USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume I > Part 10
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the young educator. Miss Troy became a teacher in Dayton, and held this position for more than thirty years, training teachers as well as boys and girls.
She took part in public services. She trained children and adults. She organized St. Margaret's first vested choir and played the organ for two years. This choir was composed of men, women and boys. She made the caps for the women and the button-holes in the vestments for the men.
Two of the boys, now grown men, sing in this choir every Sunday.
They take great pride in singing the praises of this woman, who made many personal sacrifices for the love of humanity.
She was an active club worker and gave much time to study in the Progressive Club. She took an active part in projects to the purchase of the building which is now used for the Dayton Y.W.C.A.
Her summer vacations were spent in travel or in attending Normal School, either as pupil or teacher.
Louise Troy retired after teaching forty-two and a half years in the public schools of Ohio. The Board of Education honored her with expressions of appreciation for her service. She now has her scroll, medal and pin, emblems given the retired teachers as tokens of distinction. She is the one teacher of her race who has received these emblems in Dayton.
Miss Troy takes deep satisfaction in seeing men and women who were once her pupils assuming creditable positions in the community. She is happy to know that they have not forgotten her and often call on her at her home, 218 Edgewood Ave. in Dayton, to thank her for past services and to wish her well.
MRS. NICHOLAS W. VANDERVORT
It is safe to say that for thirty years or more, until her death in 1920, every adult and almost every child within a wide radius of Wilmington, O., knew MRS. NICHOLAS W. VANDERVORT.
Many of them, however, may not have known her by that name, for miles around she was "Aunt Rate."
Born in 1843, the daughter of Isaac and Myra Hanley Wimpiger, Rachel became a school teacher and continued in her profession several years after her marriage. Parents did not wish the schools to lose her highly skilled service, and Rachel was so devoted to her work and her pupils that she could not bear to give them up. As it worked out, she never did. Through community and welfare service to some extent, largely through personal contacts and private contributions, "Aunt Rate" enlarged, in reality, her sphere of usefulness until the days were all too short for her self-imposed activities.
So presently "Aunt Rate" became more than just a name. It became a synonym for service, a title carrying the love and honor of a whole county.
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GRACE D. WESTON
GRACE D. WESTON, who retired in 1938 after thirty-eight years spent as a high school teacher in Galion, was born in Auburn, New York, on the 14th of October, 1870, and is a daughter of Frank and Laura (Doty) Weston, who were also natives of Auburn, the former born in 1849 and the latter in 1850. Both were descended from old colonial families that were repre- sented in the Revolutionary War.
In 1887 Miss Weston came from Auburn to Galion and was here grad- uated from the high school. She afterward attended Oberlin College, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree as a membr of the class of 1896. Two years later she began teaching school in Shelby, this state, where she remained from 1898 until 1900, when she became an instructor in the Galion High School, continuing her labors here for thirty-eight years as teacher in the mathematics department and as assistant principal from 1928 until 1938, when she retired. The consensus of public opinion was that she was one of the most efficient teachers ever identified with high school work in this city.
Miss Weston is president of the Galion Federation of Women's Clubs for the term from 1938 to 1940 and has also filled that position at a previous time for the two year period. She belongs to the Galion Business and Pro- fessional Women's Club, in which she is serving on the advisory board, and she is a charter member and was formerly president of the Research Club. Her name is also on the roster of the Current News Club and the Fortnightly Club, both study groups, and since leaving the classroom she has largely devoted her time to study club pursuits. A member of the Galion Presbyterian Church, she organized a study group in 1934 that is known as the Grace Weston Guild, composed of twenty-five young women of the church. She is also teacher of a young ladies class in the Bible school, is a member of the church Missionary Society and of the Women's Guild, and is serving as one of the elders of the church. She finds diversion and deep interest in travel, has visited all but two of the states of the Union and has also made trips to Alaska, Canada and Panama.
DELIA LATHROP WILLIAMS
Natural ability, innate altruism, magnetic personality and a love of the work for the work's very sake are qualifications which DELIA LATHROP WILLIAMS, for many years principal of the Cincinnati Normal School and originator of the Ohio Teachers Reading Circle, brought to the teaching profession when, as a young girl, she taught district schools adjacent to her first home, in Syracuse, N. Y.
