Matilda Towsley and Della Pierce

Early Physicians Served Kalamazoo Area

In 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree. During this time period the field of medicine was primarily a male profession. Women traveled the countryside as midwives, delivering babies and performing many other tasks that doctors performed, but midwives were poorly paid and were not considered professionals because they lacked a professional education. The professionalization of the medical field in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s led to stricter educational standards for aspiring physicians. This was another factor that favored men over women, because fewer women earned medical degrees during that time, although there were nursing schools and even medical colleges for women. Many medical schools simply refused to accept women. The social mores of the time still pushed women toward raising a family, not pursuing graduate degrees and professional employment. Still, in the late 1800’s more women in the United States began to enter the world of professional medicine. In the Kalamazoo area, Matilda Towsley and Della Pierce practiced medicine in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Matilda Towsley

Matilda Towsley was born in Niagara County, New York on 12 February 1831. She was educated at a ladies academy in Lewiston, New York. Then she moved to Wisconsin, where she earned a degree from Milton College, and taught school at an academy for several years. She studied medicine at the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia, graduating in 1869. After receiving her degree, she spent some time doing hospital work in Boston and New York. She came to Kalamazoo in late 1869 or 1870.

Matilda Towsley practiced medicine in Kalamazoo for over 30 years. She was a member of the National Medical Association and the Michigan State Medical Society. She was one of the original members of the Kalamazoo Academy of Medicine. Her practice focused on treating children. She continued to serve as physician for a few patients for years after she had retired. Her brother, L.D. Towsley, was reputed to be an agent of the Underground Railroad. Towsley died on 2 April 1915.

Della Pierce

Della Pierce was born Priscilla Adelle Pierce on 13 February 1854 in Granby, Oswego County, New York. Pierce grew up in an octagon shaped home with a view of nearby Lake Neahtawanta, as well as the trains of the Oswego and Syracuse railway pulling into the Phillipsville station. She attended school at the Folly Seminary in Fulton, New York. In 1870 she moved to Midland, Michigan. In 1871 she taught school in nearby Coleman. In 1877 she entered Albion College, graduating in 1877. She applied to Boston University Medical School, but accepted a teaching position in Canfield Ohio before learning that the university had awarded her a scholarship. She never attended Boston University because the Canfield school board refused to release her from the contract.

She spent the next several years trying to raise enough money to attend the University of Michigan Medical School. She taught for ten years in Canfield, eventually becoming principal. Then she worked as a bookkeeper at Burnham, Spaulding and Co. in Saginaw for 5 years. Finally, in 1886 she enrolled in medical school at the University of Michigan. When she earned her doctor of medicine degree at the University of Michigan in 1890, she was one of the first women to do so. For two years she served as superintendent of the Women’s Hospital in Saginaw. In that capacity she organized the training school.

In 1893 she moved to Kalamazoo and began practicing medicine. She was one of the first female doctors in Kalamazoo, focusing on treating women and children. For many years her home and office was located at 109 W. Lovell Street, which became the site of the State Theater. Up until weeks before her death at 81 years of age in 1935, Pierce continued to practice medicine. Like Matilda Towsley, Della Pierce was an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, the Michigan State Medical Society, and the Kalamazoo Academy of Medicine.

Expanding female gender roles

Women such as Matilda Towsley and Della Pierce had to struggle against the prejudices against women entering professional medicine that were perpetuated by the religious and social mores in American society. These early female physicians pushed the boundaries of traditional gender roles and set a precedent for expanding the role of women in the workplace and in higher education. Although men continued to dominate the ranks of physicians well into the 20^th century, these early medical pioneers still served as symbols of progress toward social equality for women.

Written by Jerry Marshall, former Kalamazoo Public Library Intern, December 2009. Page updated and published 15 April 2026.