Brooklyn's Pioneer Female Doctress

Notice a Mrs. L. R. Sherman, physician, on the list of patrons to Andrea's 1874 Atlas  (August blogpost). She stated she migrated in 1856; the atlas was published in 1874, so that is almost twenty years in Brooklyn as a "doctress". That was how the census taker labeled her occupation on the 1870 census. I want to know more about her.

So, Andrea's also listed her birthplace of Monroe County New York.  OK: found all her census records. In 1857, her husband Daniel was a mason, they had two children, and Eli, a blacksmith,  and his wife Lovina Haviland. lived with them.  I believe that Lovina was of Quaker heritage. Their residence was in the area of Maple Grove Township (T119-R22); one has to actually look at the census because halfway down the page it is noted that the enumerator crossed over from T119-R21 (Brooklyn) to T119-R22 on September 28th, 1857.

And in 1860, the family was farming in Maple Grove; still just two children: Parley (8) and Lorissa (5). In 1865, after her husband's service in the Civil War, they were in Brooklyn Township, and added a son, Darwin. And now, in 1870, her family lived next to Frank Lawson, a physician, and she was labeled as a "doctress". The record also shows that the son Parley, and daughter Lora, were born in Michigan, so the family migrated from Michigan, not New York.

The 1875 census did not document occupations. It appears the family had several boarders in Osseo; also, her daughter was not living with them. Oh dear. That is the end of census records in Minnesota. What happened? Her husband died.

The death register image is online, and it lists Daniel Sherman's death on September 4, 1876, from diarrhea, at age 43.  He has an attractive monument at Brooklyn-Maple Grove Union Cemetery--her name, Lora A. Graham, and death in 1907 is also on the monument.  It looks like she moved back to Michigan and married Martin Hoig....well, we didn't learn much about her occupation as a physician. We know she didn't save Daniel.