USA > Iowa > The blue book of Iowa women; a history of contemporary women; > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19
210
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
Emily, was born at Great Bend, Kan. She received her education in the public schools, at Pennsylvania College and at the Girls' Latin School, Boston. Her professional training as a nurse was received at St. Luke's Hospital, Davenport. She is a physician's as- sistant, living at La Junta, Colo. She stands very high in her profession and is a fine woman. Mrs. Rogers is a member of the Episcopal church and interested in all lines of church work. She is a member of the P. E. O. sisterhood, being one of the earliest initiates, be- longing when she was a young woman in the seminary at Mt. Pleasant. She was the third woman to be elect- ed to the supreme presidency, serving three terms. She was the first editor of the P. E. O. Record, which was established in 1888, the first number issued in
December, 1888. She was authorized to name the magazine, which she did. She resigned the editorship in 1890. At the supreme convention held in Hutchison, Kan., in 1913 she was again elected to the editorship of the Record, upon the resignation of Miss Osmond. She is a member of the School Board, has served as county superintendent of schools and was a very suc- cessful high school principal. She has done much lit- erary work; has had eight years journalistic ex- perience as newspaper reporter and magazine writer. She has been manuscript reader for the Boston school book publishing house, manager of a teachers' agency, manager of a collection and insurance agency, a representative of the Prang fine art house in New England. She has written many verses and poems which have been published and are of a very high or- der in a literary sense. She is a woman of marked ability and self reliance, one who can meet the world and win in whatever she undertakes,
211
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. GEORGE W. RANDLE
Mrs. Ella Williams Randle, is a member of a family very well known in the activities of the Methodist church in Iowa and connected with musical interests. She was born in Centerville, Feby. 8, 1859, the daugh- ter of John W. Williams and Mary Elizabeth Bradley, names well known in the history of that town. Mr. Williams was of German descent, born in Freeport, Penn. He introduced the round note system of musi- cal notation into this section of the state; thus doing away with the earlier system of square and three cornered notes or the "buckwheat notes," as they were called. He was church chorister for many years. He was a manufacturer of pianos and his sons, H. B. and Carl S. Williams, own one of the large piano and organ factories in Chicago. Mrs. Randle's mother, Mary Elizabeth Bradley, was born in Belfast, Ireland, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. On Sept. 22, 1880, Ella Williams was married in Centerville to George W. Randle, a prominent business man. They have six children : Lulu Virginia, Ruby Mary, Bess Margaret, Albert Williams, Roy Waldo and Ralph George. She is a member of the Methodist church of which she was organist for eight years, and a member of the official board. For ten years she was president of the Ladies' Aid, and has been active in missionary society and lo- cal charity work. She is a member of the M. X. L., Club, and of the P. E. O. sisterhood since 1882. She is a trustee of the Drake Free Library Board. She is a woman who helps along every good work, which is characteristic of the Williams family. She is a promi- nent woman socially and enjoys that phase of life also.
212
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
DR. ALICE TURNER
Alice Bellvadore Sams Turner, writer and physician of Colfax, was born March 13, 1859, near Mingo, Ia. The daughter of John Sams and Susan Evaline Hum- phreys, who came to Iowa in 1853, locating near Min- go, where they lived for fifty years. Dr. Turner was educated at Simpson College and Lincoln Uni- versity, receiving her degree M. D., Feby. 26, 1884, from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk, Ia. She is a student of psychology, suggestive therapeutics, occult science, of sociology and political economy. She believes in equal suffrage, and in 1895 cast the first ballot in Colfax, by a woman. She was married Oct. 21, 1878, to Dr. L. C. S. Turner. To- gether they have practiced their profession for twenty years, the last ten years have conducted a sanitarium and rest home. They have two children: Vera, now Mrs. J. W. Preston, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., who grad- uated from Wellesley in 1895, later attending the Col- lege of Philanthropy in New York. She has one child, Ruth Alice, born July 13, 1911. Carroll J. Turner, is a student in the dental department, University of Iowa. Married Eleanor Blanche Alley, daughter of Wm. Alley, Grinnell, June 11, '13. Dr Turner is a member since April, 1903, of the Iowa Society of Med- ical Women. Was the first woman admitted to mem- bership, Iowa Public Health Association. Was the first woman health officer in Iowa (1886-87). Was one of the founders of the public library, a trustee for twenty-two years, and its president since 1903. Is the author of a history of Colfax. She is a Unitarian, a U. S. Daughter of 1812, P. E. O., member of W. C. T. U., W. R. C. and O. E. S. She is a woman of re- markable ability and splendid attainment.
