USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume III > Part 18
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JESSIE A. CHARTERS
JESSIE A. CHARTERS (Mrs. W. W. Charters), director of Inter-county Groups, Ohio Probation Association, attended Ravenna Seminary, received her A.B. and her M.A. at the University of Washington, her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, where she took the college fellowship in neurology. She was previously a lecturer of the home study department of the University of Chicago. She is active in the American Psychology Association, the Pro- gressive Education Association, the Ohio Adult Education Conference, and has worked in various related groups. Mrs. Charters is author of a number of widely recognized books on child training and of numerous articles featured in educational journals.
CORA CLARK COOLEY
CORA CLARK COOLEY, administrator of aid for Cuyahoga County, has had training and experience in social work which, together with marked ability, have made her one of the outstanding women of the country in this important field.
She was born at Bedford, O., the daughter of Samuel and Harriet Clark. She took her A.B. and M.A. at Hiram College and did extensive post gradu-
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ate work at the universities of Goettingen and Berlin, Germany. From 1890 to 1900 she was professor of modern languages at Hiram College, then di- rector of state charities and in 1922 was made a member of the state pardon and parole board, one of only two women who have been accepted for this service. In 1931 she was elected a member of the City Council of Cleve- land, in which capacity she served two years.
Mrs. Cooley was president of the Woman Suffrage Party of Greater Cleveland for the final and crucial years before passage of the suffrage amendment. Her leadership in this and in the College Equal Suffrage League was invaluable, as was her organization work for the League of Women Voters which followed. From 1918 to 1920 Mrs. Cooley was president of the Cleveland Woman's City Club but all these responsibilities did not lessen her active service in numerous welfare and civic organizations, in NRA co- operation and in all related activities that have made for the progress and betterment of Cleveland, Ohio and the country in general.
MARTHA KINNEY COOPER
MARTHA KINNEY COOPER is the wife of a former governor of Ohio. She has an ancestry to which the most modest and democratic of women- which everyone agrees she is-can still point with pride. She was a belle in her girlhood, a musician of ability in her young womanhood-in early middle age the most popular first lady-this also is consensus of opinion- that ever graced the governor's mansion at Columbus. Since then she has been active in far reaching and constructive welfare work-and yet there is only one achievement in which Martha Cooper can be persuaded to point with pride. This is the Ohioana Library.
Without question this pride is justified. The project had all the merit of originality. It has been carried out with the energy, orderliness and en- thusiasm which characterize its founder.
And yet it started quite by accident. The bright idea came to Mrs. Cooper one day, early in 1929, when the governor and his lady had just moved into their Columbus mansion. She was surrounded by personal be- longings in all stages of unpacking. Clothes, furnishings, bric-a-brac and books-books. There were bookshelves available, quite a generous stack. They invited systemic arrangement, classification by topic or authorship. Then came the happy thought-why not have a special section for Ohio authors.
This was the start of the Ohioana Library, which now represents more than 4,000 Ohio writers and is growing so fast that any list of its volumes is outdated by the time the list is published.
The Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library, this is its official name- is housed in a special room of the State Library in the beautiful old state- house at Columbus.
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At first Martha Cooper collected and filed the books unaided. It was no easy task, sandwiched in between the multifarious and exacting duties of the first lady of the state and never were these responsibilities met more conscientiously, or hospitalities discharged more graciously. The governor's mansion had a top floor the whole length and breadth of the house. This was transformed by Mrs. Cooper into a most attractively furnished reception quarters which could serve as auditorium, lounge, tea-room or ballroom as occasion required. The governor's lady did the honors here so charmingly and untiringly that for innumerable visitors of whatever political party it will always recall the memory of a smiling little lady, attractively gowned, who, although her name was Martha, gave never a hint of her many cares.
It was not long before Mrs. Cooper was able to enlist the active co- operation of the Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs in the Ohioana Library and soon collecting and filing of books and booklets written by Ohioans was increasing by leaps and bounds. Clubwomen throughout the state be- gan to function in their duty of collecting all published writings of Ohio authors-also compositions of Ohio musicians-supplying the biographical data and sending them on to Columbus.
