USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume III > Part 15
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Mrs. Tangeman, one of the most effectual and energetic members of the younger group of Cincinnati's civic and social leaders, has shown a very special ability for skillful executive direction. Her first interest, after the management of her charming home, lies in the organization work of the Episcopal Church. As vice president of the Woman's Auxiliary of the Diocese of Southern Ohio from 1934-38, and as chairman of the Cincinnati Convoca- tion for the same period, she has given service both brilliant and inspired. She acted also as first vice president of the Council of Churches, Women's Department in 1938, and as secretary in 1936. As a member of the Junior Cooperative Society of the Children's Hospital, she has given much time to the work of this group.
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Her unusual ability has in addition been demonstrated as president of the College Club, as a member of the League of Women Voters, for whom she has performed distinguished service in planning projects to assist in carrying out their financial program, and as a board member of the Parent Teachers Association of the Walnut Hills High School.
She is also an active member of the Cincinnati Woman's Club, the Young Women's Christian Association and the Delta Delta Delta Sorority.
Margaret Tangeman is always busy. Wherever there is a difficult and responsible task to be undertaken, in the affairs of her church, her clubs, or her family, she rises to the call of duty with generous response, amaz- ing ability, and unfailing success.
LIDA FOOTE TARR
LIDA FOOTE TARR (Mrs. H. Minnich Tarr), was born at Cleveland, the daughter of William Hunt and Frances Elizabeth Foote. She attended the Cleveland School of Art and was graduated from the Chicago Kindergar- ten College. In 1910 she married Dr. H. M. Tarr, Cleveland physician and surgeon. At present she is a trustee of the School of Applied Social Science, Western Reserve University. She was formedly kindergarten teacher at Mishawaka, Ind., also a case worker for the Associated Charities of South Bend, Ind.
Mrs. Tarr was national president of the Camp Fire Girls from 1930 to 1934 and is also a former president of the local council of Camp Fire Girls.
ANNE TRACY
ANNE TRACY, executive secretary of the Travelers Aid Society of Cin- cinnati, accounts for such attainment and achievement as she will admit by the fact that she was the oldest of a family of eleven children and "had to do something."
Anne attended Morrison Seminary and took courses at the University of Kentucky. Her first outstanding work was in the suffrage campaign, to which she devoted enthusiastic effort and energy in Ohio and in Wisconsin. For a time she was under direct leadership of Dr. Anna Shaw and Mrs. LaFollette.
Her present position and its many responsibilities are a direct outgrowth of Miss Tracy's service under the Women's Council for National Defense, during the World War. Anne Tracy is a charter member of the Woman's City Club of Cincinnati and has also co-operated closely with the Better Housing League and the Catholic Women's Association.
EFFIE CORWIN TRADER
The Trader sisters, four in number, were born in Xenia, Ohio-daugh- ters of James Franklin and Elizabeth Duckworth Trader. When the girls
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were very young, the family settled in Cincinnati where they have been long and closely identified with the artistic and philanthropic life of the city.
EFFIE CORWIN TRADER, the artist, studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy under Frank Duveneck, and later, under Theodore Dube, of Paris, and Henry B. Snell. Her specialty is miniature painting on ivory, portraits, and other work in oil. She has exhibited with the American Society of Miniature Painters at New York City; at the Philadelphia Academy; at the Chicago Art Institute. She is a member of the Woman's Art Club, which she has served as president; of the MacDowell Society, of which she was treasurer for six years ; and of the National League of American Pen Women. Her hobby is writing.
LOUISE KING TRADER, the youngest of the family was educated at Miss Armstrong's School for Girls, before beginning the study of voice at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. She has limited her promising musical career, however, to the scope of private performance as her strength was not adequate for public or professional work.
The other two sisters, FLORENCE BISHOP and GEORGIA TRADER, whose names are so closely associated with all significant and splendid work for the blind in Cincinnati and throughout the United States, graduated from Miss Armstrong's School in 1900. Together, in 1901, they established the Cincinnati Library Society for the Blind.