218
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. E. E. SHERMAN
Josephine Ballow, born Dec. 22, 1864, in Blandins- ville, Ill., daughter of Hiram Ballow and Fannie Chamberlin. The Ballow family is of Norman-French descent, and the Ballow Geneology contains many men and women of history, among them, Eliza Bal- low Garfield, Hosea Ballow, and Guinebond Ballow, who fought at Hastings, (1066) a marshal in the army of William the Conqueror. Mrs. Sherman was edu- cated in the Illinois Normal School and was a success- ful teacher for eight years. Was married to Dr. Elmer Emmett Sherman, Sept. 2, 1886, who is a successful physician of Keosauqua. For many years she has been a newspaper correspondent and has written many feature articles, as well as short stories, which have appeared in magazines. As the county rep- resentative of rural club work of the extension depart- ment of Iowa State College, she has delivered many lectures and conducted study classes. She is a charter member of the Woman's Improvement Association, which has done much civic work. She is county sec- retary of the Christian Women's Board of Missions. She is a member of O. E. S. She conducted the first Babies' Health Contest held at a Chautauqua, in Farmington, in 1912. She was assistant superintend- ent of the second contest at the Iowa State Fair in 1912. She is the mother of five children, one of whom died in infancy: Evaline Sherman is a registered nurse in Des Moines; Dorcey E., a secretary for the Secretary of State, Des Moines; Esther, a milliner; Ruth, a school girl at home. Mrs. Sherman is an ideal doctor's wife, a devoted mother, one who discharges her social obligations and withal finds time for study and much work outside her home.
214
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. GEORGE P. SANFORD
Mary Belle Leverett Sanford, of Council Bluffs, member of the Author's League of America, news- paper correspondent, short story writer, and widow of George P. Sanford, a prominent banker and financier, was born in Salem, Nebr., Oct. 16, 1860. Her parents, James Walker Leverett, and Harriett Maria Tisdel, lived in Nebraska when the Indians were troublesome, and her father slept with a gun by his side. John Lev- erett, who was one of the early governors of Massa- chusetts, and whose portrait hangs in the new state house in Boston, was an ancestor, "Parson" Asa Tur- ner, one of the pioneer Congregational ministers, of Iowa, was her father's kinsman. Her father was a graduate of Colgate University, Hamilton, N. Y., then Madison University. Her mother, a woman of beauty in face and character, was a graduate of Ingham Institute, Le Roy, N. Y., she died Dec. 21, 1909. Mrs. Sanford was educated in the Northwestern University and in the University of Texas. On May 26, 1880, she was married to George P. Sanford, at Garden Val- ley, Wis., a man of high financial standing, a stock- holder in a number of Natioinal banks, and president of the First National Bank of Council Bluffs, to which city they moved in 1892. Through the force of hard times and misfortune he lost heavily, and in 1898 sold his stock to the Citizen's State Bank, which took the name and business of the First National. He died August, 1902. She has two sons living and one who died in infancy : Arthur, manager of B. F. Sturtevant Co's. office in Chicago, and Raymond, a merchant in Decorah, Iowa. She is a member of the Broadway M. E. Church, Council Bluffs Club, member for twenty years of Oakwood Ave. Reading Club.
215
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. SAMUEL KIRKWOOD STEVEN- SON
"On Washington Heights in Iowa City, reached by a climb of steps and a walk up a path, stands an old home christened by the young women who frequent it 'The Wayside Inn.' This is the home of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Kirkwood Stevenson since their marriage in 1898, a home of beautiful and unusual hospitality. "To this home, day after day, year after year, flock the university girls.
"Should one of the large circle of Wayside Inn fre- quenters desire a night's rest away from all interrup- tions, or should Mrs. Stevenson desire such a rest for one of her 'children,' the Blue Room is called into use. Fresh and sweet in the memory of many a rested girl is the Blue Room, with its walls decorated with the pictures of girls who have been there before-to rest."
