USA > Iowa > The blue book of Iowa women; a history of contemporary women; > Part 8
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This first contest was put on for eighteen dollars, the next one cost five hundred dollars.
In 1913 she asked the legislators of Iowa for an ap- propriation of $75,000 to erect a building on the state fair grounds, to promote the welfare of "Iowa's greatest crop," the babies. The appropriation was al- lowed and Iowa is the first state to recognize this campaign and to erect a child welfare building. Mrs. Watts has assisted many contests by mail in all parts
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of the United States and Canada. She has personally assisted in contests in many cities, at county fairs, chautauquas, Armour's Institutes, etc. She has writ- ten scores of articles for magazines and newspapers. For only one of them has she received pay, all the others have been given in the interests of the cause. She has been an active club woman in her home city, has been vice president two years and president two years of the Iowa Congress of Mothers. She says her life "has been happy and uneventful." One might think that it was an "event" to have started a world- wide movement which is bound to result in a better and stronger race.
She was born in Andalusia, Ill. She began teaching at the age of sixteen and taught until she was twenty, when she was married to F. S. Watts, a clerk in the First National Bank of Audubon of which he is now a stockholder and cashier. They have two sons, both of whom were graduated from the University of Chicago and are now successful business men.
Mrs. Watts ancestry is as follows :
Maternal grandmother, Jane Barlett, born in Penn- sylvania, Dutch descent; Maternal grandfather, Daniel Barlett, born in Pennsylvania, Dutch descent; Paternal grandfather, Daniel Terrill of English de- scent; mother, Helena Barlett, born in Conneautville, Penn .; father, John Terrill, born in Elizabethtown New Jersey ; Mary Elizabeth Terrill Watts, born, An- dalusia, Ill. (one of six girls and one boy, all living) January 19, 1864.
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MISS HARRIET ISADORA LAKE
Miss Harriet Isadora Lake, Vice-president General National Society, Daughters of the American Revolu- tion, was born in Independence, the daughter of Col. Jed Lake, a prominent Iowa lawyer, and Sarah Meyer Lake, descended from many old New England families, viz: Lake, Waldo, Adams, Dimmock, Ab- bott, Church, Blakeslee, etc. She was graduated from the Independence high school, later attending the Uni- versity of Michigan and the Boston School of Expres- sion. She is a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority. She is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. For two years she was corresponding secre- tary of the Iowa Federation of Women's Club and for two years she was General Federation state secre- tary. She started the federation loan fund in the third Congressional District in 1909, it was adopted as a work of the state in 1911. Miss Lake was chosen treasurer of the Scholarship and Loan Fund Committee in 1911, and served until 1913, when she was chosen chairman, which position she now holds. She is one of the best known lowa women among the Daughters of the American Revolution. She organized Penelope Van Princess chapter, June 3, 1903, and was its regent un- til 1910. She was elected Vice-president General of the national society at the Continental Congress held in Washington, D. C., April, 1911, which position she still holds. She is a D. A. R. by virtue of the services of Henry Lake, Capt. James Blakeslee, Malachi Church and John Waldo. Is a member of the National Society of Colonial Dames, through the service of Capt. Sam- uel Adams of Massachusetts, son of Henry Adams, emi- grant ancestor of the Adams' family. She was state regent Iowa D. A. R., 1908-10.
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MRS. ELIZABETH SAMPSON NORRIS
Mrs. Elizabeth Sampson Norris, of Grinnell, widow of D. W. Norris, a once prominent attorney of that city, who died in 1907, is now serving her fourteenth year as member of the Iowa State Library Commission and should be addressed as the mother of the Library Commission in Iowa, if that title could rightfully be- long to any one person more than to another. It was Mrs. Norris, as chairman of the library committee of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, who inspired the federation at its biennial in Burlington in 1899 to demand a state commission and it was through the in- fluence of the club women of the state that the com- mission was finally created by the legislature. Gov- ernor Shaw then appointed Mrs. Norris as one of the members of the first commission.
Before becoming identified with the state library work Mrs. Norris had interested a wealthy neighbor and his wife in public library work in Grinnell to such a degree that they gave to their city the Stewart li- brary, of Grinnell. Besides her library work Mrs. Norris has been active in club and hospital work. She was a charter member of the "Historical Club" of Grinnell, organized in 1882, of which she was later president. She has been president of the "Priscillas" and chairman of the executive board of the city hos- pital association as well as treasurer of the cemetery association. Mrs. Norris is a type of Iowa's self-made women. Born of educated and intellectual parents at Elgin, Ill., Aug. 20, 1852, adversity threw her upon her own resources at the age of sixteen, when at seventeen years of age she was teaching primary grades in the schools of Tama, Iowa. Her father, Edmund Gifford,
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a Harvard law graduate, lawyer, local judge and president of the school board at Elgin and later pay master in the union army, was an advocate of the syn- thetic or word method of instruction before the war, which method was used by Mrs. Norris in her school work at Tama long before it gained its popularity of today.
