KIRK, ELLEN MARIA – Biographies – History of Homeopathy

     IRK, ELLEN MARIA,
Cincinnati, Ohio, was born in Guilford township, Winnebago county, Illinois, December 16, 1847, her parents being Jonathan Huston and Marcella (Dennis)
Kirk. The former, born August 31, 1817, is a descendant of Elisha and Mary (Allen) Kirk, Quakers of Cecil county, Maryland, the latter of the same
family as Ethan Allen, of revolutionary fame. Their son Jonathan married Elizabeth Huston Thompson of Chester county, Pennsylvania, and Jonathan Huston
Kirk, second of their three sons, removed to Winnebago county, Illinois, in 1837. He married, July 3, 1844, Marcella Dennis, born March 18, 1819, a
descendant in the paternal line of early English settlers of New Jersey, and in the maternal line from Thomas and Esther (Thorpe) Moore of Nova Scotia.
Dr. Kirk received her early education in the district schools and in Rockford Forest Hill Seminary ; she also spent two years in the Illinois State
Normal School. Seven years were then devoted to teaching, the last three in the Rockford public schools. During the last two years of her teaching in
Rockford her leisure hours were devoted to reading medicine. In October, 1875, she entered the New York College and Hospital for Women, from which she
graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1877, and for a year thereafter supplemented her professional education by visiting hospitals in New York, working
in dispensaries and attending special lectures. Since 1878 she has practiced in Cincinnati. In June, 1879, Dr. Kirk, with an associate, opened a
dispensary for women and children, and the rapid growth of the work resulted in the establishment and incorporation of the Ohio Hospital for Women and
Children, October 12, 1881. It was opened for patients in June, 1882, and for years was the only homœopathic hospital in Cincinnati. She has been its
dean since 1887. Dr. Kirk is a member of the American Institute of Homœopathy, the Ohio State Homœopathic Medical Society and the Cincinnati
Homœopathic Lyceum.

Source : History of Homœopathy by William Harvey King