USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume II > Part 37
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ANNA W. ROUSSEL
ANNA W. ROUSSEL, writer of Camden, Ohio, was born there, the daughter of John and Anna Whitaker, and was married to George Albert Roussel, born in Carcassome, France.
Her verse has been widely published and has been included in numerous anthologies. She also writes travel sketches.
Mrs. Roussel is a member of the Methodist Church; of the Ohio League of Women Voters; Council of International League and League of Nations Association.
Anna Roussel was educated in the Camden Public School and has served on the Board of Education of Camden, Ohio and of Dayton, Ohio, and was the first woman to be elected to these offices.
She has served as president in the following clubs : Philomathian, Camden, Ohio; Woman's Literary Club, Dayton, Ohio; The Woman's Club, Laurel, Maryland and Woman's Club, Huntington, W. Va.
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In 1939 Mrs. Roussel was appointed a member of the League of Nation's World Fair Committee, New York.
PAULINE SAGER
PAULINE SAGER (Mrs. P. H. Sager), of Newark, whose verse has been widely published, broadcasted and set to music, was born at Kenton, Ohio, where her ancestors, of German and of English descent, first settled about 1742. Her gift for building words into rhythmic patterns is an inheritance, Mrs. Sager believes, from her father and her grandfather, both lovers of good poetry who read much and were fond of quoting the gems of literature which most impressed them.
Pauline attended public school at Kenton and at Lima, then the Ohio Northern University and later Ohio State University. She was for a time teacher of art in the public schools of Lima. Following her marriage to P. H. Sager, faculty member of Newark High School, Mrs. Sager concentrated on writing, devoting to this avocation all of the time and energy not required by the conducting of her home at Newark.
Her ability and effort have been rewarded with definite success in the field of poetry. Among publications which have featured her poems are The American Poetry Magazine, Poetry Caravan, the Journal of the National Education Association, Ohio State Journal, Columbus Citizen, Columbus Dis- patch and Ohio Schools. Mrs. Sager is an active member of the American Literary Association and of the Verse Writers Guild of Ohio. Here is a characteristic poem which won first prize for Mrs. Sager in a recent statewide competition :
CHINESE ROSE
Will anything be left For remembering When China's heart, war-cleft Finds a tranquil spring ?
Will the land forget When cherry-blossoms fall.
War's gleaming bayonet, His tents beyond the wall ?
Pushing through the dust Where the Yangtze flows, Memory's thorn will thrust From the wild white rose.
ADA MARIA SKINNER
ADA MARIA SKINNER, Columbus author and text book writer, was born in Worcester, England, the daughter of Thomas and Emmeline Skinner.
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She took her B. S. at Columbia University and published her first book, "Storyland for Children" in 1914. In quick succession followed "Dramatic Stories for Reading and Acting," "Little Folks Christmas Plays," "Nursery Tales from Many Lands," "The Topaz Story Book" and many others. She is co-author of "Fact and Story Readers" and of "Practice Units in English." Her home is at 861 Neil Ave., Columbus.
EDITH LOMBARD SQUIRES
EDITH LOMBARD SQUIRES, born in Muskingum County, now living in Richmond, Indiana, whose collection "Sails that Sing" was published in 1928 and had many re-printings, is noted for historical plays, children's plays, radio scripts and poetry arrangements and is also a noteworthy musician. She is a member of the American Pen Women's Association.
ANNA LOUISE STRONG
ANNA LOUISE STRONG was born at Mt. Vernon, November 8, 1885.
She was graduated from Oak Park High School in 1901, and during the following year studied in Germany. On her return from abroad, she spent a year in Bryn Mawr. In 1905 she was graduated from Oberlin College with the degree of A. B. and in 1908 from the University of Chicago with the degree of Ph. D.
Anna Strong has won a distinguished place in the field of letters, also in social work.
Among her best known books are: Songs of the City, King's Palace, Psy- chology of Prayer, On the Eve of Home Rule, Ragged Verse by Anise, History of The Seattle Strike, The First Time in History, and Children of The Revo- lution.
Miss Strong is now living in Seattle, Washington, from which place she travels extensively and gathers material for her prolific pen.
IDA TARBELL
IDA TARBELL, who at 81 years of age has just completed a new book high lighted by reviewers all over the country, was born in Erie County, Penn., and makes her present home at Meadville, Penn. How can she be claimed as a woman of Ohio?
