USA > Iowa > The blue book of Iowa women; a history of contemporary women; > Part 16
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the Civic League, Visiting
Nurse
Associa-
tion, Shakespeare Club, Mentor Club, Current Events Club, Fortnightly Club, Wednesday Reading Club, Woman's Whist League, Keokuk Book Club, Y. W. C. A., Westminster Guild, the Rebecca Ewing Circle, Woman's Missionary Society, Chapel Fund Society, the Benevolent Union, Travel Class, Monday Music Club, and the Keokuk Country Club. She has inherit- ed a collection of antique furniture, old china and sil- ver, which completely furnishes her home, a ten room house on Fulton Terrace. From the plate and knocker on the front door to the quaint three cornered cup- board in the kitchen, the house is filled with an incom- parable collection of furnishings in perfect state of preservation, which fills with longing the heart of a lover of the antique,
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MISS GULIELMA ZOLLINGER
Guilielma Zollinger, author, was born in Mt. Mor- ris, Ill., April 13, 1856, and came with her parents to Newton, Ia., March, 1857, which has since been her home. She is the author of a number of books which have had wide circulation, perhaps the best known is "The Widow O'Callaghan's Boys." She wrote this book to show that when people do not succeed in life it is largely their own fault-there is a chance for every one, no matter what their condition in life may be. "Maggie McLenehan," a book for girls, teaches the same lesson. She has begun a series of Historical Juveniles, the first of which is "A Boy's Ride," laid in the reign of John. The second is "The Rout of the Foreigner," laid in the early years of the reign of King Henry III. She spent several months in Eng- land in study for this series, the completion of which has been delayed by the illness of her mother, to whom she has for several years given her entire time and companionship. Her books are wholesome and charming, and are enjoyed equally by children and adults. She is personally a most interesting woman, one with a sense of humor and the keenest wit. She is a member of the Authors' League of America, the Iowa Press and Authors' Club, of the Faith Trumbull Chapter, D. A. R., at Norwich, Conn. She is a P. E. O. and was the first president of the Newton chapter. She is an active worker in the Friday Club, a local lit- erary club, and is a member of the O. E. S. In relig- ious faith she is a Congregationalist. She has traveled widely in America and spent three summers in Eng- land. Her literary work has received merited recog- nition throughout this country as well as in England.
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MRS. LIBBIE MILLER TRAVERS
Libbie Miller Travers was born Dec. 17, 1865, near Edina, Mo., the daughter of John Miller and Anne Bryson. She is a graduate of the North Missouri State Normal school, B. S. She is a member of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority, being now a member of the alumni chap- ter at Des Moines. She has had seven consecutive years of reading in the Chautauqua course. She taught for several years in the Southern Iowa Normal school, at Bloomfield, and also in the Missouri Normal school at Kirksville. On Dec. 25, 1890, she was mar- ried at Kirksville to Frank C. Travers. They have two daughters, Ione and Isabel Travers. She is a member of the Christian church and has been a promi- nent worker on the state board of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions for a number of years. She is also state superintendent of Young People's Work of the Christian Church. She has been sent by the State Board to many conventions and other special occasions to give addresses on the "United Mission Studies," which she has been conducting for several years. She is the author of "The Honor of a Lee," a book published in 1910, which has been favorably criticised and widely read. She is a member of the Robert Browning Club, the Aloha Club, and to P. E. O., in Des Moines, which city is her home. Her mother is descended from distinguished ancestry, the Stew- arts, who trace a direct line to the Stewarts of Eng- land. Mrs. Travers has had some journalistic experience in contributing to magazines and periodi- cals, particularly to women's magazines, and is best known through her literary work and in the state work in various departments of the Christian church.
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MRS. ALBERT C. ZAISER
Grace Melcher Zaiser, dramatic reader, was born at Danville, Ia., Sept. 19, 1879. She is the daughter of Dennis Melcher and Sarah V. Hanna. She received a classical education at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Ill. Later she was graduated from the Columbia Col- lege of Expression, Chicago, and took a post graduate course in Emerson College, Boston. At the close of her training she appeared in many cities under the management of Lyceum bureaus, most successfully. She has made a specialty of the interpretation of mod- ern drama. She has successfully appeared in lecture courses, with concert companies and in individual programs. She is a woman of unusual beauty and has a charming stage presence; her interpretations are natural and always artistic. Her repertoire, includes, besides most of the modern dramas, which lend them- selves to this sort of interpretation, a number of mod- ern novels, allegories and many short poems and prose selections. On Jany. 1, 1902, she was married in Burl- ington, Ia., to Dr. Albert C. Zaiser. They have one son, Donald Zaiser, born June 14, 1905. She is a mem- ber of the United Presbyterian church, of the Shakes- peare Club, of the Burlington Musical Club, of P. E. O. and of the King's Daughters. To make even one mind appreciate good literature, who else might miss that joy in his life, is no small service. To such a talented woman as this J. M. Barrie's ap- preciation of his mother might well apply: "When you looked into my mother's eyes, you knew as if He had told you, why God sent her into the world-it was to open the minds of all who looked to beautiful thoughts. And this is the beginning and end of Lit- erature."
