Woman of the Century/Susanna Way Dodds

​DODDS, Mrs. Susanna Way, physician, born in a log cabin in Randolph county, near Richmond, Ind., 10th November, 1830 Her father was a lineal descendant of Henry Way, a Puritan, who SUSANNA WAY DODDS. emigrated from England to this country in 1630. Both father and mother were members of the Society of Friends. Their ancestors, who went west from Guilford, N. C, were originally from Nantucket. Susanna was the eldest of thirteen children. The father was in moderate circumstances and could give them only a common-school education. The eldest daughter was ambitious, and early set her heart on going to college. To her great grief, she soon found that, with the exception of Oberlin, there was not a college in the land that would admit women. There were only ladies' seminaries. She therefore decided to go to Oxford Female Institute, which was then conducted by Rev. J. W. Scott, the father-in-law of President Benjamin Harrison. To do this, Miss Way l>egan teaching in the common schools at a salary of eight dollars a month, and boarded herself. She was then seventeen years of age. By rigid economy she saved a small sum of money, and in her twenty-third year received her diploma from Dr. Scott's seminary. The much-coveted college course was not given up. The university in Ann Arbor was founded, and its doors were afterwards thrown open to women. Antioch with Horace Mann at its head admitted women and in the spring of 1856 Miss Way entered the preparatory department of that college. Again her plans were frustrated. Sickness in her Father's family called her home and also prevented her from earning money. The following year she became the wife of Andrew Dodds, a young Scotchman, whose liberal views were in harmony with her own. They made their home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and Mrs. Dodds renewed her studies in Antioch, where she afterward graduated. She also completed a medical course, in 1864, in the New York Hygeio-Therapeutic College. Her husband at that time enlisted in the Federal army, and by exposure in the mountains of Virginia contracted a fatal disease. A short time before his death the family moved to St. Louis, Mo., and in 1870 Dr. Dodds began to practice in that city. She was joined by her husband's sister, Dr. Mary Dodds, with whom she is still associated. As physicians they have done much for the physical redemption of women. Dr. Susanna Way Dodds is dean of the St. Louis Hygienic College of Physicians and Surgeons, and also a member of its faculty. She has written and published a work on dietetics, entitled "Health in the Household," and has contributed to a number of health journals and other papers.