USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume I > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02398 9434
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/womenofohiorecor01neel
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Chin
RUTH NEELY
Women of Chin
A RECORD OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE STATE
Ruth Neely EDITOR IN CHIEF
SPONSORED BY THE
Ohio Newspaper Women's Association
SEAL OF THE
STATE
GREAT
OF
THE
OIHO
OHIO
VOLUME I
THREE ROYAL OCTAVO VOLUMES PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED
S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
NORINE FREEMAN Vice President
GA
PAULINE SMITH Corresponding Secretary
Officers of the Chin Newspaper Women's Association
MARIAN BUSH REEI Treasurer
DOROTHY TODD FOSTER President
NANCY GRIMES Recording Secretary
1
1386757
ETHEL MYERS omer Contest Co-Chairman
HELEN ALLYN Membership Chairman
MILDRED CRONLEY Contest Co-chairman
RUTH NEELY Advisory Board
JANE WILLIAMS Advisory Board
Officers of the Chin Newspaper Women's Association
LOLA J. HILL Advisory Board
ALICE ROOSEVELT LONGWORTH
HELEN WELSHIMER
DOROTHY THOMPSON
Honorary Members of the Chin Newspaper Women's Association
Reference and Advisory Board for "Women of Chin"
FLORENCE E. ALLEN Cincinnati and Cleveland Judge of the Sixth Circuit, U. S. Court of Appeals
ALICE ROOSEVELT LONGWORTH Cincinnati and Washington, D. C. ADELLA PRENTISS HUGHES. Cleveland Heights Vice President and Secretary of the Musical Arts Association supporting the Cleveland orchestra
MRS. CHAUNCEY L. NEWCOMER .Bryan President of Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs
RUTH YOUNG WHITE .Columbus Author of "We Too Built Columbus"
MRS. ROBERT A. TAFT Cincinnati Former Member National Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters MRS. WILLIAM F. VOGEL. Toledo
Former President Ohio Delphian Federation and President of Toledo Educational Club
MARY B. GROSSMAN Cleveland
Judge of Municipal Court
KATHARINE KENNEDY BROWN Dayton Former Regional Director of the Association of Junior Leagues of America and Republican National Committeewoman for Ohio
H. PEARL VON AU Cleveland President of Ohio Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs
MARGARET H. ROCKHILL Cincinnati and New York Managing Editor of Medical Woman's Journal
LINDA EASTMAN Cleveland
Former Chief Librarian, Cleveland Public Library
MRS. C. M. BOOKMAN. Cincinnati
Former President Ohio League of Women Voters
EVANGELINE LINDSLEY Dayton
Executive Board Member, Ohio Education Association
MRS. J. WALTER FREIBERG Cincinnati Director of National Council of Jewish Women and President of National Federation of Temple Sisterhood
MRS. EUGENE MCCARTHY Cleveland Director for Ohio of National Council of Catholic Women
MRS. M. Y. COOPER Cincinnati
Founder of Ohioana Library
MILDRED R. JASTER Columbus Democratic National Committeewoman for Ohio
MRS. SILAS B. WATERS. Cincinnati
President, Ohio Association of Garden Clubs
MRS. LOWELL F. HOBART Cincinnati Former President-General, Daughters of the American Revolution
MRS. LAURA TROY KNIGHT
Cincinnati
National Association for Advancement of Colored People
Otro Bk
6
Hpreward
Newspaper women, like newspaper men, deal with history in the making. They claim no gift of prophecy. They do not preach and they are professionally nonpartisan.
Their job is to tell their tidings-new, unusual, important or merely amusing-as accurately and interestingly as possible.
But to tell an accurate and interesting story is impossible without the ability to appraise and to interpret it. This is perhaps truer today than ever in the whole history of journalism.
Ours is the era of evaluation. Today is the day of the human measuring stick. We are surveying and assessing human activities, pur- poses, plans and achievements more definitely and more frankly today than ever before. It is the day of awareness of our all too human weaknesses, of keen re- search into the motivation of mankind.
For this reason it is hoped that the history "Women of Ohio" may prove a contribution of more than passing value. The state of Ohio presents, geographically, economically, politically and culturally, an excellent field for sampling what might be regarded as characteristic achievements of the women of all our states.
The OHIO NEWSPAPER WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION is recognized as the most efficient and effective statewide organization of women journalists in the country.
Who knows more about the noteworthy women of her com- munity, past and present, than the experienced newspaper woman ? Nobody.
