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Part of the American
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Women Sociologists
Diana Belais
Active worker in the reform concerning the treatment
and care of disabled and overworked animals. Finding the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals did not entirely
accomplish the work she desired, was not far-reaching enough,
she framed the bill and caused it to be presented to the
legislature at Albany, New York, and for two years she struggled
for the passage of this bill and ultimately was successful in
her efforts, and today the agents of the society are invested
with full police power and have brought about a wonderful change
in the humane treatment of animals and the sanitary conditions
for them. But the greatest of Mrs. Belais' municipal
achievements lies in her splendid crusade against the horrors of
vivisection, and she is now engaged in trying to accomplish her
ideas through legislative measures and ordinances in the cities.
Ida Whipple Benham 1849
~
Mrs. Benham was born near Ledyard, Connecticut, on the 8th of
January, 1849 and was the daughter of Timothy and Lucy Ann Geer
Whipple. The 14th of April, 1869, she married Elijah B. Benham,
of Groton, Connecticut. She inherited from her Quaker father and
mother a desire for peace, and lectured on this and the subject
of temperance. Is a director in the American Peace Society, and
a member of the Universal Peace Union, and has always taken a
conspicuous part in all peace conventions. Has contributed poems
to the New York Independent, Youths Companion, St Nicholas, and
other prominent periodicals.
Corinne Stubbs Brown
1849 ~
Born in Chicago, 1849. Teacher in the public schools of Chicago
and married Frank E. Brown. Is a student of social problems and
socialist of some prominence. President of the Illinois Women's
Alliance for the purpose of obtaining the enactment and
enforcement of factory ordinances and compulsory educational
laws. An active worker in the study of economic and social
questions among the clubs.
Mrs. Robert Cartwright
Chairman of the public safety committee of the city of New York.
Originated and caused to be placed the electric signs at
elevated railway stations indicating the next stop; also the
signs in the cars of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company,
giving the names of the subway lines and their destination. It
is believed that these have prevented thousands of accidents and
hundreds of thousands of tourists from boarding the wrong
trains.
Helena Stuart Dudley
1858 ~
Born in Nebraska, in 1858. Daughter of Judson H. and Caroline
Bates Dudley. Teacher of biology and chemistry in the Packer
Collegiate Institute at one time. Became head worker of the
college settlement work in Philadelphia; also of the Denison
House College settlement in Boston since 1893.
Laura B. Hertz 1869 ~
Chairman of the Civic Committee of California's Women's Clubs.
Mrs. Hertz was born in San Francisco, November, 1869, and
received a high school education in Santa Barbara. She married
Louis Hertz in March, 1891, after having taught school for
several years. Mrs. Hertz's work and activities are for the
betterment of all civic conditions, moral, physical and
educational. Especially is she interested in work for the young.
She was elected president of the Council of Jewish Women,
serving in this position for two years, after which she was
elected a delegate to the triennial council, which met in
Chicago in 1905. For two years past, she has been chairman of
the Sabbath school committee, and inaugurated an international
union Thanksgiving service conducted by the children of all the
Jewish Sunday-schools of San Francisco. Mrs. Hertz is at present
the chairman of the Department of School Patrons of the National
Education Association, and is at the head of the entertainment
for the Jewish Chautauqua Assembly, meeting in San Francisco.
Mrs. Archibald Hopkins
1859 ~
Mrs. Archibald Hopkins, president of the District of Columbia
Association of the Civic Federation, was Charlotte Everett Wise,
born June 7, 1857 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was the
daughter of Captain Henry A. Wise, United States Navy, and
Charlotte Brooks Wise, the granddaughter of Edward Everett and
Charlotte G. Everett, of Boston, Massachusetts. Mrs. Hopkins has
always been active in the charitable and philanthropic work of
Washington. She is one of the original members of the Civic
Federation and as president of the local organization of the
city of Washington has done some splendid work in the effort to
ameliorate the condition of the employees of the government Many
surprisingly unsanitary and unwholesome conditions have existed
and the local organization has gained the attention of the
chiefs of the various departments and Congress for the
betterment of surroundings and the rectifying of injustices.
Clarissa Caldwell Lathrof
~ 1892
Miss Clarissa Caldwell Lathrop was born in Rochester, New York,
and died September, 1892 in Saratoga, New York. She was the
daughter of the late General William E. Lee Lathrop. Her
prominence came from her remarkable experience. She was confined
and unlawfully imprisoned in the Utica State Asylum for
twenty-six months through a plot of a secret enemy to put her
out of existence. She managed at last to communicate with James
B. Silkman, of New York, a lawyer who, like herself, was
confined in the same asylum under similar circumstances. He
succeeded in obtaining a writ of habeas corpus in
December, 1882. Judge Barnard of the Supreme Court pronounced
her sane and unlawfully incarcerated. Miss Lathrop felt she owed
it to her own sex to take her case before the legislature of New
York State, and demand reform in this direction, but she was
unsuccessful in two efforts and found herself penniless and
facing the necessity of her own support After several efforts in
most humble capacity, she became a court stenographer and ten
years after her release wrote her book, the story of her own
prison experiences, entitled "A Secret Institution."