In 1903, Mr. William C. Proctor purchased the old home, on College Hill, of the poets Alice and Phoebe Carey, known as "Clovernook," and pre- sented it to Florence and Georgia Trader, as trustees, to be used as an In- dustrial Home for the Blind, where all who are able are taught to work. It has one of the largest establishments in the United States for the printing of Braille books. A weaving shop furnishes work for many of the residents.
In 1905 these two tireless and inspired workers, not content with the entire responsibility of administering the constant enlarging activities of Clovernook, established classes for the blind in the Cincinnati Public Schools. At their urgent request also, the examinations of the eyes of all public school children was made a matter of routine public health procedure.
The lives of these Trader Sisters, as they are admiringly known in Cin- cinnati, is an outstanding example of a noble and unremitting devotion to a moving and splendid cause.
MRS. DAVID A. TUCHER
MRS. DAVID A. TUCHER, of Cincinnati, for the past four years president of the board of the Visiting Nurses Association, is primarily interested in health work and is a very active member of the Ohio Organization for Public Health Nursing.
She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and a member of the alumnae association; also a member of the College Club, Delta Delta Delta, the
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Mortar Board, and has served on the Cincinnati Charter Committee and with the Women's Division of the Symphony Orchestra.
EDNA PFLEGER VAN FOSSEN
EDNA PFLEGER VAN FOSSEN (Mrs. Robert D. Van Fossen) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, educated in the Cincinnati Public Schools, receiving her A.B. degree from the University of Cincinnati. She married, in 1924, Robert D. Van Fossen, a native Cincinnatian, engaged in the manufacturing industry. They have one child, a son, Billy Lee.
As president for two terms of the Woman's City Club, Edna Van Fossen has made a reputation for herself for efficient management, progressive admin- istration and friendly tact. As an enthusiastic Girl Scout official, she has inter- ested herself, and others, in all phases of the work of that organization. As a member of the board of the Cincinnati League of Women Voters, she has played an important part, especially on the finance committee.
In politics she is a member of the City Charter Committee, and has loyally served her party, believing, she says, "that this democracy of ours can best be served by women who are alert, constantly and vigilantly, to everything that goes on in city and county."
Edna Van Fossen, in a variety of ways, has furnished intelligent, courageous leadership in the affairs of her community.
HELEN PETERS WALLACE
Many of the great problems which have had to do with individual and national welfare in the present century have elicited the attention and received the earnest support and cooperation of HELEN PETERS WALLACE, and her theories have been carried out in far-reaching and beneficial results. Born in Buffalo, New York, on the 27th of June, 1875, Mrs. Wallace is a daughter of G. Moore and Mary (King) Peters, representatives of two of the honored pioneer families of Ohio, the Peters family coming from Virginia in the closing years of the eighteenth century and settling in Columbus, while the King family in 1823 came from Connecticut with the Western Reserve men to settle in Lorain, Ohio, whence they later removed to Xenia.
Mrs. Wallace has lived in Cincinnati since 1886, with an interim residence in New York City from 1899 to 1919. She was educated at Miss Nourse's School for Girls in Cincinnati, the Collegiate Preparatory School for Girls in Engle- wood, New Jersey, and Vassar College, where she won her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1897. She had specialized in sociology and economics and was gradu- ated at a time when women were striving to obtain the franchise and were seeking to express themselves in all activities of life.
In New York Mrs. Wallace was active in the suffrage movement and in the formation of the first Woman's City Club, which sought to interest women in the study of political government and in definite participation therein. She was
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also interested in the New Women's University Club of New York, another instrument for preparing women to enter public life. About 1908 Mrs. Wallace was one of two Vassar representatives to sit upon the committee of the nine eastern women's colleges to organize the first Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupa- tion for Women, which was an effective pioneering force in opening many new avenues of employment to college women, secretarial work, nursing and social service, were then practically the sole avenues of employment for women of education. This bureau first gave college women their start in the business world.
From 1912 to 1930 Mrs. Wallace served on the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association, and by virtue of her chairmanship of the De- partment of Method, she served as an ex-officio member of the War Work Council of the Y.W.C.A. throughout the war. She was a delegated member to war-work committees, being a co-organizer of The Land Army of America and a member of the committee for colored soldiers and sailors in camps. She organized for the national board the War Center for Colored Girls in Cin- cinnati.