To members of this Association was delegated the task of listing the women of their communities who, whether still comparatively un- known or internationally famous, have furthered human welfare and facilitated progress in their state and in the world at large.
The life of every woman is an inseparable part of the life of her time and place. In every instance, her activities and her influence have made some imprint, for good or evil, on her fellow human beings. The sum of these imprints is the sum total of women's part in the real history of the era recorded.
This is, of course, equally true of men. It is also true that men have had major place in virtually all existing records that may be classed as histories.
Perhaps it is time to ascertain, as realistically as possible, through today's evaluation tests rather than through the achievement standards of tradition, the part that women have played and are playing in the life of a characteristically American community.
With this opinion and with this feeling I wish to express deep appreciation of the vote of confidence on the part of my fellow workers which caused me to be chosen as editor of this book.
It was certainly no easy task. But it was surely an in- spiring one.
Ruth Neely.
3 1833 02398 9434
L
Arknmulengments
But for the assistance of many Ohio women-and some men-this history- biography of the state could never have been written.
Invaluable aid was given by officers and members of the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association, by which organization the unique project was sponsored. Ohio club women helped greatly, as did other outstanding citizens whose first aid is hereby gratefully acknowledged.
Among these were Florence Ellington Allen, Judge of the U. S. Circuit Court for the Sixth Circuit; Allan M. Bailey, secretary, Public Relations Bureau, Oberlin College; Mayme Bennett Beebe (Mrs. Carl V. Beebe), Mt. Gilead; Marion Brogan, Cincinnati, former president Ohio Federation of Busi- ness and Professional Women's Clubs ; Katharine Kennedy Brown (Mrs. Kleon T. Brown), Dayton, Republican National Committeewoman for Ohio; Mary Rudd Cochran, reference department librarian, Cincinnati Public Library; Martha Kinney Cooper (Mrs. M. Y. Cooper), Cincinnati, founder of Ohioana Library; Linda Eastman, former librarian Cleveland Public Library; Mary Quigley Elliott (Mrs. A. W. Elliott), Mt. Vernon, Ohio, author of literary history of Knox county; Mildred R. Jaster (Mrs. John Jaster), Columbus, Democratic National Committeewoman for Ohio; Elizabeth McCann, Zanes- ville, publicity director of Ohio Commission for Northwest Territory Celebra- tion; Sara McCarthy (Mrs. Eugene McCarthy), Cleveland, director for Ohio, National Council of Catholic Women; Claire L. Newcomer (Mrs. Chauncey L. Newcomer), Bryan, president of Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs; Bertha Richardson (Mrs. G. B. Richardson), Willoughby, St. Andrews School ; Pauline Sager (Mrs. P. H. Sager), Newark, writer; Dr. Douglas E. Scates, Bureau of School Research, Cincinnati; Belle Sherwin, Cleveland and Wash- ington, D. C., former president of National League of Women Voters; Martha Taft (Mrs. Robert A. Taft), Cincinnati, member of advisory board of Ohio League of Women Voters; The Department of Education, State of Ohio, Columbus Public Schools; Ruth Young White, Columbus, editor of "We, Too, Built Columbus"; and to all writers of that book.
Table of Contents
Page
CHAPTER I:
Women Who Dared the Wilderness.
15
CHAPTER II:
Women Home Builders.
27
CHAPTER III:
Women at the Doorway.
47
CHAPTER IV :
Women Who Stepped Outside.
71
CHAPTER V:
Women in Education
75
CHAPTER VI:
Women Crusade for Temperance
271
CHAPTER VII:
Women Discover Clubs.
285
CHAPTER VIII: Women in Suffrage and in Political Education ... 369
CHAPTER IX :
Women in Medicine
389
CHAPTER X:
Women in Religion 425
CHAPTER XI: Women in Osteopathy, Dentistry, and Nursing ... 615
CHAPTER XII :
Women in the Law
639
CHAPTER XIII:
Women in Business, in Railway Service, and in
Library Service
673
CHAPTER XIV :
Women in Literature.
759
CHAPTER XV : Women in Peace and War 807
CHAPTER XVI: Women in Music, Art, and Drama 835
CHAPTER XVII :
Women in Civic and Social Service.
931
CHAPTER XVIII:
Women in Political Life and Public Service ...... 1023
CHAPTER XIX:
Women in Aviation, Physical Education, Ad- venture and Travel. 1109
CHAPTER XX :
Women in Journalism, in Publicity, and in
Radio
1139
Dediration
On all women, everywhere, who are helping In advance the world, whether large or small, in which they live.
