USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume III > Part 22
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The first few days there were very few visitors to welcome. That's why the reporters began to sit up and notice Mrs. Harding. Her manner, while not assuming, was always so assured, her smile so natural her greet- ing so pleased as well as pleasant.
"Do you suppose she really thinks that Harding has a chance?" the reporters began to ask each other. Their question was answered at the impromptu reception which packed all corridors leading to the Harding suite following the nomination. Florence Harding had been as sure of it then as she was now, she told the reporters.
Nobody else was sure, not even Harding himself. It was impossible that he could be. But it was not impossible to Mrs. Harding. Few things were.
This does not mean that she shouldered an ultra confident way through life or that her methods were domineering or autocratic. On the contrary, Mrs. Harding is said to have been the most truly democratic mistress, the White House ever had. She made friends, plenty of them, by the simple although not always easy or convenient method of being herself a friend, oft times a friend in need.
Her husband seems to have been actuated by much the same human impulse. Many of his friendships are said to have been exploited and be- trayed. Doubtless they were not wise or justified. But one friend he had on whom he could rely-"for better or worse" until death parted them. This was Florence Harding.
After her husband's death, Mrs. Harding spent most of her time at White Oaks, Ohio where Dr. Charles E. Sawyer, personal physician to Presi- dent Harding, had a hospital. She had been very ill from uremic poisoning in 1920 and it was said that she never fully recovered from this attack. But her boundless courage enabled her to undergo the ordeal still before her, and presently she too found peace.
Public sentiment is in reality incredibly short sighted. It seldom sees that great courage carries with it an equally great capacity for suffering.
MAUDE McQUATE
MAUDE McQUATE, wife of Benjamin F. McQuate, has the distinction of being the first woman appointed to serve the full term-six years-as a member of the civil service commission of Cleveland, to which position she was called in 1935. A native of Millersburg, Ohio, she is a daughter of Samuel Augustus and Lydia Caroline (Hay) Tuttle, the former born February 28, 1844, and the latter September 21, 1853. The father was of Scotch descent, his father being Harvey J. Tuttle, who was born in 1814 and died in 1845. He was a Methodist minister and it was his father who came from Scotland to the United States. The Tuttle ancestry can also be traced back to Jona- than Edwards. The mother of Mrs. McQuate was of German lineage, being a great-great-granddaughter of George Peter Baker, who was born in Ger-
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many in 1640 and became a college professor. It was his children who emi- grated to America. Five of Mrs. Tuttle's brothers served in the Civil War, one of whom, Charles Hay, was a lieutenant of the Thirty-sixth United States Infantry.
Mrs. McQuate received a high school education and teachers' training and taught in the public schools of Wayne county until her marriage, when she came to Cleveland with her husband and has since made her home in this city. It was on the 10th of June, 1903, in Creston, Wayne County, Ohio that she became the wife of Benjamin F. Crate and they have a daughter, Ruth Helen.
Mrs. McQuate is a registered Republican but in voting considers the capability of the candidates rather than party affiliation. She has long been interested in public and political questions affecting the general wel- fare, seeking ever to uphold those measures and principles which are the underlying basis of good government and public progress. In 1934 she was elected a member of the Cuyahoga County charter commission and in 1935 she was appointed a member of the civil service commission of Cleveland for the full term of six years. She exerts a widely felt influence over public thought and action particularly among women for through a number of years she has been a recognized leader in women's activities in this city. She became a charter member of the Lakewood Woman's Club, of which she was president from 1928 to 1930, and was president of the Federation of Women's Clubs of Greater Cleveland in 1931-1932. She formerly served as a director of the League of Women Voters of Cuyahoga County and at present is vice chairman of the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the American Red Cross. She is also first deputy commissioner of the Girl Scout Council, is secretary of the Adult Education Association and is a member of the Wom- en's City Club. She also has membership in the Lakewood Congregational Church and is thus closely allied with various organizations which feature prominently in the upbuilding of the city along lines of cultural, educational, civic and moral advancement.
