Amelia Yeomans

Amelia Yeomans (née Le Sueur; March 29, 1842 – April 22, 1913) was a Canadian physician and suffragist. She and her adult daughter Lilian were the first female physicians in Manitoba.[1]

Amelia Yeomans
Born
Amelia Le Sueur

March 29, 1842
Quebec City
DiedApril 22, 1913(1913-04-22) (aged 71)
Calgary
Alma materUniversity of Michigan
OccupationPhysician
Spouse(s)Augustus A. Yeomans (1860-1878, his death)
Children2
Parent(s)Peter Le Sueur
Barbara Dawson

Early life and education

Yeomans was born on March 29, 1842, in Quebec City, to Peter Le Sueur and Barbara Dawson. Her father was a civil servant. She was privately educated. Le Sueur married Augustus A. Yeomans, a medical doctor, on October 16, 1860, in Quebec City. They had two daughters.[2]

After Augustus's death in 1878, Amelia Yeomans, along with her daughter Lilian, decided to enter the medical profession.[2] Since Canadian medical schools did not accept women students, Yeomans and her daughter enrolled in the Ann Arbor Medical School at the University of Michigan. Yeomans received her degree in 1883. She then moved to Winnipeg, where Lilian was already practicing midwifery and medicine. Yeomans's second daughter, Charlotte, became a nurse and joined the family in Winnipeg in 1890.[3]

Career
Plaque honoring Dr. Amelia Yeomans, Winnipeg

As physicians, Yeomans and her daughter frequently treated sex workers, homeless women, and others being held in the local jail. These experiences led Yeomans to write a pamphlet educating women about sexually transmitted diseases. The pamphlet was released by the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).[3]

The WCTU was the first English-speaking organization in Manitoba to espouse women's suffrage. In 1893, the first year of recorded WCTU activity, Yeomans served as an officer for the organization. On February 9, 1893, Yeomans and the WCTU staged a mock parliament in the Bijou Theatre in Winnipeg, organized by Arminda Myrtal Blakely, and invited the Manitoba legislature to attend.[4] Yeomans played the premier, while other members, including Nellie Letitia Mooney and Ella Cora Hind, presented pro and con arguments.[2]

In 1894, Yeomans helped to form the Equal Franchise Association in Manitoba.[5]

Yeomans served as the provincial president of the WCTU from 1896–1897.[2]

Later life and death

Yeomans's daughter Charlotte moved to Calgary for work in 1904, and both Yeomans and Lilian followed her there.[2]

Amelia Yeomans died on April 22, 1913 in Calgary.[6]

References
  1. Carter, Sarah; McCormack, Patricia Alice (2011). Recollecting: Lives of Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Northwest and Borderlands. Athabasca University Press. p. 397. ISBN 9781897425824.
  2. Vera K. Fast, “LE SUEUR, AMELIA,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed April 11, 2019.
  3. "Manitoba History: "Give us our due!" How Manitoba Women Won the Vote". www.mhs.mb.ca. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  4. Cleverdon, Catherine L. (December 15, 1950). The Woman Suffrage Movement in Canada: Second Edition. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442654822.
  5. "Historic Sites of Manitoba: Dr. Amelia Yeomans Plaque (Broadway, Winnipeg)". www.mhs.mb.ca. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  6. "Dr. Amelia Yeomans Well Known Woman Physician Dies Here". Calgary Herald. April 23, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved April 7, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
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