Cumberland County, Maine - Jane Lord Hersom, M.D.
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Biography
Jane Lord Hersom, M.D.
Biographical Review
Cumberland County, Maine
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1896
Page 275-276

Jane Lord Hersom, M.D., a physician in active practice in Portland, was born in
Maine, daughter of Samuel and Sophia Hight (Smith) Lord. The Lord family is of
English origin, and Mrs. Hersom's branch of the family is connected with the
Lords of Berwick and of Kittery. Her great-grandfather, whose name was Moses
Lord, was one of the early settlers of the State. Her grandfather, also named
Moses, was a pioneer of Sanford, Me., where he was engaged in farming.

Samuel Lord, son of Moses Lord, Jr., was born at South Sanford proper, and in
1843 moved to Springvale, a village in the same town. A great part of his early
life was devoted to farming. After the war he moved to the old Chancellor place,
three miles from the battlefield of Chancellorsville in Virginia. In politics
Mr. Lord was a Democrat, and he was strongly opposed to slavery. He was a
prominent man in his district in Maine, serving as Deputy Sheriff of York County
for some time and as Postmaster of Springvale from 1852 to 186o. He died in the
South, in February, 1874. His wife, to whom he was united in 1836, was a native
of Hollis, Me., and a daughter of Daniel Smith, of old York, and his wife, Sarah
(Chase) Smith, of Saco. She reared two children: Dr. Jane Lord; and a son, Edwin
Howard, who now has charge of the academy at Wolfboro. Mrs. Lord died in
January, 1859, at the age of forty-three years. She was a member of the
Congregational church at Sanford Corner.

Jane Lord Hersom attended public and private schools in Springvale, and taught
at her home in that town for some time before her marriage. In January, 1882,
she took up the study of medicine. After spending one year under the tuition of
Dr. S. H. Weeks, she studied for three years at the Woman's Medical College of
Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, receiving her diploma in the fall of 1886. Dr.
Hersom immediately began to practice in Portland, and during the nine years of
her professional life, in handling difficult cases, she has made a reputation
for skill and delicacy that has brought her a large clientage. She belongs to
the Practitioners' Club of Portland, of which she was President for a year, and
is a member of the Cumberland County Medical Society, of the Maine State Medical
Association, of the American National Medical Association, and of the Maine
Academy of Medicine and Science.

Dr. Hersom was married in 1865. Her husband, Nahum A. Hersom, who also was a
physician, was a son of Nahum and Elizabeth (Pray) Hersom, of Lebanon, Me., and
was born in that town in 1835. His father was a tailor, but was also engaged in
farming. Nahum A. Hersom attended school at West Lebanon, and studied at the
academy at Parsonsfield, then quite a noted institution. He read medicine with
Dr. John Parker, of Lebanon, and Dr. Nathan Parker, of Farmington, attended the
Brunswick Medical School for a year, and graduated from the University of
Pennsylvania at Philadelphia in 1861. In the summer of that year he opened an
office at Sanford Corner. In the fall of 1862, when the Twentieth Maine
Volunteer Infantry started for the South, he went with it as Assistant Surgeon.
Six months later he was promoted to the rank of First Surgeon of the Seventeenth
(Maine) Regiment, and during the last year of the war he had charge of the field
hospital of the Third Division of the Second Corps. His health was good during
the first part of his army life, but in the last year he had two attacks of
malarial fever. He was on the point of having a third seizure when he was
mustered out. He then located in Farmington, N.H., where he was married, and for
two years attended to a heavy practice. At the end of that time he prepared to
take a vacation for two weeks, but it was five years before he was able to
resume his professional work. In the fall of 1872 Dr. and Mrs. Hersom removed to
Portland, and there the Doctor built up an extensive practice in medicine and
surgery. In the spring of 1881 he went to Europe for a rest of three months, but
soon after landing he was taken ill. Within a week from that time he died of
peritonitis in Dublin, among strangers, with not one of his kindred to bid him
farewell. He was a member of the County and State Medical Societies, of the
American Medical Association, and of the Portland Clinical Society. He was
prominent in each of these organizations and took an active part in their
important transactions. In politics he was a Republican. He kept up his army
associations after the war, and was surgeon of a Grand Army Post. He left one
daughter, Mabel Lord Hersom, who is now a student at Smith College.

Dr. Jane Lord Hersom takes an active interest in all projects for the good and
the advancement of women. She served one year as President, and was also
Treasurer, of the Maine Suffrage Association; and she was three years President
of the Equal Suffrage Club of Portland. She belongs to the Monday Club, one of
the oldest continuous history clubs of the city, to the Women's Literary Union,
and State and National Federation of Women's Clubs. In charitable and church
work she is also active, belonging to the State Street Congregational Church, of
which her husband also was a member.