| Notes |
- 1880 Federal Census of Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Caroline E. Hastings 39 F MA MA MA Head Physician
6 others living with her
Cleave's Biographical Cyclopaedia of Homeopathic Physicians and Surgeons
By Egbert Cleave
HASTINGS, CAROLINA ELIZA, M.D., of Boston, Mass., was born on April
21st, 1841, in Barre, Mass. Her father's name was Emery Hastings, and Mary
Bassett was the maiden name of her mother, who was a native of Norton, Mass.
The Hastings and Bassetts are of ancient families, both of which are still
numerously represented.
Dr. Hastings attended school in her native place until she reached the
age of sixteen years, when she entered Mount Holyoke Seminary, at South
Hadley, where she finished her school days. Previous to entering Mount Holyoke
Seminary, she taught during a summer term in a district school, and was not
sufficiently interested in teaching to make that pursuit her life work. She
had a preference for the study of medicine, and yet indulged no hope of
undertaking it, as the doors of the profession were not then open to her sex;
nevertheless, she often declared she would be a doctor if she was a man. At
length, when about twenty years old, learning that women were entering upon
medical study and practice, she resolved to follow the inclination she had
hitherto hopelessly cherished; but, at a great sacrifice of time and
opportunity, she postponed the commencement of preparation for her chos
occupation for two years, yielding to the wishes of her father, to whom the
idea of a woman doctor was altogether new, and no less absurd, not to s
revolting. He having afterwards become more nearly reconciled to his
daughter's preferences, she, when twenty-two years of age, commenced her
medical studies with Dr. Aaron Bassett, an eclectic physician, then and still
practicing in Barre, Mass. By the sickness and death of her mother, whi
called her to the discharge of the noble and ennobling duties of a daughter,
and bound her for another season to her father's household, she was prevented
from attending lectures til 1866, when she entered the New England Fema
Medical College, at Boston, where she graduated in 1868, choosing that city as
the place of her settlement and the scene of her professional toils. Here she
has steadily devoted herself to business for a period of five years, and with
very good success and encouragement. She is steadily gaining in general
practice, and the full confidence of her patrons and professional friends.
Being the appointed physician to that moral life-boat on the stormy sea of
social evils, the New England Moral Reform Society - an institution for the
reclaim of fallen girls - she has very considerable opportunities of experience
in obstetrics, many cases of which occur under her charge. In these she
manifests a great degree of fitness for the profession, as well as in t
general department of her dutiful rounds.
Dr. Hastings is a lady of great independence and decision of
character, possessing every natural qualification, as well as the acquired, to
will a high position in the medical ranks, worthily maintaining her position
among her compeers, and winning her way upward with the passage of years. She
became a disciple of Hahnemann from a clear and decided conviction of t
truth and excellence of the school and practice of which he was the pioneer
and founder. Experience constantly confirms her choice, and strengthens the
faith on which that choice was founded. Thus she stands firmly and honorably
in the midst of the growing ranks of homeopathy and of female physicians.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1841 - Deceased