MELBA OLIVER
Well known in connection with those activities in which women excel, MELBA OLIVER is now in charge of the domestic and institutional depart- ment of the Ohio State Employment Division, which office she has filled for fifteen years. She is a daughter of B. Girlas and Effie (Griffing) Girlason, the former a native of Iceland and the latter of Rochester, Minnesota. The father came to the United States with his parents, the family settling in Minnesota, where his father engaged in farming, while the father of Effie Griffing engaged in mercantile business in Gary, South Dakota. The par- ents of Mrs. Oliver were married in Minnesota and are still residents of that state, the father being now postmaster of his town. Their family numbered six
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children, of whom Mrs. Oliver is the eldest. The others are Virgil V., who is engaged in the hardware and farm implement business in Minnesota and who wedded Mary Lutz, formerly of Cleveland, Ohio, by whom he has three chil- dren-Margaret, Virgil N. and Walter; Io, who is the wife of Norton B. Gardner of Cleveland, the owner of the Meat Products Company of this city ; Wilbur Waldo, who is engaged in the gas and oil station business ; Leonard L., who is with the Truscan Steel Company of Cleveland; and Valdeen, a nurse in the Hospital for Crippled and Ruptured in New York City.
In the acquirement of her education Mrs. Oliver spent two years in Ham- line University at St. Paul, Minnesota and then attended the University of Minnesota for several months. She was married October 10, 1918 to E. L. Oliver, of Walker, Minnesota, after which they went to Wisconsin, where Mr. Oliver edited a local paper. In 1919 he was called to take a position with the Federal Trade Commission, having charge of a special creamery investiga- tion in Nebraska, and while thus engaged they made their home in Omaha. In 1919 they removed to Washington, D. C. where he was with the Federal Trade Commission until 1920. In the fall of that year he went to Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania to teach in the Wharton School of Business and Fi- nance, remaining there for a year, during which time Mrs. Oliver was a student in the University of Pennsylvania. There on the 17th of September, 1921 they became parents of a daughter, Kathleen.
In that year Mr. Oliver taught at the Brookwood Labor College, which was the first resident labor college in the United States. He next went to the Labor Bureau, Inc., and became manager of the Chicago office, where he continued until February, 1923, when he went to San Francisco, Cali- fornia, where he had charge of the same kind of office until May, 1923. Soon afterward they arrived in Cleveland and Mr. Oliver was made labor repre- sentative for the International Ladies Garment Workers and while serving in that capacity also did special work for the Labor Bureau. On the first of November, 1923, Mrs. Oliver took charge of the Domestic and Institutional department of the Ohio State Employment department, which office she still occupies. She has frequently talked to schools and other groups upon sub- jects related to her work and has been heard on various radio programs, advocating the idea of putting older women to work. She was one of the committee that set up the program to train girls for domestic work, which is a W. P. A. project, and which has tried to promote an eight hour day, allowing them to go home at night. Mrs. Oliver has worked along this line for ten years and is making progress. Her office places more girls in posi- tions than any similar office of the entire United States.
Mrs. Oliver belongs to the Ohio League of Women Voters, the Woman's City Club, the Consumers League and the Business & Professional Woman's Club and in the last named served as educational chairman, then as pub- licity chairman and is now legislative chairman. She enjoys travel and has
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made two trips to Europe. In 1928 she visited France, England, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium and in 1937 she went to Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Scotland and England, during which time she visited employment offices in the large cities including Stockholm, Sweden, Oslo, Norway, and Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. In London she spent a day in the offices of the Ministry of Labor and toured the unemployment offices, where they paid unemployment insurance.
The daughter Kathleen bids fair to live a life of as great usefulness as her mother. After passing through the grades in the Cleveland public schools, she was graduated from the Shaker High School in June, 1938 and is now a student in Swarthmore College at Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. She has at this time an Intelligent Quotient of 160. She spent three years in the Hud- son County day school, which is an affiliate of Western Reserve Univer- sity, was active in dramatics in that school and also sang in the A Capella choir. While in high school she was editor of the Shakerite at Shaker Heights and was president of the Book Club. She also took over the movie introduction for the Free Press, a paper started by herself and some of her friends and she took part in a play-"The Late Sir Christopher Bean." She was also the only girl who announced programs over the radio at the Shaker High School and she has also given plays over the radio. She took part in the inaugural program at Cain Park and was also in the Warrior's Husband, given at Cain Park in the summer of 1938. She is an ardent student of experiments and is the author of some poetry, and her friends predict for her a brilliant and successful future.
