Dr. Louise Southgate was not only one of the first female physicians in Northern Kentucky, but also an ardent scholar, suffragist, and advocate for young girls.  Although she was born at a time when none of these things were common for women, she was born into a family that expected no less.

  Dr. Southgate received her medical degree in 1893 from the Laurel Memorial College, now the University of Cincinnati Medical School.  According to the stories that have survived in the Southgate family, however, Southgate finished her studies in Europe because she was not able to perform an autopsy in the U.S.  Cadavers were male and it was not considered proper for a woman to work on them.  While completing her studies in Europe, Southgate learned a great deal about the work of a man who she greatly admired, Louis Pasteur, the originator of germ theory and the process of pasteurization.  A page from her diary reflects her interest in Pasteur’s ideas, ideas that were not accepted by many scientists of his time or even of hers.