USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve of Ohio and some of its pioneers, places and women's clubs, Vol. I > Part 18
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ings all day, and they had lunches at the polls. Some of those men could not read their own ballots. The next day we found we had failed, that prohibition had not carried the state. I was asked by Esther Pugh to go to the Indian Territory. Miss Willard had been there and had organized a few unions. Verily I found hardships. No roads, no bridges, time and again I forded the Mississippi River in an old stage coach, the only pas- senger, the driver an Indian, the water sometimes covering the floor of the coach, my satchel on my lap to keep my best dress from being spoiled. Everybody was kind to me and lo, the poor Indian is a pretty good man if he can have a decent chance.
"We organized a Union for the territory and Mrs. Horsha is now president. Mrs. Stapler of Talequah was then pres-
ident. She is a culturad Indian woman. Her father was an Indian chief. I passed a week in her beautiful home and held meetings in her village. I was tired, and I wrote Miss Pugh I was going home. She sent me one hundred dollars for my ex- penses, and I was soon with friends in the North.
There were thirty-five countries represented in Edinburgh, Scotland, at our convention. There have been divisions. The non-partisan went out. I kept with the majority. When the Temple was dropped I kept with the minority for it seemed right that the debts should be paid. Life is grand and beauti- ful; sometimes I wonder if even heaven will bring such blessed opportunities for doing good as I now have. The victory is com- ing, for God is on the throne and the right will prevail. What ought to be, will be, in God's good time." Mrs. Perkins was killed by a horse kicking her in the back as she was getting her daughter into a car. A sweet peace was on her face when in the casket. Her paper, The True Republic, ceased but it had done great service for many years for temperance and suffrage.
TEA HOUSE, SHANGHAI, CHINA
Futtempore Sikri, Agra.
AGRA, INDIA
ANNA K. SCOTT, MEDICAL MISSIONARY, SWATOW CHINA
Taken from the Life of Anna K. Scott.
Mrs. Scott, a member of the First Baptist Church of Cleve- land, was active in all good work. She was the mother of one daughter and two sons.
She writes: "China, November 15, 1889. How strange the providence that has brought me to China instead of Assam, but for five years the place of Dr. Daniels has been vacant while she was in the home land for health. (February 18, 1880.) What a 'petrified fixedness' characterizes the Chinese. They never have a reason for anything, only say, 'It is an ancestral custom.' They fear demons, and say a demon is in every eight feet square. So in their homes they crowd into that space so no demon can enter. The loathsome diseases appeal to my sym- pathy. June 20 my only daughter is to come to Swatow to en- gage in Chinese work. May her coming be a blessing to this people.
(October 17.) I go to Yip Lyang to select a site for a new hospital. Our hospital, in Swatow, is too far away to meet the needs of our vast population. Two small rest houses are built by a former mandarin that his wife's spirit might not grow too weary before she reached Yamen, where her husband tries crim- inal cases.
(October 25.) Spent Sunday at Kie Tau, where Lotus lives. She was formerly an interpreter in the temple of the heathen gods. She had her tongue split that she might be more impressive. She has for years been a devout follower of the
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Saviour and is doing all she can to bring her descendants into the way of truth.
(October 26.) At Kiang Po I visited a woman who, after treatment in my hospital, has cast aside her idols and believes in the true God.
(November 6.) My daughter Mary and Miss Dinwiddie and Mrs. Campbell are at Swatow. The single ladies are a very important factor in our work for Chinese women.
(December 5.) I go with the Fosters for another trip. We go to Chow Yang, a city wholly given to idolatry. We hope to open a dispensary there.
(December 25.) Had all our family at home for a Christ- mas dinner.
(February 28.) Visited Kip Yang. The hospital is in good working order.
(February 28.) Am not sleeping well as the rats run over my bed all night, and were it not for a mosquito net would gnaw my flesh. At four o'clock I went to visit a haunted house. The owner committed suicide in it several years ago and no one dares to occupy it since. My "bible-woman" tells me that houses are made to appear haunted. Sometimes. when a man wishes to get a cheap house he will catch a few frogs and place them in various places in the house. The owner knows nothing of the scheme; he sells the house cheap and it is but the work of a few moments to kill the frogs.
(May 10.) Made another trip to Kip Yang. Much hard work, many rats and many sleepless nights.
