USA > Indiana > Lake County > A standard history of Lake County, Indiana, and the Calumet region, Volume I > Part 11
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Letters were read from Solon Robinson and Joseph Jackson. There were speeches, reminiseences and a song-"The Indian Captive," by Doctor Wood of Lowell.
The meeting of 1876 was also held at the fair ground, that of 1877 at Cheshire Hall, Crown Point, and that of 1878, also at the fair ground, followed the laying of the corner-stone of the new courthouse. The fifth gathering-that of 1879-was held,at the new fair ground, and for several years afterward at that place, Cheshire Hall and Hoffman's Opera House, Crown Point. At the meeting for 1879 an original poem was read by Solon Robinson from his summer home at Jacksonville, Florida, and the session of 1880 was marked by the presentation of a large number of communications from such Chicago pioneers as Hon. John Wentworth, Hon. Benjamin W. Raymond, Hon. G. S. Hubbard,
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Hon. Mark Skinner, Silas B. Cobb and Philo Carpenter. Gurdon S. Hubbard said in a postscript to his letter: "I first set foot on Chicago soil in October, 1818, then sixteen years old." Quite a number of Chicago citizens were also present.
It is believed that the list of the original members of 1875 is lost, but at the meeting of 1879 the names were reproduced while the recollection of those interested was fresh, with the following result, the years given being those of settlement in Lake County :
1835-John B. Wilkinson, Mrs. P. A. Banks, Loren Hixon, Amos Hornor, James Adams, Mrs. Susan Clark, Mrs. William Fisher, Mrs. H. Robertson, W. A. W. Holton, W. R. Williams.
1836-B. Woods, Henry Hayward, T. H. Ball, Mrs. Moses Phillips, O. W. Clark, Mrs. Betsy Frazier, Z. P. Farley, Joseph Hack, Mrs. James Fuller, George Phillips, Mrs. M. J. Pearee.
1838-John C. Kenyon, Henry Sasse, Sr., J. W. Kenney, Henry Surprise, Henry Sasse, Jr., Adam Sehmal, George Willey. David Turner, Mrs. M. J. Hack, Mrs. Cynthia Willey.
1839-J. J. Michael and James Fuller.
1840-L. W. Thompson, Mrs. L. W. Thompson, Mrs. T. Fisher, John Brown.
1842-Mrs. J. H. Luther.
1843-William Brown, Mrs. W. Brown, Amos Allman, Mrs. Elmer Brannon.
1844-D. K. Pettibone.
1845-Mrs. Susan G. Wood.
1846-Henry Dickinson.
1848-C. Manahan, Jacob Wise and Mrs. Maria Wise.
1849-J. H. Luther, Mrs. Eliza Marvin.
1850-Henry R. Ward, Mrs. H. R. Ward, T. Fisher, Hull Irish.
1851-George Krinbill, Mrs. G. Krinbill, John Donch, Mrs. S. With- erell.
1852-L. Dresser, Mrs. L. Dresser, Mrs. Barbara Knisely, Major Atkins, Mrs. M. Atkins, Samuel W. Smith, Mrs. George Nichols, James Doak.
1854-Ross Wilson, Mrs. R. Wilson, P. A. Banks, John Martin, Thomas Bowers.
1857 -- H. Wason, Mrs. H. Wason.
1860-Mrs. Martin Foster.
Dates not given-Mrs. W. A. Winslow, Mrs. M. J. Dinwidie, F. C. Meyer, Mrs. M. C. C. Ball, Mrs. F. Foster, C W. Wise, Moses Phillips, W. A. Winslow, Mrs. J. J. Michael, Mrs. D. A. Chapman, J. W. Bates, Mrs. E. Clark, O. Dinwiddie, A. P. Thompson, Mrs. H. Surprise, Mrs. Vol. 1- 6
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P. Kenney, L. D. Holmes, Mrs. C. C. Merrill, Mrs. L. Teeple, Mrs. Zeni Burnham, Mrs. J. W. Hughes, Mrs. H. Sasse, Jr., Mrs. Margaret Silman, Mrs. W. R. Nichols, Mrs. T. C. Rockwell, R. H. Wells, Mrs. J. Fisher, Mrs. D. Turner, Mrs. A. Allman, Henry Pettibone, Alfred Winslow, E. P. Ames, Mrs. C. C. Allman, John Frazier, Mrs. D. C. Taylor, Mrs. Nathan Wood, John G. Hoffman, Joseph A. Little, Mrs. M. G. Little, Mrs. B. Williams, Mrs. Mary Edgerton, Mrs. J. Brown, Mrs. O. G. Wheeler, Mrs. L. V. Serjeant, Mrs. J. Doak, A. J. Pratt, Mrs. A. J. Pratt, Mrs. Smith, Charles Dolton, Mrs. C. Dolton, Mrs. A. Knowlton, Mrs. B. Judson, Mrs. R. H. Wells, B. Brown and Mrs. Brown.
