Seattle Pioneer Midwife: Alice Ada Wood Ellis Midwife Nurse & Mother to All

by Susan Elaine Fleming, Edward Oscar Fleming (Editor), Dana Rose Fleming (Editor)

"This is the captivating story of my great-grandmother Alice Ada Wood Ellis - who was a single mother with two small children - Myrtle who was 2 ½ years old and Marie who was a 6 month-old baby. She traveled to Seattle in 1900 on a locomotive steam train to join the Alaska-Yukon-Klondike Gold Rush Stampede. She built a home in Green Lake. Soon after she placed two beds in her front parlor in her home and helped women with birthing. She fufilled her calling as a pioneer midwife-nurse. This epic saga includes life in 1895 nursing schools, train robbers, birthing in the home, Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, women's suffrage, bubonic plague and unclaimed children. Stories from the 1918 Great Pandemic Flu and the Great Depression conclude this remarkable journey. This is Alice's story."

286 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2013

Reviews

[Rose Marie Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting about a family moving from the midwest to the Seattle area during the early 1900's. Personal accounts are told and related to a great-granddaughter as she follows in the tradition of nursing as her Grands and Greats did. The format of the book is broken down into small chapters of personal accounts of birthing, midwifery and local stories of people and Seattle sites. There is a lot of accounting of historical midwifery/nursing methods practiced during the 1800's-1920's. The historical accounts jump around and the narrative goes off base at times. There should have been a little more editing of this book however once I was halfway through I looked at it as a novice writer retelling her family history and how members of the family evolved as they helped support and build the Seattle communities.

[Josephine Ensign · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very disappointing and poorly written book that would have benefited from professional copyediting if nothing else. The topic was of interest to me.

[Beth Cato · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a family history, this is a priceless artifact; as a work for public consumption, it sadly feels like a self-published work in need of deep editing to make it more interesting, less passive, and more focused on the fascinating women at the center of the story. I really hoped for more data on turn-of-the-20th-century Seattle from the intimate perspective of a midwife, but other than some fantastic photographs, that detail wasn't there. There were only a few personal midwife stories in the middle of the book. My words may be critical, but I still think it's fabulous that the author created this for the sake of her own family. I certainly wish my own kin had passed down a book of this nature!

[Dina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the fact that the Seattle public library got this book. 3+ It reads like a blend of thesis/story/history and is fascinating though a bit choppy. It tells the story of a young woman, recently divorced (very undignified at the time so she told people in Seattle when she had moved there from the Midwest that she was a widow), who finds a career in Seattle in the early 1900s. She had a year of midwifery school, so her parlor became a birthing center, often to prostitutes. I learned a great deal about Seattle at that times, the role of women, and the development of the medical field. It is a good addition to local Seattle history.

[p roper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning more about Seattle at the turn of the century. The 1918 flu affected some of my own ancestors; my great-great-grandmother on my mother's dad's side of the family and several of her family members died during that time. It was interesting reading about nursing school during this time as well as midwifery care. I had midwifery care with seven of my eight babies and am now myself a midwife.
The formatting drove me a little crazy.

[Jennifer Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the interweaving of the known history of Alice Ellis, with fiction and also historical events and famous people that were in the same area, etc. Knowing that this was a labor (no pun intended) of love for the author, sharing her Grandmother's history, made this book even more enjoyable.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very good book. I loved the stories and the background on what was going on at the time. I was very disappointed to learn that most of it was made up. I was expecting the book to be based off a diary or newspaper articles. The writer took a lot of creative liberties, guessing on what her great-grandmother MIGHT have been going through or feeling at the time.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that is part biography and part local history. The writing needs a little polishing, but I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the early pioneer days in Washington State. I enjoyed the many historical photographs included in the book.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting story of this family and of the history of the times -- early 1900's. Not especially well written but still well researched and interesting. I enjoyed it.

[Lindah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice accounts of Seattle history that aren't often told. Love the family history.