USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume II > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
For a time she taught in the public schools. Mrs. Corwin was editor and publisher of the Club Woman's Magazine of Cincinnati-1908-1932. She is a leading member of the W.C.T.U .; a pioneer of the Woman's Suffrage Asso- ciation; a charter member of the Kentucky MacDowell Society and was president of this society 1924-1926. Mrs. Corwin was a founder of the Woman's Rotary Club of Cincinnati, in 1914.
In 1933 she assembled the seven still living Temperance Crusaders of 1873-1874, to dedicate a bronze tablet memorial to their comrades of the Crusade in Hamilton County.
The following names of the members now deceased appear on the tablet :
Mrs. Minerva Smith Stephens Mrs. D. R. White
Mrs. Florence L. Smith Mrs. E. S. Swormstedt Mrs. Mary Reeves Mrs. E. P. Whallon Mrs. Emma Black Weaver
Mary Corwin has traveled in the United States and has visited every important city. She associated with the late Mary Swindler Procter in the office of the Lebanon, Ohio, "Patriot" three years.
She is the author of "How the Promise was Kept," and contributes poetry and miscellaneous articles to the daily press; reviews fiction and writes poems that have appeared in excellent anthologies.
ANNETTE COVINGTON
ANNETTE COVINGTON, born in Cincinnati and identified definitely as artist and writer with the development of her home city, has challenged more
Lo
Tin
a
775
WOMEN OF OHIO
than local interest on still another count, that of literary research. Some years ago Miss Covington discovered the signature of Francis Bacon on the first text page of a folio of Shakespeare's plays and ever since has been prominent among students of literature who believe that plays of the Bard of Avon can be traced to a Baconian source.
This widely known Cincinnati woman attended private school then Western College, where she received her A.B. degree. She studied at Pratt Institute and at the Cincinnati Art Academy and specialized in portraiture, for which she has been awarded excellent prizes.
ANNE VIRGINIA CULBERTSON
The most famous poet among women of Muskingum County was ANNE VIRGINIA CULBERTSON, 1857-1918. She was born and spent most of her life in Zanesville and was a notable descendant of one of the county's oldest pioneer families.
Her best known collections include "Lays of a Wandering Minstral"; a book of Negro folk-lore called, "At the Big House"; and "When the Banjo Talks."
She was a member of the Vigilantes, the national society of poets and writers called into being during the World War, whose duty it was to write poems and stories to excite interest in the sale of Liberty Bonds. She was the founder of the All Around Club of Zanesville, which with the Author's Club of Zanesville have been in existence since the early 1890's. Both are literary study clubs and from them have come down through the years many talented and cultured women.
CLARA LONGWORTH DE CHAMBRUN
Six years ago ,when the CLARA LONGWORTH de CHAMBRUN (the Countess Adelbert de Chambrun) published "The Making of Nicholas Long- worth", Washington, D. C., was quite as eager to read her book as was Cin- cinnati, her home town and Paris, France, where the de Chambruns have their official residence.
It is true that the Countess de Chambrun, a sister of the late Nicholas Longworth, former speaker of the house and husband of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, had long since established a literary reputation of the first order. She was and is accepted as the principal authority on the life and works of Shakespeare on which theme she has recently (1938) completed and a new and very important book.
This is "Shakespeare Rediscovered" which has been highly praised by leading critics and other literary experts abroad and in the United States.
But what is still more recent and interests-whether it should or not- Cincinnatians even more is the publication of an exhaustive history of her
776
WOMEN OF OHIO
native city, from its beginning to the present day (1939) which Clara de Chambrun has just completed.
Nobody knows this subject better than the former Clara Longworth, sister of the former Ohio Congressman and daughter of the Nicholas Long- worth preceding him. In her biography of her brother she begins with his and her great grandfather, the Nicholas Longworth who floated down to Cincin- nati from Pittsburgh on a flat boat with "six dozen plain and ruffled shirts" in his leather chest.
Obviously this third son of the New Jersey Longworths, smarting under treatment accorded those who believed themselves loyalists but none the less branded by the spirit of '76 as "traitors", had no intention, in his new start, of being at sartorial disadvantage.
On the political side, a letter written to Clara de Chambrun by Nick during the campaign which ended in nomination of Herbert Hoover for the presidency is one of many highlights. It discloses that Longworth was him- self in no unreceptive mood.