Mrs. Norris married David W. Norris, then superin- tendent of the Tama schools and graduate of Grin- nell College, at Tama, Dec. 23, 1874, and shortly after- ward located permanently in Grinnell where six chil- dren were born to them, three of whom are now living. D. W. Norris, Jr., the eldest, is the editor of the Times- Republican at Marshalltown; P. G. Norris, the second son, is judge of the superior court at Grinnell, and Lucy Elizabeth Norris-Cartwright is the wife of T. C. Cartwright, a lumber merchant of Marshalltown, where Mrs. Norris now makes her temporary home.
Teacher at seventeen, later mother of six children, the daughter of a Harvard law graduate and mother of another, wife of a Grinnell College graduate and mother of two graduates from the same college, it is not strange that this self-made woman in her public activities should have found her interests in the public library movement of her day and it is an evidence of her strength of character that she has been able to see works of lasting public benefit come from the pur- poses which she has pursued.
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MRS. CHARLES E. PERKINS
One of the most interesting women in Iowa, and cer- tainly one of the most charming, is Mrs. Chas. E. Per- kins of Burlington. She is a woman whom one would notice in a thousand, a woman of striking personality, and gracious manner. Mrs. Edith Forbes Perkins was born March 4, 1843, in Boston, Mass. She is the daughter of Commodore Robert Bennett Forbes and Rose Smith. Her father in 1847 took the ship James- town, which the U. S. Government loaned him, to the famine sufferers in Ireland, loaded with a cargo of food furnished by the merchants of Boston. She was educated in the schools of Boston. In 1864 in Milton, Mass., she was married to Charles E. Perkins, at that time a clerk in the offices of the Burlington and Mis- souri River R. R. Mr. Perkins was born in Cincin- natti, Ohio, and at the age of nineteen (1859) came to Burlington and began his connection with the corpora- tion of which he later became president. His biogra- pher says of him: "He has earned and won by supe- rior executive ability, energy and fidelity to the trust reposed in him, an honorable promotion through all grades of service, from that of clerk in the treasurer's office, at thirty dollars a month to the position as chief executive of one of the greatest railway systems of the country." He was promoted to the superintendency in 1865, when the road extended from Burlington to Ot-
tumwa, a distance of seventy-five miles. Since that time there has been constructed a net work of rail- roads from Chicago to the Pacific Coast. In the creat- ing of this great system Charles E. Perkins had a very large part. For twenty years, to the time of his death, he was president of this great system. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Perkins: Mrs. Elsie P.
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Hooper, Robert F. Perkins, Mrs. Edith P. Cunning- ham, Mrs. Margaret P. Rice, Mrs. Mary P. McIlvain, and Charles E. Perkins. In 1867, Mr. Perkins pur- chased what was known as the Dill farm on the edge of Burlington. On this place Benjamin Tucker, a pioneer and a pedagogue, had built a log cabin and planted an orchard of apple trees, the first orchard in that section. They moved to this cabin, which, through all the years they have kept practically in- tact, and it still forms their principal living room,- "the heart of the house." At the coming of each child they enlarged the house by adding a new building, which has made a rambling mansion, with wings and additions and porches-a wonderful house, unlike any other. It has been named "The Trees," and is filled with most exquisite treasures. It is a rare privilege and one never to be forgotten to be a guest in this house. Each room has its own characteristics. One room is filled with the possessions of Mrs. Perkins' mother, brought from the old home in Boston. The beautiful rose wood and mahogany furniture would fill with longing the heart of one who loves antiques. Everywhere about the house there are books, books, books. There are books of history, sociology, books on music, books on art with exquisite illustrations, all giving evidence of Mrs. Perkins' wide reading and of her knowledge along many lines. But the books she has made herself are the most interesting of all. For each year she makes a Christmas book of all the letters and notes of greeting which come to "The Trees." She has a set of books on the Indians which have not their parallel anywhere. Her guest book which has been kept for years contains the names of many dis- tinguished people.