The answer is that what this world famous biographer, writer and re- former regards as one of the highly formative periods of her career-because it was the beginning-was spent in the little village of Poland, Mahoning County, Ohio, as "preceptress" of the old Poland Academy.
Ida Tarbell likes to tell how she got the job. There were, she says, two other candidates, one of them undoubtedly more experienced and better qualified.
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But the youthful Miss Tarbell had, it seems, plenty of personality. She was "possibly better looking." Anyhow she taught the young idea in Mahon- ing County so well that to this day, residents of the entire locality, including the big and bustling city of Youngstown, Ohio, point with pride to their former teacher.
Ida Tarbell's story could hardly be better told than it is in an article by Esther Hamilton, featured April 30, 1939, in the Youngstown Vindicator. It says, in part-"Miss Tarbell was born in Titusville, Pa. in November, 1857, daughter of a self-sufficient farmer. When the oil boom swept Pennsylvania, naturally she knew much of it. In 1880, when she went to Meadville College, she was one of five girls enrolled. It was a venturesome thing for her to do in those times.
"Out of college, she went to Poland Academy to teach for two years. As preceptress of the Poland Academy, Miss Tarbell had spent part of her sum- mers at Chautauqua, looked upon as the fountain of culture in its time. She became assistant editor of 'The Chautauqua' and was embarked on her literary career. She spent eight years there, in one capacity and another, and with her natural inclination to be a scientist, coupled with her writing experience she was ready for anything.
"At the time Frenchmen were doing the best work in history and biog- raphy, so with her savings of $150.00, Ida Tarbell went to Paris to find out how it was done. She supported herself there in frugal fashion in a Paris garret by sending back articles to American magazines.
"It was in the early 90's that S. S. MeClure, noted journalist of his day, read her articles and got her on his editorial staff. This brought her into contact with Lincoln Steffens, then hounding out corruption in politics and industry. Some persons of the period called the crusaders muckrakers, but Miss Tarbell herself, with a fiery flash in her eyes, and swift movements of those ever expressive hands, is quick to deny that charge. They were students of the times, printing the facts as they saw them.
"Along with her magazine work, she found time to write and publish a life of Napoleon, another of Madame Roland. In 1896, she published her first volume of Lincoln and four years later her two-volume biography of Lincoln, now a classic in the libraries of the country and the Bible of all Lincoln students. Other articles and volumes on Lincoln followed.
"She was called all over the country to lecture. She could not begin to fill her writing assignments. The country school teacher was made.
"But it was in 1904, with 'The History of the Standard Oil Company' that Ida Tarbell stood the country on its ears. The book scorched the com- pany. Suits followed. Her name became a household word and trust leaders feared her as they would the plague. She knew the oil industry from her early days in Titusville, from her father's experience in trying to be an inde- pendent and she dug up records, interviewed people who had the answers. got
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sworn statements, literally tossed a bomb-shell of facts into the lap of America.
"With others, she was interested in starting the American Magazine in 1906. In her spare time (usually between midnight and dawn) she published 'The Business of Being a Woman,' 'The Ways of Women,' 'The Tariff in Our Times' and dozens of articles.
"In 1916 Miss Tarbell wrote a book about changing methods in business. That was followed by books on Judge Gary and Owen D. Young, which were anything but muckraking, but did demonstrate the new deal in business where the employee gets consideration.
"Her latest book, considered sufficiently important to get first place in the book review sections of the metropolitan papers, reviews the high lights of her life. It is not complete, for one would have to read all her works to get some glimpse of what she has done these last few years but from page 48 to page 63, it is full of things of interest to Youngstown, Ohio people."
ADALINE H. TATMAN
ADALINE H. TATMAN (Mrs. William C. Tatman), one of Cincinnati's group of successful writers; taught school in Southern Ohio for five years before her marriage, and previous to embarking on her literary career.
Her poems, many in number, and particularly noted for their delicacy of feeling and expression, have appeared from time to time, in Good Housekeep- ing, the Public School Journal, the Ladies Home Journal and other magazines and newspapers. Among the best examples of her work are the verses entitled "The Night Meeting," "The Carpenter," and "I went To you for Sympathy."
With her husband, Mrs. Tatman was co-founder of the Greater Cincinnati Writers League, which now has a membership of 65 poets, novelists, short story writers, editors and newspaper men and women.