Thus does Florence A. Armstrong, one of Mrs. Stevenson's "girls," describe her home at Iowa City. In the atmosphere of that home you have the key to the unusual work done by her for young women. She was for years a member of the State Committee of the Y. W. C. A., and through that work and the summer conference she came to be known and loved by the young women all through the middle west. She has spoken in all the larger colleges of Iowa and in many colleges in neighboring states, and almost every city Y. W. C. A. has been blessed by her visits, for it always means that. The great purpose she has in this work for young women is "to help them to fit the Bible into the plan of their daily lives." For fifteen years she has been a Bible teacher and all her life a Bible student. She is a polished speaker, every ad- dress is finished in a literary sense, and always bears
216
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
in it a definite message which is never forgotten. In the summer of 1900 she visited the missions of Bul- garia, Turkey and Palestine, and has delivered many illustrated lectures of the journey. In all her ad- dresses there is an evangelistic note which speaks of Christian life in a very personal way. She lovingly gives credit to her English mother for the inspiration for the work she is doing, saying-"To her I owe very very much of the inspiration, help and training for my present work. She was a great student of the Book before me and her father before her." For two years she carried on investigations for the university de- partment of Political Economy and Sociology, acting as volunteer inspector in the state and speaking to many women's clubs on the need of a regularly ap- pointed woman factory inspector. Largely as a result of this work the Iowa legislature made provision for such an office. During 1913 she made a scientific study of wage-earning women in small towns and pre- sented the subject at the meeting of the Iowa Charities and Correction, bringing to them a practical working plan of bettering the conditions. She has special ad- dresses on The American Indian and his needs and on Social Settlement Work, having studied both these questions first hand. Before she was married her name was Marcia Jacobs, born at Galena, Ill., March 25, 1875, her parents, Henry Hayes Jacobs and Eli- zabeth Stephens. Was graduated from the State Uni- versity of Iowa, 1898, B. A. Married Aug. 3, 1898, to Samuel Kirkwood Stevenson, an attorney, who sym- pathizes in every line of work she does. She is a Pres- byterian. She belongs to the Charles Dickens Fellow- ship, London. Her mother's father befriended Charles Dickens, and when he came to America he made the long journey to Galena to see her mother.
217
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. T. D. STOCKMAN
Mrs. Nannie Torrence Stockman was born April 25, 1859, at Fremont, Iowa. Her parents, William Mor- row Torrence and Jane Livingstone Cummins, came from Pittsburg, Penn., to Iowa in the territorial days. They were both of Scotch-Irish ancestry, the grand parents of both fought in the Revolution. Her father was killed in the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862. For ten years she was a successful teacher, and from 1886 to 1890, was superintendent of the schools of Keokuk county, and editor of "The Keokuk County Teacher." She was a member of the Educational Council, com- posed of the foremost school men and women of the state. Was a member of the State Reading Circle Board and secretary of the County Superintendent's Section of the State Teachers' Association. March 12, 1890, she was married to David Theodore Stockman, a prominent and successful attorney of Sigourney. They have four children: Donald Theodore, who is in the U. S. Navy, stationed at San Francisco; Helen Louise and Edith Margaret, students at the State Uni- versity of Iowa, members of Kappa Kappa Gamma and P. E. O., and William Laurence, in the high school. Mrs. Stockman was elected president of the Supreme Chapter of P. E. O. in 1890. She established the first state grand chapter, that of Nebraska, in April, 1891. She served on the committee which established the P. E. O. Record; she wrote the prayer which is used in the opening of P. E. O. meetings everywhere. To her is due in a large measure the establishment of the free public library in Sigourney, of whose board of trus- tees she is a member. She is a D. A. R., and is a de- voted church woman, being a Presbyterian. She was one of the organizers of the Sigourney Woman's Club.
