FRASER, Colo. — On January 31, community members gathered at the Cozens Ranch Museum to celebrate the 154th birthday of Susan Anderson — known locally as Doc Susie — who was one of Colorado’s first female physicians.
Anyone dressed up as the famous doctor received free admission.
“Susie represents to the people of Grand County the stoicism and the hardiness and the will to succeed,” said Shanna Ganne, executive director of the Cozens Ranch Museum.
Doc Susie moved to Fraser from Denver in 1907, at the age of 37, where she served the community for almost 50 years.
Doc Susie moved to Grand County in 1907.
Photo: The Grand County Historical Association
Recognized for her commitment to public health, Doc Susie was willing to treat patients from all backgrounds regardless of their financial status.
“She took care of most any sort of medical problem that people could have. And she would do it on horseback or walking or on snowshoes,” said Mary Amann, a nurse living in Grand County who attended the birthday celebration.
Anderson treated Moffat Tunnel construction workers, ranchers, loggers, expectant mothers, and teachers, and cured all forms of injury and illness — gangrene from frostbite, respiratory illnesses from low oxygen at high elevation, and pneumonia from the 1918 Flu Pandemic.
“Back then, if you weren't able to pay for a treatment, you couldn't necessarily access it, but Doc Susie was willing to work around that in order to make sure that people within her community could get the care that they needed,” said Laura K. N. Jones, the curator and archivist at the Cozens Ranch Museum.
Doc Susie accepted all forms of payment for her services, including hot meals and firewood, when she made house calls in remote areas.
Female doctors were not common when Doc Susie began practicing medicine in 1887. She was one of only about 15 women in her graduating class at the University of Michigan Medical School, which was one of only five schools where women could obtain a medical education in the U.S. in the late 19th century.
The medical profession has evolved significantly since the turn of the century.
“There was no regulation on medications. People used herbs, and a lot of herb lore is not necessarily accurate...people would get things wrong, and people would also make fake medicine,” said Jones.
At that time, the profession was more of a guessing game based on intuition than the highly regulated practice it is today.
“Very often a woman physician or a nurse is interested in the whole person, not just the medical problem that brought them into the office on that day,” Amann said about Doc Susie’s work. “The feminine touch is very important.”
Doc Susie (on the left) graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1887.
Photo: The Grand County Historical Association
Doc Susie even taught women how not to get pregnant when there was no birth control or other family planning resources available, said Ganne.
“Being able to know how not to have children is a huge thing... and very modern of the time. I mean you would not find a male physician that would do that for you,” said Ganne.
In the early 20th century, Grand County was a ranching community. Men could be gone for months at a time herding cattle, and women had to learn to take care of themselves — they learned to hunt, grow their own food, and sew their own clothes.
It was not an easy life.
“There were a lot of illnesses. People didn't always survive birth, let alone childhood. The death rate was very high. And there are predators...wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, bears,” said Jones.
Stagecoach by the Cozens Ranch in Grand County in 1903.
Photo: The Grand County Historical Association, 83.28.33
While Doc Susie never married or had children (she was jilted at the altar in her mid-30s) she remained staunchly committed to helping families in the area.
“We're happy and proud to have her as a little heroine for many of us in the county,” said Amann.
Doc Susie remains a larger-than-life figure not just in Grand County, but across Colorado today.
“She reminds us that if we try hard enough and that if we really have a passion for what we want to do, we can succeed and overcome any kind of challenge,” said Jones.
Doc Susie made house calls across Grand County for almost 50 years before retiring in 1956.
Photo: The Grand County Historical Association, 85.4.1
Lizzie Mulvey is the executive producer of investigative journalism at Rocky Mountain PBS. Lizziemulvey@rmpbs.org.
Carly Rose is the journalism intern at Rocky Mountain PBS. Carlyrose@rmpbs.org.
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