USA > Iowa > The blue book of Iowa women; a history of contemporary women; > Part 18
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. MYRON D. SMITH (Madame Myron)
Alice Pettit Smith (Mrs. Myron D.,) vocalist, daugh- ter of William S. and Amelia Ray Pettit, was born in Aliance, Ohio, and came with her parents to Creston, in 1885, which city is still her home. In 1887 she was married to Myron D. Smith, cashier of the First National Bank of Creston. In 1902, while visiting in Omaha, a friend persuaded her to have her voice test- ed, which she did, and it was discovered that she pos- sessed a voice of unusual power and sweetness. She studied two years in Omaha, and more than a year in New York, before going to London, where she spent ten months under George Henschel, one of the great masters. She appeared at a number of private recitals and parlor concerts given at the homes of prominent society people in London. Her first professional tour was with the Scottish Orchestra, composed of one hun- dred instruments. As soloist of this orchestra she adopted the stage name, Madame Myron. At the close of her tour she returned to her home in Creston, re- solved that her professional career should be only sec- ondary and incidental to her home, to this resolution she has adhered. She was for one season soloist for the George Crampton Concert Co., touring the United States and Canada, and for one year was at the head of the Lyceum Grand Concert Co. She has appeared many times in Iowa cities and elsewhere in oratorios, concerts and recitals, everywhere receiving the ova- tion which her art merits. Her voice is a mezzo so- prano of wide range and remarkable sweetness, and back of the voice, and speaking through it, is the soul of the fine woman, of whom Iowa is proud.
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MRS. JAMES CALLANAN
Martha Coonley, early Iowa reformer and editor, was born near Albany, N. Y., May 18, 1863. She re- ceived an education such as the common schools of that period provided. In 1846 she was married to James Callanan, a lawyer by profession, but who was interested in many financial institutions in Des Moines. He was President of the Capital City Bank, a director in the Citizen's National Bank, the State Savings' Bank, and in the Iowa Loan and Trust Co., was one of the founders of the Hawkeye Insurance Co., and part owner of the Des Moines and Minneapolis Railroad. Possessed of great wealth and with a mind which saw the needs of those less fortunate than herself, and with a heart which prompted her to aid in all sorts of phil- anthropical and educational measures, she became one of the great philanthropists and reformers of Iowa. She was prominent in the work of the W. C. T. U., in both the state and national work, a liberal contribu- tor to the Benedict Home for friendless girls, was one of the founders of the Home for the aged, was a sup- porter of the Methodist church in all of its lines of work, particularly in the cause of missions. She aided many struggling colleges and helped in the education of many boys and girls who, without her aid, would have missed the privilege of a higher education. In 1870 she helped to organize the Equal Suffrage Asso- ciation of Iowa, at a convention called at Des Moines for that purpose. She gave liberal financial aid to the association and edited and published the Woman's Standard, which advocated equal suffrage, temper- ance and other reform movements. She died Aug. 16, 1901.
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REV. MARY A. SAFFORD
Rev. Mary Augusta Safford, Unitarian minister, was born in Quincy, Ill., Dec. 23, 1851, daughter of Stephen F. and Louisa Hunt Safford, moving in childhod to Hamilton, Ill. She attended the public schools there and at the age of eighteen entered the State Uni- versity of Iowa. In 1878 she organized a Uni- tarian Society in Hamilton, in which she preached for nearly two years. The Iowa Unitarian Society in- vited her to be ordained in this state, receiving her ordination in Humboldt, where she preached for seven years. In 1885 she was called to Unity church at Sioux City, which to that time had been a struggling organization. Through her efforts the society was built up until it became one of the strong churches in the state. She founded the Humane Society
the work of in Sioux City, and aided in other literary and reform clubs. In 1889 she resigned her pastorate in Sioux City, to accept a call to the First Unitarian church at Des Moines, where she preached until 1910, at which time she was made pastor Emeritus. In 1909 she went to England, where she preached in the principal churches of the liberal faith, both in England and Scotland. Miss Safford has always been a missionary, giving the very best that was in her to build up weak churches and organ- ize new ones. For eleven years she was president of the Iowa Unitarian Conference, secretary of Iowa Unitarian Association and a dictator of the American Unitarian Association, and a member of the National Fellowship Committee. She is at present editor of Old and New. She is a woman of the highest type, and one who truly serves humanity.
