Women of Distinction Volume 3; A special edition of West Branch Life by Williamsport Sun-Gazette

October 2023, Volume 3

PUBLISHER Bob Rolley brolley@sungazette.com brolley@lockhaven.com

EDITOR Nick Seitzer nseitzer@sungazette.com

CONTRIBUTORS Mary Sieminski, Janet Hurlbert, Sean Baker, Nancy Baumgartner, Elaine M. Decker, Kerry Richmodd, Patricia A. Scott, Judith Gouldin

PHOTOGRAPHERS Historical photos provided by the Lycoming County Historical Society, Lycoming College, the Williamsport SunGazette and The Grit. DESIGN EDITOR Timothy R. Wertz Jr.

PRODUCTION MANAGER Chuck Smith

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E-MAIL westbranchlife@sungazette.com West Branch Life is published quarterly or more at 252 W. Fourth St., Williamsport, Pa., 17701. Letters and editorial contributions may be emailed to westbranchlife@sungazette.com or mailed to West Branch Life, 252 W. Fourth St., Williamsport, Pa., 17701. West Branch Life is not responsible for unsolicited submissions. Reproduction or use of editorial or graphic content without written permission by publisher is prohibited. Copyright 2023 by Odgen Newspapers. All rights reserved. Advertising rates and specifications are available by contacting jleeser@sungazette.com. West Branch Life was founded in 2013, a publication of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette and The (Lock Haven) Express community newspapers and web sites at sungazette.com and lockhaven.com.

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Stories 4 Welcome Letters 12 Stories 13 Lycoming Daughters of the American Revolution 15 Girl Reserves and the Williamsport YWCA 17 Margaret Smith Hunter 19 WKKK 22 Catherine Gilchrist Thompson 24 Martha Shank 25 State Industrial Home for Women 27 Alma Heflin McCormick 29 African American Women of Lycoming County 33 The suffrage movement 36 19th Amendment 39 Rebecca May Cooper Capron 42 Miss Jennie Sweley and Mrs. Jennie Ball 44 Frances “Minnie” Gray 46 The Spirit of Christmas 48 Cooking in the 19th century 51 Mulberry Street Church 53 Carile Cone Higgins Brown 56 Influenza, World War I 58 Jean Jackson McCormick 60 Democracy during World War II 62 Sacrifice and the Red Cross 64 Mercy Cox Ellis 2 West Branch Life

66 Alice Eck 69 Nursing education 71 Dr. June E. Baskin 73 Local women and basketball 75 Dorothy Ester Shank 77 Literary society 79 Katharine Williams Bennet 82 Pioneers 84 The Seminary in the Wilderness 86 Emery Mack Bell 88 Doris Heller Teufel 92 Helen Dieffenbach Lutes 94 Minnie Taylor 96 Back to Normal 99 Louise McCarty Plankenhorn 101 Lucy, Josephine and Minnie Munson 103 Louise Franchot Munson 105 The Weaver sisters 107 Susan Emily Hall 109 Shepherds of Provence 112 Sister act 114 Ella N. Ritter 116 Bush & Bull Company 118 Murder in the house

Sections

On the Cover

12 CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS 21 ACTIVISTS AND TRAILBLAZERS 41 WOMEN AT HOME 50 SERVNG THE COMMUNITY AND BEYOND 68 WOMEN AND EDUCATION

Louise Hall speaks from the back of a vehicle holding the Justice Bell and a “Votes for Women” banner during a suffrage campaign stop in Pennsylvania in 1915. PHOTO PROVIDED

99 PROMINENT WOMEN 111 WORKING WOMEN West Branch Life 3

Welcome letters

his third and last special edition of West Branch Life brings together articles appearing in the Lycoming Women column from the Lifestyle section of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette from 2019 to 2022. We are most grateful to Lycoming College, an institution with a long history of educating both women and men, for financially supporting our contribution to local women’s history and to the newspaper staff for once again creating such an attractive publication. Over 10 years ago, Mary Sieminski approached Dana Brigandi, who was then the Lifestyle editor, about the possibility of including a few stories about notable Williamsport women in the newspaper. Mary had been inspired by her work in developing the Lycoming County Women’s History Project, an online resource making available letters, diaries, photographs, journals, meeting minutes and other primary documents pertaining to local women and their activities and contributions to society. She planned to write two or three articles, but research led to

more women and more topics—many years of them. Our stories are meant to entertain, but more than that, they are meant to give the reader a deeper understanding of the importance of women to the historical fabric of our community. Many articles included in this volume are about individual women, such as Dorothy Ester Shank, who established a national reputation in the domestic science field. Other articles focus on societal changes in the lives of women, such as the opening of the Bush & Bull Company in Williamsport, which not only offered women a chance to shop in departments designed for them but also gave them opportunities for “respectable employment” outside the home. The latter part of the nineteenth century saw the rise of women’s organizations for educational enrichment, service, and socialization, and many of the women in these organizations spoke up for equality. In turn, the daughters of these women, in addition to joining them in the suffrage movement, sought higher education, joined literary societies, and proved that young women

were not too delicate to engage in sports. We thank our guest contributors, Sean Baker, Nancy E. Baumgartner, Elaine Decker, Dr. Judith Gouldin, Dr. Kerry Richmond, and Patricia A. Scott, for sharing stories about women of special interest to each of them. A very special thank you goes to Sally Lifland, not only for her meticulous editing but also for her probing questions that clarified our research. Researching these women has been our greatest pleasure. We started with the Lycoming County Women's History Collection. The path then led us to the Lycoming County Historical Society and Scott Sagar’s excellent guidance. Genealogical societies and archives near and far would follow, as well as some “field trips.” There were even “drive-bys” when an address was local. What a privilege it has been to bring these stories to you and introduce women whom you might not have met in previously printed resources. ~Janet M. Hurlbert and Mary L. Sieminski, Founders, Lycoming County Women’s History Collection

Contributing to this issue Mary L. Sieminski is a retired librarian, having served as director of the Madigan Library at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. Previous positions include positions at Clark University, Keuka College, and Becker College. She holds degrees from Bucknell University, Boston University, and Simmons College. She was the first project manager for the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection and has a passion for Women’s History.

Janet McNeil Hurlbert is Professor Emeritus, Lycoming College, retiring in 2013. Previous professional positions included appointments to the libraries of Iowa State University and Virginia Commonwealth University and undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Denver. Hurlbert was co-founder of the Lycoming County Women’s History Project and later served in an advisory capacity. Currently, she is living in Ames, Iowa, where she volunteers with the Boone History Center working with the papers from the Boone Biblical College. 4 West Branch Life

Welcome letters

he magazine you are holding is one of the most important historical studies about Lycoming County and the City of Williamsport published in this century. Together with Volumes 1 and 2 in the Women of Distinction series, this volume brings together the contributions of women who shared in helping make our county and city what they are today and will help us better understand how we got the way we are. These volumes are the work of two very thoughtful persons: Janet McNeil Hurlbert and Mary Sieminski. They responded to a mutual vision they had in 2005 to create a Women’s History Project in Lycoming County to discover and make available to the public the life stories of the women, and organizations they founded, who were a vital part of history but were largely unknown. They have worked to write essays and collect a substantial number of documents and have made them available online at Lycoming County Women’s History Project. They secured the cooperation of the Snowden Library of Lycoming College, the James V. Brown Library, the Lycoming County Historical Society, and more recently the Madigan Library at Pennsylvania College of Technology. They have written a large percentage of the articles, but several others have joined them for this issue, including: Dr. Judith Gouldin, Elaine M. Decker, Sean Baker, Patricia A. Scott, Nancy E. Baumgartner, and Kerry Richmond. The Project faced serious source challenges from the beginning. Local newspapers were not yet digitized. Most histories of the area focused on economic and political issues, where men dominated the scene, and not cultural and social ones, which typically attracted more women. Patriarchy was the standard in almost all areas of life, so persuasive that married women were identified by their husbands’ names. The time period of some of these articles includes the extension of the vote to women and the election of some of them to public of-

6 West Branch Life

fice. The written sources were scattered or were not available in any collection. Two developments have made information about women and their activities easier to find. The newspapers have been digitized, which makes them more easily searched. The Historical Society has become more aggressive in collecting materials, and many organizations have decided to entrust their papers to it. These include relatively recent acquisitions of the papers of the YWCA, the Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing, the Clio Club, the Williamsport Music Club, the Woman’s Club, the Home for the Friendless, now the Williamsport Home, which was founded and has continued to be run by women, and the local Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In addition, the Historical Society has received the papers of several prominent women, including Martha Mussina, the artist, and Mary Anne Weaver, a newspaper reporter. Lycoming College has acquired the papers of Mamie Diggs, a community leader. The publication of these articles shows that the authors have overcome many of the challenges. In preparation for writing this introduction, I asked the two primary authors to select the person or activity they wrote about for this volume which they liked best. Both were reluctant to give me an answer, suggesting that every essay involved discovering a new personality or group and made them excited to tell their stories. I persisted and they finally relented. Highlighting these particular stories in no way diminishes any of the others and hopefully encourages reading all of them. They are almost all journeys into parts of our collective past that has until now been unknown except to the individuals involved. Janet Hurlbert‘s favorite is “Lycoming County Women Maintain the Larder of Democracy during World War II.” It is easy for Americans to remember the members of the armed forces in World War II. They are celebrated on national holidays, like Me-

morial Day. But World War II was a total war, a war that in one way or another involved every citizen. Hulbert’s study lifts up a large and certainly unheralded group: the homemakers of America. They were the women who were in charge of their homes, and their focus was on the nutrition of their families, others in their communities, and those in the military. There was a Lycoming County Nutrition Council, which recruited lecturers from among home economics teachers and sponsored neighborhood lectures on nutrition. There were lectures on nutrition sponsored by church groups, garden clubs and such groups as the YWCA. Local businesses, including Brozman’s, L. L. Stearns, and Stroehmann Bakeries sponsored nutrition lectures. The James V. Brown Library gathered a collection of books on nutrition and made them available for checkout. Hurlbert points out that the most common reason for men to be turned down for enlistment was malnutrition. The focus on nutrition in the face of rationing of many food items became a way for homemakers to play a vital role in the war effort, providing better and more nutritious food for their families, and because of

Welcome letters rationing making more nutritious food available to those on the front lines. Homemakers were encouraged to join the fight without leaving their homes. Mary Sieminski’s favorite is “’Remarkable Resilience: African American women of Lycoming County defined generation to come.” If it has been easy to neglect the roles of women in local history, it has been possible to totally ignore those among them who were people of color. Sieminski has given them special attention since she began working on the Project and has written about a number of them. This article was published for Black History month in 2020 and is a collection of eight mini biographies. They include: Jane Ross and Mary Slaughter, both of whom had been slaves; Catherine Gilchrist Thompson, who was part of the Underground Railroad; Julia Collins, a teacher and novelist; Lila Fisher, a teacher; Ethel May Caution, a writer; Margaret Hagan, an entrepreneur; and Isabella Fairfax, a community leader. Of these, Sieminski has been particularly attracted to Julia Collins, who has been celebrated as the first African American woman in the

ESEARCHING HISTORY AND THE FOLKS WHO MADE IT HAPPEN. Like Adam and Eve taking a bite of the forbidden fruit, you are drawn into its seductive powers. And it will not release you until you have exhausted every source, finding the mundane and the exceptional details of someone’s life. The stories presented within this publication reveal the extraordinary lives of women who are now gone, but left a hidden “legacy” for researchers to uncover. And uncover they have! This Volume 3 of Women of Distinction brings to the foreground remarkable stories of women who dared to challenge the standards of their day, forging pathways and challenging the women of today to achieve significant plateaus in any and all fields. Their names might not be familiar to today’s generation, but thanks to the incredible work of authors Mary Sieminski, Nancy E. Baumgartner, Elaine M. Decker, Judith Gouldin, M.D., Kerry

United States to write a novel. The successes of these women have been credited to their “remarkable resilience” in the face of terrific odds. One other author of these articles deserves special mention. Dr. Judith Gouldin has been part of the Project since its beginning. A retired physician who had a long career in the field of nuclear medicine at the hospital in Williamsport, she has given encouragement to those running the Project, and contributed articles reflecting her special interest: women in medicine in Williamsport. She has written four articles for the Project, the most of any of the writers other than the principal ones. Her contribution for this volume is Dr. Ella N. Ritter, who preferred to be a surgeon and had a long and successful practice from her home which was also a private hospital on Millionaires’ Row. The Women’s History Project has accomplished much in a relatively short period of time. It has begun a process which needs to continue, which includes the gathering of documents, making them available for research, and publishing the stories of women and

their organizations, and more general organizations in which they were involved. What the Project leaders have done is begun to lay the foundation for the future. The future, which may come soon or not for many years, will be the final product of the Project, a truly inclusive history of Lycoming County and the City of Williamsport. It will be a story of the Mary Slaughters as well as the Michael Rosses, of the Jean Saylor Browns as well as of the Abraham Updegraffs, of the Anne Perleys as well as of the Cyrus LaRue Munsons. No one can predict what that new history will be like, but it can be said with some assurance that it will be a fuller, richer story than the one we now know. We have now the history made up of the voices of some of those who helped make the story. One day we shall, I hope, have the history of many more of the voices and a much fuller story.

~John F. Piper, Jr. College Historian Lycoming College

Richmond, PhD, Pat Scott, Sean Baker, and Janet McNeil Hurlbert, their accomplishments have been resurrected. We can appreciate their efforts and achievements. Witness the life of Alma Heflin McCormick, an early aviator, or the Page sisters (Nellie, Jennie and Fannie), who excelled in business and philanthropy. As well, absorb the intriguing life of Rebecca May Cooper Capron, who was a suffragist, abolitionist and spiritualist. Whether you care to admit it or not, these women and dozens of others profiled in this edition of Women of Distinction changed your lives—subtly or more dramatically, but they did effect change! And now, it is time for you to take a bite of the apple. Enjoy! ~Gary W. Parks Executive Director Lycoming County Historical Society

West Branch Life 7

Welcome letters

t’s a pleasure to be able to introduce Volume 3 of Women of Distinction, a compilation of articles dating back to 2019. For more than a decade, the noble work of the Lycoming County Women's History Project (LCWHP) has been spearheaded by Mary Sieminski and Janet McNeil Hurlbert, with support from many others, documenting achievements of women, both ordinary and extraordinary, from Lycoming County. The articles themselves date back to 2019 but celebrate the lives of women for hundreds of years before that, giving voice to the remarkable women who shaped the places that we call home. Each article was painstakingly researched and written by Sieminski, Hurlbert and a team of talented volunteers dedicated to the conservation and advancement of women’s history in Lycoming County. And each article has a fascinating story to tell. For example, in these pages you will see articles about women such as Jean Jackson McCormick, who served overseas with the Red Cross during WWII, but tragically perished in a plane crash. McCormick is listed on the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall honor roll and is the only woman with a gold star for having made the ultimate sacrifice. There is also Margaret Smith Hunter who advocated heavily for women’s

clubs in Lycoming County as a means for the education and political advancement of women. In fact, more than one article discusses the important role that these clubs played in creating meaningful leadership opportunities for women. While many of the clubs’ records have not been preserved, remaining records have been preserved through the LCWHP’s work with the Lycoming County Historical Society. Even more, many of the artifacts of the LCWHP are archived at Lycoming College and the website hosted by the college, ensuring that these stories and their impact on our community will be maintained and celebrated for years to come. Lycoming College’s Humanities Research Center is operating in the same spirit of preservation with the help of a recently awarded National Endowment for the Humanities federal grant. Ten faculty members and 10 student researchers are working through the next two summers to develop oral histories of the college as a podcast series. This project will complement efforts to digitally archive research papers, institutional publications and other materials for future generations in an Institutional Repository. I’m proud to work at Lycoming College, a college that since its founding in 1812 has been co-educational. It is an institution with an enduring influence on Lycoming County, and in many ways

e all hopefully value and keep in our hearts the various things in life

that inspire us. For me, it’s been the pride that so many people over the years have felt for and given to this county, city and our region by their selfless service. Their desire and passion to make our communities better. Indeed, from a couple of centuries ago to the modern day, many Lycoming Countians have stepped forward to create, to change, to grow, to dream … to help others.

has enabled many women to lead extraordinary lives, including several referenced in these archives. The Lycoming County Women’s History Project is always a celebration of women but this issue is especially meaningful and I hope you enjoy reading these very important stories. ~Chip Edmonds, Executive Vice President Lycoming College

And oh, what pride we can all feel for our past, our present and our future. The stories in this priceless series of Women of Distinction magazines tell us of that pride … that determination by so many women who frankly did what they did under the radar. And that’s what makes their stories so precious … so valuable to our history. The research and writing by Mary Sieminski and Janet McNeil Hurlbert and their colleagues are a treasured gem for our communities! Just think, generations can read about these wonderful, yet mostly

Welcome letters obscure women whose impact cannot be measured. What gift they are giving to us all! The Williamsport SunGazette is honored to partner with these incredible researcher-writers to showcase these women and present their stories to our many readers. And thanks to our treasured Lycoming College for supporting the work. We should look to the future through our past. It helps us to dream … and to do. ~ Bob Rolley, Publisher, Williamsport Sun-Gazette

Above, the Aug. 8, 1900 edition of the Gazette and Bulletin reflects a daily publication.

IMAGE FROM MICROFILM

Contributing to this issue Sean Baker is a reference specialist at Clemson University's Special Collections and Archives. He was previously employed as the archives technician at Lycoming College and as a research historian for the U.S. Maritime Administration and Maryland State Archives. Sean is a graduate of University of West Florida with a MA in Public History and University of Florida with a BA in History.

Nancy Baumgartner’s first articles appeared in the Grit Newspaper in the early 1980s. Since then her feature articles, columns and opinion editorials have been published in local and state newspapers, as well as, national and international magazines. She is the author of “Cogan House Township–The 1900s” a regional history book. Her love of history, genealogy and writing has given her opportunities to speak and teach on these subjects. “My goal as a writer and lecturer is to paint word pictures vivid enough to make my reading and listening audience become personally involved in the story.” Nancy and her husband, Paul, live in Cogan House Township. They are the parents of three sons, and grandparents to three grandsons and a granddaughter.

West Branch Life 9

Contributing to this issue Judy Gouldin Parente’s life never rolled out according to any thought-out plan. Instead, it bounced from place to place due to chance events. It was the random selection of a book from a shelf in her neighborhood library that revealed the power of medicine to change peoples’ lives. It was magic she wanted to learn. A randomly assigned, but soon revered, high school biology teacher convinced her to head west to his own alma mater at Ann Arbor. From there she launched into nine years of medical training, which, if nothing else, instilled an appreciation for uninterrupted sleep. Both her migration to a final residency at Stanford University and, two years later, to the helm of nuclear medicine in a Penn’s Woods community hospital were set in motion by small ads camouflaged by thousands of others in the back pages of a medical journal. She often wondered why she spotted them. Thirty-two years later, she finished her work and turned off the lights. Much of her career was spent learning and teaching the new innovations that were the future of her specialty. After retirement she did a 180-degree turn. She became intrigued by the local history of medicine and writing down the stories of its practitioners, especially the women, who were in danger of fading into the sepia-tinted background.

Elaine M. Decker, a native of Williamsport, is a local historian and researcher. She is the creator of DevelopingHistory.com, author of the book “Williamsport, Past & Present,” and owner of a business that investigates the history of houses and businesses in Lycoming County.

Kerry Richmond earned her PhD in Criminal Justice and Criminology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and joined the faculty at Lycoming College in 2009. She is currently an Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Justice-Criminology. Her primary research interests focus on the effectiveness of correctional programming to promote the reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals, specifically females. She has also examined the history of the State Industrial Home for Women at Muncy (now the State Correctional Institution at Muncy) to understand its role in promoting the social control of women in early 20th-century Pennsylvania. Dr. Richmond also works to assist counties in developing reentry coalitions and reentry programming.

Patricia A. Scott is a retired librarian and archivist formerly employed by Penn State University, Bucknell University, and Pennsylvania College of Technology. She is a volunteer at the Jersey Shore Historical Society and the Taber Museum.

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In this 1928 file photo, women of the Grit take a break from work to do calisthentics which is a form of strength training. SUN-GAZETTE File Photo

“Klan Haven” sits in Harrisburg PHOTO PROVIDED

Women of Distinction: Clubs and Organizations Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, January 13, 2019

Lycoming Daughters of the American Revolution

Preserving history and making it widely available

By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

ne diverse thing Williamsport women like community leader Anne Higgins Perley, and musicians Louise Holmes Stryker and Mary Landon Russell have in common is that all were regents of the Lycoming Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization for women who could prove a lineal bloodline descent from someone who had served in the Revolutionary War. The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was founded on Oct. 11, 1890, during a time marked by a revival of patriotism and intense interest in the beginnings of the United States of America. When the Sons of the American Revolution had been founded a year earlier, women had been excluded from membership. Frustrated by their exclusion, the “daughters” founded their own organization, also known as DAR. The organization is dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history and securing America’s future through better education for children. The Lycoming Chapter was organized on Dec. 8, 1896, six years after the national organization and 103 years after the end of the Revolutionary War.

HISTORY PRESERVED Thanks to the foresight of the local leaders, the organization’s own history has been preserved. The archival records of the daughters, like the records of many other local organizations, used to pass from officer to officer as the group’s leadership changed, a practice that has caused records of some groups to disappear into attics or basements, never to be seen again. Due to the farsightedness of local leaders, the archives of the Lycoming Chapter are now preserved at the Lycoming County Historical Society. Regent Cris GansellWhitcomb oversaw the transfer of the archival material, including scrapbooks, memorabilia and other artifacts, which previously had been stored in multiple plastic boxes and overflowing file cabinets. Volunteer Alicia Skeath, a Lycoming College and Penn State graduate, spent an entire year processing the Daughters of the American Revolution’s extensive collection and creating a comprehensive finding aid, which explains how and where to find particular materials. The papers are now in 13 archival boxes, and all materials have been labeled, housed in acid-free folders and listed in the finding aid. “Working on the DAR collection was really exciting. I discovered something new about the organization each day I processed the collection, and it is amazing how much history was contained in those boxes of materials,” Skeath said.

WOMEN’S HISTORY COLLECTION The Historical Society is a partner, along with Lycoming College, the James V. Brown Library and Penn College, in the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection. This cooperative community project, now ten years old, grew out of the groups’ recognition of the historical value of making archival material and can be visited at www.lycoming.edu/orgs/lcwhc. The Lycoming chapter generously provided funding to add approximately 1,600 pages of documents to the online collection of West Branch Life 13

Clubs and Organizations : Women of Distinction primary resource material relating to the history of women in Lycoming County and also to make an annual contribution to support upkeep of the collection. Chosen for scanning were a variety of historical documents, photographs, and other primary source material, such as plays, skits and songs composed by members and never before published. All material, including the annual yearbooks from 1899–1900 to 2010, is online and will become part of the Digital Public Library of America, which links to collections across the country. Included in the papers preserved is an unsigned history of the Lycoming chapter. There were 16 charter members in 1896; the first regent was Mary White Emery. The organization’s initial project, to promote a library for the city, was taken over by the second regent, Carile Cone Higgins Brown, the wife of James V. Brown. Three early members of the Lycoming chapter—Statira Nutt Christie, Mary Jane Lynn and Helen Allen Sloan—held the special designation of “real daughters;” that is, each woman’s own father had been a Revolutionary War soldier. More information about these women is now available online in the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection.

The local organization was instrumental in the establishment of many public institutions—the Home for the Friendless, now the Williamsport Home, the Girls’ Training School and the Boys’ Industrial School, among others. The group also preserved local history by installing markers at local historical sites and on the graves of Revolutionary War soldiers. “We are grateful to have this collection from an important regional organization here in our archives, and we appreciate the DAR’s foresight in taking the steps to preserve the collection for future generations of researchers,” Scott Sagar, curator of collections at the Historical Society, said. The collection is an important addition to materials from a variety of women’s organizations—including the Williamsport Hospital Training School for Nurses, the YWCA, the Home for the Friendless and the Williamsport Music Club—now housed at the Lycoming County Historical Society, many of which are available online in the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection. Heading the advice of Abigail Adams, we in Lycoming County are “remembering the ladies.”

On the previous page is a portrait of Mary White Gamble Emery, the organizer and first regent of the Lycoming Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, at its founding in 1896. Her grandfather was Colonel Hugh White, who settled near Pine Creek. On April 19, 1775, he was commissioned Captain of a local militia, and in 1778, he was promoted to Colonel. He supplied provisions for Gen. Washingtonʼs army. Above, is a photo of Satira Nutt Christie, who was the daughter of William Nutt, a soldier in the American Revolution. Nutt was at the Battle of Yorktown and witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis and the handing over of his sword. Christieʼs father was 16 when he enlisted, and he served until the end of the war. Both women are considered “Real Daughters” of the American Revolution. Top right, is the cover of the program from the Lycoming Chapter of the DAR Centennial luncheon. PHOTOS PROVIDED

14 West Branch Life

Couple celebrates milestone

LIFESTYLE

Announcements, Page E3

By COURTNEY HAYDEN chayden@sungazette.com

At the beginning of the new year it’s common to make a resolution to take better care of yourself or on how to become more proficient in your daily life. From 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the Akasha Center for Holistic Medicine, 2300 E. Third St., will hold it’s monthly Wellness Wednesday where Jacqueline Hohl, yoga therapist, will talk about reducing stress through mindfulness. “A lot of people ignore stress, like they don’t actually know their stress,” Hohl said. Mindfulness is “paying attention on purpose.” “People think it’s (stress) just a way of life and when you’re not dealing with those little triggers or things that are stressing you out, as simple as roadrage, when you’re just suppressing it and not dealing with it,” Hohl said. There is a difference though between good and bad stresses. Good stress is something positive in your life that increase good and difference hormones, like adrenaline, such as getting married, a raise at work or even skydiving, she said. Whereas bad stress increases the bad hormones and creates heavier levels in your system like cortisol. Good stress will has a positive impact in your life. Common and reoccurring stressors that Hohl has noticed is work, home life, schooling, relationships, the cost of living and not having enough time, but stress is different for everyone, she said. Stress triggers can include sweaty palms,

WILLIAMSPORT SUN-GAZETTE Sunday, January 13, 2019

butterflies, tension headaches, talking fast, avoiding the stress and much more. Also, everyone handles stress differently. Mindfulness helps reduce stress by helping you “deal with what’s going on so you’re not always in your head in a cloud. Being mindful helps with anything whether it’s talking or communicating with someone. It’s listening to that person, or listening to yourself, and what you want,” Hohl said. “It’s slowing and helping yourself.” People can practice mindfulness to help break away from their stress patterns through “meditation, nature walks, body scans, body taping, napping journaling, mindful eating, talking to a friend and much more,” she said. Through journaling, people are able to visually see, learn and acknowledge their stress triggers by writing them down, Hohl said. You can acknowledge what is stressing you out, where it is coming from and where it is in your body. For example, one may feel bogged down because they have too much on their plate and their heart beats faster or they may have a tension headache. To incorporate body taping into your daily routine, start by taping your forehead and move down your body as you tap until you feel safe. While doing this you acknowledge what is stressing you out and create a positive affirmation for yourself such as “it’s okay that I’m anxious but I am doing fine” to help bring your stress down, she said. Set aside time to be more mind-

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ful while you are eating by breaking down — like chocolate — the taste instead of eating fast or scrolling on your phone, Hohl said. There is so much to taste in the foods but because we eat fast we don’t realize this. By taking time to taste and digest your food you can incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine. A common practice also can be venting to a friend. As you are doing so you may not realize you’re stressed but you can realize your emotions, similar to journaling, she said. Another way to be more mindful throughout you daily lives is through breathing practices to help bring yourself down during an anxious situation, Hohl said. For example, you can count your breathes or extend your exhales. Although yoga is not for everyone, another way to be more mindful is through this practice to help deal with stress and work with (See REDUCE, Page E-2)

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Learning how to reduce stress through mindfulness is easier said than done, said Jacqueline Hohl, yoga therapist. At the upcoming Stress Reduction through Mindfulness event from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Akasha Center Hohl will share tips on how to be more mindful. Clockwise, Hohl does a yoga pose, yoga can be a form of meditation. Going on a nature walk or journaling also helps one be more mindful.

