USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume IV > Part 12
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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, which placed that school as a first class high school.
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
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also served as assistant to Mrs. Ives of the Woman's Protective Associa- tion 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 "aid for the aged" in Lucas County. Later she returned to the relief work and for one year was in charge of repatriation. In 1937 she joined the Goodwill Industries as a social worker and in charge of the per- sonnel. She took a course in social work at the University of Chicago in 1934 and she is a member of the American Association of Social 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
The life story of EVA B. MANNING WHEELER, Head Resident Godman Guild House at 470 West Goodale Street in Columbus, is a most interesting one, as it is the story of the steady growth and development of the institution under her care. Mrs. Wheeler was born in London, Ohio, in 1883, a daughter of John Ross and Alice May (Clark) Manning, also natives of Ohio. Her grandmother, Mrs. Virginia Frances Snagel Clark, a Virginian, was a charter member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Mrs. Wheeler is of Revolutionary War descent on both the paternal and maternal sides. She won her degree in the College of Arts at Ohio State University in 1907.
Thirty years ago, in the office of the University Settlement in Chi- cago, a young social worker by the name of Wheeler sat down at his
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desk and wrote a letter to Eva B. Manning, then of Boston, Mass., who was working for the United States Government as a special investiga- tor for the Federal Immigration Commission. That letter changed the whole course of Miss Manning's life, for her sweetheart, Jimmy Wheel- er, 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 first twenty settlements in the United States, on one condition, however, -he must be married. 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 when Mr. Wheeler could make enough money to support a wife. He was part-time boys' worker at the settlement and Miss Manning was supervising a public playground in the summer and serving as girls' worker at the Guild in the winter while still attending school. They were married in 1908 and took up their duties as head residents of Godman Guild as soon as the honeymoon was over. For twenty-three years, un- til the death of Mr. Wheeler in 1931, they worked side by side, carrying out the ideals of the founders of the settlement, bringing to the people in the congested section in which the Guild is located the "opportunity for a fuller life." During those twenty-three years, all of which were spent on the third floor of the settlement, the Wheelers reared their five children, two sons and three daughters, and before they had reached adult age, 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 after day for outlets which were unavailable to them in their crowded, poverty-stricken homes, had grown to manhood and womanhood 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
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and opened play centers in all sections of Columbus. Free summer camps for underprivileged mothers and children, both colored and white, were established by Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler under the sponsorship of the Godman Guild Association and at the present time these camps, the Godman Guild Reservation and Camp James W. Wheeler are among the largest settlement camps in the United States. Mrs. Wheeler man- ages these camps each summer and directs the activities of the Godman Guild, which daily touch the lives of thousands of living persons in the neighborhood. She has a well trained staff and the money which is needed to finance these activities is provided through the Community Fund.
Quiet and unassuming in manner, 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 foreign-born children of the Guild who have made a place for themselves in the world as though they were her own children. Her skill in handling the race problem so that both white and colored families in the district may enjoy the bene- fits of the settlement program, without friction, has placed her at the top of her profession in the opinion of her fellow settlement workers, and she has performed a notable task in the training of pre-delinquent and delinquent boys and girls who have been turned over to her by the juvenile court.
Mrs. Wheeler's daughters are following in their mother's footsteps. Alice, now Mrs. Herman Becker, is on the Guild staff as her mother's assistant. Martha is at Kingsley House in Pittsburgh and her sister Virginia, recently married to Charles Yost, who is a social worker, will receive her Master's degree at Western Reserve University in Cleveland. One son of the family, George Wheeler, is with the Farm Security Administration, and the other son, Edward Angus, is a senior in high school.
Mrs. Wheeler is a member of the Faculty Club, the Alumni Asso- ciation of Ohio State University and the American Association of University Women. She is also connected with the National Settlement
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Association, the National Camping Association and the National Proba- tion Association, thus utilizing every means to broaden her knowledge and promote her efficiency along the line of her chosen life work. She has membership in the Congregational Church. She still lives on the third floor of Godman Guild House at 470 West Goodale Street in Co- lumbus. "Flytown," as this section was known in the early days because of its filth and deplorable conditions, has undergone many changes since she came here as a bride thirty years ago. It is still a "slum district," filled with ramshackle houses, sixty-five per cent of which are not equipped with running water, but in every home Mrs. Wheeler and the Godman Guild spell hope and an opportunity for a fuller life. If a baby is sick, Mrs. Wheeler will send for a doctor. If a boy is picked up by the police, Mrs. Wheeler will intercede for him. If the head of a household is out of a job, the employment service of 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. The foreign-born residents of the community study for their citizen- ship 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 the city and all five have been founded as a result of the demonstration sponsored by God- man Guild, a demonstration made possible by the faith of its promoters and by the loyal devotion of James and Eva (Manning) Wheeler.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Women In Political Life And Public Service (Continued from Page 1106)
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FRANCES FANNING BUSHEA
In connection with relief work and club interests, with civic affairs . and church activities, the name of FRANCES FANNING BUSHEA is closely and prominently associated and she has won wide recognition for what she has achieved along these lines, being at all times actuated by a broad humanitarian spirit that seeks the good of her fellowmen. Mrs. Bushea, now residing at 2822 East 132nd Street, in Cleveland, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, a daughter of M. A. and Octavia (Dix) Fanning, both of whom became very prominent in connection with the public life of Cleveland.
