USA > Iowa > The blue book of Iowa women; a history of contemporary women; > Part 12
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. BENJAMIN F. SHAMBAUGH
Bertha M. Horack Shambaugh was born in Cedar Rapids, Feby. 12, 1871. Her father was Frank J. Horack and her mother Katherine Mosnat, of whom her daughter says: "Anything that I have done in the past and all I hope to do in the future is due to her inspiring guidance."
Mrs. Shambaugh was educated in the State Univer- sity of Iowa, having been graduated in 1893. She is a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. She was married in Iowa City, Aug. 11, 1897, to Prof. Benjamin F. Shambaugh, head of the department of Political Sci- ence in the State University of Iowa and Superintend- ent of the State Historical Society of Iowa. She is a member of the First Unitarian Church, of Iowa City, secretary of the board of trustees and superintend- ent of the Sunday School. She is a member of the N. N. Club, one of the oldest literary clubs of the city and the first to join Iowa State Federation. She is a member of the Iowa Press and Authors' Club and has served it as vice-president. She is a member of the committee on education, I. F. W. C. For three years she was head of the department of Biology of the Iowa City high school. She is an author of marked ability and wide reputation. She is the author of "Amana; The Community of True Inspiration," published by the State Historical Society of Iowa, which gives a picture, historically true, of that unique settlement in Iowa. She has written many stories and nature sketches for magazines which she herself has illus- trated. She has contributed to the Midland Monthly, The World Today, Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Re- ligion and Ethics, Our Animal Friends, The Church- man, The Interior, The Outlook, Youth's Companion.
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. MRS. ADA LANGWORTHY COLLIER
Among the Iowa women of unusual literary attain- ment is Mrs. Ada Langworthy Collier, of Dubuque, who for many years has contributed to the best periodicals and journals of this country. She has written novels, poems, short stories, essays and re- views which have received the most favorable com- ment from literary critics. Her earliest works were printed in the early '60's and for more than forty years her pen has added to the store of literature and has brought honor to her native state. Perhaps her most important work is the poetical story of "Lilith," which was published in 1892, and which has had a wide circulation. Much of her first literary work appeared over the noms de plume of "Marguer- ite" and "Anna L. Cunningham." Her first produc- tion was a series of Hospital Sketches which were true Civil War pictures. Her travel sketches "Among the Mountain Mists," "A Day's Ramble" and others are delightful word pictures. She was born and reared in Dubuque, the daughter of Lucius Hart Longworthy and Valeria Bemis. Her father came to Dubuque in 1827, before the state had been named Iowa, but was called "Black Hawk Purchase," being among the first to work the lead mines there. He erected the first frame home built in Dubuque. In later life he was an essayest and lecturer of ability. Mrs. Collier was edu- cated at LaSell Seminary, Auburndale, Mass. She was married Oct. 16, 1867, to Robert W. Collier, who was a man of scholarly attainments. They have one son, James C. Collier. "Linden Croft" is still the family home although Mrs. Collier spends much time in travel.
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MRS. W. H. COWLES
"There came to me the comprehension of the value of a woman's worth, the beauty and blessing of the American home, of the obedient daughter, the loving wife, the Madon- na Mother, and of all that these mean as the very foundation rock of our nation's strength and honor."
Mrs. Elsie Merrill Ferguson Cowles of Audubon, was born in Peacham, Vt., the daughter of Paul F. Ferguson, who was born and reared in Scotland, and Ellen Kineison of New England birth. She was edu- cated in the Peacham Academy. Married on Sept. 18,1879, at Peacham, to W. H. Cowles. Shortly after they came to Iowa taking up their residence in Audu- bon, where Mr. Cowles is a jeweler. They have one son, N. N. Cowles, who is a jeweler, living in Ottum- wa. Mrs. Cowles is a member of the Presbyterian Church, interested and active in all its branches. For two years she was chairman of the ninth district, Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs and during that time interest in the federation increased very materially in that district. She has also been a member of the board of directors of the I. F. W. C. She is a member of the P. E. O. sisterhood and has for several terms served as chapter president. She is a member of the Columbian Club which follows two lines of study ---- sociology and domestic science. She has done a great deal of china paining in a semi-professional way. Be- side these manifold interests she has taken an interest in her husband's business and aided him many years. She is a versatile woman, being an expert housekeeper and home maker, a business woman, one of artistic temperment and a woman having a helpful interest in the world outside her own little sphere.
