Dr. Mary Holloway Wilhite

Born in Crawfordsville in 1831, Mary Holloway dreamed of obtaining a medical education. To pursue this goal, she sold subscriptions for the early suffrage newspaper The Women’s Advocate and took up sewing and teaching to save money for college. In 1854, she entered the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1856 before returning to Crawfordsville to establish her medical practice. In 1860, she married local tailor Eleazer Wilhite. Together they had seven children, but raising a family did not prevent Dr. Holloway Wilhite from devoting time to her practice or to the local suffrage movement. She served as Secretary of the Women’s Suffrage Association of Montgomery County and as Vice President of the Indiana Equal Suffrage Association, while publishing suffragist articles and collaborating with leaders such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Dedicated to treating underserved patients, she founded the Montgomery County Orphan’s Home in 1880. Her pioneering career established her as Indiana’s first female medical school graduate and first licensed female medical practitioner.