Ella G. Stone (Aug. 1864- Jan. 20, 1950), physician and suffrage leader, was born in St. Stephens, New Brunswick, Canada, the third daughter of William Ross, a laborer of Scottish descent, and Mary Ross, an Irish immigrant. When Ella was seven years old, the family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts, where she completed her primary education in the local public schools. Aged 22 she married George F. Stone, a brick mason, in Lawrence in 1886; accounts of their 1905 divorce in the Boston Globe state that he “deserted her and departed for parts unknown” in 1891.

At a time when divorce cases were featured prominently in newspapers, the Globe reported that Ella Stone then “resolved to be her own boss” and kept a boarding house in order to make money to attend medical school. “She did not tell of her desire to her nearest friend,” however, perhaps because at tht time there were few medical schools open to women, and very few medical students from a working-class background.

Nevertheless, she persisted, studying medical books an hour at a time on rare breaks from her boarding house duties. In 1894 she was one of eight women to graduate with an MD in the inaugural class at Tufts College Medical School in Boston. Two years later she was elected ward physician in Lawrence, where she served until she moved to Cambridge sometime before 1900. The U.S. Census that year indicated that she and her 11 year-old son, Frederick, were renting a property at 972 Mass Ave in Harvard Square, Cambridge, in early June. Her estranged husband, George Stone, is also listed residing at that address as a brick mason who had been unemployed for 8 months.

Two weeks later Ella Stone joined the staff of the Cuban Summer School as the physician in charge of a temporary infirmary for the Cuban teachers located in her own home, which could accommodate up to twenty patients. She cared for several Cuban women suffering from malaria or colds upon arriving in Boston. Notably, when the group of Cuban teachers, accompanied by superintendent of the school, Alexis Frye, departed for their arranged tour of the northeastern United States, Dr. Stone took responsibility for a young teacher who had fallen ill and was forced to stay behind in Cambridge. Stone, who was celebrated for her efficiency managing the infirmary for the teachers in Cambridge, accompanied the teacher by boat to Philadelphia and then to Cuba once she was convalescent.

After the Cuban Summer School, Stone remained in Cambridge and in 1902 began lobbying for the appointment of a dedicated women’s physician on the city payroll to address the needs of poor and working-class women. At a meeting in City Hall she spoke “feelingly of the need of a woman to minister to other women and told of certain conditions which a woman could more easily understand than a man” (Cambridge Chronicle) Despite a two year campaign and support of several prominent citizens for Stone to be appointed to the position, Cambridge City Council rejected the proposal in 1904 as “inexpedient” since a nurse already dealt with women’s health issues. Undaunted, Stone devoted her energies to improving physical health, first as a lecturer at Dudley Sargent’s Normal School of Physical Training in 1904.

After attending Sargent’s Harvard Summer School class the following year, she was hired as medical and physical director at a new Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) gymnasium that opened in Cambridge in 1905 and was regarded as one of the finest on the East Coast. One press account reported that “Dr. Stone is herself a mother and has a beautiful Influence with young persona, all of whom seem to recognize intuitively that they can safely make her a confidante.” Consistent with her holistic approach to health and her support for Progressive Era reform of the food industry Stone addressed the state legislature in support of a state inspector of food.

She was also active in the Tufts Alumnae Association, where she told a gathering in 1906 of her belief that “Medicine is essentially a woman’s profession…[The] art of comforting and caring for the unfortunate and afflicted is truly a God-given feminine equipment.” But she advised women not to take up the practice of medicine for financial reward: “Medical women are poor, but we are happy, for we life to make others happy.” (Tufts Graduate Magazine)

Although she left Cambridge to practice medicine in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1908, she remained prominent in the Cantabrigia Club, a Cambridge social and literary society, at least until 1910, by which time she and her son were living in Seattle, Washington. While on the west coast Stone continued to work as a physician and was prominent in women’s suffrage efforts. She returned with her son to Boston after World War I, serving as a member of the staffs of Boston Psychopathic Hospital and Boston Dispensary.

Stone was one of seven surviving members of the Tufts Medical School Class of 1894 who celebrated the 50th anniversary of their graduation during World War II. She died in Boston on January 20, 1950, in her 85th year


Further Reading

1. Boston Globe, Sept. 28, 1900; Feb. 28, 1902; Feb. 2, 1905.

2. Cambridge Chronicle, 21 June, 1902.

3. The Tufts College Graduate: A Quarterly Magazine, Vol. IV (Jan. 1907): 171-173.

4. Obituary: New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 9, 1950.