[1] Gavitt was the first woman physician in Toledo, Ohio,[2] arriving there to practice after graduation from medical school.

Her parents were to a great extent the instructors of their family, both in religious and secular matters, for there were public schools but half of the year, and church privileges were few and far between.

[4] When Gavitt was fourteen years old, business interests led the family to move to Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

[5] Hoping to benefit herself by striving for what seemed then almost unattainable, and seeing no opportunities available to American women which promised more usefulness than the profession of medicine, she entered the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia,[6] in 1862.

[5] In January 1893,[8] at Toledo, she founded The Woman's Medical Journal and served as its first editor-in-chief.