The women of Illinois

LIBRARY OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

IN MEMORY OF

STEWART S. HOWE

JOURNALISM CLASS OF 1928

STEWART S. HOWE FOUNDATION

920.7

M13w

I.H.S.

The Women of Illinois

By
HENRY McCORMICK

BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS

Pantagraph Printing and Stationery Company

1913

Copyright 1913
By HENRY McCORMICK

°[ 2-0.7 XU.

Lo, what gentillesse these women have,
If we coude know it for our rudenesse!
How busie they be us to keep and save,
Both in hele, and also in silkenesse!
And alway right sorrie for our distresse,
In every manner.

— Chaucer.

THE CONTENTS

Page

The Pioneer Women of Illinois - 9

Mrs. Le Compt - - - 15

Mrs. John Edgar - 17

Mrs. Robert Morrison - - 19

Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke - 23

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore - - 39

Frances E. Willard 55

Jane Addams - - 79

Mrs. Lida Brown McMurry - 103

Mrs. Letitia Green Stevenson - 111

Marie Eugenia Von Eisner [Litta] 125

The Women of Today - 143

The Women of Illinois

CHAPTER ONE

THE PIONEER WOMEN

TV/fUCH has been said, and justly so, in
•*-*-** praise of the men of Illinois. They
have played an hcmorable Dart^in the halls, at

in lattyu&idMia medicine. Lincoln, Douglas,
Grant, Logan, Bissell, Palmer, Fuller, Senn,
Medili; and a host of others whose names can
not be mentioned here, constitute a list of
whom any state may justly be proud. Arid
it is well to be proud of them. A people who
are not proud of their great men are not
worthy of them. It is said that pride goes
before a fall ; it is just as certain that lack of
pride leads to the fall of the individual and of
the state. Sad, indeed, is the fate of th« na-
tion Avhose people are indifferent to the merits
of their great men; it is traveling on a road
that leads to such a state of decadence that

"Woman" must erer be a uwman's name

!>jnors more than "Lady," if I know right.

— Voge\we\de

The Women of Illinois

CHAPTER ONE

THE PIONEER WOMEN

TV/TUCH has been said, and justly so, in
•*•*-*• praise of the men of Illinois. They
have played an honorable part in the halls of
legislation, on the field of battle, in literature,
in law, and in medicine. Lincoln, Douglas,
Grant, Logan, Bissell, Palmer, Fuller, Senn,
Medill, and a host of others whose names can
not be mentioned here, constitute a list of
whom any state may justly be proud. And
it is well to be proud of them. A people who
are not proud of their great men are not
worthy of them. It is said that pride goes
before a fall ; it is just as certain that lack of
pride leads to the fall of the individual and of
the state. Sad, indeed, is the fate of the na-
tion whose people are indifferent to the merits
of their great men; it is traveling on a road
that leads to such a state of decadence that

10 The Women of Illinois

mediocrity, even, will seem an unattainable
height.

There is one class of our people, however,
to whom neither the essayist nor the historian
has done justice, the women of Illinois. Yet
they were well-worthy to walk by the side of
their fathers, brothers, and husbands. And it
is no more than just that this fact should be
made known to their descendants.

The hardy pioneer, whose main dependence
was upon his ax and rifle, fills an important
chapter in the history of our great state. He
felled forests, where there were any to be
felled, built bridges and mills, established
schools and churches, and waged a persistent
and successful warfare against wild beasts and
the still more savage red man. But what of
his wife who kissed him goodbye in the morn-
ing as he went to his work, not knowing that
she would ever see him again alive? Or what
must have been her feelings when he took his
grist to the mill twenty or thirty miles away
and would not return until the next day, if at
all? Imagine, if you can, her state of mind
as the wolves were howling around the cabin
at night and the children were crying for
bread, it might be, while she feared that every
noise which she did not understand might be

The Pioneer Women H

due to the stealthy approach of the Indians.
How glad she was when daylight came, and
how often she looked down the trail to see if
her natural protector was in sight; and when
he arrived, with what rapture did they greet
each other.

The home was a humble one, consisting
usually of one room with a loft, and a hole un-
der the middle of the room for a cellar. The
floor was of puncheons, or very rough boards.
There was no carpet on the floor, no pictures
on the walls, and the furniture, in most part,
was made by means of the ax and auger.

In this unpretentious home she cared for
her family without any assistance from
mothers' clubs, child-study clubs, or kinder-
gartners. She had to get along without many
of the conveniences which modern housekeep-
ers regard as indispensable. She had no stove,
gas range, or fireless cooker, but had to do her
cooking over the open fireplace, often without
a "crane," and her baking in the "Dutch
oven," if she was fortunate enough to have
one.

She had no Ivory or Pears' soap, but had to
leach the ashes and make her own soap/ as she
did her starch. She had no washing-machine
or clothes-wringer, no vacuum cleaner or car-

12 The Women of Illinois

pet sweeper, no fly screens, no yeast cakes, no
baking powder, and no canned fruit.

In addition to being the housekeeper, she
was also the manufacturer for the household.
She spun the wool, dyed the yarn, wove it,
fulled the cloth, and made it into garments for
the family. She scutched the flax, hatcheled
it, spun it and wove it into wearing apparel and
bed linen, and later into table linen.

To her many other duties the pioneer
woman added that of physician. It was well
that she did so, for regular doctors were few
in those days and sometimes difficult to reach,
especially for the isolated pioneer families.
And were it not for the beneficent ministra-
tions of the wife and mother the diseases
peculiar to the new country would have caused
even more suffering than they did. Her sup-
ply of calomel and quinine was limited, it is
true, but the woods were her dispensary and
they furnished a bountiful supply of sage,
sassafras, catnip, liverwort, tansy, lobelia,
boneset, etc. If the malady did not yield to
any, or all of these remedies, the corn-sweat
was resorted to, and if this did not prove effi-
cacious, the patient's friends regarded his re-
covery as hopeless.

To us it may seem wonderful that the pa-

The Pioneer Women 13

tient could live through such a course of treat-
ment, for we should be inclined to think that
to be compelled to drink a decoction made
from any of these weeds was enough to make
a healthy person sick instead of making well
a sick person. Nevertheless many did get well,
many were saved from having a long spell of
sickness by taking their mother's remedies as
a preventive, and many, perhaps, were kept
well by the dread of having to submit to the
treatment if they became sick. So that on
the whole the good housewife was encouraged
to add to her pharmacopoeia whenever she
heard of a cure wrought by some remedy that
she did not have in stock.

CHAPTER TWO

MRS, LE COMPT

MANY of the women of early Illinois, be-
sides being excellent housekeepers and
physicians extraordinary, were watchful stu-
dents of affairs, especially of the relations
of the whites and Indians, and their ef-
forts were always directed towards making
those r*$fopl^^

The moftt^Wtypeal i&ttaM*pp*HWJm
worn£atiK3£-Mrs. LeCompt, who may justly be
termed the "Frontier Angel."

Mrs. LeCompt was born of French parents,
near what is now the town of St. Joseph, in
Michigan. Her girlhood was spent among the
Pottawattomie Indians. She moved to Mack-
inaw where she was married, and then with
her husband moved to Chicago, and later to
Cahokia. All through life she had the Indians
for neighbors. She learned the dialects of
many of the tribes, and so was able to gain
an insight into their character and acquire an
influence over them, which several times saved

II' hat win not woman, gentle woman dare,
II 'hen strong affection stirs her spirit up?

—Southey

CHAPTER TWO

MRS. LE COMPT

MANY of the women of early Illinois, be-
sides being excellent housekeepers and
physicians extraordinary, were watchful stu-
dents of affairs, especially of the relations
of the whites and Indians, and their ef-
forts were always directed towards making
those relations more peaceful, more humane.
The most prominent of those peace-making
women was Mrs. LeCompt, who may justly be
termed the "Frontier Angel."

Mrs. LeCompt was born of French parents,
near what is now the town of St. Joseph, in
Michigan. Her girlhood was spent among the
Pottawattomie Indians, She moved to Mack-
inaw where she was married, and then with
her husband moved to Chicago, and later to
Cahokia. All through life she had the Indians
for neighbors. She learned the dialects of
many of the tribes, and so was able to gain
an insight into their character and acquire an
influence over them, which several times saved

16 The Women of Illinois

the feeble French settlements from destruc-
tion.

When George Rogers Clark conquered the
Illinois country from the English, the French
inhabitants sided with the Americans and
aided them to the best of their ability. This
angered the English, and they incited the In-
dians to attack their former friends. Many a
meditated attack upon Cahokia were frustrated
by Mrs. LeCompt. So great was the friend-
ship of the Indians for her that they could not
bear to have her in the village when it should
be attacked, for fear she would be injured,
and so informed her of the time of the in-
tended onslaught. On such occasions she
would go alone to the camp of the hostiles,
and plead with them to refrain from carrying
out their evil intentions. At times she would
remain among them for days pleading for the
sparing of her village, and counseling peace;
and her efforts were always successful. It
was no uncommon sight on such occasions to
see this remarkable woman leading a band of
warriors to the village, changed from foes to
friends, with their faces painted black to in-
dicate their sorrow for ever having intended
to massacre their dear friends.

Mrs. LeCompt was married three times, re-

Mrs. John Edgar 17

tained the name of her second husband, and
died at Cahokia in 1843, at the -ripe age of
109 years.

MRS. JOHN EDGAR

It would be a mistake to suppose that the
women of early Illinois, although good house-
keepers and brave in facing the trying circum-
stances by which they were often surrounded,
were rude in manners and lacking in the cul-
ture and refinement which are usually found
in older communities. This was true, no doubt,
of the majority but not of all. In the last
decade of the i8th century Kaskaskia was the
home of many people of refined and polished
manners. Among these was Mrs, John Ed-
gar, who presided with dignity and grace over
her husband's splendid mansion, the abode of
hospitality and a resort of the elite for nearly
half a century. "It was in the spacious and
elegantly furnished rooms of this house that
LaFayette, on his visit to Illinois in 1825, was
sumptuously entertained by a banquet and
ball."1

Mrs. Edgar was famous not only as a social
leader, but her name merits high praise as a
Revolutionary heroine as well. By birth, edu-

^avidson and Stuv6: History of Illinois, page 229.

18 The Women of Illinois

cation and sympathy she was American, but
her husband was an officer in the British navy,
fighting against the colonies in their struggle
for liberty. By her gracious manner, shrewd-
ness, and patriotic devotion to her country, she
won over her husband to the American cause,
being aided, possibly, by his disgust at the
conduct of the British in inciting the Indians
to massacre white women and children. Not
only so but she was the projector of many
plans by which soldiers in the British army
were induced to desert and join the ranks of
the patriots. She had upon one occasion ar-
ranged a plan for the escape of three soldiers
and was to furnish them with guns, American
uniforms, and all needed information to
enable them to reach the patriot camp. When
they came she was absent from home, but her
husband, a confidant of all her operations,
notwithstanding his position in the enemy's
navy, supplied them with the outfit prepared
by his wife. But the deserters were caught,
returned to the British camp, and compelled
to divulge the names of their abettors. Mr.
Edgar was arrested and sent in irons to Que-
bec. He managed to escape and joined the
American army, where he gained the friend-
ship of Lafayette and other leading officers.

Mrs. Robert Morrison 19

Deeming it safer for his life to seek greater
seclusion, he came to Kaskaskia. His prop-
erty at Detroit was confiscated; but the rare
sagacity of his patriotic and devoted wife, who
remained in that city, enabled her to save
$12,000 from the wreck; with this she joined
her husband in his western home.

The Edgars were for many years the
wealthiest family in Illinois. This wealth was
secured by the making and sale of salt, the
making of flour, and fortunate speculations in
land. Mr. Edgar was chief justice of Illinois,
under the Northwest Territory in 1790, and
later became a general in the militia. These
positions gave the family a high social stand-
ing, which the accomplished wife, with the
great wealth at her command, was well quali-
fied to maintain.

MRS. ROBKRT MORRISON

Another talented woman of the early days
was Mrs. Robert Morrison, whose maiden
name was Donaldson. She was a native of
Baltimore and a member of one of the wealth-
iest and most aristocratic families of that
city. She received an excellent education, be-
ing what Reynolds in his Pioneer History
is pleased to term "a finished and classic

20 The Women of Illinois

scholar."1 The same author tells us that she
possessed a strong, original and sprightly mind,
and that she was endowed with strong per-
ceptions and much originality of thought.

Miss Donaldson's somewhat romantic dis-
position and a desire to know more of the
West led her to accompany her brother, in
1805, on one of his business trips to St. Louis.
It is fair to suppose that a young woman of
such graces of mind and body would soon
have many admirers among the susceptible
young men of the West. Hence we are not
surprised to learn that she was married the
next year to Robert Morrison, a rich trader
of Kaskaskia.

Mrs. Morrison possessed great energy and
activity of mind. Reynolds, already quoted,
states that "Her delight and home were in the
rosy field of poetry." Be that as it may, it is
certain that some of her poems were decided
by competent critics to be far above medium.
Her most ambitious literary undertaking was
the remodeling of the Psalms of David. This
work she presented to the officials of the Pres-
byterian church of Philadelphia to be used in
the public services in place of the version then
used. After a critical examination the min-

JReynolds: Pioneer History, page 165.

Mrs. Robert Morrison 21

isters refused to make the change, their re-
fusal being based on the fact that the new
version, although quite meritorious, was the
work of an unknown individual.

Mrs. Morrison's pen was never idle. She
wrote many articles, both prose and poetry,
for one of the leading magazines of Phila-
delphia, and was a welcomed contributor to
several local and Eastern newspapers.

The field of politics was not unknown to
her. She explored it so thoroughly that she
was able to write intelligently not only upon
the political questions of the day, but also on
the fundamental principles upon which the
science of politics rests.

Mr. Morrison was a man of wealth, and
being socially inclined and very proud of his
wife, encouraged her to entertain quite freely.
And so the Morrison mansion extended its
hospitality to all eminent strangers who visited
that part of the country, as well as to the local
celebrities. It was especially the center at
which gathered the literati of the immediate
valley of the Mississippi.

The subject of our sketch entered thor-
oughly into an investigation of the various re-
ligious systems. As a result she became a
Presbyterian ; but on further investigation and

The Women of Illinois

reflection she entered the Catholic church.
Believing that that was the only church and
that out of it there was no salvation, she de-
voted her powers to the making of converts to
that faith. And through her energy, example,
and influence, nearly all who belonged in her
social circle became Catholics. She died at
Belleville in 1843.

CHAPTER THREE

MRS. MARY A, BICK£RDYK£

PERHAPS the reason why woman occu-
pies so small a space in the history of
the State is because her efforts have been al-
ways for peace, and peace is too modest to
blazon forth its own merits. The husbands
and brothers go forth to battle cheered by the
multitude and^rinslwredofryi^he **0Hftig . ft rum
and the bray^^rfth^^^^^^i^^^a sis-
ters work ir^ quiet^and escape {he, notice of the
thoughtless crowd. The. soldier goes forth to
destroyvdif d, ^Msp.isi9telr?:jkal^i^wvtotifir«9*rMe it,
and destruction arr

than cloes preservation. One brings sorrow
and suffering into the homes of the land, the
other tries to alleviate sorrow and pour the oil
of consolation into the wounded hearts.

The Civil War gave woman a great oppor-
tunity for her merciful ministrations, and she
rose grandly to the occasion. Heroically she
followed in the wake of the destroying soldier
and bound up the wounds which he had made.
Patiently she nursed back to strength the form

The Women of Illinois

reflection she entered the Catholic church.
Believing that that was the only church and
that out of it there was no salvation, she de-
voted her powers to the making of converts to
that faith. And through her energy, example,
and influence, nearly all who belonged in her
social circle became Catholics. She died at
Belleville in 1843.

O, ivomanf in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please.

When pain and anguish urine, the brow,
A ministering angel thou,

—Scott

CHAPTER THREE

MRS. MARY A.

DERHAPS the reason why woman occu-
-*• pies so small a space in the history of
the State is because her efforts have been al-
ways for peace, and peace is too modest to
blazon forth its own merits. The husbands
and brothers go forth to battle cheered by the
multitude and inspired by the rolling drum
and the braying trumpet; the wives and sis-
ters work in quiet and escape the notice of the
thoughtless crowd. The soldier goes forth to
destroy life, his sister labors to preserve it,
and destruction arrests attention more readily
than does preservation. One brings sorrow
and suffering into the homes of the land, the
other tries to alleviate sorrow and pour the oil
of consolation, into the wounded hearts.

The Civil War gave woman a great oppor-
tunity for her merciful ministrations, and she
rose grandly to the occasion. Heroically she
followed in the wake of the destroying soldier
and bound up the wounds which he had made.
Patiently she nursed back to strength the form

24 The Women of Illinois

wasted by disease, and reverently she knelt by
the dying and spoke words of comfort that
quieted and soothed the perturbed spirit about
to depart from earth.

Of the many noble women of Illinois who
served as nurses during the fratricidal strug-
gle, no one rendered greater service to the
soldier than did "Mother Bickerdyke."

Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke was living in
Galesburg when the war broke out. She was
forty-four years old, and had considerable ex-
perience as a nurse. "Her well-known skill as
a nurse, the fertility of her resources, her
burning patriotism, and her possession of that
rare combination of qualities which we call
'common sense,' had always enabled her to
face any emergency. At the suggestion of the
ladies of Galesburg, who wanted to do some-
thing for the country, Mrs. Bickerdyke went
to Cairo in 1861, where in that first year of
the war there was little order, system, or dis-
cipline."

Many of the soldiers were sick owing to the
change of water, the change of climate, and
the change in their manner of living. The
loyal people of Cairo aided her in her unpaid
labors, hired a room for her, which she turned
into a sick-diet kitchen, in which she prepared

Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke 25

suitable food for the sick from articles sent
to her by the Chicago Sanitary Commission.

