Williams, Dr. Josepha

Dr. Jo Williams

(18__ - 19__)

Josepha Williams, known as “Dr. Jo” to her friends and patients, was one of the first women to earn a medical degree in Colorado. In 1893 she and her mother, Civil War widow Mary Neosho Williams, bought acreage in Evergreen.

They hired local builder John “Jock” Spence to expand a hay barn into a mountain lodge they called “Camp Neosho”. After Dr. Jo’s marriage to Episcopal priest Charles W. Douglas, “Camp Neosho” expanded into a 17-room log mansion with many outbuildings, now known as Hiwan Homestead Museum. The Douglas family was influential in establishing the Episcopal Mission of the Transfiguration, Evergreen’s first library, and a summer music conference.

Source, photo and writeup: Jefferson County Historical Society