Mrs. Cooper, although still devoting unlimited time to the project she founded, is not concerned with official honors connected therewith. On the official list of the Ohioana Advisory Committee she is chairman of files and Mrs. Depew Head, of Columbus, is state wide chairman. Representation on the board is by organization, also by special fields of occupation as these are reflected in the books collected.
Ohio was the first state of the nation to found a library of the works of its own authors. Now three states, California, Montana and Kentucky, have followed suit and one of the founder's ever recurring tasks is to answer inquiries from other states on how the enterprise can be launched.
Among the publications on file in the Ohioana Library are 68 D. A. R. histories. To the founder of the library every one of them has an interest reflected by her activity in the Daughters of the American Revolution, for that matter, in the Daughters of American Colonists, Colonial Daughters of America, and New England Women as well.
The reason is not far to seek. Among Martha Kinney's ancestors are Landgrave Daniel Axtell, who sailed from England for South Carolina in 1680 and founded the town of Dorchester; Henry Axtell, killed in 1676 in King Philips War; Richard Baker, a Selectman of Dorchester, Mass. in 1653, Constable Freeman, member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery in New England in 1658; Henry Crane, original proprietor of Dorchester, Mass .; Joel Kinney, who came to America from Ireland in 1660 and became a landed proprietor of Harford, Conn .; Stephen Kinsley, who came to America in 1654, deputy general of the general court at Baintree and at Milton, Mass. William Knapp, original proprietor of Watertown, Mass .; and Joseph
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Pratt, who came to America in 1623 and was one of the 36 purchasers of Dartmouth, N. H.
This glittering array of Colonial forebearers is well matched by the an- cestry of Myers Y. Cooper, whom Martha married at Cincinnati, Ohio in 1897. This highly successful and highly popular Cincinnati business man, who served as governor of Ohio from 1929 to 1931, belongs by direct descent not only to Sons of the American Revolution but also to the Society of Mayflower Descendants.
No wonder they-and their sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters-are interested in the preservation of archives in the record- ing of which their ancestors had so active a part.
Martha Cooper was graduated from Woodward High School, Cincinnati, in 1892 and then devoted herself earnestly to vocal and instrumental music. She has never lost interest in music, has cooperated enthusiastically in proj- ects that have enhanced Cincinnati's fame as a music center. She worked the past year as a member for Ohio of the National Advisory Committee in Women's Participation in the New York World's Fair. She has had effective part in innumerable other civic services. But she does not seek to conceal her keenest interest. It's the Ohioana Library.
MRS. JACOB DOLSON COX
MRS. JACOB DOLSON COX, wife of the 30th governor of Ohio was born in Philadelphia, June 10, 1828, the daughter of the Rev. Charles Grandi- son Finney, one of the leading preachers of his day. In 1835 the father accepted a call to teach theology in Oberlin College and to preach for students and townsfolk. He moved his family to the little town in the wilderness where he became immediately the most influential citizen. His lively children, doubtless even Helen Clarissa, the oldest daughter chafed at times under the restraints. Other people always expect a preacher's children to be models of propriety.
However, before her eighteenth birthday, Helen Finney was engaged to William Cochran. William had been a professor in Oberlin, was thirty- two years old, an intimate and beloved friend of her father. He was leaving Oberlin to take the editorship of a new theological magazine to be published in New York City. Travel was ardnous and expensive, so it seemed best to have the marriage before he left for his new duties. They were married in May 1846.
However, business conditions in New York City made it impossible to start the magazine and, after some months of effort, a saddened man returned to Ohio and to his parents' farm. There he contracted typhoid fever and died in August 1847. His young widow went back to Oberlin-to nurse a mother dying of tuberculosis, and to assume charge of her father's house- hold.
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Mr. Finney was a man of tremendous physical and intellectual energy. He was also musical and had a keen sense of humor. His hospitality was unbounded. Guests arrived quite unexpectedly and stayed quite voluntarily which made life more interesting even if more difficult. There were two brothers and two little sisters to bring up. In March, 1848, Helen Clarissa's baby boy was born and named for his father, William Cochran.