In many respects the gathering of September, 1884, was the most interesting and important, from the standpoint of local history, of any meeting ever held by the association, as it marked the semi-centennial of the settlement of Lake County by white people. A committee of arrangements had been appointed at the annual session of 1883, con- sisting of George Willey, O. Dinwidie, H. Dickinson, Charles Marvin, Frank Gibson, Nathan Wood, H. Keilman, Augustus Wood, Joseph Small, Jacob Wise and S. W. Shuneman. These gentlemen arranged a program, which brought out numerous papers and speeches rich in personal anecdote and historic value. A full account of the 1884 meet- ing and celebration is given in another place, liberal extracts having been taken from the papers there submitted to add to the historic value of this work.
One of the most interesting features of the proceedings was the presentation of various antiquities, relics and curiosities to the associa- tion by several of its members. The nature of these articles is indicated by the following lists.
PRESENTED BY T. H. BALL
1. A pocket comb made of horn in a horn case marked T. H. (his grandfather's initials), and dated 1786; lacking but two years of being one hundred years old. In good condition.
2. A copy of the Boston Primer, 1809. Evidently well used.
3. "The Seven Wonders of the World and Other Magnificent Build- ings"; a child's book, well read. 1810.
4. The remnant of a watch guard, neatly braided, of fine silk cord, given to its owner as a memory and friendship token, by a young girl in Appling, Georgia, fifty-one years ago.
5. A miniature pocket almanac of 1834, kept by its present owner for fifty years. In good condition.
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6. A small pocketbook, made of excellent leather, given to its owner by his uncle, H. H. Horton, about fifty years ago. Still in good con- dition.
7. "The Friendly Instructor, 1814," and a child's reader; two books for children, in good condition.
8. A child's arithmetic or "Table Book," of 1815; studied by the owner more than fifty years ago, and now in good condition.
9. A copy of the first map of Lake County, drawn by Solon Robin- son, probably in 1836.
10. A rifle made in the Springfield Armory, Massachusetts, and brought to Cedar Lake in 1834 by H. H. Horton. Length of barrel, 2314 inches.
11. A part of a large elk horn, found imbedded in the West Creek lowland on the farm of Joshua P. Spalding, and by him placed in the hands of its present owner.
12. Part of a stone weapon, supposed to have been an old Indian hatchet, very neatly wrought, with a point somewhat like a bird's beak ; found this year (1884) on the land of Thomas George south of South- east Grove.
13. A copy of the Ulster County Gazette, N. Y., January 4, 1800, draped in mourning for the death of George Washington. The late news from Europe which it contains is dated Munich, September 29th ; Strassburg, October 9th ; Paris, October 13th, and London, October 24th.
14. A map of the world, eleven inches by twenty-two, drawn in 1817 by the owner's mother, then Jane Ayrault Horton, a girl thirteen years of age.
15. A map of the United States, as then it was (1818), sixteen inches by nineteen, wrought by the same hand and in the same manner.
16. A painting in water colors, "The Woodman and the Dog," eighteen inches by twenty-four, made by the same hand, perhaps a year or two later. The three specimens of drawing and painting showing the girl-training and handiwork of our pioneer New England women.
17. An Alabama wildcat skin.
18. A military plume of red feathers, used some seventy years ago.
19. Remains of prehistoric man, exhumed at Cedar Lake, October 6, 1880, where they were deposited more than two hundred years ago, according to the age of a tree under which some were found.
20. A fossil shell, a very fine specimen of Venericardia planicosta, supposed to be from one thousand to five thousand years old.
