Smithfield Stories

DR. HARRIET E. SCHOLEFIELD HALL

EARLY FEMALE PHYSICIAN BURIED AT PETERBORO

By Donna D. Burdick, Smithfield Town Historian, 2020

Harriet E. (Hattie) Scholefield was born in the town of Austerlitz, Columbia County, New York, in 1828, a daughter of Reverend Arnold & Abigail (Burnham) Scholefield. Her father was an itinerant (traveling) minister of the Methodist Church for 26 years. He died in 1836 and is buried at Siloam, Town of Smithfield, Madison County, New York. Following his death, his widow Abigail moved to Whitetown, Oneida County, New York, where she died in 1868.

Harriet married Julius C. Hall of Peterboro. He was the son of Abner and Anner (Dyer) Hall and like his father, he was a tanner and shoemaker. Harriet and Julius had three sons: Charles Willis, Julius Frederick, and George "Stannie" Hall. Stannie died in 1862 and Julius Frederick in 1868; both are buried at Peterboro with their grandparents Hall.

Although a loving wife and mother and blessed with a comfortable home, Harriet longed for a wider "sphere" of usefulness. Thus, she was encouraged and aided by friends to enter a newly formed institution of learning. The New York Medical College and Hospital for Women opened in October 1863 in New York City.

The board of trustees included Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Recording Secretary. Eighteen applicants for admission to the school's classes were enrolled in this first year. They were the first class and included Mrs. Harriet E. Hall of Peterboro, New York. A Peterboro news item in the Cazenovia Republican of May 25, 1864, stated that Harriet continued as a student at the college.

According to the New York Times of March 5, 1865, that year's commencement exercises were held at the Athenaeum. Mrs. Harriet E. Hall, Peterboro, N. Y., was listed as one of the fifteen graduates. Professor J.M. Ward, Dean of the Faculty, presided and made a brief address, in which he said that "the degrees were conferred by authority of the State and that not one iota of the requisitions required of the male students was abated in the case of the ladies who were about to graduate." Among the speakers who gave short addresses were Horace Greeley and Henry Ward Beecher.

Soon after graduating, Harriet established herself as a physician in Washington, D. C. Her husband Julius opened a shoemaking shop in Annapolis, Maryland. Their two sons remained in Peterboro with their grandmother Anner Hall. Less than two years later, Harriet was struck down by consumption and moved to her mother's house in Whitestown, New York, where she died on January 19, 1867. Her body was brought to Peterboro, where her funeral was held at the Free Church. She was buried on the Hall lot in the Peterboro Cemetery. Her widower Julius C. Hall remained in Annapolis, Maryland, where he was married a second time to a woman named Sarah. He died on August 16, 1893 and is buried at Saint Anne's Cemetery in that city.