PRESENTS
LEGENDS OF THE JUNCTION
Dr. Minerva Reid
By Kristen Buckley
Minerva Reid was born in Orangeville in 1872 of Irish parents.
The youngest of eleven children, she was fatherless at an early age. Her mother
persevered against hardship and insisted on the importance of education. Each
day Minerva walked two miles to elementary school. To provide light so her
children could study, Minerva's mother held pieces of cedar to keep the fire
lit when the family ran low of coal oil. Arriving with her older sister Hannah
on exam day, Minerva was almost turned away because of her young age, but
convinced the examiner that she was indeed eligible to write the exam. She
passed her high school entrance examinations at age 11.
Minerva's older brother John, a doctor, inspired her to enter the medical
profession. Living with John's family in Tillsonburg, she assisted him with
his practice. But assisting was not enough for Minerva Reid. She set out to
get her medical degree at a time when few women were doctors and such aspirations
were not always financially possible. She taught at Watford High School for
several years before enrolling at the University of Toronto Medical School
where she received her Medical Doctor's degree.
Striving for further education, Minerva traveled alone to Ireland to study
at the Dublin Medical School, the first woman to receive admittance to a previously
all male institution. She arrived in the middle of the night, the housekeeper
taken aback to find a woman at his door seeking shelter. In the morning he
discovered this beautiful young woman was a new medical student who would
need long term accommodations. Family stories relate how Minerva, usually
proper and stoic, cried when her brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews saw
her off. Until the very last minute, she was giving prescriptions and remedies
for her family's various ailments.
Minerva returned to Canada with her Dublin medical degree and settled in the
heart of the Junction. She made a home for herself, her sister Carrie and
her mother at 125 Annette Street, just down from the library where the house
still stands. She established a practice in the Junction, serving the neighbourhood
for over forty years. The Junction maintains a memory of Minerva Reid sweeping
along the wooden sidewalk on Dundas in her hooped skirt, on the way to a house
call.
Minerva is revered as a founder of Women's College Hospital. She was the hospital's
Chief of Surgery for many years. Her sister Hannah was an anesthesiologist.
It was not uncommon for the two Reid sisters to operate on a patient together
under the lights of the Women's College operating room.
In the 1940's, Minerva was joined by Lady Eaton, as they picketed the Minister
of Health and Welfare, Ian Mackenzie, for a veteran's hospital. They gathered
nearly 20 000 names. Minerva's diligence and patriotism paid off as the federal
government built Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto to care for its war heroes.
Minerva never married and one suspects Junction men were disappointed. Tommy
Russell, general manager of the Canadian Cycle and Motor Company named one
of his company's Junction cars, the Doctor's Runabout, and it is tempting
to speculate that the beautiful Irish Canadian doctor had won another heart.
In 1955, at the end of her remarkable career, the Junction honoured Minerva's
contribution to the medical field in Canada and her dedication to the health
and wellbeing of the neighbourhood by presenting her with a set of Crown Derby
dishes. Minerva Reid, student, teacher, doctor and pioneer, died on April
28th 1957 at the age of 85.