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Doctor Woman of the Cu...

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May Cravath Wharton

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Doctor Woman of the Cumberlands

May Cravath Wharton

3.88 · Rating details · 25 ratings · 7 reviews

Autobiography of May Cravath Wharton, M.D. Dr. Wharton went to Pleasant Hill, Tennessee in 1917 and stayed for more than 60 years. She talks about her medical practice and the building of a hospital and health care in a rural area.

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Paperback, 218 pages

Published 2005 by Uplands

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Aug 13, 2020 Marcia Scott rated it really liked it

So interesting! Her descriptions of the conditions she lived and worked in put the reader right there in the cold of winter, the heavy rain, the flooded creeks. I could imagine the scary bridges and the fear of falling. In the homes with paper lined log walls in the back of beyond. What a difference she and her staff made in the lives of the people of “The Cumberlands”!

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Jan 15, 2019 Jeffrey Hammerhead rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical, reference

Excellent book about the hardships and lives of the people living on the Cumberland Plateau in the early 1900s and of Dr May's dream of quality health care. ...more

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Dec 26, 2013 Em Chitty rated it really liked it

May Cravath Wharton, an early female M.D., transformed the landscape of the Upper Cumberland Plateau from her arrival at the end of World War I to the 1950s, when she was able to open the area's first real hospital.

Wharton was a doctor, not a writer, so there is no purple in her prose. But the narrative she tells is arresting enough for anyone, with the additional benefit that it is true.

She describes, as if writing case notes, the utter poverty of the Appalachian people at the time--people so May Cravath Wharton, an early female M.D., transformed the landscape of the Upper Cumberland Plateau from her arrival at the end of World War I to the 1950s, when she was able to open the area's first real hospital.

Wharton was a doctor, not a writer, so there is no purple in her prose. But the narrative she tells is arresting enough for anyone, with the additional benefit that it is true.

She describes, as if writing case notes, the utter poverty of the Appalachian people at the time--people so poor that almost no actual cash passed through their hands in the course of their lifetimes; people so poor that their children never saw a dentist, their women often died in unattended childbirths; the logs of their cabins were papered with newspaper to try to keep out the wind; they had to slog through mud and over slippery single-log bridges to get anywhere at all, traveling four or five hours to go a couple of miles across country in a wilderness of unmarked trails.

This was just 100 years ago, not long, a blink of an eye. She frequently referred to the people she found near Crossville, Tennessee as "lost Americans." In an era when government only tentatively extended its fingers toward the residents of the Cumberland Plateau, private charities were unaware of them and could not help them; in fact, the "missionary funds" of most Northern and mid-Western churches could not be applied to helping in the Appalachians. So the people simply lived, suffered, got sick, and died. Quietly, stoically. But they died. And their deaths never rippled the satin dresses of flappers during the Roaring Twenties.

When we envision the world as polemicist and novelist Ayn Rand imagined it--the other side of the gilded world of "strivers" and "makers" in a competitive, ruthless economy--the Appalachia of the 'teens and '20s is the world she would have argued for, at least for the losers in the equation. This is what she wanted. This is what her disciple Paul Ryan wants: luxury for the elite, hopeless and inescapable misery for the poor.

Wharton's story is worth reading both on its own merits as the autobiography of a fearless and strong woman, and in its description of a world that is perilously close to us if, as a nation, we accept the arguments of the newly ascendant right.

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Mar 22, 2013 Judy rated it liked it

This was a book suggested by one of my church book club members who lived at the Uplands retirement community, the ultimate result of Dr. Wharton's efforts. It is an interesting book about the woman who came to the mountain community and created a medical network of hospitals, outreach clinics, and health centers. It was amazing what she was able to do with a little faith and some very helpful friends. I found the book interesting, especially the role faith played in the success of the venture. ...more

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Feb 10, 2014 Rachel Weis rated it really liked it

I couldn't put this down. A completely captivating autobiography written by a true pioneer. Dr. Wharton single-handedly brought healthcare to Cumberland County, Tennessee. She left a comfortable life in New England to brave mud roads, rope bridges, wilderness terrain to bring medical care to people who desperately needed it. Thanks to her lifetime devotion to this task Crossville, TN has a large modern hospital today. Inspiring and humbling true story. ...more

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Oct 20, 2009 Lori rated it liked it

Interesting autobiography of a woman Dr. who went to a rural area in the Cumberlands to practice as a Dr. and how she built a hospital and health care in a area where little was available. At times I would have liked a little more details about the illness's described (I am a nurse). Amazing what one person can do. The book covers 60 years from 1917 up to almost the present. ...more

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Jun 01, 2014 Dulci rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, young-adult

What a neat book. Living very close to the area where these events took place, I found Dr. Wharton's account of life in rural Tennessee in the early 1900's very interesting. Recommended by my librarian. Thanks, Ms. Carolyn! ...more

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