After the battle of Fort Donelson, Mother
Bickerdyke went from Cairo in the first hos-
pital boat, and assisted in the removal of the
wounded to Cairo, St. Louis, and Louisville.
The hospital boats at that time were poorly
equipped for transporting the wounded. But
this thoughtful woman, who made five trips
from the battle field to the hospital, put on
board the boat with which she was connected,
before it started from Cairo, an abundance of
necessaries. She was able to do this because
the loyal women of Illinois, through their
Sanitary Commission, were keeping her sup-
plied with what experience was showing was
most helpful to the soldiers. A volunteer sur-
geon, who was with her on the boat, declared,
"I never saw anybody like her. There was
really nothing for us surgeons to do but dress
wounds and administer medicine. She drew
out clean shirts or drawers from some corner
whenever they were needed. Nourishment
was ready for every man as soon as he was
brought on board. Every one was sponged
from blood and the frozen mire of the battle-
field, as far as his condition allowed. His
blood-stiffened, and sometimes horribly filthy

26 The Women of Illinois

uniform, was exchanged for soft and clean
hospital garments. Incessant cries of Mother !
Mother! Mother! rang through the boat, in
every note of beseeching anguish. And to
every man she turned with a heavenly tender-
ness, as if he were indeed, her son. She
moved about with a decisive air, and gave di-
rections in such a positive manner as to
ensure prompt obedience. We all had an im-
pression that she held a commission from the
Secretary of War, or at least, from the Gov-
ernor of Illinois."

As a matter of fact she held no official
position, whatever, at this time, and received
no compensation for her services. Later she
was taken into the service of the United
States, and received the munificent wages of
thirteen dollars a month.

When she entered upon her labors as a nurse
she adopted all soldiers as her children, and
faithfully and fondly, even, did she mother
them. Not only did she care for them ten-
derly in the hospital; but after a battle she
was often seen on the battle field, with her
lantern, in the stillness of the night, groping
among the dead and turning their cold faces
towards her light, uneasy lest some wounded
soldier might have been left uncared for.

Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke 27

The Chicago Sanitary Commission had un-
limited confidence in the wisdom, integrity and
efficiency of Mrs. Bickerdyke and kept her
well supplied with such stores as were needed
by the sick and wounded. Three days after
the battle of Shiloh, the boats of the Sanitary
Commission arrived at Pittsburg Landing
laden with condensed food, stimulants, cloth-
ing, bedding, medicines, chloroform, surgical
instruments, and carefully selected volunteer
nurses and surgeons. Here Mother Bicker-
dyke was found carrying system, order, and
relief wherever she went. One of the sur-
geons went to the rear with a wounded man,
and found her wrapped in the gray overcoat
of a Confederate officer, for she had given her
blanket shawl to some poor fellow who needed
it. She was wearing a soft slouched hat, hav-
ing lost her inevitable shaker bonnet. Her
kettles had been set up, the fires kindled un-
derneath, and she was dispensing hot soup,
tea, crackers, whiskey and water and other re-
freshments to the shivering, fainting, and
wounded men.

"Where did you get these articles?" the
surgeon inquired, "and under whose authority
are you at work?" She paid no attention to
his questions, indeed, it is doubtful if she

28 The Women of Illinois

heard them, so absorbed was she in her work
of mercy. Watching her with admiration for
her skill and intelligence, for she not only fed
the wounded men, but temporarily dressed
their wounds in some cases, he addressed her
again :

"Madam, you seem to combine in yourself
a sick-diet kitchen and a medical staff. May
I inquire under whose authority you are
working?"

Without pausing in her work, she answered
him, "I have received my authority from the
Lord God Almighty; have you anything that
ranks higher than that?" Believing thus, it
may easily be inferred that she paid but slight
attention to red tape, even to army red tape,
which is the reddest of all red tape.

While at her work of mercy, she had sev-
eral set-tos with army surgeons. One of these
spats is related by Mrs. Mary Livermore,
Mrs. Bickerdyke's biographer, and who was
present at the time it occurred.

"I was in her hospital about noon," says
Mrs. Livermore, "when the ward-master of
the fourth story came to the kitchen, to tell
her that the surgeon of that ward had not
made his appearance, the special diet list for

Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke 29

the ward had not yet been made out, and the
men were suffering for their breakfasts,

" 'Haven't had their breakfasts ! Why didn't
you tell me of this sooner? Here, stop! The
poor fellows must be fed immediately.' And
filling enormous tin pails and trays with cof-
fee, soup, gruel, toast, and other like
food, she sent half a dozen men ahead with
them. Extending to me a six-gallon pail of
hot soup, she bade me follow her, being
freighted herself with a pail of similar size in
each hand. I stood looking on at the distribu-
tion, when her clarion voice rang out to me in
tones of authority : 'Come, make yourself
alive, Mary Livermore! Try to be useful!
Help these men!' I never knew anyone who
deliberately disregarded her orders — I had no
thought but to obey — and so I sat down to
feed a man who was too weak, to help himself.

"While we were all busy, the surgeon of
the ward came in, looking as if he had just
risen from sleeping off a night's debauch. In-
stantly there was a change in the tones of
Mother Bickerdyke's voice, and in the expres-
sion of her face. She was no longer a tender,
pitying, sympathizing mother, but Alecto her-
self.

" 'You miserable, drunken, heartless scala-

30 The Women of Illinois

wag!' shaking her finger and head at him,
threateningly, 'what do you mean by leaving
these fainting, suffering men to go until now
with nothing to eat, and no attention? Not a
word, sir!' as he undertook to make an ex-
planation. 'Off with your shoulder-straps,
and get out of this hospital! I'll have them
off in three days;' and she was as good as
her word. He was dismissed from the ser-
vice. He went to General Sherman and de-
clared he had been dismissed on false charges.
'Who made the charges?' asked the general.
'Why — why — I suppose,' said the surgeon, 'it
was that spiteful old woman, Mrs. Bicker-
dyke. 'Oh, well, then,' said Sherman, 'if it
was she, I can't help you. She has more
power than I — she ranks me.' And that closed
the matter."

An incident that took place while she was
in charge of the Gayoso hospital in Memphis
will show the resourcefulness of the woman.
She had great difficulty in obtaining eggs and
milk for the sick and wounded. These could
not be sent from the North, and the small
quantity of each that could be bought in the
city and vicinity was inadequate and of poor
quality.

Approaching the medical director in charge

Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke 31

of the hospital, she accosted him one day with,
"Doctor, do you know we are paying these
Memphis secesh fifty cents for every quart of
milk we use ? And do you know it's such poor
stuff — two-thirds chalk and water — that if you
should pour it in the trough of a respectable
pig at home, he would turn up his nose, and
run off, squealing in disgust?"

"Well, what can we do about it?" asked the
doctor.

"If you'll give me a thirty days' furlough
and transportation, I'll go home, and get all
the milk and eggs that the Memphis hospitals

can use."

"Get milk and eggs! Why, you could not
bring them down here, if the North would
give you all it has. A barrel of eggs would
spoil this warm weather before it could reach
us ; and how on earth could you bring milk ?"

"But I'll bring down the milk and egg pro-
ducers. I'll get cows and hens, and we'll have
milk and eggs of our own. The folks at
home, doctor, will give us all the hens and
cows we need for the use of these hospitals,
and jump at the chance to do it. You needn't
laugh, nor shake your head!" as he turned
away, amused and incredulous.

"I tell you," she insisted, "the people at the

The Women of Illinois

North ache to do something for the boys
down here, and I can get fifty cows in Illinois
for just the asking."

"Pshaw! pshaw!" said the doctor, "you
would be laughed at from one end of the
country to the other, if you should go on so
wild an errand."

"Fiddlesticks! Who cares for that? Give
me a furlough and transportation, and let me
try it."

So she came North and secured the cows
with little difficulty. A few farmers in the
central part of the State gave her a hundred
without delay. They were sent to Springfield,
whence Governor Yates had promised they
should be shipped to Memphis, in herds of
fifteen or twenty, with someone in charge of
each herd to take care of the animals. And
"Dick Yates, the soldiers' friend," kept his
promise.

The hens, of which she received a large
number, were sent to the rooms of the Sani-
tary Commission in Chicago. In less than a
week the rooms were transformed into a large
hennery. And the crowing, cackling, and
quarreling were so incessant that the office
force was glad to hasten the departure of their
feathered guests. They were dispatched to

Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke 33

Memphis in four shipments, in coops contain-
ing about two dozens each.

Before her thirty days' leave of absence was
ended, Mother Bickerdyke was on her way
back, at the head of a unique procession of
one hundred cows and a thousand hens, strung
all along the route from Chicago to Memphis.
She entered that city in triumph, amid great
lowing, crowing and cackling, and informed
the astonished Memphians that, "These are
loyal cows and hens; none of your miserable
trash that give chalk and water for milk, and
lay loud-smelling eggs."

General Hurlburt, who was at the head of
the department, hearing of this novel immi-
gration within his lines, gave up to the noisy
new-comers President's Island, lying in the
Mississippi, opposite the city, and detailed a
number of "contrabands" to take care of them.
And as long as Mrs. Bickerdyke remained in
Memphis there was an abundance of milk and
eggs for the use of the hospitals.

General Sherman was Mother Bickerdyke' s
beau ideal. He was her great man and great
soldier. She would always defend General
Grant like a tigress if he were assailed; but
it was clear to everyone that General Sherman
was the special object of her idolatry. She

34 The Women of Illinois

rated him higher than Grant, higher than Lin-
coln, and altogether superior as a soldier to
Washington or Wellington.

General Sherman, on his side, fully ap-
preciated Mother Bickerdyke; and when he
was curt and repellant to all agents, nurses,
and employes of the Sanitary, Christian and
State Commissions, she had free admittance
to his headquarters, and usually obtained any
favors she chose to ask. There was something
in her character akin to his own. Both were
restless, impetuous, fiery, hard-working and
indomitable, yet she confessed frankly that he
sometimes tried her patience.

One of these occasions was when he was
preparing for his Atlanta campaign. He had
issued an order absolutely forbidding agents
in charge of sanitary stores, or agents of any
description to go over the road from Nash-
ville to Chattanooga. He alleged as the rea-
son for this prohibition that he wished the
entire ability of the railroad devoted to strictly
military operations. There was great distress
in the hospitals south of Nashville, and that
city was full of sanitary stores and agents who
were anxious to minister to the needs of the
sick and wounded, but were debarred from
doing so by this order. Mother Bickerdyke

Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke 35

knowing the crying needs of the boys, deter-
mined to beard the lion in his den in spite of
the advice and remonstrance of her friends,
as General Sherman was not a man to be
trifled with. But go she would and did, and
made her appearance unexpectedly at head-
quarters in Chattanooga.

"Halloo! Why, how did you get down
here?" asked one of the general's staff officers,
as he saw her enter Sherman's headquarters.

"Came down in the cars, of course. There's
no other way of getting here that I know of,"
replied the matter-of-fact woman. "I want
to see General Sherman."

"He is in there writing," said the officer,
pointing to an inner room; "but I guess he
won't see you."

"Guess he will!" Good morning, General!
I want to speak to you a moment. May I
come in?"

"I should think you had got in!" answered
the general, barely looking up, in great annoy-
ance. "What's up now?)r"

"Why, General," said the earnest matron,
in a perfect torrent of words, "we can't stand
this last order of yours nohow. You'll have
to change it, as sure as you live. We can get
along without any more nurses and agents,

36 The Women of Illinois

but the supplies we must have. The sick and
wounded men need them, and you'll have to
give permission to bring them down."

"Well, I am busy today, and cannot attend
to you. I will see you some other time." But
though Sherman kept on writing, and did not
look up, Mrs. Bickerdyke saw a smile lurking
in the corner of his mouth, and knew she
would carry her point; so she persisted.

"No, General! don't send me away until
you've fixed this thing as it ought to be fixed.
You had me assigned to your corps, and told
me that you expected me to look after the
nursing of the men who needed it. But I
should like to know how I can do this if I
don't have anything to do with? Have some
sense about it now, General."

There was a hearty laugh at this, and a lit-
tle badinage ensued, which Mother Bicker-
dyke ended in her brusque way, "Well, I can't
stand here fooling all day. Now, General,
write an order for two cars a day to be sent
down from the sanitary supplies at Nashville,
and I'll be satisfied." The order was written,
and for weeks all the sanitary stores sent from
Nashville to Chattanooga, and the posts along
the road, were sent directly or indirectly
through the mediation of this noble woman.

Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke 37

It is to be regretted that the story of Mrs.
Bickerdyke must be closed at this point. Only
a few of the more important events in her
career have been touched upon, and they
rather lightly. None but the recording angel
and herself know the importance of the work
she did during the Civil War ; and it is doubt-
ful if she knows it, as she was too busy doing
good to the bodies and souls of her boys in
blue to keep a record of her own deeds.

CHAPTER FOUR

MRS. MARY A.

TV/TARY A. LIVERMORE was born in
*•**• Boston, December, 1821. After com-
pleting her school education she taught for
some time in the Charleston Female Seminary,
and later was governess on a Virginia planta-
tion for two years.

At the breaking out of the Civil War, she

Mr. L

church and editor of "The

.?VintUDtK — -. ' ,

religio-literary newspaper. Or, perhaps it
would be more proper to say that he and his
wife were joint editors, as she wrote articles
for every issue of the paper, even during the
war when she was so busily engaged in mak-
ing the lot of the sick and wounded soldiers a
little less wretched than it otherwise would
have been.

It was natural that Mrs. Livermore should
be a loyal supporter of the Union and an un-
faltering friend of those who fought to pre-
serve it. Her father, himself the son of a

How siveetly sounds the voice of a good woman!
It is so seldom heard that, when it speaks,
It ravishes all senses.

— Massinger

CHAPTER FOUR

MRS. MARY A.

JY/TARY A. LIVERMORE was born in
*•*•*' Boston, December, 1821. After com-
pleting her school education she taught for
some time in the Charleston Female Seminary,
and later was governess on a Virginia planta-
tion for two years.

At the breaking out of the Civil War, she
and her husband were residents of Chicago.
Mr. Livermore was pastor of a prominent
church and editor of "The New Covenant," a
religio-literary newspaper. Or, perhaps it
would be more proper to say that he and his
wife were joint editors, as she wrote articles
for every issue of the paper, even during the
war when she was so busily engaged in mak-
ing the lot of the sick and wounded soldiers a
little less wretched than it otherwise would
have been.

It was natural that Mrs. Livermore should
be a loyal supporter of the Union and an un-
faltering friend of those who fought to pre-
serve it. Her father, himself the son of a

40 The Women of Illinois

Revolutionary soldier, fought bravely through
the War of 1812.

At the breaking out of the Civil War, the
daughter was called to Boston, as her father
was supposed to be dying. When the news
of the fall of Fort Sumter reached him, he
turned his face to the wall, and cried in an-
guish : "My God ! now let me die, for I can
not survive the ruin of my country!" But
when President Lincoln's call for troops, and
the hearty response with which it was greeted
were read to him his health began to improve,
and he lived to hear the glad tidings of Lee's
surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court
House.

On seeing a marked improvement in her
father's health, Mrs. Livermore returned to
Chicago where she found patriotism at a white
heat. Boston at this crucial moment was
grand, Chicago was overwhelming. Boston
had its Faneuil Hall to re-awaken glorious
memories, Chicago had its "Wigwam," now
re-baptized and named National Hall and con-
secrated, not to party but to patriotism. And
on the evening of the day that Fort Sumter
surrendered, the great hall was packed with
men and women who came to consecrate them-
selves to the cause of their country, and eight

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore 41

days after the lowering of the flag in Charles-
ton harbor, a force of Chicago volunteers Were
on their way to Cairo.

"The great uprising among men, who ig-
nored party and politics, and forgot sect and
trade, in the fervor of their quickened love of
country, was paralleled by a similar uprising
among women. The patriotic speech and
song, which fired the blood of men, and led
them to enter the lists as soldiers, nourished
the self-sacrifice of women, and stimulated
them to the collection of hospital supplies, and
to brave the horrors and hardships of hospital
life.

"If men responded to the call of country
when it demanded soldiers by the hundred
thousand, women planned money-making en-
terprises, Whose vastness of conception and
good business management, yielded millions
of dollars to be expended in the interest of
sick and wounded soldiers. If men faltered
not, and went gayly to death, that the United
States might remain intact and undivided, wo-
men strengthened them by accepting the policy
of the government uncomplainingly. When
the telegraph recorded for the country 'de-
feat' instead of Victory/ and for their be-
loved, 'death' instead of 'life,' women contin-

42 The Women of Illinois

ued to give the government their faith, and
patiently worked and waited."1

Many women, however, could not wait pa-
tiently, but enlisted and fought bravely in the
ranks. Most of these disguised themselves in
men's clothing, and their sex was revealed only
by accident or casualty. Others without any
disguise, joined the commands in which their
husbands served, and in the hour of battle
their courage was equal to that of their male
companions.

The most notable instance of this latter class
was Madame Turchin, wife of the colonel of
the i Qth Illinois regiment. This lady was the
daughter of a Russian officer, and was born
and reared in foreign camps. She followed
the fortunes of her husband in the Civil War,
and accompanied him to the field. She was
intensely loyal to the Union, and thoroughly
American in her sympathies and interests. She
was as popular with the men of her husband's
regiment as she had been with the Russian sol-
diers commanded by her father. They went
to her with their troubles, and she received
them with kindness, a good deal of playful
badinage, and very careful nursing when it
was needed.

*My Story of the Civil War : Mary A. Livermore.

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore 43

In the spring of 1862, when the iQth was
actively engaged in Tennessee, Colonel Ttir-
chin was taken seriously ill, and was carried
for days in an ambulance. His wife not only
nursed him most tenderly, but took his place
at the head of the regiment, and the men in
the ranks as well as the subordinate officers
yielded her implicit obedience, as they could
see that she was equal to her husband in cour-
age and military skill. Utterly devoid of fear,
and manifesting perfect indifference to shot or
shell, or minnie-balls, even when they fell
thickly around her, she led the troops into ac-
tion, facing the hottest fire, and fought bravely
at their head. When her husband was able to
resume his command, she gave herself again
to the care of the sick and wounded, in the
field hospital.

But while we must admire the bravery and
patriotism of the women who risked their lives
on the field of battle, we cannot believe that
they rendered the noblest service to the coun-
try during those four terrible years of fratri-
cidal war. It is nobler to heal wounds than it
is to make them; more godlike to kindle hope
in the hopeless, to nourish the wan and feeble,
and restore them to health and vigor; and this
is the blessed work to which the great body

44 The Women of Illinois

of American women devoted themselves dur-
ing the war. And it is no exaggeration to say
that no one played a more important part in
this work of salvation than did Mary A. Liv-
ermore.