(September 1.) I have been quite ill. Went to Double Island for a rest, the first I have had since my arrival, Novem- ber 19, 1889.
(September 23.) Swatow was visited by a very destruc-
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tive typhoon which injured our mission compound and the mis- sion boats.
(October 30.) Twenty-one were baptized at our last Com- munion service.
(November 15.) The Chinese are a much more self reliant people than I expected to find them, and they have energy and patient endurance. There is nothing of the abject or servile in their make-up. They are justly called the Yankees of the Ori- ent. They show an iron will in overcoming all obstacles to their success. They are thrifty and industrious. It was for soul- saving work I left my medical practice in Cleveland and came so far away from friends and native land.
(January 1, 1892.) The two years of my stay in Swatow have been crowned with blessings. This beautiful mission com- pound, the helpful and harmonious companionship of my co- workers, one of whom is my own daughter. The two years stay with me, of my youngest son, who bears the name of his sainted father; the prosperity of the work has been a source of real enjoyment. I now begin to use Scripture texts in Chinese, with some facility. I wish I could talk Chinese as I can As- samese, those words always came to mind first. I have a worker called "Speed." She encourages those who are trying to get rid of the opium habit. China has, in the inscrutable plans of the Almighty, been kept back until the present era. The days of extreme conservatism and bigotry are now passing away and a brighter day dawns for the land of Simm.
Oh! this Chinese language, so difficult and yet so fascinat- ing. Shall I ever be able to use it better than my present poor stammering tongue?
Medical work in China is hard on the doctor, where with the lepers, scrofulas and a thousand other loathsome diseases the
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joy is that I can lead them to the Great Physician. The people eagerly seek the doctor, but the evangelist must seek the people. The healing of the soul is infinitely more important than the healing of the body.
I have a class studying to become our helpers. Thus far I have had to treat all cases, fill all prescriptions and personally care for every patient. If I had not had an iron constitution I never could have endured the work of the past four years. I have often treated one hundred in a single day, and have had barely time to swallow my meals. Sometimes I long to get away from the vile odors of this filthy land. Sometimes I long with an inexpressible longing to be present at the services of the dear First Baptist Church in Cleveland and grasp their hands and tell them how thankful they should be that they do not live in China, and then I think of the words "Go ye," and my heart yearns over these people whom I love and I pray to be used many years in this great work and I am glad to stay on.
(April, 1894.) I was about to go to Ann Po to join my daughter in a country trip, when she entered our house look- ing very pale and worn. Her house-boat was struck by light- ning in a storm that lasted six hours. One boatman was burned in the leg by the passage of the current. The boatman said: "The true God must care for Miss Scott or she would not have lived through the terrible experiences of that dreadful storm." For three days she and I visited Ann Po and many other towns, .
healing the sick and preaching the gospel.
The hospital at Kip Yang is ready. It has real glass win- dows instead of slits in the wall, real board floors instead of mouldy tiles. It was built through the generosity of the women in the west and Mrs. Sherman, Spencerport, N. Y. The land for the site was the gift of the Ashmores of our mission.
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Our delightful home was also built by the women of the West. It is all I can ask for a home. Our daily routine is this:
At 9 o'clock we have services in the chapel, then bible study. By Bixby, who has now returned, treated more than one thousand women. She works with those in the dispensary, while I am more than busy with tumors, cancers, leprosy, beri-beri, eye diseases and ulcers.
At Kip Yang, one young man had been put on the floor to starve and so kill the fever. His mother has taken down her idols and the son will never again worship them. One gave up the opium habit and became a Christian. He has brought three others to Christ and they are members of the Kip Yang Church.
My bible woman found a woman who had been put on the floor to die, had been starved for twenty days. She was cov- ered with vermin. The bible woman cleaned her and put her on a bed. She is now getting well, and so the work goes on and some of the patients are brought into the light of the new birth.
I am sometimes a whole day with a confinement case. I am weary in the work but not weary of it. When I got a roll of bandages from America they asked, 'Do Christian children care for sick Chinese children?" When they saw the name of Annie Anderson, 10 years old, in the roll, I said yes.
A very respectable Chinese gentleman was, four years ago, cured in the Swatow hospital. He became a Christian, he has brought eight others to be believers. During the week Dr. Bixby takes care of the numerous eye cases. I never enter their dark and filthy houses, where pigs are treated more tenderly than their children, without a shudder and have ex- ceeding joy that I am not a Chinese woman.
