Viola Mae was born April 20, 1863 to Elijah and Sarah (Llewellyn) Boley while they were living in Bourbon Township, Marshall County in Indiana. Viola and brother Alphonso were the only two of the four children who would live to maturity. Viola's parents farmed, milled grain and raised and traded livestock. In 1863, they moved to Ohio near her mother's family where they operated a farm and small hardware business.
On August 18, 1877, her father and brother arrived via ox cart near Mandan where they selected a claim on the west bank of the Missouri River, northeast of the future city. Their claim was reportedly the fourth claim west of the Missouri and north of the Heart River. Viola and her mother arrived in Bismarck on February 21, 1878 by train.
The Boleys gradually built their homestead into a 990-acre farm. Elijah became one of Morton County's first commissioners and would play an enormous role in early civic matters in Mandan.
Gilbert Cabinet Card of Viola Boley Coe c. 1890
At age 19, Viola married Dr. Henry Waldo Coe on June 20, 1882 in Mandan. Viola gave birth to their first son, George Clifford, on January 17, 1885.
Like her husband, Viola was a medical doctor, graduating from Woman's Hospital Medical College of Chicago (one of several schools combined to become today's Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine) in 1889. She is likely the first female Dakota Territory resident to become a medical doctor.
In 1891, the couple moved to Portland, Oregon. While living there, her second and third sons were born; Wayne Walter born October 10, 1894 and Earl Alphonso born August 7, 1896.
In Portland, Viola focused on philanthropic activities. In 1907, her and her husband were among a group commissioned by her husband's close personal friend (and then President of the US) Theodore Roosevelt to travel to the Panama Canal Zone and report back on the living and working conditions which were delaying progress on the construction of the canal.
Newspapers across the nation covered the 1913 divorce between Viola and her well known husband Henry Waldo Coe. Initially, the court granted her custody of her yound adult sons, but no portion of their businesses. The appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court ended by awarding her one-third of the property involved. In a time where divorce and lawsuits were not very common, she chose her own life happiness over pleasing society norms and enduring undesirable notoriety.
Dr. Coe fought to achieve woman suffrage in Oregon. She was acting chair of the Oregon State Equal Suffrage Association. According to first generation suffrage leader Abigail Scott Duniway, Coe was a woman “able and tactful.” Coe was Duniway’s close associate for the campaign, and carried out Duniway’s work until the suffrage ballot passed in 1912.
Dr. Coe could lead in the time of need. She kept Duniway involved for she was the foundation of the Oregon cause, and Coe made sure she conferred with her often. Viola also lived in an era that thrived on mass media and knew it was important to reach Oregonians through advertising leaflets, speeches and galas that promoted this cause.
Viola Coe also founded several hospitals that were dedicated to the care of women and girls. She helped many women and “working girls” that were recuperating from ill-health but could not afford the stay in a hospital or receive proper care at home by operating boarding house for them.
Signing Oregon Suffrage Proclamation <Click To Enlarge>
According to her obituary in the Oregon Journal, she devoted her time to the “church, club and philanthropic work.” She also spent her retirement caring for wildlife and directed her energy to conservation and the safety of birds. She founded a garden sanctuary for birds in Portland Heights.
Viola Coe, a physician for a half century, passed away at the age of eighty in Portland, Oregon on May 27, 1943. Her funeral service was presided over by her longtime pastor Dr. Raymond B. Walker.
She can be remembered for her dedication to women and the general welfare of the public. Viola Coe, M.D. was a woman of many roles; a medical doctor, feminist, suffragist, wife, divorcee, friend, woman of faith and leader.
The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; Mandan, ND 58554 Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org
