Born: Dec. 31, 1834 Died: Dec. 8, 1891 Biography: Mary Jane Safford was born on December 31, 1834, in Hyde Park, Vermont. When she was 3 years old her parents died, and family members secured her education at an academy in Bakersfield, Vt. Once she'd finished her schooling she moved in with her older brother Alfred Safford, a businessman in Joiliet, Ill. Together they moved to Shawneetown, and then in 1858, they moved to Cairo, Ill. In the spring of 1861 the Civil War broke out, and Cairo turned out to be strategically important, being situated at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Almost overnight the town was occupied by volunteer troops and hastily erected camps. These camps would be the birthplace for a variety of diseases. Mary Jane began visiting the camps, tending to the sick, and distributing food she'd made for the men. Gradually she won the respect of the officers and surgeons who initially opposed her. Soon she was permitted to draw upon supplies collected and forwarded by the U.S. Sanitary Commission. By that summer, she was working close with Mary Ann Bickerdyke, who gave her some training in nursing. In November of 1861, Mary Jane walked the Belmont battlefield, under her own flag of truce, searching for wounded men. After the battle at Fort Donelson, Mary Jane worked non-stop in the Cairo hospital. After more than 10 days with little or no sleep, she became sick herself. Near collapse, she accepted the nursing duties aboard the transport boat, City of Memphis, before retiring to her brother's home to recuperate. Mary Jane returned to nursing for the Battle of Shiloh, working aboard the transport ship Hazel Dell. She later worked with Mary Ann Bickerdyke in a field hospital in Savannah, Tenn., nursing the sick and wounded. Overworked, and still weak from her own poor health, Mary Safford suffered a breakdown after caring for the wounded at Shiloh. She was confined to her bed for several months, then at her brother's urging, she accompanied the family of former Illinois Governor Joel Matteson on a long tour of Europe to fully recuperate. She didn't return to America until the fall of 1866. The following year Mary Jane Safford entered the New York Medical College for Women. She graduated in 1869, then went to Vienna, Austria to study surgery at the General Hospital of Vienna, Austria. She later went on to the University of Breslau, Germany to continue her studies, performing the first ovariotomy ever done by a woman. She returned to the U.S. in late 1872, and opened her own practice in Chicago the following year. She married James Blake in 1872. However, the marriage didn't work and in 1880 she divorced Blake and joined the Boston University School of Medicine faculty. In 1886 she retired from Boston University in poor health, and moved to Tarpon Springs, Florida, where lived until her death on December 8, 1891.