CHAPTER ONE
Women Who Dared The Wilderness
JOHANNA MARIA HECKEWELDER Born in 1781 in Tuscarawas County First white girl child born in Ohio.
1
Group of restored buildings of the Moravian Mission in the village of Schonbrunn where Johanna Maria Heckewelder lived for some time.
CHAPTER ONE
WOMEN WHO DARED THE WILDERNESS
History deals meagerly with MRS. JAMES OWEN. Records show little more than that Mistress Owen was the first white woman to arrive at Marietta, Ohio's earliest settlement, in the Spring of 1788.
Because she was the very first pioneer of her sex within the geographical limits of what became the State of Ohio, Mistress Owen was granted 100 acres of land in her own right by the Ohio Company. This seems to be all that is really authenticated about her.
Members of the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association, by which organ- ization this history of Ohio women is sponsored, may note here a lost oppor- tunity. They know plenty of leading questions which, had interviews been invented in those days-or had there been any newspapers west of the Alleghenies to print them in-they could and would have put to this first woman settler.
Starting with an obvious lead-"And is it true, Mistress Owen," the interviewer might well have asked, "Is it really a fact that the Ohio Com- pany made you a donation of 100 acres of land all your own"?
Mrs. Owens' assurance that, believe it or not, the great land company had, under the hand and seal of its president and secretary, General Rufus Putnam, actually given her the land-given it not to her husband for her, but to her, personally, should have made an excellent item. Especially with an account of her various hair breadth escapes from Indians thrown in.
As the interviewer warmed to her work, a more far reaching query would doubtless have occurred to her. She would have wanted to know what on earth could induce a woman to desert safety and even sanity, to leave friends, comforts, all customary ways and means of living, to jeopardize health, happiness and life itself-for a wilderness.
Women are not, by nature, adventurers. Some women are adventurous, but comparatively few. It is not likely that wanderlust, lure of the unknown, brought the first woman settler of Ohio nor the others who came almost immediately after, to acknowledged hardship and inescapable danger.
What was it then?
Mrs. Owen could hardly have answered, had she been asked. She could, of course, have quoted "Where thou goest, I will go" and shifted responsi- bility to her husband.
But would this have told the whole story? Would not a woman as
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WOMEN OF OHIO
courageous. as determined as the first pioneer wives and mothers were bound to have been, have been equal to influencing a husband even against his will ?
This seems apparent. There must have been other and wholly individual reasons. We know many of them. Thwarted opportunity, even in a world comparatively new, poverty where abundance, dependence where liberty, had been the fondest of human hopes. All this and more.
Something more compelling than all else, yet hardest to put into mere words.
Beyond the stony mountains, across the all but impenetrable trails, down the beautiful river, it was MORNING.
The day of life was there, still dawning for human effort.
There the sunrise could still promise, for each day, a better day.
Mistress Owen could hardly have expressed her feelings, had she tried. But what she wanted-and what she found-beyond the grim doorway of the mountains, was a new dawn.
Let us telescope time. Let us turn the spotlight on JOHANNA MARIA HECKEWELDER, first white girl baby born in the whole region that later became the State of Ohio.
This first girl baby was not, it should be kept clear, the child of settlers. Her parents were among the leaders in a religious group that braved the wilderness before there were any white settlements, in order to bring the Gospel to the Indians.
Their fine work was undone by the unjustified attack of a group of infuriated whites on innocent Indian converts and the men and women who had sought to implant the spirit of peace and good-will in this new soil were forced to relinquish their effort and turn to other fields.
Johanna Maria first saw the light of her adventurous, not to say daring, day on April 16, 1781, at Salem, Ohio, a settlement made by Moravian mis- sionaries for conversion of the Indians, on the Tuscarawas River. This was seven years before even Marietta was founded.
Given time to acquire intelligible self expression, Johanna Maria could have given a striking account of herself. Later on, in fact, she did. Ellet's "Pioneer Women of the West" quotes her as saying-"Soon after my birth, the times became very troublesome. The settlements were often in danger from war parties and from an encampment of warriors near Gnadenhutten. Finally-in September. 1781, we were all made prisoners. Four of our mis- sionaries were first seized by a party of Hurons. They were led to a camp of the Delawares, where the death song was chanted over them. Then the warriors made for Salem and Schonbrunn. About 30 of the savages arrived at dusk. They took my mother prisoner, with myself, led her into the street and set guards to see that she did not escape. Then they plundered the house. What they could not take they destroyed."
