[2]
In 1894, Yeomans helped to form the Equal Franchise Association in Manitoba.[5]
Yeomans served as the provincial president of the WCTU from 1896 to 1897.[2]
Later life and death
editYeomans's daughter Charlotte moved to Calgary for work in 1904, and both Yeomans and Lilian followed her there.[2] Lilian would later become a pentecostal evangelist.[6]
Amelia Yeomans died on April 22, 1913, in Calgary.[7]
References
edit- ^ Carter, Sarah; McCormack, Patricia Alice (2011). Recollecting: Lives of Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Northwest and Borderlands. Athabasca University Press. p. 397. ISBN 978-1-897425-82-4.
- ^ a b c d e Vera K. Fast, "LE SUEUR, AMELIA," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed April 11, 2019.
- ^ a b "Manitoba History: "Give us our due!" How Manitoba Women Won the Vote". www.mhs.mb.ca. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
- ^ Cleverdon, Catherine L. (December 15, 1950). The Woman Suffrage Movement in Canada: Second Edition. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-5482-2.
- ^ "Historic Sites of Manitoba: Dr. Amelia Yeomans Plaque (Broadway, Winnipeg)". www.mhs.mb.ca. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
- ^ "Encountering the Great Physician: The Life and Ministry of Dr. Lilian B. Yeomans". Assemblies of God, Heritage. Vol. 35/36. 2015–2016. pp. 6–15.
- ^ "Dr. Amelia Yeomans Well Known Woman Physician Dies Here". Calgary Herald. April 23, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved April 7, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.