Clarissa Vanbergen Pilcher was 07
Oct 1845 in Springfield, Illinois to Ezekiel and
Louisa (Ballard) Pilcher, formerly of Fayette
County, Kentucky and Grayson County, Virginia,
respectively. She was the youngest child of ten
children, her mother having had two sets of twins
- all of which survived. Her father died when she
was thirteen, and her mother and most of the
family removed to St. Louis, where it is that she
most likely met Thomas Anderson Moore, son of
James & Rebecca (Updegraph).
The
two were married, and within a week or so, Tom
enlisted in the 33rd Missouri Volunteers. It is
believed that this photo was taken shortly after
their marriage which occurred in St. Louis on her
seventeenth birthday.
During
the war the two exchanged letters and Tom's last
letter to her might have been the last she ever
heard of him except a passing soldier was said to
have found a whisper of a breath in him lying on
the battlefield where he was shot in the temple
with a minni ball during the Battle of Helena,
Arkansas on 04 Jul 1863. Newspaper accounts list
his wound as mortal, but he was taken to a
Memphis hospital, and there was treated by A.T.
Bartlett, Surgeon of 33rd Mo. Infantry
Volunteers.*
In
December of 1863 he was given a disability
discharge and returned to his Clara in St. Louis
where they began to start their family. Their
first two children, Minnie and Emily Ellen, both
died in infancy, but six children were born after
- all of which survived.
It is
speculated that Clarissa's interest in medicine
may have begun with her uncle, Joshua Pilcher,
who had been instrumental in treating the Indians
who suffered from yellow fever, and who had in at
least one instance, been referred to as "Dr.
Pilcher." It would seem likely, too, that
she would need to care for Thomas, and that this
- along with the many illnessess and injuries
during the war - may certainly have prompted her
to study medicine.
Although
Tom suffered the rest of his life from the gun
shot wound, he continued to work until his death
in 1915, many years after Clarissa had died. She
passed away after a surgical procedure performed
by her mentor, Dr. James A. Campbell, on 07 Apr
1890. At the time of her death, her youngest
daughter, Beulah, was only three.
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