During her early girlhood Mrs. Bushea accompanied her parents to this city and was here educated in parochial and private schools, being a graduate of Miss Middleburger's private school. In 1913 she married William J. Bushea of Cleveland, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold A. Bushea and nephew of William J. Akers.
Mrs. Bushea's interests in the public welfare has been continuous since early womanhood and her efforts have been far-reaching and re- sultant. She worked with the Cleveland Public Library in establishing libraries in private homes in districts that might prove a possible loca- tion for branch libraries. She has been a volunteer worker for the Good- rich Settlement House and she was the first woman social investigator for the department of outdoor relief in Cleveland, serving under Mayor Newton D. Baker in 1912 and also under Harris R. Cooley.
On the return of Ambassador Myron Herrick from France she organized and directed the relief for the French wounded for the period of two years and when the United States entered the World War, this relief organization was made a branch of the American Red Cross and she continued to administer and manage it until the end of hostilities.
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Mrs. Bushea formerly served on the board of Cleveland Women Voters and then became a member of the Women's Democratic Club, of which she acted as secretary for five years. She was also a member of the Cuyahoga County executive committee of that organization and she was one of the first Ohio women to become a candidate for the legis- lature, but suffered defeat in the Republican landslide of that year. For thirteen years she was executive secretary of the Woman's Council for the Promotion of Peace, the first peace organization of the state, and she also organized the first peace parade in Cleveland.
Mrs. Bushea was a former member of the board of directors of the Citizens League and a member of the executive committee of the Women's City Club for fifteen years, during which time she worked earnestly and effectively for the establishment of the Women's Police Bureau, the Juvenile Court and the Women's Detention Home. She is a past secretary of the Adult Education Association, is secretary of the foreign affairs department of that association and a member of the Cuyahoga County Board of Visitors.
Mrs. Bushea has life membership with the Associated Charities; is a member of the interpretation committee of the Welfare Federation and chairman of the children's council of the Welfare Federation. She has the distinction of being the only Catholic woman of Cleveland who has served as president of the Cleveland Deanery Council of the National Council of Catholic Women, acting as president of the diocesan organi- zation for three years and also as president of the Cleveland Council for three years. She has been on the board of directors of the Women's City Club and for three years was a member of the board of the Foreign Af- fairs Council. She is now a member of the mayor's advisory board in connection with the public auditorium and stadium of Cleveland and is a member of the County Aid Society for Dependent Children. She is also supervisor for cooperative students at Cleveland College and is execu- tive secretary of the Woman's Association of Cleveland College, and she deserves much credit for the fact that she was the first woman in Cleveland to inaugurate the work of cooperative education.
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Mrs. Bushea is a life member of the National Council of Catholic Women and is its organization chairman in the Cleveland Diocese. She has served as chairman of the lecture committee and hostess of the National Catholic Deanery and she represented the study clubs of the Cleveland Diocese at Washington, D. C., in 1937. She has received recog- nition from many newspapers and other publications for her work in public speaking and teaching and her influence has been most broadly felt in the advancement of education, political, charitable and religious activities, whereby the general public has been benefitted.
LORENA G. CALDWELL
LORENA G. CALDWELL, candidate for Columbus City Council in 1939 on the Republican ticket, was sought out to become a candidate for a group of 200 Columbus women who recognized the qualities she had manifest in civic service.
She had been president of the Columbus and Franklin County Council, Parent-Teacher Associations having a membership of 17,000 women, a member of the Franklin County Board of Visitors for five years, secretary of the board of the South Side Day Nursery and board member of the Florence Crittenton Home.