218
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MISS MAY ROGERS
Miss May Rogers, club woman, journalist and lect- urer, was born in Dubuque, and that city has always been her home. She wears the insignia of the Colonial Dames, D. A. R. and U. S. Daughters of 1812. She has been president of the Dubuque Woman's Club, regent of the Dubuque Chapter, D. A. R. and chairman of Borough Number One of the Iowa Society of Colonial Dames. She was the first state correspondent of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. She was a member of the first board and a signer of the articles of incorporation, May 13, 1892. The Iowa Federation was admitted to the General Federation on her mo- tion. She has been a frequent after dinner speaker on club and patriotic themes. She was one of the prin- cipal speakers at the Semi-Centenniel of Iowa, at Bur- lington, October, 1896, her subject, "The Pioneer Woman and the Club Woman." She has lectured in many cities in this state and elsewhere. She has de- livered her lecture on Madame Roland in New York, Baltimore, Washington, Chicago, New Orleans, Chey- enne and Oakland. During the Columbian Exposi- tian she spoke in the Woman's building on "The Novel as an Educator of the Imagination." She
spoke in 1910 before the Chicago Equal Suffrage League on "The Conservation of Privilege." At the Philadelphia Biennial, G. F. W. C., May 12, 1894, she spoke on women as "A New Social Force." At the Des Moines Chautauqua in 1898, she lectured on "The Civic Duty of Women." In New York City in 1892 she spoke before the association for the advancement of women from the capitalistic point of view, being, "Women in Relation to Labor Reform." Recently
219
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
she has largely confined her lectures to Iowa history, and to patriotic themes as "Forefather's Day," "Causes and Ideals of the Revolution." She spoke before the lowa D. A. R. Conference in 1900, on "The Settlement of Iowa." As a journalist she has done much editorial and special reporting. Her book re- views are literary essays. Her papers on Lydia Maria Child, Charlotta Bronte and George Eliot were widely copied and commented on. In 1878 she published her Waverly Dictionary, of the characters of Scott's novels, which has had a very wide circulation. Her father, Thomas Rogers, came to Dubuque, from New York, in 1839. He was a scholar, a lawyer and an orator. In 1850 he married Anna W. Burton. He di- rected the historical studies of the daughter and read with her the Greek and Latin classics. Miss Rogers has been an extensive traveler. She wrote for the Dubuque papers her experiences in the shipwreck of the City of Chicago, off the Irish Coast, July 1, 1892. She is much interested in financial affairs and manages her own business interests.
220
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MISS KATHERINE H. SCOTT
Miss Katherine H. Scott, portrait painter, writer of prose and verse, was born in Burlington, the daugh- ter of Frederic J. Scott and Ada Winton, pioneers of that city. Her father is a veteran of the Civil War and her mother who came to Burlington in 1853 was one of the leading teachers of instrumental music in the early days. Miss Scott attended the Burlington schools. She was graduated from the Chicago Art Institute in 1901. Later she took a post-graduate course in the same school. She was a pupil of the late John H. Van- derpoel, Henry Hubble, Albert Herter, Frederic W. Freer, Mrs. Evelyn Beachy, Frank Duveneck and other prominent artists. Her special work is oil por- traits, and ivory miniatures, although she does land- scapes in both oil and water color, makes her own il- lustrations, for her "Verses for Children," and makes her own designs for craftwork. Her work has been exhibited, especially portraits in oil, and miniatures in the Art Student's League in Chicago, Society of Chi- cago Artists, American Water-color and Miniature Painters, St. Louis Exposition, and in prominent galler- ies in Chicago and other western cities. She has since 1899 been a successful art teacher, having taught in the Chicago Art Institute, both in the normal de- partment and in the juvenile department; she was director of the art department of the Douglas Park School of Music, Chicago, 1908-10; she was for ten years director of the art department of Rockford Col- lege. She is now successfully directing the School of Art in Burlington. She is a woman of unusual talent, one who sincerely loves her art, and who in all her work is true to her ideal.
221
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. ALTA H. SULLIVAN
Mrs. Alta Haskell Sullivan, of Fairfield, is one the women to whom has been given the highest honor in the gift of the members of the Iowa grand chapter Order of the Eastern Star, that of worthy grand ma- tron. She was born in Monroe county, Iowa, July 28, 1864, the daughter of the Hon. Lorenzo Osborn Has- kell and Angelina Bay. She was educated in Howe's Academy and in the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mt. Pleasant. Howe's Academy was one of the oldest pre- paratory schools in Iowa, and the Iowa Wesleyan is the oldest University in Iowa. In recent years the two schools have been combined. Mrs. Sullivan also at- tended the State University of Nebraska at Lincoln. For two years she was principal of the schools at Al- mena, Kansas. On Oct. 24, 1887, she was married to William Parris Sullivan, at her home in Norton, Kans. She is a member of Log Cabin Chapter, D. A. R., her mother being of Revolutionary descent. She joined Original A, chapter of P. E. O., in the days when it was a college sorority. She is a patroness of Achoth So- rority, of Iowa City. For many years she has been a prominent member of the Order of the Eastern Star, serving as grand matron in 1912-13. Her compilation of the memorial given at the grand chapter in October, 1913, is especially admired by the order. She is now chairman of the Board of Custodians of the Order. Mrs. Sullivan has fine literary taste and is a woman of wide reading along many lines. She has a fine appreciation of art. She believes that women have the inalienable right to franchise and should be given the privilege. She is a careful housekeeper and a devoted home-maker, and the other things among her activities have been incidental to her home-making.