Lycoming Daughters of the American Revolution

Preserving history and making it widely available

By MARY SIEMINSKI

One diverse thing Williamsport women like community leader Anne Higgins Perley, Sun-Gazette, April 10, 2016, and musicians Louise Holmes Stryker, Oct. 8, 2017, and Mary Landon Russell, Feb. 8, 2015, have in common is that all were regents of the Lycoming Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization for women who could

prove a lineal bloodline descent from someone who had served in the Revolutionary War. The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was founded on Oct. 11, 1890, during a time marked by a revival of patriotism and intense interest in the beginnings of the United States of America. When the Sons of the American Revolution had been founded a year earlier, women had been excluded from membership. Frustrated by their exclusion, the “daughters” founded their own organization, also known as DAR. The organization is dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history and securing America’s future through better education for children. The Lycoming Chapter was organized on Nov. 23, 1896, six years after the national organization and 103 years after the end of the Revolutionary War.

History Preserved Thanks to the foresight of the local leaders, the organization’s own history has been preserved. The archival records of the daughters, like the records of many other local organizations, used to pass from officer to officer as the group’s leadership changed, a practice that has caused records of some groups to disappear into attics or basements, never to be seen again. Due to the farsightedness of local leaders, the archives of the Lycoming Chapter are now preserved at the Lycoming County Historical Society. Regent Cris Gansell-Whitcomb oversaw the transfer of the archival material, including scrapbooks, memorabilia and other artifacts, which previously had been stored in multiple plastic boxes and overflowing file cabinets. (See LYCOMING, Page E-2)

Women of Distinction: Clubs and Organizations Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, May 12, 2019

Girl Reserves and the Williamsport YWCA: Find and give the best

The Williamsport Girl Reserves were created through the local YWCA in 1912 to build “intellectual and spiritual womanhood.” This photograph was provided by the YWCA.

PHOTO PROVIDED

By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

illiamsport Girl Reserves pledged that they would be gracious in manner, impartial in judg-

ment, ready for service and loyal to friends. They vowed to reach for the best and to be earnest in purpose, eager for knowledge, and victorious over self. Seeking ways to serve young girls in the area, the local YWCA formed a Girl Scout troop in 1912, the same

year that the Girl Scouts of America was founded. Other YWs throughout the country were also creating these initiatives under various names, so in 1918 the International YW decided to bring all of the groups together, calling them the Girl Reserves. The organization said that the aim West Branch Life 15

Clubs and Organizations : Women of Distinction of this movement was to “help build personality and attitudes in line with social progress to secure for girls that abundant life we call good.” Girls had to be between the ages of 12 and 18, though they didn’t have to be in school. Younger girls could join the Peter Pan Club. An ad by the local YW in the 1920s appeals to the “wide-awake” American girl, telling her that the Girl Reserves protects childhood while building intellectual and spiritual womanhood — but that the group also offers lots of fun. The ad reminds the reader that “No city is better than its womanhood.” In the early years, members wore uniforms with white midi blouses. The symbol of the organization was a blue triangle representing the spirit, mind, and body that should direct the path of life. A girl was to use these triangle points as a direction to live and grow and give of her best.

ACTIVITIES AND SERVICE Activities included nature walks, social and sporting events, crafts, drama, hayrides and swimming. The YW was the location for events such as holiday parties and a crossword-puzzle gathering. There were classes in sewing and in social etiquette. Newspaper articles described “super hikes” that would set out from Vallamont Drive and Walnut Street and cookouts with hot dogs and roasted marshmallows. Service was also an important aspect of the club. Volunteerism included providing cookies to the Home for the Friendless and delivering gifts of food to needy families, aged women and children at the Muncy Home. In 1925, the girls folded 12,000 sheets of Christmas Seals to be distributed by the Lycoming County Tuberculosis Society. Reserves raised money to contribute to the building fund as the YW looked toward constructing a permanent home on West Fourth Street. The newspaper often mentioned that Girl Reserves and Peter Pans would present the flag at DAR meetings. An article in the Sun-Gazette on May 11, 1928, describes a motherdaughter function. The daughters gave 16 West Branch Life

toasts to their mothers, and the mothers in return toasted their daughters. Delicious food was on the menu, along with entertainment that included a “dainty” dance and a song titled “Mother.” On another occasion, a Girl Reserve wrote and delivered a presentation called “Spirit of Motherhood,” in which she spoke of the qualities of motherhood — describing physical, mental and moral strengths. The presentation indicated that these were the qualities Girl Reserves would strive to imitate as they grew into motherhood themselves.

THE IDEALS OF THE GIRL RESERVES The YW had a separate department devoted to the Girl Reserves, and its annual reports reflect the ideals of the group. The 1927 report states that through participation a girl “discovers that no girl lives alone, but in a world which needs and can use the very finest she can find to give.” The 1929 report emphasizes that the Girl Reserves focus on sharing self through the gifts of talent, time and associations with each other: “Not what we give, but what we share. For the gift without the giver is bare.” And the 1930 annual report states that the purpose of the Girl Reserves lies not in offering activities and achieving ranks and awards, but in offering opportunities for the girls to find direction for the future and a chance to “find and give the best.”

GIRL RESERVES IN THE 1930s By the 1930s, Girl Reserves had spread to 48 different countries. In Williamsport, 1,000 girls participated in 33 clubs, with many of them meeting at the YW. There were six clubs for African-American girls that met either at the YW or at the Bethune-Douglas Center. In 1938, an installation of new Girl Reserves was held next door to the YW at Covenant Central Presbyterian Church, with about 250 people attending. Girls processed, wearing all white and were entertained with a skit on the history of the Girl Reserves. A chorus sang “The Girl Reserve Quest,” and afterward the pastor of First Baptist

Church presented the address. In closing, the girls sang the Girl Reserve hymn, “Follow the Gleam.” For recreation, there were wonderful summers at Camp Kline, as described in a 1937 YW publication titled Spotlite: “... we will see Camp Kline succumbing to a feminine invasion. Little mermaids will be swimming, canoeing and boating. Birds and flowers will be startled by groups of nature students; Musical voices will carry an obbligato to the turbulent melody of sparkling waters.” In 1946, the name of the Girl Reserves was changed to Y-Teen to be more “in step” with the “modern girl.” For more information about the history of the local Girl Reserves, consult the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection at https://www.lycoming.edu/lcwhp.

ASK WALTER: GRASS ROOT CONCERNS

LIFESTYLE

CREATURE COMFORTS,

Page G2

By COURTNEY HAYDEN chayden@sungazette.com

Filling the shoes of a mother is no easy feat, they are kind and compassion, loving and nurturing and teach many life lessons along the way. Mother’s can be related, or adopted into your family. They are the first ones you call with good news and always there when you need a shoulder to cry on. This mother’s day we asked people within our community “What has your mother taught you?” These are the answers of mothers and

WILLIAMSPORT SUN-GAZETTE Sunday, May 12, 2019

SUBMIT Visit YOUR sungazette.com and click on NEWS Submit News

fathers themselves, daughters and sons, business owners, hard workers and the reflections of what values their mother have taught and instilled in their lives. “Throughout my 32 years of life, my mom has taught me several things I aspire to do every day — work with eager hands, open my arms to the poor, clothe myself in strength and dignity, place virtue (See WHAT, Page G-2) PHOTOS PROVIDED

Clockwise, Madison Bower, left, is pictured with her mother, Holly Bower, who has taught her daughter to always follow her heart. The Ardell family, of South Williamsport, at their daughter, Alyshaʼs, graduation from Lycoming College. Pictured is Ross, Alysha and her mother Stephanie Ardell. Pictured is Elizabeth Greenaway, new mother, who is inspired by her nurturing and compassionate mother. Marilyn Kurzejewski, mother, Gina Edwards, daughter, with Chris and Gene in this photograph. Paula Hendrick, center, with her daughter, Julie Hedrick, left, and mother, Dalva Monteiro, who has taught Hendrick to follow her dreams. Sandy Steele, left, and Stefanie Allison at her wedding.

Girl Reserves and the Williamsport YWCA: Find and give the best that the group also offers lots of fun. The ad reminds the reader that “No city is better than its womanhood.” In the early years, members wore uniforms with white midi blouses. The symbol of the organization was a blue triangle representing the spirit, mind, and body that should direct the path of life. A girl was to use these triangle points as a direction to live and grow and give of her best.

By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT Special to the Sun-Gazette

Williamsport Girl Reserves pledged that they would be gracious in manner, impartial in judgment, ready for service and loyal to friends. They vowed to reach for the best and to be earnest in purpose, eager for knowledge, and victorious over self. Seeking ways to serve young girls in the area, the local YWCA formed a Girl Scout troop in 1912, the same year that the Girl Scouts of America was founded. Other YWs throughout the country were also creating these initiatives under various names, so in 1918 the International YW decided to bring all of the groups together, calling them the Girl Reserves. The organization said that the aim of this movement was to “help build personality and attitudes in line with social progress to secure for girls that abundant life we call good.” Girls had to be between the ages of

Activities and service

PHOTO PROVIDED

The Williamsport Girl Reserves were created through the local YWCA in 1912 to build “intellectual and spiritual womanhood.” This photograph was provided the YWCA. 12 and 18, though they didn’t have to be in school. Younger girls could join the Peter Pan Club. An ad by the local YW in the 1920s

appeals to the “wide-awake” American girl, telling her that the Girl Reserves protects childhood while building intellectual and spiritual womanhood — but

Activities included nature walks, social and sporting events, crafts, drama, hayrides and swimming. The YW was the location for events such as holiday parties and a crossword-puzzle gathering. There were classes in sewing and in social etiquette. Newspaper articles described “super hikes” that would set out from Vallamont Drive and Walnut Street and cookouts with hot dogs and roasted marshmallows. Service was also an important aspect of the club. Volunteerism included providing cookies to the Home for the Friendless and delivering gifts of food to needy families, aged women and children at the Muncy Home. (See GIRL, Page G-2)

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Women of Distinction: Clubs and Organizations Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, October 17, 2021

Women Joining Together Margaret Smith Hunter, Club Member Extraordinaire By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

he women’s club movement was essential to the political and educational advancement of women, and Margaret Hunter (1888–1971) was Williamsport’s club member extraordinaire. Born in Reedville, Margaret Smith and her brother moved to Williamsport to attend Dickinson Seminary (now Lycoming College). According to the school’s catalog, they lived at 713 Elmira St. In 1909, their father, John Henry Smith, moved his business, Smith Printing, to the city as well. After starting out at 125 W. 4th St., the company moved to East 3rd and Basin streets, where it boasted a new showroom and advertised that it was the “Business Man’s Department Store.” At Dickinson Seminary, Margaret Smith studied the classics and took college preparatory classes, including instruction in Latin and Greek and courses on the writings of Livy, Cicero, Virgil and Homer. After graduation she attended Goucher Women’s College in Maryland — a school known for its suffrage advocacy. She received her liberal arts degree in 1910 with a double major in English and German, and would later serve on the Lycoming College Alumni Council and the Goucher College alumnae board, as well as being a member of that college’s board of trustees and of the local Goucher Club. She also established the Margaret Smith Hunter scholarship at her

alma mater

THE WOMEN’S CLUB MOVEMENT Before the Civil War, it was widely accepted that, except for benevolent work at church, “a woman’s place is in the home.” Women took pride in such hobbies as becoming expert in needlework, and the opportunities for them to further their education were minimal. However, in the late 1860s middle-class women began to form voluntary neighborhood organizations. In her “History of Women’s Clubs in America,” published in 1898, Jane Croly writes that these newly formed clubs brought emancipation and “changed the whole point of view of a woman under its influence and her own possibilities as a social and intellectual force.” Williamsport became part of this national trend in 1897 with the organization of the Clio Club. The club’s stated mission was “the pursuit of study as a means of intellectual culture and general improvement.” Hunter would hold every office in the club except treasurer and would be president twice.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AND LEADERSHIP In 1926, Margaret Smith married William Nevin Hunter, who owned an insurance agency. The 1930 census listed Margaret Hunter as having no employment, but she was far from idle. A 1949 alumnae activity form completed by Hunter, which is found

in the Special Collections and Archives at Goucher College, required an attachment to list all of her community service. The file on Hunter also includes a newspaper article stating “When it comes to firsts, Mrs. William M. Hunter has no peer.” She was a charter member of the Williamsport College Club and the first president of the American Association of University Women. Among the many other club offices she held were treasurer of the YWCA, treasurer of the Williamsport Civic Club, secretary of the Business and Professional Women’s Club and president and treasurer for 10 years of the Woman’s Club. She also volunteered in the local canteen during World War II. Hunter was a member of Pine Street United Methodist Church for 67 years. True to form, Hunter served in numerous capacities in the church, including being a charter member and first president of the Women’s Society of Christian Service, chairman of the music committee, first woman to be elected to the board of trustees, and first woman president of the church’s official board.

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE BASED ON COMMON SENSE Although Hunter painted in oils and watercolors and traveled extensively throughout Europe, Canada, Mexico and the United States, including Alaska, her passion was her club work. She was known for her informal talks on parliamentary procedure, and in 1940, she compiled a booklet titled West Branch Life 17

Clubs and Organizations : Women of Distinction “A Simple and Practical Handbook of Parliamentary Law.” Copies of the publication were available at the time from her home at 831 Hepburn St.; a copy of the 38-page publication is now available at the Lycoming County Historical Society. The text was designed to simplify the rules of parliamentary procedure based on common sense and reason. Hunter believed that every woman should be familiar with these guidelines so that she could be an intelligent club participant, whether she was an officer or just a member. In the introduction, Hunter states four principles of involvement: justice and courtesy for all; one thing at a time; rule of the majority; and rights of the minority. In her closing statement, she reminds women of rules of correct behavior, refrain from conversation, discuss business in a dignified manner, don’t criticize unless you plan to correct the situation and be a facilitator, not an obstructionist.

UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO VOLUNTEERISM Hunter continued to participate in women’s clubs long after the movement waned in the 1930s, as more women entered the workplace and found other areas in which their creativity and leadership were valued. Hunter was the recipient of the American Association of University Women’s 1953 “Woman of the Year Award” in recognition of outstanding qualities of leadership and sustained community service. At the ceremony, the chairman of the awards committee said, “We are proud to pay tribute to one who believes with Cicero that ‘There is not a moment without some duty.’ She [Hunter] has a keen awareness of the fact that the world needs the cooperation of individuals and groups in building a better world.” Hunter is buried in the Smith family plot in Wildwood Cemetery.

Women of Distinction: Clubs and Organizations Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, May 15, 2022

WKKK: Ladies of the Invisible Empire JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

eginning in the early 1920s, when it revived nationally, the Ku Klux Klan saw steady growth in Pennsylvania. Much of the activity was in western Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Harrisburg, but there were also Klanners in this area. A cross burning—a tactic to intimidate and harass minorities—illuminated by a circle of automobile headlights, was a common event.

WHY DID WOMEN JOIN? Contemporary scholars have studied the WKKK and why women became such an important part of the resurgence of the KKK during its second wave. Many even believe that without the women the renewed activity would not have been so successful. In “Knights in White Satin: Women of the Ku Klux Klan,” a thesis presented to Marshall University, author Kelli R. Kerbawy explains that the suffrage and temperance battles had united women from many backgrounds and beliefs, and once the vote was won, women used their new-found public leadership and political skills to support various diverse movements, one of them being the hate-filled rhetoric and actions of the KKK. Headlines in our local newspapers featured many national articles about this group that was spreading through the south and eventually “invading” the northern states. The Williamsport Sun carried an article proclaiming that the federal government might take action against the Ku Klux Klan, and the Grit stated that legislators denounced the Klan. Despite these headlines about the

dangers of the Klan, the local news columns often failed to reflect the violent reality of the Klan. On Aug. 2, 1925, “Fraternal News” in the Grit invited the public to join with Klan men and women at the Hughesville Fair Grounds for fireworks. There would also be parades, a band and drum corps, and singing. Lycoming County was in Province #4, and there were announcements about regional meetings in

Wilkes-Barre. On Aug. 13, 1929, the Clinton County Times reported that “Many Attended Klan Celebration.” The headline was referring to a Mill Hall Park picnic and celebration under the auspices of the Lock Haven chapter, at which several hundred members and friends were present. The women’s auxiliary carried out various drills, and once again a display of fireworks closed the program.

THE WKKK CONSTITUTION AND ACTIVITIES At first it might seem that a woman’s membership in a Klan auxiliary would be in the shadow of her husband or brother. However, the WKKK, unlike many auxiliaries of churches and other organizations in the past, had strong views and often came in conflict with the male-dominated KKK. The WKKK Constitution clearly stated the mission of the group and explained why white Protestant women of that era might be attracted to it. Women had to believe that the purity of the race rested in nativeborn, Protestant men and women. There was no room for African Americans, immigrants, people of Jewish descent, or Catholics. These women wanted their homes and children to be “protected” by the Klan members, but at the same time they also wanted to be independent and Helen Russell, a former WKKK member who resigned in 1927. Photo courtesy of the Ross Library in Lock Haven. At left, a sash and patch from the Daughters of America were probably owned by WKKK member Catherine Sholley. Above, is a Daughters of America pin. All courtesy of the Lycoming County Historical Society. PHOTOS PROVIDED

West Branch Life 19

Clubs and Organizations : Women of Distinction have their voices heard. Their constitution stated that emancipated women were freed from old-world shackles and were equal to men in political, religious, civic, and social affairs. That is, of course, if you were the right kind of woman. They endorsed and partnered with the prohibition movement, believing that it would protect the family unit. Action was taken against men who abused their families. An article in the Sunbury Gazette from June 10, 1922, reported that members of the Klan had visited a fellow member who beat his wife and had made him promise to reform and provide food for his family— otherwise the Klan would be back. The whole family could be involved in Klan activities, which were given names starting with a “K” if possible. Infants were registered on the Kradle Roll, and girls aged 12–18 were Krusaders in the Tri-K-Klub. Women read the magazine The Kluxer, which carried fashion trends and recipes. Women had become involved in education after winning the vote, and WKKK members were no exception. However, the schools had to teach their white supremacist “values,” and definitely parochial schools were not supported. So-called “charitable” efforts included Klan Haven, an orphanage in Harrisburg that was mainly for children of Klan members but also housed some children who were placed there by the state. When the orphanage burned down in 1926, it was the women who organized fund raisers and rebuilt it. Women from this area joined others from all over the state to attend events and rallies on the grounds of Klan Haven.

THE DIARY OF CATHERINE SHOLLEY FROM NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY Local historian Alison Hirsch wrote an article in the winter issue of Journal of the Lycoming County Historical Society, 2004–05, titled “Women of the Ku Klux Klan: A Local Diary and Letters.” The article included diary entries by Catherine Sholley, who documented activities of the Sunbury Council of Women of the Daughters of America, a nativist organization that was closely re20 West Branch Life

lated to the KKK in ideology and often joined with the KKK for events. This diary is also part of the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection. Sholley’s diary notes her various activities illustrating the life of a young woman at that time. There were dances, plays, Halloween and Easter parties, corn and wiener dinners, and ham and egg suppers, as well as the oyster suppers that were so popular during that era. Interspersed with entries about attending motion picture showings in Williamsport would be an entry about a 30-foot cross burning on Good Friday, at which the women sang Old Rugged Cross and America the Beautiful, or the fact that she had joined 200 Klan members attending a funeral for one of their own—a sheriff—in Bloomsburg. She wrote that the “Williamsport Klan was down strong—also Muncy.” There was the exemplification of ritual, displays of pageantry, and the wearing of female regalia.

THE RESIGNATIONS OF LILLIE HARRIS AND HELEN RUSSELL Lillie Harris and Helen Russell both wrote letters of resignation to the WKKK in 1927. By looking at their biographies, we can get an idea of two local women who joined the Klan and then decided better of it. Lillian Kissel Harris was born in Jersey Shore on May 22, 1886. Her mother was originally from Germany, and her father worked at railroad boiler shops. In about 1907, she married Oscar B. Harris, who had a farming background and became a salesman for a general store and a blacksmith helper on the railroad. They had two children. Lillian died on her birthday, May 22, in 1950. Helen Herritt Russell was in her 20s at the height of the WKKK movement. In her resignation letter, Russell explained that, upon a thorough investigation, the organization was not all that she had hoped, and she no longer wished to be a member. Russell would become a leading figure in her community and was often referred to in newspaper articles about local history. She wrote two history-based columns over the years for the Lock Haven Express: “Along the West Branch” and “Over the Fence.”

Russell served the Daughters of the American Revolution Fort Antes chapter as chairman of genealogical records, wrote several books and a pageant, and gave genealogical workshops at the Annie Halenbake Ross Library. She was a wife and mother and is buried in the Jersey Shore Cemetery.

THE DEMISE OF THE WKKK Nationally as well as locally, the WKKK was declining by the 1930s. It had been supported by the tendency of women of the era to seek out organizations that were interested in social reform and moral, civic, and educational endeavors. Unfortunately, in the case of the WKKK these efforts were focused on only one very select group of Americans to the exclusion of and hostility toward other groups who also represented the fabric of the country.

Activists and Trailblazers : Women of Distinction Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, February 10, 2019

Early African American activist

Catherine Gilchrist Thompson By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

Both Simon and Enoch were noted abolitionists and conductors on the Underground Railroad. atherine Gilchrist One of the slaves they assisted was was a teenager a Virginia teenager named Joseph when she came Pascal Thompson, who had run with her famaway from his master, Richard ily to LyPritchard of Winchester, Vircoming County. Born in ginia. In Williamsport, 1817 in Lehigh County, Thompson found a home she was the daughter of with an abolitionist family, Simon Cornelius most likely the Gilchrists. Gilchrist and Elizabeth Thompson, who could not (Wolf) Gilchrist. read or write when he arSimon Gilchrist rived, went to night was a free black man; school and also learned Elizabeth may have blacksmithing. been of German and He went on to beAfrican ancestry. come a licensed Catherine had one preacher in 1839, a brother, Enoch, and physician in 1858 and a three sisters, Lucretia, bishop in the African Ann and Mary. She Methodist Episcopal Zion was baptized in the Church in 1876. Moravian Church, a On Nov. 16, 1841, 22community where blacks year-old Rev. Thompson marand whites often worried 24-year-old Catherine shipped together. Gilchrist. The wedding took Her father and brother place in Williamsport, most worked in the lumber industry likely at the home of Catherine’s and became community leaders parents. in Williamsport. Simon was hired Rev. Thompson’s first assignto be a teacher of African Ameriment was at the newly estabMRS. BISHOP THOMPSON can students, who were not allished African Methodist lowed to attend the white Episcopal Zion Church in Elmira, schools. Enoch petitioned the city New York. Catherine supported to establish a brick-and-mortar school for African American her husband at this and his other various church ministries children; he also served on a jury and was active as a lay in New York and New Jersey. preacher. One church he pastored was in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he fled in 1853 after the fugitive slave law was UNDERGROUND RAILROAD passed, for fear of being captured and returned to slavery.

22 West Branch Life

Women of Distinction: Activists and Trailblazers ding,” Dec. 26, 1891). The article continues with a description of their beautiful home and a list of the guests, noting the gift each guest presented to the couple. In keeping with the Golden Anniversary, many of the gifts were gold: Gold butter knives and spoons, gold sleeve buttons, gold cuff links and gold thimbles. Catherine Thompson died in 1893 and Bishop Thompson in 1894. Both of them, as well as their daughter Mary and her husband, Dubois Alsdorf, are buried in the colored section of Woodlawn Cemetery in New Windsor, New York. In the Newburgh AME Zion Church today are a plaque honoring Bishop Thompson, a stained-glass window dedicated to BISHOP JOSEPH PASCAL THOMPSON GENERATIONS Catherine Thompson, and another window dedicated to The Thompsons passed this the Alsdorf family. tion has it that Catherine Thompson passion for freedom on to their daugh- was one of the teachers at this school. ter Mary. She and her husband, music Well respected in the community, teacher Dubois Alsdorf, ran a stop on the Thompsons were known as a rethe Underground Railroad from their fined, wealthy, and educated couple. home in Newburgh. Thus, three generAccording to Jones, “Their promiations of Gilchrists participated in this nence was due to their intellect, culgreat endeavor. tured ways, and exposure to many According to Bishop Wood, Cather- parts of the world. Included in their ine was “an exceptional woman in social circle were influential ministers, many respects — amiable, pious, deabolitionists, performers, and writers vout. She was a great organizer and of the day.” (AME Zion Quarterly, had wonderful executive ability.” Her 2002). learning was said to rival that of many of the clergy of the day. ANNIVERSARY In Newburgh, where they were assigned several times, “The Thompsons Just two years before Catherine’s became known as a powerful ministry death, the couple, both in failing couple who served the entire local health, celebrated their golden wedcommunity in the areas of racial and ding anniversary. economic justice, education, and spirThe New York Age reported, “Just itual empowerment,” according to an fifty years ago a wedding ceremony article on the family by Janet Denise occurred in Williamsport, PennsylvaJones (”Bishop Joseph Pascal Thompnia, in which Joseph P. Thompson and son and Family: Lives and Legacies in Miss Catherine Gilchrest were made Newburgh, New York,” AME Zion man and wife. The officiating clergyQuarterly Review, v. 114, 2002). man was Rev. Solon T. Scott, pastor of In 1848, Rev. Thompson helped to Zion Church, Philadelphia. During all establish the Glebe School, the first the days and months and years that school for African American pupils in have followed this event, the couple the city of Newburgh. Although the re- have lived a life of happiness and ports cannot be confirmed, oral tradiprosperity” (”A Bishop’s Golden Wed-

The last church they served was the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Newburgh, New York. Along with her husband, Catherine was active in promoting freedom for slaves and civil rights for all African Americans. The couple worked with Catherine’s father to help escaping slaves find transportation from Williamsport to the north. Bishop J. W. Hood wrote of Catherine, “During the dark days of slavery her mind was riveted on allaying the suffering of her unfortunate fellow-creatures. Many clever schemes she devised in effecting their escape from bondage” (One Hundred Years of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1895).

West Branch Life 23

Activists and Trailblazers : Women of Distinction Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, March 3, 2019

Martha Shank,

a Williamsport Woman of firsts By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

artha Shank, 1876 to 1955, was a woman of firsts. She was the first full-time female journalist for the Williamsport Sun, with a career that spanned 49 years. In 1919, Shank was the first woman to fly over Williamsport in a plane. She also was the first woman to climb a 150-foot smokestack at the Avis railroad yards in pursuit of a story. Martha was the daughter of W.W. Shank, a prominent railroad man, and Mattie Baker Shank, who was listed in the census as a teacher. Mattie died the year of her daughter’s birth, possibly in childbirth. Martha Shank’s name appeared in newspaper lists for the roll of honor at Williamsport High School, and her name would continue to appear in the newspaper not only with her articles but also because of her total immersion in community activities.

A JOB BECOMES A CAREER Martha studied kindergarten education and then taught briefly in Atlanta, Georgia, but her father persuaded her to return home. An article by Lou Hunsinger in a 2004 Webb Weekly, titled “Dorothy Deane: Journalism Pioneer,” tells us that her father contacted his friend Elmer Person, editor of the Williamsport Sun, about finding a job for his daughter. The job description for her position as social editor was “write what you see wherever you find it.” Of course, it was indelicate for a woman to use her own maiden name in a public forum at that time, so she became Dorothy Deane to her growing number of fans. Martha’s columns informed and entertained decades of newspaper readers. She was known for writing from the depths of her heart as much as from logic. Her well-researched articles were written with a mission of telling the woman’s side of a story, focusing on kindness and service in our community. Children delighted her and were often the subject of her columns. Her writing was personal and conversational, exuding great warmth. An article pasted into the 1923 to 1924 24 West Branch Life

Home for the Friendless scrapbook describes how 4-year-old Baily Jones, who had been taken to Philadelphia so that surgeons could remove a quarter that he had swallowed, got his cleft palate corrected at the same time. Baily had been considered “dull,” but after the operation he talked constantly, trying out new words. “This little fellow will have his chance in life,” concluded Shank. Current researchers cite her newspaper articles when writing about such topics as the Lycoming Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Mary Slaughter and her memories of slavery.

