Many years ago the bucolic countryside of her childhood continued to be a source of joy and comfort to one of West Grove's most important early residents. Ann Preston, born in 1813, was the eldest daughter of a Quaker farm family with deep roots in the area. The eldest daughter of Amos and Margaret Smith, she spent the first 36 years of her life on a quiet, old rustic homestead where her grandfather lived, and where her father was born, lived and died. During much of her childhood, she attended school as time permitted and helped raise her six younger brothers, learning at an early age to attend to the bruises, bumps and daily needs of a rambunctious household. Her mother and a younger sister also often needed her nursing skills, and Ann grew up with a keen sense that her life's work would be in helping others.

Richness of West Grove's past reflected in all the charms of old Victorian dwelling.

All the charms of old Victorian dwelling
reflect richness of West Grove's past.

Ann was strongly influenced throughout her life by her father's ardent Quaker beliefs and his outspoken support of the abolition movement. She once wrote a moving poem based on a childhood experience when her home served as a station on the Underground Railroad. Left alone with a frightened runaway slave, Ann boldly led her to safety, outsmarting a band of slavehunters who were searching neighboring properties. She told of dressing the woman in her mother's clothing, bonnet and gloves. The slavehunters were fooled and sneered at the young woman and her companion, heading off to a Quaker meeting.

She developed an early interest in poetry and literature and published Cousin Ann's Stories in 1848, a small book of poetry for children, filled with gently stated moral instruction. Ann's true life's work, however, still waited. Her years of tending to her family's ailments, along with her love of teaching and desire to help others, finally led her to the study and practice of medicine.

Nearby Philadelphia offered many opportunities for young men interested in medicine. Admission to women was denied, however, until 1850 when the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania first opened its doors. Ann Preston was a member of its first graduating class and the following year accepted the professorship of the chair of Physiology and Hygiene, the first woman in the country to hold so prestigious a position. Her administrative leadership continued when she helped organize the Woman's Hospital in Philadelphia and became dean of the faculty of the college in 1866.

The young physician devoted her life to medical education for women, fighting barriers and prejudice at all levels. Once, when she accepted an invitation to bring her students to a Saturday morning clinical lecture at the University of Pennsylvania, young men in the same audience jeered, spat upon and pelted her students with all kinds of missiles. She led the women from the room, but continued to fight back until they gained acceptance, a battle that continued for many years.

Ann Preston devoted her life to helping others. The medical college under her charge was the first ever chartered for its purposes. Not only did she help train young women as doctors, she also developed nursing courses to train women in the care of their families and neighbors, teaching them the skills that are so frequently needed in the home and community, as she herself had learned years before. She returned to her home in Chester County whenever she was in need of rest and solace, always citing its beauty and quiet as a source of personal inspiration.

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