USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume II > Part 2
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She was married in 1922 to the Rev. Louis Garrett Gray, having previously served as missionary to Japan. Later, she assisted in relief work during the Japanese earthquake of 1923 and again served as first aid, in 1928, when the
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Virgin Islands were devastated by hurricane. Mrs. Gray has written exten- sively for missionary magazines and is in much demand as speaker. Her home is at New Carlisle, Ohio.
MARY J. GRISWOLD
But for MARY J. GRISWOLD the beautiful building of the Young Women's Christian Association at Columbus might never have been possible. As late as 1893 there was no Y. W. C. A. branch at Columbus and when it started, in 1894, it was as a department of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union started in 1886 mainly to provide residence for homeless working girls.
It is reported that when finally Y. W. C. A. work got into swing, educa- tional and recreational classes rapidly growing in popular favor, discon- tinuance of gymnasium work was strongly urged by one of the staunchly conservative board members. It seems that lads employed in the neighborhood were tempted, despite the voluminous "bloomers" which constituted official gymnasium costume, to peek in at the windows when the girls were doing their exercises. This created quite a furore. But the majority of the lady board members were not to be stampeded when good plain common sense pointed the way to solve their difficulty. Why not just buy window shades ? So they did.
The work of the Y. W. C. A. expanded rapidly, extra space was needed and property at 65 South Fourth St. was bought for this purpose from another notable Columbus woman, CATHERINE TUTTLE, in 1906. The Y. W. C. A. paid $30,000.00 in cash, leaving a mortgage of $25,000.00. One of the reasons for their high appreciation of Miss Tuttle was that this mortgage was can- celled on Miss Tuttle's will in 1910.
Continuous growth required constantly more space and the Y. W. C. A. moved several times until 1929, when beautiful Griswold Memorial Building was opened. The money, more than $400,000.00, was bequeathed by the late Mary J. Griswold in memory of her husband, Charles C. Griswold. She left also large sums to the Salvation Army, Y. M. C. A., Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls.
MARY AMELIA GRISWOLD
MARY AMELIA GRISWOLD (Mrs. Joel Rumsey Reeve) was born in Kirtland, O., in 1832, the daughter of Isaac Darrow and Mary Olive Griswold. Her father was a teacher for 19 years and later owner of the Kirtland Mills. Mary Amelia married Joel Reeve, descendant of an old Connecticut family, in 1850. She had been educated at the Willoughby Female Seminary, where her ability in speaking and writing was early recognized.
Mrs. Reeve was deeply devoted to religion, an earnest church woman and although she bore her share of the responsibility for conducting a large farm
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and for rearing to manhood and womanhood four sons and four daughters, nothing was permitted to lessen her service to the church and Sunday school. She was equally solicitous for the poor and underprivileged. Temperance work found in Amelia Reeve a strong ally, both as crusader and later as president of the county Women's Christian Temperance Union.
She was a charter member of the Willoughby Library board, also of the local Equal Rights Society and worked steadily for suffrage until the time of her death, Aug. 23, 1900.
SARAH CAROLINE HARLAN HADLEY
Once upon a time-when the art of "phonography" as it was first called, was just beginning to be utilized, SARAH CAROLINE HARLAN HADLEY of Wilmington, Ohio enjoyed through her father an unusual distinction. His name was Enoch Harlan and he was, for a period, the only stenographer em- ployed in the state of Ohio.
Sarah might have been expected to follow in her father's footsteps but she did not. Her call, she felt was to a higher and more important service and she permitted nothing to prevent her from answering it.
So Sarah became a Quaker preacher. She held services regularly every Sunday at Olive Branch Church, in Warren County and at Clarksville in Clinton County and took part in annual meetings held in other states. She married Miles Hadley, of Wilmington but continued to fill her pulpits. Then trouble came. Her eyesight was failing-and presently she was blind.
The blind woman then retired from the pulpit but not human service. For 25 years Mrs. Hadley continued active in church and civic affairs-continued, as best she could, the ministry to which she had felt so strong a call.
MARY E. HALLECK
MARY E. HALLECK (Mrs. A. B. Marshall) of Steubenville, O., early became interested in religious work in the foreign field and was sent to China by the Presbyterian Church. She was for a number of years teacher of English in Shanghai.
