From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Boston, Alexander Virgil, and Julia Mary Drake Boston
Alexander Virgil Boston was a dentist in Virgie, KY. He and his wife, Julia M. Drake Boston, a nurse, founded the Virgie Community Memorial Hospital. In 1952, Dr. M. K. Mantooth, a Cherokee, was the Chief of Staff at the hospital. The 60-bed facility was open to persons of all races and there was an integrated staff. The hospital opened June 1, 1947, and closed September 1, 1958. The Virgie Community Memorial Hospital was one the first integrated hospitals in Kentucky and the southern United States.
The Boston family had lived in several locations before settling in Kentucky. Dr. A. V. Boston was born in Oviedo, FL, one of the 10 children of Prince and Julia C. Johnson Boston. His father, Pince Boston, was a wealthy fruit grower in Florida. Dr. A. V. Boston completed three years of college at Meharry Medical School in Nashville, TN. In 1917, he lived in Flint, MI, and was employed as a carpenter in the U.S. Army (WWI Draft Registration Card in Ancestry).
After his military service, in 1919, Alexander V. Boston was living in New York where he was draftsman at a steel plant, according to the 1920 U.S. Census schedule. He then moved to Detroit, MI, where he married Julia Mary Drake from Nashville, TN, on June 30, 1920. Julia M. Drake was a graduate of Meharry Medical School where she earned her nursing degree. She was working as a stenographer when she married Alexander Boston. The couple lived in Michigan before moving to Tennessee where Alexander V. Boston returned to Meharry Medical School and completed his dentistry degree in 1923.
That same year, 2-year-old Constance Boston died in Nashville. The child had the measles and there were complications. She is buried in the family lot in The Hills of Calvary Cemetery in Nashville. The Boston's had two younger children who were born in Michigan. In 1927, the family moved to Virgie, KY, where Dr. Boston established a dental practice. Julia Boston was the bookkeeper for her husband's business. The family is enumerated in the 1930 U.S. Census schedule.
Alexander and Julia Boston worked together as a medical team providing a range of services in Virgie, KY, including dentistry, health care, and delivering babies (midwife).
For 40 years, Dr. Alexander Virgil Boston was the only African American dentist in Pike County, KY. He died at his home in Virgie, KY, and is buried in the family lot in The Hills of Calvary Cemetery in Nashville, TN. He was a 32nd Degree Mason with the Grand Lodge of West Virginia, and a member of the Morning Star Masonic Lodge in Wheelwright, KY.
After her husband's death, Julia Mary Drake Boston left Virgie, KY, and moved to Elyria, OH, where her daughter lived. She was born in Nashville, TN, and died in Elyria, OH, in 1973. There was a graveside service followed by burial in the family lot at The Hills of Calvary Cemetery in Nashville, TN. She was the first college-trained African American nurse in Pike County, one of the first in Kentucky, and one of the first African American college-trained nurses to act as a midwife in Kentucky.
Alexander Virgil Boston, born: June 5, 1893 - died: June 23, 1967
Julia Mary Drake Boston, born: August 12, 1899 - died: November 2, 1973
Sources: See Alex V. Boston in "100 Men are called in First District." The Flint Daily Journal, 06 October 1917, p.167; Alexander Boston and Julia Drake, Wayne County Record of Marriages, 1920, v.8, Part 1, p.619 (Ancestry); Constance Boston, Tennessee Death Certificate No.289, File No. 277 (Ancestry.com); "$100,000 in estate of Fla. citrus grower." The Afro American (Baltimore, Maryland), 15 March 1947, p.14; Gerald Griffin. "Any color, any creed." The Louisville Courier-Journal Magazine, 13 July 1952, [pp. 26 & 28]; "Negro dentist who founded hospital dies." The Kentucky Post and Times Star, 26 June 1967, p.9; "Area-famous Dr. Boston, dentist, hospital founder, victim June 23 at Virgie." Floyd County Times, 06 July 1967, p.12; U.S. Census schedules in Ancestry.com; Julia Boston, Ohio Department of Health, Index to Annual Deaths (Ancestry); Mrs. Julia Drake Boston in "Death Notices." The Tennessean, 08 November 1973, p.85.
