USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume I > Part 25
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But nobody who knew Phoebe Allen would pretend to evaluate ade- quately her many sided contributions. When she died in 1926, the finest tribute paid was in reality the shortest: "She gave fifty years of her life to humanity."
MATTIE MCCLELLAN BROWN
MATTIE MCCLELLAN BROWN (Mrs. W. K. Brown), Cincinnati lec- turer, educator, reformer, was born in 1838 at Baltimore, Maryland, and was granted unusual literary degrees from Pennsylvania colleges in 1882 and 1883-Ph.D. and LL.D. She was the second woman of the United States honored with the latter title.
By the earnest solicitation of a committee at Greensburg, Pa., she was introduced to the public as a lecturer on national topics in Music Hall, Philadelphia, in the winter of 1864.
Identified with the order of Good Templars, her work for temperance was unique. She was the only woman on the public platform in Ohio. She was the chief of the order for two terms and served on the executive board for seventeen years, during which time she lectured in the principal cities of nineteen states. Her official duties, correspondence, decisions, plans of work and bureau of propagation were methodical, masterly, far-reaching. Every- where by her presence, her speeches, her conversations and her pen she upheld woman's equal position in professional and business life, against the strongest opposition. .
In the spring of 1869 Mrs. Brown agreed to go into the organization of the Prohibition Party movement on condition that it should stand for woman's full suffrage. She cooperated in every way, speaking, writing; presiding, serving as secretary at great conventions, calling and managing great con- ventions, in everything promoting that party until 1896 at Pittsburgh, when the Prohibitionists adopted the single plank, and Mrs. Brown stepped out of the organization.
Long identified with collegiate educational work in Cincinnati, and vice president of the former Cincinnati Wesleyan College, of which her husband, Dr. W. Kennedy Brown, was head, her stimulating influence was felt by thousands whom she inspired to think for themselves.
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In 1873 Mrs. Brown represented the Good Templars of Ohio at their London convention. While in England she lectured in many of the cities of the provinces. The Glasgow, Liverpool, Edinburgh and London papers spoke of her in flattering terms. Later she was a delegate from the Prohibition Party to the international convention at Berne, Switzerland, where her speech was widely published.
Mrs. Brown was the daughter of David and Jane Mcclellan, who moved from Baltimore to Ohio in 1840. She was married to the Rev. W. Kennedy Brown, widely known minister and educator in 1858. To this union were born three sons, Orson Graff Brown, Richard Mcclellan Brown, Klem Thaw Brown, and three daughters, Wessie Brown Robertson, Charme Brown. Ship- pen, and Marie Brown Shanks.
She is said to have organized the first women's state temperance asso- ciation (at Columbus, O., in 1874) and to have really inaugurated the National W.C.T.U. at Chautauqua, N. Y., in November of the same year.
Mrs. Brown was also originator of school mothers clubs and started the fresh air movement in Cincinnati in 1888. Her death, in 1919, ended a record of service and of achievement rarely equalled by any woman, of any day or age.
ANTOINETTE CLEVENGER
ANTOINETTE CLEVENGER (Mrs. A. Edgar Clevenger), of Wilmington, Ohio, was the daughter of Judge Robert and Caroline Haworth Harlan, both of pioneer families.
As far as can be discovered, Antoinette was the first girl from Clinton County to go to Vassar College where she graduated in 1878.
Her daughter, Mrs. Russell Mumford, now of Glendale, Calif., also graduated from Vassar and her grand-daughter, Julia Mumford, entered as a freshman this year.
She was state corresponding secretary of W.C.T.U. for 11 years. By virtue of office, edited Ohio Messenger, the official magazine of Ohio W.C.T.U. Was a personal friend of Frances Willard, head of the temperance movement and Susan B. Anthony, woman suffrage leader.
Temperance and suffrage, the two vital movements of the time, were main interests with which Antoinette combined church activities.
Born a Quaker she joined the M. E. Church at 14. Antoinette Harlan was married to Edgar Clevenger in 1879 and lived in Cleveland from 1904 to 1924 when her husband retired from law practice and they returned to Wilmington. While in Cleveland, Mrs. Clevenger was county superintendent of scientific temperance instruction of Cuyahoga County. She was active in M. E. Church and president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society there.
Antoinette helped her father, Judge Harlan of Wilmington collect data for a history of Clinton County. From this research and from Judge Harlan's
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copious and scholarly notes, the history was compiled and published August 11, 1882.
