Ella N. Prescott was born in 1876 in Eola, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. Her parents were Ben Prescott and Mrs. Winnie (Wade) Lofton. She graduated from the eighth grade at New Orleans University in 1893 and earned her normal certificate in 1896. She taught school She entered the Flint Medical College of New Orleans University, from which she graduated in 1904. The Class of 1904 was the fifteenth graduating class from the Medical College. Ella Prescott served as its president. She was an active lay member of the Winan Methodist Church in Franklinton and the Louisiana Methodist Conference. Dr. Prescott practiced in Franklinton in Washington Parish, Louisiana for over twenty years. She supplemented her practice by teaching in the Washington Parish Public Schools. She died in Flint-Goodridge Hospital in New Orleans on 21 May 1925, due to acute nephritis. In March 1905, she became a founding member of the Flint Medical College Alumni Association.
Dr. Ella N. Prescott was the first black woman to make a career of medicine in Louisiana. She was succeeded by Dr. Thelma Coffey Boutte, the first black woman to practice medicine in New Orleans. They were both preceded by Dr. Emma Wakefield Paillet, a native of New Iberia, who earned her doctorate in medicine and practiced briefly before marrying and migrating to California. She married Joseph Oscar Paillet and moved to San Francisco, where she died in 1946.
The picture above shows the 1904 graduates of the Flint Medical College of New Orleans University. The other graduates besides Dr. Prescott were: (standing left to right) Dr. Francis Medard Nelson (1878-1950), a native of New Orleans who practiced in Louisiana and in Berkeley/Oakland, California; Dr. William H. Dorsey (1871-1951), a native of Natchez, Mississippi, who practiced in Jackson, Tennessee; and (seated left to right) Dr. James R. Sheppard (1871-1929), a native of Cass County, Texas, who established the Sheppard Sanitarium in Marshall, Texas; [Dr. Prescott is seated at center]; and Dr. Joseph Arthur Hardin (1875-1954), a native of Scooba, Mississippi, who practiced in New Orleans, where he served as Consul for Liberia. (Not picture is Flint College’s graduate in Pharmacy that years, who was Dr. Henry W. Taylor.)
J.C.L.H.
What a wonder woman to have survived time.
I’m very interested in learning more about Dr Ella Prescott in that my maiden name is Prescott and I too was born in Avoyelles Parish. My Father is a Prescott. Currently in the process of taking the DNA test.
Unfortunately, I do not have the names of Dr. Prescott’s parents. I would suggest that you send for a copy of her death certificate from the State Archives. She died on 21 May 1925 in New Orleans. Her death certificate is recorded in Volume 190, Page 1219.
I’m Anthony Prescott.
Thanks for the lead.