Rachel Brooks Gleason

Rachel Brooks Gleason (November 27, 1820 – March 13, 1905) was an American physician, the fourth woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.

Early life

Rachel Ingall Brooks was born in the village of Winhall, Vermont, on November 27, 1820, the daughter of Rueben Brooks and Lucy Musey. She had two siblings: John Quincy Brooks and Lucy Zipporah Brooks.

Career

After graduation, Gleason practiced three years in a sanitarium in Glen Haven, New York, and one year in Ithaca, New York. She was at the head of the Elmira Water Cure, opened in 1852, later known as Gleason Sanitarium, in Elmira, New York, for more than forty years. The hydropathic health resort catered to women of the upper class, their specialty was "lady troubles". The Gleasons sold the business in 1899, and all the buildings were demolished in 1959.

Gleason died on March 13, 1905, and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Elmira.