21. A pair of globes over fifty years old, brought into the county in 1837.
22. Presented from Mr. Cole, telegraphic operator and agent at
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Clarke, two small pieces of bone or horn, of supposed Indian workman- ship, one having two notches eut on it and an orifice through it and pointed : the other tapering and pointed; each four inches in length; taken in 1882, along with a jaw bone, supposed to be of a dog, and with a human skeleton, supposed to be of an Indian, from about two feet beneath the surface where a well was commeneed at Clarke Station. The skeleton was entire, the teeth were well worn, indicating some sixty years of age.
23. Presented from George Doak of Southeast Grove, found near his home-a stone of Indian workmanship, about five and a half inches long, an inch wide and three-fourths of an inch thick, shaped like some whetstones, the sides slightly oval, smooth, neatly wrought, with an orifice half an inch in diameter running through the entire length. This seems to have been drilled out by means of some sharp instrument. Its use is unknown.
PRESENTED BY MRS. M. J. DINWIDDIE
1. A woolen shawl made in 1796, spun, woven and colored, at the home of her mother, Mrs. Perkins, who is still living at the advanced age of ninety-eight, at Rome, New York. The shawl was afterwards embroidered as it now is by Mrs. Dinwiddie's own hands.
2. A cushion cover of the same age (1796), made of cloth, an old cloak more than a hundred years old, embroidered by Mrs. Dinwiddie about fifty years ago.
3. A bed-quilt of 1812, the lining home-made linen, the pieces of calico bearing the dates 1798, 1800, 1802, 1806 and 1812; and one from Grandmother Lockwood's dress, probably many years older. The quilt is in good condition, the calico of those days evidently being well made.
4. A pewter basin used by Mrs. Dinwiddie's father eighty years ago.
5. Four stone Indian relics found near Plum Grove-the first, a pipe ; the second, a hatchet with a groove to secure it to the handle; the third, a very smooth, polished, dark colored scraping instrument, five inches long; and the fourth, an oval stone five inches long, two and a half wide, one and a quarter thick, unpolished, surface rather rough, vet indieating upon it human workmanship. Its use is unknown.
6. Six geological specimens found near Plum Grove by Jerome and Eddie Dinwiddie, some twenty years ago; one of them, three-eighths of an inch in thickness, contains beautiful picture-like impressions.
PRESENTED BY T. A. MUZZALL
A blanket woven by a squaw of the Navajo tribe, at Fort Sumter, New Mexico; made of pulled wool, combed and twisted by the fingers
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and woven on a rude frame, formed of two upright forked sticks inserted in the ground, about eight feet apart and some seven feet high, a pole being tied across these about six inches from the ground and another pole being laid across the top, the warp being tied perpendicularly to these two poles, and the yarn rolled, twisted and made into balls by hand, being then passed by the deft Indian fingers through the warp and beaten firmly together with a stick. On such a loom, without a shuttle, was this blanket woven. It weighed, when new, twenty pounds, is six feet wide and eight feet long. It was obtained by its present owner, T. A. Muzzall, direct from these Indians in June, 1866.
PRESENTED BY LEWIS G. LITTLE
1. An old book printed in London in 1650, owned by Mrs. M. G. Little.
2. Two old papers-one printed in 1776, the other in 1815; also a Thanksgiving oration, delivered in 1772; owned by Mrs. Little.
3. A number of coins, either old or curious, bearing dates of 1721, 1782, 1784, 1790, 1806, 1812, 1815, 1828, 1834, 1837, 1840 and 1854. Also a paper three-cent piece.
4. A warming pan about one hundred years old, owned by J. A. Little.
5. A negro hoe brought from South Carolina by Colonel Barker about thirty years ago, owned by J. A. Little.
6. A number of ox shoes.
7. A pair of iron-rimmed spectacles over a hundred years old.
8. A calash made of green silk about seventy-five years old, owned by Mrs. Annie Gerrish Brush, now of Waveland, Indiana.
9. A pewter platter and a plate about one hundred years old.
10. A pair of velvet breeches lined with buckskin which belonged to the great-grandfather of Jesse Little, of West Creek, their present owner and a brother of Lewis G. Little.