". . since the President made his statement which is properly, I think, to be interpreted as positive declination to be a candidate in 1928, the field is open and I cannot help realizing that I may be called on to undertake the great adventure. So far, those generally mentioned are Hoover, Lowden, Hughes and myself."
How Clara Longworth de Chambrun and her family had advantage of newspapers which headlined the engagement of Nick and Alice throughout the world is another good story told for the first time.
"Shortly after return of the secretary of war and his party from the Philippines, I received a cable which read: 'Nasum Nanda.' The first word, in my code, signified 'an engagement has been contracted and will shortly be announced between.' But there was no such word as 'nanda' in the book.
"But it took our concerted effort to reach such conclusion that 'Nanda' meant 'N and A.' After that, we knew. For once we had information before the newspapers."
But it is in the results of her research in history of early Cincinnati, as background for her brother's, father's, grandfather's, and great-grandfather's experiences that Mme. de Chambrun's book is richest in human interest.
Her story of Abraham Lincoln's chance encounter with the first Cincinnati Nicholas Longworth is also striking.
"One summer day, 1857, a tall man who appeared to have outworn his clothes hesitatingly passed through the Pike St. gate." She recounts how the business on which the tall man had made his trip to Cincinnati had failed him, he was trying to put in his day. He asked a bent little old man, weeding the pathway, who owned "this fine house ?"
The bent little man was the first Nicholas Longworth, father of the family fortunes, and the tall man was Lincoln.
777
WOMEN OF OHIO
Innumerable other stories told by the authoress in "The Making of Nicholas Longworth" have whetted real and widespread curiosity on her new book.
Mme. de Chambrun has devoted most of her life to writing and research. Her home was at "Rookwood" the famous Cincinnati home of the Long- worth's, until 1901, when she was married to the Count de Chambrun, head of one of the finest families of France, a direct descendent of Lafayette.
General de Chambrun was one of the outstanding officers of the French army during the World War and later was in command of the French forces during the disorders in Algeria. The Countess de Chambrun spends part of every year in Cincinnati.
Mme. de Chambrun was decorated and holds the degree of Doctor of the University of Paris in recognition of her major contribution to the world's knowledge of the life of the Bard of Avon. Her published works are:
In English-"Shakespeare Rediscovered," "Shadows Like Myself," "Shakespeare, Actor-Poet." Shakespeare's Sonnets: "New Light and Old Evidence," "Playing With Souls," "His Wife's Romance," "Breaking the King Row," "The Making of Nicholas Longworth," "Hamlet."
And in French : "Giovanni Florio : un apotre de la Renaissance a l'epoque de Shakespeare," "Shakespeare, acteur-poete," "Hamlet de Shakespeare," "Le Roman d'un homme d'affaires," "La nouvelle Desdemone," "Deux bagues au doigt," "Antoine et Cleopatre," "L'Echiquier."
THERESSA M. DEFOSSETT
THERESSA M. DeFOSSETT (Mrs. Albert J. DeFossett), of Columbus, is associate editor of the American Poetry Magazine and the author of more than 500 published poems, which have received national prize awards and appeared in well known anthologies.
She is president of the Ohio Branch, American Poetry Circle and is deeply interested in collecting data on women writers. She is the wife of Dr. A. J. DeFossett. Their home is at 157 Twelfth Ave., Columbus.
MARY CAROLINE AND JANE CAMPBELL DENVER
The famous Cary sisters had literary precedent right in their own state. Moreover, their prototypes were not only sisters but twins.
MARY CAROLINE and JANE CAMPBELL DENVER were born in Win- chester, Vt., Feb. 8, 1821 but moved to Wilmington, Ohio, when they were ten years old. They were the daughters of Patrick Denver, an officer in the War of 1812. Mary was first to show her gift for verse. She began writing poetry at 11 and continued to do so with growing expressiveness and skill, for more than 30 years. Jane began to express herself in verse several years later than Mary. Jane wrote, it is said, with more force and spirit but Mary's thoughts flowed more freely, apparently quite without effort.
778
WOMEN OF OHIO
General Albert Pike, the same hero for whom was named the first steam- boat plying the Ohio River between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, wrote the preface to a "Poems by M. C. and J. C. Denver" published in 1875. Many of them are nature lyrics, but some deal with world affairs, for instance "Paul in the Prison of Kosciusco."
Jane died in 1847 and very soon her twin sister, whose mental and spiritual life had been almost as close as her physical twinship, fell ill. Mary's death did not take place until 1860 but she never recovered health or strength. The bond that was really vital had long since been broken.