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MRS. GEORGE A. YOUNG
Ema Jackson Young was born May 23, 1870, in Ter- re Haute, Ind. Her father, Henry Llewyln Jackson, was of English descent and her mother, Elizabeth Mc- Kenna, was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Their early home was in Liverpool, England, whence they came to Philadelphia. Later they moved to Indiana, where Mrs. Young was born. After her father's death her mother moved to Sioux City. She was educated in the Sioux City schools, and on April 2, 1889, at Des Moines, was married to George A. Young, president of the Homesteaders' Insurance Society. Since their marriage their home has been continuously in Des Moines. Mrs. Young is a member of the First Uni- tarian Church and of the Unity Circle. She is a char- ter member of the original Robert Browning Club. She is a member of the Iowa Press and Authors' Club, of the Political Equality Club and of the Votes for Women League. She believes very earnestly in equal suffrage, in its justice and expediency. She is a mem- ber of the O. E. S., and of the Iowa Humane Society. For the past seven years she has been associate editor of The Back Log, a fraternal insurance magazine pub- lished in Des Moines. She is a widely read woman and finds in this one of her greatest pleasures. She is a home-loving woman, not caring for society in the com- mon acceptance of that term. She and her husband have always been the closest companions, having a common interest in everything. "There are a few people who live in perfect sympathy, in silent under- standing; who do not have to spend years in shouting explanations to each other above the noise of living. Each has looked into the other's soul, and that glance has left its record and made those souls akin forever."
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MRS. ROMA WHEELER WOODS
A very interesting wman, one loved and revered by all who know her, is Mrs. Roma Wheeler Woods, of Sutherland, Iowa. She was born in Perrysberg, Ohio, March 16, 1835. Her father was Daniel Holbrook Wheeler, descended from a historical family of Con- necticut; her mother, Lydia Churchill Martin, was descended from John Churchill of Connecticut. She attended high school in Akron, Ohio; her father taught her higher mathematics, and French and music were taught by private tutors. For several years she was soprano singer in St. Paul's church in Akron. On Sept. 4, 1855, at her home in Davenport, she was mar- ried to William Hanston Woods, of Iowa City, which was then the capitol of the state. Their first home was in Iowa City, where Mrs. Wood was assured by legis- lators that her songs were no small factor in securing the passage of the first Iowa temperance laws. Dur- ing the Civil War she was an active member of the Army Aid Society of Davenport. Her husband died in 1909, a son and daughter having preceded him. Mrs. Woods is secretary and supervising librarian of the Gen. N. B. Baker Library, founded by her husband in 1874, the pioneer library of the dis- trict. She was for three years chairman of the eleventh district Political Equality Clubs and edited The Standard, the state paper, for two years. She has contributed to magazines and papers for many years. Is district chairman I. F. W. C. of the eleventh district where she established the scholarship fund be- fore it was adopted by the state. In her pleasant home, filled with books, pictures, music and good cheer, at the age of 79 she is still active and finds in each new day, new joy.
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MRS. THOMAS S. WELLS
Aletha Lilburn Randall-Wells was born in Utica, Ia., June 16, 1875. She is the daughter of Dr. Jason M. Randall and Olive Fegtly. Her paternal grand- mother was a first cousin of John Quincy Adams. Dr. Randall served throuhgout the Civil War in Co. E, 62nd Ill. Vol. In 1870 he moved to Van Buren county, where he practiced medicine for thirty-five years. Mrs. Wells was graduated from the Birmingham high school, then from Iowa Wesleyan University in the class of 1898, degree B. M. She joined chapter S, P. E.O., when it was a college sorority. For three years she was on the staff of "The Wesleyan," the college paper. She took a post graduate course in school music in Chicago, after which she taught music in the schools of Fairfield for three years. In Birmingham, on June 25, 1902, she was married to Thomas S. Wells, of Burlington, which city was their home for seven years,-the past five years they have lived in Water- 100. They have three children : Robert Randell Wells, born in 1904; Thomas Lilburn Wells, born in 1907, and Edward Thayer Wells, born in 1912. Mrs. Wells is a member of the M. E. Church, of its Aid and Missionary Society of the Waterloo Woman's Club, and of the Ladies' Musical Improvement Club. She organized the Mizpah Circle of King's Daughters, the first in Waterloo. The movement has grown until now there are four circles there. She belongs now to chap- ter Z, P. E. O., and is active in all of its interests. She is a bright, talented woman, a devoted mother, who finds her first duty and greatest pleasure in the care and rearing of her three boys.