(January 1, 1900.) Five years have passed since my rec-
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ord in this journal. In the spring of 1898 my daughter and I went on a short furlough to America. I had been here eight years and with scarcely any change and very badly broken down.
(July 18.) The Boxer movement made us flee to Japan.
(May 7, 1901.) My daughter today married Rev. George H. Waters, of our mission.
(October 30, 1902.) My daughter's son lived but five days; he is now in heaven.
(January, 1903.) The home work and the foreign work are one. I go home content."
Dr. Anna K. Scott came back to Cleveland expecting to remain. Her son-in-law, Rev. George H. Waters, took the work of an absent missionary upon his own work and broke down. So he and his wife also came for a brief stay to recuperate.
Dr. Scott attended numerous Home Missionary meetings, but when her daughter and husband and two children returned to Swatow, went with them and said, "I am good for 25 years yet," and she is now in Swatow. That portion of China Hong- kong and Canton is the headquarters of the new President of China and is doing more for a Chinese republic than any other part.
LYDIA HOYT FARMER
This author was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 19, 1843. The family includes names prominent in the professions of law, theology and literature. Her mother was Ella Beebe, daughter of Alexander Beebe, LL. D. Her father was Hon. James M. Hoyt. In October of the year 1885, she was married to Elihu J. Farmer, and on December 24, 1903, she died, survived by three children, James E. Farmer, Ernest M. Farmer and Mrs. Allan J. Horner.
Living in Cleveland all her life, with the exception of five years spent in New York, she wrote prolificly. Her novels were always written with a high purpose, and showed the trend of an exceptionally spiritual nature.
She was the author of "A Story Book of Science," "Boy's Book of Famous Rulers," "Girl's Book of Famous Queens," "The Life of Lafayette," "A Short History of the French Revolution," "A Knight of Faith," "A Moral Inheritance," "The Doom of the Holy City," and many others.
MARTHA A. CANFIELD, A.M., M.D.
Dr. Canfield was born in Freedom, Portage County, Ohio, September 10, 1845. Her parents, Henry and Eliza Ann Rob- inson, were pioneers of Freedom and their four children received a liberal education. They lived, after retirement, twenty years in the home of Dr. Canfield in Cleveland.
Dr. Canfield graduated from Oberlin College in 1868 and subsequently received the degree of M. A. from that Institution. She graduated from the Homeopathic Medical College of Cleve- land in 1875. She studied in Dresden, Germany, with Dr. Leo- pold in 1899; and in Paris, France, with Dr. Pozzi in 1905. In Cleveland Homeopathic College she was Professor of Diseases of Women for seven years, and has been on the staff of Maternity Hospital since its organization. For sixteen years she has con- ducted the Canfield-White private hospital. She has written for medical journals and read a paper at the national meeting of the Health Protective Association held in Buffalo in 1901, which was published in the London Lancet, on "Physicians Paid by the Year." September 7, 1870, Dr. Canfield was married in Free- dom, Ohio, to Harrison Wade Canfield, now an attorney in Cleveland. Their four children are Elma, wife of H. B. Cody, who is engaged in real estate and has greatly aided Beulah Park; Mary, wife of Rev. J. R. Ewers of Pittsburgh, Pa .; Hiram Henry, who is associated with his father; Charles Morrill, who died in infancy.
Dr. Canfield is a member of the Euclid Ave. Congregational Church and of the Women's College Club. She in 1813 was in London.
DR. MARTHA CANFIELD
ALMEDA A. BOOTH
A teacher in Hiram College for twelve years; came to Oberlin in 1854 and entered the junior class of '55.
She had studied with Garfield the Latin and Greek classics, Virgil, Homer's Iliad, Herodotus, Xenophon's Memorabilia, and had made them familiar to a class of four of whom one was Abraham Garfield.
When Professor Timothy B. Hudson examined her for en- trance to our class she said, "He has asked me every question. I have been examined for two days of six hours each."
In President Finney's fourth-year class she was one to question almost every statement, to the delight of all who listened.
