Minnie Howard

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Howard

Minnie Frances Howard (August 23, 1872 – September 2, 1965) was "Pocatello's pioneer woman physician" and a dedicated historian. She was also active in building the town of Pocatello, Idaho, through her work with various civic and religious organizations.

Early life

Minnie Frances Hayden Howard was born August 23, 1872, in Memphis, Missouri, to Jacob and Carina Jane Wood Hayden. She studied first to become a teacher. After her marriage to a young medical student, William Forrest Howard, on August 23, 1894, in Larned, Kansas, she attended and graduated from Kansas University Women's Medical School. She accompanied her husband while he studied surgical procedures in Vienna, Austria.

Life in Pocatello

Howard moved to Pocatello with her husband in 1902. They established medical practices and became active, respected members of the community. They had four sons, all of whom went on to become doctors themselves.

Howard was an early president of the Southeast Idaho Historical Society, the first co-chairman of the Red Cross for both Bannock and Caribou Counties, and put together other civic organizations such as the Art and Travel Club and the County Social Welfare Board. Guided by pioneer Ezra Meeker and native Jim Broncho, Howard verified the original location of Fort Hall[3] and drove the effort to erect a monument there, also taking part in the organization and direction of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association.

Howard chaired, served as president of, or was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution, Descendants of Mayflower Association, Scientific Temperance Investigation, Women's Christian Temperance Union, Women's Study League, Federated Women's Club, Department of Indian Welfare, and Pocatello Women's Club. She was also an active member of the First Congregational Church, Pocatello, writing a history of the church in November 1928.

Howard was crucial in the campaign to secure funding from Andrew Carnegie and Pocatello city council support to build the Pocatello Public Library, a Carnegie library later renamed the Marshall Public Library. Two years after the library opened, the Howard family built and inhabited a home next door.

Howard was an avid writer, penning numerous columns in The Pocatello Tribune, a portion of which were collected into a published history of Bannock County.

Death

After a lifetime of leadership, service, and scholarship, Howard died at the Bannock Nursing Home on September 2, 1965, at the age of 93.

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Dr. Minnie Howard, one very few women physicians practicing in the American West in the early 20th century, became known as one of Idaho's most energetic and influential women.

Dr. Howard studied medicine with her husband, William Forrest Howard, at the Kansas City Medical College (later merged with the University of Kansas) and graduated in 1899 after earning straight A's. The couple first set up a medical practice in Kansas, but moved to Pocatello, Idaho in 1902 and established the Pocatello General Hospital in 1907. Dr. Minnie, as she was known to her family, friends, and patients, left the practice officially when the couple's third son was born in 1908. All four sons followed their parents into medicine.

Dr. Howard secured a grant from Andrew Carnegie to help found the Pocatello Carnegie Library in 1908. She was also the first co-chair of the American Red Cross of Bannock and Caribou counties, a member of the American Medical Association, the Department of Indian Welfare, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. From 1931 to 1956, Dr. Minnie Howard was appointed Bannock County Historian by the Idaho State Historical Society. Minnie was particularly interested in American Indian health care and was a friend of Shoshone Chief Pocatello's daughter. She would often visit the reservation to provide medical care and help distribute food. Concerned about alcohol use on the reservation, Dr. Minnie was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Additionally, Dr. Howard was fascinated with Old Fort Hall, an important point on the Oregon Trail that had been lost to history. With the help of two friends, she located and marked the site she believed to be Old Fort Hall and her claims were vindicated in 1933. In 1983, Howard Mountain near Pocatello was named in her and her husband's honor.

GEDCOM Note

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