Many Central New Yorkers might not know the only woman to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor is a native of Oswego. As Women’s History Month comes to a close, a historian shares how Dr. Mary Edwards Walker made her mark in Central New York and elsewhere.
“Mary Walker has a famous quote that says, 'I will not be known until 100 years after my death.' I think even she knew she was really ahead of her time," Mary Kay Stone said. She's an Oswego historian and co-director of the Richardson-Bates House museum, which houses many of Walker's artifacts.
Walker died in 1919, and Stone said she was actually well-known in her day. Her zest to share her progressive and radical opinions about women’s suffrage and other social norms attracted much attention as well as contempt.
“She really did get pushed down in recognition," Stone said. "She alienated a lot of people that were more forefront in the movement, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. And although she was never completely forgotten about, she wasn't lauded.”
Stone said Walker split from her contemporaries about the need for a constitutional amendment for women’s suffrage, believing everyone’s right to vote was enshrined in the words “all men.”
Walker earned her medical degree from Syracuse Medical College in 1855, and eventually became the first female surgeon in the US Army. Stone described the experience at a recent lecture at the Erie Canal Museum.
“She was not allowed to do surgery, but I think it was pretty obvious that she had both medical knowledge and the interest to help," Stone said. "From all accounts, she was a very compassionate and eager person, working night and day tirelessly.”
Walker was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for that work and her time as a prisoner of war. Stone said it was during the war that she continued to reject the long skirts and petticoats traditionally worn by women of the day.
“This is a picture of her in the uniform that she had made for herself," Stone said as she delivered her presentation. "It again followed the pants under a short skirt that her father had encouraged her. It was a standard uniform even before she went to war. We know that she got married in pants under a short skirt. Not white, just fabric.”
Walker was a rather infamous supporter of what was called dress reform. She died at age 86, just before the 19th amendment was ratified.