After again taking up her residence in Cincinnati in 1919, Mrs. Wallace continued her interest in the Young Women's Christian Association and was chairman of the National Board's Field Committee for Ohio and West Virginia. In 1925 she became president of the Cincinnati Y. W. C. A., which office she filled for seven years, and during her term the new building on Ninth and Walnut Streets was erected.
Mrs. Wallace's interest in politics has been a major emphasis of her life since her college days. She had participated in the early efforts of the League of Women Voters in New York and when she returned to Cincinnati to live she continued her interest and work in that field. She was twice a member of the board of directors of the Cincinnati League and was of the first crusading group from the league to enter the cause of obtaining a good city government for Cincinnati, serving as one of the early directors of the City Charter Committee and in various other capacities. From 1924 to 1936 a member of that board, she was ward leader in the women's division, a trainer and educator of women in knowledge of government, also a campaign speaker and a director of the campaign work. Mrs. Wallace was a member of the committee of ten which studied the work of the Charter Committee and drew up a plan of reorgani- zation for that committee in 1934. She also served on the Citizens Committee of One Hundred, organized to study the reorganization report by experts for the school system of Cincinnati and was chairman of the sub-committee on reorganization of the superintendent's department.
Mrs. Wallace's interest in higher education for women has always been great. She served as representative at large of the Vassar Alumnae Association for seven years and was chairman of the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the founding of the Vassar Alumnae Association in 1922. This took place at Vassar,
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following the commencement in June and was characterized by an important educational conference in which the Vassar alumnae considered all the aspects of higher and secondary education, this having great influence upon theory and practice in later years.
Mrs. Wallace is a member of the Baptist Church and has taken an active part in religious work, being at present a member of the National Council of Women of the Federation of the Churches of Christ in America.
She married Dr. Charlton Wallace on December 19, 1899, and has two sons, John Moore Wallace and Charlton Wallace, Jr.
MARTHA ANN WELLING
MARTHA ANN WELLING has devoted practically her entire life to service for others as a teacher and social service worker and is now actively connected with the Goodwill Industries at Toledo. She was born in the village of Vinton, in Vinton County, Ohio, but a little later the family returned to Skinner Ridge, Perry County. She is a daughter of Frank and Mary (Cain) Shirkey and a granddaughter of Mrs. Martha (Skinner) Cain, who was born at Skinner Ridge and spent her entire life there, dying in the house in which she first opened her eyes to the light of day. Her parents were pioneer settlers there, so that three generations of the family preceding Mrs. Welling lived in this state.
In her early girlhood Mrs. Welling was a pupil in the Iron Point School, a country school near her father's home and after the removal of the family to Hemlock, Ohio, she continued her education in the high school of Shawnee, Ohio. She afterward engaged in teaching for a year at Hemlock, when the family again sought a different place of residence, going to the town of Jacksonville, in Athens County. Mrs. Welling then taught in a country school at Concord, Ohio, and also attended the summer school of the Ohio University at Athens. Throughout her entire life she has been a student constantly broadening her knowledge through reading and study and thus becoming equipped for the responsible duties which she has taken up. She taught for two years in Jacksonville and two years in Chauncy, Ohio and then turned her attention to household affairs.
It was in 1905 that she was married to James R. Welling, who is now assistant agent for the New York Central Railroad, in charge of freight ship- ments out of Toledo. Mr. and Mrs. Welling have a family of four sons. Norman Eugene, the eldest, now living in Chicago, Illinois, is connected with the Illinois Bell Telephone Company. He married Leah Randolph of Chi- cago and they have two children, Robert and Phyllis. Frank Wesley, the second son, is connected with the Libbey-Owen-Ford Glass Company of Toledo as a cost accountant. He attended Northwestern University as an evening pupil in the School of Commerce and he is an active member of the Toledo Chapter of the National Association of Cost Accountants and director of publications for that organization. He wedded Mary Lou Shank of Tiffin,
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Ohio and they have one child, Wesley Ogle. Gerald Reed Welling married Lucile Schutz daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold R. Schutz and they have a daughter Nancy Ruth. Arthur J. is attending Syracuse University of Syra- cuse, New York, where he is majoring in business administration. In 1938 he made the honor role at the University and he is a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha. He represents his group in the Council and is chairman of the social committee of the fraternity and also is a member of the student coun- cil.