After several years of this practical experience, Delia Lathrop entered the Albany State Normal School, from which she was graduated with honors in 1857. She then perfected her training further by a course in Oswego
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Normal School and recommenced her teaching service, to which she was to devote more than half a century with a constantly increased success that finally caused her reputation as educator to spread throughout the country. After various promotions in the Oswego public schools, Miss Lathrop was put in charge of the State Normal School and presently was called to Wor- cester, Mass., to help develop the Worcester State Normal School.
In 1867 Miss Lathrop was invited by the Cincinnati Board of Education to accept the principalship of the normal school of that city, an educational project of the first order, to which she devoted many interesting years. In 1877 the already widely known woman authority on teaching processes was married to another distinguished educator, Professor George Williams, of Delaware. It was not long before Mrs. Williams resumed professional work, this time in the college at Delaware. Not long afterward, at the annual meet- ing of the Ohio Teachers Association, in 1882, Mrs. Williams presented a paper which immediately centered general discussion and as result of which an Ohio State teachers' reading course was approved, and work preliminary to its establishment organized. Mrs. Williams was president of the circle until her retirement from professional labors, more than 15 years ago. But her active interest has continued fresh and vivid despite her now advanced age.
In recent years she has made her home with her daughter, MRS. BEN N. NELSON, executive secretary of the Cincinnati Woman's Club.
JENNIE R. WILSON
Shortly after graduation from the Cleveland Central High School in 1873, JENNIE R. WILSON was given appointment as teacher in the Case School where she continued for ten years. The excellent quality of her work brought about the appointment to the principalship of the Standard school and she held that responsible position for many years.
LAURA A. WOODWARD
LAURA A. WOODWARD became principal of the East Building, Dela- ware, O., public schools, about 30 years ago, after excellent service in schools of the vicinity. She was born at Mt. Gilead, the daughter of Ezra S. and Hannah Woodward, graduated from Delaware High School in 1882 and took special courses at Wesleyan College. The energy and interest of virtually all of her adult life were centered on her profession and its progress.
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TEACHERS OF TODAY
In our classification of teachers of today as chronologically sep- arate, more or less, from those of yesterday, there will be found some periods of service overlapping. The purpose of "Women of Ohio" is to make a human and not necessarily a statistical record. We have, however, endeavored to obtain as complete a check as state records afford on women still teaching, women who have retired from teaching and former teachers who have passed away. For any inaccuracies that occur, we express, in advance, due feeling of regret.
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ELLEN B. ANDREW
ELLEN B. ANDREW, principal of Kilgour School, one of the most modern and progressive units of the Cincinnati Public School system, is a fine example of the capability of women as responsible school executives, in which field they have but recently been tested and tried to any great extent.
Educated and trained in the public school system, the University of Cincinnati, where she received her A.B. degree, and at Columbia University, Miss Andrew served a long apprenticeship as a teacher in the elementary grades, followed by an appointment as assistant principal in the new Kilgour School, which post she ably filled until her appointment, in September 1938, to her present position as principal.
She is a member of the National Education Association; the Ohio Edu- cation Association; Southwestern Ohio Teachers Association; Association of Childhood Education; Upper Grade Study Council; Cincinnati Teachers As- sociation ; the Cincinnati P.T.A .; the P.E.O. Sorority, and Delta Delta Delta Sorority.
Miss Andrew has served her community well and has done much to promote the cause of women in education.
MARY LOUISE AUSTIN
MARY LOUISE AUSTIN, teacher of household arts at Stowe School, Cincinnati, was formerly on the staff at Tuskegee Institute, from which she was a graduate. She has been a Cincinnati teacher since 1917, her first position being at Douglass School. She obtained part of her education at the Boston Y.W.C.A. School of Domestic Science and taught at Lincoln Uni- versity, Jefferson City, Mo., and in Texas before locating in Cincinnati. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati.