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MISS MAMIE E. WELLER
Miss Mamie E, Weller was born Jany. 8, 1862, on a farm at the edge of Greenwood village, near Nashua, in the house which is still her home. She is the daughter of Luman Hamlin Weller and Mary Eliza Pickett. Her father was a lawyer by profession and represented the fourth district in the U. S. congress, 1883-1885. He was a scholarly man, a progressive along every line of thought. He died March 2, 1914. Her mother's grand father, Sylvanus Stewart, during the Revolution collected all the ammunition stored at Danbury, Conn., and had it carried in ox carts to Powkeepsie, N. Y., thus saving it from the British, when they marched on Danbury. Philo Penfield Stewart, who founded Oberlin, the first co-educational college, was a cousin of her grandmother. Miss Wel- ler attended the Nashua high school and Bradford Academy. There are books in every room of the Wel- ler house and these have been her university, for she is a constant reader. She has traveled all over this country, Canada and Mexico. She is a member of the Isabella Club which was a charter member of the I. F. W. C. She attended the first session of the Iowa fed- eration and has been a delegate at many subsequent meetings; has been a delegate to four general federa- tions and to the National Conservation Congress. Her special club interest has been in conservation, having been a member of the state committee on conservation for several years. She is a member of the Congrega- tional church, of the D. A. R., King's Daughters, In- ternational Sunshine Society, and the American For- estry Association. She is fond of society, having a home famed for its hospitality.
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MRS. FRANCIS E. WHITLEY
Mrs. Cora Call Whitley, vice-president of the I. F. W. C., was born in Virginia in 1862. She is a member of probably the best known educational family in the state. Her father is the Rev. L. N. Call, a retired minis- ter of the Baptist denomination, for more than twenty years he was a member of the executive committee of the state Board of Missions. Her mother, Mary Guyon Call, died in 1913. She was a scholarly woman, a reader, familiar with the best in classical and cur- rent literature.
Mr. and Mrs. Call in 1905 celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. At that time they received let- ters of congratulation and best wishes from friends in all parts of the world, from young men and women who had been inspired by them to activities in the business, professional and mission fields. These letters were bound in a volume and form an unusual testi- monial to the great worth of such a life as they lived. Six children were born to Rev. and Mrs. Call : of whom a son died in infancy and a daugh- ter, Grace, passed away when eight years of age. Another son, David Forrester Call, was professor of Greek at the Iowa State University, but died when twenty-nine years of age, just as a life of unusual use- fulness and promise in the educational world was opening to him. He was succeeded on the university faculty by his sister, Miss Leona, who held the place twenty-three years. Another daughter, Miss Myra, is professor of Latin at the state college in Cedar Falls, where she has been eighteen years. Mrs. Whitley was educated in a denominational school. She was mar- ried in 1883 to Dr. Francis E. Whitley, a leading phy-
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sician of Webster City. They have three children : Gladys, who is Mrs. Varict C. Crosley, of Webster City, a graduate of the State University of Iowa, with Phi Beta Kappa honors. She is a member of the state committee on music, I. F. W. C. The second daugh- ter, Grace Bingham Whitley, is also a graduate of the State University of Iowa, with Phi Beta Kappa hon- ors. The son, Guyon Call Whitley, is a student at the State University of Iowa. Mrs. Whitley is a writer of much ability, having contributed to many periodicals. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, joining on the service of John Jamieson, and is regent of New Castle Chapter. She has been for many years prominent in the state federation, hav- ing been for four years chairman of the tenth district, and served on state committees, before her election to the vice-presidency, which office she now holds. She belongs to three local organizations,-the Wednesday Club, the Civic Improvement League, and the Humane Society. She has just pride in her sisters who deserve more than a passing notice : Miss Leona Call, Prof. of Greek in the State University, was the only woman at that time in any state university in the United States with the full rank of professor. She and Miss Myra Call have taken post-graduate work in the University of Chicago and in Ann Arbor, besides hav- ing studied abroad. They are both club women and P. E. O's. Her brother, David Forrester Call, who died at the age of twenty-nine, had achieved much. He had the degree Ph. D., was Professor of Greek at the State University, had been called to the chair of Greek in the Divinity School of the Chicago University and engaged to edit Harper's series of Greek text books.