CAROLINE HAWORTH HARLAN
Antoinette's mother was CAROLINE HAWORTH HARLAN, born at Wilmington, November 2, 1826, died April 16, 1896. She was the daughter of George D. and Edith Hadley Haworth. Her father served Clinton County as treasurer for 25 years. She married Judge Robert Barclay Harlan, March 10, 1848, birthright member of the Society of Friends.
Caroline went to Westtown Friends School near Philadelphia, which many of the younger generation now attend, about 1840. This was when the journey there was by oxteam and horse.
After her marriage to Judge Robert Harlan in 1848, she assisted in his- torical work-looked up data for a history of Society of Friends; a history of early Ohio, and a history of Harlan and Haworth families.
Mrs. Harlan was deeply interested in the abolition of slavery.
Wilmington was part of the underground railway-a station was planted on what is now Snow Hill Country Club golf course. Caroline Harlan was also a worker for woman's suffrage-named her oldest daughter for Lucy Stone, whom she greatly admired.
She was one of the women who started the "Crusade" for temperance in Hillsboro. The national program of W. C. T. U. came from this.
Mrs. Harlan was a charter member of Wilmington W. C. T. U. and a life member of the American Peace Society.
During the Civil War, Mrs. Harlan housed over 20 men in her unfinished new residence when they came to join her husband's company.
A delicate little woman who never weighed over 100 pounds, Mrs. Harlan was outstanding among women of her time. She read fine literature. She entertained in her home important visitors to Wilmington; ministers, lec- turers, men and women in public affairs.
Her husband, Judge Harlan, was known as the ablest counselor in Clinton County during his career (born 1808, died 1877).
They worked together for rehabilitation of freed negroes; for civic and social progress of their own community and implanted their zeal for human betterment firmly in the hearts of their children.
MARY CATHERINE HOPLEY
MARY CATHERINE HOPLEY, a daughter of John E. and Georgiana (Rochester) Hopley played an important part in sustaining public interest in Willard Hall in the Woman's Temple in Chicago.
She went to Chicago just before the turn of the century and came back to Bucyrus to the family homestead in 1917. In Chicago she was employed
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by the McClurg Publishing House and by other similar concerns who excused her from her duties whenever she felt her services were needed at Willard Hall. She printed, without remuneration, a leaflet called "The Open Door," which was distributed from Willard Hall for some years. This leaflet brought in many cash contributions for the Hall.
Before going to Chicago in 1899, Mary Catherine taught school in various places over the state, including Plain City, Middlepoint, Salina, Paulding, Defiance, Nelsonville and Delphos.
She taught painting as well and painted chinaware for prominent Bucyrus families. It was, in fact, her search for a certain type of china to paint as a dinner set that took her to Chicago-where she stayed for 17 years.
MRS. JOHN HOPLEY
MRS. JOHN HOPLEY (Georgiana Rochester), born in 1826, took an important part in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union Crusade extend- ing throughout Ohio. She was the wife of the late John Hopley, for a time superintendent of schools of Bucyrus and later editor of the Bucyrus Evening Journal, and was the mother of ten children, a number of them widely known as journalists.
These included Georgia Hopley, Harriet Hopley, Catherine Hopley, James R. Hopley, now head of the Hopley Printing Company and Frank L .Hopley, now an attorney. To the time of her death, Mrs. Hopley was an active worker in the Presbyterian Church, in temperance and in other important movements of her day.
MINNIE JAMISON
MINNIE JAMISON, of Columbus, a White Ribboner for forty years, became affiliated with the temperance cause when a very young woman and soon, because of her alertness and her studious application to the work, she became the State superintendent of the work for Colored people. She held this position until she became affiliated with the state board of health and later resumed the state superintendency and is at the present time working in this capacity.
A life member of the Ohio Women's Christian Temperance Union, Minnie Jamison has given invaluable service in supervising the work in her responsible field.
She was formerly an associate in the national department of work among colored people.
She has also for many years been a religious worker in her church and community. She has held several offices in St. Paul Methodist Church of Columbus and has served for years on the Woman's Mite Missionary Society. Mrs. Jamison has been ordained as an evangelist and was recently consecrated a deaconess.
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BERTHA MCWHORTER MCKINNEY
BERTHA MCWHORTER MCKINNEY (Mrs. T. H. Mckinney) was born in 1873, on a farm in the foothills of the Allegheny mountains. Before settling in Cincinnati she had been field secretary of the West Virginia Christian Endeavor Union. She founded the "West Virginia Christian Endeavor Bul- letin" and was its editor for seven years. She served as president of the largest Sunday School district of the State Association for four years, bi- county president of the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and a local president for seven years.