Born in Livingston, Alabama, Mrs. Austin was Mary Louise Dotson before her marriage to the late Major George J. Austin, Commandant in charge of the men in the student body at Tuskegee Institute under Booker T. Washington. Her father, Mentor Dotson, was a member in the House of Representatives in Alabama, and her mother, Louisa Toms, started the first school for Negro children in Livingston, Ala.
Mrs. Austin is the mother of Miss Elsie Austin, the first Negro woman to graduate from the College of Law, University of Cincinnati, and of George Austin, a student at the University.
She is a member of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Ohio Educa- tion Association, National Association, and National Society of University Women.
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MARY R. BARNETTE
MARY R. BARNETTE, nationally known teacher, writer and lecturer, of Cincinnati, was born in Montgomery County, Virginia. Her early life was spent on a Virginia plantation, where flourished the ante bellum life of her slave-owning ancestors. Her forbears fought in the American Revolution.
Prepared for college in the public schools of Virginia and by private tutors, Miss Barnette was graduated from the University of Chicago, 1925, with a Ph.B. degree. She did graduate work at Columbia University, 1926, 1930; University of Chicago, 1927, 1933, 1934; Harvard University, 1928, 1936; University of California, 1931; Oxford and Cambridge Universities (England) 1932.
Miss Barnette began her teaching career in a one-room country school in Virginia at 19. She progressed to the Roanoke city schools, came to Cincinnati in 1918 and she has taught in Hughes High School ever since. She is now teaching economics, sociology and civics.
She was a member of the faculty of the University of Virginia Summer School where she taught in 1916, 1917, 1918 and 1919.
A fellowship to the Geneva (Switzerland) School of International Studies was awarded to Mary Barnette from the Cincinnati Peace League in 1929. She was a delegate from the Cincinnati Teachers Association to the National Education Association Convention in Philadelphia, 1924.
She was a delegate, representing the secondary division of the National Education Association, to the International Federation of Secondary Teachers which met in London, August, 1932, and was delegate from the National Education Association to the World Federation of Education Associations which convened in Oxford, England, August, 1935; also represented the United States at the W.F.E.A. which convened in Tokyo, Japan, August, 1937.
The Cincinnati teacher has served her profession and community in a great variety of capacities, among them as editor-in-chief of the Official Bulletin of the Cincinnati Teachers Association, 1922-1926.
She has contributed widely to educational journals and other periodicals.
She was a member of a national committee of teachers who wrote the 1934 Yearbook of the National Education Association, Department of Class- room Teachers.
Some of Miss Barnette's contributions on educational research are catalogued in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
Miss Barnette has lectured many times on her teaching experiences and travel before local, state, and national groups. In 1938 she was appointed Regional Advisor by President Robert Hutchins of the University of Chicago, her duties in this connection to secure scholarships to the University of Chicago for promising high school graduates in Cincinnati and vicinity.
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At present Miss Barnette is chairman of the civics department at Hughes High School and is general chairman of a committee to revise the course of study in economics and sociology for the senior high schools of Cincinnati. She is also serving as one of 19 educators on the "National Committee to Promote Better International Understanding at the Secondary Level."
Miss Barnette is a member of the National Education Association; of the Secondary Division of the National Education Association; the Ohio State Teachers' Association; the Southwestern Ohio Teachers' Association ; the Cincinnati Teachers' Association; the College Club; the Foreign Policy Association; the Cincinnati Peace League; the Community Chest; the Red Cross; and of the Clifton Methodist Church.
LOUISE E. BENTLEY
LOUISE E. BENTLEY, widely recognized authority on French language and literature and secretary of the Alliance Francaise of Cincinnati, was born in Ludlow, Kentucky, the daughter of Matthew Henry and Mary Léonide Magee Bentley. Matthew Henry Bentley was a native Cincinnatian, but his father and mother were born in London, England. Mary Léonide Magee was from New Orleans, Louisiana, her father from Belfast, Ireland and her mother, descendant of an old Huguenot family, was born on the Island of Jersey.
The family moved to Cincinnati when Miss Bentley was five years old. She attended the Cincinnati Public Schools, was graduated from Walnut Hills High School and was granted both the degree of Bachelor of Arts and the degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cincinnati.
