Representative women of New England/Eliza B. Cahill

by Mary H. Graves

ELIZA BUCKMAN CAHILL, M.D., was born February 22, 1862, in Woburn, Mass., being the daughter of Leander and Ruth M. (Buckman) Cahill. Her father, Leander, and her paternal grandfather, Bamaval Cahill, were natives of Sackville, Cumberland County, New Brunswick, Canada, and belonged to one of the oldest and most widely known families in that country. Bamaval Cahill, born in 1804, was the son of John R. Cahill and grandson of John Cahill, a native of Ireland, who married Teresa Barnaval, an ELIZA B. CAHILL English woman, and lived in London, England, engaged in business as a merchant and ship- owner.

Dr. Cahiirs great-grandfather, John R. Cahill, died in Sackville in 1852. He was horn in London, England, in 1777. His father, decid- ing to educate him for the church, sent him to college. During a vacation he crossed the At- lantic as supercargo of one of his father's ves- sels. The vessel was wrecked on the return voyage, while off the coast of Nova Scotia, and all on board were taken to Halifax. For reasons not now known young Cahill remained in the British Provinces, and for a time taught school. From his father's estate in England he received regular remittances as long as he lived. He married a Miss Lesdemier, sister of Mrs. Richard John Uniacke, and settled in Sackville, N.B. They had eleven children.

Leander Cahill, Dr. Cahill's father, elder son of Bamaval and Rebecca (Chase) Cahill, was bom in 1834. Coming to Massachusetts at twenty-three years of age, a wheelwright and carriage-maker by trade, he lived for a time in Middlesex County and afterward in Boston, where he engaged in the business of carriage- making. Ruth M. Buckman, whom he married September 12, 1860, was bom in Woburn, January 7, 1839, the daughter of Dennis and Ruth Brown (Richardson) Buckman. Her pa- ternal grandparents were Jacob and Elizabeth (Munroe) Buckman, of Lexington, Elizabeth being a daughter of Marrett and Deliverance (Parker) Munroe and *a descendant of William^ Munroe, of Lexington (who came, it is said, from Scotland in 1652), and of Thomas* Parker, an early settler of Reading.

Dennis Buckman was brother to the Hon. Bowen Buckman and Willis Buckman. Ruth B. Richardson, his wife, was a daughter of Jesse* Richardson, a lineal descendant in the fifth generation of Samuel Richardson, one of the three Richardson brothers who were among the founders of the town of Woburn. The line was: Samuel,*" Zechariah,* Jesse,*^ the latter a soldier of the Revolution. Zechariah, bom in 1720, married Phebe Wyman, a descendant of Lieutenant John Wyman, of Woburn. (See Richardson Genealogy.)

Mrs. Ruth Buckman Cahill was a woman of character and cultivation, large-hearted and clear-headed. She was the mother of three children. The second child, Annie R., died in infancy; and Frank Albert, bom in 1867, died in 1883. Eliza, the eldest born, was named for her uncle Bowen's wife, who had recently passed away, beloved and lamented. In 1866, when Eliza was four years old, Mr. and Mrs. Cahill removed to East Boston, where she at- tended the public schools till she reached the age of twelve. In 1874, on account of the mother's faiUng health, the family removed to California. The warm climate proved bene- ficial to Mrs. Cahill, evidently prolonging her life, and they remained there till after her death, which occurred August 24, 1879. In response to her wishes, Mr. Cahill, who was of a kind and loving nature, and remained ever faithful to her memory, returned East to make a home for his children in Boston, where they would be not far from their mother's kinsfolk. Seven years later, his daughter being then es- tablished in her profession, he went back to his birthplace, the old homestead in Sackville, N.B., to be with his younger brother, then in failing health. In Sackville he continued to reside till his death, in 1897, cared for tenderly in his last years of invalidism.

While on the Pacific slope, Eliza had con- tinued her studies under private teachers. When she returned to Boston, she was seven- teen, and looking forward to a life of usefulness. With the memory of her mother as a prime motive power in every noble aspiration and endeavor, she chose an arduous profession. En- tering Boston University School of Medicine in 1883, she received her diploma in 1886. A week before her graduation Dean Talbot of the University called her into his room and said: " Miss Cahill, there is a request before me for a resident physician for the New England Conservatory of Music. You fulfil every de- mand they make of the incumbent save your age." This was very encouraging to an ambi- tious young novitiate. She accepted the posi- tion, and at the end of the first year Dr. Tourjee asked her to sign a five years' contract. She declined, on the ground of wishing to be free to change the scene of her labors if found de- sirable. She did, however, remain for fourteen years, spending her summers in Sackville, N.B., with her father, ever attentive to his comfort and happiness as long as he lived. At the expiration of five years she had leave of absence, and went to Europe for hospital work. At various times she has taken post-graduate courses in New York and other cities. When she had been at the Conservatory nine years (during which time she had acquired a large outside practice, not being in any way restricted by the trustees of the Conservatory), she became lecturer on diseases of women at Boston University. As her duties increased in other directions, she wished to resign her position at the Conservatory, but was obliged to wait three years before her resignation would be accepted. She is ever grateful and appreciative of the unfailing courtesy which was shown her at that institution. In 1900 she took up her residence at the Westminster, Copley Square.

Doctor Cahill is a busy and happy woman, loving the profession in which she has been so successful. She is president of the Twentieth Century Medical Club, second vice-president of the Massachusetts Surgical and Gynecological Society, first vice-president of the Boston Homœopathic Medical Society, a member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, the Electro-Therapeutical Society, Society for University Education of Women, and the Actors' Alliance, and first vice-president of the Alunmi Association of Boston University School of Medicine. Although too busy to be often present at the meetings, she is a member of the New England Women's Club and the Women's Educational and Industrial Union and a stockholder in the Woman's Club-house Corporation. From girlhood she has been a member of the Methodist church.