11. A piece of oak, designed for a cane, taken from the beam of the house of George Little, Newbury, Massachusetts, who came to this country from London in 1640. The house from which this specimen was taken was erected in 1679. When it was torn down in 1861, still owned by the Little family, canes and other relics were manufactured from the beams and given to many of the descendants. To give an idea of the time, it may be mentioned that Joseph A. Little of West Creek is of the seventh generation from the builder of the house.
12. A wooden cup made from the old elm tree which stood near the well and door of Daniel Webster. Date, 1782. Also owned by D. Parmley, of Indiantown, now a resident near Shelby.
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LAKE COUNTY AND THE CALUMET REGION
13. A gun six and a half feet long ; old, but without a history.
14. A large elk-horn, found a year ago on the farm of August Miller of West Creek.
15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 were an old Indian pipe, an old Indian whistle, some Indian stone axes, two iron axes and an iron fish spear.
20. A horn snuff box over a hundred years old, owned by Hugh Moore.
PRESENTED BY MRS. M. J. HYDE
1. A very fine powder horn, made from the horn of a wild ox and brought into this county in 1844 by the father of Mrs. Hyde, Daniel Towl.
2. A cane made by Daniel T. Stichelman from a piece of timber taken by him from the wreck of the United States steamer Edith, the first propeller built by the Government, and wrecked in 1848. The maker of the cane was at that time in the United States Coast Survey at Guadalupe, California, camped about one mile from the wreck.
3. A conch-shell brought into the county in 1837 by Ebenezer Sax- ton, a native of Vermont. This shell has been handed down in the Saxton family from generation to generation, in the line of the Ebene- zers, and the family tradition is that the first Ebenezer Saxton of New England brought it from England with him in the Mayflower.
4. A butter bowl, made of a knotty piece of wood by E. Saxton, about fifty years ago, in Canada, with only a jack-knife for a tool.
5. Some silver spoons with which E. Saxton and his wife com- menced housekeeping in 1819.
6. A rolling-pin which belonged once to Mrs. Saxton's mother and is probably over a hundred years old.
OTHER RELICS PRESENTED TO THE ASSOCIATION
By E. P. Ames: A stand once owned by John Rogers, Smithfield, England, in 1855, and now the property of Mr. Ames : a sun-dial brought from Salisbury, England, in 1649.
By Mrs. Betsy R. Abbot : A pewter platter, part of the wedding out- fit of her grandmother, Mrs. Phebe Ballard Abbot. who was married November 12, 1772 (on the rim, the initials "P. B.") : a silver spoon, which once belonged to her Grandmother Rockwood and is marked "E. M. R." (for Ebenezer and Mary Rockwood).
By J. P. Spalding: A wooden bevel, ancient, belonging at one time to the Farley family : a lumberman's board rule of black walnut, two feet
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long and a full inch in diameter, eight sides, each side calculated for measuring lumber of a certain length, belonging formerly to Heman Spalding, grandfather of J. P. Spalding, who resided in the State of New York.
By Mrs. J. Fisher : A snuff-box, heart shaped, brought from Scot- land seventy-nine years ago, which has been in the Brown and Fisher families over two hundred years.
Since that eventful year, 1884, the annual reports of the historical secretary have been printed every five years for members of the associa- tion and other interested citizens of the county. .
At the annual meeting in August, 1903, the name of the organization was changed to The Old Settler and Historical Association of Lake County, much more closely descriptive of its objects than the old name.
Either Wellington A. Clark or Bartlett Woods served as president from 1875 until 1899; Oscar Dinwiddie, 1900-1908, inclusive; Samuel B. Woods, 1909-10; Mrs. Edith Crawford, 1911-12; Lewis G. Little, 1913-14; Elmer Dinwiddie, 1914-15.
