Dr. Olive Lucy Eddy

Mrs. Olive Lucy Orcutt

Olive Lucy Eddy was born in 1857 in New York. She attended the University of Michigan and in 1882 became the first woman to graduate U.M.’s Homœopathic Medical College with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1882. Later that year she moved to Pasadena, California to live with her sister. On 27 September 1892, she married Charles Russell Orcutt in Los Angeles. Charles and Olive spent their honeymoon riding horseback from Pasadena to San Jacinto, and then on to San Diego, collecting plants all along the way. Once home, Charles and his brother John built a house (one of several they were to build) on 21st and J Streets, and there the newlyweds raised a family. Mrs. O.L. Orcutt established a medical practice and, in true Orcutt fashion, published Out of Doors For Women (1893-1896), a monthly magazine that concentrated on floriculture but included articles on travel, outdoor activities, along with fiction, editorials, and other matters of interest to women.

I wish I knew the details of their courtship, but I do not. Both the San Diego Historical Society and the San Diego Natural History Museum hold C.R. Orcutt archives, and I’d like to paw through these, perhaps next year. If anyone can provide insight on this marriage, please let me know.

Charles and Olive had four children. Charles Eddy was born on 19 August 1893; Mary M. in October 1895 (married Robert A. Bisbee in 1921); Eunice in July 1897 (married Joseph Ivec); and Heman Cortis, my Grandfather, in 1899.

Of Charles’ children, I knew Heman Cortis the best. I always thought his name queer, but everyone called him “Hank” and his written formal address was “H.C. Orcutt.” The drive to San Diego was not that imposing, so my family would visit frequently. We always went down there for Thanksgiving and they always came up here for Christmas. For most of my childhood, I spent Easter Vacations in San Diego with my Grandma and Grandpa Orcutt. Grandpa died in 1981 when I was 19. I also knew my Great-Aunt Mary, primarily during my summers spent with her daughter, Barbara Bradford, at her ranch in Aguanga. Aunt Mary died in 1977. I barely knew Aunt Eunice, who, though she lived near my grandparents in San Diego, never attended family functions. She was a talented artist who seldom signed her works. I owned a strange oil painting of hers of a triceratops. Only a young boy would have wanted it. I did not know Charles Eddy (known as Eddy) at all. He died in December 1952, a few months after I was born. Eddy Orcutt was an author, and wrote many fictional short stories for the Saturday Evening Post. I have two of his stories in bound anthologies. More about these siblings later.