Lucy Beaman (Hobbs) Taylor (1833 - 1910)

Lucy Hobbs Taylor was born March 14, 1833, in Constable, New York. She was the daughter of Benjamin Hobbs and Lucy Beaman.

When she was 12 she obtained a job as a seamstress to support her siblings.

Hobbs graduated from Franklin Academy in New York and began teaching for ten years in Michigan. In 1859, she moved to Cincinnati and applied to medical school at Eclectic Medical College. Hobbs was denied entrance because of her gender, but she was able to study privately under the supervision of a teacher from Eclectic.

Hobbs applied to the Ohio College of Dentistry. When she was refused admission to dental school, she began a private program of study with a professor, Dr. Jonathan Taft, from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. Hobbs applied once more to the dentistry program, but she was again rejected.

As a response, Lucy opened up her own practice in 1861 in Cincinnati, allowing her to practice dentistry without having to obtain a diploma.

She soon moved to Bellevue and then McGregor, Iowa, where she spent three years. In 1865, she finally gained all professional recognition and was allowed to join the Iowa State Dental Society.

That November, she entered the Ohio College of Dental Surgery as a senior, where in February 1866, she earned her doctorate in dentistry, becoming the first woman in the world to graduate from a dental college and to receive a doctorate in dentistry.

Hobbs next moved to Chicago, where she met James M. Taylor, whom she married in April 1867. Taylor then convinced her husband to also enter dentistry. The two then moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where they had a very big and successful practice until James Taylor died in 1886. After her husband's death, Lucy ceased to be an active dentist, but became more active in politics, campaigning for greater women's rights.

Lucy died October 3, 1910, in Lawrence, Douglas, Kansas, United States. She was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, United States.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCJK-FWX : 28 May 2021), Lucy Taylor in entry for James M Taylor, 1870.

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFPY-99S : 19 February 2021), Lucy H Taylor in household of James M Taylor, Lawrence, Douglas, Kansas, United States; citing enumeration district ED 67, sheet 51A

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMTF-2F9 : accessed 10 October 2021), Lucy H* Taylor, Lawrence city Ward 1, Douglas, Kansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 57, sheet 3B, family 76

• Find A Grave: Memorial #6746

See also:

• Wikipedia: Dr. Lucy Hobbs Taylor
• Wikidata: Item Q4353660, en:Wikipedia