Cora Smith Eaton

Cora Smith was born in 1867 and attended the National School of Elocution and Oratory in Philadelphia, where she took up the cause of women's suffrage.[1] She attended the University of North Dakota from 1884 to 1889, during which time she taught arithmetic, geography, spelling and handwriting at the university.[2] She was also the first woman to teach physical education at UND.[1] She graduated in 1889 with a Bachelor of Science as a member of UND's first class.[2] She subsequently studied at the Boston University School of Medicine and graduated in 1892 before returning to Grand Forks, North Dakota,[1] where she became the first woman in the state to practice medicine.[3] She remained in Grand Forks until 1896.[2]

Smith later moved to King County, Washington,[4] and established a medical practice in Seattle.[3] There, she took up mountain climbing, and was a founding member as well as the first secretary of The Mountaineers. In 1907, she became the first woman to summit the East Peak of Mount Olympus, and she eventually climbed all six of Washington's major mountains.[5]

Smith was active in the women's movement in Washington and was the treasurer of the Washington Equal Suffrage Association. She co-authored a chapter of the organization's book, Washington Women's Cook Book, which was published in 1908. In 1909, she was responsible for carrying a pennant that read "Votes For Women" to the summit of Mount Rainier on a Mountaineers expedition.[6]

By the end of her career, Smith was licensed to practice medicine in several U.S. states.[1] She was married to Dr. Robert A. Eaton and also to Judson King.[4] She died in 1939,[6] and Cora Smith Hall at the University of North Dakota was named for her in 1964.[1]