COMMUNITY ACTIVIST Martha thoroughly involved herself in the life of Williamsport and its women. She was a lifelong member of the Girl Scouts, served locally with the Red Cross and was an active parishioner at Pine Street Methodist Church, where she taught Sunday school and supported the missionary ministry. She also was superintendent of elementary work for the county Sabbath School. The Williamsport Civic Club awarded her a lifetime membership because of her many contributions, and she was listed in the Clio Club directory. Her name appears often in YWCA scrapbooks, and she served on numerous community committees, such as the 1913 Home and School League to supervise the Riverside Park playground. She was a member of the Woman’s Suffrage Association, selling their souvenirs from a Suffrage Booth at the Hughesville County Fair in 1915. Her passion for equal rights was apparent in her writings, speeches and personal life, and she would continue to pursue her political interests later in life with the Lycoming County Council of Republican Women, often volunteering for the publicity committee. Martha was a popular speaker on a variety of subjects throughout her career. During World War I, she spoke about food conservation on many occasions in different venues for the U.S. Food Administration. In 1912, she was a presenter at the County Grange Open Meeting in Hughesville on the topic “How far are women justified in following the current

fashions — what about the men.” And in 1948, she addressed City Council on the topic “Publicity Helps.”

FINAL TRIBUTES At the time of her death, Martha was living with her stepmother, Lucy Updegraff Shank, at 330 Park Ave. The April 1, 1955, death announcement for this “most widely known woman,” as she was called in the headline, appeared on the front page of the SunGazette. The accompanying article described her as the “first woman to do a great many things which a half-century ago were by custom reserved for men.” An opinion piece in the newspaper on the same day gave testament to the impact Martha had on the lives of others. Not only did she have a “special, almost indefinable, place” in women’s organizations around town, but she also inspired both young men and young women as they embarked on journalistic careers in the Sun editorial room. The editorial concluded, “The record she wrote in the columns of the Sun’s social pages... will remain unmatched for a long time.”

Women of Distinction: Activists and Trailblazers Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, April 14, 2019

Women in the Sewing Factory. Women sewed for their own needs and, for a period of time, made garments for others in the institution. Photographs are provided from the collection of the State Correctional Institution for Women at Muncy. PHOTO PROVIDED

The State Industrial Home for Women at Muncy: Reforming Pennsylvania women in the early 1900s By KERRY RICHMOND, Ph.D. West Branch Life

his article expands upon the Oct. 11, 2015, article by Greg Renn in this column on the State Industrial Home for Women at Muncy. With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Lycoming College student Reilly Groder ’17 and Professor Kerry Richmond compiled and analyzed the

records of over 3,000 women who were incarcerated at the institution. This information, along with other newly uncovered documents from the institution, allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the role of the institution in reforming women during the early 20th century. Early scrapbooks kept by prison staff and photographs from the early years have been digitized and are available in the Lycoming County Women’s History

Collection at www.lycoming.edu/orgs/lcwhc. On Oct. 18, 1920, the State Industrial Home for Women at Muncy, Pennsylvania’s first and only women’s reformatory, admitted its first female inmate. Viola L. Viola, 24, had been convicted of prostitution and disorderly conduct. After 10 months at Muncy, she was granted parole, with the Board of Trustees stating, “She has made quite a good record for herself West Branch Life 25

Activists and Trailblazers : Women of Distinction at the institution, seems quiet, has been obedient and it is believed that if started right, she will now make good, even if necessary, to earn her own living. She has taken an interest in the housework and is competent to work as a domestic.” Viola represents the type of woman who was sentenced to Muncy in its early years. The State Industrial Home for Women was established for the commitment of females between the ages of 16 and 30 who were convicted of misdemeanor or criminal offenses, with the goal of “preventing young offenders from becoming hardened criminals by subjecting them to such preventive treatment as will be conducive to their mental and moral improvement.” By 1925, any woman who was convicted of an offense punishable by a year or more of incarceration was sent to Muncy.

SIMILAR TO A FINE GIRLS’ SCHOOL During its tenure as a reformatory, Muncy was highly regarded, with a reputation for being more similar to a fine girls’ school than to a penal institution. In the early years, the women who were sent to Muncy were overwhelmingly white and single, and more than half were first-time offenders. Women were commonly sent to Muncy for offenses against chastity, such as being promiscuous or incorrigible, along with larceny. In addition, almost half of the women housed at Muncy during this time were classified as “definitely feeble-minded” (with a mental age of 7 to 11 years). Muncy’s role was to provide a domestic atmosphere for these women who, due to poor parenting, a negative environment or a low mental capacity, were unruly or were perceived as being beyond reform. The goal was to remove these women from the corrupting influences of their lives, expose them to the fresh country air and teach them how to become and appreciate being a woman so that, upon release, they would conform to social norms. Not all of the women who were sent to Muncy were amenable to the treatment provided by the institution. 26 West Branch Life

During the 1920s, 15% of the women sentenced to Muncy, the majority of whom had been convicted of a sexual offense, were ultimately transferred to the Laurelton Village for FeebleMinded Women of Child-Bearing Age in Hartley Township (Union County, PA). Laurelton Village was opened and then expanded in conjunction with the State Industrial Home for Women, and the combined role of the institutions was to address the perceived issue of women’s criminality in the state. At the time, sexual deviance was believed to be an indicator of feeblemindedness. However, because intelligence testing was still in a primitive stage, women who simply did not conform to societal gender norms often fell under this categorization. Most of the women who were sentenced to Muncy were serving indeterminate sentences, typically up to three years, and often they were eligible for parole after serving 18 months at the institution. Almost half of the women at Muncy were released on parole. Success while on parole was not defined by whether a woman was able to refrain from engaging in criminal activity. In fact, the superintendent of Muncy, Miss Franklin Wilson, is quoted as saying, “We have never interpreted parole along the lines set down by the state—namely that a person on parole must be convicted of another crime before they can be adjudged a parole violator. Our parole has always been a personal matter; we expect the girls to live decently and honestly—idleness and sex-delinquency will not be tolerated.” Women who could not abide by these norms were returned to Muncy. Interestingly enough, most women did not violate their parole by committing a new crime; instead, the most common reason for return was that a woman ran away from her place of employment.

MARRIAGE Wilson often stated, with pride, that more than half of the women who left Muncy went on to get married within a year of release. Other women became housemaids or nursemaids or

worked as store clerks. As a result of this success, Muncy, along with other women’s reformatories of the time, was characterized as one of the best and most progressive penal institutions in the country. The institution, in many ways, did have progressive ideas on how to address female criminality and recognized that women must be treated differently from men. However, reformatories such as Muncy ultimately served as institutions for women who were not living up to a specific standard of femininity prevalent at the time and, as a result, treated women as if they were children who needed to be cared for. Instead of working toward improving the circumstances of women’s lives, reformatories often functioned as a form of gender social control, a legacy that remains to this day.

Women of Distinction: Activists and Trailblazers Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, October 13, 2019

Alma Heflin McCormick: Trailblazer in aviation By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

lma Heflin McCormick (1910-2000) had a lot of aviation firsts to her name. Look Magazine on Feb. 10, 1942, listed her as: First girl apprentice, first girl aircraft sales manager, first girl “air jeep” pilot, first girl air tour director, first girl pilot in Alaska, first girl test pilot. This no-nonsense “girl” was the woman Alma Heflin. Born in Winona, Missouri, she was a child when a small plane made a forced landing in a field near her home. Fascinated, she decided then and there that she was going to be a pilot. Heflin was a college-educated elementary school teacher when she earned her private pilot’s license. She wanted to start her own flight school and, in 1936, wrote to another female pilot, Amelia Earhart, for advice. Earhart’s answer is preserved in Heflin’s scrapbook, held at the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma. Earhart believed that “women should fly and fly and fly as much as they can afford” because “only deeds count,” according to Columbia, Summer 2017. In 1937, Heflin attended the Dallas School of Aviation in Texas.

PIPER AIRCRAFT After years of scrimping and saving, Heflin ordered her own plane from the Piper Aircraft Co. and went to Lock Haven to pick it up. Impressed with her moxie and experience, William T. Piper, founder and CEO of the company, offered her a job. She started as an apprentice mechanic, working in the shop. Gradually she mastered all phases of production, despite the stress, she said, of “working with men who did not want women in their ‘man’s world,’ ” according to News Journal, of Wilmington, Delaware, published on April 13, 1942.

Alma Heflin McCormick spins a prop on a plane. This picture, published in 1940, was provided by “Click, the National Picture Monthly.” PHOTO PROVIDED

West Branch Life 27

Activists and Trailblazers : Women of Distinction After moving to sales, she was promoted to publicity director for the company. In 1938, she led the Light Plane Cavalcade of 189 small planes from New York to Miami, where the Municipal Airport hosted the All-American Aerial Maneuvers, described as “one of the most impressive events in civil aviation in the U.S.,” according to General Aviation News published on June 7, 2015. Alma Heflin is the only female pilot among the 20 flyers listed in the flight schedule labeled “Williamsport, Pennsylvania Air Mail Day, May 19, 1938,” found at the Eagles Mere Air Museum. Celebrating 20 years of air mail delivery, the promotional activity that day featured air mail pick-ups from many towns in the Williamsport area. Heflin was flying Plane No. 5, a Piper J-2 Cub. Plane No. 3 that day, the first ever J-2 Cub built (Nov. 1937), now hangs in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. In 1940, Heflin bought a new plane, a J-4 F Cub Coupe, Piper’s first plane with side-by-side seats, and she and Margie McQuin, a Piper stenographer who had taken flying lessons, made a cross-country trip to Alaska. Heflin’s memoir, “Adventure Was the Compass,” published by Little Brown in 1942, is hair-raising in some parts and humorous in others, but always insightful about the people they met.

LYCOMING MOTORS The women’s first stop after taking off from Lock Haven was Williamsport, for a final check by Lycoming Motors on the brand-new airplane, which they had named Mr. Shrdlu. To balance the plane, the engineers advised them to reduce the weight in the luggage area. So, “we discarded a pair of shoes apiece, two dresses, a coat” wrote Heflin. “Out came a jar of cold cream that weighed as much as a quart of gasoline.” Out came Margie’s electric iron. Out also came the 30-30 rifle popular with deer hunters in north central Pennsylvania. The Winchester 30-30 would have been useful if they had crash-landed in the wilderness and needed food. Heflin and McQuin sometimes pi-

28 West Branch Life

loted the plane in dresses and high heels, but often they did so under difficult conditions that would have challenged the best of pilots. Without modern navigation equipment, they regularly drifted off course and had to rely on their wits to locate landmarks. They flew across the United States in 13 days. Denied a direct flight across Canada to Alaska because of Canadian wartime restrictions, they landed in Seattle and had Mr. Shrdlu put on a freighter bound for Juneau. The Alaska Miner reported that “Armed only with a Flit gun [insecticide] and an 853-pound airplane as their motive power are the pair of air-minded lasses on a skyway vacation who dropped out of the clouds onto the Fairbanks airport last Monday night. Behind their 65-horsepower Lycoming motor, with their backs resting against a 25-gallon gasoline tank, Alma Heflin and Margie McQuin had flown from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania to Seattle, and from Juneau to Fairbanks” on July 16, 1940.

Force pilot Archie McCormick, whom she had first met on her 1940 Alaska adventure. After the war, she earned master’s and Ph.D. degree and had a distinguished career as an educator, writer and child psychologist. She died in 2000 at the age of 90. Both she and her husband are interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

TEST PILOT Heflin returned to Piper in Lock Haven, but with WWII looming, she agreed to be a test pilot for the planes that Piper was producing for the U.S. Army. She tested the Piper O-59 Grasshoppers (Flying Jeeps), which were rolling off the assembly line every 20 minutes. Her first test flight was on Nov. 12, 1941. Hers was a grueling and dangerous job that required nerve and determination, qualities she had certainly shown on the expedition to Alaska. In July 1942, Heflin married Air

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Women of Distinction: Activists and Trailblazers Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, February 9, 2020

‘Remarkable resilience’ African American Women of Lycoming County defined generations to come By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

or Black History Month we are taking a look back at the stories of African American women who have been featured in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette’s monthly series Lycoming County Women. Each article is available online at the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, www.sungazette.com, or at the Lycoming County Women’s History website, www.lycoming.edu/lcwhp. Eight women are featured in today’s article. Jane Ross and Mary Slaughter, born as slaves in southern states, gained freedom and relocated to Williamsport. Catherine Gilchrist Thompson was a part of the Underground Railroad. Julia Collins was a public school teacher in the 19th century, and Lila Fisher was a public school teacher in the 20th century. Like her grandmother Julia Collins, Ethel May Caution became a nationally known author. Margaret Hagan was an entrepreneur in Williamsport in the 19th century, and Isabella Fairfax was a community leader in the 20th century. There were many other notable African American women in Lycoming County. Those featured here are a small sampling.

JANE ROSS, 1776 TO 1875 “Aunt” Jane Ross was reportedly 108 when she was interviewed by the Gazette and Bulletin in August 1873 for a series entitled “Among the Old Folks: Those Who Know of the Colonial Times.” Her master, Mr. Weatherhead, had set her free in Delaware when she was quite young, and she had made her way to Muncy and then Williamsport. Among her many stories is that she served in a home where George Washington ROSS was dining and “when I handed him corn bread at the table, he said ‘thank you’ so pretty.” She must have made quite an impression in Williamsport. At the Lycoming County Centennial celebration in July 1895, her life-size portrait stood among those of other Lycoming County notables. Unfortunately, that portrait has been lost.

MARY SLAUGHTER, 1835 TO 1934 Mary Slaughter settled in Williamsport in 1866, after the Civil War. She, her husband and children had been slaves on the Myers Plantation in Martinsburg, West Virginia. She is best known for her philanthropy. She

opened her home on Walnut Street to needy women and children, and in 1897 she established a new larger facility on Brandon Place, the Home for Aged Colored Women. Slaughter was a woman of action. Although she could not read, she traveled to Harrisburg and solicited and was awarded state funding for the home. Much of the day-to-day work she did herself: SLAUGHTER “She cares for them all, looks after the furnace, cooks the meals, sees that they are dressed and ready to receive their friends,” wrote journalist Dorothy Deane in a 1923 Sun-Gazette article. The Mary Slaughter Apartments on Brandon Place in Williamsport are located where the original Home for Aged Colored Women stood.

CATHERINE GILCHRIST THOMPSON, 1817 TO 1893 Catherine Gilchrist was connected with the Underground Railroad from a young age. Both her father, Simon Cornelius, and her brother, Enoch, worked in the lumber industry and were conductors on the Underground Railroad. One of the slaves they assisted was a young Virginia

West Branch Life 29

Activists and Trailblazers : Women of Distinction man named Joseph Pascal Thompson, who most likely lived with the Gilchrist family. Although Thompson could not read or write when he arrived, he soon started night school and also learned blacksmithing. He went on to become a licensed preacher in 1839, physician in 1858 and a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1876. In 1841, Rev. Thompson and Catherine Gilchrist were married in Williamsport. As a married couple, they continued to work with the Underground Railroad in New Jersey and New York. Bishop J.W. Hood wrote of THOMPSON Catherine, “During the dark days of slavery her mind was riveted on allaying the suffering of her unfortunate fellow-creatures. Many clever schemes she devised in effecting their escape from bondage,” as published in “One Hundred Years of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church,” 1895.

has identified one of her granddaughters, Ethel May Caution.

JULIA C. COLLINS, 1840 TO 1865

ETHEL MAY CAUTION, 1887 TO 1981

Now nationally known as the author of the first published novel by an African American woman, entitled “The Curse of Caste, or the Slave Bride,” Julia C. Collins was writing that novel in 1865 while she was serving as the teacher for the African American children in Williamsport. Her contribution is acknowledged by a Pennsylvania Historical Marker installed in June 2010 on the Riverwalk in Williamsport. In 1865, there was no public school building open to African American children, so she would have taught classes at her home or church. At the time, Collins was living with her mother-in-law on Mill Street, while her husband, Stephen, was serving with Colored Troops in the Civil War. In addition to writing weekly installments of her novel for “The Christian Recorder,” she was raising two children and was ill with tuberculosis. The disease claimed her COLLINS life before the final installments could be written. Even after a decade of research, scholars are not sure of her name at birth, where or when she was born, or whether she was born enslaved or free. Extensive research

Ethel May Caution was born in Williamsport. Although she most likely was not aware of it, her grandmother was Julia C. Collins. Like her grandmother, Caution was an author. Her poems, stories and essays were published in national magazines including The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded by W.E.B. DuBois. Her work is part of the Harlem Renaissance, an intellectual, social and artistic movement centered in New York City in the 1920s. Caution’s parents, Anne Collins Caution and John Collins, both died when she was very young. An uncle took her and her siblings from Williamsport to Massachusetts, where she was adopted. Caution broke many racial barriers, including being only the CAUTION second African American woman to attend Wellesley College. In addition to being a writer, she was a college dean, social worker and YWCA director. Caution traveled to Williamsport several times in an attempt to locate the family she had left behind and to visit the graves of her parents in Wildwood Cemetery.

30 West Branch Life

LILA M. FISHER, 1883 TO 1955 In 1909, Lila Fisher was hired to teach black students in Williamsport. A teacher in her native state, North Carolina, Fisher moved here with her family when her father was appointed pastor of the A.M.E. Zion Church. Fisher taught in Williamsport schools for 40 years and was beloved by her students. At the time of her FISHER retirement, “Miss Lila,” as she was known to her students, was teaching black students in grades one through three in a single classroom at the former Transeau School. The year of her retirement, 1949, marked the end of official segregation in Williamsport public schools.

Women of Distinction: Activists and Trailblazers MARGARET MAHAMMITT HAGAN, 1826 TO 1914 Margaret Hagan was the most flamboyant of the local women featured in the Lycoming County Women series. The daughter of an “Arab” from Madagascar and the granddaughter of a former slave and a Supreme Court Justice, she came to Williamsport with her husband in the 1860s. She lived in Williamsport for 50 years. An entrepreneur, Hagan owned and operated two businesses on East Third Street: Star Laundry, which also sold ladies’ HAGAN furnishings, and The Electric Baths, a 17-room spa where she administered electrotherapy, a very popular treatment for many ailments. She boasted that she served the “best families” in Williamsport and followed some of them to Eagles Mere in the summer. Her daughter, Fannie, an honor-roll student, left Williamsport in 1871 to study in the preparatory department of Howard University in Washington, D.C. Two years later, Fannie married one of her professors, James Monroe Gregory, in the rectory of Christ Church in Williamsport. The Gregory family and their descendants have had a powerful and continuing influence on education of African Americans in the United States.

ued to be involved in the Bethune-Douglass Center that replaced it. She served on a city committee studying interracial relations in the 1920s, and in the 1930s she was on the county relief board. She fought discrimination wherever she saw it and likely was among the group of concerned citizens who approached Williamsport Mayor Wolfe in 1936 to insist that the road infamously named “N***** Hollow” be renamed. It is now Freedom Road, celebrating the Underground Railroad active on that road for decades.

THE COMMON THREAD

FAIRFAX

Whether they were confronting adversity in their own lives, working to improve the lot of those less fortunate than themselves, or focused on helping the next generation to succeed, what all these women had in common was a remarkable resilience, which served them—and Lycoming County—well.

ISABELLA RUSSELL FAIRFAX, 1877 TO 1952 A 20th-century civic leader, Isabella Fairfax had a notable impact on her community. “Her death removes a prominent Negro civic leader from our midst,” as published in the Williamsport SunGazette when she died. Her family moved to Williamsport from Pittsburgh about 1885 when her father, Rev. John Russell, was appointed pastor of Bethel A.M.E. Church. Isabella graduated from Williamsport High School in 1897, one of the first African American graduates. Isabella married John W. Fairfax, and in 1904 the couple were appointed caretakers for the Masonic Temple. They lived there for 40 years. President of the Walnut Street, or “Colored” YWCA in 1919, when that branch closed, Isabella Fairfax contin-

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570.322.1991 570.337.4375 kjknerr@verizon.net welcomehomepa.com 1737 East Third Street Williamsport, PA 17701 West Branch Life 31

Women of Distinction: Activists and Trailblazers Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday-Sunday, June 13-14, 2020

The suffrage movement in Williamsport and beyond

By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

n celebration of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of 19th amendment, which extended the right to vote to American women, we will take a look back at the history of the fight for suffrage in Lycoming County and some of the local leaders whom we have featured in the Lycoming County Women column. Each article is available on the Lycoming County Women’s History website, www.lycoming.edu/lcwhp, and in the SunGazette archives. Suffrage was on the minds of many Lycoming County women and men as early as the 19th century. When Susan B. Anthony spoke in Williamsport in November 1870, she drew a large crowd. By the mid-1910s, there was potential for actually achieving suffrage for Pennsylvania women. Nine states and Alaska had already extended the right to vote to women. Women in Pennsylvania, however, did not even have the right to vote in school committee elections. Pennsylvania women began to organize in earnest and launched an educational campaign to lobby the Pennsylvania legislature to extend voting rights to Pennsylvania women.

SUFFRAGE CLUB Many Lycoming County women were among those who organized. Williamsport women formed a Suffrage Club in January 1914, with its headquarters on Pine Street in Williamsport. Mrs. Robert F. Allen, of South Williamsport, gave the remarks at the opening. Not only was there a Lycoming County chapter of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association, but there were “clubs” in all al-

most all of the Lycoming County towns—including Muncy, Hughesville, Montgomery, Jersey Shore, South Williamsport, Montoursville, Picture Rocks and Pennsdale. The records of these clubs have been lost, but a partial history can be reconstructed from newspaper articles. A year later, in September 1915, another group of local women and men formed an Anti-Suffrage Club, according to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette on Sept. 8, 1915. Their inaugural meeting, held in the Court House, was packed with folks who did “not want to see woman brought down to level of man.” Their officers were listed as “Mrs. Dr. H.G. McCormick, Miss. Rebecca Foresman, Mrs. Dr. J. Rishell, Miss. Catherin Reardon, Miss. Catherine Sheffel and the Misses Lowe.” The founding officers of the Williamsport Suffrage Club, according to the Gazette and Bulletin on Jan. 15, 1914, were Mary Elizabeth Crocker, Anne Gilmore, Clara Sebring and Mrs. John G. Reading. Members of the general committee were Mrs. Robert Fleming Allen, Gertrude Roos, Mildred Maynard, Anne Doebler, Emily Ebling, Henrietta Lyon, Mrs. Robert F. Gibson, Mrs. Charles Scott, Mrs. Newton Chatham, Mrs. Howard Cheyney, Mrs. Perry Meters and Mrs. P.F. Lightner. Many active members of the Suffrage Club were also members of other women’s organizations, including the Clio Club, the College Club, the Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Civil Club and the Home and School League.

THE CAMPAIGN IN PENNSYLVANIA The local campaign was focused on education, unlike the more radical suffrage campaigns in England and Washington, D.C.,

From top to bottom, at right: a reproduced image of Henrietta Baldy Lycon from Thomas A. Lloydʼs “History of Lycoming County.” A picture of Louise Chatham, provided by the Lycoming County Historical Society. A 1935 campaign photograph of Edith B. DeWitt.

PHOTOS PROVIDED

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Women of Distinction: Activists and Trailblazers which fostered civil disobedience. Alice Paul organized a large demonstration in Washington, D.C. at the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. According to the Alice Paul Institute, the suffragists arrested at that demonstration were sent to Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia, where they organized hunger strikes and were force fed. The Pennsylvania campaign was focused on the state level, not the national level. In 1915, in Pennsylvania, activists were successful in persuading state legislators to pass a resolution allowing for a statewide referendum on extending voting rights to women. The votes were to be tallied by county. Local women were very active in the campaign. They organized each ward and precinct in the county, electing a chairwoman for each, and went door to door with campaign literature, sometimes on their bicycles. They had a speakers’ bureau, spoke publicly whenever they had a chance and wrote newspaper and magazine articles.

JUSTICE BELL In the summer of 1915, according to the Justice Bell Foundation, “suffragists in Pennsylvania were looking for a way to drum up support for an amendment to the state constitution that would give women the right to vote.” A referendum to approve such an amendment would appear on the ballot in the November election, so there was no time to waste. They needed to launch a campaign to win the hearts and minds of the male voters who would go to the polls. They needed to create some buzz. “That’s when Chester County activist Katharine Wentworth Ruschenberger came up with an idea. Why not make a replica of the Liberty Bell, one of the nation’s most enduring symbols of freedom, and drive it around the state on a multi-county tour? Throw in a few parades, some brass bands and an assortment of flags and banners, and who wouldn’t sit up and take notice?” Lycoming County was on the tour. The bell, on the back of a flatbed truck, 34 West Branch Life

This photograph is of the City Suffrage Committee published on May 9, 1915, in the Williamsport Grit.

PHOTO PROVIDED

followed Route 220 from Jersey Shore to Williamsport and through Tivoli to Sullivan County. In September 1915, Committee member Henrietta Baldy Lyon, featured in the Lycoming County Women column, formerly Williamsport Women, on April 13, 2014, held many positions during her tenure in the organization, was elected chair of the Lycoming County Suffrage Party. She made several speaking tours across Pennsylvania. But on Nov. 2, 1915, when the votes were counted, the referendum had failed by a narrow margin: 441,034 against women’s suffrage versus 385,348 for. Lycoming County voters, too, rejected the amendment: 4,790 against versus 4,222 for.

STATE CONVENTION IN WILLIAMSPORT

Undaunted, the next year the statewide Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association held its 48th annual convention in Williamsport. The program for that meeting is on display at the Lycoming County Historical Society and can be accessed online in the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection. Listed in the program are members of the local convention committee, mostly women who had been active from the beginning. The General Chairman was Mrs. R. Fleming Allen; Automobile Committee Chairman was Mrs. Lucius C. Sweeley. Mrs. Howard Cheyney was in charge of the banquet, Mrs. Newton Chatham was in charge of decoration

Activists and Trailblazers : Women of Distinction and Miss. Ellen Reading was chair of the Platform Committee.

prohibition, was ratified by the states on Jan. 16, 1919.

THE WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH

AMENDMENT PASSES

After the United States declared war on Germany, many suffragists turned their attention to war work. For example, Henrietta Baldy Lyon, who was college educated, was the chair of the Women’s Library Loan Committee and active in the Red Cross, the Food Committee and the Speakers Bureau. Many historians believe that women’s war work not only sharpened their organizational skills but also earned them the respect of leaders in the state and the nation. After the end of the war in November 1918, they again turned their attention to suffrage. This time, the focus of the campaign moved to the federal level. The goal was to pressure President Woodrow Wilson into supporting congressional passage of a woman suffrage amendment. Complicating the campaign was the outbreak of the Spanish flu in 1918. According to a recent article by Alisha Haridasani Gupta, “Suffragists found themselves making their case amid the panic of a pandemic. Illness was everywhere, gatherings were banned and canceled plans became the norm,” as published in the article “How the Spanish Flu Almost Upended Women’s Suffrage,” published in the New York Times on April 28, 2020. At first, some opponents of the amendment were concerned that if women were given the right to vote, they would vote for prohibition, not a popular stance in German beer drinking Pennsylvania. However, that became a non-issue when the 18th amendment,

Finally, the amendment was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919. It was more than a year, though, before it was ratified, on Aug. 18, 1920.

NOTABLE LOCAL ACTIVISTS Among the Williamsport area women who took important leadership positions was committee member Mrs. Robert Fleming Allen, featured on Sept. 10, 2017, in the Williamsport SunGazette. Born Edith Bennington, in South Williamsport, she chaired the local suffrage movement for several years and was very active across the state. In 1916, she held statewide office as the treasurer of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association. Later, as Edith DeWitt, after her first husband died, she played an exceptionally important role in local and state politics and in the Democratic Party. She was elected a delegate to the national presidential nominating conventions in 1924 and 1943, and she served as Pennsylvania’s deputy secretary for Welfare and deputy state treasurer. In 1930, she ran for the office of secretary for Internal Affairs, but she was defeated. Committee member Mrs. Newton C. Chathamwas featured in the Jan. 10, 2016, Williamsport Women column. Born Louise Lazelere, she participated in local civic groups and chaired the local suffrage group. In 1911, she was the first female candidate for Williamsport School Committee, a post she did not win. She was well known as a musician and very involved in civic affairs, especially organizations that promoted higher education for women, such as the Home and School League and the Delphian Club.