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MRS. ADA E. NORTH
Mrs. Ada E. North, the first Iowa woman to hold a state office, was the daughter of the Rev. Milo N. Miles, a prominent Congregational minister in this state. She was educated in the schools of Iowa City. In 1865 she was married in Des Moines to Maj. George J. North, who was military secretary to Gov. Stone dur- ing the Civil War. In 1870 Maj. North died, leaving his wife with two little children. She at once began to look for a means to support her little family, and was given a clerical position in the legislature, being one of the first women clerks in the Iowa state house. In 1871 a vacancy occurred in the office of state li- brarian and Gov. Merrill appointed Mrs. North to the position, being thus the first woman in Iowa to hold a state office, if not the first woman in the United States to hold a state office. The state library was in its in- fancy and had received little attention, the appropria- tions had been small and it had not been considered a very important department. Mrs. North, with a real interest in the work, and with a realization that the eyes of the officials were upon her, to see whether or not a woman was capable of administering the duties of a state office, undertook the work with the careful attention to detail, and with the conscientious effort which marks the work of women. At her suggestion a bill was passed by the 14th general assembly, provid- ing for a board of trustees, consisting of the Governor, Secretary of State, Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion, and the Judges of the Supreme Court. For eight years she was state librarian, and laid the foundation for our present splendid state library. Resigning in 1879 she was for thirteen years librarian of the State University. She died Jany, 9, 1899.
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MISS LOTTIE E. GRANGER
Miss Lottie E. Granger, teacher, school officer and literary contributor, was born near Granville, Ohio. Her father, Sylvester Spellman Granger, was of Eng- lish-Connecticut descent, dating back to Battle Abbey, 1087. Her mother, Elizabeth Walruth's ancestors, were German, and settled in the middle of the 18th century in northwestern New York. Sylvester Granger inherited great riches, and a large estate, but was unfortunate in losing it. Miss Granger was edu- cated in the public schools of Ohio and at Shepardson, the Woman's College of Denison University of Gran- ville, A. B., 1880; A. M., 1895. She studied two years at the Des Moines College, then affiliated with Chicago University. She took a two years course at the Bible Teachers' Training School, New York. In 1886 she was elected superintendent of the schools of Page county, which position she held for three terms, refusing to be a candidate for a fourth term. In 1888 she was unanimously elected president of the Iowa State Teachers' Association, the second woman in Iowa to be given that honor. She served on the board of managers of the Iowa State Teachers' Reading Cir- cle from the date of its organization. For six years she edited a magazine, "The Page County Teacher." She was president of the W. C. T. U. of the eighth congressional district, and was offered the presidency of the State W. C. T. U. upon the resignation of J. El- len Foster, but because of other duties, could not ac- cept it. For eleven years she was a teacher of English in the high schools of Des Moines. For several years she was Associate Principal and Dean of Stanley Hall, Minneapolis, in connection with which duties she also
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taught English and English Literature. Of far reach- ing importance has been Miss Granger's work as a vol- unteer teacher of the English Bible. She has had large classes in the First Baptist church of Des Moines, of which she is a member, and in the Y. W. C. A. She is chairman of the library committee of the Y. W. C. A., and editor of "Inklings," the local association paper. She is the author of short stories, poems, and
has written editorials for various publications. In collaboration with Mrs. Edwin Henshaw, she prepared for the publishers, the manuscript of "The Passing of the Word," left in the first draft at the death of its author, Helen Henshaw. During her work as County Superintendent she formed a rarely beautiful friend- ship with Mrs. Henshaw, then of Clarinda, now of Des Moines. "A Woman of the Century," says: "The name of Miss Granger and Mrs. Henshaw are almost synonomous in Page county." For twenty-seven years this bond of friendship has held true, earnest of con- tinuing true to the end. Miss Granger's permanent home has been with Mrs. Henshaw all these years. Miss Granger is a member of the Woman's Club, the Robert Browning Club, Votes for Women League, Po- litical Equality Club, all of Des Moines, and is active in every cause of welfare for which she can find time. She is a good club member, leader of program and committee member, and when she takes the floor is an impressive, forceful speaker. She has traveled much in this country, but has reserved the pleasure of foreign travel for days yet to come. She has given the fruit- age of active years to the uplifting of many young people in Iowa, and still has so much reserve force that it is easy to believe that her best has not yet been given.