In Garfield's testimony to her worth, he said, "I had never seen a geometry and I studied both teacher and class with reverential awe. I studied their faces so closely I can seem to see them now." She was so much his senior in years, had such elevation and decision of character and was so resolute of pur- pose to maintain the "maiden-widowhood" occasioned by the death of her affianced, before marriage, that the friendship of Garfield could not be misunderstood by the gossips. "She found happiness in the profession of a teacher, to which she conse- crated her whole life without reserve."
Her portrait is on the walls of the college; a pamphlet of forty pages has this on its front cover: "Life of Almeda Booth. To the thousands of noble men and women whose generous ambitions she awakened, whose early culture was guided and whose lives have been made nobler by the thoroughness of her
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instruction, by the wisdom of her council, by the faithfulness of her friendship and the purity of her life, this tribute to the memory of Almeda Booth is respectfully dedicated."
She was from Nelson, O., died in Cleveland, O., December 15, 1875; Oberlin A. B. '55.
When President Hopkins, of Williams College, was written to in regard to James A. Garfield, he said, "He was not sent to college; he came. This makes a distinction between college students. The contrast is like that of a mechanical and a vital force. He came with a high aim and pursued it steadily. What students have an affinity for, they will find. Not given to athletic sports he was fond of them. As he was more mature than most he naturally had a readier and firmer grasp on the higher studies."
Charles D. Wilbur, A. B., came from Hiram College to Oberlin, but soon James A. Garfield called on him to say, "Will you go with me to Williams College," and he went.
Many years afterwards he was employed by the railroad companies to locate coal lands in Illinois. He had prepared a series of lectures on Genesis and Revelations where he pro- duced the analogy between the six days of creation, with the facts of geology and a convincing argument on the inspiration of the Scriptures, showing how clearly they stated, first light, then a creation of vegetable matter made into coal and oil and then animals, and last, man.
PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD
PRINCIPAL OF OBERLIN WOMAN'S DEPARTMENT.
Mrs. Adelia A. Field Johnston was born in Lafayette, O., on February 5, 1837. At the age of 11 she was sent to Grange Seminary and in 1870 she came to Oberlin to enter the prepar- atory department. She resided in a house just east of the hotel and she will long be remembered as standing at the gate and greeting joyously those of us who were returning from Chapel prayers. Her auburn hair and dark brown eyes were particu- larly attractive.
She graduated from the Literary course in 1856. She taught for three years in Warsaw and became a friend of those who were patrons of her school at Black Oak Grove Sem- inary. She was married in 1859 to Mr. James M. Johnston, who had graduated from Oberlin in 1858. Mr. Johnston was a teacher and during the first year they taught in Orwell Acad- emy, Ohio. Mr. Johnston died in 1862 as he was entering active service in the Civil war. Mrs. Johnston served the Academy at Kinsman, O., for three years as its principal.
She then went to Andover, Mass., and studied Latin under the tutelage of Dr. Samuel Taylor, and from 1866 to 1869 was preceptress of an academy in Long Island.
Mrs. Johnston then went to Germany to study its language and European history. She attended the public schools and was advanced rapidly from grade to grade, gaining rapidly a mastery of German.
She returned to Oberlin in 1870 and was elected principal of the Woman's Department, which she held until 1900, though in 1894 it was called dean. She was also made professor of Medieval History, made clear to her by her visit in Germany, where she could locate its many changes during the reigns of the Henrys, Ottos, and other monarchs. Germany, having no capital, and the King itinerating in his provinces, made but
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slow progress in civilization compared to France with its be- loved capital of Paris.
In the general exercises she gave many practical thoughts to the young ladies and led their Sunday evening prayer meet- ings.
Three of the women's buildings, Talcott Hall, Baldwin Cottage and Sturgis Hall, were procured largely by her efforts. The writer remembers her call to her on the street in Cleveland, saying, "Oh, I must tell you I have just received a check of $35,000 from E. I. Baldwin. I had many talks with him on shipboard coming across the Atlantic and he said, 'Come to me on your return and I will give you a check.' I little thought it would be more than enough to build a ladies' hall, but it is, and I am so glad. We never know what will be the result when we lay our cause before friends and I had abundance of time to tell him all the details of our work."
When the Sorosis of Cleveland held its first meeting in the Hollenden, Mrs. Johnston gave us a unique address and when asked for notes, replied, "I have none; only thought it up as I came on the car."