These groups she had served conscientiously and well. She had also demonstrated her executive ability and judgment as general chairman in the Franklin County Save-a-Surplus Canning Campaign. This work was taken into consideration when a group of women interested in hav- ing one of their sex on the city council urged Mrs. Caldwell to become a candidate. Life member of the National Congress of Parent-Teachers, Mrs. Caldwell began her public activity when she became president of Lincoln Avenue School P .- T. A. in Columbus. She has served the Ohio Congress P .- T. A. as legislative chairman. She is a member of the Women's State Committee of Ohio for Public Welfare, Health and Edu- cation, and was a member of its advisory committee for two years.
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Interested in cultural subjects, Mrs. Caldwell is president of Aurora Delphian Chapter and in 1939 was elected president of Central Ohio Delphian District. She was also first vice president of the University Mothers Club. Her church membership is with the Oakwood M. E. Church.
Mrs. Caldwell is the wife of Herbert O. Caldwell, Columbus mer- chant. She was born in Columbus and attended Columbus School for Girls and Ohio State University. Her father, Henry Gehke, came from Germany when a young man and became a baker in this country. Her mother was Emma Dorbert.
GERTRUDE L. HANNA
One of the most outstanding women of Cleveland and the State of Ohio is GERTRUDE JEROME LEAVITT HANNA (Mrs. Carl H. Hanna), who is a most active worker in Republican circles and is equally well known as a successful breeder and fancier of dogs and horses. She has long worked for civic betterment, has been a champion of the move- ment for better American homes and is now state president of Pro America, a national organization of Republican women for the purpose of maintaining and advancing the standards of citizenship.
Mrs. Hanna was born in Stamford, Connecticut, a daughter of the late Edward Leavitt and Annabel (Bean) Leavitt, both of New York City. She was educated in her native state, attending the Catherine Aiken School, and in 1911 she became the wife of Carl H. Hanna, grand- son of the late Mark Hanna, of Cleveland. The marriage was celebrated in Bridgeburg, Ontario, and they have become parents of a son and daughter. Edward Leavitt Hanna, born in 1911, married Helen Cannon, daughter of the late John Cannon, and they are the parents of one child, Timothy Cannon Hanna; the daughter, Ursula Jerome Hanna, died in 1914.
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Since early womanhood Mrs. Hanna has manifested a keen and effective interest in the public welfare. Her work as emergency nurse in the Masonic Temple in Watertown, New York, during the influenza epidemic during the World War brought to her a medal from Washing- ton in recognition of her service. She afterward worked as a lieutenant in Lafayette Hospital, of New York City, until it was closed six months after the signing of the armistice. She acted as chairman of the work in Jefferson County, New York, to raise money for the Marne statue, acting under General Robert Alexander, commander of the Lost Batallion, and she served as captain of the Jewish team for raising money in 1920 for Jewish relief, being the first time the Jews ever asked assistance from anybody except their own people in taking care of their own, since their landing in New York when Peter Stuyvesant was mayor, he insisting that they should be self supporting. Moreover Mrs. Hanna was the first woman in the United States to recruit men in the army-back-to-peace strength. She acted as auxiliary chairman for Company L, at Water- town, New York, and in 1921 she filled the office of treasurer of the American Legion Auxiliary.
Mrs. Hanna has long been prominently known for her leadership in political affairs. She was the organizer of the first Hoover-for-President Club in Ohio and was made an alternate delegate at large for Herbert Hoover in 1928. She also acted as vice chairman on the National Finance Committee for the State of Ohio-chairman for small contributions, both men and women. She was chairman in Cuyahoga County for the Hoover 32 Club, which was to raise money for the Republican Convention, and her success in the county put Ohio in first place of all the states. She was chosen to go to Washington to invite President Hoover to deliver a speech in Cleveland and Mr. and Mrs. Hanna were house guests of the President and Mrs. Hoover at the White House in January, 1932, and attended services with the President in the little Quaker Church in Washington. She was a delegate at large for the re-election of Mr. Hoover and at the Republican National Convention of 1932 acted as secretary to the committee on rules and order of business. For two days in the last of February, 1933, Mr. and Mrs. Hanna were house guests at the White House, during which a dinner was held for the Chief Justice
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and they occupied the President's seats during the hearing of the finance investigating committee in the United States Senate and also attended a press luncheon with Mrs. Hoover. Mrs. Hanna has been a member of the Cuyahoga County executive committee of the Republican party and a member of the mayor's committee for the N. R. A.