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MRS. FRED TOWNSEND
Helen Dawson Townsend, daughter of Arthur Mid- dleton Dawson and Lucie Moon, was born at Paxton, Ill., Jany. 17, 1866. She graduated from the Ann . Arbor, Michigan, high school and later studied in the University of Michigan. On Aug. 14, 1889, in Min- neapolis, she was married to Fred Townsend of Albia, a successful attorney, state senator 1900-04 and presi- dential elector in 1912. He is the son of Judge John Selby Townsend who served as district judge for ten years and was a member of the legislature in 1852 He was a man of great force of character and wide in- fluence. Mr. Townsend's mother was Annie Elbert, daughter of Dr. John D. Elbert, who came to Iowa in 1840, settling near Keosauqua. He was president of the Territorial Council and as a physician and surgeon his practice covered most of southeastern Iowa. An- nie Elbert was one of the earliest graduates of Wesley- an Female College at Cincinnatti, Ohio, and was a very cultured woman. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend have four children: Robert Dawson, Hugh Elbert who died in 1913, Katherine Lucie, Arthur Selby and Fred J., who died in infancy. Mrs. Townsend is a devoted Episcopalian and has been church organist many years. Through her mother, a gentle-woman in every characteristic, she is a D. A. R. She joined P. E. O. in 1892 and served the Iowa Grand Chapter as corre- sponding secretary, vice-president and president She was appointed by the Supreme Chapter in 1909 chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Educational Fund established in 1907. Mrs. Townsend has given her best thought to the administration of this fund by which hundreds of girls have been educated.
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MRS. HOWARD TEDFORD
Mrs. Regina Vale Tedford of Mt. Ayr was born at Bonaparte, Nov. 4, 1876, the daughter of Benjamin Rex Vale and Julia Biddle. Her grandfather, Jacob G. Vale, was state senator for two terms and her father was state senator for four terms, representing the same district. Her father's mother's ancestry is traced from morganatic marriage of George III of England, hence the family name Rex. She received her classical education at Monmouth College and at the State University of Iowa. Her musical education was obtained at New England Conservatory of Music, Boston. At her home in Bonaparte, on June 4, 1902, she was married to Howard Tedford, of Mt. Ayr, edi- tor of the Mt. Ayr Record, son of James Harvey Ted- ford and Elizabeth Rowan. His father has been an Iowa newspaper man since 1870. His mother was a native of New York, a descendant of the Rowans, who were noted patriots and who rendered valiant service in the war of the Revolution. Mr. Tedford was for three terms state binder and was clerk for the Inter- state Commerce Commission (1895-96) of which Col. W. P. Hepburn was chairman. From this committee the Panama Canal bill was first recommended for pas- sage by Congress. Mrs. Tedford is in religious faith a
Presbyterian. A member of the P. E. O., and has served her chapter as president and been a delegate to both state and national conventions. She is one of the organizing regents of Iowa D. A. R. She has traveled all over this country; been to Cuba, Panama and through Europe. She is a woman who has had every advantage, birth, education, travel association with cultivated people, and the result is a woman of very high type.
