Leonie von Meusebach–Zesch (November 27, 1882 – July 7, 1944) was an American early 20th-century pioneer female dentist who practiced in Texas, Alaska, Arizona and California. She is also known as Leonie von Zesch or Leonie Zesch. She was inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2012.
She was a dental surgeon with the United States Army following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Her mother worked with the American Red Cross to document survivors after the disaster. After recovery, she provided onboard dental services to members of both the United States Pacific Fleet and the United States Atlantic Fleet. During the Great Depression, Meusebach–Zesch provided dental care to enrollees and officers with the Civilian Conservation Corps, and later to inmates at the California Institute for Women. For four years, she practiced in her home state of Texas, with an office in Mason. Three years of her dental career were spent in Arizona, where her patients included people from the Hopi and Navajo populations. To accommodate patients who could not travel to her practice in Winslow, Arizona, she hooked her equipment to the back of her Model T automobile and held mobile dental clinics around the state.
For fifteen years, Meusebach–Zesch practiced in the Territory of Alaska, with offices at varying times in Cordova, Nome and Anchorage. To serve remote Inuit villages, she traveled by airplane to islands in the Bering Sea. She survived an airplane crash on her way to Point Barrow and tried to walk to Kotzebue before being transported by an Inuit. Throughout Alaska's interior, she traveled by dog sled to hold mobile dental clinics for both Inuit and non-indigenous patients. She crawled on her abdomen across thin ice to save sled dogs from drowning. She and her assistant were stranded on one occasion, and were rescued by champion dog racer Leonhard Seppala.
Family background
Leonie von Meusebach–Zesch was the elder of two daughters born to Elizabeth and Leo Zesch. She was born November 27, 1882 in Mason County, Texas, and her sister Leota was born in Loyal Valley on June 9, 1886. As a child, Leonie had witnessed the aftermath of a public lynching in Mason, the corpses of the accused hanging from a tree in the town square. Leonie's mother Elizabeth (also referred to as Agnes Elizabeth) was born in Texas in 1862, the fifth of eleven (seven surviving to adulthood) children born to John O. Meusebach and his wife Austrian-born Agnes of Coreth, daughter of Count Ernst of Coreth. John O. Meusebach had been born Baron Otfried Hans von Meusebach in Dillenburg, Duchy of Nassau and renounced his title while he was still on the ship sailing to the United States. Ernst Coreth renounced his title when he became a citizen of the United States.
Elizabeth married Leo Burcheardt Zesch, who had been born in Mason, Texas in 1859. Thereafter, she used the hyphenated name Elizabeth von Meusebach–Zesch, as did her daughter Leonie. Leo's parents were Robert Zesch (originally Zoesch) and Lina Caroline Dangers (originally D'Angers). Robert Zesch emigrated from Saxony, Germany in 1854 aboard the ship Ammerland, destined for New Braunfels. In her autobiography published after her death, Leonie refers to Robert Zesch as a former German military officer. The father of Robert Zesch was Carl Zesch, a tax officer in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Caroline Dangers emigrated from Hanover, Germany, also aboard the Ammerland . Robert and Caroline were married on May 17, 1856. Their eight children were named Carl, Leo, Herman, Eugen, Meta, Minna, Martha and William.
California 1888–1908
In 1888, mother Elizabeth moved to California with her six-year-old daughter Leonie and two-year-old daughter Leota. Their first home in California was Stockton, but they finally settled in San Francisco. Leonie von Meusebach–Zesch completed her basic education through high school in San Francisco, and in 1902 graduated from the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, at that time known as the College of Physicians and Surgeons. She became a practicing dentist in June 1902 after passing the California State Dental Board examination and being hired on to work for Swedish immigrant Dr. Matson. Meusebach–Zesch was expected to replace the duties formerly held by Dr. Matson's wife, and her work hours were initially presented as being 8 am – 9 pm. She would find the reality being longer hours and seven days a week, eventually collapsing on the floor from exhaustion. It was during this period she also began to study the correlation of a patient's diet to their dental health.