Sarah M Siewers was born in Cincinnati Ohio March 1, 1855 to Charles G and Rebecca (Carpenter) Siewers.  Her family moved to Kentucky when she was a small child, and she graduated from Newport High School.  She began at once to teach, serving in this capacity throughout all the grades of Newport public schools.

While teaching in the high school, she attended a special course of lectures on chemistry and physiology given at the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati in order to perfect herself for the teaching of these branches.  She became so interested, at the same time recognizing an innate taste and aptitude for the art of healing, that she decided to take up the study and practice of medicine. 

She graduated in 1891 from the Eclectic College, the only medical college in Cincinnati that had at that time opened its doors to women.  She took postgraduate work in the Cincinnati City Hospital and in the Ohio Hospital for Women and Children.  Dr. Siewers practiced in Newport for many years.  By 1895 she was listed at 209 East 6th Street.

She became active in the movement for Woman suffrage early in the 90s.  She organized the Equal Rights Club of Newport and joined the Twentieth Century Club of Cincinnati. The outcome of these organizations was the Susan B Anthony Club in Cincinnati.  She became president of this club and held office until 1913.  It was due to the untiring work of Dr. Siewers that women physicians were placed in institutions where women, as well as men, received medical attention.  In 1911 Dr. Siewers was the first of two women to be nominated for the Board of Education.

Early in Doctor Siewer's professional experience occurred an incident which illustrates her attitude of just and fairness and her readiness to put impulse into execution.  She was attending a convention of doctors, made up almost entirely of men, when the subject of giving anesthetic to women in labor was brought up for discussion.  Some of the men spoke in favor of doing all they knew how to lessen the ordeal of childbearing; other disputed the wisdom of it.

Finally an old man said. "The Lord Almighty had instituted this plan of continuing the race and intended that women should suffer in the process."  He was opposed to anything that would make this suffering less.

Whereupon, Dr. Siewers rose to her feet.  "Gentlemen, our brother physician ascribes to the Deity a degree of cruelty and partiality that surpasses even his conceptions of man's tenderness for man.  We have on record the delivery of but one man in child-birth and in this instance the record names the Almighty as the obstetrical surgeon.  It tells us that God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam while He extracted from the side the rib that subsequently became Eve.  I am not willing to attribute this consideration the the partiality of God toward man, nor the awfulness of childbearing to His lack of consideration for women.  This suffering is due to man's lack of understanding of how to use the dominion placed in our hands.  Having the utmost respect for God's unchanging law, I offer a resolution that this convention go on record encouraging research, discovery and invention in every way that may be possible to alleviate the suffering of women bearing the men that constitute the human race."

The tremendous applause that followed, and the vote upon the resolution proposed bore ample testimony to the approbation with which she championed progress in every line.  The last 10 years of her life were spent in Massilon Ohio, where she was active as a physician and interested in various movements for the city's advancement.  She spoke in all the rooms of the public schools against alcoholism and the tobacco habit, and brought and distributed much literature on these subjects.

She died April 22, 1926.

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