She is also past president and member of the Women's Press Club of Cincinnati and a charter member of the Cincinnati Branch of the League of American Pen Women.
ISABEL WHITEHOUSE TOPPIN
ISABEL WHITEHOUSE TOPPIN, of Toledo, is a widely known writer and is associate editor of "The Sun," weekly newspaper of which her husband, James Toppin, is editor and publisher. The paper was founded by them in 1920.
Mrs. Toppin, author of two volumes of poetry, is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, Cincinnati Branch; The Ohioana Library Association; the Ohio Newspaper Woman's Association; the Woman's Press Club and her poems and articles in many papers and magazines are read by many.
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She is also a member of the Toledo League of Women Voters; the City Manager League; Toledo Better Motion Picture Council; Toledo Museum of Art; Toledo Naturalists Association; Wilson Ornithological Association ; Toledo Zoological Society; Toledo Astronomical Society; National Anti- Vivisection Society ; National Geographic Society ; Ogle Union, W.C.T.U., and was organizer in 1931 of the East Side Loyal Temperance Legion for school children of which she was district leader six years. She was also a member of the Toledo Business and Professional Women's Club. She was organizer of the East Side Young People's Branch Temperance Society for high school boys and girls and of their White Ribbon Male Quartette; served as treasurer of the Toledo Council on the Cause and Cure of War for three terms and is a member of the Cincinnati Peace League. She is a charter member of Lotus Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star; also a member of the Board of Directors of Lotus Assembly, Order of Rainbow for Girls. She is the author of their official Ohio State Song "Rainbow of Promise."
In addition to Mrs. Toppin's literary and humanitarian activities, she is a home-keeper and the mother of a son, Paul Victor Toppin.
Her first volume of 100 poems was published in 1927 and her second volume of more than 100 poems was published in September, 1934. Both volumes are in the Ohioana State Library at Columbus, Ohio.
MARGARETTA MUHLENBERG TUTTLE
To MARGARETTA MUHLENBERG TUTTLE (Mrs. Frederic C. Tuttle), has been accorded the satisfaction that accompanies not only authorship of best sellers but also screen production of her novels on a scale that climaxed the widespread interest they aroused in serial and book form.
The realism that is part of her gift for writing is attributed by this widely known Cincinnati author to the fact that she was the daughter of a newspaper man, the late George Perkins. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but came to Cincinnati in her early girlhood and was graduated from Cincinnati University.
Her writing career did not begin until several years after her marriage to Frederic Tuttle, a highly experienced and successful business man. Her earlier articles made their way promptly into leading national weeklies and as these were followed by clever fiction in modern setting, the popularity of the author grew in the world of editors and publishers as well as that of readers.
Among her best known novels are "His Worldly Goods." "Feet of Clay" which was filmed by Cecil De Mille, "Kingdoms of the World," "The Un- guarded Hour" and "Little Girl."
During the World War Armistice, Mrs. Tuttle toured the war zone and on her return dealt with results of the great catastrophe in articles of much interest and appeal.
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The Tuttles has two daughters, Margaretta and Catherine and a son Frederic Chandler Tuttle. Their home is at Rose Hill, Cincinnati.
JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER
JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1888. A talented, artistic girl, Jean Starr was married to the poet Louis Unter- meyer of New York when she was quite young and almost immediately embarked upon an independent career of writing. Her poems have been pub- lished in the Century ; The Bookman; Poetry; The Literary Review and many other magazines and she has brought out several collections of verse, notably "Growing Pains" and "Dreams Out of Darkness." She is now living in New York and her drawing room is like an old world salon in the variety and number of interesting personages of the stage and world of art and letters who gather there.
RACHEL M. VARBLE
RACHEL M. VARBLE (Mrs. Pinckney Varble) of Cleveland Heights, is a writer of popular juvenile stories and contributor to newspaper syndicates. She was educated at Science Hill School for Girls, Kentucky, and took special courses at Kenntucky State University. Among her published stories are "The Red Cape," "A girl from London" and "Marie of the Gypsies." Her residence is 2273 Bellfield Rd., Cleveland Heights.
MARY S. WATTS
When MARY S. WATTS, Cincinnati novelist and playwright, published her first book "Nathan Burke" literary critics and reviewers throughout the country turned their eyes toward the Queen City to discover the formula which had won for this comparatively unknown writer such signal success.
