Despite any prejudices they may have faced, Black service members have paved the way for future generations throughout American history. Dr. Frank Erdman Boston, a major who rose to the rank of major during World War I, was one such trailblazer. He later established a hospital and an ambulance corps, both of which are still in operation today, as one of the first Black men.
Boston’s life initially appeared to be quite extraordinary. He was one of four children born on March 10, 1890, in Philadelphia, to a barbershop owner who had served in the Civil War. Both Boston and Samuel, his older brother, went into medicine.  , ++
Boston’s mother, who is partially French and Native American, taught him about the therapeutic benefits of herbs and natural remedies when he was a young child, according to George Whitehair, executive director of the Boston Legacy Foundation, which preserves his history. He worked at a drugstore all through high school and college.  , ++
excelling in the wartime and nbsp,
Boston attended Lincoln University, the first historically black college and university in the country, in Oxford, Pennsylvania. Then, just one year before the medical school merged with the University of Pennsylvania, he completed his studies at the Medico-Chirurgical College, graduating in 1915 with a degree in pharmacy and medicine.  , ++
Boston then started working for Mercy Hospital, one of Philadelphia’s two Black-run hospitals. Whitehair claims that before enlisting in the Army Medical Reserve Corps in 1917, he also ran a solo medical practice and was instructing nurses in first aid. The Army’s only training facility for Black officers, Fort Des Moines, Iowa, immediately promoted him to the rank of first lieutenant.  , ++
Boston joined the American Expeditionary Forces and was dispatched to France by June 1918. He served as a medical officer in the segregated 92nd Infantry Division’s 317th Engineers Regiment, which was given the moniker” Buffalo Soldier Division” in honor of Black 19th-century service members. A doctor and field surgeon at the time, Boston served as a captain and provided medical care to soldiers who were under aerial and gas attack. The bloodiest battle of the war, the Meuse-Argonne Campaign, raged until the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, and the soldiers took part in it.  , ++
Boston had attained the rank of major by the end of his military career, which was unusual for Black men at the time, according to Whitehair. W. E. B., a renowned scholar and the founder of the NAACP, was also well-known for his work in Boston. du Bois. Du Bois, who had played a key role in promoting the establishment of Fort Des Moines for Black officers, received letters from Boston about his experiences during the war.  , ++
According to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Boston worked with the military as well after the war, running a free clinic for American and British war veterans. Boston later returned to Philadelphia and continued his civilian medical career. He was appointed Lt. William G. Junken VFW Post’s first commander in 1924.  , ++
An Innovative Venture ,
According to Whitehair, Boston relocated to the Lansdale suburb by 1931 after being suggested by a fishing friend. He established the First Aide Emergency Squad, an ambulance corps that offered first aid and emergency training, two years later. The corps functioned similarly to modern emergency medical services, but it took about 40 years for EMS to actually become a profession.  , ++
The corps ‘ employees trained and wore uniforms like members of the military. Medical innovations like mobile X-ray machines and motorized ambulances were first used during World War I, which, according to Whitehair, may have helped Boston’s intertest in establishing the corps.  , ++
It was a huge success in every way. During the storms that wreaked havoc across Pennsylvania in March 1936, flooding rivers, and causing a major catastrophe in Lock Haven, where the corps was in charge of rescue operations, Boston and his corps teammates were credited with saving hundreds of lives.  , ++
According to Whitehair, Dr. Boston and his corps saved hundreds of civilians.  , ++
Boston also established the 23-bed Elm Terrace Hospital in 1934 and eventually rose to the position of chief surgeon. He is credited by the Boston Legacy Foundation with founding a hospital and an ambulance corps, both of which are still in operation today. The ambulance service is now known as the Lansdale Volunteer Medical Services Corps, and the hospital is renamed Jefferson Lansondale Hospital.  , ++
Whitehair claims that before Meals on Wheels was established in America, Boston also launched a similar service.  ,
As he would covertly deliver meals to locals in need, particularly those recovering from the Great Depression and the war, Dr. Boston may be one of the first in food delivery, according to Whitehair. Boston never sought praise or recognition; instead, he made house calls and delivered food baskets to those in need.
spreading compassion and kindness, nbsp
Boston received many compliments. After 30 years of membership, he joined the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States in 1959 and became a life member. He also worked with the Boy Scouts and belonged to numerous medical organizations. For his contributions to the community, Boston received two U.S. Presidential Citations—one from Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower.  , ++
Boston never got married, but according to Whitehair, he did have a life partner named Mabel Reed who assisted him with his practice and the ambulance corps.  , ++
Boston’s forward-thinking was emphasized by Whitehair when he said,” Mabel managed the [ambulance corps], which was unheard of in the 40s and 50s.”  ,
Boston continued to serve as the hospital’s chief of surgery after selling it in 1959. He received a cancer diagnosis that same year. He passed away on February 8, 1960, and was laid to rest in Horsham, Pennsylvania’s White Marsh Cemetery.  , ++
Boston’s generosity was well-known throughout the neighborhood. A North Penn Reporter reporter spoke with a World War II Navy veteran whose young son was one of Boston’s surgical patients after the doctor passed away. Boston recalled Boston saying,” There is no fee,” when the father told him he did n’t have much money but wanted to repay the doctor for his successful work.
You do n’t need to worry about this because you’ve already worried about your young son. As an enlisted man, you sacrificed four years of your life for our nation. The veteran recalled Boston telling him,” Let’s just say that I was able to help you with this operation. Boston forced me to make a confidentiality agreement. Nobody should have assumed it was a grandstand play, he wished. He is someone I will always remember. He was a wonderful person.
Whitehair also claimed that a woman had informed him of the doctor’s neighborly kindness.  ,
” In the 1940s, her Jewish neighbors managed to flee the Holocaust. Frank gave birth to their child while she was pregnant and refused to accept any payment. Whitehair recalled that the woman had said,” That’s exactly the kind of guy he was.”  ,
Sadly, not everyone in Boston wanted to celebrate his accomplishments over the years.  ,
Prior to his passing, Boston’s supporters had requested a portrait of the doctor be hung in the hospital he founded, but town officials and hospital trustees forbade it. Instead, in 1962, Boston’s supporters erected a bronze statue of him at an adjacent street corner. It is reportedly one of Pennsylvania’s first monuments to a particular African American person, according to Whitehair. The dedication was attended by several military units.  ,
a brand-new recognition and nbsp
Boston’s legacy has been revived in recent years. His portrait, which had been long denied, was finally hung in the hospital’s lobby in 2021.  , ++
During National EMS Week 2022, the doctor was honored across the country at a ceremony honoring the U.S. Army Honor Guard at the World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C. A bill designating a section of Lansdale’s Broad Street as the Dr. Frank E. Boston Memorial Highway was signed by the governor of Pennsylvania that same year. Additionally, a 22-page comic book with illustrations by an illustrator for Marvel and DC Comics was published that showcasing his accomplishments.  , ++
Boston’s life is the subject of a documentary that is currently being produced ( DocBostonFilm.com ). In order to honor the doctor, legislation was also introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021, but it is currently unmoved.