MARY QUIGLEY ELLIOTT
MARY QUIGLEY ELLIOTT (Mrs. A. W. Elliott) of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, author of a history of the outstanding writers of Knox County was born in Tuscarawas County, attended school there and entered Ohio State University, later transferring to Wooster College.
For a time she was principal of Beall Ave. School at Wooster, then joined the college faculty.
Following her marriage to A. W. Elliott, now superintendent of schools of Mt. Vernon, their home was established in that city where Mrs. Elliott continued to teach for a time.
She has been active in numerous educational, civic and cultural organiza- tions and has served as president of a number of important clubs.
The fact that an unusual number of writers of distinction had at one time or another lived in Knox County, has long interested Mrs. Elliott and several years ago she began a definite research, the results of which took form of a valuable addition to Ohio publications.
Mrs. Elliott's book contains biographies of 80 writers, all born or resi- dent at some time in Knox County, who have made worthwhile contributions to American literature. This book is now in many libraries and is a reference volume of real distinction and value.
In his review in the Columbus Dispatch, Oscar Hopper said of this book-
"Mary Quigley Elliott has done a gracious and unusual thing by writing and putting between covers brief biographies of 80 persons who have in one way or another contributed to the literature of America, and lived for a time, at least, in Knox County, Ohio.
"Among these are a few of the following whose names and work will be recognized at once: Bishop Philander Chase, Founder of Kenyon College; Daniel Decatur Emmett, Author of 'Dixie'; Paul Kester, Author of 'When Knighthood was in Flower'; Lorain A. Lathrop, American Consul and writer of fiction; and Anna Louise Strong, Author and Lecturer. The book well printed and bound in cloth, well evidences the fact that Knox County has contributed its fair quota to culture and education. The book is unique in that it is the only collection of its kind ever published in Ohio."
779
WOMEN OF OHIO
MARY E. FEE
MARY E. FEE, born in Clermont County, who wrote in the eighteen fifties under the pen name "Eulalie" found gratifying reception for a volume of verse published in Cincinnati in 1854. About that time she married John Shannon and went west to California. There she gave recitals of her poems and lectures which drew crowded houses, said to have made a record for literary entertainments of the day in the Golden West.
Mary was, in accordance with the popular poetic motif of her time, a romanticist. But sentiment did not prove strong enough to sustain her in the tragic romance written by fate into her own life. Her husband fell in a duel. They had been devoted to each other and "Eulalie" died soon after.
MARTHA FARQUHARSON FINLEY
MARTHA FARQUHARSON FINLEY, author of the Elsie Dinsmore books, one of the most popular juvenile series of their or of any other day. was born in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1828, the daughter of Dr. James Brown Fin- ley and Martha Theresa Brown Finley. Her parents were cousins, of Scotch descent. One of Martha's ancestors was killed by Graham of Claverhouse in a personal encounter.
The Finleys moved to Ireland in 1682, Michael, the American forebear of the Finley family, came to Bucks County, Penn., in 1742. It is said that Martha's great grandfather was killed by Indians near Carlisle. Her grand- father, the Rev. Robert Finley, became president of Princeton College, the friend of George Washington, a major of cavalry in the Revolutionary War and a general in the War of 1812.
It was on the advice of Nathaniel Massie, founder of Chillicothe, that the Rev. Robert came to that community and lent staunch aid in the building up of the Presbyterian Church. His son James, father of Martha, was a lieu- tenant in the War of 1812, a physician, surveyor, circuit riding minister and an Indian scout.
This versatility finds its echo in the books of his daughter, although Martha Finley was 40 years old before the first of her "Elsie Books" was published. She began her literary career as a writer for newspapers and Sunday School publications. It is said that her entire output totalled approxi- mately 100 volumes and that the total sales of her various books totalled two million.
Martha used Farquharson instead of Finley as her writing name but it meant the same thing-in Gaelic. She died at the age of 80, at Elkton, Md. The old Finley home was at Paint and Second Streets, now the heart of the business district of Chillicothe.
780
WOMEN OF OHIO
ABBIE FLANNER
True love, true love
How does it strike you, love ?
In this Abbie-Fitz Romance Wouldn't Abbie take a chance ?
Or did Halleck let things ride
Rather on the frigid side ?
1939 Crooners Chapbook.
Once upon a time, when practically everybody regarded poetry as the language of romance and nobody suspected that it could ever become the hard boiled tongue of reality, there lived in New York City a very popular poet-a bachelor-whose name was Fitz Greene Halleck.