At 48, she began to pursue her lifelong dream of studying law, entering Boston University Law School, while her son was a student at M.I.T.. After graduating magna cum laude, she was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1923. She was the first woman ever admitted to the bar in Lycoming County. The first presidential election in which women could vote was the 1920 contest in which Warren G. Harding, Republican, defeated the Democratic contender, James M. Cox. On election night, the Williamsport YWCA hosted an open house for the women of Lycoming County, giving them an opportunity to attend a general rally and to listen to the election returns. Local activists celebrated the dream that had come true because of their hard work and steadfastness.

At center, the PENNA Votes for Women pin was used as part of the local suffrage campaign. PHOTO PROVIDED

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Women of Distinction: Activists and Trailblazers Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, August 19, 2020

Newspapers of 1920 tell local story of 19th Amendment By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

oday marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which extended the right to vote to female citizens of the United States. What was Williamsport like during this momentous time? There is no better way to visualize our area 100 years ago than by researching local newspapers. In 1917, the National Woman’s Suffrage Association published a booklet entitled “This Little Book Contains Every Reason Why Women Should Not Vote.” The work was filled with blank pages. Not everyone agreed, of course, and the suffrage movement in Pennsylvania went through a long period of marches, speakers, and even jail terms, but Lycoming County had its share of citizens who were dedicated to the cause.

RATIFICATION After Pennsylvania became the seventh state to ratify the amendment on June 24, 1919, the Gazette and Bulletin ran an article on June 25, 1919, describing the scene in Harrisburg. It was a “remarkable” demonstration when the House of Representatives ratified the amendment at 12:55 p.m. The hundreds of women present waved purple, white, and gold banners and released red and blue balloons. One legislator stated that it was a “practical” thing to do; another said that if anything could stop Bolshevism in America, it would be women’s votes. However, the Grit ran an opinion piece on July 10 with an ominous warning to Tennessee legislators, who might cast the deciding votes to ratify the Constitutional Amendment. The arti36 West Branch Life

The Suffrage Division was one of the largest to march through Williamsport during a preparedness parade on July 2, 1916. At the time, the United States found itself at the edge of participation in World War I, and “preparedness parades” were staged around the nation. It would be another four years before the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote.

SUN-GAZETTE ARCHIVES

cle’s author was a former supporter of suffrage in California, where women had voted since 1911. He claimed that women in politics were more corrupt than men and that divorce and murder rates were up. Suffrage had turned men into cowards, he said, and an atmosphere of immorality permeated the state. Besides, he claimed, a high percentage of women never really wanted the vote anyway and were content to let their fathers, sons, and brothers deal with politics. An article appearing on the front page of the Gazette and Bulletin on

Aug. 19 described the drama surrounding that Tennessee ratification approval. In an adjacent article, the chair of the Republican National Committee welcomed “American womanhood” to the vote. He observed that the upcoming election would be a pivotal one for the country and added, “We want these women in politics.”

CELEBRATION Williamsport Mayor Archibald Hoagland announced a celebration to formally welcome the women of

Activists and Trailblazers : Women of Distinction Williamsport to suffrage and suggested that it be held in Brandon Park at the bandshell. A Repasz Band performance had already been rained out three times so it was a suggestion to combine the rescheduled concert with this welcoming event. The mayor had been on an excursion with the Rotarians to the penitentiary in Centre County when he first heard the news. In a phone call, he instructed Chief of Police Fred Tepel to sound the fire whistle and ring the fire bell. Eventually, there would be a different kind of celebration. Both the Grit and the Gazette and Bulletin covered “a splendid program of addresses” given at Community House on Sept. 3, with 300 people in attendance. The mayor presided, and Judge Collins congratulated and welcomed women voters and gave a history of the suffrage movement, seeing it as a high point in national development: “The promise of today will be fulfilled in the tomorrow.” This may have been lawyer Emerson Collins, noted for his great oratory. Judge Harvey Whitehead then spoke and encouraged women to read the newspapers so that they would be informed about local and national affairs. Frances Jenkins from the University of Cincinnati was in Tennessee during the suffrage vote and offered a detailed account of the event. There were local speakers who commented that men in public office were often lacking in qualifications, inefficient, and driven by selfish motives. The home, not just business interests, needed to be considered in politics, and having women on school boards and more active in area schools in general would help to make this happen, they said. Music was provided at the festivities, which ended with light refreshments.

REGISTERING TO VOTE Newspaper articles assured women that no additional Pennsylvania state legislation was required for them to register to vote during September and October of 1920, after they had paid the poll tax. In Lycoming County, poll charges, ranging from 35 cents to $1, were based on occupational category.

Illustration by Kate Anderson. Used with permission. For example, category one included the disabled; category two, housekeepers and servants; category three, teachers and ministers; category four, doctors, lawyers and trained nurses. If a woman wasn’t sure where she fit in these categories, she should use her own judgment. The county commissioners estimated that there would be in excess of 26,000 voters on Nov. 2. Additional collapsible voting booths were purchased, and the commissioners and election board anticipated a much heavier than usual work load. An opinion piece in the Grit on Aug. 29 titled “Some Aspects of Equal Suffrage” observed that men were released from shouldering the complete responsibility for governance now that women could share the burden — gone were the days of a “lord and master” mentality. Women displayed greater wisdom than men anyway, the writer went on to say, and with their emancipation, who knew how far they would go beyond just gaining the right to vote. This centennial anniversary allows us the opportunity to evaluate the journey and ponder the future.

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Women of Distinction: Activists and Trailblazers Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, June 19, 2022

Rebecca May Cooper Capron: Feminist, suffragist, abolitionist and spiritualist

By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

ycoming County is proud to pay tribute to the local women who worked tirelessly in the 19th and early 20th century to win the right to vote. In March of this year, that effort was honored by the Pomeroy Foundation when a historical marker was installed on the front lawn of the YWCA of Northcentral PA in celebration of the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. One of those women was Rebecca May Cooper Capron (1825–1864), who lived in Williamsport for only a few years in the mid-19th century. She was a feminist, a suffragist, an abolitionist and a spiritualist. She attended the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, 72 years before women won the right to vote. She also attended the first National Women’s Rights Conventions in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1850 and 1851. She studied medicine at the Women’s Medical School in Philadelphia in 1854 and 1855. Only four years after this school, the first medical school open to women was founded. Originally from upstate New York, Rebecca lived in Williamsport with her husband, Elias W. Capron (1820–1892), a newspaper publisher and printer, and their daughter, Evalyn May (1856–1943). Both having been born into Quaker families, Rebecca and Elias held progressive views and were activists. They were passionate about their beliefs, which caused them to be sometimes outspoken and controversial.

GROWING UP ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Rebecca was born on Jan. 11, 1825, in Williamson, New York, on the south shore of Lake Ontario. Her parents, Griffith Morgan Cooper (1791–1864) and Elizabeth Hodgson Cooper (1790–1873), were activists on behalf of the rights of both Native Americans and African Americans. Griffith Cooper oversaw a link on the New York—Canada route of the Underground Railroad. He was a reformer, a mediator with the Onondaga and Seneca nations, and, in 1836, a missionary to a reservation school outside Buffalo, New York. The Cooper home itself was a station on the Underground Railroad. A secret room over the family’s kitchen could hide ten runaways. Frederick Douglass often stayed at their home and would have known their daughter, Rebecca. Elizabeth, better known as Eliza, taught Douglass to read and write. Today, a New York State historical marker commemorating their role stands in front of the Cooper home. In 1895, at the time of Douglass’s death, an article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Feb. 22, 1895) noted an occasion on which three men escaping from slavery were taken to the Coopers’ home, where they remained until they could be dressed in women’s clothes At top, an Underground Railroad Historical Marker lies at the home of Griffith and Elizabeth Cooper, parents of Rebecca Cooper Capron. The gravestone of Rebecca Capron Cooper can be found in Wildwood Cemetery, Williamsport. Mary Sieminski of the Lycoming County Womenʼs History Project stands next to a historical marker at the YWCA Williamsport. An 1872 Suffrage Parade is depicted in Williamsport, from “A Picture of Lycoming County” (1939). IMAGES PROVIDED

Women of Distinction: Activists and Trailblazers and sent to Canada. Douglass referred to Griffith Cooper in print, calling him “the veteran friend of the Indian as well as the African” (North Star, March 3, 1848).

LIVING IN A UTOPIAN COMMUNITY Elias W. Capron was born in New York in 1820. He was a member of the Farmington (New York) Monthly Meeting until he resigned in 1844, having found that its members were not active enough in the attempt to secure the rights of African Americans. Elias joined the short-lived Fourierist phalanx at Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario. Fourierism is a philosophy of social reform developed by the French social theorist Charles Fourier, who advocated the transformation of society into self-sufficient, independent “phalanges” (phalanxes). It was one of several utopian communities that emerged in the second quarter of the 19th century in upstate New York and New England. It was at Sodus Bay that he married Rebecca May Cooper on June 12, 1844. In the Quaker tradition, they we married “by themselves,” exchanging vows without clergy or a justice of the peace. Charles Fourier had disdain for what he alleged were the outmoded and oppressive strictures placed upon women through what he called “the barbaric tradition of marriage.” (Under Pennsylvania law, a couple today can still legally marry with what is called a “self-uniting license”; they need just two witnesses to the exchange of vows.) The Sodus Bay community was fully defunct by 1846. The Caprons likely departed sometime in 1845, moving to Rochester and then Auburn, New York.

TRAVELING TO SENECA FALLS AND BEYOND In 1849, the couple went together to Seneca Falls for the first Women’s Rights Convention. There, Capron was signer number 96 of the of the Declaration of Sentiments, which included the sentiment that all men and women are created equal. The Caprons moved around New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, staying for a few years at a time in cities where Capron found jobs in newspaper publish40 West Branch Life

ing and printing. Both husband and wife were intrigued by phrenology (the study of the skull) and the Fox Sisters’ way of communicating with the dead by knocking. They were members of the Auburn Phrenological Society, for which Elias was the corresponding secretary and Rebecca was the recording secretary. When they lived in Philadelphia, Rebecca attended lectures at the Female Medical School. She did not complete the course, perhaps because she gave birth to their daughter, Evalyn, in October 1856. The couple’s wide circle of friends and fellow activists and reformers included not only Frederick Douglass but also Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Abby K. Foster, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, and Amelia Bloomer, who fought for dress reform as well as women’s voting rights.

LIVING IN WILLIAMSPORT Rebecca and Elias Capron moved to Williamsport about 1862 and established a printing and publishing business. Their home and business were at 134 West Third Street, in “Old Town.” Rebecca’s life was cut short. She died in 1864 in Williamsport when she was only 39 and her daughter was 7; she is buried in Wildwood Cemetery. In 1867, Frederick Douglass brought his campaign for civil rights to Williamsport when he spoke a Doebler Hall, on the corner of West Fourth and Pine Streets. It would be interesting to know if he lodged with Elias. “A Picture of Lycoming County” (1939) describes the scene in Williamsport when Black suffrage was realized. “After 32 years of protest and campaigning, blacks finally won the right to vote in March 1870 when the 15th Amendment was ratified. Blacks across the state organized celebrations.” In Williamsport, hundreds of people lined the street to “watch a procession of forty-one carriages and buggies, people carrying banners, and costumed marchers.” The parade was led by a Baltimore band because Daniel Repasz, refused to lead the band under any circumstance. However, Repasz Band historians were aware that members of the Repasz Band had been present at Appomattox at that time that the surrender was signed. Elias Capron was a speaker at the cele-

bration. Among the other speakers, both African American and white, were Abraham Updegraff, president of the First National Bank and an Underground Railroad conductor, and Cornelius and Simon Gilchrest, Black men (father and son) who both were conductors and active in civil rights. Elias was at various times an owner or publisher of the West Branch Bulletin, Lycoming Gazette, and Gazette and Bulletin. Newspapers of the era were competitive, changed hands and editors often and had differing political views. He was criticized for his editorial views, including urging newly enfranchised Black voters to use their right to vote and promoting women’s rights. Elias retired in 1871 and founded his own paper, the Epitomist, which failed after only a few months. He died in New York City in 1892. Evalyn became a teacher of deaf children in Philadelphia. After holding various teaching and other positions, she died in 1943 in New York City.

Women of Distinction: Women at Home Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, June 9, 2019

Miss Jennie Sweley and Mrs. Jennie Ball: One woman, two diaries

By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

bout 1870, Jennie Sweley, a 20-year-old Montoursville woman teaching in Williamsport, married farmer and lumberer George Ball, 27. He was the grandson of John Ball, the founder of Balls Mills. Jennie Sweley Ball kept diaries. The Lycoming County Genealogical Society holds two of them. The first is from 1868, when Jennie was 18, and the second from 1874, when she was 24 and living with her husband in the village of Balls Mills. Both diaries have been scanned and are now available online as part of the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection.

1868 DIARY Jennie’s 1868 diary entries are filled with stories of her teaching, as well as church activities, music lessons, singing school, concerts and parties. She taught at the Jefferson School on Washington Boulevard in Williamsport. On Saturdays and when school was not in session, she continued to pursue her own studies at what she refers to as “the Institute.” During the week Jennie stayed with her uncle in Williamsport, and most weekends she returned home to Mon42 West Branch Life

toursville, where she helped her mother with housekeeping. She was the oldest child and had five younger brothers and

sisters. In her diary, she referred to her future husband by his initials, G.B. Jennie saw him often. They went to town together and sometimes to parties. Her parents must not have approved because on May 31, she writes, “If this day was only over. What a foolish wish, for we ought to be thankful for the Sabbath... Went to town with G.B. Forbidden to go with him again. If they knew how I suffer they would not forbid me going with him.”

1874 DIARY Apparently, she did go with him again, for when we meet Jennie in the second diary, she is Jennie Ball, living on a farm in Balls Mills. The first entry, for Jan. 1, 1874, sets the mood for the year: “George is still absent... This week has seemed unusually long... I am putting together another quilt... I have not been out of doors yet.” Although she does not mention it in her mostly cutand-dried account of day-to-day life in 1874, their first child, a daughter, had passed away Dec. 13, 1873. She was less than a year old. The days marched by in a pattern. Monday is wash day. Tuesday was baking. Wednesday was ironing. Thursday was cleaning. On Friday, she did all the other chores and gots ready for Saturday market, where they sold butter. One day, Jennie reports, she churned about six pounds of butter. “Felt tired,” she writes. Sundays seemed to be her best day. She went to church and Sunday School, sometimes with George, and often read, took a walk or visited neighbors. Jennie quiltted and sewed for herself and neighbors. She kept a careful accounting of the monies spent on fabric, thread. She enjoyed the company of her younger sister, Ada, a teacher in Balls Mills, who boarded with Jennie and

Women at Home : Women of Distinction

Pictured on the previous page is the Sweley family at Margaret Ellis Sweleyʼs 83rd birthday party; alongside Mrs. Jennie Wright and Mrs. Herman Miller, daughter of Wright, and the fourth generation represented by Margaret, daughter of Miller. Above, Mary Ann Ellis Sweley (Nov. 3, 1825 to Jan., 1927) with daughter Ellie at the Sweley home in Montoursville. Florence Connelly Persunʼs mother was Ada Sweley Connelly, the fourth child of Mary Ann. PHOTOS PROVIDED

George.

GEORGE BALL

We don’t get much of a picture of George Ball. He is often gone, taking lumber to town, hunting, fishing and running the farm. On Sunday, June 14, Jennie writes, “George came home about four o’clock this morning. He has been sleeping nearly all day.” One of the few entries in which Jennie expresses any emotion is the July 4 entry, in which she thinks back on her life as a single woman, which in retrospect seemed carefree. “When I was single, I invariably spent this day at some place of amusement but now it is work, and nothing but work from morning till night with nothing to make life any easier or pleasanter. Not even a small or kind word to make the path brighter.” Jennie, it seems, is always tired. Working from sunrise to sunset, she feeds her family, the hay-makers and the drovers, who pass by with their animals

on the way to market. She plants crops, harvests and preserves fruits. In one poignant entry, for Sunday, November 8, Jennie writes, “Walked out to Quaker Hill after dinner to see the baby’s grave. Felt so tired when I came back.” She never mentions that she is pregnant, but in her diary entry for Saturday, November 21, she says simply, “Awoke about 4 o’clock. Felt sick. About eight o’clock we were the fortunate possessors of a wee girl baby.” (No wonder she had been so tired!) The final entry, for Thursday, December 31, reads, “The last day of the year. What changes there is in a year.” The diaries are much more than the story of two very different years in one woman’s life. The first-person accounts of daily life give us valuable insights into education, transportation, religious life and economic issues in the late 19th century in Williamsport, Montoursville, and Balls Mills. West Branch Life 43

Women of Distinction: Women at Home Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, November 10, 2019

Frances ‘Minnie’ Gray The art of weaving human hair wreathes By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

rances “Minnie” Jane Elder Gray (1846 to 1923) enjoyed an opportunity not experienced by many young women of her era—the chance to get a higher education. Beginning in 1862, Minnie attended Dickinson Seminary, now Lycoming College. Although she returned for two more years, Minnie, like most of the other 30 or so young women whose names appeared in the college catalog, was never part of a graduating class, and her reasons for attending an institution of higher learning were not necessarily connected with earning a degree or certificate.

LIFE AT DICKINSON SEMINARY What was the College like when Minnie attended? To be accepted, Minnie needed to be recommended for her moral character, because, according to the catalog, the school would not be a “house of refuge.” Bills needed to be paid in advance. Besides tuition, there were additional charges for board, a furnished room, fuel and the laundering of 10 items. The cost for the latter was $2.50 per week. There was another charge for the cleaning of public rooms and halls. Minnie would have had to bring her sheets, pillow, blankets and towels and find her own broom, mirror and lamps. She would need durable clothing and 44 West Branch Life

During the Victorian era, weaving human hair became a popular art form. Hair wreaths were associated with mourning the death of a loved one or symbolized events, close associations and friendships. Above, Frances “Minnie” Jane Elder Grayʼs son, Maurice L. Gray, donated his motherʼs human hair wreath to Lycoming College in 1966. Photos were provided by the Lycoming College Archives. PHOTOS PROVIDED

slippers to wear in the building. Although discipline was termed “mild,” students were reminded that the “lawless and refractory cannot remain among us.” A demerit system was in place for misdeeds ranging from tardiness to disorderly conduct. You would be sent home if you accumulated 12 de-

merit points. The president and faculty of the school lived on campus and maintained “constant oversight.” Parents were assured that their daughters would have private and public rooms that were completely separate from those of the male students. However, there was

Women at Home : Women of Distinction closely supervised mingling of the sexes at recitations, table and daily chapel exercises. Although the curriculum for students wishing to earn an A.B. designation was strictly prescribed, other students could take any courses they wished so long as they enrolled in four studies and had the permission of the faculty. We assume that Minnie was part of the latter group, but we don’t know what she chose. Among the choices were the classical offerings which included Latin and Greek, composition and rhetoric, natural and mental philosophy, the Constitution of the United States and Evidence of Christianity. Two modern languages— French and German—were offered, as were courses from the “Ornamental Branches,” such as drawing and painting and music.

MINNIE’S LIFE

Like many of the residential female students of her day, Minnie was from a family that valued education, particularly education for women, that had historic roots in its community and that had some wealth. Minnie grew up in the Halfmoon area of Centre County, near Stormstown. Her great-grandfather, Abraham Elder, a Revolutionary War veteran, had been one of the earliest settlers there, erecting a saw mill and distillery and establishing in his house a thriving tavern that also became a community center. After attending college, Minnie married Alonzo Thomas Gray and bore two children. Minnie was only 41 when her husband passed away. Her own short obituary, in the Jan. 19, 1923, edition of the Tyrone Daily Herald states that she died while visiting her son and daughter in Wilkinsburg. The cause of death was pneumonia, and she was buried in the Gray’s Cemetery in Halfmoon.

MINNIE’S ART What sets Minnie apart in Lycoming

College’s history is her artistic ability to weave human hair into a wreath. An ornate wreath, composed of hair contributed by some of Minnie’s female classmates, is now part of the artifact collection in the college archives. The practice of weaving human hair into various creations had existed for hundreds of years, but the Victorians turned it into a popular art form. Hair wreaths were often associated with mourning the death of a loved one, but they could also symbolize events or close associations and friendships, as is probably the case for the one woven by Minnie. It is in the standard horseshoe shape, with long strands of hair that form intricate flowers. In 1966, Minnie’s son, Maurice L. Gray, donated the human hair wreath to the college in memory of his mother. The wreath had held a position of prominence in the Gray homestead for decades. Many questions about Minnie’s life remain unanswered, but her talent for an extinct art form lives through her association with Lycoming College. West Branch Life 45

Women of Distinction: Women at Home Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, December 5, 2021

Above, the original YWCA building at Third and Mulberry streets, which took over the Crawford Hotel in 1913. At Christmastime a century ago, the YWCA was a beacon of the season. Below, an artistic rendering by Kate Anderson of the YWCA logo at the time. PHOTOS PROVIDED

The Spirit of Christmas: The YWCA, 1920–1930

in preparation for “a most happy time.” In 1929, there were only three women who stayed for the holiday, and they were treated to dinner at the Village Tea Room, located at 213 West Fourth St., a restaurant with a decor simulating a boulevard café.

By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

ne of the most festive locations in Williamsport during the holidays was the YWCA at Third and Mulberry streets, where it was located before the YW on East Fourth Street was built. The organization had taken over the Crawford Hotel in 1913 and renovation work created a large gymnasium and parlors and turned the bar into a dining room. The YW scrapbooks from the 1920s are rich with newspaper articles that describe staff and residents decorating the halls and parlors, hosting parties and giving back to the community. 46 West Branch Life

FOREIGN CHILDREN ENJOY A PARTY

The 1925 house director’s report states that “The spirit of Christmas was everywhere evident from the first to the last of the month.” Those residents who remained for the actual day hung up their stockings

Each year, the World Fellowship Committee of the YW gave a party for foreign children in the neighborhood. The gathering was announced in public school classrooms and often would be attended by more than 100 children, sometimes having to move its location to the First Presbyterian Church parlor across the street for more space. A Dorothy Deane

Women at Home : Women of Distinction newspaper column from December 21, 1928, reported that the party that year, held in the gymnasium, in which the “little foreign children” sang carols that they were taught in school, was a “rare treat.” There were dolls for the girls, toys for the boys and candy and an orange for all, and Mrs. Norma Lamade, dressed as Santa Claus, told them a Christmas story. An article in the Grit in September 1925 described the area around the YW as “Little Italy,” but emphasized that the children were also from families of Greeks, Russian Jews, Armenians and Syrians.

FESTIVITIES IN “FULL SWING” Newspaper articles written about all the festivities at the YW used words like “inspiring,” “loveliest,” “beautiful,” “delightful,” “in full swing.” The season would usually begin with a procession of girls holding lighted candles walking through corridors and up and down staircases, singing carols and ending in the parlor listening to the Christmas story. In the evening there was the hanging of the greens and afterward a party with games and gifts. YW staff members from different departments held a pageant each year. In 1927, Mrs. Alice Hicks directed “The Spirit of Christmas” with “splendid” costumes and “parts memorized to perfection.” The 1928 pageant was “The Transfiguration of the Gifts,” ending in the parlor with the Christmas story. Another year, Mrs. Harriet Nicely gave a talk entitled “The Birth of Christmas in the Heart of the Individual.” In 1929, Christmas vespers were held in the auditorium with a violin solo by Jack Aschinger, a cornet solo by Miss Eva Beck and a presentation by the YW Advanced Religious Drama class of a play written by Mary Russell titled “A Christmas Problem.” Various clubs that met at the YW held Christmas functions throughout the month. The Williamsport Music Club hosted an “Evening by the Fire” with musical entertainment and the singing of carols; the Williamsport College Club sponsored a tea with each member bringing an undergraduate female student as a guest. In 1930, the Business and Professional Women made merry as they presented a one-act play called “The Ruggies Family Come to Life,” based on The Christmas Carol. Their glee club sang, members presented readings, and there was a free will offering for charity. The different triangles (clubs) of Girl Reserves planned plays, recitations and dance numbers for their parties. One year,

instead of Santa Claus, the Christmas Fairy presented gifts beside a beautiful tree. Gift exchanges were restricted to items costing no more than 10 cents.

GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY Every department of the YW was active in joining with churches and other organizations in giving to the needy, as were many of the groups meeting there. They reached out to the girls at the Muncy State Home and children under the care of the Children’s Aid Society. The Tuberculosis Society provided toys and filled stockings with candy canes, popcorn and books for these children. One year, the hosts were worried that the poor children might be afraid of Santa Claus; the paper reported that Santa made sure to shake each child’s hand. The Business Girls’ Club entertained 50 little girls between the ages of 8 and 10 chosen by the heads of local welfare agencies—the Salvation Army, Social Service Bureau, Mothers’ Assistance Fund and State Nursing Service. There were relay races, singing contests, the Christmas story and stockings filled with nuts, taffy, books and paint boxes. A party hosted by the Hi-Tri Club for children from the Children’s Aid Society provided ice cream, compliments of Wakenhuts Ice Cream Company. The Girl Reserves invited 20 children from the Home for the Friendless and held a separate party for “tiny tots” from there as well. Some years, a poor family would be selected for the gift of a Christmas tree and presents. The girls would cut stories from “good” periodicals, bind them into book form and present them to patients at the Williamsport Hospital, making picture books for children who were patients. The Girl Reserves were always involved with the distribution of Christmas seals for the Lycoming County Tuberculosis Society, folding the stamps and placing them in envelopes. One year, they processed more than a million stamps. At the Walnut Street Branch for Negro Girls of the YW, there were activities for the holidays as well. The Phillis Wheatley High School Group practiced a pageant to be given at Shiloh Baptist Church and held a special Christmas service at the Home for Aged Colored Women. They took baskets to needy families, and the girls made baby clothes for the Children’s Aid Society.

BAZAARS AND ANNUAL SALES

The holidays presented fundraising opportunities. Girl Reserves held an annual bazaar that offered unique Christmas gifts at reasonable prices, with items imported through New York City dealers that, according to the newspaper in 1927, represented “indescribable loveliness.“ Shoppers could select from pottery, linen and brasses from Spain, Denmark, Hungary, Italy and Morocco and enjoy the refreshment booths. These girls had “occupied their leisure hours” designing note cards and making marbled paper for score pads and blotters for sale as well. There was another December event sponsored by the YW of “unusual and exceptional gifts” from China, secured by Mrs. Mabelle Hickcox Yard, a YW official located in the Near East. Offerings included gold thread hangings, tapestries, jewelry from Peking and lounging pajamas from Kashig. A 1928 newspaper advertised the merchandise with the phrase “enticing articles from the Orient captivate beholders.” During this holiday season, as you drive by the vacant lot at the corner of Mulberry and East Third Street, hear the echoes of laughter, joy and good will coming from a building in Williamsport’s past.

Women of Distinction: Women at Home Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, December 8, 2019

Women of Williamsport

cooking in the 19th century

By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

he local Ladies’ Auxiliary of the YMCA compiled a cookbook of almost 400 pages that was published locally by Scholl Brothers in 1895. The particular cookbook in the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection belonged to Ann Gage Jeeves, a local teacher, and the book includes lots of blank pages upon which she scribbled additional recipes. A poem on the introductory page by Owen Meredith informs us in rhyme that man can live without music, art, books, love and hope, but “civilized man cannot live without cooks,” and “where is the man that can live without dining?” Clearly, cooking was women’s work.

YMCA LADIES’ AUXILIARY Nationally, women had long supported the YMCA in numerous ways—organizing social events, furnishing and caring for rooms, attending to the sick, raising money and praying for the men. In the 1880s came the formation of the Ladies’ Auxiliaries to officially channel these activities. An essay by James C. Humes titled “History of the Williamsport YMCA” states that the local Auxiliary was formed in 1886 “under the leadership of Mrs. J.E. Dayton, Mrs. Rhoads and Mrs. James Gibson,” who were helpful in organizing lectures and entertainment.

