USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume IV > Part 11
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DOROTHY B. FEDER
When the British Steamer Athenia was sent to the bottom off the coast of Ireland on Sept. 3, 1939, DOROTHY B. FEDER (Mrs. Mark G. Feder) of Cincinnati, Ohio, was a passenger. The courage and coolness
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with which she met this hideous ordeal won tribute from her fellow sufferers which further justified the high appreciation Cincinnatians have long accorded Mrs. Feder's social, civic and educational services to her city and her state.
With the other survivors of the Athenia, Mrs. Feder spent the night following the disaster in an open lifeboat. They were rescued by a British destroyer, which took them to Glasgow, Scotland. They waited two weeks in this grim atmosphere of blackouts and gas masks until the arrival of the S. S. Oriziba, sent by the United States to bring them home.
Dorothy Brown Feder was born in Cincinnati, the daughter of David Ferdinand and Hanna Meyerfeld Brown. Both ancestral lines were German and traced back to forbears whose ability contributed definitely to the advancement of their communities.
After graduation from Hughes High School Dorothy Brown at- tended the University of Cincinnati, took her B. A. in 1918 and followed this with graduate courses in archaeology. Later she became graduate assistant in economics, in which capacity she served four years. Her marriage to the late Mark G. Feder, Cincinnati manufacturer, took place in 1928.
Deep interest in governmental reforms and social progress has iden- tified Mrs. Feder actively with numerous civic and welfare organizations. She has held various offices in the Cincinnati League of Women Voters, has devoted unstinted time and effort to improvement of social legisla- tion and headed the women's division of the City Charter Committee of Cincinnati in 1937 and 1938. She belongs to Phi Beta Kappa and other college organizations, to leading literary and musical clubs and to a number of outstanding social service organizations. Mrs. Feder resides at 505 Forest Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio.
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MRS. B. W. JONES
MRS. B. W. JONES, 420 South Plum Street, Troy, Ohio, chief pro- bation officer of the Miami County Juvenile Court from 1933 to 1940, former vice president of the Ohio State Federation of Women's Clubs, civic and religious leader of the city, succumbed to an extended illness June 17, 1940.
Surviving Mrs. Jones are her husband, Dr. Jones, one daughter, Mrs. R. H. Israel, and one granddaughter, Nancy Jo Israel, of Pelham, New York, and one sister, Mrs. C. A. Jewell, of Pittsford, Michigan. Mrs. J. B. Lickly, mother of Mrs. Jones, died in Pittsford, Michigan, March 5, 1940.
Mrs. Nora Lickly Jones, daughter of John Barry Lickly and Oliva Barber Lickly, was born in Hillsdale County, Michigan, received her early education in the schools of Hillsdale County and was graduated from Hudson (Michigan) High School and the Ypsilanti State Normal College, Ypsilanti, Michigan. She then taught music and mathematics at the Girls' Industrial School in Adrian, Michigan, until her marriage to Dr. Burton Wilson Jones.
Mrs. Jones came to Troy as a bride in the 90's and she soon en- deared herself by her charming personality and winning manner to a wide circle of friends throughout the city who held her in high esteem. Her entire married life was spent in Troy and her influence was uplifting in the First Methodist Church as she actively engaged in the many de- partments of the denomination. She was instructor of the class in the Sunday school which bears her name and was greatly beloved by the large membership of young matrons.
Next in importance to Mrs. Jones was her club work. She was a charter member of the Altrurian Club and served as its president in
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1913-14. She was a member of the civic committee of the club for many years and through her leadership much valuable work was accomplished in the line of civic projects for the betterment of the city. Her ability was recognized throughout the state as she engaged for many years in the work of the Ohio State Federation of Women's Clubs. She served as vice president of the state federation from 1930 to 1932 and while holding that office she was program chairman of the state convention. She was slated for the presidency of the state federation but declined the honor to accept the position as probation officer of Miami, her own county, which position she held at the time of her passing.
Mrs. Jones was vice president of the Middle-West District of the Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs from 1928 to 1930, was state chair- man of child welfare for four years, from 1924 to 1928, and was state chairman of the division of correction from 1932 to 1934. It was during this period that she had important work in connection with the state institutions in Delaware and Marysville, as she served on the executive board of the Ohio Industrial School for Girls at Delaware. She was acting superintendent of the Girls' Industrial School in Adrian, Michi- gan, from June to September in 1914 and 1915.
To the Miami County chapter of the American Red Cross Mrs. Jones extended a helping hand during the World War. She helped to organize Miami County Tuberculosis and Health Association through which the sale of Christmas seals is promoted in the program to protect homes from tuberculosis and which has already saved many lives in Miami County. She was deeply interested in public health work, was a member of the Troy Nursing Association which she helped to organize, and was president of the Red Cross nursing committee, which preceded the nursing association. She was one of the group of women which was responsible for the public health nursing work being established in Troy.