Coming to Cincinnati in 1920, Bertha Mckinney was soon active in church and civic work. She joined the Central W. C. T. U. in 1920 and became its president in 1921, to which office she has been re-elected every year. In these years she had done a unique work for civic righteousness, the influence of which has spread beyond her own city and state by radio, talks and writings. In 1924 she started the fight to enforce the anti-screen law in the city and had to appeal to Governor A. Vic Donahey, who soon had city officials "on their toes" after which she led a band of women down the street singing "Onward Christian Soldiers". She started the protest against Bathing Beauty Contests, which later the Chamber of Commerce okayed. Also the building of a race track at Coney Island. She brought into the open the horrors of the Marijuana cigarette which resulted in the organizing of the Hamilton County Anti-Narcotic League of which she is a charter member.
She has been a member of the state Prohibition Party Committee for years and in 1934 was nominated for Congresswoman-at-large by that party. She was a delegate to the National Prohibition Convention, at Niagara Falls, in 1937.
In 1935 Mrs. McKinney was included in the "Biographical Quarterly" published in London, England, which carried sketches of outstanding men and women of the British Empire and America. In 1938 she was named by Congressman John McSweeney, as a member of the commission arranging for the 125th anniversary of Com. Perry's victory on Lake Erie.
Other offices Mrs. McKinney has filled are-Chairman of the Law Enforce- ment Department of the S. W. district of Ohio Federation of Woman's Clubs; Secretary of the Woman's Exposition of Greater Cincinnati in 1937; County Chairman of the Anti-Cigarette League; Secretary of the Kentucky MacDowell Club; Member of the National Social Hygiene Society; Secretary of the Woman's Guild of Emanuel Center; Spiritual Life Leader of the Ohio Con- ference of the Woman's Home Missionary Society.
In 1897 Bertha Mc Whorter married Theodore H. Mckinney, former judge of the Justice's Court in W. Va. Their daughter is Marguerite Mckinney, a musician active in the Three Arts Club and music and poetry society of Cin- cinnati. Mrs. Mckinney is the author of a number of essays and poems.
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VIOLA D. ROMANS
VIOLA D. ROMANS, president of the Ohio Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union, Columbus, was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, of Quaker parentage.
She attended Muskingum College and Olney College. She later became a member of the Muskingum College faculty, occupying the position of professor of public speaking and oratory for several years, and received her honorary degree of Doctor of Literature from that college.
She also taught in the former Wesleyan College for Women in Cincinnati. It was while teaching there that she first came in contact with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, joined the Central Union and has been active in the state ever since.
Mrs. Romans has been actively engaged in public lecture work with lyceum and Chautauqua Bureaus. She was president of the Woman's Republi- can Club of Ohio for six years and in the year 1924, she was nominated and elected to a seat in the House of Representatives in the Ohio Legislature where she served two terms, having the distinction of being the first woman member of the Ohio House of Representatives to represent Columbus and Franklin County.
She has been actively engaged in W. C. T. U. work for a number of years, as lecturer with the national organization and an officer of the State organi- zation for the past six and a half years, has served as president of the Ohio group, consisting of more than twenty three thousand members.
Viola Romans has won recognition as a capable executive as well as an eloquent speaker. She has travelled extensively both in this country and abroad.
MARTHA MILLS STERLING
"Mother Sterling", as MARTHA MILLS STERLING (Mrs. James Sterl- ing), became widely known, was the leader of the Woman's Crusade in Steubenville in 1873.
Martha was a woman of deep piety, who believed in a "witnessing Christianity". She married James Sterling, a stern Scotsman of the "Habakuk Mucklewrath" variety and as captain of the Crusaders did her full part to keep the saloonists of Jefferson County in general and of Steubenville in particular, in daily turmoil.
The best element in the Steubenville churches was back of the crusade movement. The women associated with Mrs. Sterling were the most prominent in the city. They stayed right with her. They prayed in saloons, on pave- ments. Saloon doors were slammed in their faces. Infuriated bar flies swept wet sawdust out on them. Dogs, known to be cross, were "sicked" on them.
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But the dogs were suddenly converted. They would not bite a bit. On the contrary, they wagged their tails approvingly.
So the women triumphed. A city prohibition ordinance was passed. It was celebrated by the ringing of the church bells and the squeak of protesting padlocks.
It registered the moral high in the history of Steubenville.
