Doctor Rose Russell

Doctor Rose Russell was born on May 17, 1866, the same year Fort Shaw was conceived.

She was one of the few women to receive her medical degree. She graduated from Northwestern University Women’s Medical College in Chicago, Ill, in 1900. She was licensed to practice in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa before coming to Montana.

She bought a buggy and a horse named King that became her trademark. She never owned an automobile, being transported to patients by other people’s automobiles when necessary.

She made house calls in all kinds of weather. On one occasion she delivered a young lady of triplets. It is said that it was so cold that as each was born they placed it in a wooden box and set it on an open oven door to keep it warm. She later made the mother a log-cabin quilt that is among several of her possessions on display at the Fort Shaw national Historic Site. She charged fifty cents for a house call, but most of the time traded produce for pay.

She had the quality of being a keen diagnostician and on a number of occasions doctors from the Great Falls hospitals called upon her to consult on cases.

She formulated her own medications. In her day pre-filled capsules were not common. Medical suppliers would express needed supplies to her, and she would have to fill empty capsules with carefully measured doses of drugs to treat various illnesses.

She bought an 80 acre homestead that had never been proved up by its previous owner. It had no house on it, so she hired craftsmen to builder her one with a special room to allow her to use with her patients.
Later she bought an additional 40 acres.

She worked the farm just like any other homesteader. Each year she raised a flock of turkeys to supplement her income.
She later communicated by telephone, the lines for the new-fangled device being stretched along the fence posts. Attention from animals kept its maintenance interesting.

Age took its toll, and in 1947 she leased the farm and moved into a small home in Fort Shaw. She continued a limited practice for another nine years.

In September, 1956 she entered Columbus hospital, where she passed at the age of 90 years on Sept. 28.