Louise had three brothers and has two sisters. Her youngest brother, Robert E. Bentley, who volunteered his services to his country in the World War, joined the old Ohio "First Regiment" under Colonel Galbraith, and became First Lieutenant of Company F, 147th Infantry. He was killed at Cierges, France, September 28, 1918, in the Battle of the Argonne, bravely commanding his regiment in the thick of the fight. The Robert E. Bentley Post of the American Legion, one of the largest posts in Ohio, is named in his memory.
Dr. James M. Bentley, another brother, was a doctor-a pediatrician -- who, though still young, had by 1916 received wide recognition in his chosen field of medicine. He was a member of the staff of the General Hospital and of the Children's Hospital. He had joined the Hospital Corps of the National Guard while in the Medical College and in June, 1916, when troops were sent to the Mexican Border, he was ordered there and remained until the end of March, 1917. He had been mustered out of the army but one week when the United States entered the World War. He enlisted at once and served both in this country and overseas until April, 1919. He was the regimental surgeon with the 136th Field Artillery with the rank of Major. He returned to the
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United States, ill as a result of his experiences, and although he resumed his practice for about seven months he never regained his health and died December 12, 1921.
Miss Bentley's third brother, Henry Bentley, was a lawyer. He also served his country in the World War. As Assistant Field Director of the American Red Cross in charge of the Fifth Naval District, he was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia. After the war Henry Bentley returned to his practice and became one of the outstanding lawyers of Cincinnati. Always keenly interested in social service, he was deeply conscious of the inadequacies of the municipal government in Cincinnati. He felt that the government of a city should not be left entirely in the hands of those for whom participation in politics is a gainful occupation and was one of the small group responsible for the change in the form of government of the city. He refused to run for office or to accept any appointment in the city, serving without com- pensation as the president of the City Charter Committee and as the leader of the many who were giving their services to their city. Much of the reputation of Cincinnati as "the best-governed city" is due to the unselfish and valuable service of Henry Bentley, who combined in his personality both the idealist and the realist. His ideas have been followed in many other cities and his reputation was not only national but international at the time of his death, October 21, 1938.
Miss Louise Bentley has two sisters, Miss M. Julia Bentley and Mrs. Clifford M. Stegner (Adele Bentley). Miss M. Julia Bentley is the head of the Department of Latin at Hughes High School in Cincinnati and widely known as a teacher and classicist. Mrs. Clifford Stegner is the wife of Clifford M. Stegner, building commissioner of Cincinnati.
After her graduation Miss Bentley spent a year at home and then began to teach. With the exception of one year, her entire teaching experience has been at Hughes High School where she is the head of the Department of French. Louise Bentley's interest in the language and literature of France has taken her to that country many times and she has spent several summers studying at the Sorbonne. She has devoted other vacations to study at the French School at Middlebury, Vermont.
Miss Bentley is a member of many educational organizations, some devoted to the general cause of teaching, others to her chosen field. They include the Cincinnati Teachers' Association, the Southwestern Ohio Teachers' Association, Ohio State Education Association, National Education Associa- tion, Modern Language Teachers of the Central West and South, and American Association of Teachers of French. She has been an officer of the Ohio Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French and was for several years a representative from Ohio on the national board of this organization. Miss Louise Bentley has always been an enthusiastic member of the Alliance Francaise and is the secretary of the local group of this organization. Her
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extensive travels abroad have convinced her of the importance of an enlight- ened foreign policy. For this reason she has been deeply interested in the Foreign Policy Association and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Cincinnati Branch of this organization since 1930. For four years she was a member of the Program Committee of the association and at present she is the Chairman of the Scholarship Committee.
Miss Bentley is a member of Christ Episcopal Church and ever since her graduation from the University of Cincinnati has been associate of a group in the Christ Church Branch of the Girls' Friendly Society. She is a member of the College Club, has served upon its Board, and has twice been elected a member of the membership committee of that organization. This outstanding Cincinnati educator is also a member of the League of Women Voters, of the English Speaking Union, of the Alumnae Association of the University of Cincinnati, of Delta Delta Delta, of Phi Beta Kappa, of the Woman's Auxiliary of the Robert E. Bentley Post of the American Legion and of the City Charter Committee.
