Euthanasia Sherman Meade
# Euthanasia Sherman Meade

Euthanasia Sherman Meade (1836 – 1895) was a pioneer woman physician of the Pacific Coast. Meade was the first president of The Woman's Medical Club of California.

## Early life

Euthanasia Sherman was born in 1836 in Genesee, New Jersey. She was the niece of General W.T. Sherman. When she was 17 years old, she married a man her mother chose and shortly after moved to California. After the death of her only child in its birth, she turned to obstetrics, and later medicine. She returned to the East Coast and worked in hospitals during the war. In 1869, she graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

## California

When she returned to California, Meade opened an office on Mission Street in San Francisco. She was the first regular woman physician to establish herself in California. However, due to the times, she was met with little recognition in the medical profession. She developed asthma and eventually moved to San José where she practiced for 25 years. In 1876, Meade and four other women physicians were admitted to the State Medical Society.

After Sarah Winchester, widow of William Wirt Winchester who owned the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, moved to California and purchased a property in the Santa Clara Valley, Meade became Winchester's personal physician.

## Death

Meade died in 1895 due to a cerebral embolus from an endocarditis. She was cremated and her ashes placed at Cypress Lawn Cemetery.