When the war broke out the government
was poorly prepared for it. The leaders of
public opinion in the south had been planning
secession for years, consequently that section
was better prepared for the war than were the
people of the north, who did not believe until
Sumter was fired upon, that there would be a
war. So, when the crisis came and the gov-
ernment rushed men into the field, many were
without uniforms, some were without arms,
and the commissary department was demor-
alized. The soldiers were actually suffering
for food in a land of plenty. The change from
the variety of wholesome food to which they
were accustomed to the fat pork, hard-tack,
and muddy coffee was so great and sudden
that many became sick and went" to the hos-
pitals, or what was meant for hospitals, for
hospitals in the modern sense of the term did
not exist at the breaking out of the war. The
sick had the same kind of food as the well.
There were few nurses, and many of the sur-

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore 45

geons were deficient in skill and lax in the dis-
charge of their duties.

The patriotic women of the North, learning
of the sad plight of their husbands, sons, and
fathers, organized themselves into "Soldiers'
Relief Societies," for the purpose of providing
the soldiers from their respective neighbor-
hoods with home comforts when well, and
with hospital supplies and nurses when
wounded or sick. The purpose of these socie-
ties was commendable and their zeal was great,
but in many instances it was zeal without
knowledge. Canned fruits and jars of jam
and marmalade were sometimes packed with
clothing, books and stationery, photographs
and comfort bags. Baggage cars were soon
flooded with fermenting sweetmeats, and bro-
ken pots of jelly, decaying fruit, and pastry
and cake in a demoralized condition, and many
of the packages were lost en route.

It was this disheartening condition that led
to the organization of the Sanitary Commis-
sion. The country was divided into depart-
ments, and at the head of each were capable
men and women who devoted gratuitously
their entire time to the work. The department
of the Northwest had for its receiving and dis-
tributing point the city of Chicago; and at its

46 The Women of Illinois

head were Mrs. Livermore and Mrs. Hoge,
ably assisted by two or three of the most prom-
inent men of the city. Rooms were obtained
and able assistants engaged. Into these rooms
poured the freewill offering of .the Northwest.
Every box and package were opened, the con-
tents assorted and repacked, so that each con-
tained but one line of goods.

Here were packed and shipped to the battle-
fields or hospitals 77,660 packages of sanitary
supplies. Every box received at headquarters,
and sometimes every article had notes fastened
to them. Where the notes were sealed, the
seals were never broken, so their contents were
known only to the sender and receiver. But
many of the notes were unsealed, and some of
those were read. Mrs. Livermore in her book,
"My Story of the Civil War," gives a few of
those, four of which I have copied. In a pair
of socks was found this:

Dear Boy, — I have knit these socks
expressly for you. How do you like them?
How do you look, and where do you live when
you are at home? I am nineteen years old, of
medium height, of slight build, with blue eyes,
fair complexion, light hair, and a good deal
of it. Write and tell me all about yourself,

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore 47

and how you get on in the hospital. Direct

to

P. S. — If the recipient of these socks has a
wife, will he please exchange socks with some
poor fellow not so fortunate.

A nicely made dressing gown, large enough
to fit Falstaff, had one huge pocket filled with
hickory nuts and the other with gingersnaps,
and both sewed to prevent the contents from
dropping out. On this was the following
note:

"My Dear Fellow, — Just take your ease in
this dressing gown. Don't mope and have the
blues, if you are sick. Moping never cured
anybody yet. Eat your nuts and cakes, if you
are well enough, and snap your fingers at dull
care. I wish I could do more for you, and if
I were a man I would come and fight with you.
Woman though I am, I'd like to help hang
Jeff Davis higher than Haman — yes, and all
who aid and abet him, too, whether North or
South."

In one box was found a bushel of cookies,
tied in a pillow-case, on which was fastened
this brief note :

"These cookies are expressly for the sick

48 The Women of Illinois

soldiers, and if anybody else eats them, I hope
they will choke him."

One more note so as to give a variety. On
a neatly arranged package of second-hand
clothing, but little worn, was found this ex-
planation :

"The accompanying articles were worn for
the last time by one very dear to the writer,
who lost his life at Shiloh. They are sent to
our wounded soldiers as the most fitting dis-
position that can be made of them, by one who
has laid the husband of her youth — her all —
on the altar of her country."

Not only were the women interested in pro-
viding supplies for the sick and wounded sol-
diers, but even the children became enthusiastic
in the wrork. In nearly every city of the
Northwest fairs and festivals were held by the
younger people, who collected considerable
sums of money by this means, as well as by
the sale of articles made by themselves. Be-
sides the sums which they contributed collect-
ively, individual boys and girls gave their
scanty hoardings with glad hearts. One little
fellow who often thrust his dirty face into
headquarters and startled the inmates with the
shrill cry of "Matches! Matches!" walked up
to Mrs. Livermore's desk one day, and handed

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore 49

her fifty cents all in five-cent currency, saying
"I'll give yer suthin for them are sick fellers!"
She hesitated about taking it, saying, "No,
my boy; don't give it. I am afraid you cannot
afford it. You're a noble little fellow, but that
is more than you ought to give. You keep it,
and I'll give fifty cents for you — or somebody
else will." "Git eout!" was his disgusted re-
ply. "Yer take it now. P'raps I ain't so poor
as yer think. My father, he saws wood, and
my mother, she takes in washin', and I sells
matches, and Tom, he sells papers, and p'raps
were got more money than yer think."

What could she do but accept his offering.
And forgetting his dirty face and touseled hair
she stooped down to kiss him. But divining
her intention he darted out on the sidewalk as
if he had been shot. "No, yer don't!" he said,
shaking his tangled head at her, and looking
as if he had escaped a great danger. "I ain't
one o' that kissin' sort."

Mrs. Livermore and those associated with
her at the Chicago headquarters, not only re-
ceived, re-packed, and distributed the numer-
ous supplies sent to them, but she visited the
hospitals frequently to see how the sick and
wounded were cared for. And her visits al-
ways brought cheer and hope. Her presence

50 The Women of Illinois

was a balm to many of the brave unfortunates.
Her ministrations were often more efficient
than the skill of the surgeon. And it is within
the bounds of truth to say that she saved as
many lives as did even the most skillful of the
medical staff. Her bright, cheery words dis-
pelled despondency and kindled hope in the
hearts of many who had given up all expecta-
tion of ever again seeing home or friends.

She sent trained nurses where their services
were needed most, and furnished them with
supplies for those under their care. Through
her efforts many soldiers obtained sick fur-
loughs and were permitted to go home to re-
cuperate. She obtained their back pay for
hundreds, and wrote scores of letters every
day for men who were so maimed or weak
that they could not write. She never failed to
answer every letter received from a soldier, or
from a soldier's relatives inquiring about him,
and she was always ready and willing to feed
all hungry soldiers who called at headquarters,
and advise them as to the best route to their
homes.

Not only did she make several trips to the
hospitals in the southland, but she frequently
traveled over the Northwest urging the women
to greater efforts, as the demands on the re-

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore 51

sources of the Commission were great and ur-
gent, and nobly did the women respond. Ev-
ery city, town and village had its fair, festival,
or picnic party for the purpose of obtaining
money to be spent for the sick and wounded
soldiers, but still the supply was not equal to
the demand. Not that the patriotism or zeal
of the loyal women of the Northwest was di-
minishing in the least, but that the number
needing aid had wofully increased.

After considering the matter carefully, Mrs.
Livermore and her able assistant, Mrs. Hoge,
decided to replenish the treasury by holding a
grand fair in which the entire Northwest
would take part. They consulted the gentle-
men of the Commission who languidly ap-
proved of the plan, and laughed at the idea of
raising $25,000 by the enterprise. The ladies
were not discouraged, however. They called
upon all the aid societies of the Northwest to
send representatives to a mass meeting of wo-
men to be held in Chicago. The response was
very general. These delegates entered heart-
ily into Mrs. L,ivermore's plans, and returned
to their homes filled with holy enthusiasm for
the cause, and as a result the entire Northwest
was aroused in behalf of the sick and wounded
soldiers as never before.

52 The Women of Illinois

Circulars were sent out by the scores of
thousands. The newspapers published free of
charge all material sent to them. An exten-
sive correspondence was opened with govern-
ors, congressmen, members of legislatures,
and ministers of the gospel. The ministers
aided very much by advertising the fair from
their pulpits, and urging their people to take
an active part in the matter as a religious duty.

The amount of correspondence carried on
by the central office was well-nigh incredible,
as may be seen by the fact that on one occa-
sion "seventeen bushels of mail matter, all of
it relating to the fair," were sent out, and the
answers were emphatic. Instead of $25,000,
the ladies cleared nearly $100,000; and they
richly deserved their victory.

This fair of 1863 was followed by others in
different parts of the country. But although
they brought large sums of money into the
treasury of the general Commission, none
aroused the enthusiasm that this did.

Owing to an incident that took place in con^
nection with this fair, Mrs. Livermore made a
vow that when the war was over, she would
take up a new work — the work of making law
and justice equal for men and women. This
vow she kept religiously. So soon as the war

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore 53

was over, she ascended the lecture platform
from which she addressed audiences of thous-
ands. And although these were the days of
brilliant platform speakers, there was no abler
advocate of legal equality for men and women
than Mary A. Livermore.

CHAPTER FIVE
FRANCES ELIZABETH

DEACE hath its victories as well as war.
••• Turning aside from war with all its hor-
rors, let us see what a few of the women of
Illinois have done along the paths of peace.

The greatest change that has taken place in
this country since the Civil War is a social

one. And in no wav, perhaps, has society
,, , bit &1 1. Umh, <VmDA,i) MASK.'/^! K i

changed so much . as m its
;htn>r <}Ar\,o $ffo)it
the use of mtoxica^

war its use was very

abl^$$pf£rv It was considered by many that
•no social function could be a success unless
liquor was very much in evidence; and hos-
pitality without it was considered a misnomer.
It was used freely in all classes of society.
The farmer could not harvest his grain nor
"raise" his barn without it. The merchant
kept it in the room back of his store to treat
his customers and so retain their trade. All
classes of tradesmen treated their patrons; if
they did not their business was sure to suffer.
And it goes with the saying that the politi-

A lady with a Lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good,
Heroic womanhood.

— Longfellow

CHAPTER FIVE
FRANCES ELIZABETH WIU,ARD

EACE hath its victories as well as war.
Turning aside from war with all its hor-
rors, let us see what a few of the women of
Illinois have done along the paths of peace.

The greatest change that has taken place in
this country since the Civil War is a social
one. And in no way, perhaps, has society
changed so much as in its attitude towards
the use of intoxicating liquors. Before the
war its use was very general, even by respect-
able people. It was considered by many that
no social function could be a success unless
liquor was very much in evidence; and hos-
pitality without it was considered a misnomer.
It was used freely in all classes of society.
The farmer could not harvest his grain nor
"raise" his barn without it. The merchant
kept it in the room back of his store to treat
his customers and so retain their trade. All
classes of tradesmen treated their patrons; if
they did not their business was sure to suffer.
And it goes with the saying that the politi-

56 The Women of Illinois

cians, especially the seekers for office, were
very liberal in treating the "sovereign voters."
If they neglected this part of their campaign-
ing there was a probability that the free and
patriotic sovereigns would be heard cheering
on election day for the opposing candidates
who furnished the stimulant.

Now all of this is changed. The use of
liquor at social gatherings is no longer deemed
necessary. Indeed its use on such occasions
is condemned by all respectable people. Alco-
holic stimulants are no longer regarded as
needful accessories to good-fellowship. Neither
are they considered helpful in the performance
of intellectual or manual labor. On the con-
trary they have been proven to be harmful.
They cloud the brain, shatter the nerves, ren-
der the muscles flaccid, and weaken the will,
so that no one of these can perform its proper
work. This fact has become so apparent that
railroad corporations and other large employ-
ers of labor will not keep a man in their em-
ploy who is addicted to the use of intoxicants ;
some roads going so far as to require entire
abstinence on the part of those in their service.

The farmer has learned that his harvesting
will be done as well, or even better, without
the presence of the little brown jug in the

Frances Elizabeth Willard 57

field or the decanter on the table. And public
sentiment has been so educated that the mer-
chant or tradesman who is known to use liquor
himself and treat his customers is sure to drive
away business, instead of gaining it, for the
better class of customers lose confidence in
him, and his rating with his creditors is sure
to fall below par. And politicians, too, have
grown wise. If they treat at all, they do so
on the sly, as they are well aware that where
liquor gains them one vote it may lose them
three. Besides, the law in some of the states
makes treating a fineable offense, especially
when done with the purpose of influencing
votes. And this wholesome change has been
brought about largely through the labor of
Miss Frances E. Willard.

Frances Elizabeth Willard was born at
Churchville, New York, September 28, 1839.
While quite young her family moved to Ober-
lin, Ohio, where her father taught for a few
years. In 1846, the Willards moved to a farm
near Janesville, Wisconsin. Mr. Willard built
his house in the edge o-f a forest of oak and
hickory trees that grew on the banks of the
beautiful Rock river, with the prairie back of
the grove. Because of its situation the farm
was called "Forest Home."

58 The Women of Illinois

The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Wil-
lard, Frances, her sister Mary and brother
Oliver. Here the children lived a happy, care-
free life for many years. Yet it must be said
that Frances's happiness was clouded at times,
as she did not like to do housework, or sew.
Perhaps the only sewing which she ever did,
without entering protest, was in making a
flag for use in a Fourth of July celebration
held in her own backyard. This flag she made
by sewing red stripes and blue paper stars on
an old pillowcase. Her delight was to ramble
through the woods and over the prairie with
her father and hear him talk interestingly
about the various plants and flowers.

But while she abhorred housework, especi-
ally dishwashing, she was passionately fond
of all boyish sports. Indeed it seemed in her
case that nature made a mistake and embodied
in feminine form strong masculine likes and
dislikes. "When her brother walked on stilts,
she walked on stilts just as high; when he
played marbles, she knelt on the ground and
shot writh an accuracy that any boy might
well envy; when he pitched horseshoes she
pitched horseshoes; when he played prisoner's
base, she played, and there was none more
fleet-footed; and when it was decided to take

Frances Elizabeth Willard 59

a few slides down the haystack, she entered
the sport with vigor."1 And she enjoyed
drowning out a gopher and hitting him on the
head with a shovel, as keenly as the boys did.
She justified herself to her tender hearted sis-
ter by saying that the gopher destroyed their
corn, so they had a right to destroy the gopher.

One of the great sorrows of those early
days was that her father would not let her
ride on horseback as her brother did. The
only reason he gave for his decision was "girls
should not ride as boys did." This reason was
not satisfactory to Frances, so she determined
that if she could not ride a horse she would
ride a cow, and she began immediately to train
for this purpose a cow which was her own
property.

Oliver disapproved of the plan. Cows were
not meant for riding purposes he said, their
part in the economy of nature was to give
milk, so he would not help even to the extent
of making a halter. The hired man was more
pliable, however, and he assisted in making
such articles as were necessary. In the mean-
time Frances began training "Dime," the cow,
by petting her and giving her extra feed, and
in a short time she would come to her mistress

'Bernie Babcock : An Uncrowned Queen.

60 The Women of Illinois

when called and fallow her around as obedi-
ently as a dog.

At first the cow was trained to drawr a sled,
being equipped with the harness made by the
hired man. It took some time to get her to
draw the sled, but it was accomplished event-
ually, and then began the training for the sad-
dle. The little girl was so anxious to have a
ride that she had many a tumble before she
could adjust herself to the awkward motions
of her "steed," but she succeeded in her pur-
pose. When the father heard of the "cow-
back" performance, he decided to let her ride
on horseback, that being the less of two evils.

She also trained "Nig," the black goat, who
became very serviceable on picnic occasions by
carrying the lunch packed in saddlebags which
hung over his back at a safe distance from
his mouth.

When her brother was given a gun, she
asked for one that she, too, might hunt, but
her father would not grant the request, as he
did not think that hunting was a proper thing
for girls to do. Her brother laughed at her
and said a gun would be of no service to her
as she would be afraid to fire it off; girls were
cowards anyway. To show him that she was
not a coward she walked around the pasture

Frances Elizabeth Willard 61

in front of his double-barreled gun, with the
barrels loaded and the hammers cocked.

Since she could not have a gun, she would
have something with which to shoot, so she
became an expert with the bow. She had
either read the story of William Tell, or some-
one had told it to her, and she determined to
emulate his skill. She told Mary to stand be-
side a post through which was an augur hole.
Mary's eyes came just even with the hole
through which Frances shot arrow after ar-
row, so confident in her skill that she never
once thought that if she massed the hole
Mary's eye would be the cost. When this
feat was related to her mother she shuddered
at what might have been.

The education of the Willard girls pro-
ceeded in a desultory fashion until Frances
was about twelve years of age, when Mrs.
Willard succeeded in securing the services of
Miss Burdick, an accomplished young lady
from the East, who with her relatives moved
recently to a farm not far from Forest Home.
Mrs. Willard's parlor was used as a school-
room. Here, seated around a large table made
by Mr. Willard and fitted with shelves for
books, sat Frances, Mary, and two neighbor-
ing little girls, all so in love with their teacher

62 The Women of Illinois

that learning was a pleasure, and not a task.
Frances liked not only her teacher, but her
schoolmates as well. One of the little strang-
ers was so good natured that nothing could
vex her. Frances stepped on her toes one day
hoping to make her frown at least, but the
victim smiled sweetly at her which caused the
tormenter to feel ashamed of herself and to
stop tormenting.

From her earliest schooldays, composition
as an important part of an education was
brought to the attention of Frances, and at
an early age she became impressed with the
dignity of authorship. With her usual fore-
sight, she determined that if she was to write
she must have privacy, and after considerable
search she found a place well suited for her
purpose. Near the front gate grew a tall oak
tree, several of whose branches were so ar-
ranged as to make a comfortable seat. Close
to this seat she fastened a box in which to
keep writing materials. And to guard against
intrusion she painted a sign, reading, "Be-
ware of the Eagle's Nest," and nailed it to
the tree, believing that no person thus warned
would disturb her.