Mrs. Jones was appointed chief probation officer of the Miami County Probate Court in 1933 and the many difficult and delicate tasks connected with that work were handled the last seven years with an efficiency which only comes of years of training of the heart and mind,
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such as she had gained through her connection with welfare and civic enterprises.
Other clubs with which Mrs. Jones had been affiliated for many years were the Home Circle and the Current Events Club. Another im- portant work in which she engaged was to serve on the building com- mittee which had charge of the construction of Stouder Memorial Hos- pital. She received that appointment May 17, 1926.
Mrs. Jones' main interests always had to do with the uplift of the individual or the benefit of the community at large and while striving toward ideals she used practical methods which were attended with most beneficial results.
LUCIE SCHWAB LEHMAN
LUCIE SCHWAB LEHMAN (Mrs. Alvin J. Lehman), organizer in large part of the Regional Planning Council of Hamilton County, Ohio, was born in Alsace, France, the daughter of Abraham and Brunette Kahn Schwab. She attended the Pension Saint Cretienne and took a teacher's degree at the College of Strasbourg, coming to Cincinnati in 1909.
In 1911 Lucie Schwab was married to Alvin J. Lehman, born at Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated from Harvard in 1906. They have two sons, Robert S. Lehman, who received his M. A. from the American University at Washington, D. C., in 1939, and A. J. Lehman, graduated from Harvard in 1938.
Mrs. Lehman has worked an efficiency attainable only through deep interest and thorough training with a number of highly important organizations, notably the Regional Planning Council of Hamilton County, which had its origin in the City Planning and Housing Com- mittee of the Cincinnati Woman's City Club. She is an active member of this club, of the Cincinnati League of Women Voters, of Rockdale Temple Sisterhood, of the Low Cost Housing and Slum Clearance Coun-
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cil, of the Council of Jewish Women, the Adult Education Council, the Consumptive Relief Association and other groups that have as their main purpose the promotion of human welfare.
The Lehmans reside at 1055 Barry Lane, Cincinnati.
HELEN MARIE PHELAN
HELEN MARIE PHELAN, who has devoted much of her life to social service work, took charge of Merrick House, a welfare organiza- tion of Cleveland, in 1923 and has done notable work in this and similar connections in the city. A native of California, she was born in Watson- ville, May 29, 1891, and in the acquirement of her education attended the Moreland Notre Dame Academy, the San Jose College of Cali- fornia, where she was a student for two years, and the University of California, where she won her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1913. For six years thereafter she was a teacher in high school at Watsonville, Cali- fornia, and for one year in Washington, D. C., after which she spent the year 1919-20 at the Catholic School of Social Service. In the summer of 1920 she went to East St. Louis, Illinois, where she was with the National Community House until 1923, when she came to Cleveland and took charge of the Merrick House, a welfare organization, where she has since continued her labors, attended with most satisfactory results.
Since coming to this city she has taken an active part in organized effort to improve public conditions along various lines. She is president of the Cleveland Diocesan Council of the National Council of Catholic Women, has served as president of the Cleveland Settlement Union, has been president of the Work Council of the Welfare Confederation and is treasurer of the Consumers League, an organization that has direct connection with every household, studying the question of food and other interests that immediately affect every family. She is also a mem- ber of the mayor's commission on recreation and playground service and at all times she keeps well informed on those vital public questions that have to do with individual character development or civic progress.
WOMEN OF OHIO
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MRS. TRUITT BRETNEY SELLERS
As president of the Children's Hospital Board in Columbus, MRS. TRUITT BRETNEY SELLERS heads one of the outstanding hospi- tal organizations of the United States. Her broad humanitarian spirit prompts her earnest and untiring efforts in this connection and her labors have been most beneficially resultant. Mrs. Sellers, who was born in Louisville but who came to Columbus from Covington, Ken- tucky, is a daughter of General John W. Finnell, lawyer and statesman, and from her mother, Mrs. John W. Finnell, who was one of the founders of the Kentucky Children's Home, she inherits her zeal for hospital work. She has been a member of the board of the Children's Hospital since coming to Columbus from Covington, Kentucky, in 1904 as the bride of Truitt B. Sellers, manager of the Ohio Inspection Bureau.
