Early life and education Williams was born on January 18, 1856, and raised in the city of
Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. His father, Daniel Williams Jr., was the son of a
Scots-Irish woman and a black barber. His mother, Sarah Price, was a mixed race American. His Williams family great grandfather was listed in the 1790 U. S. census for Philadelphia City, as 'other free,' a designation that included black Americans. The fifth born child, Williams lived with his parents, a brother and five sisters. His family eventually moved to
Annapolis, Maryland. Shortly after when Williams was nine, his father died of tuberculosis. Williams' mother realized she could not manage the entire family and sent some of the children to live with relatives. Williams was apprenticed to a shoemaker in
Baltimore, Maryland but ran away to join his mother, who had moved to
Rockford, Illinois. He later moved to
Edgerton, Wisconsin, where he joined his sister and opened his own barber shop. After moving to nearby
Janesville, Wisconsin, Williams became fascinated by the work of a local physician and decided to follow his path. He began working as an apprentice to
Henry W. Palmer, studying with him for two years. In 1880, Williams entered
Chicago Medical College, now known as Northwestern University Medical School. His education was funded by
Mary Jane Richardson Jones, a prominent activist and leader of Chicago's black community. He earned a
Doctor of Medicine from
Northwestern University Medical School in 1883.
Career After graduation, he opened a private medical practice in
Chicago, Illinois. From 1885 to 1888, Williams worked as a demonstrator in anatomy at Northwestern.
Provident Hospital In 1891, Williams founded the
Provident Hospital, which also provided a training residency for doctors and training school for nurses in Chicago. This was established mostly for the benefit of African-American residents, to increase their accessibility to health care, but its staff and patients were integrated from the start. In 1892, he endorsed the application of
Emma Ann Reynolds, who was a graduate of the nurses training school at Provident, to
Northwestern University Woman’s Medical School. and
Dominique Jean Larrey in 1810. On July 10, 1893, Williams repaired the torn pericardium of a knife wound patient, James Cornish. It was not reported until 1897.
Public and teaching posts In 1893, during the administration of President
Grover Cleveland, Williams was appointed surgeon-in-chief of
Freedman's Hospital in
Washington, D.C., a post he held until 1898. That year he married Alice Johnson, who was born in the city and graduated from
Howard University, and moved back to Chicago. In addition to organizing Provident Hospital, Williams also established a training school for African-American nurses at the facility. In 1897, he was appointed to the
Illinois Department of Public Health, where he worked to raise medical and hospital standards. Williams was a Professor of Clinical Surgery at
Meharry Medical College in
Nashville, Tennessee, and was an attending surgeon at
Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He worked to create more hospitals that admitted African Americans. In 1895 he co-founded the
National Medical Association for African-American doctors, and in 1913 he became a charter member and the only African-American doctor in the
American College of Surgeons.
Death His wife, Alice Johnson, died in 1924. Williams passed away in relative obscurity, of a stroke in
Idlewild, Michigan on August 4, 1931. His funeral took place at St Anselm Catholic Church in Chicago, and there is debate about how well attended the service was. Dr Daniel Hale Williams was 75 years old. == Personal life ==