SALLIE FREIBERG HEINSHEIMER
SALLIE FREIBERG HEINSHEIMER (Mrs. Edward L. Heinsheimer) former president of the Cincinnati Section, Council of Jewish Women, was born in that city, the daughter of Julius and Duffie Freiberg. Their ideals of social and educational progress were her heritage, motivating services that have benefitted not only her own community but have been nation-wide in their scope and influence.
Her mother was before her marriage a teacher in the Cincinnati public schools and as such had definite part in building up the fine educational
ST. VICTOR CHAPEL, FORT SCOTT CAMP,
near Cincinnati, gift of Mrs. Frederick Wallis Hinkle
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system of the city. Julius Freiberg, her father, was early exemplar of a type of public spirited citizenship which has since been identified with the Freiberg family in virtually all its branches.
Sallie Freiberg was graduated from Hughes High School, attended the University of Cincinnati, and was married to Edward L. Heinsheimer, whose fine character and outstanding ability soon won high place in the esteem of his fellow citizens. A keen visioned man of business, he became president of the Cincinnati Stock Exchange. His far reaching human sympathy motivated extensive philanthropies that sought to solve the problems as well as to alle- viate the sufferings of the underprivileged and his love for his native city expressed itself in active efforts for civic progress. As president of the board of directors of Hebrew Union College, his services to the cause of spiritual education became nation wide in their scope.
Mrs. Heinsheimer's innate ability for social service found effective ex- pression in a parallel field. She has been for years a leader in the Cincinnati Council of Jewish Women, has served on the national board of this organiza- tion, also on the board of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods.
She is a member of Isaac M. Wise Temple, of the Board of Temple Sister- hoods, of the Cincinnati Woman's Club, the Woman's City Club, and of other outstanding groups and has for many years been active in the work of the Fresh Air and Convalescent Aid Society.
Their parents' ideals of human service are shared and expressed in various ways by the three daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Heinsheimer, Emma (Mrs. Stan- ley Dorst) Duffie, (Mrs. Irvin F. Westheimer) and Stella (Mrs. Walter F. Foreman).
MRS. FREDERICK WALLIS HINKLE
Belcamp, the residence of MRS. FREDERICK WALLIS HINKLE. Walsh Place, on the east hill of Cincinnati, is an imposing as well as a very beautiful home. For a location so near the city it retains an unusual acreage. There pasture in spacious fields, cows of distinguished lineage. Beautifully kept gardens, fine old trees, a swimming pool, shrubs, perennial borders reflect the personal interests and tastes of the enviable owners.
This is why a newspaper woman who onee called at the Hinkle home was a bit startled to discover the reason that necessitated a short wait.
"To tell the truth, I was busy in the laundry," explained the mistress of Beleamp. "I couldn't very well ask the maids to take care of what I was doing and they had a hard time finding me."
The smiling, handsome, in reality stately Mrs. Frederick Wallis Hinkle had been, it seemed, doing a family washing. It was an emergency job. A tubercular family she was intent on moving to decent quarters and otherwise rehabilitating. It was just one of those things-She had planned to start
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them out all clean and rehabilitated. They needed clean clothes immediately- there just wasn't any other way.
This helps to explain how Susanna Hinkle, herself a descendent of old Massachusetts stock whose husband heads one of Cincinnati's finest old fam- ilies, acquired the title of "Kindest Lady."
The title is unofficial but also undisputed. However, disclaimed by its possessor, it has been earned over and over and over again. It would be up- held against all comers, by hundreds who know whereof they speak.
Mrs. Hinkle was born at Newport, Ky., the daughter of Charles and Susanna Russell. Her father came from New Bedford, Mass. Her mother was of Quaker descent. Their daughter was sent to Notre Dame Academy at Reading, Ohio. She was good at music and languages. She intended to pursue her higher education in these cultural fields. But this had to be deferred for Susanna was barely out of her teens-(still in her teens) when she married Nicholas Walsh, prominent Kentucky business man. Much of the practical skill applied by her in later years to volunteer social service and welfare work she acquired in the care of her five sons and daughters and in the conduct of her own home.
Mr. Walsh died in 1913. The needs of many under privileged families of numerous unfortunate individuals had already challenged the keenly sym- pathetic interest of Mrs. Walsh.
After the second marriage other types of service claimed a growing share of her time and energies. She helped to organize and became president of the Cincinnati Catholic Women's Club. This has a diversified program of activi- ties-educational, recreational and civic, conducted largely in the interests of young women. They established a club house as the center of these activi- ties, pushed through many fine projects.