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MRS. CLARA ROBERTSON TITUS
For more than fifty-four years the Robertson home in Keokuk was a center of unbounded hospitality, un- limited kindness and good cheer. Clara Robertson Ti- tus, the last of her father's family, is an apostle of that same good cheer. She was born in Keokuk, Oct. 22, 1859, the daughter of Hugh Robertson and Mary Sin- ton, both natives of Perth Shire, Scotland, in whose hearts lived always the love of the highlands and the heather. Annually they celebrated the birth of Bob- bie Burns with a party which was one of the happiest events in the social calendar of Keokuk. The Robert- son clan is one of the oldest in Scotland, and count their chiefs from Duncan, under whom they appear as a clan in support of Robert-the-Bruce. From first to last the clan is noted for its loyalty to the Stewarts. On the murder of James I at Perth, it was Robert the chief who captured his murderers for which act he had many honors conferred on him by King James' successor, and to further commemorate this, both father and son took the name Robertson, which the clan has retained. The Robertson tartan is red, cross- ed with bars of olive green and purple; the badge is fine leaved heather; the motto, Virtutis gloria merces, and the coat of arms one of the oldest in Scotland. They were a family of birth, rather than wealth, in Scotland. They were staunch Presbyterians and Alex- ander Campbell, who before coming to America to found the United Brethren church was a Presbyterian, preached in the Robertson home in the highlands. Mrs. Titus' father, Hugh Robertson, made frequent visits to Scotland. He was for many years secretary of the
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
Iowa State Insurance Co. and was a gentleman of the old school, gracious and courteous always. Mrs. Titus was educated in the Keokuk schools, later attending a school for young women in Washington, D. C. She had one brother, William S. Robertson, who died, leaving a son, Hugh Robertson. She was married Oct. 10, 1882, to W. J. Ruddick, who died June 11, 1886, leaving one daughter, Charlotte, who is now Mrs. Earl Collins of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and has a daughter, Janet Robertson Collins, born in 1913. On Oct. 3, 1901, she was married to W. H. Titus, who died L. J. Titus, July 24, 1908. She has three step sons :
J. V. E. Titus and Horace L. Titus. Mrs. Titus has traveled this country over and made three trips to Europe, once spending a year and another time six
months abroad. She enjoys society and belongs to a number of prominent clubs and charity organizations. Is a member of the board of directors of the Benevo- lent Union of the social department of the Y. W. C. A., a charter member of the Travel Class, a charter mem- ber of the Iowa Audubon Society, a charter member of the Woman's Club, and of the Wednesday Reading Club. She has a perfect genius for making friends and for keeping them. No day is ever dark for her, her optimism and good cheer sees always sunshine.
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. MARY BERRY PRICE
Mrs. Mary Berry Price is one of the few women who has made a success of practical farming; for the past fourteen years she has managed her farm, bought and sold fine cattle, relying on her own judgment in the transactions. She was born in 1856 in Ottumwa, the daughter of the Rev. A. P. Berry and Harriett Dicken- son Berry, who came to Iowa in 1849, from Zanes- ville, Ohio. She attended the district schools and was the first graduate of the Moulton high school. She be- came a charter member of the P. E. O. chapter at Cen- terville, 1882. She was a delegate to the preliminary convention, preparatory to the organization of the Supreme Chapter, held in Bloomfield, Nov. 1-2, 1882. The first supreme convention was held in Fairfield, Oct. 12, 1883, at which time Mary Berry was elected the first supreme president of the P. E. O. sisterhood. She presided at the conventions at Centerville and Ot- tumwa. Since then she has been accorded marked hon or in many state grand chapter conventions and in the supreme conventions. In 1884 she was married in Centerville to A. R. Price of London Mills, who died in 1900. She has six children; at the time of their father's death ranging in age from 15 years to ten months. It was then that Mrs. Price took up the management of the farm which she is still successfully conducting. She has been prominent in the community, serving on the Board of Education, on the official board of the M. E. Church, and in other public inter- ests. She is a woman of gentle manner, unassuming and straightforward in her speech, a woman of practi- cal charity, one who commands the love and respect of all who knew her.
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MISS MARGARET E. PREBLE
The term politician does not apply to many Iowa women, but it does properly apply to Miss Margaret Elizabeth Preble of Humboldt, who since 1908 has been recorder of Humboldt county. The plan of campaign which she originated and executed would have done credit to a seasoned politician. She began in June, 1907, by sending out three hundred personal letters; in December she visited every precinct in the county ; in January she began publicity work through the papers; in February she sent circular letters to every voter in the county, asking support on the ground of efficiency and economic administration. During the months of her candidacy she worked in her office from 8 a. m. to 6 p. m. She spent one full month canvassing the county and shook hands and talked with more than 1,500 voters. She conducted a fair, clean, campaign; relying entirely upon her capa- bility for the office and her business experience. The result was she won over an opponent who was a man of high standing in the community and of wide acquaintance in the county, carrying every voting precinct, with a majority of seven hundred in the whole county. She is now serving her third term. She had large experience in the office of law firms be- fore entering the recorder's office. She is faithful and conscientious in all her work and is conceded to be the best recorder Humbolt county has ever had. She is the daughter of Henry James Prebel and Emma Jane Heath. A member of Unity Church, the Woman's Club, and P. E. O.
