RealChoice: October 12, 1877: Prestigious Female Doctor Supported by Her Fellows

Sunday, October 12, 2025

October 12, 1877: Prestigious Female Doctor Supported by Her Fellows

"Another distressing case of the death of a mother and her unborn child at the hands of an abortionist, and teeming with all the horrors of such matters, was unearthed in this city on Saturday." -- The Daily Inter-Ocean, October 22, 1877

The Tragic Errand

It was about 11 am on October 12, 1877 (or was it October 20?). Dr. Daniel C. Stillians of 239 West Indiana Street in Chicago went to the Madison Street police station. He told the officer in charge, Lieutenant Simmons, that he had been called in to attend a patient but had arrived too late to save her. Dr. Stillians told police that the young woman told him that she had miscarried, but Dr. Stillians thought that the fetal death was induced, not natural. He decided that to avoid any blame being placed on himself he would report the case to the coroner.

The coroner was duly summoned and went with Detective Gallagher and Detective Lansing to 162 Sangamon Street, where they found a young woman dead. The woman was Nellie Ryan, an unmarried 21-year-old white woman from Turner Junction, Illinois.

According to the Chicago Tribune, "She lay just as she died, save that a damp cloth had been thrown carelessly over the face to keep the features moist. The bed-clothing was soiled, and a pill0w-slip at the foot of the bed was found filled with soiled clothing and other cotton cloths. After viewing this not very pleasing sight, the reporter sat down in an adjoining room to hear Mrs. Forrest's story.

The Chicago Tribune described Nellie as "a comely brunette, of petite form, and a very attractive face, ornamented with large hazel eyes." She was about 21 years old, a younger daughter in a financially struggling family. She had first worked alongside her friend Barbara Hahn at the St. Elmo Hotel in turner's Junction. She had worked about a year in Chicago, then had returned to Turner Junction.

Nellie Returns to Chicago

According to the Mrs. and Mrs. K. K. Forrest, who lived in the house, a young man identifying himself as Mr. Dougherty said that he needed to rent a room for his sister, who was being driven out of the home by the cruelty of their parents. They negotiated a price of $8 a month, or just a little under $250 in 2025. That evening, Nellie arrived.

Dougherty, the Forrests said, left a few days later, saying that he had to return to his work as a brakeman on the Northwestern Railroad. He returned just the previous Monday, looking very pale, and reporting that he had been down sick with a severe cold and bronchial infection.

During his absence, Nellie had also taken ill.

Enter Dr. Spork

Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago

Mrs. Forrest said that Amelia Spork (identified on some public record documents as Emelie Spork), a woman she had known casually, started coming to the house. It was then, Mrs. Forrest said, that she learned that Mrs. Spork was a doctor. The Chicago Times reported that Dr. Spork identified herself as a native of Bergen, Norway who had come to the United States with her husband and two adopted children eight years earlier. Three years later, Spork said, she was awarded a diploma in medicine and surgery from Hahnemann Medical College, an institution of homeopathic medicine. At the time of her arrest, her children were grown and had moved out on their own.

Mrs. Spork said that she had casual brief conversations with Dr. Spork during her daily visits, but they never discussed Nellie's condition, even though Nellie seemed to grow more and more ill even as the visits from Dr. Spork continued.

After a lengthy visit from Dr. Spork on Friday, Nellie took a drastic turn for the worse, so Mrs. Forrest summoned Dr. Stillian, who was the family doctor. He came by the first time around 7:00 that morning and prescribed some medicines. When he returned at around 9:00, he arrived just in time to witness Nellie's death.

Arresting Doctor Spork

The police hastened to Dr. Spork's house at 218 Indiana Street, but nobody was there. They next went to her office at 391 West Madison street, where they found and arrested the doctor at around 4:00 pm. They searched Dr. Spork and her premises. Her office was equipped for homeopathic practice. However, in a small closet under a wash-bowl the detectives "found secreted an abortionist's entire lay-out."

An autopsy was performed, and the report noted "The internal surface of the womb showed no marks of violence, but was inflamed and in the incipient state of gangrene." The coroner's jury concluded that Nellie had died due to an abortion that had been perpetrated two weeks earlier.

When questioned, Dr. Spork admitted that she had indeed treated Nellie, but only for pleurisy. She insisted that she hadn't known of Nellie's "condition."

What Barbara Hahn Had to Say

As they investigated Nellie's movements, detectives found one of Nellie's friends, a young woman named Barbara Hahn who worked ironing at a laundry. Barbara hailed from the same home town as Nellie, and about a week after she had arrived in Chicago Nellie had stayed the night with Barbara at the home where Barbara boarded. The families also knew each other because Barbara's father was a farmer in Turner Junction near the Northwestern Railroad, where Nellie's father worked as a laborer.

Barbara told detectives that all of the young women in their village were smitten with Mr. Dougherty, and vied for his attentions.