Tall, slender, graceful, intelligent, musical, charming, the young widow was greatly admired by many of the students. But she wanted them to un- derstand that whoever took her took the baby too. The infant was always in her arms when callers came.
Among the students was Jacob Dolson Cox from New York City. His mother had known Mr. Finney, so he was particularly welcome in the Finney home. He had come to take a college course and then study for the ministry. His friendship with the widow ripened into engagement.
Mr. Finney was asked to conduct a series of evangelical meetings in England. He did not wish to leave his family without a protector. The college rules forbade a student to marry. They solved the problem by having the young man drop out of college and continue his studies by himself. The pair were married in November, 1849, both of them twenty-one years old.
When Mr. Finney returned from England in 1851, Mr. Cox decided to give up the study of theology. He secured the Superintendency of Schools in Warren, Ohio. There he served the schools by day and studied law at night. In 1853 he was admitted to the Bar. January 1860 saw him in the Ohio State Senate and soon afterwards the governor appointed him Brigadier General of Ohio Militia.
Mr. Cox took this honor seriously and made a study of military science. When the Civil War began he plunged into preparations for mustering in and training volunteers.
When things were all set, Mr. Cox told his wife. Helen Clarissa was second to none in patriotism. But years afterwards she reverted, quite tartly, to her husband's enlistment. "He had no right to volunteer without con- sulting me" she censured. "The decision should have been mine. He went to war leaving me with six little children to provide for. Of course, I would have told him to go," she added quickly.
Was she one of many women who felt so when their husbands marched away?
Helen Finney Cox kept the home together, meeting expenses by boarding teachers. Her first husband's nieces, one after another, came to live with her and it was to their care that she entrusted the children when she visited the general at the front.
Mr. Cox's widowed mother, spinster sister and younger brother also spent months with them and Mrs. Cox's sister made long visits.
HELEN FINNEY COX 1828-1911
wife of Gov. Jacob Dolson Cox
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At the close of the War, Mr. Cox was elected Governor of Ohio and the family left Warren, and a circle of unusual and interesting friends, to live for two years in Columbus. Next they moved to Cincinnati, their home until 1897, excepting for time spent in Washington and Toledo. Governor Cox served in Grant's Cabinet, also as a Congressman in Washington and as a railroad president in Toledo. He gave up the practice of the law to be Dean of the Cincinnati Law School and was, for a short time, President of the University of Cincinnati. In 1897 he retired and they moved back to Oberlin to enjoy the mellowness of the old college town. Governor Cox died in 1900.
Mrs. Cox was not only a home-maker, she was a dignified and helpful wife in all of the governor's public life. She was interested in his literary and social associations and, particularly, in his charities. She herself was a member of the first Board of the Women's Christian Association in Cin- cinnati.
Mrs. Cox had eight children, two of whom died in infancy ; five survived her. The most famous was Kenyon Cox, noted not only as a painter and teacher of art but as critic and author of several books on art. Jacob Dolson Cox, Jr., became a manufacturer in Cleveland; Helen Cox married the Rev. John G. Black ; Charles N. Cox made his home in Colorado, and Hope married a son of General Pope.
Mrs. Cox died in Oberlin, June 7, 1911.
SARAH DUNN
SARAH DUNN taught art and penmanship and was music supervisor in the Crestline Public Schools for twenty-three years.
In June, 1938, she resigned to become secretary of the board of supreme officers, Catholic Ladies of Columbia. She has been a member of the supreme trustee board since 1923.
In 1922 Sarah Dunn was the first woman in Crawford County to hold municipal office. She was elected city councilwoman and served one term. As councilwoman she worked for a subway under the railroad tracks and personally solicited funds for subway lights. She was a member of the hospital board for two terms.
The Improvement Association, of which she is a strong supporter, improved Hamilton Park, donated ground to the Crestline School Board, in which the stadium now stands, for a new athletic field; also playground apparatus for the East School Building.
She was president of the Todd Musical Club, an early music organization, and has had an active part in the music life of the community, teaching both pipe organ and piano.