EDITH MCCLURE PATTERSON
EDITH MCCLURE PATTERSON of Dayton, Ohio, only woman member (in 1938) of the Ohio Liquor Control Board, welfare worker, educator and lecturer, was born in 1883 in Greene County, Ohio, the daughter of Jesse and Emma D. McClure.
She graduated from Steele High School, Dayton, studied at the Boston School of social service, at the University of Chicago Teachers College and received the degree of L.L.D. from Ohio Northern University in 1931.
Six years later Edith McClure married John Johnston Patterson and much of the social service she has since given has been sponsored by the National Cash Register Company of which the late John Patterson was head.
Mrs. Patterson lectured throughout Ohio and several other states on better schools and child psychology and was sent to Europe in 1921 by the Federal Board of Vocational Education to study part time continuation work in England and on the continent.
She has served as budget specialist of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, chairman of thrift for the Ohio Federation as member of the National
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Committee on Adult Education, as a member of the Dayton Board of Edu- cation and in many other important capacities.
Her influence for strict and whole-hearted enforcement of the liquor laws of Ohio is regarded as an important part of her contribution to public serv- ice as a member of the Liquor Control Board of Ohio.
BERNICE SECREST PYKE
BERNICE SECREST PYKE (Mrs. Arthur B. Pyke), U. S. collector of customs of Cleveland, O., has had both a business and an educational training which have fitted her for this responsible position.
She was born at Frankfort, O., the daughter of Samuel Frederick and Mary Jane Secrest. She attended Ohio Wesleyan University and took her A.B. at Smith College. For a period she was a teacher of mathematics, then owned and operated a book store. In 1920 Mrs. Pyke was chosen a delegate to the National Democratic Convention, the first woman to whom this recog- nition was extended.
From 1932 to 1933 she was director of public health and welfare of Cleveland and for a time she was a member of the Lakewood Board of Education. Mrs. Pyke is a former member of the National Democratic Com- mittee, was vice chairman of the Woman's Suffrage Association, is active in the League of Women Voters and in other civic and political groups. Her home is at the Lake Shore Hotel, Lakewood, Ohio.
MARGUERITE REILLEY
Since she assumed her duties as superintendent of the Ohio State Re- formatory for Women at Marysville, on September 2, 1935, MARGUERITE REILLEY has gained an enviable reputation for her work among the State's women prisoners.
It was she who did away with drab uniforms and in their place in- augurated gaily colored house dresses. The women were taught to care for each other's needs, and pride in their appearance and a higher degree of self-respect was the result.
Yearly entertainments have become an institution at the prison through Mrs. Reilley's efforts, the women prisoners looking forward to and taking part in the productions with great enthusiasm.
A prominent member of the Cleveland bar before she became super- intendent of the reformatory, Mrs. Reilley served as assistant prosecutor of Cuyahoga County for four years and as assistant police prosecutor for the city of Cleveland for two years. She received a degree from the Cleve- land Law School.
Mrs. Reilley began her career of public service as a country school teacher, later specializing in work with incorrigible boys. For a year she was as- sociated with the late Jane Addams at Chicago's Hull House and later was superintendent of the public play grounds at Cleveland.
MRS. MARGUERITE REILLEY
Superintendent of Ohio State Reformatory for Women, Marysville
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She has two children, Jean, a student at Ohio Wesleyan University, and Frank Reilley, Jr., aged 17.
CHARLOTTE MARGARET RUMBOLD
CHARLOTTE MARGARET RUMBOLD, assistant secretary of the Cleve- land Chamber of Commerce and secretary-treasurer of Cleveland Homes, Inc., attended Columbia and Washington universities and was formerly director of the Public Recreation Commission of St. Louis, Mo.
She is secretary of the Cleveland Housing Commission, a member of the Cleveland Planning Commission and is actively identified with numerous other civic and social services.
