Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby

Bixby was the daughter of farmers, who had moved from Philadelphia and in 1828 settled in southeastern Illinois, close to what would become the village of Rock Creek.

After finishing school, she traveled to Philadelphia to train in midwifery and dentistry, but on her return to Illinois she became the first physician in Hardin County and consequently, a general practitioner for her community.

She did thorough research of milk sickness, which was causing a good deal of fatality among both people and calves, including Anna's mother and sister-in-law.

[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Noting the seasonal nature of the disease and the fact that sheep and goat milk were not affected, she reasoned that the cause must be a poisonous herb.

However, she was unable to determine the precise cause until she was shown the White Snakeroot by a medicine woman of the Shawnee tribe.

Bixby discovered that white snakeroot ( Ageratina altissima ) was the cause of milk sickness from grazing cows eating the wild plant which fatally poisoned the milk consumed by frontier settlers