During the World War, Mrs. Hinkle headed and assisted in extensive services for soldiers and soon after began a series of benefactions to the Catholic Church which have developed steadily in scope and effectiveness. She was a donor to St. Mary's Church, Hyde Park, now one of the leading Catholic congregations of Cincinnati.
Deep interest of Mrs. Hinkle in education was evidenced by her next out- standing and very important gift-that of Hinkle Hall to Xavier University.
The third major contribution of Mrs. Hinkle was to Ft. Scott Camp, benefits of which extend to youth of the entire city. Through the generosity of this Cincinnati woman and under her competent direction Ft. Scott has attained enviable standards among comparable summer camps of the country. St. Victor Chapel, the beautiful woodland place of worship for which the forested slopes of the camp are perfect background, was entirely Mrs. Hinkle's gift.
MRS. FREDERICK WALLIS HINKLE of Cincinnati, donor of Hinkle Hall to Xavier University, and of many other gifts and benefactions
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It was agreed by the donor, the architect and others actively interested, that the chapel should not reflect sophisticated architectural taste but should be constructed, as far as possible, of materials native to the surrounding country side and that it should be a product of the intelligently directed skill of laboring craftsmen.
The walls are of stone, inside and out. The roof is timbered inside, the outside covering of handmade tiles.
A large wooden Crucifix, suspended over the stone altar, the stone floor of the nave and sanctuary, the wrought iron communion rail and lighting fixtures, all help to form a harmonious ensemble, adapted to its purpose.
Ft. Scott Camp is open to all normal children. It is administrated under the direction of the Rev. Monsignor R. Marcellus Wagner. It provides, at nominal cost, for a six weeks stay where woods and fields, sunshine and open sky, reveal their delights to city bred children.
It's always worth while to do things for children, Mrs. Hinkle believes. It is worth while almost always to help anyone, of whatever age, in need of a helping hand-that's the way Cincinnati's "Kindest Lady" feels about the matter.
Its the way she always has felt. It's what made her the "Kindest Lady".
GOLDA CARPENTER HUGHES
GOLDA CARPENTER HUGHES (Mrs. Edward Hughes) is one of the mainstays of the Bucyrus Ohio Kings Daughters and for six years served as president of the Ohio Branch, International Order of King's Daughters and Sons.
She also served as the first City Union chairman and while in the office of Crawford county president, organized six additional circles.
When the state order was negotiating to purchase Maplecrest, King's Daughters' home for girls in Bucyrus, Mrs. Hughes was a member of the local committee.
The home was purchased in 1919 and opened in 1920 and during Mrs. Hughes' tenure of office as state president, Maplecrest was re-dedicated at a convention of the Ohio Branch in Bucyrus.
Her election as state president took place in 1930 after she had served on the state board as a trustee. Up to that time the Ohio Branch had had no official publication. Then through her efforts, she edited, and had pub- lished, a four-page monthly bulletin called The Ohio Voice. This is still being published in Bucyrus by the state branch.
During her state presidency, Ohio entertained the International Order for the first time and Mrs. Hughes was official hostess at the convention held in Columbus.
Mrs. Hughes has also been an active supporter of the City Federation of Women's Clubs in Bucyrus.
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MARY KELLEY
MARY KELLEY, now retired at Jacksonville, Fla., many years a mis- sionary at Nanking, China; Goldie Swartz, now in India and Nora Vesper and Clara Harper, now in Africa, are among missionaries sent out from Ash- land College.
SARAH LEHR KENNEDY
SARAH LEHR KENNEDY was the daughter of H. S. Lehr, the founder of the North Western Ohio Normal School, now Ohio Northern University. Her father was a man whose whole life was dedicated to the ideal of providing a higher education for the poor and underprivileged youth of Ohio. Her mother was a woman of strong religious sentiment and an early worker for temperance.
Sarah was born in 1874 and graduated from the University at the age of 19 with an A. B. degree. In the meantime she had served as her father's private secretary and acted as tutor to special students, some of whom had come to Normal School, unable even to read, or with the most inadequate rudimentary training. After her graduation she taught Greek and English in her father's school for three years.
She was married in 1900 to Edward B. Kennedy, a graduate of Wooster and McCormack, and in 1901 they took their infant son, and sailed for China as missionaries.
Their two younger children were born in Shanghai, China.