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MRS. CHARLES ADELBERT GIBBS
Mrs. Lola Elizabeth Gibbs of Greenfield was born at Henry, Ill., Sept. 6, 1869. She is the daughter of Ed- ward Payson Faris and Fausta C. Scholes. Her father was a native of West Virginia, his ancestors having fought in the Virginia troops in the Revolutionary War. He served for three years in the Civil War. Her mother's ancestors came to America from Eng- land in 1825. After completing a course in the Green- field high school she taught for several years. On Sept. 3, 1890, she was married at Henry, Ill., to Charles Adelbert Gibbs. They have four daughters: Edna Lillian, Fausta Louise, Gertrude Irene and Mildred. She was a charter member of the Ladies' Wednesday Afternoon Club, and has served several terms as its president. It is a village improvement club and has accomplished a great deal to beautify Greenfield and to better its sanitary and civic conditions. She is a member of the P. E. O. chapter and has served as its president for several years, and has been a member of several state conventions. She is also a member of the O. E. S., and has filled several offices in the local chap- ter. While she has always been a very helpful agent in every movement which has been for the betterment of the little city in which she lives, her greatest inter. est has been in her home and family. In religious faith she is a Presbyterian and is a woman of very strong character.
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MRS. WILLIAM LOGAN
Mrs. Sarah J. Jackson Logan was born July 30, 1849, at Nauvoo, Ill. She is the daughter of Archi- bald Jackson and Katharine Little. Her father was a native of Scotland, born at Glasgow, and came to America in 1833 in a sailing vessel, the ocean voyage taking nine weeks. On Dec. 26, 1872, she was married to William Logan, a young man, who in later years has come to be a financier and a promoter of many great interests. One of the greatest works in which he had a part was in the Keokuk & Hamilton Water Power Co., through whose efforts the greatest power plant in the world, was developed at the Des Moines rapids in the Mississippi River at Keokuk. On July 6, 1899, the late Charles P. Birge called together twenty-five prominent men of Keokuk and Hamilton to organize a water power company. Seven men of the twenty-five were chosen as directors: C. P. Birge, Sam M. Clark, A. E. Johnstone, Judge William Logan, Edmund Yae- ger, R. R. Wallace and S. R. Parker. The next day the Keokuk & Hamilton Water Power Co. was organized. C. P. Birge was chosen president and R. R. Wallace, secretary. With the aid of Senator W. B. Allison, Col. B. F. Marsh, Thomas Hedge and W. P. Hepburn, and many others of the U. S. Congress, the necessary legis- lation was passed in 1905, permitting the work to be done in the river. Judge Logan, John N. Irwin and A. E. Johnstone made a trip to Washington in January, 1905, and presented the case in person which was the means of securing the necessary legislation. On April 1, 1905, the stockholders of the company assigned all their stock to John N. Irwin, A. E. Johnstone, Wm. Logan and C. P. Dadant, giving them full authority to
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sell or dispose of it and the franchise in any way they saw fit. They issued a prospectus of 30 pages, telling of the possibilities of this power, which was given wide circulation. In September, 1905, Hugh L. Cooper, who was building a power plant at Niagara came to Keokuk, looked over the situation and decided he could build the dam, and accordingly a contract was made with him, Sept. 15, 1905. From that date until Jany. 10, 1910, when the first shovel full of earth was thrown beginning the work, Mr. Cooper sought capi- tal to carry on the enormous enterprise. He finally se- cured capital and the great work was completed May 31, 1913, Judge Logan being interested in the project through all the years and is a director of the corpora- tion. He is president of the State Central Savings Bank of Keokuk, and of the Iowa State Ins. Co. He owns banks at Glenwood, Queen City and Downing, Mo. He owns large tracts of land in Missouri and has many additional business interests. Two children were born to Judge and Mrs. Logan: William Archi- bald Logan, who died in 1905, and Eva Isabel, who is Mrs. James Huiskamp of Keokuk. Mrs. Logan is a member of the Congregational church and a faithful worker in all of its agencies. She was vice-president of the Keokuk Woman's Club, and is a director of the Civic League. She is interested in every measure for public good.
