A 2011 Read On Wisconsin Book Club pick
(as Rebecca Hogue Wojahn)
Wisconsin Historical Society Press
104 pages
Grades 4-8
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Kate Pelham was supposed to grow up to be a proper young lady in Boston, not serve as the only doctor in the wilderness of northern Wisconsin in the early 20th century. But despite her father’s wishes, she was determined to be doctor. However, after medical school, her husband’s health brought them to northern Wisconsin. Soon she knew every back road and cabin as she served as the only doctor in the area. She visited patients by car, by snowmobile, by canoe, and by snowshoe—whatever it took. She never sent a bill. Instead she was paid in firewood and vegetables.
But what she dreamed of more than anything for her patients was a hospital. And that’s when the kids of the community got involved. They set out to collect a million pennies—$10,000—to help Dr. Kate build a hospital. What they didn’t know was that their local efforts would set off a worldwide campaign. As the news spread, coins poured in from countries across the world. Student carted bushels of pennies. Dr. Kate read thousands of letters. She starred on national television and her story was told in a national bestseller. And in 1954, she became the Lakeland Memorial Hospital’s first Chief of Staff.
Why I Wrote This Story
Although I’ve never been a doctor in the northwoods, there’s a lot of me in this book. First of all, I grew up in the woods of Wisconsin. Secondly, there’s something that has always fascinated me about local history. I love to imagine events that occurred in the past right where I’m standing. Finally, I admire Dr. Kate as a woman who pursued her dream of becoming a doctor in a time when most women didn’t have careers outside the home. And I am wowed by her toughness and tenacity as a rural doctor. That’s what drew me to jot down the idea of writing about Dr. Kate when I first heard about her on the Wisconsin Public Television show Wisconsin Stories. But it wasn’t until a few years later when I was working in a Wisconsin university library that I had the resources at my fingertips to pull together her story in a book for kids.
