# Representative women of New England/Julia A. B. Russell

​JULIA ANN BRAY RUSSELL, M.D., was born in Reading, Mass., March 6, 1847, daughter of John and Eliza (Holt) Russell. Her father, a native of Andover, Mass., was a pattern-maker by occupation, and noted for a phenomenal accuracy of eye. In a small way he was also an inventor. He died at the age of fifty-six years. The Doctor's mother, who was born in Reading, Mass., lived to the advanced age of eighty-seven. Her mother (the maternal grandmother) was from the north of Ireland, a devout woman of Protestant principles. Both Dr. Russell's father and mother were characterized by great gentleness of manner, and to the extent of their resources they devoted themselves to philanthropic work in their immediate neighborhood, seldom turning a deaf ear to the appeals of the unfortunate, where they could not assist with material aid, tendering a warm and ready sympathy that was often of greater value.
The subject of this sketch acquired her general education in the schools of Reading and under the instruction of Rev. Thomas J. Greenwood (Father Greenwood) with whom she studied for four years. One of the recollections of her girlhood is of falling asleep on many nights while the maiden aunt under whom she was reared read to her out of the Bible and Mr. Garrison's anti-slavery paper, the Liberator. The solemn cadences of the Scriptures doubtless neutralized the horrors of the Liberator, and, lulled by the sweet voice of her aunt, she found the well-deserved rest of the innocent and compassionate.
She early gave evidence of a taste for the profession that she subsequently adopted. When only fourteen years of age she was often called upon from all parts of the town to sit up with and care for the sick. From the work of a nurse to the calling of a physician was, for one of her bent, a natural step, and after some years of diligent application to study she received her medical diploma from Boston University. Selecting Maiden as her field of labor, she at once opened an office in that city, where she has since resided and practised. Starting with a sound theoretical knowledge of both medicine and surgery, she has since acquired that accuracy of diagnosis and skill in treatment that comes only after years of actual practice, and then only to those who are fitted by nature, inclination, and training for the healing profession. To these necessary qualities she adds an address that invites the confidence of her patients and a personal character that commands for her the respect of the community in which she lives.
Dr. Russell has a collection of anticjues that includes some specimens of rare interest and value. Among them is the old flint-lock pistol carried by General Warren at the battle of Bmiker Hill, given to her by Mr. Fred Pickering, ​a member of the Warren family, and a cup and saucer that were used at a banquet held many years ago to celebrate the Boston Tea Party. A lover of the fine arts, the Doctor possesses native talent as a painter, and her home on Main Street, Maiden, is adorned with several pleasing and well-executed pictures in oil from her own brush.
Dr. Russell has not accumulated for herself any considerable amount of this world's goods, but her deeds of charity and benevolence, both in the bestowal of personal service and the giving of money, have laid up for her a wealth of gratitude in the hearts of the many recipients and in her own the reward that comes to those who have learned that it is "more blessed to give than to receive." Her natural kindness is shown in the adoption of two daughters, one some twenty years ago and the other within the last five years, and both under circumstances that show a mother's devotion and love. Dr. Russell is a member of the Massachusetts Homœopathic Medical Society, the Boston Homœopathic Medical Society, and various local medical societies. She attends the Protestant Episcopal church of Maiden.