Newsom, Ella King (1838–1919)

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Newsom, Ella King (1838–1919)

American hospital administrator. Name variations: Ella King Newsom Trader. Born Ella King, June 1838, in Brandon, MS; died Jan 20, 1919, in Washington, DC; dau. of Thomas S.N. King (pastor) and Julia King; m. William Frank Newsom (physician), Feb 6, 1854 (died); William H. Trader, 1867 (died 1885); children: (2nd m.) several, but only 1 daughter survived childhood.

Dubbed "Florence Nightingale of the South," named matron of Overton Hospital in Memphis, TN (1861), during Civil War; assumed control of Confederate military hospital in Bowling Green, KY (1861–62); ran Foard Hospital and was official chief matron at Academy Hospital, both in Chattanooga, TN (1862); organized hospitals in Georgia as Tennessee army retreated south; worked in various government posts in US General Land Office, Patent Office, and Pension Office (1886–1916); as part of a group of women who fought contemporary attitudes against women in military hospitals, helped set the stage for the trained nursing profession.

See also Jacob Fraise Richard, The Florence Nightingale of the Southern Army: Experiences of Mrs. Ella K. Newsom, Confederate Nurse in the Great War of 1861–65 (Broadway, 1914).