RUTH HANNA McCORMICK SIMMS
RUTH HANNA McCORMICK SIMMS (Mrs. Albert G. Simms), of Cleve- land, Ohio and Albuquerque, New Mexico, former member of Congress, leader in social life and newspaper woman, was born at Cleveland, the daughter of the late Senator Marcus A. and Charlotte Hanna.
She was educated at Dobbs Ferry and at Framington and in 1903 mar- ried Medill McCormick, of Chicago, who died in 1925. Deep and constant interest of Ruth Hanna in civic industrial and political problems began when she was scarcely out of her teens and has continued throughout her life. She has worked actively with the Women's Trade Union League, the Girl Scouts Association, the Consumers League and as a member of the American As- sociation for Labor Legislation.
She served in the 71st Congress and was Republican nominee for the U. S. Senate in 1930. In 1932, Ruth McCormick was married to Albert G. Simms, congressman from New Mexico and for the past seven years their home has been at Los Poblanos Ranch, Albuquerque, N. Mexico where Mrs. Simms is actively interested in newspaper work.
Her ability in this field was emphasized when, several years ago, she was made president of the Consolidated Newspapers of Rockford, Ill.
MARGARET M. SLATER
MARGARET M. SLATER has a notable record of police service, having for eighteen years been connected with the Toledo police department. She heads the woman's bureau and her understanding of human nature, her clear thinking and her high ideals have enabled her to perform for the city a service that has been most valuable. Everywhere she is spoken of in terms of praise for what she has accomplished and her influence is always toward the establishment of law and order, for she is a believer in the old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Her early interest was in art and it may seem a far cry from art to crime detection, but the transi-
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tion has been most easily and successfully made. Today her record in this field is an outstanding one.
Mrs. Slater was born in Kansas City, Missouri, January 18, 1892. Her parents, William and Mary Susan Throckmorton were natives of Illinois and Kentucky, respectively. They established their home in Kansas City, where Mrs. Slater was reared, there attending the grade schools and afterward graduating from the Manual Training School. She was a student of art and was fortunate that she was under the training of Maude Miles, the artist who won the Santa Fe Trail Monument and also the prize for the entrance, or gateway, of Swope Park of Kansas City. She continued her art activities and after her marriage in 1908 to George A. Slater, they removed to Port- land, Oregon, where they remained for six years. From Portland they came to Toledo, Ohio, where Mr. Slater took over the insurance business of his brother, who had enlisted for service in the World War. On his brother's return he turned back the business to him and started an insurance business on his own account in 1919. In this he has since continued, being one of the old and well established insurance men of the city.
In 1918 Mrs. Slater took the initial step which led to her connection with the police department for in that year she took a position as investigator for the firm of Secor S. Fishley, who had a detective agency in this city. Four years later, or in 1922, she took the examination for a position in the women's bureau of the city police department. She was one of four women in the bureau at that time and her first duty was the inspection of dance halls in connection with the enforcement of an ordinance against fortune telling and phrenology in the dance halls. She had had excellent physical training, including the Japanese jiu jitsu and she had the benefit of associa- tion with the men on the force in their detective work and from the be- ginning of her connection with the service she has done splendid work for the department. In 1928 she was promoted to the rank of sergeant and is now in charge of the women's bureau, consisting of ten members beside her- self. She is also keeper of the records. She has done some really marvelous work as a police woman and is well deserving of the praise which is ac- corded her. A woman of most pleasing and charming personality and of marked refinement, she possesses too an athletic figure, is well proportioned and is a finished marksman. Almost at the beginning of her connection with the bureau, she began writing a history of her work and in her files she has the story of twenty-five thousand cases, with complete information con- cerning each.
For four years Mrs. Slater did government finger printing of women. After becoming an expert shot, she had a shooting class of Toledo University girls and high school boys. She lectures to classes in all of the schools, also to church groups and clubs throughout the state and to some degree in Michi- gan, and her ability as a narrator enables her to present an interesting pic-
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ture of her subject and one which awakens thoughtful consideration on the part of her auditors. She is herself an especially clear thinker and logical reasoner and her viewpoint is the result of thorough study and understanding. Life has ever been for her opportunity for action and achievement and there is much that is inspirational in her work.