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MRS. AUSTIN ADAMS
Mary Newbury Adams was born at Peru, Ind., Oct. 17, 1837. She came of remarkable lineage, her ances- tors for many generations were prominent in public life in New England, five of them were Colonial or State Governors. Her parents moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in her girlhood days. Her earliest education was received from her mother; later she attended the public schools of Cleveland and was graduated from the Emma Willard seminary at Troy, N. Y., when she was only eighteen years old. A year later she was mar- ried to Austin Adams, a remarkably brilliant lawyer, a graduate of Dartmouth and of the Harvard Law School. The Adams came to Dubuque in 1854. In 1875 he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court and became Chief Justice in 1880, which office he held for twelve years. He was a regent of the State University for sixteen years and a Law Lecturer from 1875, to his death, in 1890. He was one of the first Iowa law- years to urge women to study law. He was the first chief justice to admit a woman to practice in the Su- preme Court of Iowa. Thus Mrs. Adams in her work for the advancement of women, had a sympathetic supporter in her husband. She was a charter member of the Association for the Advancement of Women, a member of the Equal Suffrage Association, and one of the pioneer workers in the Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs. She was a student of science and be- longed to the National Science Association, the Anthropological Society, and other organizations to promote science and its study. She was chairman of the historical committee of the World's Columbian Ex- position in 1893. She died at her home in Dubuque, Aug. 5, 1901.
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. CATE GILBERT WELLS
Mrs. Cate Gilbert Wells was born in Burlington, May 27, 1863. Her father, W. Dallam Gilbert, born Feby. 6, 1829, in Cassville, Wis. His father, a Ken- tuckian, was a lumber man on the upper Mississippi river and in 1851, Dallam Gilbert, with his brother, John, established a lumber business in Burlington, which is still owned by the family. He was descended from the Devonshire branch of the Gilbert family, of which Sir. Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, were illustrious members. W. Dallam Gilbert was married Jany. 5, 1854, to Hetta Wells Merrill, born June 27, 1835, at Plymouth, N. H. Her father, Stevens Merrill, a Boston merchant, visited California in '49, and returning, stopped at Burlington and purchased the property, Hickory Hill, afterwards selling it to his son-in-law, Dallam Gilbert. It has since been the home of the family, four generations having dwelt within its old stone walls. Mrs. Wells received her preparatory education in the Gordon school, after- ward attending the New York City school, conducted by Madame Benedict and Miss Chapman, which was followed by two years of travel in Europe and the Orient. On this journey she met her future husband in Egypt, in the temple of Kamalı, on the river Nile- Charles William Wells, to whom she was married June 8, 1892. Mr. Wells was born Aug. 28, 1861, in Mil- waukee, the son of Charles Kimball Wells, a native of Wells, Me., a Yale graduate and a pioneer lawyer of the firm Wells, Brigham & Upham. The son was edu- cated in the University of Wisconsin and for seventeen years lived in Chicago, a member of the prominent lumber firm, the I. Stephenson Lumber Co. He died in Phoenix, Ariz., in 1897. Three weeks later their little
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daughter, Catherine, died, leaving only Mrs. Wells and her son, Gilbert, of the family. Gilbert Wells was born June 13, 1893, the last of the name, which he de- rives through various royal lines directly from Alfred the Great. Having completed courses at a prepara- tory school in Connecticut, and at St. John's Military Academy, in 1914 entered the University of Pennsyl- vania. Mrs. Wells has been for eighteen years Presi- dent of the Burlington Musical Club, beginning with a membership of four, it now has six hundred members. She is president of the City Federation of Women's Clubs, regent of the Stars and Stripes chapter, D. A. R., which she joined upon the service of Stephen Wells and Joshua Copp. She represented the chapter at the National Congress, 1914. She has served as historian of the Iowa Society, D. A. R., and chairman of state program committee. Is a member of two state com- mittees, I. F. W. C., and was chosen delegate at large to the General Federation at Chicago, 1914. At the 1913 biennial she was one of three women nominated for the presidency, I. F. W. C. In 1913, by appoint- ment of the mayor she represented the city of Burl- ington at the National Convention of the Peace Society. Mrs. Wells is an accomplished pianist, is fond of society and of humanity at large. Her beauti- ful old home, Hickory Hill, has for three generations been a center of Burlington hospitality, and every year is the scene of many brilliant social functions. It is an interesting bit of family history to note that Mrs. Wells' mother, Hetta Wells Merrill, whose mother's name was Mehetabel Worthly Wells, line of ancestry connects with the line of ancestry of her husband, Chas. W. Wells, through Thomas Wells of Ipswich, Mass. (1635) Deacon and Doctor, and member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston.