RECIPES, POEMS AND OYSTERS The cookbook was probably a fundraising project, and it was dedicated to the “Ladies of Williamsport and Vicinity” who supplied the recipes. The preface promised that the book would appeal to the “young and inexperienced housekeeper,” who would be assured of finding “tested and approved” recipes. The table of contents lists sections for soup, fish, small cakes, large cakes and pickles, to name just a few. There is a separate chapter on “Food for the Sick,” and the miscellaneous category includes 48 West Branch Life

A cookbook by the Womanʼs Auxiliary of the YMCA, published in 1895, gave a glimpse into the lives of city women in the 19th century. Photo from the Lycoming County Womenʼs History Collection. PHOTO PROVIDED

Women at Home : Women of Distinction instructions for cleaning carpets and straw hats as well as a formula for destroying cockroaches and a method for packing eggs for winter use. Many chapters have an introduction that imparts important information and sometimes includes a poem. The soup section states that beef is the best meat for a soup because it is the most nourishing. The vegetable section begins with a verse saying that it is time to bring out the rusty rake because it is spring and the garden needs to be made. In the bread chapter, the cook is warned that it takes experience to bake good bread. And in the cake section, we learn to never use flour that has not been sifted, and to check for doneness by using a broom splinter. Given oven facilities of the period, in most instances the cook is not told how long a given dish should remain in the oven or at what temperature. At the turn of the 20th century, oysters were considered inexpensive fare, and the United States was a major producer. Many local churches held an oyster dinner as an annual event, and Dickinson Seminary, now Lycoming College, often included oysters on banquet menus. This recipe book has a whole chapter dedicated to oyster recipes— soup, chowder, scalloped, creamed, broiled, fried, fritters, puree and deviled. A 19th-century cook approaching the holiday season might want to choose a recipe for roasting turkey that recommends choosing a turkey that is one year old or a recipe for ham that involves removing the bone and replacing it with stuffing. For dessert, she could consider the Christmas pudding, which calls for the addition of raisins, currents, sultanas, beef suet and almonds. The mixture sits overnight before milk is added; then follows a cooking time of three hours.

‘FOOD FOR THE SICK’ The chapter on food for the sick furnishes many home remedies. Panadas, a paste or gruel, can be made from barley or eggs. Koumiss, prepared from fermented milk, is recommended for those with indigestion or a weak stomach.

Toast water is said to be “better than almost anything else” for allaying thirst. The recipe for soda mint, probably used for heartburn, calls for soda, ammonia, peppermint and water: “Take one teaspoon and repeat as necessary.” To cure pleurisy, readers are instructed to get grass sod from the yard and bake it, then place it warm on the person’s side. According to the recipe book, “This cured a patient the doctor had given up on.”

ADVERTISEMENTS AS LOCAL HISTORY

For those viewing the cookbook as a historical document, the pages of advertisements in the back are as interesting and informative as the recipes. Although Bush and Bull Co., at 43 West Third Street, promises to “put our customer in touch with the styles and products of nearly every known country on the face of the globe,” a lady might also have shopped at L.L. Stearns and Sons for “all the new styles in cloth, fur, velvet and plush” when it came to coats and capes. L.L. Walton and Company Apothecary, on the northeast corner of Fourth and Pine streets, wanted the shopper to know that the store was “Not drugs alone.” It carried pure spices, baking soda and flavoring extracts. Holiday guests were invited to stay at the City Hotel, which remained open for all-night train arrivals; Porter’s Central Hotel, 303 W. Fourth St., charged $1 per day; or the Hotel Crawford, corner of Third and Mulberry streets, which charges $1.50 per day. For health and relaxation, Prof. C. E. Smith’s Electric Parlors, on Pine Street, offered the best electric vapor baths. These baths remove foreign substances from the blood and invigorate the nervous system. Through the Williamsport Cookbook we get a snapshot of what life was like in our community in 1895. This historic treasure not only tells us what people ate, but also demonstrates the basics of everyday life. The cookbook is available in its entirety by accessing the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection, www.lycoming.edu/lcwhp.

Kerri Jacobson, DC 911 Westminster Drive - Suite 7 Williamsport, PA 570-447-6873

Women of Distinction: Serving the Community and Beyond Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, July 21, 2019

The ladies of

Mulberry Street Church JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

hroughout history, many positions in churches could not be held by females. But women still felt called to service through their faith, and the women of Mulberry Street Methodist Episcopal Church were an example of how women could enhance life in Williamsport. In 1935, Anna Blanche Slate compiled the history of the church for its 75th anniversary, including contributions made by women members over the years. The church was established by teachers and students from the coeducational Dickinson Seminary, now Lycoming College, because the only Methodist church in town—Pine Street Methodist Church—had become crowded with parishioners. The Ladies’ Aid Society of Mulberry, organized in 1862 with 52 active members, raised money to complete the structure and in one year presented $712 to the building committee. Four years after its dedication, the church burned down. The “indomitable spirit of Old Mulberry still lived,” Slate said, and women were the optimism that drove the rebuilding. In the 1920s, Ellen Walker Houseknecht Daughty was the choir director. Women played the organ and taught Sunday school. Cynthia Willard, daughter of Rev. W. W. Willard, acted as a pastor’s assistant without pay for love of the work. Mothers of missionaries, such as Charlotte Slate, Sallie Whiteley, Emma Dugan and Mrs. W.W. Willard, held a special place in church history. There also were familiar community names like Emma Elizabeth Curtin, Mrs. W. F. Plankenhorn, Mrs. Don M. Larrabee and Vivian Mussina listed in the church roster.

Pictured is the Mulberry Street Methodist Episcopal Church.

ADA CHAMBERS BIBLE CLASS Religious dedication started at a young age, and when Jennie Rank, Maud Birchard and Mabel Millspaugh graduated from the Sunday School Primary Department at the turn of the 20th century, they wanted a class of their own. The girls started the Wood Violet Class, later becoming the Ada Chambers Bible Class, named after one of their revered teachers.

PHOTO PROVIDED

In November 1924, the monthly church newsletter, “Mulberry,” called the Bible class “one of the most influential and active in the city of Williamsport” with “everything worthwhile in Sunday School work.” The class had grown to 44 members.

CONNECTION TO THE WORLD In 1882, the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Auxiliary was formed to enWest Branch Life 51

Serving the Community and Beyond : Women of Distinction

The congregation from the Mulberry Street Methodist Episcopal Church got together for a Sunday School picnic held at Mountain Beach in this photo published on July 23, 1933. Below, Anna Blanche Slate, missionary. Slate helped compile the churchʼs history. SUN-GAZETTE FILE PHOTOS

gage in world service, with an emphasis on India. In the same year, Anna Wright founded the Ruby Seal Mission Band. Widowed, Wright had come to the city to live with her daughter. She loved children and thought the Mulberry Street youth should help other children in the world. The name was chosen because a ruby is beautiful and a “gem of the Orient,” said the “Mulberry” newsletter published in March 1924. Girls helped the Girls’ School in Calcutta, where a child would be chosen to bear the name “Ruby Seal.” Once graduated, another girl would be selected. The Ruby Seal remained true to the ideals of giving of love, prayers and services for the womanhood of the world and supported the Grenoble Orphanage in France and the Girls’ School of Buenos Aires.

BENEVOLENCE AT HOME Church women reached out to fellow members and the community for the Woman’s Home Missionary Society, organized in 1882. In 1922, women 52 West Branch Life

formed the Mystic Circle and was open to women of the congregation who wanted to make the church happier and more efficient. Founded by Mrs. W.W. Banks, the circle was organized around kindness. Recipients did not know who to thank for gifts or help received because “the real purpose of the Circle was to help make dreams come true,” said the newsletter. In the first two years, the group earned $1,800 to buy paint, dishes, silverware and kitchen utensils for the church. In addition to hosting tureen suppers, the Mystic Circle organized dinners for community volunteers —like local scout leaders. Once, the group responded to an emergency request to raise funds to send the church’s Boy Scout Troop No. 24 to camp, noting that the boys were the “coming men of Mulberry,” said the June 1924 newsletter. In 1924, the Ladies’ Aid Society’s annual oyster and chicken salad supper had the largest number of people at a single meal at the church. In 1934, the Mystic Circle and the Ladies’ Aid Society formed the Woman’s Guild. The stories of the women of Mulberry

are remembered through a few slim archival files. Due to a decline in membership, the congregation merged in 1963 with Market Street Methodist Church to form Wesley Methodist Church. The Mulberry Street building was sold and torn down. However, the women remain an example of everyday kindnesses and services to strengthen one’s community.

Women of Distinction: Serving the Community and Beyond Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, August 11, 2019

Carile Cone Higgins Brown inspires Williamsport’s public library

PHOTO PROVIDED

By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch LIfe

he public library in Williamsport was built with funds donated by lumber baron James Vanduzze Brown (1826-1904). Although he named the library after himself, the motivation to establish a free public library in the city actually came from his wife, Carile Cone Higgins Brown (1831-1902). “She prodded him into it,” said the late June E. Baskin in an article in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, an undated copy found in a Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) scrapbook. “It was 1899 and Carile was a member of the newly formed Lycoming Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Members thought a city the size of Williamsport should have a free public library, particularly since Towanda was building one.” Unfortunately, Carile died before the DAR’s goal was accomplished. In the two years after her death, James V. Brown devoted himself to designing the French Renaissance building, which opened on June 18, 1907, three years after his death.

BORN IN NEW YORK STATE Carile Cone Higgins was born on May 4, 1831, in Pike, New York. Her family later moved to nearby Wellsville,

A picture of Carile Cone Higgins Brown. She motivated her husband, James V. Brown, to establish a free public library for the City. This picture was found in the Daughters of the American Revolution archives.

35 miles north of Galeton. She was the second of the six daughters of Edmund Higgins and Delancy Reese Higgins. Edmund Higgins was the deputy sheriff in Wellsville. James V. Brown trained as a printer and then joined his father in the flour milling business in Wellsville. In 1859,

he moved to the growing metropolis of Williamsport and purchased the Updegraff and Herdic Flour Mill. In 1860, 33year-old James V. Brown married 28-year-old Carile Cone Higgins. James went on to make his fortune in Williamsport in the lumber business. “A typical Victorian lady, her house was her interest,” Baskin explained in the same newspaper article. “She often had the ladies there for lunch.” After lunch, the women sometimes went to the Park Hotel (now Park Place) to play bridge and socialize, Baskin noted. In Williamsport, the Browns lived in what had been the home of Michael Ross, the city founder, at the northwest corner of Third and Basin streets, now a Lycoming College parking lot. In 1874, according to an article called “Fine Improvements” in the Daily Gazette & Bulletin published on May 14, 1874, they built a mansion designed by A.S. Wagner on the same lot. The home was 58 feet wide in the front. Its central tower was five stories high. The first West Branch Life 53

Serving the Community and Beyond : Women of Distinction

The exterior of Brownʼs home (left) and an interior room (right). All photos were provided by the Lycoming County Historical Society. floor contained a vestibule, the main and Ann were also members of the nate.” Women’s Christian Association. The hall, a parlor, library and sitting rooms. Her funeral, which the newspaper The vestibule was octagonal, with Women’s Christian Association founded called beautiful and impressive, was niches for flowers or statuary. The hall the Home for the Friendless on Campheld at Christ Church, and she is buried was 11 feet wide and featured a grand bell Street, a home for elderly women in the grand Brown mausoleum in Wildset of stairs. Carile likely entertained her and needy children which evolved into wood Cemetery. women friends in the parlor. the Williamsport Home. Ann Higgins Perley chaired the board of the home for CARILE’S SISTERS 29 years. Two of Carile’s sisters, Helen AdeEAGLES MERE laide Higgins and Levantia Ann Higgins, also moved from Wellsville to The Browns purchased land in the reWilliamsport. After living with the sort community of Eagles Mere, and in Brown family for a time, each married a about 1892 they built a 20-room “cotprosperous lumberman. Helen married tage” there. Called Corner House, it George Tobias Piper; Ann married Allen stands at the corner of Eagles Mere AvPutnam Perley. enue and Mary Street. Interestingly, Both Carile and James were active in county records show that the cottage Christ Episcopal Church, just a few was in Carile’s name alone. On her blocks from their home. While James for death, it passed to her husband, and on many years was a senior warden of the his death, it passed to her sister Helen. church, Carile acted as the parish hostThe cottage, which stayed in the family ess. In addition, she was the principal of for many years, was recently fully rethe sewing school held at the mission stored by Mark and Lucy Stitzer. Brown’s church (Wadleigh Chapel) on Almond brother, Stephen, also had a cottage in Street, where she had 40 students. The Eagles Mere, as did other prominent mission church also housed “a night Williamsporters. school for colored boys and men, preCarile died suddenly on Nov. 18, vented by their work from attending 1902, at the age of 71. schools during the day,” according to “Her death a great shock” read the Henry Eckel in Chronicles of Christ headline in the Williamsport SunChurch Parish in 1910. After Carile’s Gazette on Nov. 19, 1902. Carile was death in 1902, her sisters presented the praised as “a woman of many lovable church with the Sanctuary Rail. qualities, foremost in every movement As well as being a founding member in which her sex had an interest and of the DAR and its second regent, Carile noted for her charitable disposition. She was a charter member of the Clio Club, was a woman of Christian character of a club that focused on intellectual intermost generous impulses, sympathetic ests and study. She and her sisters Helen and mindful of the needs of less fortu-

PHOTOS PROVIDED

54 West Branch Life

Women of Distinction: Serving the Community and Beyond

PHOTO PROVIDED

This image, provided by the Lycoming County Historical Society, shows the Williamsportʼs Red Cross canteen, founded in 1917. Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, October 4, 2020

Influenza,

World War I challenged city’s Red Cross in its early days By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

lara Barton was instrumental in establishing the Red Cross in the United States in 1881, but a local chapter did not come into existence until March 15, 1917. The next few years would challenge the chapter’s leadership, as the women not only coped with troop support for the World War I effort but also aided a community hard hit by the influenza epidemic and other natural disasters. The society replaced the Pennsylvania Women’s Division for National Preparedness in this area, and their first of-

56 West Branch Life

fice was located at 327 Pine St., Williamsport. A membership list included the names of prominent women in town— Cochran, McCormick, Stearns, Maynard, and Munson, to name a few. Newspaper articles in 1917 called for more women to volunteer to “do their bit”—to quote President Woodrow Wilson. These volunteers packed supplies for shipments to aid the troops and solicited donations of linen and surgical dressing supplies. The chapter quickly outgrew its office, and space in the Armory was offered at no cost. When the county assumed responsibility for a donation of $75,000 to the American Association of the Red Cross fund,

volunteers requested contributions from city organizations and businesses and held socials at members’ homes, as well as festivals selling homemade food and concerts featuring such groups as the Bugbee String Quartet. As early as May 14, 1917, the Sun-Gazette stated, “when local history ... incident to present war preparations is written, the work of the Williamsport Chapter of the American Red Cross Society will stand out prominently.”

THE CANTEEN HUT In May 1918, a small hut — soon to be expanded in size — was established as a canteen on the grounds of the Park Hotel near the railroad station. It was

Serving the Community and Beyond : Women of Distinction funded with monetary donations from the Williamsport High School class of 1918. Troops coming through Williamsport day and night needed food and relaxation and sometimes emotional support. Many men were traveling to basic training camps or getting ready to be shipped overseas. Some were going home on sick leave or furlough or for family emergencies. Later, there would be soldiers returning from war—some shell shocked, gassed or maimed. For those stranded between trains, there were rooms on permanent reserve at the Park Hotel, as well as space at Trinity House. One day, as many as 1,100 men came to the Canteen looking for food, gum, cigarettes, postcards, stamps, pencils or social interaction. Volunteers were not content to provide a piece of ham between two slices of bread, but instead offered sandwiches of chopped ham mixed with cream cheese and olives or chicken salad that became “famous.” The women spent many hours rolling out and cutting homemade noodles for the soups. Newspaper articles boasted that servicemen spread the word all over the United States—and possibly Europe— that the Canteen, with its comfortable atmosphere, player piano, electric fixtures, soothing blue and white decor, living plants, and good food, was the best place to stop over. Merchants were on call to bring needed supplies at all hours, as were nurses, physicians, and dentists for health needs. Some of the 700 canteens in the United States had rules against talking with the soldiers, but not the Williamsport Canteen. With older women in charge to supervise, young ladies practiced proper decorum, and there was lots of conversation. Being a volunteer was hard manual labor, as it meant not only cooking, but also cleaning, scrubbing, and otherwise leaving everything in perfect condition for the next shift. But the women believed that working at the Canteen was a privilege, no matter how hard it was. A columnist for the Sun-Gazette decided to volunteer for an evening shift, which ran from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m., just to see what the experience was like. She had been worried that she would be bored and planned to knit socks so that

she wouldn’t fall asleep. Immediately upon arrival, however, she was placed in the sandwich line; then there was chicken to grind for salad. After that, a troop train arrived and there was much commotion involved serving food and meeting their needs. A party of young people came in for refreshments, and soon it was time for another troop train. When there was a lull the next morning, the women were too exhausted to do anything but rest a bit before cleaning up for the next shift. The food and the setting at the Canteen were so impressive that it soon became a lunch spot for working women, a location for family Sunday dinners and a stop-off for many travelers. Young people attending parties at the Park Hotel would take a break at the Canteen to enjoy the player piano, as well as ice cream with a special chocolate sauce. Food was free to soldiers, and everyone understood that when a troop train arrived their needs took priority. However, the money earned from locals and travelers plus donations, meant that the Williamsport operation was one of the few canteens in the country that was self-supporting.

teen day and night and never unprepared when the trains came through. Capable and organized, she was an excellent food manager and efficient planner. Even before the hut was built, she had started preparing meals for the troops in the Acacia Club kitchen. When the canteen was closed by official government order in October 1919, the women had served 71,421 men in uniform and provided over 150,000 sandwiches, as well as thousands of gallons of coffee and 5950 meals. They had mended 5000 soldiers’ coats and shirts. Volunteers had also provided assistance to families in Williamsport who struggled because fathers, brothers, and sons were away from home. The Red Cross put out a call for volunteers, and Williamsport women responded with management, healthcare, and organizational skills. They exhibited patriotism and active concern for their country. These women were real partners in the war effort, but they could not vote in the country they served— yet.

BLANCHE ELIZABETH DERR BUBB (1873–1947) An undated newspaper clipping, probably from 1917 or 1918, states that little was known about Mrs. Blanche Derr Bubb before she became captain of the Canteen corps, with 18 lieutenants and 200 volunteers reporting to her. She had actually been mentioned previously in the Sun-Gazette as being in bridge and golf tournaments at the country club—and for the fact that her soprano voice had been heard at churches and in a production of the Mikado. More research finds that she was born in Williamsport in 1873, the daughter of Isabella and James Derr. She married Clarence Bubb, who is listed in the 1920 census as a traveling salesman. They had three sons and lived at 1065 W. Fourth Street. Blanche Bubb died in 1947 and is buried in Wildwood Cemetery. Blanche Bubb was described as an indefatigable worker, seen at the CanWest Branch Life 57

Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, January 9, 2022

Jean Jackson McCormick A local girl turns lawyer, then war hero

Jean Jackson McCormick as Mount Holyoke Collegeʼs 1935 May Queen, courtesy of the Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections.

PHOTOS PROVIDED

By SEAN BAKER West Branch Life

hen on Nov. 1, 1947, Lycoming College dedicated Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall with an honor roll that listed the names of 435 alumni that had served during World War II, 20 had gold stars next to their names noting that they had made the ultimate sacrifice. Only one was a woman: Jean Jackson McCormick.

EARLY LIFE IN WILLIAMSPORT Jean Jackson McCormick was born Jean Lundy Jackson on Jan. 11, 1914, in Williamsport. She was the youngest of A.R. and Josephine Jackson’s five children. A.R. Jackson had a long career as an attorney in Williamsport. Jean was raised at 344 Campbell Street in Williamsport and attended Central Presbyterian Church on West Fourth Street. In 1919, Jean began attending Williamsport Dickinson Seminary. The school newspaper mentioned her in a recap of an April 1920 performance, noting that Jean and her sister Helen gave recitations between acts that “added to the enjoyment of the evening, as the recitations were full of 58 West Branch Life

wit and humor.” Jean attended there until 1928, eventually enrolling in the College Preparatory Department. She was popular, serving as a herald to the 1928 May Queen, and performed well academically, earning the 1928 Benjamin C. Conner Prize for the highest grade in Junior Mathematics. She then attended Highland Hall Preparatory School in Hollidaysburg for the 192930 academic year before enrolling at Mount Holyoke College.

Jean became acquainted with Henry Tucker McCormick, a student at nearby Amherst College. In June 1935 the two married in Williamsport, and in the fall, they enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. According to the Sept. 9, 1935, Grit, they were the first husband and wife ever to be admitted. After graduating, they relocated to Houston, Texas, where they both practiced law. Henry served as lieutenant in the Navy during World War II.

HIGHLY EDUCATED AND ACTIVE

IN SERVICE OF OTHERS

Jean’s personality was also on display at Mount Holyoke and she demonstrated traits that would serve her well during the war. She danced (in the Class of 1934’s presentation of their class song), she spoke (supporting President Herbert Hoover’s reelection), she played (on the 1933 basketball and soccer teams), and she led (chairman of the Scholarship Fund Committee in the midst of the Great Depression). She was crowned the 1934 May Queen before a crowd of 2,000. Newspapers across the country featured a photograph of Jean as the May Queen “acclaimed as most beautiful senior at Mount Holyoke College.” She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1934. During her time at Mount Holyoke

Jean began her war effort by joining the American Red Cross in 1942. She went overseas in September 1943, arriving in London the following month. Jean couldn’t detail the risky ocean voyage in her letters for security reasons, but she did note that it was “not without interest.” Jean’s first assignment was as a recreational staff assistant at a Red Cross Club in Cambridge, England. By 1944 she was a supervisor of her own Red Cross Club. In 1944 Jean gave up this relative safety and volunteered for the Red Cross Clubmobile Service. Clubmobiles were two and a half-ton GMC trucks complete with a kitchen, primarily for coffee and doughnut making, operated and maintained by a team of three spe-

Serving the Community and Beyond : Women of Distinction cially trained women. Jean was part of Clubmobile Group G that landed at Utah Beach in August 1944 and was attached to the Army’s XV Corps as it fought through France. In a Dec. 3, 1944, article in the Scranton TimesTribune, war correspondent Morley Cassidy described Jean, “a pretty brunette with a soft heart for homesick kids,” as one of the founders of the “Up Front” club in Luneville, France, a spontaneous Red Cross club only two miles behind the front lines. Cassidy said the club “set new records for doughnut frying, socks mending, letter writing, and listening to homesick G.I.’s talk about their girls back home.” Cassidy highlighted Jean’s resourcefulness in procuring coal needed to dry soldiers’ wet socks and warm their cold feet. Jean led three other women in fooling a French guard into allowing them into a nearby coal dump to load up tons of coal. When an M.P. demanded they put it back, Jean and the women complied, but only returned a ton and kept the rest. Cassidy deemed them four of the smartest girls in France and said that any G.I. would be proud of their scrounging abilities. Cassidy believed that the thousands of soldiers that visited the “Up Front” club would remember it as one bright spot in the war. Jean’s unit followed the XVI Corps as it entered Germany. As the war came to an end Jean went on leave and in a letter to her parents she documented her journey. Flying over the Ruhr industrial area of Germany she witnessed “Areas…just peppered with bomb craters. Whole towns without roofs and very few houses left at all.” Arriving in Paris the day before V-E Day, she wrote, “I have never seen such a hilarious world. People thronged the streets…All sorts of people in all sorts of clothes kissing each other and acting like a car-

Portrait from Mount Holyoke Collegeʼs 1934 yearbook, courtesy of the Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections. Used with permission. Pictured in her Red Cross uniform, circa 1945. Photograph courtesy of Jeanʼs nephew, Tim Sinclair. Unveiling of the Honor Roll during the dedication of Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall at Lycoming College, Nov. 1, 1947. Photograph courtesy of the Lycoming College Archives. PHOTOS PROVIDED

Cross posthumously awarded her a bronze medal for heroism and devotion to duty. Mary Mills, alumni secretary at Mount Holyoke, wrote in a letter to A.R. Jackson lamenting his daughter’s death: “She was an outstanding girl and it was so like her to join those who have so unselfishly served their country.” The honor roll listing Jean and the other World War II veterans is now part of the Lycoming College Archives collection, as are copies of the letters quoted in this article.

nival.” Quartered at a general’s house in Paris, Jean juxtaposed the elegant dinner with her recent time near the front: “I put on another blouse under my dirty uniform and went down to dinner…Dinner was long and delicious, with beautiful chrystal…after months of Germany it was like a dream.” Arriving in London on V-E Day, she described it as “just as frantic as Paris.” Jean’s letters also expressed concern for her parents. “I have been thinking so much of you and of how you are getting along with moving and all the hard things you are having to do.” At the end of her leave, Jean returned to her Clubmobile to meet the needs of the troops transitioning to occupation duty. Tragically, on Aug. 15, 1945, she was killed in a plane crash in the Alps while flying from Germany to Paris. As the Sept. 15, 1945, issue of the SunGazette put it, “For two years she served overseas, escaping injury during the war, only to meet death in an airplane crash last month.” She is buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial in France. In 1946 the Red West Branch Life 59

Women of Distinction: Serving the Community and Beyond Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, December 20, 2020

Lycoming County Maintain the Larder Women of Democracy during World War II By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch LIfe

uring the World War II years, when food preparation in general was challenging, planning menus for the holidays was an especially formidable task. The Williamsport housewife had to calculate budget points wisely, using the red stamps in the ration books for meat, cheese, and fats and the blue stamps for processed fruits and vegetables. There was an ever-fluctuating and limited supply of coffee and sugar and butter was scarce. Home canning was encouraged, but home-made wine was banned because the fruit was needed to go into the food supply. Definitely, women were in search of new recipes. And this is not all that was asked of the homemaker. It would seem that the health of the whole nation and particularly of our fighting men rested on her shoulders. There were widespread diet deficiencies stemming from the Great Depression, and the most common reason for denying men entrance into the military was malnutrition. So women were called upon to start at home to fight the nutrition battle. The question “What can I do to help national defense?” was answered with “Start a nutrition movement.” The women’s section of the SunGazette often had announcements of nutrition lectures and programs, sponsored by organizations from garden

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clubs and church groups to the YWCA. Some presenters were local experts drawn from the home economics profession; others were speakers from Washington, D.C. These presentations were supplemented by announcements by the James V. Brown Library of nutrition books available for check-out. An article in the Sun-Gazette on Jan. 21, 1942, describes a talk by Beula Manley, head of the home economics department at Williamsport High School. She called upon women to consider the health of fighting men and others needing energy to fight the war. She reminded them that they were responsible for maintaining the “larder” of democracy. Her words were a call to action: “Buy food wisely, use food wisely, and waste nothing.”

Eames, from the home economics department at Williamsport High School, would be the instructor. Response was great enough that additional courses had to be offered. In 1943, Williamsport Technical Institute offered a wartime cooking class as well. The Lycoming County Nutrition Council enlisted volunteers from among the area home economics teachers to present lectures and demonstrations through a neighborhood nutrition initiative. Classes were held at Webster School, Penn Vale and the Salvation Army. There were four sessions: meats and meat substitutes, fruits and vegetables, eggs and milk, and cereals and meal planning. Every class announcement reminded women to bring their own pad and pencil.

NUTRITION CLASSES

ADVERTISING FOR NUTRITION

The Red Cross conducted nutrition classes in the west lounge of the YWCA. A certificate was awarded to attendees upon completion of the program. In 1941, the Sun-Gazette sponsored a four-day cooking school at the Capitol Theater, bringing in an authority from Washington, D.C. to teach. Women were told that the classes would not be dull—promotional materials said that this was the beginning of a revolution and the lessons would have a party atmosphere with lots of good food. In 1942, the Woman’s Club announced a Friday afternoon class in nutrition for its members. Doris

Local businesses combined their advertisements directed at the housewife with nutritional facts. Brozman’s and Stroehmann Bakeries both sponsored radio programs that furnished culinary information and Stroehmann’s also promoted the fact that its prize-winning bread contained B vitamins and iron for energy. In 1944, L. L. Stearns and Sons brought in the Westinghouse home economist and reference nutritionist to demonstrate ways of preserving foods. The presentation was held in the housewares department basement area, and the ad for it also promoted the store’s sales on pressure cookers, mason jars and caps, Foley food mills

Serving the Community and Beyond : Women of Distinction and cold pack canners.