222
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. H. B. SCOTT
Mrs. Leonora Cranch Scott, of Burlington, was born in Sorrento, Italy, on June 4, 1848. She is the daugh- ter of Christopher Pearse Cranch and Elizabeth De- Wendt. Both of her parents were of direct English ancestry, and both were related to John Adams. Through this line she is descended from John Alden and Priscilla de Molines. Her father was a poet, an artist and a scholar. He was educated for a minister in the Harwood Divinity School. She was born dur- ing the residence of her father and mother in Europe. When she was nineteen months old they left Italy, and until she was fifteen years old, they lived in Paris. Re- turning to this country they lived in New York and Cambridge, Mass. For fifty years her grandfather was judge in the District of Columbia. At Staten Island, N. Y., on June 20, 1872, she was married to Col. Henry Bruce Scott. They have six children: George Cranch, Henry Russell, Sarah Carlisle, Richard Gor- don, Elizabeth Rose and Margaret. She inherited from her gifted father a love for art which was fostered by her residence in the art centers of Europe during the impressionable years of childhood. She is a stu- dent of art and traveled for several months with her daughters in an art class in Holland, Spain and Italy. She has written a history of her father in "Life and Letters, of Christopher Pearse Cranch." In religious faith she is a Unitarian, and for six or eight years worked very hard for the establishment of the Peo- ples' Church. She is a member of the Sheldon Circle of King's Daughters, Musical Club, Director of the Visiting Nurse Association and of the Humane Society, President of the Burlington Art Club and of the Res- cue League,
228
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. PRINCE E. SAWYER
Mrs. Cornelia Johnson Sawyer was born in Osceola, Iowa, March 29, 1869. She is the daughter of Allison Cord Johnson and Emily Brenton. She was graduated form the Osceola high school, after which for six years she did cashier's work in her brother's bank. This experience gave her a broad knowledge of business methods, which has made her an unusually efficient officer in various clubs and charitable organi- zations in later years. On Sept. 6, 1899, in Armour, S. D., she was married to Dr. Prince E. Sawyer, an able surgeon and practitioner of Sioux City. Is a mem- ber of the First Congregational Church of Sioux City. She is president of the Emerson Club, and for four years was president of the local P. E. O. chapter. For many years she has been a prominent worker for the Boys' and Girls' Home, one of the most efficient phil- anthropic institutions in Iowa. She has served as re- cording secretary, corresponding secretary and treasurer of the board governing the institution, and is now president. The children in the Home love her devotedly and she is like a mother to them all. She was one of the chief promoters of the Better Baby con- test held at the Inter-State Fair in 1913, which was given under the auspices of the City Federation of Women's Clubs. She is a prominent member of the P. E. O. sisterhood in Iowa, having served the State Grand Chapter most efficiently as vice-president for one year, and as treasurer since 1912. She has travel- ed over this country from ocean to ocean, making many journeys to different points of interest. She is a very clever, quick witted woman, is fond of society, charitable and generous, and always a loyal friend.
224
The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. JACOB B. STERN
Mrs. Millicent B. Stern, with her husband, organ- ized the first Farmers' Club in Iowa in 1866. They recognized the need of some social organization and out of this need was born the Harris Grove Farmers' Club, which is still a thriving, useful organization. Mrs. Stern was born in Lincolnshire, England, Jany. 27, 1820, and died Nov. 12, 1904, in Logan, Iowa. Her parents, John Fletcher and Lydia Beet Fletcher, were natives of Lincolnshire, Eng., came to the United States in 1830, settling at Kennett Square, Chester county, Penn. She was married at Kennett Square, Sept. 30, 1841, to Jacob T. Stern. Five chil- dren were born to them: Amy Ann Milliman, who died in 1874; Etta Rest Milliman, who died in 1883; Earnest, who died in 1847; Almar Stern and Willis Lewis Stern, who reside in Logan, Iowa. In April, 1857, they moved to Harrison county, Iowa, to "Lin- wood Farm," which for many years was their home. Mrs. Stern was almost eighty-five years old at the time of her death, and had lived a long, useful life, into which much of shadow as well as sunshine had enter- ed. It was said of her that "she identified herself more clearly with movements to build up the commu- nity as a whole than any other person in the county. Her efforts were unselfish, she sought no place of pre- ferment, no reward except the approval of her own conscience. For years she occupied, not the seat of honor, but she honored the place because she was in it." Her religion was the simple faith of the Qua- kers. She was a patriotic woman, an active member of the W. R. C., an earnest advocate of temperance, and a pioneer in the cause of equal suffrage.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.