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. HARRIET A. KETCHEM
Harriet A. Ketchem, sculptor, was born in New Market, Ohio, July 12, 1846. In 1851 she came with her parents to Mt. Pleasant. She was educated in the public schools there and in the Iowa Wesleyan Uni- versity, but did not complete the course, leaving school to marry William B. Ketchem. They have three chil- dren : Alfred, Earnest and Roma, the last one being born in Rome, her mother named her Roma. It was not until after her marriage that she began working in clay ; her friends realized that the figures indicated artistic possibilities and persuaded her to go to Chica- go to study. She gave ten years of hard work and pa- tient study to her art in this country, before she went to Italy, where she studied under several teachers, spending most of her time in Rome. While there she made Peri at the Gates of Paradise her best known work, which was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and which received there fav- orable criticism by many art critics. It is now in the library of the State House at Des Moines. When the committee for the lowa Soldiers' Monument asked for designs, forty-seven different models were submitted. The one made by Mrs. Ketchem was accepted and the commission given to her. She made busts of President Lincoln, Senator James Harlan, Senator W. B. Allison and of Judge Samuel F. Miller, all of which are promi- nently placed. She was an untiring worker, and per- haps because of the nervous strain under which her ambition sometimes led her to work, she was stricken with paralysis and died in October, 1890.
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. AMELIA JENKS BLOOMER
Mrs. Amelia Jenks Bloomer, was
a native of Cortland county, New York, but came to Council Bluffs to live in 1855. She was one of the pioneers in the Woman's Movement, having been as- sociated with Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stan- ton, Abby Keller, Elizabeth Smith Miller, and others. In 1849 she established a paper which had for its ob- ject the advocating of temperance and equal suffrage. It is interesting to note that through all the history of the effort to gain suffrage for women, the cause of temperance has been advocated by the women. Mrs. Bloomer was a writer of merit and a brilliant speaker. For years she lectured for these two causes. In 1851 Elizabeth Smith Miller invented a new style of dress for women, a skirt which reached a little below the knees and wide Turkish trousers gathered at the ankle. Mrs. Miller was the first to wear the costume, Elizabeth Cady Stanton the second and Mrs. Bloomer the third. The costume was named for her because she advocated the dress reform in her paper, and the public drew the inference that she had invented it, so called it the "Bloomer costume."
She was a clever woman and used the fame of the dress as an advertising medium for her paper, the subscription to which grew enor- mously. She was thereby able to reach many more people with her suffrage and temperance ideas. She was the second president of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association, having been elected in 1871. She died in Council Bluffs, Dec. 30, 1894. Her husband, Dexter C. Bloomer, was a lawyer and journalist and was at one time mayor of that city. In 1895 he published "Life and Times of Amelia Bloomer." He was the author of a history of Pottawattomie county.
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. MARGARET McDONALD STAN- TON
Margaret McDonald Stanton, teacher, member of the first faculty of the Iowa State College at Ames, was born in New Concord, Ohio, Oct. 22, 1845, and died at her home on the college campus, July 2, 1895. A teacher is not alone one who teaches the rule of three and the facts and dates of history but one who moulds character and gives to young people ideals. Margaret McDonald was educated in the public schools of Ohio, in the Muskingum College, and in the Young Ladies' Seminary in Mt. Pleasant, from which she graduated with honors. She taught in the public schools for sev- eral years, spending her vacations in the home of an educated French family, to improve her French. In 1871 she was elected to the chair of English and French in the State Agricultural College, as it was then call- ed. Vocational schools were then an experiment and there were very few co-educational schools. Largely through her tact and wisdom did this co-educational college become popular and many girls came here to be educated. On Feby. 22, 1877, she was married to Prof. E. W. Stanton, and in 1879 resigned her position as teacher, to make a home. Four children were born to them, one died in infancy. Margaret Hall, on the campus, is named in her honor, as is also the beautiful campanile in which a chime of sweet toned bells sound the hours, and every day from the tower is played some hymn, bringing to mind the faith, the noble char- acter, and the womanly graces of the woman whose life inspired the erection of this monument.