ELIZA TRIMBLE THOMPSON
ELIZA TRIMBLE THOMPSON-"Mother Thompson" of the famous "Women's Crusade" of Ohio, was born in 1816 at Hillsboro, the daughter of Allan Trimble, a former governor of Ohio.
She died in 1905, in her ninetieth year in the very same house in which she was born. Her life period includes an epoch which made history-an epoch of which she was the central and celebrated figure.
Eliza Thompson, a woman of distinguished family, of gentility and culture, was leader of a band of 70 Hillsboro women who on December 24, 1873, marched from bar-room to bar-room of the 20 saloons of the small town, to sing and pray for a miracle-that these saloons would close their doors-that drunkenness and rioting and crime due to liquor guzzling would end-at once and for evermore.
The miracle happened. The saloons closed down, liquor was destroyed, even the proprietors in many instances, "took the pledge".
The news spread like wildfire. Suddenly, all over the state Ohio women were "crusading".
It is true that the immediate results of these crusades were transitory. Saloons closed-perhaps and for a little while. Then human nature asserted itself, the saloons were open and crowded, it was all to do all over again.
But this time in a different way. For from the Hillsboro crusade and the agitation that followed it, grew the national Women's Christian Temper- ance Union, for years one of the strongest and most far reaching associations ever formed by women anywhere.
This was the real achievement of "Mother Thompson," a hitherto un- known little woman, living in a hitherto unknown little town.
LAURA BUCKNER
Among other leaders in the temperance work in Ohio were LAURA BUCKNER, who was the first colored woman to head the colored department as superintendent.
HARRIET PRICE, a public school teacher of Cleveland, Ohio, was very prominent in the cause and HALLIE Q. BROWN, renowned lecturer and former instructor in Wilberforce University was also active.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Women Discover Clubs
MRS. CHAUNCEY L. NEWCOMER
CHAPTER SEVEN
WOMEN DISCOVER CLUBS
By CLAIRE S. NEWCOMER (Mrs. Chauncey L. Newcomer) President, Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs
The Federated Club is putting women in line with the great move- ments of the day. Through state and national federations women can accomplish what no separate club or person can do.
In legislation they have brought about laws favoring advancing the interests and progress of public schools and libraries. They have joined the fight against cancer, tuberculosis and syphilis. By infinite small personal contributions they as clubs are reforesting waste acres in the state.
They are setting standards in the arts and helping the young housewife with a practical budget.
But they are only beginning to learn their power as a mass. If they can learn to cooperate, the next few years will bring great strides in their achievement. Greatly extended influence and increased ac- complishment are just ahead of the club woman.
Past Presidents of Ohio Federation are: Mrs. George Lincoln, London, 1894-1896; Mrs. James A. Robert, Dayton, 1896-1898; Mrs. William P. Orr, Piqua, 1898-1900; Mrs. James R. Hopley, Bucyrus, 1900-1902; Mrs. Samuel B. Sneath, Tiffin, 1902-1904; Mrs. Edw. L. Buchwalter, Springfield, 1904-1907; Miss Annie Laws, Cincinnati, 1907- 1909; Mrs. Addison F. Broomhall, Troy, 1909-1911; Mrs. Howard Huck- ins, Oberlin, 1911-1913; Miss Anna B. Johnson, Springfield, 1913-1915; Mrs. George Zimmerman, Fremont, 1915-1917; Mrs. Prentice E. Rood, Toledo, 1917-1919; Mrs. William H. Sharp, Columbus, 1919-1921; Mrs. Cornelius S. Selover, Cleveland, 1921-1924; Mrs. Charles R. Fox, Cin- cinnati, 1924-1926; Dr. Josephine L. Pierce, Lima, 1926-1928; Mrs. William N. Harder, Marion, 1928-1930; Mrs. W. H. Schwartz, Ports-
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mouth, 1930-1932; Miss Elizabeth Haymaker, Ravenna, 1932-1936; and Mrs. Earl B. Padgett, Galion, 1936-1938.
In Memoriam are the following: Mrs. George Lincoln, Mrs. Wil- liam P. Orr, Mrs. Edward L. Buchwalter, Mrs. James R. Hopley, Mrs. James R. Robert, Miss Annie Laws, Mrs. Charles R. Fox and Mrs. George Zimmerman.
Two Ohio women, Alice and Phoebe Cary, whose careers are outlined in the chapter on "Women in Literature" are said to have initiated the movement which finally crystallized into organization of the club women of the United States.