The hospital for which Mrs. Sellers is doing such an outstanding piece of work is maintained primarily by charity. It has a capacity of one hundred and thirty-five beds, financed by the efforts of two thousand women who, organized into Twigs, Women's Board, Pleasure Guild and Auxiliaries each year raise over one hundred thousand dollars toward its maintenance. Mrs. Sellers, who for twenty-five years has been president of the board, organized the first fifteen "Twigs" in 1917, and then the country's entrance into the World War temporarily interrupted a drive for funds for a new hospital. The women at that time did war work and later became instrumental in hospital maintenance. There are now eighty Twigs and one of the projects, the Children's Hospital Thrift Shop, where second-hand articles are sold, contributes five thousand dollars annually to the hospital fund. The present hospital, dedicated in 1924, is staffed by prominent Columbus physicians and surgeons who donate their services. It receives no aid from city or state and its women's board
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has annually met a budget of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars without ever incurring indebtedness. There are now one hun- dred employes on the payroll staff of the hospital, together with a paid staff of two house physicians and three internes.
Mrs. Sellers has been a moving force in the growth and develop- ment of the hospital, which now cares for four thousand patients an- nually. Its dispensary was visited by thirty-five thousand children in the year 1939. Affiliated with Ohio State University, the hospital is a teaching center for students and its school of nursing admits for four months, nurses from hospitals over Ohio and elsewhere for the study of pediatrics. The dispensary has thirty clinics, including ortho- donic, cardiac, orthopedic, psychological and speech. There is also a school for crippled children and in a new wing opened in the fall of 1939 there is a pool for physio-therapy. This wing was given at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars by Leo J. Marks and Mrs. Walter Franc, of Columbus, as a memorial to their parents, Julius and Amelia Marks.
Under the leadership of Mrs. Sellers, five hundred thousand dol- lars was raised in two months when the drive for funds for a new hospital was begun. The old institution was established forty-seven years ago and the nucleus sum was one hundred and twenty-five dol- lars, raised by a card party held in Mrs. James Kilbourne's garden.
The Children's Hospital is not the only project which has felt the impetus of Mrs. Sellers' energetic forces. She headed the women's division working for the Columbus airport bond issues and also the bond issues for schools and the city hall and feels a deep interest in all civic matters that have to do with public improvement and benefit. She is also business manager of Bambino, the children's hospital maga- zine, which is published quarterly and is the only hospital magazine recognized by the Congressional Library. Mrs. Sellers is a charter member of the District Nursing Association and Big Sisters Associa- tion. She also assisted in organizing the Columbus Junior League, of which she is an honorary member, and she is affiliated with the Pleasure Guild. Her plans are definite, broad in their scope and purpose and highly resultant in their outcome, while her work has been one of inestimable benefit to the children of Columbus.
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ANNETTE GRACE DILGART SMITH
ANNETTE GRACE DILGART SMITH was the winner in 1939 of the cup that is presented by the Library Forum to the person who has done the most outstanding public service for Bryan. Her interest in the general welfare has continued for many years and she has done most effective work along philanthropic, educational and moral lines in addition to service in connection with the Red Cross. She is the wife of George W. Smith, who attended Michigan State College, Lansing, Michigan, and who has been associated with the VanCamp Company at Bryan for thirty years. Her parents, Edward W. and Sophia (Brindley) Dilgart, were native Ohioans, born in Lucas County, and her father became a pioneer educator, devoting twenty-five years to school work as a teacher in both Lucas and Fulton Counties.
Annette Grace Dilgart attended school in Spencer Township, Lucas County, also studying music, and in 1903 she was married to George W. Smith, well known in the business circles of Bryan. They have a daughter, Frances, who attended the Bryan schools and after her grad- uation from high school entered Bowling Green University, where she completed her course as a member of the class of 1926, having majored in history. She also studied music and art and she became a member of the staff of the Bryan Public Library. In 1929 she married Clyde K. Svoboda, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and they now reside in Greenville, Michigan. They have one son, David, who is nine years of age. Mr. Svoboda is manager and vice president of the Gas Corporation of Michi- gan. He is a graduate of International College of Commerce of Indiana and after his graduation was athletic coach of this college for two years.
Mrs. Smith belongs to the Progress Club, a literary organization of which she is a past president. She also has membership in the
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Women's Christian Temperance Union, of which she has served as president and in which she has been most active, at the present time filling the position of county publicity director of Williams County. She is likewise a member of the Garden Club and is an earnest worker in the Red Cross, which she has served as vice president. She belongs to the Methodist Church, in the work of which she takes a most helpful inter- est, and she has been particularly active in its missionary societies, working for both home and foreign missions. She is now in charge of the charity department of the Federated Clubs at Bryan and is a mem- ber of the Bryan Women's Federation. She has charge of the Travelers Aid work in Bryan, in which she has been engaged for seven years. Keenly interested in all that has to do with the welfare of the individual and the upbuilding of the community, she has worked along practical and resultant lines and the effectiveness of her labors is shown in the fact that the beautiful cup which the Library Forum gives to the person doing the most good for the city was presented to Mrs. Smith in 1939. This cup cannot be won by the same person twice, going from one winner to another, and the name of each is engraved on it, so that when it is completely covered with names it is to be presented to the Public Library and placed on display there. Mrs. Smith well merited the honor that came to her and the consensus of public opinion places her among those who have been most active in their service to the city.