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MRS. F. M. HUBBELL
One of the most beautiful homes in Des Moines, sur- rounded by a great lawn, shaded with forest trees, and filled with beautiful things gathered from every coun- try in the world, is presided over by Mrs. F. M. Hub- bell. She is a woman of gentle manner, gracious and kind to all who enter the wide portals of her home. She was born near Toledo, Ohio, in 1840, and came to lowa in 1845 with her parents, Isaac Cooper and Caro line Armstrong Cooper. Her father was a nephew of J. Fennimore Cooper, the novelist. They lived the life of the pioneers, and with strong hearts and great courage did their part toward laying the foundation which made possible our Iowa of today. On March 19, 1863, Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Hubbell were married in Des Moines and began life in a very unpretentious way. In March, 1913, they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, the pleasure of which occasion was shared by hundreds of friends. In those fifty years through diligence and good business judgment Mr. Hubbel has come to be the richest man in Iowa. They have three children: Frederic Cooper Hubbell, Beulah C. Hubbell, now Countess Wechtmeister of Sweden, and Grover Cooper Hubbell. They have six grand children : Frederic Winson who made Har- vard in three years, and James Winson now a Harvard student, both sons of Frederic C. Hubbell. Their
daughter who is married to Count Wechtmeister, a diplomat from Sweden, now stationed at Cairo, Egypt, has a son five years old who will take his father's title. The youngest son, Grover Cooper Hubbell, has three little daughters: Frances Cooper, Virginia and Mary Belle. Mrs. Hubbell is an ideal mother and home maker. She has traveled the world over many times, which has only served to strengthen home ties.
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MRS. W. R. LAW
Mary Makepeace Morris Law was born in Atlantic, Iowa, the daughter of Joseph Robert Morris and Edith Nichols. Her father is descended from Robert Morris of colonial fame. Her mother's ancestors came from England to Massachusetts in 1635. William Make- peace Thackery, the English novelist, belonged to one branch of her mother's family. She received her pre- paratory education in the Atlantic High School, was graduted from the State University of Iowa in 1904, with the degree Ph. B. She is a member of three so- rorities: Kappa Kappa Gamma, Phi Beta Kappa and Epsilon Tau, a senior girls' sorority, at the State Uni- versity. After graduation she taught for several years, Latin and German in the Carroll High School, and English in the Iowa State College at Ames. On Oct. 2, 1910, she was married at Atlantic, Iowa, to William Robert Law, a successful attorney of Water- loo. They have one son, Robert Morris Law, born June 12, 1912. She is a member of Priscilla Alden chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, hav- ing joined on the service of William Makepeace. She is a member of the Literary and Fine Arts Department of the Waterloo Woman's Club and of the Fortnightly Club and of two social clubs, the Monday Needle Work Club and the Thursday Auction Bridge Club. In religious faith she is a Congregationalist. She is fond of out-door sports and is an expert tennis player. She enjoys society and has traveled extensively in this country.
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MRS. B. B. GRIFFITH
Mrs. Lilian Long Griffith was born at Otley, Marion county, Iowa, Nov. 3, 1865. The daughter of Columbus Long, and Mary Baldwin. Mrs. Griffith received her education in the public schools at Otley, in the Pella High School and at Central University.
At seventeen she became a teacher and taught for five years, part of the time in the city schools of Harlan. She resigned her position to be married to B. B. Griffith, Jr., a Harlan clothing merchant, Jany. 12, 1888. They have one child, Harry B. Griffith, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. In religious faith she is a Congregationalist. She has always been an active worker in the church and in the Women's Auxiliary, but her greatest interest has been in Sunday School work and her classes of boys have re- ceived her best efforts for good. She is a member of the Harlan Literary Club and of the Women's Union. She has served in all the offices of the local Eastern Star chapter, being Worthy Matron for two years. In P. E. O. she has for years been an enthusiastic and ac- tive member, serving for two years as president of chapter AP. For three years she served as organizer of the Iowa Grand Chapter, then as First Vice-Presi- dent, and in 1914, was elected President, the highest honor which the State chapters can confer. Mrs. Grif- fith is not a woman with particular fads or fancies, but believes in doing her best at all times and under all circumstances. Her influence for good during her years of teaching, in her home, in her church work, and in her devotion to the interests of Iowa P. E. O. will stand as a testimonial to her true worth as one of Iowa's women.
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MRS. HENRY J. HOWE
One of the most popular women in Iowa and one who merits the popularity is Mrs. Henry J. Howe of Marshalltown. Anna Belknap Howe was born May 14, 1849, at Randolph, Vermont.