Indirectly, one of the greatest fiction writers of the world, Charles Dickens, was also responsible.
When Dickens revisited America in 1868, a dinner was given in New York City for 200 newspaper men. No newspaper women. In fact, no women at all were, as the story goes, participants in or guests at the big affair. They were, on the contrary, ignored so pointedly that the Cary sisters, who by that time had established a home in New York, became righteously indignant as did other women writers who felt that their abilities and attainments rated, to say the least, with those of plenty of masculine hosts.
The situation was thoroughly discussed, you may be sure, at the Sunday afternoons, which Alice and Phoebe had already inaugur- ated. It was Alice Cary who offered the first concrete suggestion. Said she, "Let's organize a club of our own."
So it was that in March, 1869, the "Sorority of Sisters" came into being. The name was shortened later by combining the first two syllables of "sorority" and the first syllable of "sister." Add these up and you have "Sorosis."
Mrs. Jennie C. Croly, the first recording secretary of this Sorosis club, writing later in her book, "The History of the Woman's Club Movement," published in 1873, stated that "even reigning queens re- sponded to the club's invitation and 1,000 other women besides gave encouragement."
The first Woman's Congress was held in the old Union Square theater in New York and continued annually until 1889, when Sorosis
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observed its "coming of age," by founding the General Federation of Women's Clubs.
Of course Mrs. Croly gives credit to the suffrage movement founded in 1848, for the success achieved in the development of the literary, civic and social club movement.
As far back as 1637 there is a record of a group of New England women, under the leadership of Anne Hutchinson meeting to study secular and theological subjects.
It seems a pity that the women did not manage to get their story across to Dickens himself. He could have written a sequel to "Martin Chuzzlewit" about it.
Because they received their main impetus to organization from the early women's clubs, patriotic and fraternal groups of Ohio women are included in this chapter.
But many women engaged in important civic, social and educa- tional activities which were also the outgrowth, largely, of women's clubs, will be found in Chapter 16, "Women in Civic and Social Service."
The Cincinnati Woman's Club, founded 34 years ago, provided interested women throughout the State of Ohio with a pattern for what was at the time regarded as an ideal organization. Credit for this belongs of right to the founders, notably to MRS. T. P. MALLON, MISS ANNIE LAWS, MRS. J. J. GEST, MRS. H. C. FERGUSON, MRS. H. B. MOOREHEAD, MISS FAYETTE SMITH and MISS CLARA NEWTON. It should be noted that each of these cultured and keen minded women was active in the club from its organization, in 1894, to almost literally, her dying day. Miss Laws was the first president of the Cincinnati Woman's Club, Miss Newton was the first recording secretary. Later Miss Newton became executive secretary, giving, for more than a quarter of a century, almost indispensable service in this capacity.
From the first meeting of the Cincinnati Woman's Club, it became obvious that here was an active ally in effort for civic betterment. Members threw themselves, whole-souled, into efforts to improve the health, the appearance, the welfare, the culture and the education of
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their city. One of the first achievements was the establishments of playgrounds for underprivileged children of the city basin. Under leadership of Miss Laws, they succeeded in having kindergartens established as a department of the public schools.
They worked for the Symphony Orchestra and for good music in general, for the Art Museum and for better civic art, for good books and improved opportunity to obtain them, for gardens, for advance- ment on almost every front. The Cincinnati Woman's Club was un- doubtedly, in its day, archtype and model after which other groups of forward looking women could and did pattern. In later years, it is true, many of its former activities were taken over by other organi- zations.
But the beautiful club house on Oak Street is still a center of literary and cultural programs and discussions. Its departments and its circles are still active and the charm of its hospitality has grown steadily, from year to year.
KATHERINE R. AMANN
The public activities of KATHERINE R. AMANN of Sidney largely center on the Wilson Memorial Hospital, of which she has been a most mag- nanimous friend and supporter since becoming a member of its first board. She has wide acquaintance in Sidney and this part of the state, for she was born in the city which is still her home, a daughter of Wallace W. and Amelia (Bull) Robertson, natives of Ohio and a granddaughter of Major Samuel Robertson, who was first made a captain, his commission being signed by Governor Worthington. Arriving in Ohio in pioneer times he secured his first section of land from the government, the deed for which, signed by John Quincy Adams, then president, is now in possession of Mrs. Amann. Wallace W. Robertson became a contractor of Sidney and followed that business throughout his entire life. He passed away in 1910, having long survived his wife, whose death occurred in 1872.
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