LOUISE STITT
LOUISE STITT, Industrial economist with the U. S. Department of La- bor at Columbus, O., was born in Columbus, took her A.B. and M.A. at Ohio State University, and later attended Columbia University, the New York School of Social Work, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Pennsylvania. She was superintendent of the division of minimum wage for Ohio from 1933 to 1935 and is regarded as outstanding in her profes- sional field. Her residence is at 1312 E. Broad St., Columbus.
MRS. BELLAMY STORER
Cincinnati owes much to various members of the Longworth family. Their part in development of the city will never be forgotten. But to one member of this famous family, Maria Longworth Storer, all the world owes recogni- tion, not only for what this gifted woman did to further art and music but also for what she did to provide, involuntarily but none the less vigorously, the sort of saga which appeals most to the American taste. Significant but not salacious. Salty, yet, in its moral, certainly salubrious. And God's own gift to the newspapers.
Maria Longworth, granddaughter of the Nicholas Longworth who first came to Cincinnati, daughter of Joseph and Annie Reeves Longworth, aunt of the late Nicholas Longworth, former speaker of the House, was born March 20, 1849.
Largely through the influence of her father, who knew pictures and had a fine collection of his own, Maria became actively interested in decorative art. Her father was one of the supporters of the then Cincinnati Art School. Maria took lessons in china painting. About 1875, with the co-operation of the Ladies Art Club which she had organized, she began making experiments in clay, glaze and color at the Dallas Pottery, which was near her home.
In 1880 Maria's father obtained for her an old school building in which to continue her work. They named it "Rookwood" after the Longworth home on East Walnut Hills.
At this workshop Marian Longworth gathered about her skilled artists and workmen. Presently they were producing vases and other pottery which was acclaimed as of outstanding merit as to form, color, quality of glaze and artistry of decoration.
When Maria Longworth Storer-she had made her second marriage by this time-received a gold medal at the Paris exposition of 1889, America
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awoke to the fact that there was an artist of first rank in Cincinnati. The following year Rookwood Pottery was organized on a business basis, with William W. Taylor as president, Bellamy Storer as vice president. The pot- tery is now located on the summit of Mt. Adams. People came from far and wide to admire and obtain its beautiful products. It is and long has been, one of the most important show places of the city.
In 1868 Maria Longworth became the wife of George Ward Nichols, president and one of the founders of the College of Music. Mr. Nichols died in 1885 and the following year his widow married Bellamy Storer, son of a prominent jurist noted for his civic and educational services and a direct descendant, on his mothers side, of William Penn. Bellamy Storer was also a fine lawyer and also held positions of honor in his native city. Moreover he was elected to Congress in 1890.
No editor not color blind would fail to include in the life history of Maria Longworth Storer some of the sidelights on this colorful story pro- vided by the late Mrs. Joseph B. Foraker in her autobiography "I would Live It Again."
It is only fair to preface such excerpts with the statement that for years no love was lost between the Foraker and Longworth-Storer families. Their members were, to be sure, all good Republicans. Just how so bitter an internecine war arose within their ranks can never be known, absolutely.
About this, apparently, there will always be several versions. The For- aker explanation goes back to a lawsuit wherewith the famous Ohio governor and senator became involved, altogether, according to his widow, against his will. Moreover, her explanation seems most convincing.
This lawsuit was against a member of Mrs. Storer's own family. It was the kind of lawsuit bound to rouse indignation, righteous or unrighteous.
On the other hand, it seems inescapable that the Storers made no secret of their belief that the U. S. Senate would be just as well off without "Fire Alarm Foraker"-if not better. Bellamy Storer was not re-elected to Con- gress. So President Mckinley appointed him minister to Belgium. The Stor- ers, it is said, had rallied generously to the aid of Mckinley at a time when, though no fault of his own, rather the contrary, Mckinley, then Governor of Ohio was almost wrecked financially by the trickery of a friend.
It must have seemed, to all concerned, quite right and proper that Mrs. Storer should urge Mckinley, when he became president, to recognize by some important appointment, the undoubtedly fine ability of her husband.
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