She is the daughter of Lorenzo Belknap and Betsy L. Austin. She is a descendant of Sir Robert Belknap, Chief Justice of England, under Edward the Second, 1357. She was educated at Northfield Academy, Northfield, Vt. On May 31, 1876, at Northfield she was married to Henry J. Howe. She is a member of the Congregational church. She has served as president the following local clubs : Twentieth Century, Woman's Club, Marshalltown Federation of Women's Clubs, Hawthorne, and Witengamote. She was presi- dent I. F. W. C. in 1895-97, being the second president of the state organization. She is now Honorary presi- dent. She is chairman of the Scholarship and Loan Fund Com. I. F. W. C. She is a member of the Iowa Society of Colonial Dames. She has served the Spin- ning Wheel chapter D. A. R. as its regent. She joined D. A. R. on the service of Simeon Belknap. She is president of the Marshall Co. Historical Society. Has served the Iowa Library Association as its president. For eleven years she was president of the Marshall-
town Public Library. She has served the National League of Library Commissions as vice-president. Since 1904 she has been a member of the Iowa Library Commission. In 1904 she had the honor to be a mem- ber of the Woman's Auxiliary Committee of the Iowa Commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis. She has contributed to Iowa's Literary His- tory by compiling "A List of Iowa Authors." Mrs. Howe is typical of the very best among Iowa women.
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MRS. HENRY GOSS
Eva Drake Goss was born in Drakeville, Iowa, the daughter of General Francis Marion Drake, who was the fourteenth Governor of Iowa, and Mary Lord Drake. Her father was one of the great men of Iowa, a soldier and patriot, a statesman, a great financier and a most generous philanthropist. He was born on Dec. 30, 1830, in Schuyler county, Illinois, and died in Centerville, after having lived a life full of honor and usefulness. In 1855 he was married to Mary Jane Lord a woman of the noblest impulses and highest Christian character. She died in 1885. To them were born six children: Frank Ellsworth, John Adams, Amelia (Mrs. Theodore P. Shontz), Eva, the subject of this sketch, Jennie (Mrs. John L. Sawyers) and Mary Lord (Mrs. George W. Sturdivant). Mrs. Goss spent her early life in Centerville, where the Drake home was the center of social life, and open always to guests and whose hospitable roof at one time and another sheltered men and women of state and national fame. She was married Oct. 30, 1881, to Henry Goss, a promi- nent business man of Centerville, who died June 12, 1908. They have one son, Joseph Marvin Goss. She is a member of the Church of Christ. For many years she has been a member of the P. E. O. sisterhood. After the death of her husband she lived abroad for several years, and now has a residence at Pasadena, California.
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MISS MAISY B. SCHREINER
Among the unusually successful teachers of Iowa is Miss Maisy B. Schreiner, who brings to her profession an unusually vigorous mind and a sympathetic under- standing of boys and girls, which is one secret of her success. She is a high school teacher and in a single season has been offered positions in six different cities, unsolicited. She was christened Mary Boone, being named for her great grandmother who was a descend- ant of Daniel Boone of Kentucky. Her father was the Rev. E. L. Schreiner, who for forty years was a promi- nent minister of the Methodist church in this state. Her grandfather, Theodore Schreiner, was for many years a minister of the Lutheran denomination and for twenty-five years was Grand Tyler of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Iowa, and was lovingly known by Iowa Masons as "Father" Schreiner. Her mother was Martha Ann Robinson, a daughter of the Rev. Anthony Robinson, a minister in the M. E. church for forty-three years. Miss Schreiner is a graduate of the Iowa Wesleyan College, as were her father and mother and most of her kinsmen. She has taken post- graduate work in the University of Chicago and in the Leland Stanford University, specializing in Latin. She has taught in Iowa schools for nineteen years, eight years as principal of the Albia High School and six as principal of the Ames High School, and is now teach- ing Latin in the High School at Colorado Springs. She has traveled extensively in this country and in Europe. She is an Alpha Xi Delta and a P. E. O. and one of the finest women this state has produced.
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REV. ELEANOR ELIZABETH GORDON
The Rev. Eleanor E. Gordon has exerted a lasting influence upon the lives of hundreds, indeed thous- ands, of Iowa people, among whom she has worked chiefly since her ordination into the Unitarian minis. try in 1889. Seven years in Sioux City were followed by terms of service in the churches of Iowa City, Des Moines, and Burlington, and two years in Fargo, North Dakota. She has been secretary of the Iowa Unitarian Conference for seven years and still holds that position. For three years of this time she had charge of the field work and also edited the state paper, Old and New. For the last four years Miss Gor- don has had charge in the winter of the Unitarian church in Orlando, Florida. This is a winter parish only and the work can be done easily by one who has a four months' vacation. Miss Gordon's work has been characterized by practical accomplishment and she has achieved her ends by her own hard work, rather than by exercising the art of getting other people to do it. She might say with the Tennessee Sheriff: "I seen my duty and I done it." She has sought results rather than personal glory. Whenever the Unitarians have had a forlorn hope it has been the rule to send Miss Gordon there because she was willing to make the sacrifice and her good sense, tact and intellectual power were counted on to put the cause right. Her
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