She also came to Cleveland to address the National Health Protective Association and invited us to visit Oberlin, which we did, members and delegates numbering more than sixty. She met us at the street car and conducted us to her study and gave us a sincere welcome. Our time was too limited to visit the sep- arate buildings but we had the great pleasure of seeing the Oberlin Library with the statues and portraits of many of the noted professors.
Mrs. Johnston gave also at the College Club in Channing Hall of Cleveland her lecture on Tunis, Egypt and the Nile. Her power of expression was wonderful and we feel she has emphasized the thought, give women the advantages of men and they will equal them in public expression and influence.
JENNIE DUTY
THE FUNERAL
The funeral of Miss F. Jennie Duty took place at 1:30 p. m. Wednesday, April 1, 1896, from her home at 180 Arlington street. Rev. J. S. Reager, of the Epworth Memorial Church, had charge of the services.
The pall-bearers were: Gen. E. S. Meyer, E. C. Pope, Platt Spencer, superintendent of the Detroit schools, and Mr. Hayes. The remains were taken to Lake View Cemetery.
The work and worth of Miss Jennie Duty could be seen by the large audience that gathered at Central Friendly Inn Sunday night in response to the announcement of a Memorial Service. Every chair in the large chapel was taken, and everything was beautifully suggestive of her whose energies and life were so much concentrated in this very place, for Miss Duty often expressed herself as believing the chapel work the most important part of the Inn's work and the one to which all others should be tributary.
The platform was profusely decorated with flowers, not only fitting to the memory of the departed, but appropriate to Easter. They were the gifts of friends of Miss Duty and the Inn.
In a sense, Miss Duty's life is a part of the history of this city. Her father, Daniel W. Duty, was one of its pioneers, hav- ing come to Cleveland when the city was but a village of five hundred inhabitants. She was born on Water street in 1845. Her early education was received in the public schools, and later in the Cleveland Female Seminary. Her unusually fine, active
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mind, and her winsome manners made her a leader in whatever circle she moved; especially was this so in her religious life.
She became a Christian when 9 years of age, and her friends of those early days speak of the positive influence for good she always exercised over her associates. When only twenty years of age, Miss Duty was called to a position of much responsibility as teacher in the Ohio Female College, then located at College Hill, Cincinnati. After two years of successful work there she accepted the principalship in De Pauw Female Col- lege, at New Albany, Ind., and later occupied a similar position in a college in Wheeling, W. Va. It was in the latter place that Miss Duty began what has been really her life work, to which she gave until her death efficient, wise, consecrated effort. It has recently been said that a great revival which occurred in Wheeling at that time was thought to be due, humanly speaking, to the work of Miss Duty.
Her father's health becoming impaired, Miss Duty decided to remain at home, in Cleveland, and assist him in his business; at the same time giving two or three hours each day to teach- ing in the school then conducted by Miss Mittleberger on Supe- rior street. It was in the year of 1874, memorable for the be- ginning of the woman's temperance movement, that Miss Duty's public work began. She was chosen, with Mrs. S. W. Adams, to lead the praying band which visited the saloons on Ontario and Seneca streets and Haymarket region, and when in Sep- tember of that year, through the wise planning and energetic effort of Mrs. Samuel W. Duncanson, a Friendly Inn was opened on what was then known as Central place, Miss Duty was made chairman of the committee for conducting the work, a position held by her until about two years ago. To say that the re- markable growth and great successes that have marked the
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history of this institution-the pioneer, if not the model, of the institutional church in our city-is in very great measure due to the rare executive ability, the good judgment, the leadership, and especially the Christian faith and courage of Miss Duty, is not at all to disparage the work of those who have been for more than twenty-one years associated with her in the Inn work.
Although Miss Duty retired from the official position of chairman of the Inn board over two years ago, she has con- tinued to have the deepest interest in all that concerned the Inn. Her advice and active participation in the conduct of its affairs were constantly sought, and up to three weeks ago committee meetings were often held in her sick room, her mind being as busy with helpful plans as ever. The burden of her desire was that the chapel work might be given the first place in the thought and the plans of the board. During the nineteen years in which she stood at the head of the Inn work, it was her great- est joy to give out the gospel to the multitudes that gathered in the chapel. Nor was it in the chapel alone that this was done. To lowly homes, saloons, houses of ill-repute, she went often in the dead of night, when sent for to pray with a person dying in one of these places.
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