In its ongoing series, “First Lady Friday,” the Peabody Historical Society & Museum examines the life and times of Dr. Alice Patterson, who practiced medicine in both Peabody and Beverly.
Patterson was born on Nov. 27, 1869, in Salem to Nathaniel C. Patterson and Mary Harrington. She had a twin brother, Augustus, and two older sisters, Mary and Caroline. The family lived in Peabody, and Alice Patterson was the valedictorian of the Peabody High School Class of 1887. Nathaniel Patterson was a bookkeeper and the Peabody Town Hall janitor for about 25 years. The family resided on Main and May streets in Peabody.
Alica Patterson graduated from Boston University’s medical school in 1893. She later practiced medicine in Peabody and Beverly for about 16 years, before taking a position as second assistant physician in Faribault, Minn. at the “School for Feeble Minded and Colony of Epileptics.” The state institution served 1,600 children. She returned to Massachusetts, becoming a trustee and staff doctor at Wrentham State Hospital.
Alice Patterson traveled extensively based on ship records from the 1920s and 1930s. She traveled to Bermuda twice and on the ship Virginia from Los Angeles to New York in August of 1936. She was an active member of the Boston Appalachian Mountain Club.
She never married and lived life as an independent, professional woman. Alice Patterson died on June 20, 1945 in Danvers, and is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery.