One of Mrs. Welling's contributions to educational interests was made in connection with John Wooley, now an attorney of Athens, Ohio, in the development of a course of study. Their plan was approved by the state board of education and they raised the funds necessary to equip the library.
In 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Welling removed with their family to Toledo, where they have since made their home. During the World War she was chairman of food conservation for East Toledo and was otherwise active in war work. In keeping with her studious qualities, she attended the University of Toledo, taking two courses in economics, education, psychology, sociology and public speaking. As a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, she was in charge of the mother and child welfare association for about two years and at one time she also served as assistant to Mrs. Ives of the Women's Protective Association and was also hostess at the Flower Hospital. In 1928 she became connected with the Social Service Federation, which at that time was handling the city relief and as a social worker continued for some time in the relief administration work. She also organized and set up the "age for the aged" in Lucas County. Later she returned to relief work. In 1937 she joined the Goodwill Industries as a social worker and in charge of the personnel. She took a course in social work at the University of Chicago in 1934 and she is a member of the American Association of So- cial Workers.
Mrs. Welling is also a graduate of the Toledo Training School for church school leaders, has taught in the Weekday Bible School and is now teacher of an adult Bible class in the Sunday school of the Euclid Avenue Methodist church in which she has her membership.
EVA B. MANNING WHEELER
Thirty years ago in the office of the University Settlement, Chicago, a young social worker by the name of Wheeler, sat down at his desk and wrote a letter to his sweetheart-EVA B. MANNING, a London, Ohio, girl who was working for the United States government as a special investigator for the Immigration Commission. That letter changed the whole course of Eva Manning's life. Jimmy Wheeler wanted her to marry him at once.
He had been offered a position as head resident of the Godman Guild in Columbus, Ohio-one of the oldest settlements in America-on one con-
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dition : he must be married. Strangely enough these two young people had met at Godman Guild five years before and it was while working there on a part time basis and attending Ohio State University that they had planned to marry-some day when Jimmy could make enough money. Jimmy was part time boys' worker at the settlement and Eva was supervising a public playground in the summer and serving as girls' worker at the Guild in the winter while going to school.
They were married in 1908 and took up their duties as head residents as soon as the honeymoon was over. For twenty-three years, until Jim's death in 1931, these two worked side by side, carrying out the ideals of the settlement's founders-bringing to the people in the congested section in which the Guild is located, "opportunity for a fuller life." During those twenty-three years-all of which were lived on the third floor of the settle- ment-the Wheeler's reared five children, two boys and three girls and be- fore they had grown to adulthood, James Wheeler died, leaving his loyal and devoted wife to carry on alone.
During those twenty-three years, boys and girls who had come to the Guild, day in and day out, for outlets which were unavailable to them in their crowded poverty stricken homes, had grown to manhood and woman- hood and, spurred on by the ideals which had been taught them by the Wheelers, they had moved up in the social scale and were taking their places among the most highly respected business and professional men and women of the city. During those years, the value of public playgrounds, gymnasiums and recreation centers had been so successfully demonstrated by the Godman Guild that the city government created a recreation department and opened play centers in all sections of Columbus. Free summer camps for under- privileged mothers and children-both colored and white-were established by the Wheelers under the sponsorship of the Godman Guild Association and at the present time, these camps-Camp Mary Orton and Camp Wheeler- are the largest settlement camps in the United States. Mrs. Wheeler runs these camps each summer and directs the activities of the Godman Guild, which daily touch the lives of ten thousand persons living in the neighbor- hood. She has a well trained staff, of course, and the money which is needed to finance these activities is provided through the Community Fund.
Quiet, unassuming, Mrs. Wheeler guards the rights of her "neighbors" with her very life-is shocked at nothing and shuns the limelight. She is as proud of her Tony's, Alphonso's and Rita's, who have made a place for themselves in the world, as though they were her own children. When other settlement workers, throughout the country, run into a snag they write to Mrs. Wheeler. Her skill in handling the race problem so that both white and colored families in the district may enjoy the benefits of the settlement pro- gram, without friction, has placed her at the top of her profession in the opinion of her fellow settlement workers, as has her training of pre-delinquent
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and delinquent boys and girls who have been turned over to her by the Juvenile Court.