CHAPTER V
PIONEER MOTHERS OF THE COUNTY
AFFECTION AND ADMIRATION, BOTH-MRS. HARRIET WARNER HOLTON- LAKE COUNTY'S FIRST TEACHER-MRS. MARIA ROBINSON-MRS. THOMAS CHILDERS AND MRS. WILLIAM CLARK-MRS. LUMAN A. FOWLER-MRS. JANE A. H. BALL, TEACHER AND DOCTOR-"TOILING FOR THE GOOD OF ALL"-MRS. GEORGE A. WOODBRIDGE-MRS. NANCY AGNEW, STANCH WIDOW-MARGARET JANE DINWIDDIE, COOL AND COURAGEOUS-MRS. MARGARET DINWIDDIE (NEE PERKINS), EDUCATOR -CHRISTIAN AND METHODIST CHURCH WORKERS-LEADING WOMEN OF FOREIGN BIRTH-TYPICAL NEW ENGLAND WOMEN-MRS. BEN- JAMIN MCCARTY-MRS. BELSHAW AND MRS. HACKLEY-"AUNT SUSAN" TURNER-MRS. J. HIGGINS-MOTHERS OF LARGE FAMILIES- LIKE THE PATRIARCHAL TIMES-MRS. SAMUEL TURNER-MOTHERS THAT WERE MOTHERS.
In the preceding chapters, glimpses here and there have been ob- tained of the patient, hard-working and able mothers of Lake County, but in all publications of this character they are placed too much in the background. They have always been just as necessary to the birth of a new country as to the birth of a new race, and as the generations pass and men's minds become more just, the males of the world freely admit what they have always known in their hearts-that the best of women, in this molding of a country from the rough, do more of the work which counts than the best of men.
AFFECTION AND ADMIRATION, BOTH
In this chapter we propose to give the pioneer women of Lake County their dues, not grudgingly, but with a spirit which goes forth warm from the heart, composed of equal parts of affection and admiration. The editor of this work will speak through the personality of T. H. Ball, who, a number of years ago, made a generous contribution to this cause of noble womanhood in a work issued by our publishers.
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MRS. HARRIET WARNER HOLTON
In that paper Mr. Ball first records the name of Mrs. Harriet Warner Holton. She came into Lake County in February, 1835, with her son, W. A. W. Holton, and a daughter, with William Clark and family, from Jennings County, Indiana. She was born in Hardwick, Massachusetts,
INTERIOR OF PIONEER CABIN
January 15, 1783, a daughter of General Warner, and commenced her active life as a teacher in the Town of Westminster. She married a young lawyer, Alexander Holton, about 1804, and leaving New Eng- land in 1816 for what were then true Western wilds, in March, 1817, they settled at Vevay, Indiana, four years after that town had been laid out. In 1820 the family moved to Vernon, Jennings County, where Mrs. Hol- ton became a teacher. In 1823 her husband died, leaving her with two sons and a daughter. In the early winter of 1834, tidings came to Ver- non from Solon Robinson concerning the beautiful prairie region he had
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found far up in the northwest corner of the state, and the Clark and Hol- ton families determined to join him there. They started in midwinter with ox teams. The weather in February, 1835, was very cold, but they came through, crossing the Kankakee marshes on the ice.
LAKE COUNTY'S FIRST TEACHER
In some respects Mrs. Holton was the most remarkable of the pioneer women. She was Lake County's first teacher. Her mother lived to be ninety-four years of age. She had seven sisters in New England, and all died of old age, two while sitting in their chairs. All the eight were members of the Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Holton, a true Indiana pio- neer, at Vevay and Vernon and in the County of Lake, lived on, active in church, Sunday school and social activities, until old age came upon her. She died October 17, 1879, then nearly ninety-seven years of age. From a record in the "Sunday Schools of Lake" the following is taken : "Such a woman, in such a long life, the daughter of an army leader, with her native intelligence, her New England training, her granite-like Presbyterian principles, her devotion, her meekness, her love, must in various ways have accomplished no little good." That is putting the matter far too mildly.
MRS. MARIA ROBINSON
The second name placed in this roll of honor is that of Mrs. Maria Robinson, wife of Solon Robinson, the first white woman to live at what is now Crown Point. She came to the spring that was, to the grove or woodland that still is, on the last day of October, 1834. She was born November 16, 1799, near Philadelphia, and was married to Solon Robin- son in Cineinnati, on May 12, 1828. Within a few years they became residents of Jennings County, Indiana, and in 1834 she came with her husband, one assistant and two small children in a wagon drawn by oxen to what afterward became Crown Point. She was not an ordinary woman, although very different in training and character from Mrs. Holton. She had much executive ability, like her husband, and she was described by those who knew her well as "always cheerful and vivacious," attending to the needs of the sick and poor, and aiding, as her means permitted, churches and Sunday Schools and benevolent organizations. She died February 18, 1872.