At about this same time-in the eighteen thirties-there lived at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio a very attractive young poetess, whose name was ABBIE FLANNER.
Abbie was born in North Carolina, the daughter of William and Penina Flanner, who came to Ohio during her childhood. To be honest, Abbie's name is not included in most text books on American literature nor are her verses to be found in high school anthologies. So she was probably not a great poet, even judged by the standards of her time. But she certainly did conform to these standards by being a most romantic one. She was a fine conversa- tionalist and altogether quite a popular young woman.
One night, when there was a party at the Flanner home-although her father was a Quaker leader, Abbie seems to have had rather a nice time -- the conversation turned, as it often did, on the famous bachelor poet who, like Lord Byron, was all the more popular and romantic because of his sym- pathy for the Greeks in their struggle for independence. It was not long since he had written, "Marco Bozzaris" a poem which is included in most high school anthologies and which was declaimed in their youth by many more present day grandmothers and grandfathers than will ever read these pensive lines.
"Strike-for the Green Graves of your Sires God-and your Native Land."
Finally-at Abbie's party-it was boldly suggested that some one write to the wonderful Mr. Halleck-open up a correspondence-in fact, write HIM a poem. Wouldn't that be wonderful ?
The intriguing idea was dallied with-then dropped, as so many good ideas are.
But it was not dropped by Abbie Flanner. The idea stayed right with her and presently she evolved a poem to keep it company in a letter sent- before her courage failed-to Mr. Halleck. It did not really take so much courage because Abbie signed a fictitious name-Ellen A. F. Campbell.
781
WOMEN OF OHIO
But see what the clever and charming bachelor poet was able to evolve, just from a name. Halleck's "Answer to Ellen" or to give its accepted title "The Mocking Bird" totaled ten stanzas, among them these
"I saw the Highland heath flower smile In beauty upon ELLEN'S isle And-couched in ELLEN'S bower- I watched beneath the lattice leaves Her coming, through a summer's eve Youngest and loveliest hour.
"Long shall I deem that winning smile A mere mockery, to beguile Some lonely hour of care And will this Ellen prove to be But like her namesake o'er the sea A being of the air.
"Or shall I take the morning's wing Armed with a parson and a ring Speed hill and dale along And at her cottage hearth, ere night Change into flutterings of delight Or what's more likely, of affright The merry mock-bird's song."
It should be noted that the first portion of Fitz Greene Halleck's poem in answer to "Ellen" is altogether figurative and imaginary, as the remain- ing seven stanzas make clear. This is important because the point-the highly romantic and certainly quite unmodern point of the whole story is that "Ellen" and Fitz Greene Halleck never did meet. Nor was this altogether Halleck's fault. Mystery lent, apparently, lots of enchantment to his view and he asked "Ellen" (Abbie) for a personal interview. But "Ellen" (Abbie) said no, that would spoil everything-the illusion would vanish. She did send him, however, another poem-and a very nice one. It said in part-
"But when the busy crowd is gone And bright upon the western sky The changeful sunset hues are thrown O, wilt thou thither turn the eye And send one gentle thought to her Whose spirit turns to thine Like Persia's idol worshipper Or Moslem to his prophet's shrine?" -"Ellen."
782
WOMEN OF OHIO
Fitz Greene Halleck sent a copy of his poems and is said to have really tried to find her. But "Ellen" (the obdurate Abbie) said no, no-she pre- ferred to keep her idol at a distance.
However, Abbie (the former "Ellen") did not, apparently feel this way about everybody. She married a Mr. Talbot and seemed to have lived on happily enough right there in Mt. Pleasant. Her death occurred in 1852 and she was buried in Jefferson County-in the Short Creek Meeting House graveyard.
It is probable that Abbie Flanner would have liked to have had a line or two of one of her really very excellent poems carved on her tombstone. But there was no tombstone-or at least there is none now-to mark the last resting place of Fitz Greene Halleck's "Mocking Bird".
KATHERINE GERWICK
KATHERINE GERWICK, formerly of Zanesville, O., who passed away in 1927, was a member of the Author's Club. Her poetry was widely pub- lished in many of the better magazines. Before her death she was connected with the National Young Woman's Christian Association, with offices in New York, and was assistant to Carrie Chapman Catt in her work for World Peace.