COOKBOOKS FOR AREA HOUSEWIVES

The Lycoming County Historical Society has a few cookbooks from the era that were presumably used by local residents. Armour and Co. published a collection of 60 recipes thought to be especially useful during this time of rationing when the housewife had to be content with lesser cuts of meat. Bologna cups with hot potato salad, liver sausage loaf or scrambled brains and eggs could be featured on her dinner menu. The Frigidaire division of General Motors Corp. compiled a cookbook that could be purchased at M. H. Housel & Co., 141-143 W. Fourth St. The introduction claimed that 20,000,000 refrigerators across the country were contributing to the war effort by storing food safely and making it last longer. Leftovers, which

needed to be saved, could then be utilized in creative and appetizing recipes. When in doubt, the housewife was instructed to keep food in the refrigerator. In 1942, the South Williamsport nutrition class compiled a recipe booklet with a cover designed by Helene Snell. The recipes included cornflake custard by Mrs. Lawrence Schopf (cornflakes were often advertised as having exceptional nutritional value), one-and-one sherbet by Mrs. R. P. Rhodes, and cole slaw by Mrs. William Helminiack. There was a section for meat substitute dishes such as rice ring and cheese rice souffle.

CHRISTMAS DINNER Getting back to holiday cooking we turn once more to the local newspaper. Articles recommended that the homemaker not be ashamed of serving a casserole, or possibly “dressing up” a chicken, or even serving

chicken pot pie. Spaghetti and meatballs and crusty breads would be filling, as would a stew. The housewife could use honey instead of butter on the bread, or she could splurge on pineapple and then use the juice to sweeten other recipes. Creamed cauliflower would be a possible vegetable dish. Suggested ways to finish off the meal included individual refrigerated cakes (made with the frequently used ingredient sweetened condensed milk) and the ever-popular fruit sherbet that substituted for ice cream. Fighting men had to be properly fed, and this required that homemakers make sacrifices in their kitchens while still managing to maintain good nutrition. Homemakers often did not receive enough credit for the role they played in the war effort right in their own homes.

West Branch Life 61

Women of Distinction: Serving the Community and Beyond Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, January 17, 2021

SUN-GAZETTE FILE PHOTOS

Left and top right, promotional displays encourage participating in local Red Cross campaigns. Bottom right, Red Cross nurses use the Motor Corps to assist community members in 1941. The catalyst for the Motor Corps was an influenza pandemic in 1917.

City’s women confronted influenza pandemic in 1917

Sacrifice and the Red Cross By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

he local Red Cross, organized in 1917, was active in fighting World War I on the home front, as were chapters in surrounding areas.At the same time, the women were defending the local residents against the influenza epidemic of 1918, often referred to as the Spanish flu. Lycoming County was under siege. 62 West Branch Life

Newspaper articles quoted doctors warning that they could not take care of all of the sick or provide all of the nurses needed to help with care. Winifred Maynard wrote in her 1918 diary that her local doctor was not available, as he had volunteered to fight the epidemic in Boston “before it got so bad here.” Saloons, pool halls and barrooms were closed, and churchgoers found the doors locked. Just as public places were opening up again, the next surge would close them down.

Patients were informed of conditions that lasted long after initial recovery, and the papers were filled with ads for over-the-counter tonics such as a cod liver–iron concoction sold by Hopkins Bros. on West Fourth Street. Articles did warn readers not to be taken in by scams, and it was often stated in these articles that exercise, fresh air, nutrition and cheerfulness were the best defenses. Not all agreed on the proper approach to the crisis. School districts

Serving the Community and Beyond : Women of Distinction such as Jersey Shore rebelled against the Board of Health’s recommendation to close the schools, and there was heated debate. Maynard, in her diary, wrote how much she missed attending worship in her “dear” church, Trinity Episcopal, and couldn’t believe that that could be the source of the influenza spread. Some felt that better results in controlling the epidemic could have been achieved had there been more efforts to quarantine ill individuals and place placards at homes where infected individuals lived.

MEETING THE NEEDS

In the midst of community tensions and fears, the Red Cross women took a pragmatic approach—if there was immediate need, they met it. A typical example was described in an article in the Dec. 4, 1918, Williamsport Sun. The story started with an earlier Sun article reporting that two families in Nice’s Hollow outside Jersey Shore were in very serious condition because of the influenza. Within five minutes of receiving this news, the women of the Jersey Shore Red Cross had sent food, clothing and other necessary supplies to the families. The Dec. 4 article went on to report that, as of that writing, the chapter had supplied 122 meals to patients, delivered 70 pneumonia jackets and made 200 masks available for nurses. The Motor Corps, under the direction of Ida Hayes McCormick, is described in the 1981 “Centennial History of the American Red Cross in Williamsport.” The Corps transported doctors, nurses, and supplies to various locations as well as delivering food to residents. Organized in 1918, it had 22 active workers. Usually the women used their own cars; some had never learned to drive before, and others taught themselves how to repair and maintain their vehicles.

SANITARY HOSPITAL AND DAY NURSERY To deal with the influenza emergency, the Red Cross opened Williamsport Sanitary Hospital in South Williamsport on very short notice, with all of the equipment furnished and paid for by the chapter. This included cots, mattresses, pillows, sheets, blankets

and night clothes for patients, as well as uniforms, towels and kitchen supplies for the volunteers. An average of 32 patients were cared for daily, with Mrs. John Rogers, a graduate nurse, in charge. Practically every person providing care in this hospital contracted the disease, many with very serious outcomes. The Red Cross met another immediate need with a day nursery to care for children whose parents had contracted influenza and were hospitalized. Maude Mackey organized the facility in Parish House, with nurse Elizabeth L. Fisher in charge. About 28 children, including many very young babies, were cared for daily.The canteen kitchen that prepared food for soldiers coming through Williamsport on the train also provided food for the ill. The Motor Corps delivered gallons of soup, broth, custards, fruit, milk, and ice cream to the nursery and hospital and to hundreds of individuals throughout the city each day.

SACRIFICE STORE To raise funds for the Red Cross, a Sacrifice Store managed by Rebecca Foresman was established at 146 W. Fourth St. in June of 1918. The venture lasted seven months and earned a profit of $1,500. Homemakers were encouraged to clean house and donate items to the store, and some young children gave up their toys. One woman donated her wedding ring because she had nothing else to give to the cause. A June 15, 1918, article in the Williamsport Sun titled “Sacrifice Store has Host of Attractions” encouraged shoppers to take a look every day because the stock was constantly changing. They could find not only warm clothes, but also furniture, oil paintings, and other treasures. The “motor messenger girls” assisted with transportation of heavy items. The store sponsored groups offering food for sale,such as homemade pies, muffins and potato salad. Women were praised for sacrificing their own household sugar for the baked goods sold in order to raise money for the cause. Foresman provided constant oversight of the store during all the hours it was open. Until then, Foresman, born in Williamsport in 1885, had lived the everyday life typical of women with fi-

nancial resources. She served on committees for the YWCA, was a member of the Clio Club and donated cribs to the Home for the Friendless. She could trace her ancestry back to the American Revolution. In 1915, she had been elected vice-chair of the local anti-suffrage movement; one wonders if she ever had second thoughts about that cause. The word multitasking was not part of the 1918 vocabulary. However, it does describe the actions of the women of the local Red Cross and their “army of Service,” joining the war effort as well as risking their own health and safety to support those suffering during the Great Influenza. Williamsport mayor Archibald Hoagland described these Red Cross volunteers as unselfish, vigorous and of high-class character. During this same period, many of these women were also pursuing the fight to win the right to vote—one more battle in which they proved successful, suggesting that one should never underestimate the strength and persistence of women, especially when they come together for a common cause.

West Branch Life 63

Women of Distinction: Serving the Community and Beyond Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, November 7, 2021

PHOTO PROVIDED

Mt. Equity, Coxʼs home later in life, from the collection of the Lycoming County Historical Society. Used with permission.

Mercy Cox Ellis:

Quaker minister from Pennsdale By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

ercy Cox Ellis (17611848) was a prominent member of the Quaker community in Pennsdale. She was known locally for her kindness and generosity, and after the death of her husband, William Ellis (1751-1806), she continued her 48year ministry that took her all over Pennsylvania, to Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and even to northern Canada. Mercy was from a prominent and wealthy family in Darlington, Maryland, just south of the Pennsylvania border. Her family were members of the Deer Creek Meeting, which is where Mercy met William Ellis. Samuel Wallis, the largest landowner in Lycoming County at the end of the 18th century, had been a member of the same meeting. Wealth, education, culture and elegant living were prevalent among the Maryland Friends. After a long courtship, and not until William had built a home for his wife,

64 West Branch Life

were Mercy and William married at Deer Creek on Feb. 10, 1785. William was already well established in Lycoming County. According to a family history written by their granddaughter Mary Rhoads Haines (Clovercroft Chronicles: 1314-1893, Lippincott, 1893), Mercy’s parents had “strenuously objected to their union in the prospects of their daughter and sister removing to a newly-settled country, where they supposed she might have many privations to endure.” William had followed Samuel Wallis to the Muncy Valley. He was employed as a surveyor and land agent for Wallis, who had established Muncy Farms about 1769 on the 7000 acres of land he had purchased. In 1771, William purchased a tract of land nearby, built a log house and planted a garden and an orchard. In 1778, during the Big Runaway, when attacks by Native Americans and British Loyalists forced settlers to abandon their land and flee to safety at Fort Augusta, in what is now Sunbury, the Ellis log house and garden were destroyed. Not deterred, William built another house.

After their marriage in 1785, Mercy moved with her husband to the wilderness area, where they lived in the log house William had built. Over the next 18 years, Mercy gave birth to 11 children, five of whom survived to adulthood. According to her granddaughter, she accepted the privations of Lycoming County, which were much different from what she was used to in Maryland. By 1792, the couple had moved into their newly constructed home they called Wolf Run, a beautiful, large stone house on the banks of Wolf Run, built with locally quarried stone. The home stands today on Route 220 near Pennsdale and across from the large red barn that was, until recently, an antique store. William built a grist mill and a house for the miller. There were a blacksmith shop and a school nearby. To the west were several for cabins their free Black servants, according to Elizabeth Whitacre (“The Friends’ Settlement in Muncy Valley,” Now and Then, Vol. 20, no. 8, 1982). William was often away from home, traveling on business or attending meet-

Serving the community and beyond : Women of Distinction

PHOTO PROVIDED

Left, an early 19th-century Quaker womanʼs dress, like the kind Cox would have worn. Above, Wolf Run House, the Cox family home. From the collection of the Lycoming County Historical Society. Used with permission.

ings. He wrote long letters to Mercy and, later, to his children. Because their home was on a main thoroughfare, Mercy often entertained visitors. Wolf Run House would become a stop on the Underground Railroad. The house was on the Genesee Trail, a former Indian trail that went from Muncy to Highland Lake, Elklands, through northern Pennsylvania and New York State to Canada, where the former slaves were free. William died in 1806 at the age of 55 and was buried in the Friends Cemetery next to the Quaker Meeting House. Mercy was left with a large household, including four sons and three daughters, several servants and other dependants. Her youngest child was four years old. The Ellis family was quite wealthy, and Mercy and the children were not left in want (Linda Poulton, “By Way of the Ellis Family,” Now and Then, Vol. 26, no. 2, August 2002). When her oldest son took over Wolf

Run, Mercy had a home built for herself and her children across the fields from Wolf Run. The stone building was called The Cottage. The house, which is now referred to as Mt. Equity, is now divided into apartments. For a period, it was the site of a Buddhist monastery. After the death of her husband, Mercy expanded the scope of her active ministry and changed to a simpler style of dress. According to her granddaughter, she felt that “the simplicity of her neat and becoming costume gave her opportunities for more frequently relieving the wants of others.” She was described by her granddaughter as “of small frame but vivacious and happy in disposition, with rare intelligence and possessed of keen executive ability” (Haines, p. 90). The Quaker faith recognized that both men and women could have a calling to ministry, and Mercy gave a great deal of time to her Meeting. She is recognized in Quaker records as a minister. She spoke at meetings near and far and attended both the quarterly and the important yearly meetings in Philadelphia; she was 77 when she made her last trip. At that time, it took four days to travel by carriage to Philadelphia. Locally, Mercy was admired for being generous to the poor. She taught in the local Friends school and boarded students who came from a distance (Poulton). As many women are, Mercy was talented at juggling multiple roles. This mother of 11 continued to be active in the ministry and a leader in the community

until she was quite elderly. She died at The Cottage on Feb. 9, 1848, when she was 87, and is buried in the Quaker Cemetery with her husband and several of their children and grandchildren.

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Women of Distinction: Serving the Community and Beyond Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, April 10, 2022

From Jersey Shore to Siberia:

The Remarkable Journey of

Alice Eck By PATRICIA A. SCOTT West Branch Life

urses have always been heroic. Their work during the current pandemic reminds us of that every day. A century ago, a young woman from Jersey Shore cared for patients in Philadelphia during the Spanish Flu epidemic and then joined the American Red Cross and travelled to Siberia to care for soldiers and civilians during the Russian Civil War. Alice Anastasia Eck, one of eight children, was born on Aug. 5, 1892, in Nippeno, Lycoming County, to William and Lena Eck. She grew up on the family farm in “Eck Town,” an area near Jersey Shore in which many members of the Eck family resided. She attended St. Mary’s Parochial School and Bastress Grammar School. At age 21, she moved to Norristown, where she worked as an attendant at the Hospital for the Insane. From 1915 to May 1918, she studied at the Training School of the Jewish Hospital (now Albert Einstein Medical Center) in Philadelphia. Her training included obstetrics, as well as care of men and children. She scored high marks for conduct, personality, initiative and ability. The school superintendent described her as one of the best nurses in her class and said that she would do excellent work wherever she was sent. She was offered a permanent position at the Jewish Hospital but declined in hopes of joining the American Red Cross.

REGISTERED AS A NURSE On July 31, 1918, she registered as a 66 West Branch Life

nurse in Pennsylvania, and on Sept. 2 submitted her application to the American Red Cross. She listed Camp Meade as her preference and indicated that she was available immediately and willing to serve as long as she was needed. On Sept. 18, 1918, the city of Philadelphia held its Fourth Liberty Loan Drive Parade along 23 blocks of Broad Street. The next day, the first cases of Spanish Flu were reported at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. As the death toll mounted, hospitals sent out an Emergency Epidemic Call. Alice responded, joining the emergency nursing service on Oct. 12. Due to the number of health care professionals serving in World War I, nurses were in short supply, so Alice could not be released for Red Cross service.

FOREIGN SERVICE On Nov. 10, 1918, one day before the Armistice ending the war was signed, Alice’s brother Clarence Eck was killed at the Battle of Meuse-Argonne. By the time, a few months later, when Alice was free to begin her career in the foreign service, she was no longer needed for war duty, so she was attached to the Czecho-Slovak Unit, a part of the Red Cross Mission to Siberia. The American Red Cross presence in Russia was necessary because, in the summer of 1918, the U.S. had joined England, France, Italy and Japan in the fight to prevent the Communist takeover of Russia. Alice sailed from San Francisco on April 24, 1919, and arrived in Vladivostok, Russia on May 18. One of about 500 doctors and nurses deployed to the area, she arrived in the midst of the Russian Civil War, as the White Army

was battling the Bolsheviks for control of Siberia. Poverty, starvation, and disease raged, and the Red Cross was hard pressed to provide care for thousands of people along the 4,100 miles of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Conditions in the hospitals and clinics horrified American medical personnel, who struggled to impose order and

Serving the community and beyond : Women of Distinction Illustration by Kate Anderson. Opposite page (top photo), Alice Eckʼs engagement photo. Below, Eck in a fur collar from a private collection. Used with permission. PHOTOS PROVIDED

to feed, clothe and educate both the military and civilians. Hunger, overcrowding and frequent troop movement brought a rampant increase in typhus, a virulent disease caused by lice. The Red Cross combatted typhus by using railroad cars as stations where people were deloused, disinfected, and given clean clothes and food, an initiative that came to be known as the Great White Train. From mid-June to August, Alice worked mainly in the surgical ward of Omsk Hospital, also serving briefly in Irkutsk. On Nov. 14, she was sent to U.S. Army Field Hospital #4 at VerkhneUdinsk to aid in dealing with the flu epidemic there.

BACK IN THE U.S. By January of 1920, it was clear that the Bolsheviks were winning the war. Alice was evacuated on Jan. 15 with the 27th U.S. Infantry. On Feb. 3, she arrived in Vladivostok, from where she sailed to the U.S. aboard the U.S.S. Great Northern. Ill with septic fever when she arrived home, Alice spent February through

April recovering. She then joined the Visiting Nurses Association. In 1924, Alice went to work as a community nurse for the United Pocahontas Coal Company in Crumpler, West Virginia. It is there that she met Robert Muir. They married in 1927 and had two children: Robert and Mary Alice. The family lived in Philadelphia and in Upper Darby. In 1945, a brain tumor caused Alice to be paralysed on her left side and left her with significant loss of sight and hearing. When Robert died in 1962, Alice moved to Williamsport to live with her sisters Margaret and Loretta. From 1975 until her death in January 1985, she lived at Maria Joseph Manor in Danville. Alice is buried with her husband in Langhorne. Patricia A. Scott, a native of Williamsport, is a librarian and archivist. She worked at Penn State and Bucknell before retiring from Penn College in 2019. She volunteers at the Jersey Shore Historical Society and the Thomas Taber Museum. The article is part of the Lycoming County Women’s History Project series, at www.lycoming.edu/lcwhp.

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Women and Education : Women of Distinction Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, September 8, 2019

Application to graduation

Nursing education during the 20th century in Williamsport By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

ollowing up on a Nov. 13, 2016, article in this column on the founding of the Williamsport Hospital School of Nursing, this article will look at some of the students who attended the school during its early days.

APPLICATIONS Applications of a few of the women who applied to the Williamsport Training School for Nurses tell us nothing about why these individuals chose nursing as their vocation, but the applications do provide a wealth of personal data, as privacy laws did not yet exist. The early forms had to be in the applicant’s handwriting and were sent to the superintendent of nursing, along with a letter from a clergyman or teacher testifying to moral character and a certificate of good health from a physician who had conducted a recent physical examination. Applicants had to state their height and weight, whether they had good hearing and vision, and whether they had a tendency to consumption. There were questions about what church they attended and whether they had any experience in a hospital. Martha Lay, of Lock Haven, was 22

PHOTO PROVIDED

The Louisa Street nursing residence received funding from Ida Hays McCormick to build and furnish the new dormitory. when she applied to the school in 1899. She was single, a Methodist and had no previous experience in a hospital. Lulu Thompson, of Williamsport, was a nontraditional student. Her 1897 application gave her marital status as widow, the ages of her children as 3 and 5 and asked how child care would be arranged—she cited grandparents. The forms sent to references asked if the prospective student had any “physical defects or peculiarities” and inquired if the woman was likely to be called away before completing three

years of study.

CONTRACTS Upon acceptance, students signed contracts with the school that clearly outlined expectations. A 1919 contract states the financial remuneration per month: $6 the first year, $7 the second year, $8 the third year and $36 upon completion of the course. To receive a diploma, the student had to pass her examinations and have satisfactory conduct. She could be terminated at any time “for any cause West Branch Life 69

Women of Distinction: Women and Education deemed sufficient.” In 1925, Beatrice Forsyth, of Williamsport, received a letter from the director of nursing informing her of the items she would need to bring for her three-month probationary period: Several plain non-white wash dresses, two laundry bags, a shoe bag and a watch that records seconds. She was to bring her own scissors, fountain pen and napkin ring. Besides having a “successful vaccination,” she was required to have her teeth recently checked and in good condition.

JOB COMPETENCIES Days were long, study hours enforced and rules about conduct strict; time for pleasure was scarce. The program of instruction was originally 15 months long and then was extended to two years. By 1900, the program had become three years in length. In the first years, because only graduates of established nursing programs were hired by the Williamsport Hospital, local graduates had to seek employment elsewhere. Not until 1899 did Josephine Heiney become the first nurse to be hired by the Williamsport Hospital after graduating from the Williamsport Training School. The following questions, from a 1903 examination paper, offer some insight into expectations for students’ medical knowledge: How would you prepare a patient for an abdominal operation? How do you treat shock? What is sepsis? Along with acquiring medical expertise, the students prepared for their future occupation by cleaning the patients’ rooms, taking care of linens and removing dead flowers. In the early years, duties also included washing the windows, sweeping and mopping floors and carrying coal. By the beginning of the 20th century, more emphasis was placed on patient care than on housekeeping duties. This time period coincided with the redesign of the nurse’s cap to eliminate ruffles and bows.

HOUSING Before the 1890s, no more than one or two women per year graduated from the training program. But with an increase in the number of student nurses making housing more of a challenge, the 70 West Branch Life

PHOTO PROVIDED

Pictured is the nursing class of 1894 with the resident physician and superintendent. new hospital building, constructed in 1891, included a third-floor dormitory room for the students. By the end of the decade, Ida Hays McCormick had donated funds for building and furnishing a new nursing residence on Louisa Street. This building would be used for that purpose for the next 60 years.

GRADUATION The first and only graduate of the program in 1884 was Alta King. The elaborately designed diploma awarded to her stated simply that she “has completed the prescribed course of instruction in the Williamsport Hospital Training School for nurses and has passed a satisfactory examination.” Graduation exercises would retain the same basic format for at least 30 years, as evidenced by a 1913 program. There would be a ministerial invocation, address and benediction, three interludes of music and the awarding of diplomas and prizes. An Alumni Association, started by the nurses in 1895, continues to this day, with members very supportive of the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection.

Women and Education : Women of Distinction Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, March 8, 2020

Dr. June E. Baskin

South Williamsport artist’s passion creates community

By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

lifelong resident of South Williamsport, June E. Baskin (1921-2007) was a talented artist, a revered educator and left a lasting impact in the community. Established in 1986, a gallery bears Baskin’s name and features student art at the Williamsport Area School District Service Center. In her honor, the Dr. June E. Baskin Art Camp, funded by one of her former students in 2006, is held annually for young artists in Lycoming County. The week focuses on a different medium each summer, with teachers volunteering their time and art supplies purchased for each student through the endowment.

EARLY YEARS Baskin was the daughter of Harry and Winona Baskin. The census tells us that her father was a streetcar operator at one time. Her mother was employed for many years at the Noll Funeral Home. As an active member of Christ Episcopal Church, Winona was noted for making church vestments and liturgical needlework. Census records also indicate that Baskin and her two sisters grew up at 502 Main St., a home that had been in the family since 1888 and would remain Baskin’s permanent address for all of her life. Baskin did, however, spend several years away from South Williamsport. She graduated from Kutztown State Teachers College in 1949. The caption under her yearbook picture shows her nickname was “Junie” and described her as “understanding” and “inspiring.” Students were to remember her because of her outstanding talent as an artist

and her subtle wit and sense of humor. Baskin continued her education with a master of fine arts from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University in 1954 and a doctorate in art education from Pennsylvania State University.

CAREER Baskin once more departed from South Williamsport while serving in the Special Services of the United States Army of Occupation, spending two years in Germany in the 1950s. On Aug. 14, 1956, according to a Williamsport Sun-Gazette interview, Baskin described her administrative position as a field craft director, training instructors to teach in the craft shops and photo labs of the Special Services program. She also supervised an automotive shop. Baskin sailed on the ship General Rose, and she took pleasure in traveling through western Europe during her appointment, finding time to sketch, paint and take photographs. The Army men, with whom she worked, were “comrades now that they have recovered from the shock of having a feminine supervisor.” Baskin’s local professional career lasted over 35 years and included teaching at Stevens Junior High School and Cochran Elementary School before her appointment as supervisor of art for the PHOTOS PROVIDED

June E. Baskin graduated from Kutztown State Teachers College in 1949. The caption under her yearbook picture, above on right, shows her nickname was “Junie” and she was described as “understanding” and “inspiring.” This picture was provided from the archives at Kutztown University. Baskin was a community member involved in many organizations. The picture of Baskin at left was provided by the Lycoming County Historical Society. West Branch Life 71

Women of Distinction: Women and Education Williamsport Area School District. As supervisor, she was instrumental in designing the art facilities for the new Williamsport Area High School instructional studios, developing and implementing a comprehensive K–12 art curriculum, encouraging art teachers to pursue their own creative talents and establishing a workshop so teachers could make instructional aids for their classrooms. She also developed a handwriting system called “functional italic” that built on manuscript writing and was taught in the primary grades for many years to increase the legibility of students’ handwriting. According to the South Williamsport Area Historical Collection website, the Dixie BBQ, a popular “hotspot,” used to remind residents that Dr. June Baskin started her working days as a Dixie car hop. In 1945, she was employed as a teacher at the Costello Nursery, a daycare center on Campbell Street that opened to accommodate women working in wartime occupations.

COMMUNITY MEMBER The frequent appearance of Baskin’s name in the local newspaper was evidence of her wide-ranging involvement in community activities. There were talks on children’s and religious arts for organizations, work as an advisor to the Stevens school magazine, preparation of posters for the AAUW Holly Trail, design of scenery for school plays and service on the dedication committee for the new high school. Articles mentioned her memberships in the Williamsport Music Club, St. Mary’s Guild for Christ Episcopal Church, American Association of University Women, Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen and Society of Scribes and Illuminators. There were also congratulatory pieces on her many honors: American Association of University Women’s Woman of the Year, Pennsylvania State University Distinguished Alumnus and awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, to name a few.

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season.” A definition of an artful life is one that’s filled with art you consume, art you create and art that touches hearts. Baskin’s life was all three. She shares her resting place in Wildwood Cemetery with her parents. On her simple tombstone is the grave marker for the Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization dear to her. The marker is a spinning wheel surrounded by stars representing the 13 American colonies and is placed on graves to perpetuate the memory and spirit of those who have gone before. Certainly, in our community, Baskin’s spirit lives on. PHOTO PROVIDED

June E. Baskin, lifelong resident of South Williamsport, was an extraordinary calligrapher and was noted for her original Christmas cards. This card is from Kay Huffmanʼs private collection.

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Baskin was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She filled different roles with the organization, serving in the position of regent from 1995 to 1998. During this time, the local DAR chapter celebrated its centennial, and Baskin was recognized for her bookbinding contributions, both for the preservation of the chapter’s scrapbooks and for the restoration of genealogical and historical reference books housed in the James V. Brown Library. Baskin received the Sons of the American Revolution Martha Washington Medal for giving of herself significantly to her local community.

LIFE AS AN ARTIST

Baskin was an extraordinary calligrapher. She was noted for her original Christmas cards, which were treasured by the recipients. In one mailing, she included this statement: “For the past 25 years I have researched the Holy Ikon of Byzantium. Each year at Christmas-time it has given me so much pleasure to share with you a significant part of this quest in celebration of the

Women and Education : Women of Distinction Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, May 10, 2020

Eyes on the ball

Local women and basketball in the early 20th century By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

he Title IX legislation enacted in 1972 brought attention to the need for equality in athletic opportunities for women in academic institutions. But long before that, females in our area had been on the basketball courts, both in school and for recreation and exercise. As young women began to play basketball in the late 19th century, there were three main concerns: What could they wear that would be sufficiently modest? Would the game be too strenuous for a female’s delicate health? And, would such a sports activity encourage the players to be rough and coarse?

DICKINSON SEMINARY AND JUNIOR COLLEGE In the November 1907 issue of the Dickinson Seminary school newspaper, The Dickinson Union, Miss F.M. Raines wrote an opinion piece entitled “Athletics for Women.” The article generally defends sports for females, stating that engaging in sports keeps them from being nervous, broken down, pale, sickly and without interest in life. Raines believed that basketball, in particular, extends the lungs, exercises all parts of the body, and gives women the courage to overcome the feeling that they must dodge whenever they see something coming toward them. Another report in The Dickinson Union, in 1918, states that coeds realize that “to possess good health one must have athletics.” The school paper covered some of the girls intramural games. There were six players, three on offense and three

on defense, and no player ran the full length of the court. In a report on a 1914 game between seniors and underclass women, it was said that the game resulted in an “annihilation” of the senior team. And the April 1915 issue of The Dickinson Union stated, “Never will it ever be said that the girls of Old Sem can’t play basketball.” The game between the seniors and the underclass women, played in the boys’ gymnasium under girls’ rules, was said to be so exciting that spectators cheered “voluminously.” One of the students, Harriet Brokaw, even earned the nickname “Shooter.” In 1922, Margaret Hale wrote in the school newspaper that girls needed more athletics “in every phase of the word.” Not until 1927 did a section devoted to “Girls’ Basketball” appear in the Below, the Dickinson Seminary Girls Team in 1902. This picture is courtesy of Lycoming College Archives.