She published a tract in 1922, "Under the Shadow of the Almighty", a narrative describing the experiences of her husband at the hands of bandits in China. After this experience they returned to America and entered city mission work in Chicago. Since the death of her husband in 1934 she has made her home in Ada with her sister, Miss Harriet Lehr.
In 1938 she completed and published the book "H. S. Lehr and His School", which is a comprehensive history of normal school development in the middle west.
MARION S. KIMBALL
MAJOR MARION S. KIMBALL, of Cincinnati, Ohio, daughter of Salva- tion Army parents, herself an officer in the Salvation Army, has for many years served as director of the Catherine Booth Home and Hospital for Women and Children, established and run by the Army, for the aid and re- habilitation of unmarried mothers and their babies.
Major Kimball has brought to her important work an ability for organiza- tion, a genius for broad social contacts, together with a deep sympathy and understanding of human problems, which has gained for her the respect, the admiration, and the financial support of her fellow citizens.
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EMMA R. KRAMMES
EMMA R. KRAMMES (Mrs. B. B. Krammes), leader and teacher of mis- sion study classes, of Tiffin, O., was born in that city, the daughter of Anton and Caroline Reuss. She took her B. S. at Heidelberg University, Tiffin, O. She was for a number of years president of the Women's Missionary Society of the General Synod, Dutch Reformed Church in the U. S., also president of the Women's Missionary Society of the Ohio Synod for three years. She married Beniah Krammes in 1884. Mrs. Krammes was for a period associate editor of "The Outlook of Missions" and has represented the women's mis- sionary society of her church at international conferences. Her home is at 14 Clinton St., Tiffin, O.
SARAH ANN LINTON
It is said of SARAH ANN LINTON (Mrs. Seth Linton) of Wilmington, Ohio, that she travelled more-and at her own expense-than virtually any minister of her day and faith. Sarah Ann was an ordained preacher of the Quaker faith. She was born in 1819 and died in 1893. Her father was Joshua Moore of Chester Co., Pa., and she was herself the mother of six children.
This did not deter the little Quakeress, however, from attending every yearly meeting of her sect in the United States. All but one-she did miss an annual conference held in Kansas, where, at the time, Indians were all too plentiful-and pesky.
Sarah always paid her way in all the thousands of miles that she travelled mainly via stage coach. It is true that she made many friends, both with and without the capital F, and that she was often in receipt of gifts. These, Quakeress Sarah realized, were in recognition of her arduous performance of what she believed to be her religious obligation. So it was quite all right. But we can be very sure that she would have crisscrossed the country just as thoroughly had no one ever known. She had a devout heart-and also, probably itching feet.
MRS. GABRIEL LIPSANEN
MRS. GABRIEL LIPSANEN of Fairport Harbor, Ohio was born Alma Elina Hinkkanen in Saaksmaki, Hamenlaani, Finland on September 16, 1884. She was the second child and the eldest daughter of Johan and Elina Hink- kanen. Her father was a general merchant and at his death, Alma, in her early teens, experienced her first contact with heavy responsibility. Her mother was entirely in ignorance of business methods and Alma was the only child in the family who had enough business acumen to continue her father's store.
The business survived but Alma was ambitious and yearned for a higher education. With the help of friends the girl completed her preparatory educa-
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tion in the Sortavala Seminary. She then entered the University of Helsinki in the capital city of Finland. There her remarkable gift of oratory was recognized and young Miss Hinkkanen was sent on speaking tours throughout Finland. She had become interested in temperance and it was the Finnish National Temperance Association that sent her into every Finnish hamlet and city to preach its gospel.
Then the League decided to send a speaker to America to tour the Finnish sections in that land. In competitive try-outs for this speaking position, Alma Hinkkanen, a girl of twenty-four, triumphed over scores of male applicants.
The American speaking tour was to the ardent young speaker an adven- ture in pioneering. Her itinerary took her from Massachusetts to San Fran- cisco, from Sault St. Marie to Mississippi. In Massachusetts a young Finnish clergyman, the Rev. Gabriel Lipsanen, heard the girl's eager oratory and obtained an introduction. This meeting eventually culminated in their mar- riage in Rockport, Massachusetts, on Aug. 30, 1910.
There the bride met and surmounted many obstacles. Her husband was the only Finnish clergyman in New England, which necessitated a strenuous program of traveling from one corner of his pastorate to another. Mrs. Lipsanen held the reputation of managing one of the most hospitable Finnish parsonages in this country.