Mrs. Wheelers' daughters are following in their mother's footsteps. All are graduates of the School of Social Administration at Ohio State Uni- versity. Alice (Mrs. Herman Becker) is on the Guild staff as her mother's assistant. Martha and Virginia are both on the staff of Hiram House, Cleve- land, which was founded in 1896, just two years before the Godman Guild was organized. Virginia has recently married Charles Yost, a social worker in the same settlement.
Mrs. Wheeler still lives on the third floor of Godman Guild House, 470 West Goodale St., in Columbus. "Flytown," as this section was known in the early days because of its filth and deplorable conditions, has undergone many changes since she came there as a bride thirty years ago. It is still a "slum district"-filled with ramshackle houses, 80% of which are not even equipped with running water. But in every home Mrs. Wheeler and the Godman Guild spell hope and an opportunity for a fuller life. If the baby is sick-Mrs. Wheeler will send for a doctor. If Joe has been picked up by the police-Mrs. Wheeler will intercede for him. If the head of the house- hold is out of a job, the employment service at the Guild will help him to find another. Young people of the district do not have to seek cheap dance halls and bar rooms for their recreation. They may dance every evening, if they choose, in one of the Guild's spacious gymnasiums to music provided by a W. P. A. orchestra. The foreign born study for their citizenship papers in this forty year old settlement. Boys and girls join in competitive sports there and learn to cook and to sew and to "make things." The Guild's public bath house, its health service and its library are in constant use by the residents of this underprivileged section of Columbus.
There are now five other settlements in that city and all five have been founded as the result of the demonstration sponsored by Godman Guild- a demonstration made possible by the faith of its founders and by the loyal devotion of the Wheelers-James W. and Eva Manning.
MARIE NAST WHERRY
MARIE NAST WHERRY (Mrs. William B. Wherry) through her highly constructive service as head of the child welfare committee of the Women's Division Council of National Defense, during the World War, was initiator of the now extensive child welfare and child hygiene work of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
Details of the committee's work were embodied in a report now regarded as of permanent value. Among present activities to which her interest and energy gave impetus are the school for handicapped children, now Condon School, dental clinics for school children and hygiene work for rural school children.
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Later Mrs. Wherry was in charge of various stations of the Babies Milk Fund.
She served for three years as treasurer of the Cincinnati Woman's Club and has been active in various civic and welfare organizations. In recent years, Mrs. Wherry has travelled extensively, especially in the Orient.
BESSIE B. WHITE
BESSIE B. WHITE (Mrs. James O. White), superintendent of the Anna Louise Inn, model hotel for Cincinnati business girls and women, won recog- nition for her ability in social work in the day when professional training was almost non existant and solution of the most important problems de- pended on individual judgment and practical experience. Mrs. White de- veloped these during her work at the Cincinnati Union Bethel, a settlement of which her husband was director. Because of her understanding and suc- cess in the social work and welfare field, Mrs. White was sent as represen- tative of the governor of Ohio to the Paris Conference on Social Work, in 1929. She was born at Venice O, graduated from Albion College, of which she is now a trustee and received her M.A. from Boston University.
KATHERINE DENVER WILLIAMS
KATHERINE DENVER WILLIAMS (Mrs. James C. Williams), who was born in California in 1861 and died in 1937, resided most of her life in the old home established by her maternal grandfather, Matthew Bombach, at Wil- mington.
Her father, the late General James William Denver, was even more closely identified, through the Denver family, with settlement of this part of Ohio. Much of the land he owned was still part of original grants. He helped to develop the Clinton County Bank and Trust Co., and had much to do with growth of the community. Katherine Denver was graduated from the Brown County Ursuline Convent. When she was 18 years of age, Katherine embraced the Roman Catholic faith, to which she was the rest of her life a devoted adherent. She gave liberally to the local church, helped to buy a church organ and altar furnishings.
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