MRS. THOMAS CHILDERS AND MRS. WILLIAM CLARK
Two names should follow in this list of worthy pioneer women, but of whom the writer knows little-Mrs. Childers, the wife of Thomas
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Childers, the first white woman, so far as known, after Mrs. William Ross, to settle in the county, and Mrs. Clark, wife of Judge William Clark. When the Clarks came to Lake Court House in February, 1835, it was then known, as the guide boards on the trails testified, as "Solon Robinson's." There were two sons in the household, two of whom, Thomas and Alexander Clark, were for many years active citizens in Lake County.
Other active pioneer women, whose names belong on this page, were Mrs. Henry Wells, the mother of Mrs. Susan Clark and of Rodman and Homer Wells; Mrs. Richard Fancher, one of the first Presbyterian women in Crown Point, the mother of Mrs. Nicholson, Mrs. Clingan and Mrs. Harry Church-and the mother who brought up such daughters certainly deserves to be remembered; Mrs. Russel Eddy, who also be- came very active in the Presbyterian Church; Mrs. Luman A. Fowler, one of the resolute pioneer women who came as a young wife to Robin- son's hamlet in December, 1835.
MRS. LUMAN A. FOWLER
Mrs. Fowler was born in Madison County, New York, in October, 1816, and was married October 18, 1835, about two months before she settled with her young husband at Crown Point. Her maiden name was Eliza Cochran, and as mother and grandmother she passed a long and useful life in Lake County.
One more name, that of Mrs. Henry Farmer, who came with her hus- band from Bartholomew County in 1836 and whose daughters became wives of well known citizens, completes this group.
Another group of our noble pioneer women, of whom Lake County had a goodly number, were those-not grouped in alphabetical order, but as they are associated in the mind of the writer: Mrs. Richard Church, Mrs. Leonard Cutler, Mrs. Rockwell, Mrs. Darling Church (mother of Edwin Church, a grocer for many years at Crown Point), Mrs. Bothwell, Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Benjamin Farley, Mrs. N. Hayden (an active Sunday school woman in the West Creek neighborhood), Mrs. Spalding (mother of J. P. Spalding, Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Cooper Brooks) ; also in the same neighborhood, Mrs. Peter Hathaway, the mother of Silas, Abram and Bethuel Hathaway, and Mrs. Lyman Foster and Mrs. Jackson; in another neighborhood, Mrs. Fuller, mother of Mrs. Marvin, Mrs. Blaney and Mrs. Graves, all interested in Sunday school and church work; also Mrs. Gordinier, who with only one hand accom- plished the work done by ordinary women with two hands; Mrs. George ·Willey, mother of Mrs. J. Fisher, of Crown Point; Mrs. James Farwell,
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the first white woman known to have set foot on the site of Crown Point, who, with her family camped there July 4, 1833-a more than ordinary woman from Vermont, the mother of six sons and one daughter, that daughter becoming the wife of Thomas Clark, the mother of Mrs. Oliver Wheeler and the grandmother of Miss May Brown of Crown Point; Mrs. Mercy Perry, mother of the first Mrs. Marvin, and Mrs. Solomon Burns.
East of there was a small group of 1837 and 1838-the first, Mrs. Henry Sasse, Mrs. Herlitz and Mrs. Von Hollen-these by birth Ger- mans, and by religious training, Lutherans-and Mrs. Jane A. H. Ball.
MRS. JANE A. H. BALL, TEACHER AND DOCTOR
Mrs. Ball was from Massachusetts, the only daughter of Dr. Timothy Horton of West Springfield, had been educated in the best schools of Hartford, Connecticut, and as early as 1838 began to teach in the small neighborhood, pupils coming from Prairie West three miles away. As early as 1840 she commenced a boarding and academic school, the first in the county, which continued in some form for many years. She had brought from her father's home quite a chest of medicines and some sur- gical instruments which she thought would be needed, and she soon became not in name, but in fact, the physician and the dentist of the neighborhood. Her dentistry extended no further than extracting and cleaning teeth. For extracting teeth and for medicine, she took some pay, but nothing for her time, and she was called from home sometimes in the night, as well as in the day. Besides being the first academic teacher, she was the first who might be called a woman physician in the county.
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