Her first attempt at composition was in
the first school she attended. She had con-

Frances Elizabeth Willard 63

siderable trouble in selecting a topic, but she
finally decided to write about a favorite kit-
ten. It took Miss Burdick, the teacher, some
time to read this first composition, and Frances
herself was not sure of some o<f the words.

During the two years that the children
were taught at their home by Miss Burdick,
Mr. Willard and his neighbors were building
a schoolhouse. The completion of this school-
house marked an epoch in the lives of the For-
est Home children. It was never painted
inside or out; yet, it was a real schoolhouse,
and as such gained great distinction in the
neighborhood, partly, perhaps, because a live
man teacher from Oberlin was to preside
t'here.

The girls were very much excited at the
prospect of attending school in a truly school-
house. Oliver prophesied trouble for Frances,
for he did not believe that a girl who played
Jehu to calves, reapers, and plow-beams, as
she did, would take kindly to sitting still all
day and not whispering to> her dearest friend
even; so he said he expected a riot — a rum-
pus, a row — -before the first month was out.
To this Frances answered in her loftiest man-
ner, "Wait and see."

But neither compositions nor diary writ-

64 The Women of Illinois

ing satisfied the literary ambition of this young
lady. She longed to be the author of an en-
tire book — something intensely stirring and
exciting. So she began a great novel, en-
titled, "Rupert Melville and His Comrades;
a Story of Adventure." Oliver declared there
were so many characters in the story that she
could not possibly kill them off in less than
a thousand pages. The story was never fin-
ished, as before she reached the thrilling cli-
max which she had planned, the young writer
decided to try poetry, which she did with
marked success for one so young.

Frances had a strong desire to see some-
thing from her pen in print. So she wrote
an article which she sent by the hired man
to a Janesville paper. It was not published,
and the editor in referring to it, said he knew
it was written by a man. Still desirous of
seeing her name in print, she set out one day
to secure subscribers for a little paper which
promised to print the names of every boy and
girl who sent in names of subscribers. But,
alas! for human expectations, when her name
appeared it was spelled with an "i" where
should be an "e"; which led her to say that
the publishers seemed to think that a girl could
not amount to anything in the world anyway,

Frances Elizabeth Willard 65

as one claimed the article sent to him was
written by a man, and this one writes the
name like a boy's.

It will be evident to any one who reads
these lines that Frances E. Willard was of a
very independent turn of mind. He will be
fully confirmed in this belief when he reads
of a conversation between herself and her
father on the day when she w;as eighteen
years of age. After celebrating the event by
writing a poem in which she gloried in her
freedom, she sat down to read "Ivanhoe," a
book forbidden by her father.

Dieep in the pleasure of the story she
was interrupted by her father's voice, asking
sternly, "What have you there?"

"One of Scott's novels," she answered.

"Have I not forbidden you to read nov-
els?"

"You have; and in the main I've kept faith
with you in this; but you forget what day it
is."

"What day, indeed! I should like to know
if the day has anything to do with the deed!''

"Indeed it has — I am eighteen — I am of
age — I am now to do what / think right; I
am to obey God's law alone; and to read this

66 The Women of Illinois

fine historical story is, in my opinion, a right
thing for me to do."

For a moment Mr. Willard stood speech-
less, almost doubting his own ears, then he
laughed, and calling Mrs. Willard, said, "She
is evidently a chip of the Puritan block;" and
to Frances he said, "Well, we will try to learn
God's laws and obey them together, my child."

The day that brought Frances freedom in
one way, brought her thraldom in another —
thraldom to the conventionalities. Her mother
insisted that she must have her hair done up
in woman fashion and to wear long dresses.
In describing her "martyrdom," as she terms
it, she says "My back hair is twisted up like
a cork-screw; I carry eighteen hairpins; my
head aches miserably ; my feet are entangled in
the skirt of my hateful new gown. I can
never jump over a fence again as long as I
live. As for chasing the sheep, down in the
shady pasture, it's out of the question, and to
climb to my 'Eagle's nest' seat in the big oak
tree would ruin this new frock beyond repair.
Altogether I recognize the fact that my 'oc-
cupation's gone.' '

The Willard sisters having all the education
they could obtain in the district school, it was
decided to send them to the Milwaukee Fe-

Frances Elizabeth Willard 67

male College, in which one of Mrs. Willard's
sisters was a teacher. Here they stayed one
year and acquitted themselves very creditably.

At the close of the summer vacation, Mr.
Willard decided to send his daughters to the
Northwestern Female College, a new school
established recently at Evanston, Illinois.
Sadly they bade adieu to the familiar haunts
and objects at Forest Home — never again to
be their home.

With the natural curiosity of the average
school girl, the students already at the college
waited the coming of the Wisconsin girls. Af-
ter close inspection it was decided that the new
girls were entirely satisfactory from an artis-
tic standpoint. Mary, though younger than
her sister, was taller and very graceful, but
no more attractive than Frances, whose bright
red hair had turned to a golden brown, and
whose eyes were as bright as the June sky;
and her shapely hands and feet were admired
by all.

The question of appearance having been de-
cided in their favor, their ability as students
remained to be tested. Little was said of
Mary, although she was always a faithful and
thorough student, but Frances's brilliancy won
the admiration of both students and teachers

68 The Women of Illinois

from the beginning. "My, but can't the new
girl recite! She beats us all!" were remarks
heard at the close of the first day's recitations.

Her companions soon discovered that while
Frances was kind and generous, she could not
be imposed upon with safety. This fact she
impressed forcefully upon her associates on a
memorable occasion.

Mr. Willard was a good man and a fond
father, but his artistic taste was not very
highly developed, especially as to the harmo-
nious blending of colors. Without consulting
their wishes he purchased two red yarn hoods
for his daughters, with which neither was
pleased. The hood looked well enough on
Mary whose complexion was different from
that of Frances, but on Frances it was so out
of harmony with her hair, that using her own
words, she "hated it with a hatred and a half."

To wear the hated head dress was punish-
ment enough for one of her artistic tempera-
ment, but to be made sport of for what she
could not help was more than she could bear
with patience. So when the daughter of a
wealthy family took especial pains to make the
unfortunate hood the target for her ridicule,
Frances warned her to stop doing so, but she
paid no attention to the warning. Conse-

Frances Elizabeth Willard 69

quently, one day when she was especially
spiteful in her foolishness, Frances stepped up
and struck her a blow that laid her flat on the
floor. The ridicule stopped, and the tormenter
became one of Frances's most ardent friends.

The "wildest girl" in school was another of
her friends. From the first day of their ac-
quaintance they were almost inseparable. The
seventy rules of the school, which Frances on
her entrance determined to keep, were soon
brushed aside through the influence of the new
friend. The two soon gathered around them
a group of kindred spirits known in the school
as the "ne'er-do-weels."

It will be readily inferred by the reader that
Frances was not a professed Christian at this
time. But while this was true, it was also true
that she had too much respect for sacred things
to be intentionally irreverent. It could not
well be otherwise with the training she had
from childhood.

At the head of a small company of the
"wild set" she went to a prayer meeting which
was being held one afternoon in the room of
one of the "good girls." No sooner had she
entered the room than she was given a bible
and asked to lead the meeting. Seeing no way
out of the predicament, she took the bible,

70 The Women of Illinois

and after reading a few verses, said "Let us
pray," and every girl in the room but one of
her own set knelt. Seeing this, Frances ex-
claimed with great disapproval, "Lineburger,
why don't you kneel down and behave! If
you don't you're a disgrace to yourself and
the Lineburger tribe." And not wishing to
disgrace her entire tribe, Lineburger knelt.

One of the books owned by her special
friend at this time was "Jack Sheppard." This
Frances read with great relish and gained
from it an inspiration to play pirate. In or-
der to make the play as realistic as possible
under the circumstances, they provided them-
selves with boots, wooden pistols, and soda
pop as a substitute for liquor. And as pirates
were regarded as inveterate smokers, the girls
secured cigars, which they lighted and con-
verted into as much smoke as possible, think-
ing the school authorities would never be the
wiser.

In the midst of a splendid strutting scene,
however, when boots were much in, evidence
and soda pop handy, one of the lady teachers,
drawn by the scent of the cigar smoke, ap-
peared upon the scene much to the dismay of
the pirates. They expected to receive a severe
scolding, but the teacher simply said in a pleas-

Frances Elizabeth Willard 71

ant voice, "Well if this is not fortunate. The
mosquitoes have almost driven me out of my
room this hot night, and if you girls will just
come in and smoke them out it will be a great
favor to me/' The young ladies could not
well do otherwise than to march to the teach-
er's room, where they had the mortification of
sitting some time with boots and cigars. This
was all the punishment they ever received, but
it was enough. It caused piracy to go into a
marked decline, and boots and cigars to dis-
appear from the pirates' haunts.

The strong attachment between Frances
and her fascinating friend, the "wild girl," de-
cided Mr. and Mrs. Willard to move from
Forest Home to Evans-ton, so the girls could
again be under the watchful care of their pa-'
rents. The new home was surrounded by ex-
tensive grounds which Mr. Willard named
"Swampscott." This was adorned with flow-
ers and shrubs from the old home, so that it
might look all the more homelike to the chil-
dren. Here they lived together until the chil-
dren graduated.

At this point it becomes necessary to chron-
icle what, perhaps, was the greatest disappoint-
ment in the life of Frances E. Willard. She
was chosen valedictorian of her class, her

72 The Women of Illinois

white graduating gown was ready, and the
young lady was looking forward with high
hopes to the great day on which she should
wear it and occupy the center of the stage,
the observed of all observers. Before that day
arrived, however, she was taken sick and had
to stand a long siege of typhoid fever. Her
diploma was sent to her by her sister Mary,
and there was no valedictory address.

With her spirit of independence, her desire
to live a life with a purpose, and her constant
longing to help make the world better and
happier it was an impossibility for Miss Wil-
lard to live an inactive, dependent life. So
after considering the matter for some time,
she decided, notwithstanding her father's ob-
jections, to be a school teacher. She applied
to the County Superintendent for a position,
but it was so late that there was but one school
without a teacher, and that was a small one
in an undesirable locality. This she accepted
to the great annoyance of her father who be-
lieved that women folks should stay at home
with their husbands and fathers.

On arriving at the seat of learning over
whose destinies she was to preside for months
to come, she found that the boys who had al-
ready assembled had been enjoying themselves

Frances Elizabeth Willard 73

fighting and breaking the windows. But when
she called them to order, they selected for the
opening song, "I want to be an Angel," and
sung it with great heartiness, if with little
melody.

After teaching country schools in several
places until she had proven her ability to her
own satisfaction, she obtained a position in
the Evanston schools. She was proud of this
position, although it was a difficult one. She
was known to nearly all of the people of the
town, many of whom did not think she would
succeed because of her youth fulness; and she
had to demonstrate her fitness. Besides, some
of the larger boys gave trouble at first, object-
ing to being under the control of a young wo-
man. But upon Miss Willard enforcing dis-
cipline with a stick, some of the boys seeing
her coming towards them jumped out of the
window and never returned, leaving the cour-
ageous young woman monarch of all she sur-
veyed.

The first great sorrow that entered into the
life of Frances E. Willard was caused by the
death of her sister Mary. The sisters loved
each other dearly, and the departure of the
younger one, gentle and lovable as she always
was, left the older one disconsolate and bowed

74 The Women of Illinois

down with grief, yet it had a marked refining
influence upon her life and character.

After the death of Mary the Willard family
were so heartbroken that in a few weeks the
home was given up, and Frances was elected
preceptress in the Northwestern Female Col-
lege, where she had been a pupil three years
before. From this school she went to the
Pittsburg College, and then to the Genesee
Seminary. While here she became acquainted
with Miss Katherine Jackson, and the ac-
quaintance had a marked influence upon her
life.

Miss Jackson was the only daughter of a
wealthy eastern manufacturer. Owing to the
fact that her mother had died when she was a
child she spent much of her time in traveling.
One day she surprised Frances by saying, "Go
home with me at Christmas, for I am bound
to coax my father to agree that we make the
tour of Europe."

Mr. Willard's failing health stopped the
plan for awhile, but his sickness proving fa-
tal, the self-sacrificing mother urged her
daughter to accept the generous offer of her
friend, while she herself would visit Oliver
who was now married and living on a farm in
Wisconsin.

Frances Elizabeth Willard 75

The travelers visited all the countries of
Europe, staying several days in each of the
principal cities. Frances was a very careful
observer and a close student of social condi-
tions. Even at this early day the condition of
woman in the various countries arrested her
attention. Their hard lot had succeeded in
brutalizing many of them, and through them
was sure to brutalize their offspring. Even in
cultured Berlin she saw women harnessed with
dogs to vegetable wagons, standing meekly in
the market place waiting for their liege lord
to give them the word of command to move
on; and he sometimes emphasized his com-
mand by using his whip on both woman and
dog. On witnessing such scenes the question
often arose, "Why are these things so? Why
is not the man harnessed with the dog and the
woman doing the driving?" And as yet she
could not formulate ar satisfactory answer.

After "doing" Europe our tourists visited
Egypt, sailed on the Nile, climbed the pyra-
mids, and stood in the burial chamber of him
at whose word arose the greatest of human
structures. Separating themselves from the
fleas of Egypt, our friends sailed from Port
Said to Joppa, and from there went to Jeru-
salem which they found to be one of the most

76 The Women of Illinois

disagreeable and dismal cities which they had
seen, its streets being narrow and filthy and
its inhabitants not over-clean. They visited
nearly all places of biblical interest, going as
far as Damascus where they visited a slave
market in which they saw women and girls
sold into slavery.

After spending a month in Palestine, Miss
Willard and her friend visited Constantinople
and Athens. Of the latter city she speaks in
terms of high praise. Its wide, clean streets
and smooth sidewalks were in strong contrast
to the narrow, filthy streets of the Orient. And
the travelers found its spacious stores and
clean hotels very restful after their experience
in the cramped bazaars and flea-ridden inns of
the east. On their way home they again vis-
ited Paris, London, and Liverpool, from which
place they sailed for the United States after
an absence of two years.

Shortly after returning home Miss Willard
was elected preceptress in the Northwestern
University. Up to this time she had given
the subject of intemperance no special thought,
but the women's crusade against the saloon,
which broke out in Hillsboro, Ohio, and
spread through the state called her attention
to the subject. And it required only a limited

Frances Elizabeth Willard 77

study of the results effected by the liquor traf-
fic to convince her that in it was to be found
the monster iniquity of the age, the breeder
of poverty and vice, the enemy of justice, the
destroyer of homes, and the debaucher of
manhood. As she mused on these things, the
fires of the desire to make the world better
that had long smouldered in her soul broke
into an irresistible flame, and the great, un-
tried field of a temperance reformer called
upon her to enter it. She resigned her posi-
tion in the university and threw in her lot with
the devoted women whose motto was, "For
God and Home and Native Land."

Her career as a temperance reformer is so
well known from one end of the land to the
other that it is not necessary to dwell upon it
here. She was not engaged in the cause very
long until she became satisfied that it was
handicapped by woman's exclusion from the
ballot box. From this time on she plead earn-
estly for giving woman the right to vote. And
as she became satisfied that the only way to
obtain this privilege was through politics she
threw her influence and that of the Women's
Christian Temperance Unions, so far as she
could control them, in favor of the prohibition
party.

Many friends of temperance regarded this

78 The Women of Illinois

as a serious mistake. They believed that the
Unions should have kept out of politics, and
that their endorsement of equal suffrage weak-
ened their cause. Be this as it may, it is true
that Miss Willard by voice and pen brought
temperance and equal suffrage to the attention
of men as was done never before. And it is
due largely to her labors that the attitude of
society towards the use of intoxicating liquors
has changed so much, and for the better, in
the last quarter century.

If Miss Willard had done nothing else than
to inspire the women of the country "to make
liquor-selling and liquor-drinking with conse-
quent ruin to men and their families, hateful
and disreputable before the world," she would
be worthy of high praise. But in addition to
her eloquent advocacy of temperance and of
equal suffrage, she became the leader in this
country of the "White Cross League," an or-
ganization pledged to equal purity for man
and woman. And only God knows the effect
of this movement upon the manners and mor-
als of the youth of the country. But it is
given even to us mortals to know that its in-
fluence has been great and beneficent.

Well may Illinois womanhood be proud of
Frances Elizabeth Willard, who died Febru-
ary 1 8, 1898.

CHAPTER SIX

JANE ADDAMS

A CHICAGO man when asked to name the
*\ ** greatest man in America, is said to have
replied, "Jane Addams/' If greatness is to be
measured b actual achievement for the benefit
o

tr

humanity- — and what better test can there
?•'— he came very near speaking the literal

c^n point to suoT a vrecor^'A-oPgoo^'^of^^n^A
/ as )thii*|Kip^
t.ix'iV^tf the age of fifty-one. This chapter
which is based on her 'Twenty Years at
Hali House." falls far short of doing full jus-
ace to Miss Addams and her co-workers.

jane Addams was born in Cedarville, .Illi-
nois, September 6, 1860. Her mother dying
when she was an infant, her father became
her confidant; to him she revealed the thoughts
and fancies of her innocent heart. She was
fortunate in her father who was a member of
the society of Friends, a man of fine character
and of high standing in the community, as
was shown by his election to the state legisla-

Woman's empire, holier, more refined,
Moulds, moves, and sways the fallen yet God-breathed

mind,
Lifting the earth-crushed heart to hope and hea

-'

CHAPTER SIX
JANE: ADDAMS

A CHICAGO man when asked to name the
•**' greatest man in America, is said to have
replied, "Jane Addams." If greatness is to be
measured by actual achievement for the benefit
of humanity — and what better test can there
be? — he came very near speaking the literal
truth. Few people, at the close of a long life,
can point to such a record of good work done
as the founder of Hull House can look back
upon at the age of fifty-one. This chapter
which is based on her "Twenty Years at
Hull House," falls far short of doing full jus-
tice to Miss Addams and her co-workers.

Jane Addams was born in Cedarville, Illi-
nois, September 6, 1860. Her mother dying
when she was an infant, her father became
her confidant ; to him she revealed the thoughts
and fancies of her innocent heart. She was
fortunate in her father who was a member of
the society of Friends, a man of fine character
and of high standing in the community, as
was shown by his election to the state legisla-

80 The Women of Illinois

tnre in which he served with distinction for
a number of years.