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WOMEN OF OHIO
Maria then tells how Indians whom the Moravians had converted begged that the mother be permitted to remain in Salem. This they finally yielded, provided the white woman be brought to Gnadenhutten the next morning. So this was done.
Little Maria (she was less than a year old at the time) was carried on the back of an Indian squaw to Sandusky, detained there several weeks and finally, blessed relief, the military authorities were able to obtain the release of the whole party and their safe conduct to Detroit. Johanna Maria was then taken to the headquarters of the Moravian mission, Bethlehem, Penn., where she lived peacefully and it is hoped, happily, ever after.
Since the advent of Johanna Maria, more than three million girl babies, it is estimated, have been born in Ohio. Probably two-thirds of these reached womanhood.
What did they do with themselves? What did they do for-and to-the communities in which they lived ?
We know, to begin with, that they acquitted themselves quite ably in discharge of that function which is special to their sex. They gave to Ohio by far the greater portion of its population, past and present. Having brought these children into the world, their next responsibility was to make their homes as adequate as possible to the needs of their families.
So they baked and boiled, scrubbed and scoured, spun and wove, sewed and knit, nursed and nurtured. The normal daily program of the average woman of yesterday is incredible to the woman of today. We cannot realize how such strength and determination could emanate from a woman's body, one no different from our own.
This was, very often, only minor part of the pioneer woman's achieve- ment. Good mothers must be more than good housewives. The State of Ohio is called the mother of presidents. Actual mothers might well lay claim to the fact that it is so called.
ELIZA GARFIELD, the mother of James A. Garfield, twentieth presi- dent of the United States, was born Eliza Ballou, in New Hampshire, of Huguenot descent. She married Abram Garfield, a native of New York state.
With him she emigrated to the then wilderness of the "Western Reserve" in northern Ohio. Little James was born the following year, at Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio and three more children came in regular succession. Then a calamity befell that dwarfed all troubles with which the family had contended. The father died. So Eliza, with four small children, had only herself to depend on in her hand to hand fight with poverty. Somehow, she won out. The children were fed and clothed, gotten to school. James was only three years old when his education started, in a log school house. Eliza must have permitted herself a sigh of relief when she discovered that her little son was an avid reader, hungry for every book on which he could lay his work hardened little hands. For of course he had to work at home and,
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WOMEN OF OHIO
whenever there was a job, on the farms of their neighbors. At seventeen he was driving the canal boat from the coal mines of Governor Todd at Brier Hill, to Cleveland, Ohio.
When they finally managed so well that James could attend Geauga Seminary, at Chester, Ohio, during the winter of 1849, a note of triumph must have sounded in Eliza's church hymns, the only music which so strict a "Campbellite" could have permitted herself.
This triumphant note must have widened and mellowed and enriched Eliza Garfield's life as her son went on to Hiram College-to a happy mar- riage-to the presidency of Hiram-to distinguished service in the Civil War -to Washington as senator-to the White House. And there came death at the hands of a crazed assassin.
But Eliza's life did not end there. For "Grandma" Garfield lived on to a ripe and comfortable old age, surrounded by comforts and with one special treasure in which her tended pride was unconcealed.
It was a letter, written to her by her son on his deathbed. "Dear Mother" he wrote. "Do not be disturbed by conflicting reports of my condition. It is true that I am still weak but I am gaining every day and need only time and patience to bring me through. Give my love to all my friends and relatives, especially Aunt Hetty. Your loving son. James."
That many other Ohio women were great mothers, whether or not their sons became presidents, there is ample testimony. It was not long before the women of Ohio became aware of other needs and responsibilities. Their social service to their communities began, in fact, with the first settlements.
There is record of at least two community dinners in which women had important parts, as early as 1788.
The first of these celebrated, on July 4, the second anniversary of Amer- ican Independence. It was the first public celebration in the Northwest Territory. The ordinance, remember, was passed in 1787. The affair took place out-of-doors, on the Marietta side of the Muskingum River, with a repast to which the best to be obtained from woods and streams and the highest skill of the housewives contributed in equal measure. One fish, a great pike, over six feet long and weighing over 100 pounds, was speared for the occasion by Judge Gilbert Devoll and his son Gilbert. General James M. Varnum, also a judge of the newly created Northwest Territory, made the principal speech. It rained and the feast had to be sheltered. The sun came out and all returned to the repast. After dinner, toasts were drunk- to Congress, to General Washington, to the Northwest Territory, to General St. Clair-and to "the amiable partners of our delicate pleasures."