Miss Dunn directs the choir in St. Joseph's Catholic Church and plays the organ.
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She is a member of the Galion Choral Society and has directed high school glee clubs in the performance of operettas.
SUSAN JACOBS ENSMINGER
A beautiful life ended when on the 16th of March, 1938, SUSAN JACOBS ENSMINGER passed to the home beyond. She had reached the notable age of one hundred and three years, most of which time was spent in Bucyrus, and throughout the entire period her lovable disposition, kindly spirit and her many gracious deeds endeared her to all who knew her, making it most fitting that she be given recognition among Ohio's outstanding women, for she exerted a widely felt influence on the lives of all with whom she came in contact.
Mrs. Ensminger was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, March 14, 1835, and was a daughter of Henry and Jane (Wolf) Jacobs, who were also natives of Cumberland County, where the father was born May 3, 1788, and the mother on the 5th of April, 1798. In her native county the daughter was reared and obtained her education in the public schools there. That her girlhood train- ing was wise, is indicated by the foundation of the beautiful character which was there laid and which shaped her entire life. She had scarcely passed her nineteenth birthday when in April, 1854, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, she became the wife of Henry Ensminger. For twelve years they continued their residence in the Keystone State and in 1866 removed from Cumberland County to North Robinson, Crawford County, Ohio, where Mr. Ensminger filled the position of postmaster. A little later the family came to Bucyrus, where Mr. Ensminger became one of the first dry goods merchants of the town and subse- quently he engaged in farming near Bucyrus.
For sixty years Mrs. Ensminger was a member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Bucyrus and was one of the first members of the Woman's Missionary Society. She was essentially a home woman and found her greatest happiness in providing for the welfare and comfort of her husband and children. She be- came the mother of two sons and a daughter. The elder son, Albert Ensminger, pursued a law course in the University of Michigan and for a time engaged in the practice of his profession in Bucyrus, while later he became postmaster, filling the office from 1894 to 1898. Charles Ensminger, resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There were also two children who have passed away-Frank and Anna May. The surviving daughter is Miss Alberta Ensminger, who was the third of the family to take up postoffice work. When her brother became post- master of Bucyrus in 1894 she was made clerk in the finance department and has so continued to the present time. She was the constant companion of her mother from the time of her father's death in 1889 and devoted herself to making a home for her mother and to making her life happy. She was graduated in June, 1894, from the Bucyrus High School and it was in September of the same year that she began her work in the postoffice, where she has since been a most valued employe. To her mother she gave an attention and care that was exquisite and the love of mother and daughter was inspirational to their many friends.
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Mrs. Ensminger remained to the end of her early pilgrimage a woman of most kindly and gentle influence. She lived to witness remarkable changes in the country and in methods of living, as brought about through inventions and other sources. As a young wife in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, she heard the roar of the cannons in the Battle of Gettysburg and on one occasion she helped the villagers store provisions in the church belfry when the word spread that the Rebels were coming. In those days it was possible for a man to pay for a military substitute and her husband gave $400 for someone to serve in his stead. Although Mrs. Ensminger was in her eighties during the World War she spent her time in knitting for the soldiers, making sweaters and helmets. At the time of her death she had the distinction of being the oldest resident of Bucyrus and although confined to her bed from her one hundredth birthday, she retained her faculties almost to the day of her death. IIer birthdays in her later years inspired community-wide remembrance, for she was beloved by everyone. Young and old, rich and poor, valued her friendship and had keen appreciation for her many acts of kindliness and her words of encouragement. Of her it might well be said, as it was of a distinguished French writer, that "The snows of winter were on her head, but the flowers of spring were in her heart." Her daughter, Alberta, remains a resident of Bucyrus, continuing her work in the postoffice, and finding interest and recreation in music. For years she has been a member of the Bucyrus Music Club, of which she was once secretary-treasurer, and she has also long been a member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church Choir.
JULIA BUNDY FORAKER
In March, 1932, the late JULIA BUNDY FORAKER, then 84 years old, made a significant and far-reaching testament.