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MRS. S. O. THOMAS
No woman in Iowa is better known in the mission- ary work of the Presbyterian church than Mrs. S. O. Thomas, of Burlington. For twenty-seven years she has been secretary of the Foreign Missionary Society of the First Presbyterian Church of Burlington, and for fifteen consecutive years she has been an officer in the Iowa Presbyterial Society. She has attended in- numerable sessions of the presbyterial and synodical societies and meetings of the Board of the Northwest. Jessie Donnell Thomas was born at Greens. burg, Ind., in 1850. She is the daughter of Thomas Donnell and Ruth Jane Braden, who came to Des Moines county from Indiana in 1852. She was gradu- ated from the Iowa Wesleyan University in 1869, B.A. 1872 M. A. She was a charter member of the I. C. soci- ety, organized at I. W. U., in 1868. It later became the Greek letter sorority, Pi Beta Phi. Mrs. Thomas owns one of the first pins, a gold arrow with I. C. on it in black enamel. She was married in 1871 at New Lon- don to S. O. Thomas. They have three children : Frank D. Thomas, of Portland, Ore .; Bert Thomas, of The Dalles, Oregon, and Jessie Marie Thomas. Mrs. Thomas has for twenty years been president of the Y. M. C. A. Auxiliary, an organization having one hun- dred fifty members. She was instrumental in organiz- ing the Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club in Burlington. She is a member of the Fortnightly Club, a study and travel club, organized in 1895. The Missionary work is per- haps nearest her heart since it has formed a part of her life for so many years.
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MRS. HORACE M. TOWNER
Mrs. Horace M. Towner, of Corning, had a large part in the creation of the Iowa Library Commission, appointed a member in 1900, and has been twice reap- pointed.
She was born April 13, 1869, in Providence, R. I., daughter of Charles T. Cole and Caroline Greene. She was educated by private tutors, specializing in English literature. In 1887 at Corning, Ia., she was married to Horace Mann Towner, for twenty-three years judge of the third judicial district, and now con- gressman from the eighth Iowa district, and is one of Iowa's most able men. They have three children : Leta E. Towner, Horace C. Towner, and Constance M. Towner. Mrs. Towner has unusual literary ability and is a frequent contributor to magazines, and has prepared many copyrighted study outlines for clubs. She is secretary of the Congressional Club of Wash- ington, D. C., vice regent for Iowa of the Mt. Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, vice-president of the Children of the American Revolution, President of Iowa Library Association, 1904-'5, member of the P. E. O. sisterhood, member Old Thirteen Chapter, D. A. R., president board of trustees of Corning Free Pub- lic library, recording secretary Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs, 1909-11, auditor I. F. W. C., 1907-'9, chairman of the Department of Legislation of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, 1912-14, mem- ber of the Iowa Press and Authors' Club, Des Moines, and of the Corning Culture Club, and has been chair- man of many standing committees of I. F. W. C. Mrs. Towner has been Iowa's representative in many na- tional organizations and the state has much pride in such a representative.
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MRS. F. P. WEBBER
Mrs. Phoebe Jane Webber was born in Chatts- worth, Minn., is the daughter of Benjamine Ross Case and Elizabeth Grist. She received her early education in the high school at Greely, Delaware county, Iowa, which has been supplemented by pro- fessional training, which in 1896 enabled her to suc- cessfully pass the examination before the Iowa state board of dental examiners. For several years she was an active practitioner of her chosen profession. On March 12, 1876, she was married to Dr. F. P. Webber, of Cherokee, in which city they have lived since 1879. There was born to them one son, Dr. Forrest G. Webber, Feby. 12, 1877, who died Oct. 7, 1910. In re- ligious faith Mrs. Webber is a Presbyterian. She is a charter member of the Cherokee Columbian Club, a literary organization, and of the Tone Circle, a musi- cal club. She is a member of the Woman's Relief Corps and interested in its patriotic work. She was one of the organizers of Carnation Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, and served as worthy matron for two years. She was appointed grand chaplain and held the office of associate grand conductress for two years, and for two years was associate grand matron. She was elected to the office of grand matron of Iowa in Oskaloosa, October, 1901, and presided over the grand chapter at its meeting held in Iowa City October, 1902. In 1913 she was appointed committee on fraternal correspondence. She was a charter member of the P. E. O. chapter at Cherokee and its first president. She devotes much time to public wel- fare work, and is prominent in local charity work.