When Jane was eight years of age her
father married again, but the marriage did not
sever the confidential relations which existed
between father and daughter. All through her
childhood he continued to be the dominating
influence in her life, and to hold her supreme
affection. To have done anything that she
thought would be displeasing to him caused
her profound sorrow.

One night on thinking over the acts of the
day, she remembered that she had told a lie.
The remembrance caused her to toss about in
her bed in the grip of a terrible fear that she
might die before she could tell her father of
her sin and go to a fiery hell which she had
heard of from some of her playfellows, or
from some foolish adults. Or perhaps her
father might die before morning, and then she
would have no opportunity to confess her sin
to him and be forgiven. This thought so in-
creased her anguish that she determined to go
downstairs to her father's room and confess
her fault. Her description of the journey is
very pathetic and reveals the workings of a
sensitive child's mind.

On reaching her father's bedside and un-

Jane Addams 81

burdening her conscience, she invariably re-
ceived the same answer, "that if he had a lit-
tle girl who told lies, he was glad that she felt
too bad to go to sleep afterwards." No for-
giveness was asked for or received, but the
consciousness that the knowledge of her wick-
edness was shared by her father enabled her
to go back to bed and sleep peacefully the rest
of the night ; she was comforted.

It is evident that in those early years her
father was her ideal of all manly perfection.
She was very proud of him. She imagined
that strangers who visited the church on Sun-
day and saw him dressed in his Sunday frock-
coat, teaching a bible class must be filled with
admiration for such a dignified person. And
she prayed earnestly that the "ugly, pigeon-
toed little girl whose crooked back obliged her
to walk with her head held very much upon
one side would never be pointed out to these
strangers as the daughter of such a fine look-
ing man." (It seems that at this time she was
afflicted with some spinal trouble which gave
her a deformed appearance.) To do what she
could to protect her father from such a dis-
grace, she was in the habit on these Sundays
to keep from walking home by his side, and
to walk by the side of her uncle, so the stran-

82 The Women of Illinois

gers might think she was his daughter and not
her father's; although one of the chief joys
that the Sabbath usually brought her was to
walk to and from church with her hand in
that of her father's.

Mr. Addams was a miller by trade and in
Jane's girlhood days operated two mills, a
saw-mill and a grist-mill, but was financially
able to employ men to do the work. These
mills were frequented by the children who
used them as playhouses. To ride on a log
while it slowly approached the buzzing saw
which was to rip it up, and to get off in time
to escape a gory death was very exciting play ;
all the more fascinating, perhaps, because of
the element of danger.

The flouring mill, however, had a greater
attraction for the youngsters than did the
other. Here the farmers brought their wheat
to be ground and waited to carry the flour,
bran and shorts home with them. To watch
the wheat go down the hopper and come out
from between the stones, flour, bran and shorts
all mixed up together, only to be carried out
of sight in mysterious little buckets, to appear
again each by itself, led to interest and won-
der on the part of the young observers.

The bran room, especially, was a source of

Jane Addams 83

delight. It rivaled the sand pile in the oppor-
tunities it afforded for play. The little girl
spent many an hour in the mill rubbing the
ground wheat between her thumb and fingers
hoping that her thumb would become flattened
like her father's, so the so-called "miller's
thumb" would be another bond of union be-
tween them. So great was her admiration for
her father and so consuming was her desire to
be like him in as many respects as possible
that she was in the habit of standing by the
mill stones when they were being dressed in
order that the hard particles should mark the
back of her hands as her father's were marked.
To her great sorrow this desire was not re-
alized.

An incident that occurred when she was
seven years old would seem to be prophetic.
One day as she was walking with her father
through the poorest part of the neighboring
city she noticed that the houses were all small
and that their surroundings denoted a degree
of squalor not to be seen in the country, or in
the village in which she lived. She asked her
father why people lived in such miserable little
houses built so close together. On receiving
his explanation she declared with much pos-
itiveness that when she was grown up she

84 The Women of Illinois

would have a large house, but it would not be
built among the other large houses, but right
in the midst of horrid little houses like these.
Hull House is the fulfillment of the prophecy.

The girl, Jane, often thought along other
serious lines besides the cause of the difference
between the rich and the poor. Religion ar-
rested her attention. She and her playmates
discussed the doctrine of fore-ordination with
great earnestness. Her best friend understood
the matter fully, but she could not fathom its
profound depths to her own satisfaction. As
with all her troubles she submitted her theo-
logical difficulty to her father and asked for
an explanation. He replied that he feared
neither of them had the kind of mind that
would ever understand the subject, and that
it did not matter much whether they under-
stood it or not, but that it was very important
not to pretend to understand it when they did
not; and that one must be always honest with
himself inside, no matter what happened. She
was greatly comforted by her father's admis-
sion that their minds were on an equality on
the subject.

Her religious bent manifested itself in other
ways than in the discussion of fore-ordination.
She and a brother built an altar in a secluded

Jane Addams 85

spot by the home stream. To this altar they
brought all the snakes they killed on their va-
rious excursions through the fields and woods,
no matter how far the distance. With the
snakes they placed on the altar one out of ev-
ery hundred black walnuts which they had
gathered, and then poured over the whole a
pitcher of cider. On this sacrificial altar they
sometimes offered a book or two, to empha-
size their renunciation of the vanities of the
world.

The same religious feeling led them, long
before they began to study Latin, to commit
to memory the Lord's prayer in that tongue,
from an old copy of the Vulgate. This prayer
they repeated each night, believing it more re-
ligious to do so than to repeat it in the ver-
nacular.

Mr. Addams was a member of the Illinois
senate from 1854 to 1870. Those sixteen
years were, perhaps, the most important in the
history of the nation; they surely were the
most exciting. The discussions over the Fu-
gitive Slave Law, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill,
the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, the John Brown
Raid, the Civil War, and Reconstruction were
very bitter and aroused the most profound
passions of men. And Mr. Addams being a

86 The Women of Illinois

prominent member of the legislature through
all these stirring events, it was to be expected
that he would be visited at his home by men
prominent in the affairs of the state and na-
tion. And such a precocious child as Jane
would hear considerable of politics, and imag-
ine more, in the latter years of her father's
legislative career. Her father was an ardent
admirer of Mr. Lincoln, was very fond of him
in fact, and the affection was reciprocated.
And after the tragic death of the President,
Jane by means of his letters to her father, and
the father's personal recollections was able to
create a new Mr. Lincoln, and the beloved
President lost no excellence by the new cre-
ation.

Anything associated with Mr. Lincoln ac-
quired great sacredness to her. Even the war
eagle, "Old Abe," because of his name filled
a prominent place in her thoughts. Many a
time did she look to the north, hoping to see
him with wide spread wings flying over the
fields of Illinois, but to her great sorrow he
did not come. The sorrow, however, was as-
suaged a little later when in company with her
father and other members of the family she
visited the capitol of Wisconsin and saw the
king of birds on his unworthy throne, and

Jane Addams 87

heard the marvelous stories which the keeper
told of his majesty.

When seventeen years of age Miss Addams
entered Rockford Seminary, "The Mount
Holyoke of the West." She was ambitious to
enter Smith College but her father thought it
better that she should attend a good school
near home and after graduating travel a year
in Europe, as he believed that the year's travel
would give the polish that the eastern college
was supposed to give.

The description of her four years at the
seminary is well worth reading. It shows how
seriously the young women entered upon their
academic career. They had unbounded ambi-
tion, a high sense of their own ability, and the
courage to attack and settle to their own sat-
isfaction many of the great problems whose
solution had baffled the wisest of all ages.

Of many incidents that occurred while at
the seminary, some of which might be termed
serio-comic, the most serious one is given here
in Miss Addams's own words : "At one time,"
she tells us, "five of us tried to understand
DeQuincey's marvelous 'dreams' more sympa-
thetically, by drugging ourselves with opium.
We solemnly consumed small white powders
at intervals during an entire long holiday, but

88 The Women of Illinois

no mental re-orientation took place, and the
suspense and excitement did not even permit
us to grow sleepy. About four o'clock on the
weird afternoon the young teacher whom we
had been obliged to take into our confidence,
grew alarmed over the whole performance,
took away our DeQuincey and all the remain-
ing powders, administered an emetic to each
of the five aspirants for sympathetic under-
standing of all human experience and sent us
to our separate rooms with a stern command
to appear at family worship after supper
whether we were able or not."

The missionary spirit was very strong in
the Seminary, due in part to the desire to em-
ulate Mount Holyoke. Miss Addams resisted
all influence tending in this direction. This
resistance was due in part to the fact that her
father was not a communicant of any church,
and in part to the fact that the little group to
which she belonged was much given to ration-
alism, founded upon an earlier reading of
Emerson. When Bronson Alcott lectured at
the school this group fairly worshiped him
because he had been a friend of Emerson, and
looked with scorn upon those of their fellow-
students who cared for him because of his
grandfatherly relation to "Little Women."

Jane Addams 89

During her stay at the Seminary both teach-
ers and students were anxious that the insti-
tution should become a full-fledged college.
To hasten the consummation of their burning
desire, the school applied for an opportunity
to compete in the intercollegiate oratorical
contest of Illinois. The application was
granted and Miss Addams was chosen to rep-
resent Rock ford. No sooner was she elected
to this honorable position than she was made
to realize her many deficiencies. She was told
with brutal frankness (as she expresses it) by
her fellow-students of her many oratorical
faults that would be sure to lose woman the
first place in the contest. Woman did lose the
first place and came fifth in the list, exactly in
the middle, and she heartily agreed with the
judges. She graduated with honor in 1881,
and in August of the same year her father
died, when seemingly she needed his counsel
most.

The winter after leaving Rockford she en-
tered the Woman's Medical College of Phila-
delphia so as to prepare herself to practice
among the poor. But the spinal difficulty
which had shadowed her since childhood now
compelled her to give up her medical studies.
She spent the next two years in Europe, and

9° The Women of Illinois

before returning to America she found that
there were other genuine reasons for living
among the poor besides that of practicing
medicine.

While on the continent, although drawn ir-
resistibly to the poorest quarters of the large
cities, she declares that nothing among the
beggars of South Italy, among the salt-miners
of Austria, or among the women connected
with the breweries of Germany carried with it
the same conviction of human wretchedness as
was conveyed by a momentary glimpse of an
East London street.

'For two years in the midst of her distress
over the poverty which had thus been suddenly
driven into her consciousness there was ming-
led a sense of futility, of misdirected energy,
the belief that the pursuit of cultivation would
not in the end bring solace or relief. She
gradually reached a conviction that the first
generation of college women had taken their
learning too quickly, had departed too sud-
denly from the active, emotional life led by
their grandmothers and great-grandmothers;
that the contemporary education of young wo-
men had developed too exclusively the power
of acquiring knowledge and of merely receiv-
ing impressions; that somewhere in the pro-

Jane Addams 91

cess of "being educated they had lost that sim-
ple and almost automatic response to the
human appeal, that old healthful reaction re-
sulting in activity from the mere presence of
suffering or of helplessness; that they are so
sheltered and pampered that they have no
chance even to make the great refusal."

She says that it is difficult to* tell just when
the very simple plan which afterwards devel-
oped into the "Settlement" began to form it-
self in her mind. It may have been before she
went to Europe for the second time, but she
gradually became convinced that it would be
a good thing to rent a house in a part of the
city where many primitive and actual needs
are found, in which young women who had
been given over too exclusively to study, might
restore a balance of activity along traditional
lines and learn of life from life itself; where
they might try out some of the things they
had been taught. These plans she made
known to her traveling companions at Madrid
in 1888. The enthusiasm with which Miss
Ellen Gates Starr, her old time school friend
and one of her companions, regarded the plan
strengthened Miss Addams in her purpose.
Shortly after making her decision she again
visited London and made a careful study of

92 The Women of Illinois

Toynbee Hall, located amidst the poverty and
squalor of the East End.

January oi the next year found herself and
Miss Starr in Chicago searching for a neigh-
borhood in which to start the Settlement.
They were fortunate in finding a fine old man-
sion which was erected by Mr. Charles J. Hull
in 1856. When built, Hull House stood in
the suburbs, but the city had so grown about
it that it was far from the suburbs when it
came into the possession of Miss Addams. Its
surroundings were all that this enthusiastic
young woman desired. Poverty and igno-
rance, filth and vice pressed upon it on all
sides. The house stood between an undertak-
ing establishment and a saloon. "Knight,
Death, and the Devil," was the description of
the combination given by a Chicago wit; thus
comparing the Settlement to a knight of the
middle ages doing valiant service for the poor
and oppressed.

There are three well-defined kinds of settle-
ments, the Nurses' Settlements, the Social Set-
tlements, and the University Settlements. The
underlying ideas of all are the same, viz., that
all men are brothers and that it is the duty of
those who are blessed with wealth or with in-
tellectual ability to assist those who are not

Jane Addams 93

possessed of either. The greater their destitu-
tion the stronger is their claim upon their
more favored brothers. The greater their
poverty and the more profound their ignorance
the more need there is of a helping hand. And
this helping hand should be held out to them
regardless of their political belief, religious
creed, or moral degradation. To be most suc-
cessful this work must not wear the garb of
charity nor be actuated by a desire to ''convert
sinners."

The purposes of the Settlements, as stated
by Miss Addams, herself, are threefold : "The
first contains the desire to make the entire
social organism democratic, to extend democ-
racy beyond its political expression; the sec-
ond is the impulse to share the race life, and
to bring as much as possible of social energy
and the accumulation of civilization to those
portions of the race which have little; the third
springs from a certain renaissance of Chris-
tianity, a movement toward its early humani-
tarian aspects."

The settlement movement originated in
England, and to Arnold Toynbee, an Oxford
tutor, belongs the credit of originating it.
This consecrated young man spent two of his
long vacations among the poor of East Lon-

94 The Women of Illinois

don. He was deeply moved by the poverty
and squalor which were so prevalent. On his
return to the university he succeeded in inter-
esting other men in the sufferings which he
witnessed. And although he did not live to
see a Settlement of university men established
among the outcasts of London, his spirit lived,
and moved some benevolent persons to build a
house in one of the poorest sections of the
city, which should be occupied by university
men who were to labor in various ways to
raise the standard of living in their neighbor-
hood. This building has grown into Toynbee
Hall, which is the largest of forty such set-
tlements in England and has at present over
twenty residents, all university men.

The principal Nurse's Settlement is in New
York City. At first the labors of the Settle-
ment were confined to nursing the poor and un-
fortunate who otherwise would be neglected.
Now it has several small houses in various
parts of the city in which nurses and other
residents live, and from which radiate light
and hope. New York City has several Uni-
versity Settlements, also, each of which is car-
rying healing to the socially sick and discour-
aged.

Hull House is a Social Settlement, the great-

Jane Addams 95

est in America, and possibly in the world. It
was founded in 1889, in one of the poorest
districts of Chicago. It is surrounded largely
by colonies of foreigners. Between Halstead
street and the river live about ten thousand
Italians. To the south on Twelfth street are
many Germans, and the side streets are given
over almost entirely to Polish and Russian
Jews. South of these Jews is a Bohemian col-
ony, so large that Chicago ranks as the third
Bohemian city in the world. To the north-
west are many Canadian French, and to the
north are Irish and first-generation Americans.
A rather lengthy quotation from "Twenty
Years at Hull House," published in 1910, is
here given because of its vivid description of
the environments of the Settlement: "The
streets in the vicinity of the Settlement," the
author tells us, "are inexpressibly dirty, the
number of schools inadequate, sanitary legis-
lation unen forced, the street lighting bad, the
paving miserable and altogether lacking in the
alleys and smaller streets, and the stables foul
beyond description. Hundreds of houses are
unconnected with the street sewer. The older
and richer inhabitants seem anxious to move
away as rapidly as they can afford it. They
make room for newly arrived immigrants who

96 The Women of Illinois

are densely ignorant of civic duties. This sub-
stitution of the older inhabitants is accom-
plished industrially also, in the south and east
quarters of the ward. The Jews and Italians
do the finishing for the great clothing manu-
facturers, formerly done by Americans, Irjsh
and Germans, who refused to submit to the
extremely low prices to which the 'sweating'
system has reduced their successors. As the
design of the sweating system is the elimina-
tion of rent from the manufacture of clothing,
the 'outside work' is begun after the clothing
leaves the cutter. An unscrupulous contractor
regards no basement as too dark, no stable loft
too foul, no rear shanty too provisional, no
tenement room too small for his work-room, as
the conditions imply low rental. Hence these
shops abound in the worst of the foreign dis-
tricts where the sweater easily finds his cheap
basement and his home finishers." This quo-
tation shows that the location of the Settle-
ment was a desirable one, considering its pur-
pose.

The Hull House Settlement at present con-
sists of a group of thirteen buildings with
forty resident workers among whom are law-
yers, physicians, business men, newspaper
men, teachers, scientists, artists and musicians.

Jane Addams 97

There is the main house for residents, a build-
ing occupied by a Co-operative Club of work-
ing girls, and a gymnasium building with
baths. This building, with the exception of
the one floor, is given over to a labor museum
and various industrial activities, the most im-
portant of which is Miss Starr's bookbindery.
The underlying idea of the labor museum is
that culture is an understanding of the long-
established occupation and thoughts of men,
of the arts with which they have solaced their
toil. There are spinning and weaving carried
on here, and they tend to bring the American-
ized daughters into closer sympathy with their
immigrant mothers when they see their beau-
tiful handiwork. Pottery-making, wood- work-
ings, metal-working, and cooking, especially,
receive much attention. There is a small but
beautiful theater, in which the different na-
tionalities vie with each other in giving plays
which treat of the history and literature of
the home land. There is a large restaurant,
men's club room, a whole building given over
to the music-school and work with children,
and a group of buildings with apartments and
lodgings.

The Sunday evening lectures, upon a great
variety of subjects are free. In the auditorium

The Women of Illinois

there are several dances a week, and many
large parties and meetings. In the Sunday af-
ternoon concerts an effort is made to give the
best music to the neighborhood. There are ad-
vanced classes in French and German and in
Dante, with secondary classes in a variety of
subjects, including English, Geography, and
Literature. A great number of art and tech-
nical classes, including newspaper illustrations,
drawing, painting, clay-modeling, carpentry
and wood-can-ing, milliner}-, and dressmaking
are carried on successfully.

