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Cordelia Agnes Greene
Cordelia Agnes Greene (born July 5, 1831) was a suffragist, physician and health reformer who helped provide female physicians the opportunity to establish themselves within the U.S by allowing them to work under her in the Castile Sanitarium. As the medical director of the Castile Sanitarium, Greene provided female physicians with a venue to gain clinical experience in the field of medicine during a period of the Women's Rights Movement. Greene received her clinical training by working in the water sanitariums of both her father, Jabez Greene, and his friend, Dr. Henry Foster. Similar to Greene, Dr. Foster provided women the opportunity to gain clinical experience by working for him in the Clifton Springs Water Cure. Throughout her career, Greene participated in several medical organizations in which she provided the public with knowledge of preventive medicine as well as participated in the movement for women's rights.

Personal Life
Cordelia Agnes Greene was born on July 5, 1831 in Lyons, New York to her parents, Jabez Greene and Phila Cooke. Her father, originally a New England farmer, decided to move to Lyons, New York prior to the birth of Greene. Her parents promoted a progressive education for her, which lead to her obtaining a teacher's certificate while in her early teens. During her early teens, Greene found herself swept up in the Second Great Awakening, leading to Christianity becoming an important influence in her career and her publications. As a citizen of Castile, Greene contributed to the town by participating in the Presbyterian Church Home, serving on foreign missionary boards, and helping to form the Castile Public Library, to which she donated land, a $12,000 endowment and $500 for books. Although Greene never married, she adopted six children.

Education
In 1849, Jabez Greene decided to move on from farming and built a water-cure establishment in Castile, New York. Greene worked in her father's water sanitarium as his nurse and assistant, which exposed Greene to current health reforms and hydropathy, which is the method of treatment that Greene practiced later on. Using the money she earned from working for her father, Greene enrolled into the newly established Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, where she was the first student to receive a medical degree in 1853. After graduating from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Greene moved from Philadelphia to Cleveland, where she worked for her father's friend who recently built a water cure sanitarium. During this period of time, Greene attended Cleveland Medical College, which would later be known as Case Western Reserve University, where she graduated with honors in 1856.

After graduating from Cleveland Medical College, Greene moved back to upstate New York, where she worked for Dr. Henry Foster who was an alumni of Cleveland Medical College and owner of the Clifton Springs Water Cure. The Clifton Springs Water Cure eventually developed into a hospital and a sanitarium, where Dr. Foster hired people on the basis of the person's religious affiliation. With regards to Greene, Foster stated that, "a strong spiritual atmosphere has a mighty power as a curative agent". While Greene worked at the sanitarium, Dr. Foster allowed other female physicians to work under him in order to provide them with the credentials and experience they needed to find work.

Medical Career
After her father's death in 1864, Greene decided to take over her father's sanitarium, where she remained as the medical director of Castile Sanitarium until shortly before her death. Greene upheld a Christian viewpoint on the patients who entered the hospital. Greene stated, "that each patient was sent by a providential hand with the injunction Take this child and care for her for Me." Her first medical assistant was Dr. Clara Swain who also graduated from the Women's Medical College in Pennsylvania. The Castile Sanitarium became a place where recently graduated female physicians could work to receive clinical experience and could establish themselves within a growing network of female physicians. Prior to her death, Greene decided to retire as the medical director of Castile Sanitarium and her niece, Dr. Mary T. Greene, took over as the director. The Castile Sanitarium continued to serve as a location where recently graduated female physicians could find work during the Women's Rights Movement.

Medical Organizations
Throughout her career as the medical director of Castile Sanitarium, Greene was active in the following medical organizations where she often provided lectures of preventive medicine to the public.


 * Served in the American Medical Association(AMA) as part of the committee for preventive medicine alongside Dr. Rosalie Slaughter.
 * Served as a member of the New York State Medical Association
 * Served as the president of the Wyoming County Branch for one year which held their meetings at Castile Sanitarium.
 * Served as the head of the Educational Committee of the Women's Medical Association of New York City for several years.

Women's Rights
Greene was a strong advocate of women's rights and suffrage throughout her career. Greene was close with the leaders of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union(WCTU), who would regularly visit the Castile Sanitarium for treatments along with other leading figures of women's rights. Greene was also prominent in the local Political Equality Club and the Wyoming County Suffrage association, to which she donated large sums of money in the support of women's rights. Greene believed that providing proper healthcare to patients would be the foundation for the change of the role of women in society. She provided women an opportunity to gain clinical hours by allowing them to work in the Castile Sanitarium, which allowed for the rise in the number of female physicians. In addition, Greene participated in a protest by refusing to pay her taxes due to her inability to vote.

Works
Throughout her career, Greene wrote three books, all of which communicated her ideas concerning either the public misconceptions of women in society or how to nurture a child in a proper manner and setting. Her works are relevant to her career concerning promoting women's rights and suffrage as well as her lectures concerning preventive medicine and experience as a physician in a sanitarium.

Books

 * A thesis on prolapsus uteri : and other malpositions of the abdominal & pelvic viscera
 * Build well; the basis of individual, home, and national elevation; plain truths relating to the obligations of marriage and parentage
 * The art of keeping well; or, Common sense hygiene for adults and children