# Representative women of New England/Seraph Frissell

​SERAPH FRISSELL, M.D., was born in Peru, Berkshire County, Mass., August 20, 1840, being the daughter of Augustus Caæsar and Laura Mack (Emmons) Frissell. Her grandparents were Thomas and Hannah (Phillips) Frissell and Ichabod and Mindwell (Mack) Emmons.
Her father and her paternal grandfather served, each in his day, as Captain of militia. William Frissell, her great-grandfather, served his country in the Revolutionary War. For military services, see Records of Connecticut for the Revolutionary War, pp. 27, 56, 389.
David Mack, great-grandfather of Dr. Frissell, was one of the earliest settlers in Middlefield, Hampshire County, Mass., going to that locality in 1775, and was one of the founders of the town. He enlisted (from Hebron, Conn.) in the Revolutionary War, but saw no active service, arriving too late to take part in the battle of Saratoga. He was a Captain of troops engaged in suppressing Shays's Rebellion, and afterward was Colonel of a regiment.
Seraph Frissell was the third in a family of six children, and was but eleven years old when her father died, leaving her mother with limited means for their support. Her girlhood years were divided between domestic work, a factory girl's life, and school life. During these years she saved enough to defray her expenses for one year at Mount Holyoke Seminary.
The fall of ISOl found hi-r a .student at this institution, from which she was graduated in .July, 1809, having completed the four years' course in three years, in the meanwhile teaching for live years. ^
In 1867 she received from the American Board of Missions the appointment of missionary to Ceylon, but in deference to her mother's wishes she did not enter upon this work. Beginning the study of medicine in 1872 under Doctors Ruth Gerry and Cynthia Smith, of Ypsilanti, Mich., she received her diploma from the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Michigan on March 24, 1875. She had hospital practice in Detroit, Ypsilanti, and Boston. In 1876 she began the general practice of her profession in Pittsfield, Mass., where she remained for eight years. Since then she has been a resilient of Springfield.
Dr. Frissell became a member of Hampden County Medical Society in 1885, being the first woman in Western Massachu.setts to be admitted to any district medical society. She was the fourth woman to be admitted a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. She is an honorary member of the Alumna' Association of the AVoman's Medical College, Philadelphia; a member of the Mercy Warren Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution; of E. K. Wilcox Relief Corps; of the American Medical Association; of the Spring- field Mount Holyoke Alumna' Association; of the Alumna^ Association of Michigan University; and of the College Club.
In 1896 Dr. Frissell took a course in electrotherapeutics. For some time she has been medical examiner for the Berkshire Life Insurance Company. She is a member of the First Congregational Church of Springfield. During her residence in Pittsfield she was elected the first president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of that city. For seven years she was president of the Woman's Board of Missions of the South Church. She has been superintendent of the Department of Heredity and Health, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, for Hampden County; and during 1890-91 she was resident physician and lecturer on physiology and hygiene at Mount ​Holyoke College. Her specialty has been diseases of women and chiklren. While devoted to her profession, she is interested in the progressive movements of the day, and her sympathies are as broad as humanity.
Dr. Frissell is the author of several interesting papers, notably one on Memorial Day in Hampton, Va. She presented before the American Medical Association a valuable paper on the treatment of diphtheria without alcohol, which was published in the American Medical Association Journal, November 13, 1897. She has also written papers on the following topics: "Tobacco," "Contents of a Teapot," "Why I'm a Temperance Doctor," "Hygiene: Why it should be taught in our Public Schools," "Prevention better than Cure," "Colonial Flags and the Evolution of the Stars and Stripes," also "Pioneer Women in Medicine."