Among the clubs, the most important is the
Hull House Women's Club, numbering be-
tween three and four hundred members in good
standing. The Hull House Men's Club is also
an important organization, and so is the Dra-
matic Association whose purpose is the produc-
tion of plays by the amateur talent of the
house. There are many other clubs for young
people and children. Connected with the house
is a kindergarten, nursery, visiting nurse and
visiting kindergartner, the latter for sick or
crippled children. An agent of the Juvenile
Court, who works constantly among the de-
pendent and delinquent children is in residence.
A number of outside organizations, including
the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society, the Ital-

Jane Addams 99

ian orchestra, the Nineteenth Ward Improve-
ment Association, and some others meet regu-
larly at Hull House. A number of investiga-
tions are carried on each year in connection
with definite social reform movements, and
many conferences on public questions are held.
One of the principal organizations at Hull
House during the first decade of its existence
was the Social Science club. Owing to the great
freedom with which the members of the club
expressed their views, the Settlement soon be-
came known as the center of radicalism. Many
good citizens regarded it with distrust as they
believed it to be disseminating anarchistic doc-
trines— doctrines that were opposed to the sta-
bility of government and religion, the two main
pillars of society. But Hull House was be-
tween two fires at times. For the radicals
looked upon it as the friend of the capitalists
and upon its teachings as simply a sop thrown
to the reformers, whose interests it would de-
sert when the capitalists brought pressure to
bear upon it. Miss Addams resented these
charges and declared that she would not be
bullied by either side. Her sympathies at the
time, however, were with the socialists, as she
regarded them as making a gallant fight against
great odds. But they repudiated similarity of

100 The Women of Illinois

social sympathy and purposes as tests, and in-
sisted that fellowship depends on identity of
creed, and to this she could not subscribe. For
the residents at Hull House had discovered that
while their first impact with city poverty allied
them to groups given over to discussion of so-
cial theories, their sober efforts to heal neigh-
borhood ills allied them to general public move-
ments which were without challenging creeds.
Yet the residents, although often baffled by the
radicalism within the Social Science Club and
harassed by the criticism from outside, still con-
tinued to believe that such discussion should be
carried OIL For if the Settlement sought its
expression through social activity, it must learn
the difference between mere social unrest and
spiritual impulse.

Miss Addams was a member of several arbi-
tration committees in times of strikes. And
the reaction of strikes upon the Settlement af-
fords an interesting study in social psychology.
For whether Hull House is in any way identi-
fied with the strike or not, makes no difference.
When "Labor" is in disgrace the Settlement is
always regarded as belonging to it. In the
public excitement following the Pullman strike
Hull House lost many friends; later the team-
sters' strike caused another such defection, al-

Jane Addams

though Miss Addams's connection with both
strikes had been solely that of a duly appointed
arbitrator. But this elect lady is a courageous
soul, and these things moved her not. At least
they did not change the attitude of the Settle-
ment towards social, philanthropic, or indus-
trial questions.

She was instrumental in obtaining free em-
ployment bureaus under state control, as she
found that unemployment was disheartening to
the poor.

Miss Addams was appointed by the mayor
garbage inspector of her own ward (the I9th)
with a salary of $1,000. This office was not a
sinecure, not at least as she proposed to do the
work. Indeed she united in her own person
the duties of garbage inspector, sanitary com-
missioner, and health officer. She found it no
easy matter to persuade a group of Greeks that
they must not slaughter sheep in the basement
of their homes, or Italian women that they
must not sort over, in courts swarming with
children, rags which they collected from the
city dumps, or to hinder immigrant bakers from
baking bread for their neighbors in unspeak-
ably filthy places under the pavement.

Miss Addams is in the prime of life, and
judging by what she has already done, we are

102 The Women of Illinois

justified in expecting still greater things from
her pen. At present she is furnishing a series
of valuable articles for McClure's Magazine.

She was a member of the Chicago School
Board when that body was passing through
stormy waters; and this paper will close with
her tribute to the public schools : "The public
schools in the immigrant colonies," she de-
clares, "deserve all the praise as Americanizing
agencies which can be bestowed upon them/'

CHAPTER SEVEN

MRS. UDA BROWN MCMURRY

T IDA A. BROWN is a native of the state
'" of New York, but came to Illinois at an
earl)- age. She began her work as a teacher
at the age of sixteen and taught several years
in rural and village schools. Feeling the need
of better preparation she entered the Illinois
State l&m^Ui^
uated

stty

the scfiool" to meet in her room one Sunday for
the purpose of holding a prayer meeting and
song service. Six accepted the invitation.
They enjoyed their little devotional meeting so
well that they decided to meet every Sunday
and invite others to meet with them. Thus was
started on the twelfth day of November, 1872,
what is believed to have been the first Students'
Young Women's Christian Association in the
world. And it may be worth while to notice,
in passing, that like some other organizations

102 The Women of Illinois

justified in expecting still greater things from
her pen. At present she is furnishing a series
of valuable articles for McClure's Magazine.

She was a member of the Chicago School
Board when that body was passing through
stormy waters; and this paper will close with
her tribute to the public schools : "The public
schools in the immigrant colonies," she de-
clares, "deserve all the praise as Americanizing
agencies which can be bestowed upon them.''

Not she urith traifrous kiss her Saviour stung,
Not she denied him zinth unholy tongue;
She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave,
Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave.

—Barrett

CHAPTER SEVEN

MRS. UDA BROWN MCMURRY

T IDA A. BROWN is a native of the state
•"-^ of New York, but came to Illinois at an
early age. She began her work as a teacher
at the age of sixteen and taught several years
in rural and village schools. Feeling the need
of better preparation she entered the Illinois
State Normal University, from which she grad-
uated with honor in 1874.

While in attendance at the Normal Univer-
sity she invited a number of young women of
the school to meet in her room one Sunday for
the purpose of holding a prayer meeting and
song service. Six accepted the invitation.
They enjoyed their little devotional meeting so
well that they decided to meet every Sunday
and invite others to meet with them. Thus was
started on the twelfth day of November, 1872,
what is believed to have been the first Students'
Young Women's Christian Association in the
world. And it may be worth while to notice,
in passing, that like some other organizations

104 The Women of Illinois

which have done so much for humanity, it had
its birth at a seat of learning.

In view of what the organization has accom-
plished and is accomplishing it is interesting to
know and of historic importance to record the
names of the consecrated young woman whose
meeting on this occasion has resulted in so
much good to the world. The little group con-
sisted of :

Lida A. Brown

Ida E. Brown

Emma Stewart

Jennie Leonard

Hopkins

Mrs. Hattie Lawson.

Miss Leonard and Mrs, Lawson were not
students but were very much interested in the
welfare of the young women of the school.

It is but just to state that the Y.W.C.A.
is indebted more for its birth and growth
in its early years to Lida A. Brown (now
Mrs. Lida Brown McMurry) than to any other
person. By her quiet, pleasing manners, she
persuaded others to attend the meetings and
enroll in the ranks. She sympathized with them
in their troubles, cheered them in those hours of
despondency and homesickness which come to
many young women away from home for the

Mrs. Lida Brown McMurry 105

first time, and she so "mothered" them that
absence from their own mothers was not so
hard to bear as it otherwise would have been.

The true Christian graces that enabled
Mrs. McMurry to accomplish so much in build-
ing up the Y.W.C.A., have won her marked
success in her life work. She is today one of
the leading trainers of primary teachers. And
this exalted position she owes fully as much to
her sunny, sympathetic disposition as she does
to her scholarship, although that is very cred-
itable. She is the author of several books on
primary teaching, which teachers all over the
country find very helpful in their work.

The little company who met on that Novem-
ber afternoon, 1872, soon found their place of
meeting too small to hold all who wished to
attend, so they moved to the parlors of the
Congregational church, and when that build-
ing burned down, they moved to the Methodist
church.

The need of a more compact organization
was felt, and so a constitution was made, and
adopted January 19, 1873. The first officers
elected under this constitution were: Ida E.
Brown, president ; Ida Witbeck, vice-president ;
Emma V. Stewart, secretary; and Lida A.
Brown, treasurer.

106 The Women of Illinois

At the time of this election, the society was
called the Young Ladies' Christian Associa-
tion, and not until September, 1881, was the
name changed to its present form, although its
purpose was always the same.

The motto of the association is found in the
gospel by Saint John, 10:10: "I am come that
they might have life, and that they might have
it more abundantly.'' This seeking for a fuller,
richer life was the impelling force in those early
days, and is still. The young women were very
earnest in their work and the association grew
rapidly. But it is in better shape now to carry
out the purpose of its existence than it was
before; as it employs a graduate secretary, a
very able and devoted young woman, who gives
all her time to the work.

The present student Y.W.C.A. at Normal
covers a much broader scope in its organization
than the association had at first planned. It is
divided into seven committees, namely, the Fi-
nance, Membership, Social, Inter-collegiate,
Bible, Mission, and Devotional committees.
The chairmen of these committees together
with the president and secretary of the as-
sociation comprise the cabinet which meets
regularly once a week. At these meetings the
best methods for improving the society or the

Mrs. Lida Brown McMurry 107

work of any of the committees are discussed.
Nothing is undertaken by the society which has
not been carefully discussed and approved of
in cabinet meeting. The test for the proposed
enterprise is, "Will it give the students more
abundant Christian life."

At the beginning of each year the finance
committee makes out a budget which estimates
the receipts from probable gifts, dues, special
sales; also the probable expenses of the year.
The expenditures of all the committees is gov-
erned by this budget. If any committee spends
more than was planned, its members make up
the deficiency by special sales. Forty percent
of the money taken in each year goes to the
state and national organizations. They use
this money for missions and current expenses.
Thus the money sent by the student associations
is used partly for extending student state and
national associations and partly for general ex-
penses such as office expenses of the national
and state associations. A separate fund is
raised each year to send delegates to the Ge-
neva conference. The work of the following
year is influenced greatly by the enthusiasm
aroused at these meetings. For this reason the
association sends as large a delegation as pos-
sible each year.

108 The Women of Illinois

The aim of the membership committee, of
which the vice-president is chairman, is to wel-
come all girls in the school into the association,
and get them, if possible, to become active
workers. Membership dues for the year are
one dollar each. At present there are 185 mem-
bers enrolled, all of whom are active in some
department of the work.

The chairmen of the bible and mission com-
mittees organize classes for study. Some of
these classes are taught by members of the fac-
ulty and some by students who have been in
such classes before.

The devotional committee arranges the regu-
lar weekly meetings in detail. It is the pur-
pose to make these meetings profitable and in-
teresting. Twice a term the Y.W.C.A. and
Y.M.C.A. unite in devotional services at which
some member of the faculty presides. The
association gladly and earnestly co-operates
with the churches in their work.

To raise the social standard of the school is
the main purpose of the social committee. It
plans to give a large party, uniting with the
young men's association, at least once a term.
Smaller parties given by the young women
alone are arranged for once a month. In these
social gatherings, as well as in other phases of

Mrs. Lida Brown McMurry 109

the association work, anything- which might
detract from the Christian spirit is guarded
against.

It may be interesting to note how the student
Y.W.C.A. movement has grown since 1872.
According to the report of 1911, there are
thirty-five organizations in Illinois. Student
associations are organized in forty-three states
of the Union, there being in all six hundred
sixty-seven with a membership of 54,369. Stu-
dent Y.W.C.A. 's are organized also in the lead-
ing countries of Europe.

"Behold, how great a matter a little fire
kindleth!" — James 3:5.

CHAPTER EIGHT

MRS. LETITIA GREEN STEVENSON

T ETITIA BARBOUR GREEN, daughter
•*-' of the Reverend Lewis Warner Green,
D.D., and Mary Ann Peachy Fry, was born in
Alleghany City amidst the beautiful scenery of
Western Pennsylvania. She can trace her an-
cestry, on the father's side, to Colonel John
Washington, wh0owitb^ife«br«9t^^mL^v'irerace^ O

verv

.,00\ ii*m4<\m\ ?,t,«mi\\ ,yni\l /nl nm«(>V?

both ulitar man and as a member of the

House of Burgesses. That he stood high in
the esteem of his neighbors is also shown by
their giving his name to the parish in which
he dwelt. On his death, his son Lawrence
reigned in his stead and became the father of
John, Augustine, and Mildred, by his wife Mil-
dred Warner. From this Mildred Warner
Washington, Mrs. Stevenson can trace her de-
scent directly. Augustine, the second son, mar-
ried, for his second wile, Mary Ball, by whom
he had three sons and a daughter; the eldest of

O woman! whose form and whose soul
Are the spell and the light of each path we pursue.

Whether sunn'd in the tropics or chill'd at the pole
If woman be there, there is happiness too.

— Moore

CHAPTER EIGHT

MRS. LETITIA GREEN STEVENSON

T ETITIA BARBOUR GREEN, daughter
•"-^ of the Reverend Lewis Warner Green,
D.D., and Mary Ann Peachy Fry, was born in
Alleghany City amidst the beautiful scenery of
Western Pennsylvania. She can trace her an-
cestry, on the father's side, to Colonel John
Washington, who with his brother Lawrence,
appeared in Virginia, in 1658. John became
very prominent in the affairs of the colony,
both as a military man and as a member of the
House of Burgesses. That he stood high in
the esteem of his neighbors is also shown by
their giving his name to the parish in which
he dwelt. On his death, his son Lawrence
reigned in his stead and became the father of
John, Augustine, and Mildred, by his wife Mil-
dred Warner. From this Mildred Warner
Washington, Mrs. Stevenson can trace her de-
scent directly. Augustine, the second son, mar-
ried, for his second wife, Mary Ball, by whom
he had three sons and a daughter; the eldest of

112 The Women of Illinois

these children was the illustrious George Wash-
ington.

While Mrs. Stevenson's maternal ancestors
were not quite so famous as the paternal, yet
they were not without distinction. She can
trace her descent from Colonel Joshua Fry, an
English gentleman and an Oxford graduate,
who came to Virginia from England, and be-
came Professor in William and Mary College.
He was colonel of a Virginia regiment and
led it against Fort Duquesne in 1755, but died
on the march. After his death the regiment
was commanded by George Washington, Col-
onel Fry's Lieutenant Colonel.

It will thus be seen that the subject of our
sketch came from a fighting and patriotic stock,
and that it was natural that she should join
the Daughters of the American Revolution as
soon as it became possible for her to do so.

Doctor Green moved from Pennsylvania to
Kentucky in 1855. In this state, at and near
Lexington, Miss Green received most of her
education, although at the breaking out of the
Civil War, she was attending Miss Haynes's
school in New York City.

The family residence at this time was in
Danville, Kentucky, where the father was
president of Center College. Danville was on

Mrs. Letitia Green Stevenson

the border line between the conflicting forces.
And although he was an ardent Union man, his
heart turned with fatherly solicitude towards
his students, who were as children to him, and
many of whom were from the South and joined
the Southern army.

The guerilla warfare which was carried on
in Kentucky, as well as in the other border
states, placed the family at the mercy of the
constantly changing bands of marauders.
While the possession of the town by Federal
and Confederate troops in turn made conditions
very unpleasant and inconvenient for both
Union and Southern people. At no time, how-
ever, were the Greens greatly intimidated or
harmed. For in the armies on both sides were
some O'f their nearest of kin and dearest of
friends, under whose considerate protection
they dwelt in safety.

As stated above Miss Green was attending
school in New York City at the opening of the
war. On her return home she found the col-
lege, as well as every other public building,
converted into barracks or hospitals. And in
the wake of the dreadful war soon followed
desolation, sickness and death. She can never
forget those terrible days, and is thankful to
an over-ruling providence for a re-united coun-

114 The Women of Illinois

try, and that the ties of kinship and friendship
are the stronger, perhaps, for having been so
rudely sundered for a time.

Miss Green came to Illinois in 1864, and in
1866, was married to Adlai E. Stevenson, a
rising young lawyer of Metamora, Wood ford
county, and who since then has acquired na-
tional fame, by serving two terms in Congress,
four years as Assistant Postmaster General,
and four years as Vice-President.

In 1868, the Stevensons removed to Bloom-
ington, which has since been their home. But
because of Mr. Stevenson's official life in
Washington, that city became the family resi-
dence for several years.

The social position of the Vice-President and
his family is an enviable one, since it is wholly
independent, and disconnected from all others.
The Vice-President is not a member of the
President's cabinet, hence his wife is not offici-
ally associated with the ladies of the cabinet,
although the most cordial relations usually ex-
ist between them. Mrs. Stevenson's pleasing
personality, her gracious manner and cultivated
taste soon made her a favorite with the Presi-
dent's official family, and led to the forming of
friendships which are highly prized and whose
memory is sacredly cherished.

Mrs. Letitia Green Stevenson 115

The wife of the Vice-President is required
by her position to make but one call, and that
upon the mistress of the White House, who is
not expected to return calls. And it was im-
possible for Mrs. Stevenson to return all calls,
her receptions often numbering eight hundred
or a thousand callers. She took pleasure, how-
ever, in returning the calls of the wives of the
Justices of the Supreme Court, the wives of the
Senators, and in acknowledging all dinner and
luncheon invitations by a personal call.

The wife of the Vice- President takes prece-
dence when the first lady of the land is not
present ; and at all functions in the absence of
the President's wife, she leaves first, and her
leaving is a signal that it is time for the fes-
tivities to end. At state dinners she is always
the guest of honor, is escorted to the dining
room by the President and is seated at his right.
Every courtesy and attention are accorded her
and her family because of her official position,
emphasized in this instance by the recognized
worth of the recipient.

Mrs. Stevenson's life in Washington was
full of charming experiences, all the more
charming, no doubt, because she was prepared
to appreciate them. Every shade and descrip-
tion of entertainment and pleasure were open

116 The Women of Illinois

to her with but little annoyance from any
source. Perhaps the principal annoyance arose
from regret that the government does not pro-
vide official residence for the Vice-President
and members of the cabinet as other govern-
ments do for their corresponding" officials.
Money spent in providing such homes, it is be-
lieved, would be money well spent, as it would
make the officials feel they were appreciated
and so render them more efficient.