But Mrs. Lipsanen never allowed herself to suffer from "housework ennui". In 1914 she spent a few months in Finland on a speaking tour. The twenty-five years that she and her husband spent together were filled to the brim with activities. Somewhere Mrs. Lipsanen learned enough music to direct a church choir and presently she found herself rendering solos at church functions. She orated upon other subjects besides temperance. She used her remarkable mathematical powers in her calculations for food supplies for church dinners. She had an uncanny ability that enabled her to order food correctly to the ounce.
In her school days she had learned Swedish, Russian, French and German. Now she passionately studied English and at the time of her death had at her command an extensive reading and writing vocabulary in that language.
Mr. and Mrs. Lipsanen moved to Fairport Harbor, Ohio in 1913. There Mrs. Lipsanen began a class in English for Finnish immigrants which the school board eventually took over. She and her husband combined their ener- gies to direct the building of a new religious edifice, the Suomi Church, a $76,000.00 structure which at the time of its dedication was entirely free from debt.
During the World War Mrs. Lipsanen was active in the Red Cross and later was secretary of the Lake County Chapter of that organization for sev- eral years. For three years she was on the board of directors of Suomi Col- lege, a Finnish Lutheran institution. She herself was a religious educator,
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being for years the head of the Finnish Bible School and superintendent of the church Sunday School. She took an active interest in young people's work.
For several years she was the editor of the Finnish newspaper, Amerikan Sanomat. Her editorial style was crisp, concise, and often biting as she fought against crime, intemperance, and ignorance.
At the time of her death she was the secretary treasurer of the Lake County Transportation Company, an inter-city bus line which she helped to found.
On September 24, 1938, a few weeks after the death of her husband, Mrs. Lipsanen embarked upon another enterprise-that of finding her Maker, in behalf of whose teachings she had crusaded her entire life.
MARY LYON
The late REV. MARY LYON, of Cleveland, Ohio was formerly president of the American Association of Women Preachers. She headed missionary work of women in the Disciples of Christ Church. The Rev. ANNA C. EAST- WOOD of Medina, Ohio is a former general secretary of the organization as is the Rev. MAY E. BULLOCK, of Trotwood, Ohio and the Rev. HAZEL E. FOSTER, formerly of Cleveland, now of Chicago.
The Rev. Ethel Jay Probst is pastor of the Friends Church of Dayton, Ohio and the Rev. Jane Carey is president of the Wilmington, Ohio, yearly meeting of Friends "stated ministers".
A notable woman pioneer minister of Ohio was the late Dr. Lucy Rider Meyer, an early graduate of Oberlin and founder of the deaconess movement in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Dr. Meyer did much to establish the former Chicago Training School for missions, now part of Garrett Biblical Institute.
MOTHER EVA MARY
Foundress of the Community of the Transfiguration A Religious Order of the Episcopal Church. By SISTER PAULA HARRIET
Come to Glendale, Ohio, near Cincinnati, and visit the Convent of the Transfiguration and Bethany Home. See the beautiful chapel of gray stone and the convent ; then look at the cottages. the school and the little shop.
If you have chosen a clear day and a time when school is not in session, you may see girls of all ages from four to eighteen playing, skating, running, shouting, with now and then a Sister in blue habit and white veil in charge. They are the present representatives of a long stream of similar girls who have lived at Bethany Home in the last forty years. All of these girls -- hundreds of them-rise up and call Mother Eva Mary blessed.
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Eva Lee Matthews was born at Glendale, Ohio, February 9, 1862. She was the daughter of Thomas Stanley Matthews (later Justice Matthews of the United States Supreme Court) and Mary Ann Black.
Her youth was passed among people who loved books; she was for a while a student at Wellesley College; she spent her winters in Washington; she had trips abroad; and from the many sources of culture to which she had access she seems to have had the rare gift of absorbing the best and of keeping it.
From early childhood she showed a deep-seated interest in spiritual things, and as time went on she seemed to care little for the formal society to which she had access and in which she could easily have been a leader. She had two brothers and two sisters with whom she always lived on terms of great affection and understanding. The brothers are Mortimer Matthews; a prominent lawyer of Cincinnati and Paul Matthews now Bishop Matthews of New Jersey ; the sisters, Mrs. Gray, wife of Justice Horace Gray, of Boston, and Mrs. Harlan Cleveland of Cincinnati. Many were the religious and theological discussions they had together.
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