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MRS. HELEN LUSK EVANS
On a farm near Lancaster, in Fairfield county, Ohio, on April 18, 1847, was born a daughter to James and Nancy Ricketts Lusk. She was given the name Helen Isabel. She had a brother, James Harvey, who was nine years her senior, and when Helen was six years old her sister, Emma Jane, was born. In 1852 her father determined to go west, and came to Lee county, Iowa, and bought a farm in Marion township, near the postoffice, Clay Grove. He returned to Ohio and in 1853 they started on the morning of September 5th, to make the journey overland to Iowa, arriving on Sep- tember 26th. Helen attended the district school, where she learned all that the master knew, and read every book, paper or piece of printing that came into her hands-her mind was insatiable and her greatest joy was to learn. When she was fifteen years old she taught school near Bonaparte for a year. When she was sixteen she entered the Young Ladies' Seminary at Mt. Pleasant, a very superior school for the times. She always had a ready pen and at this school won special recognition for her composition work. On Dec. 3, 1868, she was married to Dr. Jas. Mc. Farland Evans, a young physician, who had come from Pennsylvania. Dr. Evans was the son of Abel MeFar- land Evans and Elizabeth Weir, born in Washington county, Pa., Sept. 19, 1841. At the age of sixteen he entered Waynesburg College, but left school at the end of three years to enlist in the army. He enlisted May 1, 1861, in Co. K, Eighth Regiment Pa. reserves. In the second battle of Bull Run he received a severe wound in the left shoulder and was discharged from service because of this disability, Feby. 13, 1863. He
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came to Iowa May 28, 1865, and began the study of medicine with Dr. L. E. Goodell, after which he at- tended the Western Medical College in Cleveland, Ohio. He began the practice of medicine at Pilot Grove in 1868, in 1872 he moved to West Point, and in 1880 moved to Salem, where he died, June 6, 1912. For forty years he practiced medicine in southeastern Iowa, and was a man well known in the state. For thir- ty-four years he was a deacon in the Congregational church and was one of its most prominent supporters. In faith he was a Presbyterian, but there was in Salem no church of that denomination. He had an unusual- ly large library and was a great reader, a man of broad education and skillful in his profession. There were three daughters born to Dr. and Mrs. Evans : Elma Victorine, now Mrs. C. H. Cook, of Salem ; Em- ma Winona, now Mrs. Harry J. Reeves, of Keokuk, and Helen McFarland, now Mrs. F. W. Garretson, of Hamilton, Ill. The grand children are: Max Evans Cook, died in 1900; Helen Elizabeth Cook, died in 1913; Miriam McFarland Cook, Helen Lusk Reeves, Agnes Evans Reeves, and James Lusk Garretson. In 1873 Mrs. Evans was very ill, and for years was an in- valid, never fully recovering. The force of her per- sonality and the strength of her mind made one lose sight of the frail body. She almost never went from home, and yet her friends were legion. She was an op- timist and her life preached always the gospel of cour- age. She was a very practical christian and sacrificed every day for someone's aid or comfort. She taught her children more than they learned in any school, and the memory of her still guides and directs their lives. She died May 2, 1897.
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MISS ELIZABETH G. IVINS
Eliazbeth Galland Ivins, musician, was born in Keo- kuk, Oct. 9, 1858, and died in Cincinnatti, Ohio, May 2, 1912. She was the daughter of William S. and Vir- ginia Wilcox Ivins. She was not only a musician, but a linguist of ability, being proficient in Italian, French, German and Spanish. Her early training in music and in the languages began at Helmuth College, London, Ontario, when she was but fourteen years old. Here she won the medal for highest proficiency. Later she took an exhaustive course in the Cincinnatti College of Music. She studied in New York, Chicago and Paris, under the most famous teachers of the times. In Cin- cinnatti she was soprano soloist in a choir under the direction of Theodore Thomas. She appeared success- fully in operas, oratorios, and concerts, and refused many flattering offers for a professional career. She was a member of the faculty of Canton College and head of the vocal department of the Conservatory at Quincy. She had charge of the choir of St. Stephen's Episcopal church in Terre Haute, and for years was soprano soloist in St. John's Episcopal and other Keokuk churches. Her home city had the greatest pride in her art, and love and admiration for her per- sonally. She was generous in the gift of her voice and no musical program seemed complete without her. She was one of the organizers of the Monday Music Club, and its president for nine years. She was a char- ter member of the Woman's Club and for several years its president. She was its representative at many state meetings and at the General Federation in Los Angeles. She was modest of her own attainments, un- spoiled by honors, generous of her art, a devoted daughter, one who lived true to her own high ideals.
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