"Medicine Woman"
1873 - 1966
1260 Mulvane

Born in Red Willow, NE, Mary Canaga married Dr. Walter Rowland and lived in Herndon, KS. She studied her husband's medical books in order to be able to assist her husband in his medical practice. She was so adept at learning, her husband decided to send her to medical school in Topeka. She received her MD from Women's Medical College of Kansas City, MO which had consolidated with the school in Topeka. Plans for a joint practice with her husband had to be postponed due to her pregnancy and during the hiatus Walter was murdered. Their daughter was born in 1902 and shortly thereafter Dr. Mary entered Creighton Medical School in Omaha. She came back to Topeka and opened a downtown practice. Her step-father built for her what she called her "dreamhouse" on Mulvane and she was a resident of Topeka off and on for eight years. In 1909 she passed the Oregan state Medical Board test and moved west. In 1917 she was appointed physician to the Federal Indian School for the Columbia Indian Tribes near Salem.