The secret was not hard to find. Untiring research and a talent for good, terse English were the main factors in the production of this and other highly skilled historical novels by this successful woman writer. They still are, as is evidenced by many other fine stories. Among them are "Jennie Cushing," "The Rudder," "The Boardman Family," "From Father to Son," "The Noon Mark" and "The House of Rimmon." Mrs. Watts was Mary Stanbery before her marriage to Miles T. Watts of Cincinnati. She was born in Delaware County, Ohio, educated at the Sacred Heart Convent, Cincinnati, and was given the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the Cincinnati University. She is the author of a number of plays and of many short stories and articles.
DUFFY RANSOHOFF WESTHEIMER
DUFFY RANSOHOFF WESTHEIMER (Mrs. Leo Westheimer) Cincin- nati writer and book reviewer, was born in Cincinnati, the daughter of dis-
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tinguished parents who did much for the progress of their native city.
Her father was the late Dr. Joseph Ransohoff, a surgeon whose service helped to make the medical history of the middle west. Her mother belonged to the Workum family, identified closely with numerous social services and philanthropies.
MRS. JOSEPH RANSOHOFF was in reality the originator of the now highly developed educational service given to children in hospitals and special schools of Cincinnati.
Duffy Ransohoff attended the school of Madame Blanche Fredin, later the University of Cincinnati where she became a member of the Sorority V. C. B. and Kappa Alpha Theta. She completed her education in Europe where she took various courses.
Her marriage to Leo Westheimer, Cincinnati financier, united two Cincin- natians, long noted for fine citizenship as well as for personal achievement.
Three children were born to this union and their care occupied the time and energy of Mrs. Westheimer before she began development in good earnest of her talent as a writer. Her short stories soon found publication in a number of leading magazines. Her plays were also published, then presented by various companies. For a year Duffy Westheimer was a staff member of the Cincin- nati Times-Star as book reviewer and during this period she became a member of the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association.
Her outstanding social service has been given through the Red Cross of which she is canteen chairman and a board member. Other organizations with which she has worked enthusiastically and efficiently are the Cincinnati Woman's Exchange, Fresh Air Farm, Visiting Nurse Association, National Youth Aliyah, English Speaking Union, MacDowell Society, Town Club and Cincinnati Woman's Club.
B. Y. WILLIAMS
B. Y. WILLIAMS (Mrs. Karl H. Williams) of Cincinnati, author of two volumes of poetry accorded high praise by both critics and public, was born at Hamersville, Ohio, the daughter of Elsberry and Eleanor Belle Smith.
She made her home at Georgetown for a time following her marriage to Karl Howland Williams, then at Wigginsville and for the past 20 years in Cincinnati.
Mrs. Williams began writing in earnest while her children, Anne Bernice (Mrs. W. Massey Foley) and Thomas Young Williams (deceased) were still of tender years. Many of her early and still most popular poems tell quite simply and gayly of joys which are the happy heritage of childhood.
Later verse has varied themes but the simplicity of style which, combined with depth of thought and gift for phrasing, is regarded as the chief excel- lency of this successful writer, has always remained a characteristic of her work.
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Her pen name "B. Y. Williams" became widely known when her "House of Happiness" was published and her second volume of poems "Apples of Gold" enhanced this prestige.
Mrs. Williams has a third volume of verse, almost completed and has had numerous poems published in leading magazines. She has won important prizes for literary work and was co-founder and co-editor of "Tularia" a poetry quarterly. She is an active member of the Poetry Society; League of American Pen Women; Writers Club; Cincinnati Woman's Club and other organizations.
L. ELIZABETH WILLIAMS
L. ELIZABETH WILLIAMS, poet and educational writer, was born in Cincinnati, the daughter of Samuel Wesley and Laura Lorraine Williams. She attended the Ohio Wesleyan University, by which she was awarded the degree of A. B., and the Cincinnati Art Academy.
Miss Williams is the author of several books for kindergarten use and a contributor to various anthologies and to a number of magazines and news- papers. For two years she wrote "The World Movement" of the Western Christian Advocate. For a time she taught Latin and English at Toulon Academy, Ill. She is a past president of the Wyoming Woman's Club, a mem- ber of Wyoming Garden Circle and of the Southwest District, Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs.
WILNA BALDWIN WINTRINGHAM
WILNA BALDWIN WINTRINGHAM spent her early years with a large family of brothers and sisters on the edge of the little marsh village of Mc- Guffey, Ohio. She is a talented artist and writer. Many of her short stories and poems have been published.
