Born as Ellis Reynolds in Davis County, Iowa. When she was 5 years old, the Reynolds moved to Pleasant Grove, Utah; they were among the first Mormons to settle in the area. At the age of 12 she met Milford Shipp for the first time, seven years later they got married. Later on, he married three more wives. At the age of 26, with the encouragement of Brigham Young, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ellis Reynolds Shipp began her medical training, first at the University of Deseret (nowadays it’s called the University of Utah), then at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, and finally at the University of Michigan. By that time, Shipp had five children who stayed with her sister-wives while she was at school. In order to pay tuition and living expenses, she worked as a seamstress and as a guard in a cadavers’ hall. During her second year in Philadelphia, she gave birth to her sixth child, and they both didn’t come home until the end of the third year of school. Despite all those difficulties, she earned her Doctor of Medicine degree with high honors. After graduation, Shipp came back to Utah, where she established her own practice as well as a nursing and obstetrics school alongside Eliza R. Snow. She also taught midwifery in other States and other countries, and served as a board member at the “Relief Society” and at the “Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association.” Shipp’s career lasted more than 50 years; she delivered more than 5,000 babies and trained more than 500 midwives.   Read more...