About a month after this festivity, the northwest portion of the block- house at Marietta-the famous Campus Martius-was so far completed that another dinner was given, this time by the directors of the company to Governor St. Clair, head of the territory, to officers of Ft. Harmer and to the "principal citizens and their wives."
CAMPUS MARTIUS AT MARIETTA, OHIO
where first civic dinner at which Ohio women were guests took place August 20, 1788
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WOMEN OF OHIO
Undoubtedly the women cooked this dinner also.
This was still and would be for many years, the form their contribution to a community gathering would be expected to take. But even so, they came together as a civic group, all deeply interested in their common civic problems. So this dinner at Campus Martius may be regarded as the first community dinner in which Ohio women participated.
Consider the life of the pioneer woman. Food for her family was a prob- lem so vital and so immediate that it must have challenged her energies to the utmost. She must have dreamed of famine, many a night. Indian corn was her main dependence as a food staple that could, if necessary, be served three times a day.
Before mills could be established, corn was ground in a handmill or was pounded in a hominy block, made by burning a hole in one end of a block of wood, in which the grains were placed and battered with pestle made by driving an iron wedge into a cleft stick. One of these means was usually available in a settlement of any size but when it was not, there was still a way and in many a settler's cabin the corn, dried perhaps in an improvised kiln, was merely grated. For this purpose was often used a carefully treasured piece of tin which had been perforated to provide jagged protuberances. A boy, if need be, a very little boy, was a fine factor in the project. He could -and many a small boy did-grate meal for the morning johnny cake, baked in the hot ashes, then hominy made from the coarser residue, at noon and still more meal for the hot mush served at night.
More variation than this even the most resourceful housewife was often unable, in the beginning, to provide. Many a time the monotony of the fare she set before her family must have saddened her culinary soul.
However, there was, as a rule, plenty of game, provided the man of the family dared venture far enough to kill it. If fortune favored, there was venison, bear's meat and bear's grease for frying. Fish filled the streams and wild turkeys were plentiful. The turkeys could be split, dried and stored away for winter, the venison could also be dried, salted down and thus preserved.
The story of salt production-by pouring water into salt mines, scooping out the saline solution and boiling it down to crystals, is an epic in itself. Where salt deposits existed, this was a Godsend. But in other places salt was a luxury, costly and difficult to obtain. The Indians, apparently, cared little for its use. Henry Howe tells the story of an Indian who, apparently friendly, although he had with him his rifle and scalping knife, was sheltered overnight by a pioneer family. The housewife cooked an ample supply of venison for the evening meal. But the dark skinned guest barely sampled his portion. Obviously it was not to his liking.
In the middle of the night the savage rose from his sleeping place before the cabin fire, peered carefully about him, then drew forth his sinister blade.
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WOMEN OF OHIO
Man and wife had been, however, on guard, watching from their rude bed in a dark corner. The settler was about to fire when he noted the Red- skin's real purpose. With stealthy eagerness, the Indian tiptoed to an un- cooked haunch of venison, slashed off a generous chunk, balanced it over the still hot embers and presently devoured his tasty unsalted meal with audible evidences of satisfaction.
When. as often happened, the family or community cornfield was burned or otherwise destroyed by hostile Indians, and if they lurked near by so the settlers could not hunt game, the food problem became acute. Famine stared the family in the face. Soon there was literally nothing left to eat. But no- there was still something. The bear-grass which edged many clearings had fleshy roots. The men kept guard, rifle in hand, while the women and children dug out these roots. They dried them, grated them, made scanty, queer tasting johnny cakes-but it was food.
Put yourself for a moment in the place of SARAH THORPE, wife of Joel Thorpe, who in May, 1799, moved in their ox-team from North Haven, Conn., to Millsford, Ashtabula County, Ohio, the first settlers in that region.
There were three children. By June they were terribly short of pro- visions and it was necessary for Thorpe to find his way, with no guide but a pocket compass, to the nearest settlement, twenty miles away, in Pennsylvania.
Before his return the mother and children were almost reduced to extremities-but not quite. Sarah dug for roots. They yielded but little nourishment. She emptied the straw from the rough mattress-there might be a few grains of wheat, here and there. Then, watching grimly at the cabin door, she saw a wild turkey fly close. Sarah took down her husband's rifle, cleaned the barrel carefully, primed and loaded it-and waited. Twice the fowl approached-it must not be frightened. Presently, creeping on her hands and knees from log to sheltering log, Sarah aims and fires. The turkey falls. It keeps the family alive until the father returns.
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