Background
Clemence Sophia Harned Lozier was born on December 11, 1813 at Plainfield, New Jersey, United States, the daughter of David and Hannah (Walker) Harned.
Clemence Sophia Harned Lozier was born on December 11, 1813 at Plainfield, New Jersey, United States, the daughter of David and Hannah (Walker) Harned.
Lozier studied at the Plainfield Academy. Through a brother, who was a physician, she became interested in the study of medicine, and she entered, in 1849, the Rochester Eclectic Medical College. Later she attended the Syracuse Medical College, from which she graduated in 1853.
When Lozier was 19, she opened a school for girls which she conducted for eleven years. In 1860 she began to teach physiology and hygiene to a class of girl students in her own home. This class became the nucleus of the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women, a homeopathic institution which was formally established in 1863.
After the conclusion of the Civil War she toured Europe to investigate hospital construction and administration and upon her return in 1867 reorganized her school and hospital, taking the title of dean and professor of gynecology and obstetrics. She was aided in her work by her daughter-in-law, Charlotte (Denman), first wife of A. W. Lozier, Jr. , and after her death, by his second wife, Jeanne M. Lozier, both graduates of the medical school. A niece, Dr. Anna Manning Comfort, was also a valued lieutenant. The school and hospital, although small, flourished for many years, until with other minor institutions they were merged with the New York Homeopathic Medical College. Although Dr. Lozier is said to have performed a number of major operations, she wrote but little on medical subjects. One small pamphlet, Childbirth Made Easy, appeared in 1870.
As a feminist, Lozier was interested in most of the movements intended to improve the economic and social status of women.
Lozier was for five years president of the National Woman's Suffrage Association and was active in the New York City Suffrage League, the New York Sorosis, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which she was a past president, and the National Working Women's League.
At the age of sixteen Clemence Sophia Harned was married to Abraham Witton Lozier, an architect and builder of New York City. Her first husband died in 1837, and she later married John Baker.