She made it in the form of a title to her autobiography, "I Would Live It Again." It was an unusually good title. The unusual thing about it, as readers of the autobiography come to realize, is that the title is true. This widow of a powerful statesman, twice elected governor of Ohio and twice defeated as candi- date for that office, then U. S. senator from 1897 to 1909, was apparently made of the stuff that could and would undergo all over again the poignant suffering set over against the thrills and triumphs of a most remarkable career.
All her long life and until her death, Julia Bundy Foraker seems to have been that sort of a woman. All her life she made and cherished friends. She seems to have made virtually no enemies-but little got past her. The record affords very entertaining and very informational reading. But this was not Julia Foraker's main contribution.
The major contribution, through her autobiography, of this shrewd vet impressionable, realistic yet sentimental, credulous yet skeptical, tender vet tenacious, tactful vet delightfully indiscreet Ohio woman, is a human document
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that may be accepted as an accurate picture of the still typical American woman's part in the still typically American man's political career.
Julia Ann Paine Bundy was born in Jackson County (now Wellston) Ohio, June 17, 1847. Her mother was Caroline Paine Bundy, a descendant of Henry Adams, of New England, and her father was Hezekiah Sanford Bundy, a. Con- gressman from the early Whig days.
Their home was at first a log farm house surrounded by thousands of acres of revolutionary grant land. To the time of her death, Mrs. Foraker still possessed the original parchment deed signed by President Madison and still owned fifty acres surrounding the original log house. The property was part of her mother's dower.
In her book there is a particularly vivid picture of this early home. "The house was built of walnut logs, full tree size. They were fitted and numbered. No metal was used, even the door hinges were of wood. The house had the dignity of two stories, a real staircase and numerous rooms that grew into wings as my father's means mounted and his hospitality ran further and further away with him.
"There was something of feudal charm about the thick walls, the clay fireplaces, an enormous one in the kitchen, cluttered blackly with crane-hung kettles, spiders and pothooks. I have planned and lived in several delightful houses ; I adore house planning but my first home had qualities of beauty like a palace; the mellow look of it ; the candle light-fire light flicker on the dark beams. The puncheon floor scrubbed to dazzling and checkered by the blues, greens and rose of home dyes and woven rugs into something eastern and lovely."
The Bundy home was in the midst of a wide stretch of tavernless country and so, under the encouragement of the hospitable congressman, it became a meeting place-"a sort of political exchange for travellers riding across counties."
They talked of their great Northwest-that they intended to keep it free from the taint of slavery "and don't you forget it." There came the hanging of John Brown, which made this wideawake, wholesome, healthy, intelligent girl "passing the biscuit" at her parents guest-thronged table, a passionate opponent to the Fugitive Slave Law. Then came the astounding sight of volunteers drilling on the commons of adjacent Ohio towns. Flocks of hungry soldiers being fed at at the farm. One of them, a young officer, handing to the wondering child his big gold watch and chain, to keep until he came back.
He never came back.
Then Morgan's men were reported approaching, almost there. incredible excitement. But Union troops were also coming, by train loads and the swift riding Morgan raiders wheeled, to strike elsewhere. There was lots of talk about Lincoln and Douglas and Julia soon learned what a "black Republican" was, although she still spelled it with a "k."
JULIA B. FORAKER
wife of Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, prominent in the social life of the State and Nation
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Presently the log farm house was now too small for the open hand of its master, so a new "fine house" was built and very beautiful, from Julia's tender memoried description, it must really have been; also very "modern" with a hot water heater attached to the big stove and the first kitchen sink ever seen in all the countryside.
Even so, with all this newness, "life on the distaff side of the house re- mained much as it had been in early Colonial days." Candle dipping, spring house cleaning, home-made soap, apple butter, hog killing, crazy quilts, spring dressmaking, summer preserving, baking, boiling, knitting-
"My Grandmother Paine could card, spin and knit a pair of socks in a day. You couldn't see her take off her stitches."
Julia herself handled no mean knitting needle. In the winter of the same year that she was graduated from Ohio Wesleyan Female College at Delaware she was knitting a muffler, a yard wide and three yards long, for young Captain Joseph Benson Foraker.
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