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Women of Distinction: Women and Education college’s yearbook. However, the yearbook mentions two games played with the local YWCA team. At the end of the 1928 season, the female basketball team held a banquet at the Yellow Poppy Tea Room. And by 1929, games were being played with high schools from Hughesville and Montoursville, as well as a YWCA team. In the 1932 yearbook, the section on girls’ basketball is entitled “The Feminine Aspect on Basketball.” The text talks about the “brilliant” Miss Eleanor J. Fitch, who coached the “fair Amazons of Dickinson” with their “beautifully ordered and agile bodies.” Some coverage of college games could be found in local newspapers. In 1934, The Grit reported on one of the girls’ games, and afterwards the team was contacted by a “miserably lonely” man who wanted the players to write to him.

WILLIAMSPORT HIGH SCHOOL Girls were also playing basketball at Williamsport High School. The first team was organized in 1911. Four short years later, the Williamsport team had gained a reputation as champions in central Pennsylvania. The 1920 yearbook pictures a team that followed many successful teams but did not score as well. The caption reads, “High had championship girls’ teams, but the five girls on the regular team were the only ones who got any experience. The other girls either dropped out or were neglected.” Needless to say, when the accomplished girls graduated, the others had to learn the game while competing against Lock Haven, Susquehanna and Lewisburg. An article in the Sun-Gazette on Sept. 12, 1914, reported on a game played at the armory between currently enrolled girls and ex-high girls who were “out of practice.” It was a lively game, but the reporter bemoaned the fact that basketball played by girls’ rules was not as interesting as basketball played by the boys.

THE WILLIAMSPORT YWCA In the 1920s, the local YWCA was promoting the need for a permanent facility. During the building campaign, the board stressed that an adequate gymnasium was necessary. Women and girls should “work off a kind of superfluous energy which if not rightly directed, may prove disastrous.” Activities at the YW at this time always included basketball classes as well as basketball coaching instruction. Businesses 74 West Branch Life

The Williamsport District 4 Triple A champion girlsʼ basketball team included Coach Jim Orr, front row left, Dina Zwisle, Lisa Maneval, Terri Bittner, Beth Hayes and Alice Kennedy; Michelle Scaife, second row left, Cyndy Carter, Tanya Hasselman, Lynnette Smith, Dana Gephart and Lynne Slingerland. This picture was published on March 14, 1979, SUN-GAZETTE FILES

sponsored basketball teams that played at the YW, and female employees of such companies as Pennsylvania Power and Light had their own teams. By 1928, 171 women were registered for basketball at the YW. By 1929, the YW had formed the Girls’ Sunday School Basketball League, with Covenant-Central Presbyterian, St. John’s Reformed and St. Boniface as the first teams playing. Soon there were six teams, and the 75 girls who attended the banquet celebrating the end of the season were told by the guest speaker how to apply fair play and basketball training to everyday life. In the 1930s, there was a Community Girls Basketball League. The teams competing had names such as Vallamont, Hi-Tri, Recreation Club, Industrial Girls and the South Side Girls Reserves. Although the word “wellness” may not have been used in these early years, there was an awareness that women and girls needed physical exercise to remain healthy, and that they were fully capable of engaging in sports. The evolution of local girls’ and women’s basketball was part of the long journey to Title IX legislation

Women and Education : Women of Distinction Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday-Sunday, July 11-12, 2020

Dorothy Ester Shank

City native teaching domestic science across U.S. By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

adult life at 330 Park Avenue. Her daughter, Dorothy, would lead a very different life.

he Shank sisters were career women. Martha Shank spent her entire career in Williamsport as the first fulltime female journalist for the Williamsport Sun. She was the subject of a previous Williamsport Women column on March 3, 2019. Her half-sister, Dorothy Ester Shank (1890 to 1966) pursued a career that included teaching, government work, publishing and executive positions in the private business sector. She took advantage of opportunities all over the United States. Dorothy was the daughter of Wilson W. Shank and his second wife, Lucy Updegraff Shank. Lucy (1862 to 1956) was herself distinguished. She traced her ancestors to one of the oldest families of the West Branch Valley, landowners in the Reach Road area before the founding of Williamsport. Lucy was a school teacher prior to her marriage and then enjoyed the same pursuits as many other Williamsport women whose husbands provided the family with a good income. Lucy was an active parishioner of Pine Street Methodist Church, a member of the Clio Club and a supporter of the Home for the Friendless. When she died at the age of 93, she was the oldest living alumna of Williamsport High School. Lucy spent most of her

‘GIRL MAKES GOOD’

An interview with Dorothy appeared in the Sept. 4, 1949, issue of The Grit, entitled “Local girl makes good.” Dorothy confesses to having been a rather poor student at Williamsport High School. She did want to pursue higher education in the developing field of domestic science, however, and was within two days of leaving for Drexel Institute in Philadelphia when she received a telegram from Drexel informing her that she was not to be admitted after all. The school had more applicants than it could accept, and her scholastic record put her too far down on the list to qualify. A cousin found the name of a school in Chicago: Lewis Institute. The school was the first in the country to grant an associate degree in domestic economy and would accept Dorothy even PHOTOS PROVIDED

Above left, Dorothy Shank as pictured in 1912, in the yearbook from Illinois Institute of Technology. This photo was provided by the archives at the institute. Dorothy Shank, born in 1890, was the daughter of Wilson W. and Lucy Shank. Dorothy went on to have a career in teaching, government work and publishing, and held executive positions in the business sector. She was born in Williamsport, though her career provided opportunities throughout the U.S. She is buried in Wildwood Cemetery in Williamsport. West Branch Life 75

Women of Distinction: Women and Education though classes had already begun. When Dorothy graduated from Lewis Institute in 1912, she was president of the Home Economics Club. Home economics teacher, Dorothy’s first teaching position, was in the domestic science department at Lasell Female Seminary in Auburndale, Massachusetts. The catalog introduced the discipline with the following statement: “Since the management of the household is to be the occupation of most women we believe that every woman should have the best theoretical and practical training.” The job also included teaching swimming, and since Dorothy couldn’t swim she engaged an instructor for 10 days of concentrated lessons before her move. As a faculty member she attended alumnae lunches in various East Coast cities, chaperoned the annual student trip to Portsmouth and voiced opposition to holding the first senior prom that would involve dancing with boys. Students declared that her battle cry was “Boil, Bake, Stew” and praised her role as dietician, providing nourishing meals to quarantined students during the 1918 influenza epidemic. In 1917, Dickinson Seminary and Junior College, now Lycoming College, announced that Dorothy Shank would head up the newly established home economics department, a two-year program within the commercial department offerings. There would be classes in the manufacturing of clothing, nutritional value and digestibility of food, and knowledge of advantageous buying, right living and sanitation. Specific class descriptions mentioned the making of undergarments, invalid cooking and care of laundry. After a short time, Dorothy returned to Lasell, and as her career developed over time, she communicated her activities in the “Personal” section of the Lasell Leaves. She would earn her bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and study in Paris. 76 West Branch Life

She lived in Chicago and later New York, eventually retiring as vice president of Harvey and Howe Publishing Company. In 1962, Dorothy shared with Lasell the news that she was coauthoring another edition of a textbook for senior high school students. The book would be published by McGraw-Hill and entitled “Guide to Modern Meals.” She commented that “retirement is fun if you have the time for it.” Dorothy is buried in Wildwood Cemetery with her sister and parents. In that 1949 newspaper interview, she would observe that “Williamsport is still home to me.” However, her diverse career which took her far from home, would be the envy of a 21st-century woman.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Dorothy was employed by the American Stove Company in Cleveland, Ohio, and she was responsible for the publication “Magic Chef Cooking,” a recipe book designed to promote the Lorain Oven Heat Regulator. This product allowed cooks to spend less time checking on food in order to regulate the gas flow.

FOOD RESEARCH, TEST KITCHENS AND FOOD SHORTAGES More teaching positions followed, and the American Stove Company, Cleveland, Ohio, could boast that the director of its test kitchen had formerly been an instructor of food research in the Household Arts Department at Columbia University. Dorothy was responsible for the publication “Magic Chef Cooking” for the stove company—a recipe book designed to promote the Lorain Oven Heat Regulator. For the first time, cooks did not have to watch food while it baked so that they could regulate the gas flow. World War II found Dorothy working in Washington, D.C., for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Bureau of Home Economics as head of the Food Section, Nutritional Bureau. Her responsibility was investigating food shortages.

FOOD EDITOR After leaving government service, Dorothy became a counselor to home economists around the country in her position as food editor for the publication “What’s New in Home Economics.”

Women and Education : Women of Distinction Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday-Sunday, May 30, 2021

Literary society played key role in students’ lives By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

iterary societies were popular at colleges in the 19th century, and Dickinson Seminary (now Lycoming College) was no exception. At a time when students studied within a rigid educational system, the societies offered some academic freedom—and provided a social life. Men at the seminary could choose among several literary societies, but there was only one for the women: The Tripartite Union. The society was founded by Harriet Clarista Clark (1827–1919), and the name that she chose for it was a reference to a political pact among the three great European powers at that time—England, France and Russia. In the local union, the three entities were the three elements in the society’s inspiring motto, “The Good, the Beautiful, and the True.” Clarista also selected the motto, appropriating the title of a popular work by Victor Cousin. An 1856 school publication included a student editorial in which the writer talked about a changing world in which “women are no longer held in bondage by the household weaving loom, or by the needle.” At the end of the article was this appeal to Tripartite members: “in the progress of your education ... we trust you will never abuse these gifts by attempts to go beyond the proper sphere of woman.” This sentiment is perhaps in keeping with the Latin phrase often seen on the union’s programs: “Utile dulcimer,” which can be translated “The useful and the agreeable” or “No matter what practical work needs to be done, remain pleasant and friendly.” The columnist’s advice is less in keeping, however, with the absolute equality desired by many of the society members.

PHOTO PROVIDED

This photograph from Lycoming Collegeʼs archives shows the Tripartite Union members in 1917.

FOUNDER CLARISTA CLARK Born in Sydney Plains, New York, and educated by governesses and district schools, Clarista Clark was considered a French scholar by the age of 10 and delighted in the scientific study of plants. She joined the seminary faculty in 1852 and was listed in the school’s catalog as preceptress and teacher of ornamental branches and taught French. After several years, she left the seminary to marry a widower, Dr. Larenzo McCabe, a noted Methodist theologian and philosopher who would teach at Ohio Wesleyan University for the rest of their lives. She wrote the first constitution for the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Ohio and was active in the National Home Missionary Society and National Woman’s Indian Association.

At her death, newspapers in various states carried a small paragraph memorializing her role in women’s work. Clarista’s tombstone reads “Philanthropist, pioneer in women’s work for temperance and missions.”

THE LADIES DEBATE The wives of seminary presidents always took a special interest in the Tripartite Union, and in 1886, Eva Gray, married to President Edward Gray, gave a talk on the history of the society. She had actually been a member of the society as a student in the 1860s. She remembered Clarista as “straight as a hollyhock, her hair brown, like twilight shadows, her eyes like twinkling stars ... their light fell upon all dark deeds of the young ladies.” A letter written by Clarista for the occasion expressed her wish that the union would “show ladies the loveliness of a West Branch Life 77

Women of Distinction: Women and Education good and true life, which would be beautiful and glorious hereafter.” Clarista went on to reflect on her disappointment that the members did not hold debates in those early years. She believed that debating sharpened the wits, and since women always liked the last word, those words should be logical. Once the women did start debating, topics over the years covered a wide range of subjects: “That the battle of Gettysburg exerted greater influence on civilization than Waterloo,” “Chivalry has done more for the elevation of woman than Christianity,” “Volapak should become a universal language,” “The world is growing morally better,” “Ambition has caused more evil than intemperance,” “Are athletics as now practiced in our schools detrimental?” Judges for the debates were from the faculty or the community, and the school newspaper noted that, in the case of intersociety debates with the young men, the ladies often won. In the spring, the union held an annual entertainment open to the public. Starting with a prayer, it would then include several musical renditions, readings, a debate, or a short dramatic presentation.

SOCIETY MEETINGS Tripartite ladies were elected to the usual offices—and a few others: librarian, sub-librarian, and janitor. Librarian was actually a much-sought-after office. At the time, there was no central library for the seminary, so the literary societies filled the void with donated books or ones that they purchased. The records that remain of the society contain carefully handwritten minutes of meetings that followed strict parliamentary procedure. Membership was voluntary, and the treasurer recorded annual dues of $1.25 from each of the 30 to 40 ladies who were active each year. Meetings were first held in the original chapel building and then, upon the construction of Bradley Hall, in the society’s own “cozy” room. The walls were lined with books, and there were reproductions of paintings and sculpture as well as a piano and a raised platform. Topics of society programs included composers, writers, travel and issues of current interest, such as women’s suffrage. There was always time on the monthly calendar for events planned by the social committee. The early school literary magazine,

which also functioned as a school newspaper, was under the direction of the literary societies. However, Tripartite women were not allowed to attain the position of editor. They withdrew their support and did not participate in the publications for a decade until that opportunity was opened to them. As the 20th Century began, there were school newspaper articles reminding students of the reasons to become members of a literary society: They could practice knowledge gained in the classroom, cultivate speaking ability while gaining selfconfidence, learn to express opinions in acceptable ways and get to know people. But on college campuses in general, literary societies were evolving into social fraternities and sororities and honorary societies. There was much more competition for students’ leisure time, and the radio was now a big distraction. Just such a radio was installed on the seminary campus in 1924 and was described in the school’s yearbook as “eternally in use” and “a constant source of entertainment.” By the 1927 yearbook, the Tripartite Union is no longer mentioned. And it is hard to imagine a 21st-century co-ed spending her Saturday evenings at a literary society.

Women and Education : Women of Distinction Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, July 4, 2021

Katharine Williams Bennet Feminist, librarian and local historian

By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

atharine Bennet (1885-1968) was a librarian, a local historian and a writer. One of her more intriguing works, entitled “Lo, the poor Spinster by One of Them,” begins “I am a spinster and in as far as I know, endocrinally speaking, normal. I am also a virgin—my reasons for as being are personal—and I shall not discuss them. But I wish to protest against the commiseration for and general misunderstanding of, the unmated female in the literature of feminism.” When Janet Hurlbert and I, co-authors of this Lycoming County Women series, came across this piece, we could not help but want to know more about her life and work. Bennet was very knowledgeable about local

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Katharine Williams Bennet, shown below and above as part of a class at the Muncy Normal School, was a librarian and writer who joined the staff of the James V. Brown Library when it first opened in 1907. history. She wrote a series of articles for the Williamsport Sun and for the Journal of the Lycoming County Historical Society, a number of which were about women. Bennet’s entire library career was at Williamsport’s James V. Brown Library. She was a member of the original staff when the library opened in 1907, starting out as the children’s librarian. In 1921, she was appointed Assistant Librarian to O. R. Howard Thomson, and after his death in 1943, she became Head Librarian. She held that position until her retirement in 1960 at the age of 74, at which time she had served the library

Women of Distinction: Women and Education for 52 years. When I saw the date of her retirement, it came back to me that Bennet must have been the one who hired me, a senior at Williamsport High School, to be a page in the library. It was my first library job and set me on the path to a career in librarianship. Bennet was the daughter of John Andrew Bennet and Emma Williams Bennet of Fairfield Township and Montoursville. She attended Montoursville public schools and the former Muncy Normal School. It appears as if she may have taught school after she graduated from Normal School, but we cannot verify that. After she accepted a position at the Brown library, she took extension courses in library science at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Chicago. DESCENDANT OF ONE OF WILLIAMSPORT’S EARLIEST SETTLERS Bennet is a descendant of one of Williamsport’s oldest families. Her greatgreat-grandparents were Amariah Sutton (1728-1817) and Mary Letitia Haines Sutton (1734-1781). Amariah Sutton was one of the earliest landowners in the West Branch Valley, after coming here from New Jersey in 1770. Sutton was also one of the few Williamsport settlers of the time to own slaves. The large parcel of land he owned, acquired by patent from William Penn, was on the east side of Lycoming Creek. According to the Lycoming County Historical Society, his log cabin was used as a preaching place for early Methodist circuit riders. Katharine Bennet’s great-grandparents were the Suttons’ daughter Letitia Sutton Williams (1774-1862) and Joseph Williams (1770-1841). Joseph Williams, a New Jersey native, was a civil engineer, and he was hired by Michael Ross to survey Ross’s riverfront farm and divide it into town lots. Some historians speculate that Williamsport, which was officially founded in 1795, was named after Joseph Williams.

‘LO, THE POOR SPINSTER’ Returning to Bennet’s feminist writing, we were not able to determine where, if anywhere, the piece was published. But this spirited defense of unmarried, independent women makes clear that Katharine Bennet was not shy or apologetic about being an unmarried woman. She went on to say, “Time was, when marriage was a woman’s only destiny. Failing that, she became a burden to so80 West Branch Life

ciety and led a parasitic life. Few positions were open to her, and such as were, brought with them a train of humiliations.” Writing on behalf of independent women such as herself, she asked if antifeminists “mistake woman’s economic freedom as a substitution for woman’s erotic impulses?” In addition to carrying out her library responsibilities and doing research and writing, Bennet was involved in the community on many different levels. Within the library community, she was active in the Pennsylvania Library Association and other professional organizations. She was commended for being one of the first to acquire paperback books for the library in 1947. These paperbacks, mostly mysteries, westerns, and romance novels, were portable and easy to carry. They had been introduced to servicemen and women during World War II. Bennet was elected president of the Lycoming County Historical Society in 1930 and was, for a time, the curator. She was an officer of the Pennsylvania Society of Archaeology, and among the projects she initiated was researching and documenting the trails used by Native Americans in the area. An active member of the Lycoming County Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, she traced her lineage to Andrew Bennet, who had served as a private in Capt. John Franklin’s company, Pennsylvania Service. She was also involved in the music community, including the Community Concert Association. And she demonstrated her concern for Williamsport residents by serving as president of the Social Services Bureau. After her retirement at the age of 74, Bennet’s health declined. She lived for a period of time at the Williamsport Nursing Home and then died in 1968 and was buried in Edgewood Cemetery in Loyalsock Township.

BENNET KEEPS HISTORY ALIVE The Bennet manuscript collection at the Lycoming County Historical Society includes her writings on the settlement of the West Branch Valley, the early days of Williamsport, the Civil War, and other interesting topics. She often incorporated her ancestors into the plays and articles that she authored. In her column “Stories of the West Branch Valley,” which appeared regularly in the Sun in 1928, Bennet often featured

women. “Preaching Quakeress” is the story of Mercy Cox Ellis, who was active in the ministry throughout the northeast and was a teacher at the Friends School in Pennsdale. Ellis’s home for a period was the Wolf Run House in Pennsdale, a station on the Underground Railroad. Bennet dedicated one of her columns to Madame Montour, the native American woman who founded a village in what is now Montoursville. That piece is entitled “America’s First Feminist.” Bennet also told the story of Rachel Silverthorne, a young single woman who traveled the countryside on horseback to warn Muncy residents of an imminent Indian attack when no men came forward to carry out the dangerous mission. And she wrote about Widow Catherine Smith, a munitions maker living along White Deer Creek, who had a boring mill in addition to a saw and a grist mill. Smith provided weapons to the local militias during the Revolutionary War. Each of these women merits her own profile in an upcoming installment of the Lycoming County Women series.

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Women of Distinction: Women and Education Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, August 8, 2021

Pioneers

Women in Lycoming County pursued higher education

By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

t the turn of the 20th Century, higher education for women was a controversial subject. Some “research” indicated that such an education could very well be harmful to a woman’s health and fertility. Although women earned more high school degrees than men in 1900, it wasn’t until the next three decades that the number of college diplomas began to steadily increase. Women could attain independence and equality through education and suffrage; the two were inseparable.

WILLIAMSPORT COLLEGE CLUB It was this climate that encouraged the formation of college clubs in communities throughout the country including Williamsport. Many of the women featured in this column were educated themselves and encouraged it for others. Some, like Katherine Williams Bennett, were members of the Williamsport College Club. Minnie Taylor created a scholarship at Dickinson Seminary for women through the club. A Helen Hoyt column in the SunGazette on May 17, 1915, introduced a new organization begun in 1914 that would bring together college-educated women in a social setting and also encourage girls to pursue higher education. It was true that advanced education delayed marrying and bearing children and enabled independence, so many of the club members had “Miss” before their names. The Hoyt column described this club, which met at the YWCA, as one of the most active in the city, with 40-50 members. These college graduates were also “taking a noticeable part in the suffrage movement sweeping the city.” Plans for the future included establishing their own clubhouse and creating a scholarship. At the end of the article was a list of the colleges represented by members: Wells, Oberlin, Vassar, Cor82 West Branch Life

nell, Goucher, and Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia.

MARY GRAHAM AND DR. A.M. CASTLEBURY Two early presidents of the College Club probably illustrated the different personalities and backgrounds of members. Mary Stewart Emery Graham (1880-1939) was always referred to as “Mrs. James B. Graham” in the newspaper. Before marriage, she was often mentioned in the social columns with her visits home from Wells College, sailing for a European vacation and as a bridesmaid in many weddings. At college, she was active in student government and the YWCA. Graham married in 1907, and she and her husband, who later became president of Lycoming Trust Co., lived in Jersey Shore before moving to Williamsport and re-

PHOTO PROVIDED

Above, Mary Graham and her graduating class at Wells College in Aurora, New York. Below, Dr. A.M. Castlebury siding at 331 Campbell St. Frequent newspaper social columns mentioned her attending dinners, entertaining at her home and engaging in numerous activities for Covenant Presbyterian Church including canvassing the neighborhood to encourage children to enroll in church activities. The Grahams traveled to the Mediterranean, West Indies and South America, but Mary was even wellknown enough to merit a one-sentence mention in the paper when she left Jersey Shore to go shopping in Williamsport. At the time of her 25th college reunion, Mary wrote that she was “living the usual life of a small city.” She didn’t have children and was sorry she had no daughter to send to Wells.

Women and Education : Women of Distinction Alzine Castlebury (1859-1920) was always referred to in the newspaper as Dr. A. M. Castlebury, with her name blending in perfectly when a 1906 article listed the members at the end of an article “County Medical Men Hold Monthly Meeting.” She came from a family with English Quaker roots and a long history in Pennsylvania though she, herself, was a member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. Educated in county public schools and Montoursville Normal School, she was listed in the 1889 census as a teacher, but, in 1892, she went on to graduate from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, with her practice described as “allopath,” which meant she practiced medicine based in science. Castlebury specialized in diseases of women, and she presented scientific papers before the Lycoming County Medical Society. Parent-teacher associations at various schools would ask her to speak about sex hygiene and her presentations were described as “strong talk” illustrated by charts.

Castlebury held office in the Clio Club and was a member of the Pennsylvania State Suffrage Association, but the College Club held a prominent place in her activities. She often hosted the group at her home at 945 Campbell Street. Her obituary described her as an “honored physician” and the College Club established a $100 annual scholarship in her memory to be given to a young woman seeking a medical degree.

WILLIAMSPORT COLLEGE CLUB ACTIVITIES The College Club sponsored speakers of interest to the educated woman with a small fee charged for guests. Often, the presenters were experts brought in from out of town and the contents of their speeches were covered extensively in the newspaper. The drama group was especially active. Not only did they entertain at meetings with a balcony scene from “Romeo and Juliet” for example, or an original play written and acted by Williamsport High School students, but

they also sponsored a one-act play tournament for the area. There were panels on careers for women, and musical events held at Dickinson Seminary. The group reached out to college women home on vacation and there were many social events — the annual June garden party, the annual May luncheon at the Country Club, the annual Christmas Party at the Women’s Club, the fall buffet, and card games after business meetings. As with most organizations, the members participated fully in the local war efforts during World War I and World War II. In 1947, when membership in the American Association of University Women became less restrictive, the Williamsport College Club sought affiliation. The club had existed for decades, presumably with yearbooks, minutes, printed programs, and correspondence. Nothing remains today to record its existence except newspaper articles. It is a lesson for organizations to preserve their past by donating their archives to local historical societies.

Women of Distinction: Women and Education Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday - Sunday, February 6, 2022

The Seminary in the Wilderness: an early school for women

By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

n 1805, a Quaker couple, John Norris (1768– 1849) and his wife, Beulah Jackson Norris (1793–1869), settled in the wilderness of Pine Township, in the far north of Lycoming County, and established a boarding school for girls. At first called the Norris Seminary, it soon became known as the Seminary in the Wilderness. Teenage girls from Williamsport, Montoursville, Jersey Shore and other settlements along the Susquehanna made the journey to attend the school, the only place in northern Pennsylvania that young women could further their education at the time. (The word seminary can refer to an institution for the training of candidates for the priesthood, ministry, or rabbinate, but also simply, as in this case, an institution of secondary or higher education.)

STATE ROAD OF 1799 The school was on the new state road that opened in 1799 and connected Newberry to Painted Post, New York. John Norris and his wife had bought land in Pine Township in 1800, just after the road was open. John Norris was born in England and was educated at Oxford University. Beulah Norris was from Philadelphia. John was a land agent for a Philadelphia man, Benjamin Wister Morris, and together they were promoting the development of the region. 84 West Branch Life

The school was in the hamlet of Texas, which no longer exists as a town, but would be about 45 minutes northwest of Williamsport on today’s roads, not far from the towns of Navroo and Morris, and the Texas and Blockhouse Fish and Game Club. One can only wonder what the trip took in those years — perhaps on a plank road or a narrow dirt road — in a horse and cart. There was no public transportation on the road until 1819.

TWO-STORY HOUSE The Norrises had a two-story frame house, divided into four square rooms on the first floor and a living space on the second floor. A two-story house was relatively unique for the time in Lycoming County. Both the Norrises and the boarding students stayed in the house. Together, the couple administered the school and taught its classes. The school was established solely for the purpose of educating young women and was very successful. It was a bold venture for the time. According to John Meginness in the “History of Lycoming County” (1892), “some of the best young ladies of that day were educated at

PHOTOS PROVIDED

“Advice,” a poem in the handwriting of Elizabeth Ross, the daughter of Michael Ross, used with permission of the Lycoming County Historical Society. A drawing of Norris Seminary in Pine Township by Kate Anderson.

Women and Education : Women of Distinction the wilderness seminary.” He mentions Ann and Hannah Blackwell, Maria Davidson, Jane Morrison, Priscilla Morrison and Elizabeth Porter. One aim of the school to was help the young women find good husbands, and in that, it seems to have succeeded.

SARAH BURROWS CORYELL One of the Seminary students, Sarah Burrows (1793-1869), married Tunison Coryell (17911881), who began his career as a clerk to Sarah’s father, and later became a wealthy man “closely identified with the progress and development of Lycoming County for more than half a century,” according to Meginness. Sarah’s parents were Gen. John Burrows, the founder of Montoursville, and his wife, Jane Torbert Burrows. Gen. Burrows had spent the winter with Gen. George Washington at Valley Forge, but this did not put him on the path to success. After having tried and failed at several business ventures, he “disposed of his tools and he took his wife and five children (one of them at her breast), and a bound boy, and started for Muncy,” where they moved into “a log cabin about sixteen feet square with another family of six children,” according to his autobiography. Sarah Burrows was that infant at the breast. Her mother, Jane, died in 1804, when she was 10 years old. The family moved from place to place in Muncy Valley until 1812, when Gen. Burrows purchased the land that became Montoursville. There were few opportunities for education for Sarah.