M. JULIA BENTLEY
M. JULIA BENTLEY, head of the Latin Department of Hughes High School, Cincinnati, was born in Ludlow, Kentucky, the daughter of Matthew Henry Bentley and Mary Leonide Magee Bentley. The family moved to Cincinnati and the greater part of her elementary education was received in the Cincinnati schools. She was graduated from Woodward High School and from the University of Cincinnati, from which institution she received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and of Master of Arts.
Miss Bentley's three brothers, Henry Bentley, Dr. James M. Bentley, and Robert E. Bentley, all distinguished men, are dead, two of them through World War service. Her two sisters are Adele Bentley Stegner and Louise E. Bentley. Bentley.
Henry Bentley was outstanding in the service he rendered Cincinnati in the cause of good government. In 1931 Marietta College conferred upon Mr. Bentley, who was a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and of the Cin- cinnati Law School, the degree of Doctor of Laws for "distinguished service to his city, his state, and his country in the cause of good municipal govern- ment." He was president of the City Charter Committee from 1924 to 1935; chairman of the committee which secured the adoption of the amendment to the city charter in 1924, establishing city manager and proportional rep- resentation government for Cincinnati and which elected a majority of the city council in 1925, 1927, 1929, 1931, and 1933. He was the chairman of the committee which in 1926 drafted the present city charter of Cincinnati and a director of the Cincinnati Community Chest almost from its beginning.
Henry Bentley was among leaders of the National Municipal League; of the National Proportional Representation League; of the Cincinnati Anti-
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Tuberculosis League ; and of the Public Health Federation. He was a member of the Advisory Board of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works for Ohio. He was a trustee of the Episcopal Church, Diocese of South- ern Ohio, and a director of the Graduate School of Applied Theology. His death, on the 21st of October, 1938, was a great loss to Cincinnati.
Dr. James Bentley died as a result of overwork in his country's service during the World War and the youngest brother, Robert E. Bentley, fell in the Battle of Argonne. Miss Bentley's sister, Adele Bentley Stegner (Mrs. Clifford M. Stegner), is the wife of the city building commissioner, and is the mother of Bentley B. Stegner, and Margery Stegner Kaufman (Mrs. Orien Milton Kaufman). Louise E. Bentley, her other sister, is head of the De- partment of French at Hughes High School.
Miss M. Julia Bentley's entire teaching experience has been at Hughes High School where she is head of the Department of Latin and adviser to the Senior Girls. She has spent many summers in travel at home and abroad. The cause of the classics has always been dear to her heart, and she has served on many classical committees, both state and national. Miss Bentley was one of two women on the "Advisory Committee of Fifteen," of which Dr. Andrew Fleming West, of Princeton, was chairman, the committee which carried on the nation-wide Classical Investigation (1921-1924) under the General Education Board. She was the national chairman of the Committee on Celebrations in Schools in connection with the Bimillennium of Vergil (1928-1931) ; vice-president of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (1920-1921) ; vice-president for Ohio of this organization (1928- 1932) ; a member of the Executive Committee of the American Classical League (1929-19 ); National Chairman of the Committee on Latin Clubs of the American Classical League (1929-1935) ; Reader in Latin for the Eastern College Board Examinations (1928-1935) ; National Chairman on Life Men- berships of the American Classical League; member of the Executive Com- mittee and Service Committee of the Ohio Classical Conference. In collabora- tion with Perley Oakland Place, of Syracuse University, Miss Bentley wrote "First Year Latin" and "Intermediate Latin Lessons" (1929).
Besides the organizations mentioned above, Miss Bentley is a member of the Archaeological Institute of America; the American Philological Asso- ciation; the National Education Association; Ohio Education Association ; Southwestern Ohio Education Association; Cincinnati Teachers' Association ; Phi Beta Kappa; Eta Sigma Phi; Delta Delta Delta; the League of Women Voters; the Cincinnati Woman's Club; the College Club of Cincinnati (mem- ber of Board one year, on scholarship committee three years) ; the Foreign Policy Association ; the Alliance Francaise; the Women's Auxiliary, Robert E. Bentley Post, American Legion; City Charter Committee.
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