ALICE E. HANSCOM
ALICE E. HANSCOM, teacher and poet, was born in Gates Mills, Ohio, June 3, 1848, the daughter of Alva and Hannah Hanscom. She lived in several homes there, the last one later known as the Hunt Club Inn. She died October 24, 1932 in Willoughby, Ohio, where she had been a resident for about seventy years, and had lived to become one of the most dearly loved and distinguished citizens of the community.
The many interests of her active mind had led her to seek many wider horizons. After her graduation from Willoughby College in 1866, she re- ceived her early training as teacher in at least six localities, with one year's teaching in each of the following places: Willoughby, Orrville, Alliance, Rich- mond in Kentucky, Cleveland and three years in Dayton. All these early experiences led up to wider opportunities in metropolitan schools; first from 1880 to 1884 in New York City, in Mrs. Salisbury's School; from 1884 to 1895 in the Hathaway Brown School in Cleveland and in 1902 at the Laurel School in Cleveland, where she was employed as special teacher and lecturer for some years.
Failing eyesight gradually led her to sever her close connection with school work, but she continued to be a leader in intellectual circles. Prom- inent in such activities she for almost twenty years directed the program of a Jewish Club of highly cultivated women in Cleveland. During these years
783
WOMEN OF OHIO
after her retirement from formal teaching, she was busy with her pen, writing articles on matters of current literary interest for various publications.
She was invited by a New York paper to interview Charles W. Chesnutt, then rising to prominence as a young novelist in Cleveland; for another periodical, she served as book reviewer, and after much urging consented to send one of her timely poems to her town newspaper. At the earnest entreaty of friends, she privately published in 1898, her one book of verse, "Perennia."
Such are the bare facts in the life of the rare spirit of Alice Hanscom, whose sojourn on earth for eighty-four years influenced her environment, wherever she might be; whose personality was like the fragrance of "precious ointment."
It was this highly spiritual quality coupled with intellectual acumen that made her influence far-felt. Her keen appreciation of literary values gave her a delicacy of diction which made her opinion of books discriminating and added to this was a lively sense of humor.
Her long span of years gave her a breadth of vision in estimating the trend of contemporary affairs in which she took a lively interest. She remembered many events of the Civil War, and the terrific shock when the report of Lincoln's assassination came to the village. "I saw," she recounted, sorrowfully, "I saw his funeral train draped in black as it passed through Willoughby."
Her secretary, Miss Lillian Barnes (now MRS. C. J. ROLFE of Willough- by), often encouraged Miss Hanscom during later years to recall some of the experiences of her youth and we have Mrs. Rolfe to thank for some of these reminiscences.
Among her chief interests in Willoughby, the Library and the Andrews School held her constant attention. One of the school dormitories carries her name. First interest of all was the Willoughby Church of Christ, organized in 1873, of which she was the last charter member. Her generous gift of $10,000.00 made possible the construction of the present building. She also donated an organ, a gift made in memory of her mother.
Alice Hanscom was an idealist. Her poetry abounds in spiritual realities which for her permeated even the commonplaces of life. When in 1918 she came to live in her new and delightful home with Dr. Chesbrough, she wrote a series of verses entitled, "My Window World." The first of these, "At the East Window," tells how-
"When certain people speak their word About the white birch tree, My window-neighbor gowned in green. She lets me know what she has heard (Our interchange of glance unseen) And pities such as these, does she.
784
WOMEN OF OHIO
Who having eyes yet cannot see To tell a dryad from a tree! She looks demure until they go, But then she flutters to and fro And lisps and laughs and beckons me ... "
The last of the series, "Dawn on the Terrace," illustrates her devout and holy interpretation of nature when she writes:
"High, high, . . . My spirit mounts into the sky
The mystery and the miracle made luminous to me ... "
To be deprived of such luminous revelations to the eye, made blindness particularly hard for her to bear.
Wide knowledge of history and literature recaptured in many a con- versation with friends of kindred spirits, delightful impressions once received.
She was blind when she took a long anticipated trip to Europe and the Holy Land. Commenting on her first visit to the Acropolis, she said: "I can never describe the joy that filled my soul, when I placed my hand on a stone warmed by the sun, near the spot where Paul was reported to stand when he spoke on Mars Hill."
The poem which perhaps best represents her unchanging faith is one she wrote at the turn of the century and which she names "Carmen Cordis." It reads :
"Thanks that the stars endure Though years like clouds go by ; A patient Purpose holds secure The children of the sky.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.