This book led to the formation of the Lunacy Law Reform League,
in 1889, a national organization with headquarters in New York
City, of which Miss Lathrop became the secretary and was the
national organizer.
Anna Byford Leonard 1843 ~
Mrs. Anna Byford Leonard was born July 31, 1843. She was the
daughter of a well-known physician and surgeon of Chicago,
Illinois, who was the founder and president of the Womans
Medical College of Chicago, and devoted his life and his work to
the cause and diseases of women. In 1889 Mrs. Leonard was
appointed sanitary inspector, the first woman to be appointed to
that position. Through her efforts and those of five other
women, who were aiding her in this splendid work, the eight-hour
day was enforced, which provides that children under fourteen
years of age shall not work more than eight hours a day. Through
Mrs. Leonard's efforts seats were placed in stores and factories
for the relief of girls employed in these places; and through
her efforts, also, schools have been established in some of the
stores to give the children employed two hours of schooling a
day. Many of these girls whose first labors were those of cash
girls were unable to write their own names. In 1891 Mrs. Leonard
was made president of the Women's Canning and Preserving
Company, which she brought to great success. She is entitled to
a place among the distinguished business women of this country
as well as among cultured and prominent social leaders and
representative American women.
Margaret Smyth McKissick
1870 ~ 1948
Mrs. Margaret Smyth McKissick was born in Charleston, South
Carolina, and is proud of her Maryland, Virginia, as well as
South Carolina, colonial and revolutionary ancestry. She has one
son, about nineteen years old, and it has been largely her
interest in him that has led to her interest in the industrial
schools of South Carolina
She has been vice-president for two years, president for two
years of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, and for the last
four years has been chairman of the Department of Forestry and
Civics.
Mrs. McKissick oversees the educational system, carries baskets
to the families at the Christmas season and generally guards the
welfare of employees and their families in some of the mill
villages of South Carolina. Mrs. McKissick follows in her work
the methods inaugurated by her father. Captain Ellison A. Smyth,
at Pelzer, South Carolina.
Gabrielle Mulliner
Lawyer and social reformer of New York. Is using her efforts to
procure separate trials for women.
Mrs. A. M. Palmer
President of what is known as the Rainy Day Club and
organizations to rectify the short weights and false
measurements. It was said that the city of New York, according
to authorized statements, lost one million dollars yearly on
short-weighted package goods. All devices for fraud resorted to
by merchants and dealers were to be brought to account She has
been joined in this work by Mrs. William Grant Brown, of New
York.
Margaret Dreier Robbins
1868 ~ 1945
Born in Brooklyn. The daughter of Theodore and Dorothea Dreier.
She is the founder of the Woman's Municipal League of New York;
president of the New York Association for Household Research;
president of the New York Woman's Trade Union League in 1905;
member executive board of Chicago Federation of Labor since
1906; member of committee on industrial education, American
Federation of Labor; member of executive committee, Illinois
section, American Association for Labor Legislation, and
prominent in all labor and social organizations for many years.
Martha Parmelee Rose 1834 ~
Mrs. Rose was born March 5, 1834, in Norton, Ohio. Her father,
Theodore Hudson Parmelee, was one of the founders of the Western
Reserve College, and went with the early colony to Ohio, in
1813. He was educated under Lyman Beecher and accepted the views
of Oberlin, which opened its doors to women and the Negro. Here
Miss Parmelee obtained her education, graduating in 1855. While
teaching in a seminary in Pennsylvania, she became the wife of
William G. Rose, a member of the legislature of that state; an
editor and lawyer. In 1864 Mr. and Mrs. Rose removed to
Cleveland, Ohio, where Mr. Rose was later the mayor of the city.
Mrs. Rose became intensely interested in the poor and destitute,
especially the sufferings of the poor sewing women as a result
of the frauds and extortions practiced upon them. Through
lectures and reports of the Royal Commission of England on the
training schools of that country and the manual training schools
of France and Sweden, she succeeded in arousing the press and
business men of the city to the necessity for the establishment
of a training school in Cleveland, which was accomplished. She
has written a book entitled, "Story of a Life of Pauperism
in America,' many articles on the labor question and
kindred topics. She reviewed Mrs. Field's "How to Help the
Poor;" many of her suggestions were accepted by the associated
charities of Cleveland. She helped to form the Woman's
Employment Society, which gave out garments to be made at
reasonable prices and sold to home missions. She was at one time
president of the Cleveland Sorosis, aiding materially the
success of this woman's club. She is known as a patron of art.
Mary Appleton Shute
Thayer
Mrs. Thayer is the present head of the college settlement in New
York. Before her marriage, in 1904, she was Miss Mary Appleton
Shute. Mrs. Thayer is a graduate of Smith College.
Among other women prominently connected with settlement work and
social investigation may be mentioned Mrs. C. B. Spahr, of
Princeton, New Jersey; Miss Jean Gurney Fine, Miss Elizabeth
Williams, Miss Maud Miner and Miss Mary R Sayles, who are all
graduates of Smith College.
Eleanor M. Whaley
Interested in the cleansing of cities under the Municipal
Woman's League.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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