Virginia Meriwether Davies

Lucy Virginia Meriwether Davis Davies (April 18, 1862 – April 17, 1949) was one of New York State's first female physicians; she was also a botanist, civil libertarian, suffragist, philosopher and lover of music and art.[1] She had studied medicine to escape a scandal after she eloped with and then killed her first husband. He had agreed it was self-defence before he died. She married again only to find out years later that her husband had two complete families and two wives.

Lucy Virginia Meriwether Davies, M.D.
Virginia Meriwether Davies
Born	Lucy Virginia Meriwether (1862-04-18)April 18, 1862 Huntsville, Alabama
Died	April 17, 1949(1949-04-17) (aged 86) Congers, New York
Nationality	American
Other names	"Dockie"
Education	Medical Doctor
Alma mater	Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children (class of 1886)
Occupation	Physician
Organization	New York Infant Asylum
Known for	One of the first female doctors in the United States

Early life

Lucy Virginia "Dockie" Meriwether was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on April 18, 1862. The daughter of Lide Parker Smith and Niles Meriwether, she took a personal independence naturally.[2]

In 1882 she graduated from the Augusta Female Seminary in Stanton, Virginia.[1]

Career

Virginia Meriwether Davis

There was a lot of gossip after she shot and killed her husband even though everyone including the victim agreed it was self-defence. To avoid this, Virginia Meriwether Davis did not go home but went to New York to study medicine[3] at the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children of which Dr. Emily Blackwell was founder and dean. She was graduated in 1886 from the Woman's Medical College with the honors of her class, becoming one of the first female doctors in the United States, and remained in New York to practice.[1][2]

Her medical work has been almost exclusively in connection with the New York Infant Asylum, where she served as resident physician for four years. The institution had at the time the largest lying-in service conducted by women in the United States, and the lowest mortality and sick rates of any lying-in wards in the world.[2]

Personal life

Virginia Meriwether Davies and son

Four months after her graduation in 1882, Virginia Meriwether and her sister both eloped on the same night. She eloped with Lowe Davis and married him. After the honeymoon she discovered that he was an opium and gambling addict and she left him and returned to the care of her mother. She took her daughter away to the spa of Rhea Springs to recover.[3] Lowe Davis agreed to let her alone but he visited her with a gun which Meriwether's mother persuaded him to relinquish. He left but returned later with another gun with which he threatened Meriwether. She now had the first gun and shot him in the abdomen. Her husband left and before he died he admitted that she had shot him in self-defense and he deserved it. Meriwether showed little emotion at becoming a widow.[3]

In 1892 she married Arthur Bowen Davies (1862–1928), an unsuccessful, but later renowned, artist, whom she met in 1890 while chief resident physician at the New York Infant Asylum. Her parents bought her a farm which they had discovered together, although at one point she had considered buying the property with a woman called Lucile du Pre who was very attracted to Meriwether. Arthur and Meriwether had two sons, Niles Meriwether Davies, Sr. (b. 1893) and Arthur David Davies (b. 1895). When her husband died in 1928, she discovered that he had kept hidden a second life, with another common-law wife, Edna, and family. Edna discovered that she was given a subsistence allowance by Arthur, despite his financial success as an artist.[4]

She died on April 17, 1949, at the farm in Congers, New York, she owned.[1] At 87, she was the oldest practicing woman physician in New York State.[5]

Legacy

The Virginia M. Davies Correspondence, 1891–1935 is preserved at Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, Delaware Art Museum.[6]

Davies Farm, the only working farm left in Congers, is owned by Niles Meriwether Davies Jr., grandson of Virginia Meriwether Davies. The farm was a wedding present of Virginia Meriwether Davies's father to his daughter. The 110-acre farm on the eastern side of Lake DeForest produces corn, squash and 20 varieties of apples. Every summer, the Davies Farm hosts the "Pick Your Own" apple sales.[5]

References

1. Saveli, Isabelle K. "Lucy Virginia Meriwether Davies". Retrieved 6 October 2017.
2. Willard, Frances Elizabeth, 1839-1898; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice, 1820-1905 (1893). A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. Buffalo, N.Y., Moulton. Retrieved 8 August 2017. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
3. Bennard B. Perlman; Arthur Bowen Davies (1998). The Lives, Loves, and Art of Arthur B. Davies. SUNY Press. pp. 46–48. ISBN 978-0-7914-3836-7.
4. Perlman, Bennard B. (1998). The Lives, Loves, and Art of Arthur B. Davies. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 45.
5. "If You're Thinking of Living in: Congers". The New York Times. 1990. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
6. "Virginia M. Davies Correspondence, 1891 -1935" (PDF). Retrieved 6 October 2017.