She is the wife of a M. E. minister, C. E. Wintringham, who is now serving the Bryan, Ohio church.
They have three children.
Without question, more than one Ohio woman who made definite con- tribution to the literature of today or yesterday has been omitted from this list because of lack of available record. But for the assistance of two expert Ohio librarians, LINDA EASTMAN, former head of the Cleveland Public Library and MARY COCHRAN, reference librarian of the Cincinnati Public Library, and for the cooperation of others whose help is deeply appreciated, the project would have been impossible.
Expression of earnest gratitude is due to one more Ohio woman in especial. This is MARTHA KINNEY COOPER (Mrs. M. Y. Cooper) founder of the Ohioana Library at Columbus, on the shelves of which the work of 4000 Ohio writers, men and women, is now represented. Details of this fine enter- prise will be in the chapter in which service given by women librarians of Ohio is specifically outlined.
B. Y. WILLIAMS (Mrs. Karl H. Williams) Cincinnati, poet of distinction
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Women in Peace and War
MRS. ROBERT A. TAFT
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
WOMEN IN PEACE AND WAR
By MARTHA BOWERS TAFT (Mrs. Robert A. Taft)
What could a woman in Ohio-or many women-do to prevent war in the world and to keep this nation from being drawn into war?
When we put the question in these terms, we cannot but have a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness at the contrast between the vastness of the problem and our slight equipment to meet it.
But women have always been ready to dedicate themselves to great causes and have never been daunted because the odds were against them. From Joan of Arc to Susan B. Anthony they have dared and have achieved the impossible.
Never before have we been challenged by a cause so noble or a prize so great. As women we are not handicapped in working for peace. On the contrary, we hold an actual advantage.
It is far more difficult for men, who would be called on to fight, in case of hostilities, to make an impersonal case against war.
It has been accepted that women should try to mitigate the horrors of war by trying to lessen the hardships and to heal the wounds-by nursing, making bandages, conducting canteens, knitting-
But just as in medicine and in social service, the emphasis has shifted from cure to prevention of disease, so in the field of inter- national relations we need not ministering angels but militant propa- ganda for peace.
After the World War, Edward Beuls said, "to make peace in Europe possible, the last representative of the pre-war generation must die and take his pre-war mentality into the grave with him."
Surely we are not wholly unteachable. Surely some of our pre- war convictions do lie buried in the graves of those brave young soldiers who fought a "war to end war." Surely we have learned in the dreadful aftermath of that struggle that war brings only a
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breakdown of our standards of liberty and of human decency-that not force but tolerance and co-operation among nations is the only way to peace.
What can women of Ohio do to help peace prevail? They have done many things already. The preponderance of women in peace organizations shows that they have been awake to the problem. They have been foremost in urging education and legislation to prevent war.
We must go on doing these things and more. Ours is the greatest responsibility of all, that of training in the love of peace and in the ways of peace the younger generation. The human race goes forward on the feet of children.
If their feet are to stumble across bloody battlefields to the slaughter of each other, there can be no going forward for the world. The world can only stumble, wretchedly and blindly, to its own annihiliation.
The things we can do for peace may seem vain and futile, the words we speake against war may seem lost on the winds of hate and intolerance. But even a small part of building for peace is a greater thing than any other to which we could dedicate our lives.
Let us put first things first. For our children, for our country, for the world-the first and greatest thing must be peace.
MARY TAYLOR ADAMS
When the Woman's Relief Corps of Wilmington, O., placed a tablet of honor on the grave, in Sugar Grove Cemetery, Wilmington, of MARY TAY- LOR ADAMS, they had good and substantial reasons for their selection.
Mary was the first volunteer nurse from Clinton County to serve in the Civil War. She was married to David Adams, of Cincinnati, who went to the war. So Mary went also. She went to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, started a camp in an old barn which she herself cleared out with pick and shovel. She strewed the ground with straw. On this were spread blankets and here Mary Adams, who had never studied nursing in her life but knew quite a lot from practical experience, attended to the wounded, watched with the dying soldiers. She was only 22 years old at the beginning. She left her baby daughter with her parents at Wilmington. Every time she went home she collected money and supplies from everybody, in the city and in the county, from whom she could obtain them. She also saw to it that the women supplied her with plenty of bandages-all through her fours years of service.
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