Sarah E. French Maloy is one of Riverside’s first female physicians. A native of New Hampshire, her great-grandfather Robie was a hero of the Revolutionary War.
Sarah studied medicine after her graduation from Ripon College in Wisconsin. While a student, she met and married Alfred J. Maloy, a Civil War Veteran injured at Gettysburg.
Their only child, Mary, was born in 1873, and Sarah took a break from her studies to focus on her family, returning to school in 1886. She graduated as a doctor from Hahneman Medical College in Chicago, where Albert had earlier received his medical degree in 1887.
Sarah was in charge of the college hospital’s maternity ward. She became an expert in obstetrics and diseases experienced by women and children. In 1895, the family moved to Riverside. Sarah pursued post-graduate courses, returning each summer to Hahneman in Chicago.
The Maloys shared their Riverside medical office above Hardman’s Drugstore on the corner of Main Street and Eighth (University Avenue). Albert died unexpectedly at age 49 in 1896 while the couple vacationed at Laguna Beach.
Sarah also served as the Woman’s Club first president, founding the organization in 1896 with Mrs. Martha E. Hewitt. The purpose of the club was designed to create an organization “where character not social position or wealth should be the basis of club aristocracy.”
Their objective was to aid the educational, social and material improvement of the community.
The following fourteen women were charter members in addition to Maloy and Hewitt:
Mrs. Ella J. Collier
Mrs. Mary E. Boggs
Mrs. Laura T. Reynolds
Mrs. Mary E. Darling
Mrs. Martha E. Ames
Mrs. Cora Van Aername Peters
Mrs. Alice E. Holmes
Mrs. Sarah J. Ford
Mrs. Josephine Wheeler
Mrs. Mary L. Trowbridge
Mrs. N.P. J. Button
Mrs. Jean Koethen
Mrs. Ella Filkins
Mrs. Hulda Van Aernam
Many of these women are also buried at Evergreen.
