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Hettie Kersey Painter (June 2, 1821 – August 8, 1889) was an American physician who served as a nurse in the American Civil War, organizing the first Union army hospital south of the Potomac River. She graduated from Penn Medical University in 1860. Later in life, she owned and operated a clinic in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Early life and education

Painter was born Esther Kersey in Philadelphia to Joseph and Charity Kersey (née Cope). Her grandfather was Jesse Kersey, a respected Quaker Hicksite minister. Her parents died when she was 7, and she was adopted and raised by her uncle and aunt, Mordecai and Esther Hayes, of Newlin Township, Pennsylvania.

In March 1840, Hattie married Joseph H. Painter of West Chester. In 1846, the couple moved to Massillon, Ohio, where they participated in the temperance movement, the women's suffrage movement, and the Underground Railroad. The Painters had two sons, J. K. and L. M. Painter. In 1852, they returned to Philadelphia and then moved to Camden, New Jersey. She enrolled in Penn Medical University and graduated with an MD degree in 1860.

Civil War service

When the American Civil War broke out, Painter volunteered her services as a nurse to the Union army. Under the auspices of General Philip Kearny, she established the first Union army hospital south of the Potomac River, at a seminary near Manassas, and led a medical team of 40 men. After the First Battle of Bull Run, she followed the army, working in hospitals and on battlefields and receiving commissions from the governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. General Ulysses S. Grant granted her free passage on all railroads and steamboats operating against Richmond, ordering his officers to assist her. Painter managed hospitals, cared for wounded men, wrote letters for them, and distributed medical and commissary supplies. When the war ended in 1865, she continued to work in Virginia and Washington, D.C., hospitals, often accompanying sick and wounded soldiers to their homes or civilian hospitals.

Later career and death

In 1868, Painter traveled to the western territories, visiting her sons, who worked for the Union Pacific Railroad in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Corinne, Utah. After recovering from a serious illness, she established a large, respected medical practice in the Salt Lake City area, treating family members of California governor John Bigler and Mormon leaders Brigham Young and John Sharp. After her health broke down again, she moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where her husband edited a semi-monthly farm journal, Nebraska Patron. She established an infirmary for chronic cases, attracting patients from Connecticut to California. The U.S. government granted her a pension for her wartime service in 1888. She died of heart disease in Lincoln on August 8, 1889.

Nebraska's Daughters of Union Veterans named two of the organization's tents in her honor: H. K. Painter Tent #1 in 1990 and Tent #37 in 1936.

References

1. ^ Atwater, Edward C. (2016). Women Medical Doctors in the United States before the Civil War: A Biographical Dictionary. University of Rochester Press. pp. 229–231. doi:10.7722/j.ctt2111fgc.22. ISBN 978-1-58046-571-7.
2. ^ Andreas, A. T. (1882). History of the State of Nebraska. Chicago: The Western Historical Company. Part 19. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
3. "Memorial of Hettie Kersey Painter". Friends' Intelligencer and Journal. 48 (48): 755–756. 1891-11-28.
4. ^ Graf, Mercedes (2010). On the Field of Mercy: Women Medical Volunteers from the Civil War to the First World War. Amherst, NY: Humanity Books. pp. 64–66. ISBN 978-1-59102-327-2.
5. "Hall of Fame: Dr. Hettie Kersey Painter". Lincoln Star. 1975-09-28. pp. 3E.
6. "Memorial of Hettie Kersey Painter". Friends' Intelligencer and Journal. 48 (48): 755–756. 1891-11-28.

• 1821 births
• 1889 deaths
• 19th-century American physicians
• 19th-century American women physicians
• 19th-century Quakers
• American Civil War nurses
• American nurses
• American women nurses
• People from Lincoln, Nebraska
• Physicians from Pennsylvania