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MISS EMILY CALKINS STEBBINS
Emily Calkins Stebbins was born January 22, 1843, at Longmeadow, Mass., the eighth generation on American soil. She received her education in the vil- lage school supplemented by a course in Peacham Academy, Vt. She came to New Hampton, Iowa, July 13, 1861, and lived with her sister, Mrs. Powers.
When H. C. Baldwin, deputy county recorder and treasurer, enlisted with Co. C, 38th Iowa Infantry, Sept. 1, 1862, she took his place and was deputy until January, 1864. In 1865 she entered the law and ab- stract office of the late J. H. Powers. Feby. 2, 1866, she was commissioned notary public by Gov. Stone, the first woman in Iowa so commissioned, and so far as she can learn, the first in the United States. She is yet no- tary, abstracter, insurance agent and pension attor- ney in the office on the ground where she has worked for forty-eight years. She well remembers the looks of holy horror she encountered when she first began working in a public office among men, and remembers that some people would not be waited upon by her be- cause they believed that a woman could not do busi- ness correctly. She remembers, too, the flood of fe- male suffrage literature that was then poured upon her. She was for years an active worker in the W. C. T. U., and is a practical, not political, prohibitionist ; is a stand-patter in politics and an orthodox Con- gregationalist. Inheriting from her father French and English blood, and from her mother, Scotch and Welsh, she has positive opinions and language in which to voice them. Touching shoulders with the business world she is up-to-date, or as she says, "I am not a chestnut, and resemble one only in that the worst is on the outside."
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. J. J. SEERLEY
Mrs. John J. Seerley, was president of the Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs, 1905-'07, and always active in its interests. Mrs. Elizabeth L. Clark Seer- ley was born in Huntsburg, Ohio, Nov. 19, 1854, and died at her home in Burlington, April 2, 1913. She was graduated from the State University of Iowa in 1876. For two years she was superintendent of schools at West Liberty. On Sept. 17, 1879, she was married to the Hon. John J. Seerley, a prominent member of the lowa bar, who has practiced in Burlington since 1877, and who served as congress- man from the first district 1890-92. They have three children : Mrs. Florence E. Reed, of Denver; Mrs. Hazel V. Bell of Evanston, and John J. Seerley, Jr., of Burlington. Mrs. Seerley was by nature a leader, but charmingly tactful and kind, and so this quality never offended even the humblest. She was a patron of everything that ministered to the public welfare. She was prominent and popular in society, and enjoy- ed meeting her friends in a social way. She was a de- vout Christian, being a member of the Congregational church. She was a devoted wife and mother and the atmosphere of her home life was all the name "home" implies. She was a woman steadfastly loyal to woman- hood, and to the welfare of women she gave her deep interest. She believed sincerely in clubs for women for the sake of study and for the co-operative sympa- thy which they create. She belonged to many local clubs and was prominent in the Iowa Federation and in the General Federation to which she was many times a delegate. She spoke with ease, and with conviction and was always a force in the conventions. She was a woman whose life and work are a lasting memorial.
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MISS NELLIE V. WALKER
Miss Nellie Verne Walker, one of the well known American artists, was born in Red Oak, Dec. 8, 1874. She is the daughter of Everett A. and Rebecca Jane Lindsey Walker of Moulton, to which town they moved when she was a little girl. When she was still a child, she had the consciousness of her own ability, and one day asked her father-who was a dealer in monuments, for a block of marble which he had on his shelf. The piece of marble was probably worth ten dollars. He hesitated and asked her why she wanted it; she replied that she knew she could "make some- thing." She persisted for several days and finally ap- pealed to her mother, who is ever the child's mediator, and she was given the marble. She found a picture of Lincoln, which she set up before her, and with such tools as she found in her father's shop, went to work. In a few days the face of Lincoln with its gaunt out- lines emerged from the block of marble. Finally the bust was finished and was displayed in the Iowa build- ing at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago as the work of an Iowa girl. There were six children in her father's family and not much money to be spent in developing her talent. She studied stenography and worked in an office until she had enough money to pay her way to Chicago. Lorado Taft tells the story of her coming this way: "One day there walked into my studio a little girl, who had come to Chicago to learn sculpture and make her mark in the world of art. It was all arranged in her own mind,-she had decided it. It made no difference how steep or how hard the way, she was going to succeed. And she has succeeded, and we are proud of her. But one day, we are going
