Martha Reben
Encyclopedia
Weller Pond
Weller Pond is a wilderness pond southwest of the village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. It is connected to Middle Saranac Lake and is entirely state-owned. It sits in the shadow of Boot Bay Mountain; there is a canoe carry to Upper Saranac Lake...
eight miles from Saranac Lake, New York
Saranac Lake, New York
Saranac Lake is a village located in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,406. The village is named after Upper, Middle, and Lower Saranac Lakes, which are nearby....
in the Adirondacks in 1931 in an attempt to cure herself of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
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Reben grew up in New York City; when she was six her mother died of tuberculosis. When she, too, became ill she was sent to cure in Pennsylvania, the Catskills and finally, in 1927, to Saranac Lake, New York
Saranac Lake, New York
Saranac Lake is a village located in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,406. The village is named after Upper, Middle, and Lower Saranac Lakes, which are nearby....
where Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau
Edward Livingston Trudeau
Edward Livingston Trudeau, M.D., M.S., D. Hon., was an American physician who established the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium at Saranac Lake for treatment of tuberculosis.-Biography:...
was having considerable success treating the disease. However, after three operations failed to cure her, she decided to follow her own desires, and hired a guide to take her camping in the wilderness. She spent six years living from the spring through the fall in a tent on Weller Pond, and with her guide, Fred Rice, during the winter. She later moved to a small cottage in Saranac Lake. Her disease slowly improved, and she lived to age 53, cured of tuberculosis. Her memoirs, written from her detailed daily journals, gained a considerable following.