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The Blue Book of Iowa Women
MRS. WILLIAM OGLESBY GRIFFITH
Helen Sherman Griffith (Mrs. William Oglesby Griffith) is the youngest daughter of the late Major Hoyt Sherman, of Des Moines, Iowa, and a niece of General William T. Sherman. Her father came to Iowa in 1848, and was a prominent lawyer, banker, and fi- nancier of Des Moines. During the Civil War, by ap. pointment of President Lincoln, he was pay-master, with the rank of Major. Hoyt Sherman Place, the woman's club house, was their old home. Mrs. Grit- fith had the habit of scribbling from her littlest girl- hood, and occasionally was made blissful by having stories and sketches published in local papers and mag- azines. At the age of fourteen, when living with her married sister in Cincinnati, Ohio, she won a prize of $50.00 for the best short story submitted by girls of that age, or younger, in the state of Ohio.
Miss Sherman was married in 1896 to William Og- lesby Griffith, an Englishman on his father's side, but on his mother's side, a grandson of General Oglesby, of New Orleans. After a year abroad, Mr. and Mrs. Griffith returned to the United States and settled in Washington, moving later to Philadelphia, and it is since then that Mrs. Griffith has done mnost of her lit- erary work, which consists principally of twenty-four plays for amateur performance, eight books for girls- six of them in a series known as the "Letty Books" two novels and many short stories appearing at differ- ent times in various magazines. Of these, one was a prize story, "Some Crimes and a Thief." Mr. and Mrs Griffith, with their four children, live at Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia, where Mrs. Griffith continues her literary work, being at present engaged upon the seventh of her "Letty Series."
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MRS. RACHEL J. WILSON ALBRIGHT
Rachel Wilson Albright, the grand-daughter of Bet- sy Ross who made the first United States flag, was born in Philadelphia, June 16, 1812, and died at her home in Ft. Madison, April 18, 1905, at the age of ninety-two years. Her daughter, Mrs. Kate Albright Robinson, the great-grand-daughter of Betsy Ross, still lives in Ft. Madison. Mrs. Albright, with her hus- band, came to Ft. Madison in the spring of 1841, bring- ing with them many family heirlooms, some of which are priceless. In the collection of furniture are two chairs, which were in Betsy Ross' parlor at 239 Arch St., Philadelphia, that morning in 1777, when George Washington and the committee appointed for the pur-
pose, came to ask Betsy Ross to make the flag.
like to think that Geo. Washington sat on one of these chairs that memorable day. The design which George Washington brought had on it stars with six points. Betsy Ross, with her scissors, cut a five pointed star and suggested its use, which suggestion was accepted. Mrs. Robinson has also in her possession a work box made in 1837 for her aunt by Miss F. Key, an aunt of Francis Scott Key, who wrote "The Star Spangled Banner." Mrs. Albright, and later her daughter, made duplicates of the original flag made by Betsy Ross. Many of these flags are in the possession of Daughters of the American Revolution in Iowa and one is in the Historical Department in Des Moines. Mrs. Albright was very quaint and courtley in her manner, and seem- ed herself quite to belong to colonial times.
We
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MRS. ELIZABEH MARTIN
I haven't the faintest idea where she was born, or when, but I know in what village she spent her long. useful life, and on what hillside she lies buried. She lived in West Point Ia., for many years, where she taught in the primary grade of the public schools and later in a private school. She was a Presbyterian and a Sunday school teacher for forty years. In June, 1903, when she died, Mrs. Max Evans Garretson, wrote this memorial which was published: "The death of Mrs. Elizabeth Martin, brings to a great many men and women, the memory of their first school days. Those lessons learned from books may have been for- gotten, but the example of her sweet, pure life, the lessons taught us by her unselfishness and loving kind- ness have lived in our minds all these years, and I trust have borne fruit in the lives of every one of those lit- tle children. I have no doubt Grandmother's method of imparting knowledge would be laughed to scorn in these days of Froebel. I fancy the method of teaching fractions with the aid of apples and cookies for dem- onstration is not in use now. I am very sure no teacher today would permit the little children of her school to call her 'Grandmother.' Be that as it may, I know that in those days when she held a private school in the kitchen of her little brown house on the common, she laid as firm a foundation for an education as the most modern expert in child study. God, Himself, only knew the bitter sorrows of her life, but her coun- tenance was always cheerful to her little friends. We who were taught by her may pay to her memory a daily tribute by living upright lives and by bearing life's ills with a brave spirit and a cheerful counte- nance."
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