Dr. Julia Holmes Smith (Mrs. Sabin Smith)(1839 to ?):
Julia Holmes Smith, a physician, became a candidate, nominated on the Democratic ticket, for trustee of the University of Illinois after women were given school franchise in Illinois. She was appointed by Governor Altgeld to fill an unexpired term, thus becoming the first woman member of the Board of University Trustees in Illinois.
Was at one time editor of the Woman’s Page of the Chicago Times. Congregationalist, Democrat, member Ill. Women’s Press Assn, Fortnightly Club (ex-sec), Woman’s Club of Chicago (Press, six years), Twentieth Century Club.
Party Affiliation:
Democrat
Photograph:
Resources:
Woman’s Who’s Who of America
A Woman of the Century
“On the Eve of Election,”Woman’s Journal (November 10, 1894), pp. 353-54.
“ Julia Homes Smith,” in Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, A Woman of the Century (Buffalo: C. W. Moulton, 1893; reprinted, New York: Gordon Press, 1975).
[Additional Notes]:
A physician born in Savannah, Georgia (to Willis and Margaret Turner Holmes)who spent much of her early life in New Orleans, after which she was educated at the Spingler Institute, a leading female academy in New York City. She married, had a son, and was widowed at the age of 25. She supported her son for eight years, remarried and, inspired by pioneering woman doctor Mary B. Jackson, entered Boston University School of Medicine in 1873 transferring, for family reasons, to Chicago’s Homeopathic College. Upon graduation, Smith established a private practice and organized the Woman’s Medical Association. Smith was on the consulting staff of the Baptist Hospital, and was a member of the Board of the Illinois Training School for Nurses. She also belonged to the Board of Censors of the American Institute of Homoeopathy.