MARTHA FLEETA THOMAS
Since 1924 MARTHA FLEETA THOMAS has been assistant exec- utive secretary of the Ohio Public Health Association, which was es- tablished in 1901 to create interest in and to promote action against tuberculosis. Miss Thomas was born in Logan County, Ohio, and has been a resident of Columbus since 1914. She was a theatre organist
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before she turned her attention to a business career in connection with industrial activities and later became connected with the Ohio Public Health Association.
Outside of her work in the Association, Miss Thomas has a deep interest in the Florence Crittenton Home and was its president from 1933 to 1938. Her administration was distinguished by the organiza- tion of a junior board and of more than twenty groups of women, who lend their efforts toward supporting the Home. Miss Thomas served as president of the Ohio Florence Crittenton League from 1934 to 1937 and has been its treasurer since the latter year. She is also a member of the central extension committee of the National Florence Crittenton Mission.
Altrusa is another of her interests. She served as first vice presi- dent of the international organization from 1933 to 1935 and became chairman of the national extension committee, in which connection she saw thirty-two clubs organized in the United States between 1937 and 1939. She was secretary of the Columbus Altrusa Club for a time and in 1929 was elected and served as its president. She has also been secretary for the Fourth District Association of the Altrusa.
Affiliated with state and national public health associations, Miss Thomas has headed the Woman's Association of Commerce, having been president in 1924-25. She is identified with the Eastern Star and with the Pythian Sisters and politically is an active member of the Buckeye Republican Club. Her music is still an absorbing pastime, as well as the collection of antique furniture and china.
LOUISE BRUNNER VORIS
LOUISE BRUNNER VORIS has been superintendent of the Sum- mit County Children's Home since September, 1936, and is regarded as most efficient in this position for previous to her appointment she had
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had broad experience in philanthropic, church and club work, whereby her executive powers had been developed. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, her parents having been William Franklin and Ella (Ford) Brun- ner, also natives of Cleveland, their respective families having lived in this state from the latter part of the eighteenth century. Her father was a railroad man in Cleveland.
Mrs. Voris was educated in Hosmer Hall, a private school of St. Louis, Missouri, and in Vassar College, where she won her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1903. Later in that year, in Cleveland, she became the wife of William Voris of that city. Since 1908 she has lived in Akron and here she has taken an active and prominent part in the public life of the community as a club woman and church worker. In 1911 she was the president of the Akron College Club and for twenty-two years she served as president or was a member of the board of the Young Women's Christian Association, directing its work and activities in a most pur- poseful and resultant way. For eighteen years she has been a member of the board of the Florence Crittenton Home and she has served on the Charity Board for two terms, doing family service in that connection. She is a member of the Akron and Summit County Federation of Wom- an's Clubs, of which she has been treasurer and also a member of its board for many years. She is a past president and still has membership in the Woman's City Club of Akron and is identified with various art and history classes. The foregoing indicates her qualities of leadership and her executive ability, as shown in her election to the various offices she has filled or is still filling. Her plans are definite and at all times she is actuated by high and noble purposes to help her fellowmen and ad- vance intellectual, cultural, charitable and moral influences in the com- munity.
Mrs. Voris has membership in the First Congregational Church of Akron and is one of its earnest and loyal workers. In her present posi- tion she heads an institution that has a capacity for two hundred children and she also has supervision over one hundred and fifty children in fos- ter homes. Her sympathy, understanding and interests makes her most capable in this work and the Home is wisely and carefully directed by her, proving a far-reaching influence for good.
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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. Her great-great grandfather, named Shirkey, emigrated from Ireland to America when a young man and fought with the Colonists in the Revolutionary War.
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. Through- out 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 Chauncey, Ohio, and then turned her attention to household affairs.
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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 shipments 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 Rudolph, of Chicago, 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 is an active member of the Toledo Chapter of the National Associa- tion of Cost Accountants and director of publications for that organiza- tion. He wedded Mary Lou Shank of Tiffin, Ohio, and they have one child, Wesley Ogle. Gerald Reed Welling married Lucile Schutz, daugh- ter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold R. Schutz, and they have a daughter, Nancy Ruth. Arthur J. is attending Syracuse University of Syracuse, 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 council.
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