Mrs. Hanna has also served as county chairman for Better Homes in America, an educational organization founded by President Hoover in 1923, and was publicity chairman of the Ohio Council of Republican Women. She was chosen Ohio president of Pro-America, a national movement dedicated to preserve the American ideal of government by awakening Americans to the individual responsibility of informed and active citizenship and founded in Seattle, Washington, in 1933. Its pro- gram is based upon the age old truth that knowledge is the first aid to good government. It investigates the records and commends for sup- port the candidates best qualified to serve the public ably and well and strives to encourage young voters to take a vital active interest in cur- rent affairs.
The hobbies of Mrs. Hanna are dogs and horses. She is the founder of the National Dog Protective Association and at all times has fought bills detrimental to dogs and their owners and has introduced various bills for their benefit. She is a breeder of dachunds, the German shep- herd dog and the Hackney pony, being a licensed judge of both these breeds of dogs and is the winner of hundreds of blue ribbons and cham- pionships. She has also been the winner of several golf championships, having been a member of a golf team since twelve years of age. Gene Sarazen presented her with a set of his own special golf clubs just after he had won the British and American national championships. She has also been a member of the World's Fair Horse Show committee. In addi- tion to ponies and dogs, she is much interested in glass and china and in hunting prints. She decorated a room in Early American in the Hanna Theater in Cleveland, the only room of its kind in any theater, and in this room George Arliss rehearsed his plays during his last visit to Cleveland, while Tyrone Power commended the room for its original- ity.
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Mrs. Hanna is also well known as the writer of short stories on sportsmanship (dogs and horses) and she compiled a book which in- cludes personal letters from President and Mrs. Hoover before, during and after their stay in the White House.
CLARA ECKERT HELM
CLARA ECKERT HELM, well known in club circles, has also been an active church worker and has been identified with the board of elections of Greenville, where she makes her home. She is one of the two children of Henry Clay Helm and Celia (Lavender) Helm the latter a native of London, England, whence she came to America with her parents and a sister, the family first locating in Montreal, Canada. Later they removed to Sharonville, Ohio, and subsequently came to Greenville. For a year prior to her marriage, Miss Celia Lavender taught in a country school east of Greenville and it was in this area that she met and married Henry Clay Helm, who was born in Green- ville. He became owner of a meat market in his native city, conducting the business for several years, after which he was elected county treas- urer of Darke County, filling the office for two terms. In fact he spent eight years altogether in the county treasurer's office, being there employed after serving his term of office. With his retirement from office he turned his attention to the grain business, in which he con- tinued for about two decades, starting out in that line when sixty years of age. He retired at the age of eighty to enjoy a well-earned rest but died a year later. He was a Democrat in his political views and both his son and daughter have followed in his footsteps in that regard. The son, Gales Helm, started out in the business world as a clerk in the Second National Bank and remained with the institution for thirty- five years, filling various offices. After his withdrawal from the bank he went to Chicago, where he was connected with a manufacturing busi-
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ness for about seven years and then returned to Greenville, where he is now living retired. He married Edna MeCollum, of Monticello, Indiana, where her parents resided.
Miss Helm, also living in Greenville, is active in the Episcopal Church, feeling the deepest interest in the church work and its ad- vancement. For ten years she served as clerk of the Darke County board of elections, acting in that capacity from 1927 to March, 1938. Her club memberships are with the Greenville, Sorosis, Fin de Siecle and Greenville Music Clubs, in all of which she has held official position, and she likewise belongs to the Civic League and is much interested in civic betterment. She is now serving on the Northwest Territory Commission and during the time when her father was connected with the office of treasurer of Darke County she acted as his assistant. Any plan or project for the public good receives her endorsement and sup- port and her efforts have been effective in advancing the welfare of Greenville along various lines.
MILDRED REES JASTER
MILDRED REES JASTER (Mrs. John Jaster, Jr.) is national Democratic committeewoman for Ohio and has long been an active worker in politics in support of the principles in which she so firmly believes. She was born in Cleveland, a daughter of William F. Rees, who was associated with the Society for Savings Bank in the city of Cleveland from 1880 until the time of his death in 1934. He was also actively and prominently identified with the Cleveland Grays for a number of years. Warham T. Warner, great-grandfather of Mrs. Jaster, played an important part in connection with Cleveland's growth and development. He was the builder of the old post office, the old Custom
MILDRED R. JASTER
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House, the Payne and Oviatt blocks, the American House, the Old Stone Church and such old and notable residences on famous Euclid Avenue as the homes of the Younglove, Shelly, Hickox, Perkins and Payne families. He was also one of the founders of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
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