In the fall of 1874, Romania Pratt sold her most prized possession, a piano, for enough money to travel East. Her destination – the Women’s Medical College of New York.
Such a journey was a daring undertaking back in that day and age for a sheltered Mormon wife and mother of five. But Romania was determined to become a doctor. The young woman felt a deep commitment to helping the sick and injured. She also felt a personal responsibility to answer Church President Brigham Young’s command: “Women must come forth as doctors in these valleys of the mountains.”