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to be very, very proud of her." It was altogether characteristic of Miss Walker that she should go to the very best teacher she knew anything about. Lora- do Taft at once recognized her ability and has been her friend as well as her teacher. During the first years in Chicago she supported herself by doing stenographer's work at odd hours and taught some in the art institute. The way has not always been easy, but her spirit undaunted, and with faith in her own ability and an all consuming love for her art kept her steadfast to her purpose until today she stands well to the front among American sculptors. She has exe- cuted many important commissions; among them a statue of Winfield Scott Stratton, and also a memorial to him in Colorado Springs, the ideal group, "Her Son" which is in he Art Institute in Chicago, "Young Donatello," a statue of James Harlan in Washington, D. C., Memorials in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, in Battle Creek and in Cadillac, Michigan, and the splendid bronze statue of Chief Keokuk in heroic size, which stands on the bluff overlooking the river in Rand Park, Keokuk. In 1914 she went to Europe to study. She had gone to Europe twice before but only for a short stay. It was her purpose this time to stay a year, but a group of friends in Chicago, quite un- known to her made up a purse which will allow her to stay several years. This gift was significant of the faith which the art-loving people of that great city have in her. She is a tiny woman, only a little over five feet tall,-modest, gracious and most lovable. Her studio is on Ellis Ave., Chicago, in the Midway Studios.
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. H. L. WATERMAN
Alice Hill Waterman was born Jany. 6, 1855, the daughter of Newton Clark Hill and Mary Blake, pioneers of Ottumwa. At eighteen she graduated from the Ottumwa high school, and taught four years. On Oct. 9, 1879, at Oakland Farm, her father's estate, she was married to H. L. Waterman, a very successful business man, the head of a great coal mining industry, and for three terms state senator. He had one son, Philip H. Waterman, by a previous marriage. In speaking of him Mrs. Waterman said : "If he has ever felt other than as my own son he has never shown it, and his children are as my own, and because of them I have known, what otherwise I should not, 'The touch of baby fingers on the cheek.' " For a number of years she was on the official board of the M. E. Church and for years was superintendent of the intermediate department of the Sunday School. Her greatest public service has been in behalf of the Ottumwa hospital. One of her earliest friends was Mrs. Mary Brooks Thrall, whose heart's desire had been the establishment of a city hospital, but who had not been able to bring about the realization. In her Jast illness she asked Mrs. Waterman if she would un- dertake this work and the promise was given. Pre- vious to this a Bible class of twenty-five had been or- ganized and named the Mary Brooks Thrall Bible Class, and it was in this group of women the work be- gan. Mrs. Waterman has worked for the hospital in season and out of season, for eighteen years, as secre- tary of the association and now, its president. The success of the institution and its beneficient ministry are in a great measure the result of her labor.
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MRS. JANE B. RINGLAND
To Mrs. Jane Bane Ringland belongs the title "A Mother in Isreal," and what more honored title could any woman bear? She was the daughter of Adam and Mary Weir and the widow of Maj. John Newton Ringland. She was born in Washington county, Penn., May 22, 1824, and died in Mt. Pleasant, Ia., Oct. 10, 1909. With her husband and children she came to Pilot Grove, Ia., in 1851, her husband died the follow- ing October. She maintained her little family by teaching school. She rode to the district school on horseback, with two children behind her and one on the saddle in front of her. Never for one day did she lose courage in those trying times. Out of bleak sur- roundings, as out of more prosperous ones, she firmly held to the faith that God doeth all things well. She was descended from generations of cultivated people, and under all conditions and at all times there was a certain aristocratic bearing which made one remem- ber just who she was and whence she had come. In the 70's she lived for several years in Winfield, later moving to Hamilton, Ill., where her son, Dr. E. B. Ringland, conducted a sanitarium, and for a few years
lived in Keokuk. She had four children: Dr. E. B. Ringland, now a Presbyterian minister in Oklahoma City ; Thomas R. Ringland, of Winfield, a prosperous farmer, and a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church ; Rev. A. W. Ringland, D. D., a Presbyterian minister in St. Louis, and Miss Anna Mary Ringland, of Mt. Pleas- ant, who was her mother's companion through her many years of invalidism. She left no great heritage of gold, but to her children she left a better legacy, the memory of a faith that never failed, a courage that never faltered, a life triumphant,
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