Martha Ballard facts for kids

Martha Moore Ballard (born February 9, 1735 – died June 9, 1812) was an American midwife and healer. She became famous because she kept a detailed diary for almost 30 years. This diary has given historians amazing information about the lives of women on the American frontier.

Her story became widely known after historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich published the book A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard based on her diary, 1785–1812 in 1990.

Martha Ballard's Early Life and Family

Martha Moore was born in Oxford, in the Province of Massachusetts. Her birthday was February 9, 1735. We don't know much about her childhood or schooling. However, her family had connections to medicine. Her uncle Abijah Moore and brother-in-law Stephen Barton were both doctors.

Her family is also related to Clara Barton. Clara Barton later founded the American Red Cross. She was the granddaughter of Martha's sister. In 1754, Martha married Ephraim Ballard, who was a land surveyor. They had nine children between 1756 and 1779. Sadly, they lost three children to a serious illness called diphtheria in 1769. Martha Ballard passed away on June 9, 1812, at the age of 77.

Martha Ballard's Medical Work

Martha Ballard never went to medical school. She learned how to treat illnesses from her experiences as a woman living in colonial times. She was like an herbalist, using plants to make medicines. She would gather herbs and create teas, salves, syrups, and vapors. These remedies helped treat many things, from coughs to sore limbs.

At that time, women were not allowed to attend medical school. So, many women learned about medicine from books like The Compleat Housewife. However, Martha never mentioned such books in her diary. This suggests she gained her medical knowledge through her own life experiences.

Over the 27 years she wrote in her diary, Martha delivered 816 babies. She was present at more than 1,000 births. The rates of babies and mothers surviving were typical for the United States before the 1940s. Besides her medical work, Martha also traded goods, wove fabric, and visited friends.

Martha Ballard's Famous Diary

Martha Ballard started keeping a diary when she was 50 years old, in 1785. She continued writing in it until her death in 1812. Her diary recorded her work and home life in Hallowell, by the Kennebec River. She wrote about her daily events using a quill pen and homemade ink.

She recorded many babies delivered and illnesses treated. She traveled by horse or canoe across the Massachusetts frontier, which is now the state of Maine. For 27 years, she wrote in her diary every day. She often wrote by candlelight after her family had gone to bed.

The diary has more than 1,400 pages. Her entries usually start with the weather and the time. Her early notes are short, but later entries are much longer and more detailed. Her writing shows the challenges and sad times within her own family. It also shows how children in New England could choose their romantic partners if they were from the same social class. This was unusual for the time.

Many people mentioned in the diary don't appear in official records. So, the diary helps us learn about the lives of ordinary people who might otherwise be forgotten. Because the diary is so large, experts have used computer tools to find information in it.

Martha's last birth she attended was on April 26, 1812. Her final diary entry, from 1812, says: "made a prayer adapted to my case." After Martha died, her diary was kept by Dolly Lambard. It was then passed to Dolly's daughters. In 1884, they gave the diary to Martha's great-great-granddaughter, Mary Hobart. Mary Hobart was one of the first female physicians in the U.S.

In 1930, Mary Hobart gave the diary to the Maine State Library in Augusta. Parts of the diary were included in a history book about Augusta in 1961. Later, in 1982, a microfilm copy of the diary was made. Robert R. McCausland and Cynthia MacAlman McCausland spent ten years creating a word-for-word copy of the diary. They made it available online and in print.

A Midwife's Tale Book

For many years, Martha Ballard's diary was not thought to be important for scholars. People often saw it as too simple and repetitive. However, historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich saw its value. She realized how rare Martha's first-hand account was. Ulrich had already researched women in early New England.

After eight years of research, Ulrich wrote A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard based on her diary, 1785–1812. Each chapter in the book explores a different part of a woman's life in the late 1700s. The main idea of the book is about the kind of work women did in their communities. Ulrich said that when she could connect Martha's work to her world, she could start telling stories.

In "A Midwife’s Tale," Ulrich focuses on ten important entries from Martha's diary. Ulrich explains these entries within their historical setting. This helped turn a seemingly ordinary woman's life into a key story from the Kennebec region.