Added honors bring increased responsibili-
ties. Mrs. Stevenson was elected President
General of the National Society of the Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution, for the first
time, on February 22, 1893, to succeed Mrs.
Benjamin Harrison, first President General of
the organization, who died in Washington dur-
ing the closing months of her husband's term as
President. She was re-elected President Gen-
eral in February, 1894, for the years 1894-95,
and for 1896-97, and again for 1897-98. The
office of Honorary President General was cre-
ated in her honor and conferred upon her, but
she resigned the complimentary title upon be-
ing elected President General for the third
time; it was conferred upon her again, how-
ever, in 1898.

The objects of the National Society of the

Mrs. Letitia Green Stevenson

Daughters of the American Revolution, as set
forth in Article II of the Society's Constitu-
tion, are :

1. "To perpetuate the memory of the spirit
of the men and women who achieved American
Independence, by the acquisition and protection
of historical spots, and the erection of monu-
ments; by the encouragement of historical re-
search in relation to the Revolution and the
publication of results; by the preservation of
documents and relics, and of the records of the
individual services of Revolutionary Soldiers
and patriots, and by the promotion of celebra-
tions of all patriotic anniversaries.

2. "To carry out the injunction of Washing-
ton in his farewell address to the American
people, 'to promote as an object of primary im-
portance, institutions for the general diffusion
of knowledge/ thus developing an enlightened
public opinion, and affording to young and old
such advantages as shall develop in them the
largest capacity for performing the duties of
American citizens.

3. "To cherish, maintain, and extend the in-
stitution of American freedom, to foster true
patriotism and love of country, and to aid in
securing for mankind all the blessings of lib-
erty."

118 The Women of Illinois

Eligibility. "Any woman may be eligible for
membership who is of the age of eighteen
years, and who is descended from a man or
woman who with unfailing loyalty, rendered
material aid to the cause of Independence;
from a recognized patriot, a soldier or sailor
or civil officer, in one of the several colonies
or states; provided that the applicant be ac-
ceptable to the Society." — Constitution, Art.
Ill, Sec. i.

The business of the National Society is con-
ducted through committees appointed by the
Continental Congress or by the President Gen-
eral upon the authority of the Continental Con-
gress or of the National Board of Manage-
ment. "The Continental Congress is composed
of all the active officers of the National So-
ciety; the State Regent, or in her absence the
State Vice-Regent, from each state, territory,
and the District of Columbia ; and the Regents
and Delegates of each organized Chapter in
the United States, and in foreign countries."

The most important committee, from the
first, has been the Memorial Continental Hall
Committee. Mrs. Harrison was an enthusiastic
worker in behalf of a house or home for the
Daughters, and appointed the first Continental
Hall committee. The next and most important

Mrs. Letitia Green Stevenson

step was to endeavor to awaken a national in-
terest in the new and untried patriotic work.
This was difficult at first, as the objects of the
organization were not fully understood, and
much doubt was felt as to the necessity of such
work, and of its ultimate success.

The work of organizing- Chapters with State
and Chapter Regents was carried on with
vigor, and Chapters have been established in
every state and territory of the Union and in
many foreign countries. By systematic and
unceasing efforts, at the close of Mrs. Steven-
son's administration as President General, in
1898, the organization had increased from
2,760, in 1893, to 23,097. It was in those early
formative days and through efforts of the ac-
tive officers of the organization, encouraged
and directed by Mrs. Stevenson, that the foun-
dation was laid deep and enduring, upon which
the splendid superstructure now rests.

Besides the Continental Memorial Hall
which is now completed and is worth, with the
lot on which it stands, about $500,000, the
Daughters have shown their zeal and ability in
other ways. They contributed about three-
fourths of its cost towards the erecting of a
statue at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in honor
of Mary Washington. On February 26, 1894,

120 The Women of Illinois

they presented a life-size portrait of Mrs. Ben-
jamin Harrison to the White House. They
also presented a statue of Washington to the
city of Paris. This statue was given a promi-
nent place by the city authorities and was un-
veiled during the Paris exposition of 1900, with
due acknowledgment to the donors.

On the 1 5th day of May, 1903, a bill appro-
priating $10,000 for the purchase of the Fort
Massac reservation was approved by the Gov-
ernor of Illinois, The legislature was led to
make this appropriation largely through the
efforts of Mrs. Matthew T. Scott, President
General of the Daughters, who read a very able
and convincing paper before the Illinois State
Historical Society, urging the purchase, and
joined with other high officers of the organiza-
tion in a petition to the legislature to the same
effect. And later through the same influence
the state was induced to purchase Starved
Rock, and about 190 acres of the surrounding
land to be used forever by the people of the
state as a pleasure ground.

Neither her social duties as the wife of the
Vice-President, nor her official duties as Presi-
dent General of the great and patriotic organi-
zation whose activities she directed for so many
years could lead Mrs. Stevenson to neglect her

Mrs. Letitia Green Stevenson 121

home duties. She is a strong believer in the
value of the home to the individual, to the
family and to the nation. A good home she
regards as the chief corner-stone of the nation,
and a woman's first and highest duty is to es-
tablish such a home.

Home should be a place of great freedom,
in order to be worthy of the sacred name. Here
the children should be made to feel that they
may do as they please, providing they do not
please to do wrong — of which there is little
danger. It is only by allowing this liberty that
the parents can learn the dispositions of their
children, something which many parents do not
learn until it is too late.

Home should be a place of mirth and merri-
ment. Blessed is the boy who feels that home
is a "jolly" place. How the memory of it will
cling to him in after years, and prove a talis-
man against evil, long after the "jolly" father
and mother have gone to their reward.

Mrs. Stevenson is also a believer in early
marriages, provided the affection is founded
upon mutual respect; and provided, further,
that man is able to insure the necessary com-
forts to safeguard the health of his wife, and
to maintain a home with all that the name im-
plies. But the establishing of a home should

122 The Women of Illinois

not mean that the woman shall forever cook,-
sweep, darn stockings, sew on buttons, and
play general lady's maid to her entire family.
All of this may be necessary under certain
financial conditions. But even then by a fair
division of labor much exhausting fatigue may
be avoided, and decided benefit to all con-
cerned result.

Recreation and change of scene for the
mother occasionally are essential to the happi-
ness of the whole family. That the mother's
health and strength should be most carefully
conserved is imperative, as they are by far the
greatest asset in the domestic economy. The
welfare of the household depends in a large
measure upon her ability to guide her family
and domestic affairs with prudence and fore-
thought,— a feat she cannot accomplish if
handicapped by illness. This may be superin-
duced by overtaxed nerves in the laudable
effort to meet the exacting duties of the present
day strenuous life. And there can be no judi-
cious authority, order, or happiness in the home
where the mother is a physical or nervous
wreck.

If it can be so arranged, and it can usually,
the wife should be a sharer in her husband's
honors, as well as be his comfort and solace in

Mrs. Letitia Green Stevenson

times of trial and stress. She should also be
acquainted with his business enterprises, as
success or failure means as much to her as it
does to him — perhaps more. And it does not
safeguard the home for either husband or wife
to have a set of friends or acquaintances to
whom the other is a stranger. Separate inter-
ests and separate trends of thought are sure to
follow, and this is destructive of the purposes
of the home.

CHAPTER NINE

MARIE EUGENIA VON EISNER*

•JV/TARIE EUGENIA VON ELSNER was
•***••• born in Bloomington, Illinois, June i,
1856, and died in the same city July 7, 1883.
Her mother, Amanda Dimmitt, also born in
Bloomington, was the daughter of William
Dimmitt, one of the early pioneers in Illinois,
and after whbi»xDim«)fe-tiw«ad«iiticffls
ington

boni

liUr.

, Germany.

It is claimed by some people that he was of
noble birth; this, however, is not certainly
known, as he was very reticent and never talked
about his ancestry, unless it was in his own
family. What is known is that he was highly
educated and was a civil engineer. He prob-
ably practiced that profession before leaving

*Miss von Eisner was very fortunate in her biog-
rapher. Judge John M. Scott has told the story of her
life and work in a most sympathetic and graceful man-
ner. This brief sketch is indebted to his pleasing vol-
ume for its main facts.

God sent his singers upon earth
With songs of sadness and of mirth,
That they might touch the hearts of men,
And bring them bafk to heaven again.

— Longfellow

CHAPTER NINE
MARIE: EUGENIA VON ELSNER*

TV/TARIE EUGENIA VON ELSNER was
•*•*-*• born in Bloomington, Illinois, June i,
1856, and died in the same city July 7, 1883.
Her mother, Amanda Dimmitt, also born in
Bloomington, was the daughter of William
Dimmitt, one of the early pioneers in Illinois,
and after whom one of the additions to Bloom-
ington is named.

Marie's father, Hugo von Eisner, was born
near Goerletz, not far from Dresden, Germany.
It is claimed by some people that he was of
noble birth; this, however, is not certainly
known, as he was very reticent and never talked
about his ancestry, unless it was in his own
family. What is known is that he was highly
educated and was a civil engineer. He prob-
ably practiced that profession before leaving

*Miss von Eisner was very fortunate in her biog-
rapher. Judge John M. Scott has told the story of her
life and work in a most sympathetic and graceful man-
ner. This brief sketch is indebted to his pleasing vol-
ume for its main facts.

126 The Women of Illinois

his native land, but if so he could not have
practiced it very long, as he came to America
when quite a young* man. After coming to
Illinois he assisted as engineer, or in some
other capacity, in the construction of a rail-
road from Elgin to Freeport.

In 1854, he came to Bloomington to make
for himself a new home, and here he lived un-
til his death, which occurred while his gifted
daughter was in Paris, and before she had
achieved her triumphant success.

Von Eisner "did not possess much executive
ability and still less capacity for money mak-
ing in any business." But he was an excellent
musician, well versed in the science of music,
and an enthusiast in teaching the divine art.
It was well that it was so, for his ability in
this direction was about the only source of in-
come that he had.

Miss von Eisner's musical education began
when she was a mere child. Her father was
her teacher in those early days, and continued
to be until she sailed for Europe in 1874, to
further her education. He had unbounded
faith in the ability of his child, and was confi-
dent that she would succeed. So he became
an enthusiast in the matter of her musical ed-
ucation and he left nothing undone to accom-

Marie Engenia von Eisner 12?

plish this end, as far as his limited means
would permit.

"It was a practice with her father when Ma-
rie was yet a mere child to have her sing in
parlors where friends had met to hear her, and
in larger private gatherings, and she was al-
ways heard with the greatest delight." What
may be termed her first public appearance was
at Springfield, Illinois, in 1861, before a regi-
ment of soldiers in training to take the field.
She was then five years of age, and her singing
of " 'Tis the Last Rose of Summer" was so
touching that it brought tears to the eyes of
many of those strong, hardy men whose
thoughts had been fixed on grim war for some
time previous. They showed their apprecia-
tion of the child and her wonderful singing by
making her a beautiful present, appropriately
inscribed.

When about fourteen years of age, her
father, and perhaps her mother, who was
equally interested with her husband in the de-
velopment of their daughter's musical powers,
took her to Chicago, Cleveland, and Newr
York. In each of these cities her singing was
highly praised, especially in Cleveland, where
there was a large German population. She re-

128 The Women of Illinois

ceived money enough from her singing in those
cities to defray the expenses of the trip.

The Germans are a music-loving race, and
are very appreciative of the manifestation of
genius along the line of their beloved art. Dr.
Underner, who was at the head of a conserva-
tory of music in Cleveland, took great interest
in Marie, and generously undertook to aid in
perfecting her musical education.

The time came when it was deemed neces-
sary to send her to Europe for better instruc-
tion than she could get in her native land. And
besides, she needed instruction in the languages
and in literature, so necessary on the operatic
stage, for which she was evidently intended.
But where could the money for defraying her
expenses be obtained? Her parents were com-
paratively poor, she had no wealthy relatives,
and the case seemed almost hopeless. "It was
at first proposed to raise the necessary funds
by subscription. But the necessity for resort-
ing to that expedient was soon obviated. In
that crisis a very generous friend, Mr. A. B.
Hough, of Cleveland — a very ardent admirer
of the talents of Marie — came forward, and
with a liberality seldom met with anywhere,
offered to and did advance the entire amount
necessary to defray all her expenses — a sum of

Marie Eugenia von Eisner 129

no inconsiderable proportions. No one en-
quired or seemed to know whether Mr. Hough
exacted any promise from Marie or her friends
to re-pay the money advanced by him on her
account. It is not probable one so generous
as Mr. Hough would have taken anything from
the earnings of this poor child of genius had
she offered to repay him. Such noble acts are
not done for money considerations. "

On the 25th of October, 1874, Marie sailed
for Europe to complete her musical education.
It must have been a lonesome voyage for this
girl of eighteen years. There was no one on
the ship that she knew, except Dr. Underner,
who always took a deep interest in her welfare.
This gentleman succeeded in interesting Mr.
Mapleson, the great English impressario, in
his young friend, and the interest continued
through life. Dr. Underner, also presented
her to Sir Julius Benedict, a musician of some
note, who, on hearing her sing, pronounced her
voice "a beautiful gift of nature," and advised
her to go to Paris and place herself under the
instruction of a celebrated teacher; this she did.

In May, 1876, she appeared at Drury Lane
theater, in London, under the management of
Mr. Mapleson. And her performance, in Rob-
ert le Diable, was not satisfactory to her man-

130 The Women of Illinois

ager or to herself; so she returned to Paris for
further instruction.

She studied for a year, or more, under her
former teacher, who could not have taken more
interest in her pupil had she been her own
daughter. And the pupil studied with more
diligence than ever, if possible, determined to
achieve success; not so much, perhaps, on her
own account, as on account of her father and
mother and her family, her girlhood friends in
that little western city, and her beloved teacher.

When it was arranged that she was to ap-
pear in the Theatre des Italiens, in Paris, in
the opera Lucia di Lammermoor, she felt that
success or failure, in her chosen profession,
depended on her performance on that occa-
sion. She and her teacher both felt that she
was to pass through a terrible ordeal, as her
performance would be watched by the most ac-
complished musicians and the most merciless
critics in the world.

The feelings of the French towards the Ger-
mans were very bitter at that time. The
Franco-Prussian war was only a few years in
the past, and France felt that it had been cruelly
treated in the terms of peace which it had to
accept. And so her solicitous friends advised
her to appear under the stage name of "Litta,"

Marie Eugenia von Eisner 131

that being the name of a noble Italian family.
Her success was so great, "that the next morn-
ing Count L,itta called upon her and thanked
her for honoring his family name by adopting
it." Henceforth she was known to the musical
world, and even to many of her old-time
friends, as Mademoiselle Litta, or simply Litta.
The effect of her rendering of the opera on
this, her first appearance before a Paris audi-
ence, as described by the Paris correspondent
of a New York journal is here given for the'
gratification of her friends: "That night will
remain in the memory of everyone who was
present ; no greater triumph than that of M'lle
Litta was ever known even within the time
honored walls of the Italian Theatre of Paris.
Captious connoisseurs started with amazement
as the purest soprano voice heard for many
years rang through the building; callous ex-
quisites were surprised into an emotion by the
warm life-like impersonation of Bellini's ill-
fated heroine. From act to act the success of
the debutante increased ; the connoisseurs hung
upon her every note and even the least scien-
tific of the hearers felt a thrill which followed
the exquisite modulations of that glorious
voice. The enthusiasm became general and
swelled into an ovation such as has not been

132 The Women of Illinois

known since the days of Grisi. There was the
genuine ring" and not the counterfeit sound of
a hired demonstration. Cynical critics and
listless swells joined in the manifestations of
delight; ladies clapped until they burst their
gloves, and threw their own bouquets upon the
stage. Lifted above her doubts and fears by
the enthusiastic reception and inspired by her
theme, Litta surpassed herself and surprised
even her friends. For perfect vocalization,
earnest feeling, and dramatic power, her ren-
dering of the mad scene, that test of a canta-
trice, was a truly wonderous performance.
Even the would-be witty critics who had at
first endeavored to raise a laugh at her large
mouth and her square shoulders forgot to sneer
and lost sight of her physical defects and sat
absorbed and hushed throughout the thrilling
scene. When the curtain fell the entire orches-
tra rose to their feet and the grand songstress
who had held that audience under the charm
of her talents was recalled with a whirlwind
of applause. Such a scene of enthusiasm is
rare at the Italiens whose polished critical
habitues are seldom raised to such heights of
interest and delight. The smiling, enraptured
girl received an ovation she will certainly re-
member to her dying day, and at the close of

Marie Eugenia von Eisner 133

that performance found herself crowned a
queen of song. Her triumph was complete, al-
most unparalleled. * * * The young American
girl, unknown and almost friendless the day
before, had risen in that evening to the utmost
heights of musical fame."

One other quotation bearing on this first
night's performance, and this from the pen of
a woman, Miss Kate Field : "It would seem
an exaggeration almost to state with what en-
thusiasm M'lle Litta was hailed when she fin-
ally revealed her talent. Even the habitues of
the Italian opera in its halcyon days cannot re-
member such scenes of excitement. And there
was the true ring about the ovation M'lle
raised, none of the hired applause with the elite
smiling coldly at the venal demonstration ; none
of the bouquets bought beforehand and thrown
upon the stage by dummies. No; it was all
genuine admiration. Ladies stood up in their
boxes and burst their gloves clapping; the en-
tire orchestra declared her the young artist
with one voice. Elegantes threw upon the
stage the bouquets they had brought with them
and held through the evening. Time after
time thundering calls brought the young Amer-
ican lady before the curtain, blushing with
heartfelt delight. The enthusiasm increased as

134 The Women of Illinois

M'lle Litta proceeded with her fine impersona-
tion and the summum was after the scene of
Lucia's madness which is famous as one of the
most severe tests, not only for the singer, but
for the dramatic artist. M'lle Litta went
through the crushing ordeal with inspired en-
ergy and this was her grand triumph. A very
whirlwind of applause burst forth after this
hackneyed scene which the new star rendered
really harrowing by her life-like action. This
final ovation set the seal upon her reputation
and stamped her as one of the first artists of
modern times."

Litta remained at the Italiens for some
months. And her great triumph on her first
appearance was not dimmed by later perform-
ances. Night after night music-loving Paris
flocked to hear her in her different roles. And
in no instance did she fail to satisfy the high
expectation of her audience.