Barbara had known that her friend had come to Chicago, but hadn't known what role Dougherty had played in the move. She only found out when Dougherty had come to her on Friday evening, saying to hurry with hi because Nellie was dying. As they hurried to the Forrest home, Barbara said, Dougherty told her that Nellie had been pregnant. Because Nellie's older sister had died in childbirth, Dougherty said, Nellie was determined not to carry the pregnancy to term lest she suffer the same fate. Dougherty told Barbara that they had found a female doctor to do the abortion.

They arrived at the Forrest home and were greeted with the news that Nellie was dead. Dougherty took it hard, uttering invectives against himself and the abortionist in turn.

Word of Nellie's death was sent to her sister, who lived in a family named McMahon in western Chicago. Dougherty sent a telegram to Nellie's parents. Nellie's body was still lying in the bed when her father arrived from Turner Junction. The Chicago Tribune described him a "a rough, uncouth-looing Irishman" who seemed "as large-hearted as an Irishman can be." The report said that when he lifted the cover from his daughter's face, he "fainted dead away."

What Dr. Spork Told the Reporter

A Chicago Tribune reporter visited Dr. Spork at the police station and assured her that he would not tell her husband of her arrest lest he succumb to his heart disease. Dr. Spork told the reporter that she had gone to her office on Monday afternoon and found a note telling her to go to 162 North Sangamon Street. There she first treated Nellie. She told the reporter, "When I arrived there I found her sitting in a rocking-chair, in a cold, clammy state. I at once ordered her to bed, and as she complained of pains in the chest, I concluded it was pleurisy. Accordingly I placed porous plasters on each side and ordered cloths wet with Green Oile, a Norwegian remedy, and Pond's Extract. She complained of nothing else until Wednesday, when she said there was a severe pain her her bowels."

It's possible that Dr. Spork was referring to some remedy such as Budwell's Emulsion of Cod Liver Oil, which was used at that time for a variety of ailments including for lung ailments, although it was to be taken internally, not applied externally with a wet cloth. Pond's Extract was a patent medicine comprised primarily of witch hazel and often applied topically or in a plaster or poultice. So Dr. Spork's description of the care would have been consistent with the belief that Nellie was suffering from inflammation of the lining of the lung cavity.

Dr. Spork said that once Nellie complained of bowel pains she treated Nellie with aconite (an herb traditionally used to treat a variety of ailments), byronia alba (an herb used widely in homeopathic remedies), and cantharides (a blistering preparation made from dried beetles).

Dr. Spork admitted when asked that she believed Nellie might have been pregnant, but when she'd asked, Nellie had said no, and she hadn't pursued the matter any further.

Evidence That the Abortion was Nellie's Idea

Some abortion deaths are clearly cases where women wanted to marry the fathers of their babies but were abandoned to their situations. With Nellie, that seems not to be the case. Her parents and friends reported that Nellie had often said that she'd prefer death to the pains of childbirth and the trouble of caring for a child.

Nellie got her wish.

The Fallout

According to the Chicago City Directory and Census records, Spork, a Swedish immigrant, was a physician. The May 21, 1874 Inter-Ocean notes that she was accepted into the State homeopathic Society. The May 18, 1876 Chicago Tribune notes that "Miss Dr. Helen J. Underwood read Mrs. Dr. E. Spork's report on 'Moto-Therapeutics,' which recommended the movement cure for many of the diseases of women and children, and regarded it as the best extant," at the State Homeopathic Medical Society conference.

The Chicago Society of Physicians and Surgeons held a special meeting the evening of November 15. Dr. Foster, Dr. Mitchell, and a woman identified in the Inter-Ocean as "Mrs. Dr. Underwood" had been appointed to look into the case. (Since the Inter-Ocean identified Spork as "Mrs. Dr. Spork," this indicates that Dr. Underwood was also a woman.) They asserted that the instruments found in Dr. Spork's office and identified as "those of an abortionist only" were ordinary gynecological instruments.

They also asserted that Dr. Spork was mistreated while under arrest, "shut up in a cell with a drunken female prisoner, and a few ours afterward was put in a cell by herself, where she spent the night on a bare board, without pillow or coverlet." She wasn't allowed any visitors. "She was browbeaten and terrified by the officer in charge of her up to the last hour of her detention.

The unanimous resolution was "That this society has the utmost confidence in the professional ability and integrity of Mrs. Dr. Emilie Spork, and that it extends to her its sympathy in view of the recent serious and unjust accusations against her, and the severe illness resulting from her arrest." They added a testimonial from neighbors and patients who attested to her good reputation and full belief in her innocence.

In the wake of this wave of support, Dr. Spork was released. To my knowledge, nobody was ever prosecuted for Nellie's death.

Lessons

Note that contrary to abortion-rights dogma, Nellie found a medical professional of the same caliber she'd have gone to for any obstetric issue. She didn't just grab a dirty knitting needle and impale herself. Prior to legalization, women were going to doctors for perhaps 90% of abortions, and going to midwives or nurses or other trained medical professionals about another 8% of the time. The remaining abortions were often done by laypersons who were trained, supplied, and backed up by medical professionals. The stereotypical "coathanger abortion" is a PR ploy and not a reflection of reality.

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