After the close of the season in Paris and
some time spent in Vienna, she returned to
America under the management of Max Stra-
kosch, a distinguished manager in opera and
concert music. She came directly to Bloom-
ington where her mother and family still re-
sided. Shortly after her return a reception
was tendered her by Captain and Mrs. Burn-

Marie Eugenia von Eisner 135

ham — the latter her cousin — to which many of
her friends were invited. It was a happy gath-
ering, although Litta, no doubt, silently
mourned the absence of the father who de-
voted himself to her musical education, and
who never wavered in his belief in her success.

In order that the friends and acquaintances
of her girlhood days might hear her, she gave
a concert in Durley Hall. The hall was
crowded and she sang divinely, as she felt she
had the sympathy of her entire audience. Per-
haps she never enjoyed any of the many ova-
tions which she received both in the Old World
and the New as much as she did that which she
received on this occasion.

At the Burnham reception it was suggested
to a close friend of hers that it would be a
graceful thing to do, to present Litta with a
testimonial of their high regard for her. The
friend intimated that Litta would appreciate
any offering made to her mother more than
she would if made to herself. In consequence,
her admirers presented the mother with a neat
cottage; and here Litta herself made her home
when not engaged in traveling.

Litta began her American engagements in
opera, in Chicago, in 1878. She selected for
her first appearance, Lucia di Lammermoor.

136 The Women of Illinois

This was her favorite, and the selection with
which she always commenced her engagements
in the different cities in which she appeared.
Large delegations went from Bloomington and
Cleveland to hear her. She had many warm
friends in Cleveland, and everyone in Bloom-
ington was her friend, and all believed that
their presence would be a source of strength to
her, and it was undoubtedly. She was fond of
Bloomington and of its people, and she gave
expression to this fondness in a beautiful letter
to a friend here, in which she wrote : "Bloom-
ington is my home and I am proud of it, and
the many kindnesses I have received from its
people have filled my heart with gratitude, and
I say frankly that there is no place like my old
home, home, sweet home."

Whatever fears and doubts Litta may have
had as she appeared before the brilliant audi-
ence that came to greet her and sit in judg-
ment upon her performance, they all disap-
peared as she stepped in front of the distin-
guished assembly. She won a, splendid tri-
umph, and none manifested more joy in her
success than did her friendly rivals in song,
Miss Cary and Miss Kellogg, who graced the
occasion with their presence.

The papers of the metropolis of the West

Marie Eugenia von Eisner 137

were unanimous in their high praise of both
her acting and singing. The same was true of
the papers of New York, in fact of the papers
of every city in which she appeared, which led
her to say, "I seem to have a good friend in
every newspaper office." And so it proved in
Boston, in which she appeared next. One of
the leading journals had this to say : "The re-
ception given to the debutante was most hearty
and the lady has no cause to complain of her
audience upon this occasion, as every number
of her role was generously applauded, recalls
frequent, and beautiful floral tributes were pre-
sented to her. The flute song in the mad scene
displayed Litta's voice at the best and her ren-
dering of this part aroused the enthusiasm of
the audience and a grand demonstration."

The Strakosch Opera Company appeared in
all the great cities from Halifax to Galveston,
and everywhere Litta received unstinted praise.
The cities of the South vied in their cordiality
with those of the North, and far-off San Fran-
cisco outdid them all in the attention it be-
stowed upon her. In addition to unlimited
praise, "her admirers presented her two elegant
souvenirs, which she greatly appreciated. One
of them was a heavy and beautifully wrought

138 The Women of Illinois

chain of Etruscan gold from which hung a
locket thickly crusted with diamonds."

After two seasons in opera, Litta decided to
give it up, and engage in concert work. She
had been so successful in opera that people
wondered at her decision. It is probable that
the change was due to the desire to make a lit-
tle more money. The expenses of an operatic
troupe were very heavy. It is true that much
money was taken in, but it is also true that
much was paid out, and that the net receipts
were comparatively light. This may have been
the reason, and it may not ; it matters but little
either way; the important thing is that the
change was made.

Litta's concert singing was fully as success-
ful as her work in opera. She sang in all the
leading cities and was greeted everywhere with
great enthusiasm.

One more tribute to her worth by one who
heard her sing at Saratoga : "Of Marie Litta
we can speak only in terms of highest praise.
Her voice is a clear and beautiful soprano, of
exquisite quality, that even her pianissimo
passages were distinctly heard throughout the
large hall, and her tones have that indescribable
pathetic power which is vouchsafed to but few
singers in a generation. She is a genuine art-

Marie Eugenia von Eisner 139

ist with a natural genius for moving her audi-
tors by the tones of her voice and uses that
marvelous organ with the most consummate
grace and skill. Of the two numbers assigned
to her on the program, the 'Carnival of Ven-
ice,' by Sir Julius Benedict, which abounds in
ornament and fioritura, was rendered with a
power and grace which brought forth round
after round of applause. She responded to the
demands of the audience by singing a stanza
of 'Home Sweet Home,' in a manner which
showed how genius could adorn even the most
familiar air, and was greeted with the same
universal plaudits."

After her return to America, Litta's career
was brilliant but of short duration — about four
years. That short period was one of great
physical exertion and of intense mental strain.
She was ambitious to accomplish a great work,
and to enable her to do that she undertook
more than either her physical or mental
strength would endure with impunity. Her
friends, finally, came to see that her health was
failing, and it is to be regretted that they did
not compel her to rest for a time. The public,
with whom she was a favorite, was uninten-
tionally unjust to her. The following quota-
tion from her biographer might well be taken

140 The Women of Illinois

to heart by music-loving audiences everywhere :
"The demand made upon her by encores to
sing more — in many instances double the num-
bers she had agreed to give by her program,
was sometimes oppressive in a very great de-
gree. Her generous nature would not allow
her to deny her patrons anything whether just
or unjust. The consequence was she felt con-
strained to sing many times when she really did
not have strength to go through with the ad-
vertised program. This constant demand made
upon her by the public wherever she went, soon
began to tell on her strength.

«* * * T he demand made by the public upon
famous singers for so much more than they
contracted to give or the public has paid for,
is unjust in the extreme. No lawyer is ex-
pected to try two cases for his client for the
same fee he agreed to try one. A lecturer,
when he has agreed to give one lecture, is not
expected to give another lecture, or even the
same one without additional compensation.
Encores are all right enough, but the singer
ought to be allowed the privilege to sing or not.
Demands for a repetition of every number is
in ill taste."

In the spring of 1883, Litta suffered a se-
vere attack, at Galesburg, from which she

Marie Eugenia von Eisner 141

never fully recovered. She rallied somewhat,
however, and resumed her work. At Des-
Moines, Iowa, she was again prostrated by
sickness, and was urged by her friends to rest
for awhile. But no, she kept on, as she did
not want her manager to lose money by her
failure to keep her contract with him. The last
concert given by her company in which she
took part was at Escanaba, Michigan. From
there she was taken to her home in Blooming-
ton, where she fell asleep, and awaked to sing
in the celestial choir.

Loving hands laid her to rest in the Bloom-
ington cemetery, and above her grave was
erected a granite monument by the people of
the city that she loved so well.

The following tribute by her biographer
must close this brief sketch: "Litta had her-
self been poor during her whole life and that
caused her to have the intensest sympathy with
the lowly. The brightest gem in her crown
will be her nobleness of soul. It is that which
will remain when all else connected with her
fame shall have perished and is forgotten. She
was gentle, she was kind, and she loved all that
is good and all that is good loved her. She
lived to do good unto others. It was her
crowning happiness to divide everything she

142 The Women of Illinois

had with others, giving always the largest
share and the best to them. Nothing gave her
so much pleasure as to do good to others. In
that work akin to the purest ministrations in
charity she literally sacrified her life — a life
that contained all that is best in human nature.
She did not have to learn to be good or to do
good. It was inwrought in her nature."

CHAPTER

WOMEN 01

oday are sometimes com-

.:on of early times, and

ntage of the former.

The conditions are

gti impossible to

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01 t:- M

envn ^ia'

i^AuAmi

sofwe'o^^ a present.

.liecoridi-

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far a and she

the char-
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• is see the heroic

142 The Women of Illinois

had with others, giving always the largest
share and the best to them. Nothing gave her
so much pleasure as to do good to others. In
that work akin to the purest ministrations in
charity she literally sacrified her life — a life
that contained all that is best in human nature.
She did not have to learn to be good or to do
good. It was inwrought in her nature."

A woman's life is .1 wonderful thing

A yearning, hungering, questioning,

Outreaching- t ward the Infinite!

Wearing her womanhood like a crown, yet holding

Her pilgrim staff fif duty.

— The Ladies' Repository

CHAPTER TEN

THE WOMEN OF TODAY

THE women of today are sometimes com-
pared with the women of early times, and
frequently to the disadvantage of the former.
This is not just to either. The conditions are
so different that it is well-nigh impossible to
institute a just comparison. Were the woman
of the early days placed in the midst of the
environments which surround her sister of to-
day, she would feel lost. And it is feared
that she would receive severe criticism from
some of those who sing her praises at present.
The pioneer woman was fitted for the condi-
tions under which she lived. She played her
part in the development of Illinois, and she
played it well. She "trained her children in
the nurture and admonition of the L,ord," as
far as her ability would permit, and she
smoothed down the rough corners in the char-
acter of her husband, and when occasion de-
manded it she could use the ax or rifle as
effectively as he could ; all honor to her. And
long may the people of Illinois see the heroic

144 The Women of Illinois

figure of the pioneer woman as she stands re-
vealed in the early history of the state. Times
have changed, however, and existing conditions
make other and different demands upon wo-
man. The woman of today meets those de-
mands as courageously and efficiently as did
her sister of pioneer days those that con-
fronted her.

The writer is frequently asked foolish ques-
tions, and one of the most foolish is, "Do you
think woman is the equal of man?" Being a
truthful man he has to answer, "It depends on
the man and on the woman. Some women are
superior to some men, and it is possible that
some men are superior to some women, but ta-
ken in the aggregate, woman is superior in all
that pertains to the higher life." Then comes
the etymological argument: "Does not hus-
band," the querist retorts, "mean housebond,
the one who holds the house, or home, to-
gether? If so, then, he must be the superior
one." "Perhaps 'husband' means that and per-
haps it does not. Even if it does, does not the
term housekeeper indicate that the wife plays
as important a part in the domestic economy as
does the husband? The truth is that without
the presence of woman there can be no home.
There can be a place where men assemble to

The Women of Today 145

eat and sleep, but it is not a home, and the men
feel that it is not; and in her absence they be-
come slovenly in appearance and boorish in
manners." This truthful statement is not what
the questioner expected, or hoped to get, so he
departs with a low opinion of the writer's
wisdom.

Women constitute a great majority of the
school teachers of the state of Illinois. There
is no intention here of discussing the relative
merits of men and women as teachers; no
doubt each sex has advantages over the other
in certain departments of teaching. All that is
meant here is the bare statement of a fact
which is known to all who have given the sub-
ject serious thought. And that the women do
their work well is evidenced by the fact that
the highest salary paid to any teacher in the
state is paid to a woman.

When we consider the influence of the
teacher in the community in which she labors,
and upon the fortunes of the state through the
children with whom she labors, we recognize
the above statement as an important one. As
there is no class of people whose influence upon
the children is so great as that of the teachers,
the parents always excepted — or nearly always.
It is reasonable that this should be so, as they

146 The Women of Illinois

are with them six hours a day for at least six
months in the year. If the teacher is qualified
intellectually and morally to have charge of
children, it is difficult to estimate the import-
ance of her work to the state.

There is a class of teachers who receive no
salary, in the form of dollars and cents from
any source whatever, and yet their service to
the state is inestimable. For the lack of a bet-
ter name they may be termed "supplementary"
teachers ; and to their ranks belong all mothers.

These supplementary teachers are very nec-
essary, as, unfortunately, there are some per-
sons employed to teach who are not teachers
at all. They have no true conception of the
office of a teacher; they are interrogation
marks whose sole function is to ask questions.
Question-asking is well enough and when
properly done is an important phase of teach-
ing, but not the most important; that is done
by the mother, who when her day's work is
done sits down by her children and leads them
to see for themselves the logical solution of the
problem, the proper interpretation of the para-
graph in the reading lesson, and the true rela-
tion of the different parts of the sentence to
each other. This she does with infinite pa-

The Women of Today 147

tience, and her patience has its reward in the
love and adoration of her children.

The woman of the present time does much
valuable work along educational lines by or-
ganizing and sustaining literary and musical
clubs. These clubs permit women to enter the
realms whose portals were closed against them
in their younger days. And although the
glimpses which some get in those Elysian fields
may be limited to small areas, and somewhat
shadowy, yet they get enough to promote
thought and to lighten the burden of their
daily toil ; and whatever makes the tasks of the
toiler less galling is a benefaction to the race.

In no field of activity, perhaps, does the wo-
man of the twentieth century appear to such
advantage as in the godlike one of charity. It
is true that all through the Christian centuries
woman has been a synonym for charity. Good-
ness and mercy have followed in her footsteps,
and suffering has been mitigated by her pres-
ence. But in these later years she has learned
to make her efforts more effective by system-
atic organization, and has learned to discrim-
inate between the worthy and the unworthy.

In every city and town of any considerable
size, there is organized a Board of Charities
which receives gifts from the charitably dis-

148 The Women of Illinois

posed and dispenses them to the deserving
poor. These boards seek to find employment
for those who are able to work, as it is be-
lieved that by this means the self-respect of the
beneficiaries is preserved; and self-respect is a
valuable asset in the struggle of life. Those
who are not able to work are aided as fully as
the means of the organization will permit. And
while there are a few men connected with these
organizations, it will be admitted by all who
have studied the matter that the women are the
moving spirits, the main prop and support of
the boards, and that without them the institu-
tions would languish, if not die.

Closely related to her work in dispensing
charity to the poor are her merciful ministra-
tions as nurse in hospitals, and elsewhere. The
desire to alleviate suffering of every kind, to
wipe away the tears from the eyes of the grief-
stricken, and to cheer the despondent is pre-
eminently an endowment of woman. The
hospital is where she appears to the best ad-
vantage, as that is where there is most phys-
ical pain, and her mission is to remove pain.
It is a question with many, "Who saves the
most lives, the nurse or the physicians?"
Quien sabef

The pioneer woman was probably just as

The Women of Today 149

sympathetic, just as eager to relieve suffering,
and just as willing to sacrifice herself for the
good of others as is her modern sister. She
did what she could under the then existing
conditions. But science has made great pro-
gress in the last hundred years, and in no re-
spect greater, perhaps, than in its warfare with
disease ; so that the nurse of today is able to
use means that were unknown to the nurse of
pioneer days, and is, therefore, more efficient.
The woman of the present is a firm believer
in the duty of the people to make beautiful
their surroundings, as far as possible. She
has studied the influence of environment upon
character and has come to the conclusion that
it is fully as great as that of heredity, if not
greater. She may not believe with Zoroaster
that the ugly is always bad, and the beautiful
always good. But she does believe that beauty
without has a strong tendency to promote
beauty within. Therefore she is an ardent ad-
vocate of improvement leagues in cities and
•towns. She does not believe that the only
times people should clean up their premises is
when they hear that the cholera is making rapid
strides from the East; but that they should
keep them clean at all times. Furthermore,
that shrubbery and flowers should gladden the

150 The Women of Illinois

hearts of the passers-by as well as those of the
occupants. The result of her efforts along
this line may be seen in many towns and vil-
lages. And many rural communities follow
the example of their urban neighbors. Indeed
no small part of her work is the awakening of
such communities to the possibilities within
their reach. She points out how the school-
house and the country church may be made
centers for disseminating the gospel of beauty
to the farm homes in the vicinity, thus enab-
ling the wife and mother, whose life is fre-
quently one of drudgery, to catch glimpses of
brighter things, the thoughts of which may
bring warmth to her heart and a song to her
lips.

Woman is also a promoter of civic righteous-
ness. It is true she cannot vote, but her influ-
ence over those who can is very great. The
home is the chief corner stone of the nation,
and the woman is mistress of the home. There
her influence is paramount, especially over her
sons, and there are but few husbands who will
vote contrary to the expressed wishes of their
wives. And the wives are studying civic af-
fairs more than ever before. Some periodicals
find their way even into the most isolated
homes. Many of those periodicals are ably

The Women of Today 151

edited by women who point out to their sisters
what they can do to purify civic affairs, and
what it is their duty to do. And that the sis-
ters are following their advice is evident from
the great changes that are taking place in the
social and political life of the people.

It is unfortunately true that more or less
corruption still exists; but it is also true that
it is becoming less and less from year to year.
And whenever it is discovered it is not con-
doned, even by fairly good people, as in the
past, but is punished both legally and socially.
It should always be remembered that woman is
the arbiter of social status and that some men
dread being sent to "Coventry" more than they
do being sent to the penitentiary; hence the
great power which the woman wields in the
community ; and it must truthfully be said that
she is using it for the betterment of the people.

The woman of today is interesting herself
not only in literary, social, and political affairs,
she is also giving much attention to the laws of
health. She is satisfied that there are certain
conditions and diseases of her sex which she
can understand better than man can, and for
whose removal she is better qualified. So to
prepare herself the better to be an angel of
healing to her afflicted sisters she has gradu-

152 The Women of Illinois

ated in medicine from some of the best univer-
sities in the land, and has sometimes studied in
the schools and hospitals of the Old World,
hoping thereby to be the better equipped to
contend with the messenger of death.

Woman has always been a zealous supporter
of religion and of the church. This was true
of the pioneer woman; it is true of the woman
of today. She has always been more religious
than man; because she is possessed of the at-
tributes of God in a larger measure. She is
more like God in her tenderness, her sympathy,
and in her desire to do good to those who need
it most. She believes that religion is for the
purpose of making man more god-like in pur-
ity, compassion, and helpfulness to others,
hence she favors religion. And the church be-
ing the main instrument in urging people to
be religious she supports it by her presence at
all of its meetings and by her generous finan-
cial aid.

She realizes that religion is the most import-
ant thing in the world. It has been said that
love is the greatest thing. But love is the es-
sence of religion — love to God and love to
man. Without this divine attribute religion
becomes a hollow mockery ; with it, it becomes
a regenerating force leading man to be born

The Women of Today 153

again in the image of God. This is woman's
religion. For this she prays, for this she
works, and for this she is willing to suffer un-
kind criticism, which is often bestowed upon
her by the thoughtless and foolish. The pity
of it.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA

?HE WOMEN OF ILLINOIS BLOOMINGTON