MARRIAGE TO CORYELL After her marriage, Sarah and her husband moved into their new home on what was then Front Street, near the river at the foot of Pine Street in Williamsport. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary at the same home, and Sarah

died there in 1869. A writer for the Muncy Luminary commented at the time of her death: “What changes have occurred in these fifty years. The rural village of a few hundred inhabitants in 1819, settled among the trees, with only here and there a cluster of storerooms for accommodating the people with their supplies in dry goods, groceries, etc., is today [1869] an inland city with its thousands struggling for life, wealth and position.” Coryell died in that same home 12 years later in 1881. Among their many descendants is William Gibson, president of the Lycoming County Genealogical Society.

Street. They had three children, Ann, Mary and William. Mary married William Packer, the 14th governor of Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Ross died in 1828 at the age of 38. The next year, Peter married Elizabeth Grafius. After about a decade, John and Beulah Norris closed the Seminary in the Wilderness and relocated to Wellsboro. They are buried in the Wellsboro Cemetery with their daughter Cornelia (18071826). The building that housed the seminary is gone now, and only some of the foundation stones remain. According to Harry Stephenson Sr., author of “History of Little Pine Valley” (Camp Hill, PA, 1992) only a few local residents know where the seminary once stood. PHOTO PROVIDED

An 1839 oil portrait of Sarah Burrows Coryell by John F. Francis, from the collection of William Gibson, used with permission.

ELIZABETH ROSS Another Seminary student was Elizabeth Ross (1790-1828). She was the oldest daughter of Michael Ross, the founder of Williamsport, and his wife, Ann Corsen. She was born just five years after Lycoming County was established. In 1800, when Elizabeth was 10, Williamsport had 131 residents and no school buildings. The Ross family moved into an abandoned cabin. She would have been 15 or 16 when she attended the Seminary in the Wilderness. In the collection of the Lycoming County Historical Society are books and journals that belonged to the Ross family, including a hand-stitched booklet of handwriting exercises completed and signed by Elizabeth. MARRIAGE TO VANDERBELT She was 19 when she married Peter Wykoff Vanderbelt (1786-1871). He was from one of the wealthiest families in Williamsport. The Vanderbelts lived on the eastern border of Williamsport, on Vanderbelt Street, now called Penn West Branch Life 85

Women of Distinction: Women and Education Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday - Sunday, March 5-6, 2022

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Former Williamsport Dickinson Seminary student Emery Mack “Pete” Bell kept a scrapbook of her time at school. Bell kept photos that were important to her, such as a photo of the Seminary in her graduation year, top. The photo shown below of Bell was provided by the Lycoming College Archives.

The Scrapbook of

Emery Mack Bell: A window to WWI life By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

he history of Lycoming County women appears in unexpected places. Perusing World War I items at a Baltimore flea market, Erich Marschner discovered a scrapbook of a student who was attending Williamsport Dickinson Seminary during the war. 86 West Branch Life

He was intrigued not only by the scrapbook’s descriptions of war events, but also about the day-to-day life of its author, Emery Mack “Pete” Bell, an enthusiastic student with a keen sense of humor. Marschner bought the scrapbook for $25, hoping to return it to some of Bell’s de-

scendants, but when that proved impossible, he donated the book to the archives at Lycoming College.

EMERY BELL Emery Mack “Pete” Bell (1898–1960) was born in Easton, Pa., the daughter of John and Claudia Kitchen Bell.

Women and Education : Women of Distinction Her father and grandfather were Methodist ministers, and her father graduated from Lafayette College. Although Bell attended the Seminary after high school, correspondence between her father, “Brother Bell,” and the school president, Benjamín Conner, tells us that as early as 1913, she traveled by train from her home in Watsontown to the Seminary on Saturdays to take violin lessons, which cost $1 apiece. Bell’s memory book captures not just current events, but school rules, details of musical and theater productions, glimpses of life in Williamsport, and mementos from social occasions. Bell earned good grades during her time at the Seminary—one semester collected in the scrapbook showed Psychology A, Bible A, Piano B, Violin A, Harmony B, Music History A, Deportment, A. A math test on which she got a B has her note on the bottom: “These look very simple—but believe me they are not.” The Belles Lettres Literary Society for young ladies was an important part of Bell’s social life. The girls sang victory songs before competing against their male rivals the Gammas. For example, the scrapbook reports how before a debate, the girls set their chant “We’ll give the Gammas one good fight. We’ll pay up every debt” to the melody of “Auld Lang Syn.” During Bell’s junior year, her father was invited to address the students at chapel. The school newspaper describes the subject as “The glory of a young man is his strength” and says it was “instructive, inspiring, and practicable.” Perhaps the students sang the Williamsport Dickinson Seminary student prayer found in the scrapbook: “Help us to meet each daily task. And strive till we have won. Then shall we glorify thy name, and honor Dickinson.” Programs from campus concerts and theatrical performers fill the memory book. Bell played the violin and performed in plays, as well as contributing to the school newspaper and holding offices in clubs. Her newspaper article “The Aristocrat and the Democrat” defines the different types of aristocracy and compares them to democracy. Bell included a mimeographed announcement from the school that informed senior girls of their privileges.

They could skip breakfast, gain shopping privileges and be on the upper campus any time of day. Seniors could also play tennis with the boys during the day and use the bowling alley with other girls as long as there was a chaperone. No item seems too small to be included: the remnants from a candy wrapper given to her by a classmate when she was very hungry, her baby comb, flowers now dried beyond recognition from various occasions and some straw “as a reminder of our wild ride, Friday evening, March 22, 1918.”

LIFE IN WILLIAMSPORT Bell took advantage of her life in Williamsport. She dined at tea rooms, one of which was represented by a newspaper clipping advertising the Vogue Tea Room located Over 41 W Fourth St. that offered “a dainty luncheon any time after 11 a.m.” Perhaps too dainty to satisfy young people, because there was also a special serving of waffles for seminary students between 4 and 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. She included church bulletins and movie tickets, and notes from lectures, such as one she termed “wonderful” by Bishop Hughes titled “The Autobiography of a Boy,” held at a conference in Newberry. World War I is woven into the entire 55-page scrapbook. The first page has a copy of The Pledge of Allegiance, and there are various clippings with reminders such as “Hush, little thrift stamp, don’t you cry, you’ll be a war bond by and by.” A program from a play in Watsontown notes that the ticket profits will support the Red Cross. There are many references to the Kaiser in writings and poems clipped from various sources. One article said that even ministers had run out of words to illustrate the evil character of the German emperor. A poem titled “Hymn of Hate” includes the lines “My Tuesdays are meatless, my coffee is sweetless, my stockings are feetless, how I do hate the Kaiser.” Another undated newspaper article states that the Kaiser is Darwin’s missing link because he represents a cross between the devil and a boa constrictor. In 1918, Bell graduated from the Seminary with a degree in instrumental music with expertise that allowed her to step in when a touring Russian violinist

did not arrive for his concert. An alumni news column mentions Bell returning to visit campus after graduation, but the scrapbook leaves many mysteries. We may never know why students referred to her as “Pete” or why the campus newspaper, when giving tribute to the graduating seniors, mentioned that students will miss Bell’s “social-holding propensities.” From the 1920 Census, we know Bell worked as a stenographer at a peanut factory in Bradford, Pa. Her father had accepted a church appointment there during her time at the Seminary. The Bradford newspaper mentions her being active in the local Methodist church as well as playing the violin at community functions. Bell died in Longmeadow, Mass., where her sister lived. Her obituary, published in the Sunbury Daily Item on March 17, 1960, states that she graduated from the Churchman Business School in Easton, Pa., in 1919, and later worked for a real estate company in Longmeadow. Bell is buried in a family plot in Easton.

West Branch Life 87

Women of Distinction: Women and Education Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday - Sunday, July 9-10, 2022

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Doris Heller Teufel, third from right, in a Lycoming College yearbook photo with the other members of the Associated Women Students.

Doris Heller Teufel: A fierce and fearless dynamo By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

oris Tanger Heller Teufel (1933–2022)—or Dodie, as she was affectionately called—grew up in Williamsport. Thus, it was convenient for her to attend Lycoming College as a commuter student coming to school from her home at 1215 Penn St. However, unlike many commuter students, who stayed on campus only long enough to attend classes, Teufel thrived on everything the college had to offer. Williamsport Junior College had become a four-year institution in 1948, and the new Lycoming College was establishing itself with all the accreditation procedures, traditions, and organizations that a four-year school

88 West Branch Life

should have. Many insights into Teufel’s college years can be gleaned from the documentary evidence: her scrapbook, her yearbooks and the college newspaper.

THE SCRAPBOOK Printed on the first page of Teufel’s plain purple scrapbook is “1950– 1954.” The photo on the page is of a young woman wearing formal dress and a corsage, accompanied by her date in a tux. Although the scrapbook does not say that Teufel graduated cum laude, it does include a certificate commemorating her being awarded the Faculty Prize in 1953. What primarily fills the book is evidence of Teufel’s passion for music. As she said, “Singing enriched my whole college experience im-

mensely.” She was chosen for The Singers, a select Lycoming College choral group that toured and was much in demand at churches and schools. As a member of the A Cappella Choir, she sang at the dedication of Long Library, a building essential to the accreditation of the new four-year school. Her senior music recital included works by Bach and Schubert. Also in the scrapbook are programs and letters showing that Teufel maintained a musical connection with the city’s Civic Choir. In fact, she was selected as one of the soloists for the choir’s annual performance of Handel’s “Messiah,” held at Pine Street Church. She was to sing many lead roles with the group through the years after graduation.

Women and Education : Women of Distinction THE YEARBOOKS

“THE ARTS MAKE LIFE WORTH LIVING”

The yearbooks confirm Teufel’s position as a presence on campus. In the annuals for both her sophomore year and her junior year, she is pictured as one of three students (one per class) selected for a “Who’s Who” feature. The yearbooks also show her to have been a crown bearer at the May Day Celebration, a fraternity sweetheart at Homecoming, and Crescent Queen of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. In honor of her coronation as queen she received both a kiss and a bouquet of white roses.

THE COLLEGE NEWSPAPER A search of the college newspaper, The Courier, turns up many instances of the name Heller. Doris Heller Teufel was involved in the business management of the newspaper, as well as in such organizations as the Non-Resident Women’s Association, of which she was vice-president; the Pre-medical Society, associated with her biology major and psychology minor; and student government. But being mentioned in the newspaper was nothing new for Teufel. On August 30, 2021, an article in the Williamsport Sun- Gazette’s “A Piece of Our Past” column included a picture in which ninth-grade Doris at Curtin Junior High School was featured for appearing in the operetta “Pirates of Penzance.” A college newspaper article titled “AWS Plan to Eat” describes many of the activities of the Associated Women Students, an organization of which Teufel was the first president. The article pictures young women in saddle shoes sponsoring coffee hours, holding teas for Christmas and Mother’s Day, meeting together at local restaurants, and serving refreshments when guest speakers came to campus. Lycoming was one of the few colleges to adopt such a program, open to all female students and designed to foster relations among women on campus. The organization’s mission was “to encourage and sponsor activities and to encourage co-

operation in community living and create a spirit of mutual helpfulness and understanding.” To instill a spirit of community, the group held activities such as talent shows, picnics, and a masquerade ball. Later this organization would fall under the auspices of the national Intercollegiate Association of Women Students, a group dedicated to developing attitudes by which women could govern themselves throughout college and life. It should be noted that not every newspaper reference to Teufel was a complimentary one. A gossipy mention of her in the school newspaper stated, “We wish Doris Heller, ’54, would pay attention to chapel speakers.”

Teufel’s connection with her college lasted a lifetime. She came back to present a recital for the Clarke Chapel Alumni concert series, and she participated in many other alumni activities including fund raising. Her love of travel led to the establishment of a scholarship for students to study abroad. She is quoted in a college newsletter as saying, “It is such a pleasure in giving outside of yourself.” Teufel believed that “the arts make life worth living,” and she devoted her talents and resources to the causes that she felt passionate about. She was dedicated to her career as an art and music teacher, instructing students at George Becht, Jefferson and Sheridan schools and later at Roosevelt Junior High School and Williamsport Area High School. She sang in community productions, and her artwork appeared in local exhibitions. As cultural director for the summer programs of the Williamsport Recreation Commission from 1971 to 1979, she started Home Made Days. Her membership in the Williamsport Music Club spanned 60 years, and during that time not only did she direct the Williamsport Junior Music Club for 17 years, but she was also instrumental in coordinating the Budd Memorial Scholarship to support young musicians. Teufel was proud of her family’s history in the community. She was a member of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and served as Regent from 2004 to 2007. Her name is prominent in the programs, which cite her as serving on committees, hosting meetings, helping to write original music, and singing at events. Teufel married late in life. She and her husband, Thomas Teufel, were longtime members of Messiah Lutheran Church. They had no children, but she West Branch Life 89

Women of Distinction: Women and Education mentored many young women who considered themselves her “student daughters.” Some young people were inspired by her gardening to seek careers in the horticultural field. Thomas Teufel’s obituary stated that “community involvement and service to others were prominent in his life.” The same was true of Doris Teufel. She was described at her funeral service as “fierce and fearless in her dedication to people and programs,” a “dynamo” with her enthusiasm for causes that she believed in, and “generous” with her time and many talents. Teufel said that her father, who worked at the Williamsport Water Authority for over 50 years, taught her that “as long as you know you’ve done it, that is all that counts.” Doris Teufel’s life is a testament to the difference one person can make in a community. PHOTOS PROVIDED

Doris Heller Teufel sits in a yearbook photo for being May Queen at the May Day celebration. Previous page, a portrait accompanied her title in the yearbook as well.

90 West Branch Life

Women of Distinction: Women and Education Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday - Sunday, November 20, 2022

Helen Dieffenbach Lutes: Veteran, teacher, athlete and feminist By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

elen Dieffenbach Lutes was an athlete, a teacher and an outstanding supporter of women’s rights and gender equality in sports. Born January 10, 1909, in Watsontown, she was the daughter of George and Mary Halfpenny Dieffenbach. Helen had a 43-year career teaching physical education in Williamsport public schools and at Mansfield University, interrupted only by the four years she spent in the WAVES during World War II. She was elected to the sports halls of fame in Mansfield, Tioga County and Williamsport. In her 90s, she summed up her own life this way: “I’m a Women’s Libber, and have been as long as I can remember.” As a student at Williamsport High School, Helen, nicknamed Jim, was a natural athlete, excelling in basketball, gymnastics, and tennis. Her high school yearbook celebrated her athleticism with a chant: “Yeah, Team Yeah, Team When you hear this cheer ‘Jim’ must be near. She loves athletics, one and all, And is a whiz at basketball.” After graduation from Williamsport 92 West Branch Life

High School, Helen earned her bachelor’s degree in physical education from East Stroudsburg University, where she was on the tennis and basketball teams. She graduated from East Stroudsburg in 1931 and began teaching in Williamsport that same year. By 1940, in addition to teaching, Helen had earned a master’s degree in physical education from Penn State. She later did doctoral work at both Indiana University and New York University. Fred Dieffenbach (1912–1908), Helen’s younger brother, followed in her footsteps, attending East Stroudsburg. He then taught gymnastics in Williamsport public schools, including Lincoln Elementary, Roosevelt Junior High, and Curtin Junior High, retiring as Supervisor of Physical Education in the district.

WORLD WAR II Helen was 33 In 1942, when she enlisted in the United States Navy. Her parents discouraged her and made her promise not to request an oversees assignment. But her younger brother, Fred, had already enlisted in the Navy, and she was determined to contribute to the war effort. She served until 1946. One of her uniforms and her footlocker are on display at the Lycoming County Historical Society. Helen attended Officer Candidate School at Smith College in Northampton,

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Helen Dieffenbach Lutes, seen in her WAVES uniform. Photo courtesy of the Lycoming County Historical Society. Massachusetts, from October to December 1943, and graduated as a Lieutenant (j.g.). In December 1943, she was assigned to the Marine Training Center in Quantico, Virginia, where she was the commanding officer of the WAVES Medical Detachment on the post. Although she was in the Navy, she was stationed with men and women from the Marines on a Marine base. She was well-respected by the 30–50 women she commanded. The post newsletter, Gizmo Gazette (5 May 1944), reported: “All and all, we feel that ‘Our’ Lt. Dieffenbach is about the Best Ever. We are right behind her and her every wish is our command.” In an interview in November 2001, Helen told Montoursville High School student Angela Mondell that, while she served in the reserves, she faced discrimination in salaries and promotions and that

Women and Education : Women of Distinction Lutesʼ uniform and trunk are displayed at the Lycoming County Historical Society, in a photo by Richard P. Allen. Lutes is bundled up and seated in her usual chair at a Mansfield womenʼs softball game, from the collection of Edith Gallagher, coach.

is why she eventually decided to resign.

PHOTOS PROVIDED

CAREER AT MANSFIELD UNIVERSITY After being discharged in 1946, Helen began her 28year career teaching physical education at Mansfield State College. Long before there was such an idea as gender equity, Helen worked to give “her girls” the same opportunities afforded to male students. Early in her career at Mansfield, she organized a Sports Day for Girls during which young women competed in various sports including badminton, bowling, tennis, table tennis, basketball, and volleyball. The girls traveled by train to compete against Penn State, Bucknell, Lock Haven and Bloomsburg. Eventually, the field hockey and tennis programs formed from the Sports Days. Helen also laid the foundation for the women’s swimming, volleyball, basketball, and softball programs. In addition, she ran the women’s intramural program, a volunteer position, and advised the color guard, cheerleaders, and class of 1955. At Mansfield, Helen met and married Ferris Lutes, a 1928 graduate of Mansfield High School and a standout athlete in his own right. He played basketball, baseball, and football for Mansfield State College before graduating with a degree in secondary education in 1933. Ferris was on the 1928–29 undefeated basketball team and was the captain of the 1931 championship team. On the baseball diamond, he played first base and outfield. Helen was 45 when they married. Helen Dieffenbach Lutes has been honored often and well by Mansfield University. In 1995, the softball field was named in her honor. She and husband, Ferris, are the first husband-wife duo enshrined in the MU Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2001, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by Mansfield. In addition, she was honored by her alma mater, East Stroudsburg, and received the Eberly Medal for philanthropy and volunteerism.

father. The foundation supports women’s rights organizations and other organizations. She also sponsored two scholarships at Mansfield for women softball and field hockey players. Helen spent her final years at the Green Home in Wellsboro and is buried with her husband at Green Lawn Cemetery in Montgomery. Author’s note: Thank you to Linda Dieffenbach-Lundy for sharing her aunt’s story with me and providing background material.

ONE OF A KIND There are so many stories because Helen was one of a kind. Here is one, as told by Edith Gallagher, Mansfield’s longtime softball coach. On the day of one of Mansfield’s girls’ home softball games, Helen was at her doctor’s office and told him she was going to see “her girls” play that afternoon. He didn’t think she should go to the game. She looked him right in the eye and said, “Unless I’m dead by this afternoon, I’m going to see my girls play!“ Even after her retirement in 1974, she was actively involved in campus and community affairs. In 2001, she was the guest of honor at a softball tournament to raise funds to fight colon cancer, which had claimed Ferris’s life several years before. When throwing out the ceremonial first pitch, Helen threw a perfect strike. She never lost her sense of adventure, going parasailing for her 90th birthday and skydiving when she was 93. Just before she died at the age of 94 in 2003, Helen created a charitable foundation in the names of her husband and West Branch Life 93

Women of Distinction: Women and Education Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, April 11, 2021

Minnie Taylor:

From county’s farmland to Chile, England lated it means “a woman led.”

By NANCY E. BAUMGARTNER West Branch Life

innie Viola Taylor was a country girl, but unlike the one in the song lyrics by Dottie West, Minnie did not remain a country girl. Her journey led her from the farms and fields of Cogan House Township to the coastline of Chile, the shores of England and much of the United States. Her life was edged in tragedy, energized by her passion for learning and framed by a sense of duty to serve others. On Oct. 29, 1876, Ellis and Mary Ann Alexander Taylor welcomed Minnie into the world. The Taylors lived between Liberty and Nauvoo, in Tioga County, at that time. Within three years the family had moved to Cogan House Township, bought a 100-acre farm near the village of Beech Grove and added a son to the family tree. Minnie was later enrolled at Beech Grove School, just a short walk from her home. Perhaps that was the beginning of Minnie’s passion for learning and awareness of its possibilities for a girl like her. Much later, as a student at

94 West Branch Life

APPETITE FOR EDUCATION

Dickinson Seminary (now Lycoming College), she wrote an article for the Dickinson Union newspaper entitled “Dux Femina Facti” on the importance of educating women. Roughly trans-

Minnie’s eight years at Beech Grove School whetted her appetite for education. In 1891, she was led to enroll at the Muncy Normal School, where she completed a summer course, earning a temporary teaching certificate. She returned to Cogan House Township and taught at the Buckhorn Mountain School in 1892/93, the Beech Grove School in 1896/97 and the Summit School (a.k.a. White Pine School) in 1899. Interspersed with teaching, Minnie pursued further education at Dickinson Seminary from 1893 to 1896. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree and gave the valedictorian address at commencement exercises on June 18, 1896 in the Lycoming Opera House. She was just 19 years old. One young man in the audience was surely listening attentively to her speech, titled “Know Thy Opportunity,” as life for Minnie had taken a romantic turn. Owen Baumgartner, with

Women and Education : Women of Distinction whom Minnie had grown up in Cogan House Township, was officially courting her. Their engagement was sealed when he gave her a small gold band and she gave him a mother-of-pearl stick pin with a gold filigreed “O” in the center of it.

TRAGIC LOSS Family legend has not carried down the reason the young couple did not marry soon after Minnie’s graduation. A combination of scarce finances and family obligations is the most likely explanation for the delay. During the autumn of 1900, Owen found an opportunity to join the logging operation of R. E. Woods in Sandy Huff, West Virginia. It is likely that, at age 25, he was becoming anxious to accumulate enough money so that he and Minnie could marry. On Jan. 10, 1901, a train loaded with large logs hurtled down a treacherous West Virginia mountainside. Suddenly it derailed, spilling its cargo into a ravine. Owen and several other lumbermen were riding in the engine compartment. Owen was thrown beneath the train and killed instantly. Despite the distance and winter conditions, Owen’s body was returned to Cogan House Township and buried on Jan. 13, in the Summit Cemetery beside the White Pine Church. The tragedy changed Minnie’s life and altered her direction. In 1902, she enrolled at Syracuse

University, graduating four years later with a bachelor’s degree. Then she accepted a position at Santiago College for Girls in Chile, teaching English and Bible to young Chilean women. She remained there for five years and, according to diary entries, came to terms with her grief. On the eighth anniversary of Owen’s death, she wrote: “I went up and sat on the rocks alone a long time today and thought. I believe at last I can say, ‘thank God for some troubles.’ I did not think I could ever reach that distance, but thank God again, it has come.”

RETURN FROM SOUTH AMERICA After her return from South America, she worked for the International YWCA, took graduate summer classes in social work at Columbia, Syracuse and Bucknell universities, traveled to and lectured at various venues, cared for her aging parents and arranged higher education for her brother’s children. According to her nephew, she may have been one of the few women of that time to drive her own Model T Ford. Between 1918 and 1930, Minnie’s desire to follow a life of service was evident. She served as the first executive secretary of the Social Service League, with offices at City Hall on Pine Street. She was a member of Pine Street United Methodist Church and its Women’s Christian Temperance

Union. She also remained a loyal alumna of Dickinson Seminary, where she served as the dean of women from 1930 to 1933. After her parents’ deaths in 1934 and 1940, her health declined. She sold her home on High Street and moved to Canandaigua, New York, where her brother’s family took care of her. To the very last, she was determined to give learning opportunities to women. In her will, she bequeathed money to the College Club of Williamsport and directed that it be used for education of girls from Cogan House Township. The Minnie V. Taylor AAUP Endowed Fund still exists at Lycoming College. To signify that part of her heart remained reserved for Owen, Minnie continued to wear his ring until the end of her life. She died on August 17, 1944 at age 67 in Rochester, New York, and is buried in the Salem Lutheran (a.k.a. Harts) Cemetery, in Liberty, Tioga County.

West Branch Life 95

Women of Distinction: Women and Education Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, May 9, 2020

Back to Normal School’s history tied to stories of county’s women

By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

n the 10 years of writing this column, we have profiled several young women who attended “the Normal.” With a little research, we determined that this would have been the Lycoming County Normal School, located first in Montoursville and then in Muncy. Among the young women are Jennie Sweely Ball, Minnie Viola Taylor and Susan Heim Little. Nineteen-year-old Jennie Sweely from Montoursville recorded in her 1868 diary that she taught at the Jefferson School in Williamsport on Washington Boulevard. She was also enrolled in

teacher training courses in Williamsport and at the Montoursville Normal School. The Normal School at the time was located at the corner of Montour and Jordan streets, just a block from her family home on Broad Street. Jennie graduated from the Normal in June 1870, as did her sister Clara. After Jennie married George Ball of Balls Mills and gave up teaching, Jennie’s younger

sister Ada, also a Normal School graduate, boarded with her and taught at the one-room school in Balls Mills. In 1891, after completing eight years at Beech Grove School in Cogan House Township, Minnie Taylor enrolled in the Muncy Normal School, completed a summer course and PHOTO PROVIDED

After being founded in Montoursville, the Lycoming County Normal School relocated to a Muncy building built in 1877.

Women and Education : Women of Distinction earned a temporary teaching certificate. She began teaching at the Buckhorn Mountain School just before her sixteenth birthday. She later graduated from Dickinson Seminary (now Lycoming College) and Syracuse University. She was a teacher, a missionary in Chile, a social worker in Williamsport, and, for three years, the Dean of Women at Dickinson. Susan Heim was from a Dunkard family in Blooming Grove and attended the one-room brick schoolhouse on Quaker Hill. She enrolled in the Muncy Normal School, graduating in 1893 when she was 20. She was then hired to teach school in Picture Rocks. There she met and, after a long courtship, eventually married the noted local landscape artist John Wesley Little.

WHAT IS A NORMAL SCHOOL? The term “normal school” originated in the early nineteenth century. It came from the French Ecole normale, which translates as “standard school” or “model school.” In the United States, normal schools were established chiefly to train elementary-school teachers for the public schools that had been established in Pennsylvania by the Free Public School Act of 1834. No training was required to teach in these public schools. In the rural oneroom schools, often the “smartest” graduate of what would be eighth grade was appointed to be the teacher for the younger children. Most often, this student would be a young woman, since the boys were already working on the farms or lumbering. For a detailed and well-illustrated study of the one-room schools in Lycoming County, read The One-Room School: Lycoming County’s Legacy, by the Junior League of Williamsport. It is available online as part of the Lycoming County Women’s History Project.

NORMAL SCHOOL ACT The Normal School Act of 1857 created 12 normal school districts, spread geographically across the state. Some schools were public and others were privately owned. The length and course of study varied greatly across the 12 normal schools. In 1911 the Common-

wealth purchased all of the normal schools. According to Lycoming County historian John Meginness, “before the establishment of [the Lycoming County Normal School], the teachers of the county had no acquaintance with the theory of teaching, or school government, and the advancement that was made was slow and unsatisfactory. . . . The Normal teaching presented new methods and theories, which were carried into the work of teaching, and the progress that was made was gratifying to all friends of popular education” (History of Lycoming County Pennsylvania, 1892). The state normal schools in time evolved into state teacher’s colleges and then state colleges. In 1982, they became state universities, part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education that we know today.

MONTOURSVILLE NORMAL SCHOOL The Lycoming County Normal School was organized in Montoursville in the spring of 1870 under the leadership of Thomas Gahan, a former county superintendent. Gahan had a “deepseated desire to and conviction to make, out of rude, uncouth country boys, fine teachers of children,” according to historian Eugene Bertin (“Illustrious Names in Muncy’s Unique Educational History,” reprinted in History of Muncy by Thomas T. Taber, 1994). The school was popular and grew quickly, moving from the four-room high school building to various locations in Montoursville. Graduation exercises were held at the “White Church (Lutheran)” in Montoursville. In just a few years the school had become so large that it was moved to Muncy to a new building, erected in 1873, that for a time would house both the Normal School and the high school. The Montoursville Normal School closed in 1877.

in addition to a teacher training course. Later a business course was added. Some students referred to Muncy Normal as the “Poor Man’s College.” In the Normal School catalog for 1913–14, the school is described as “centrally located, and commands a magnificent view of the entire valley. The Susquehanna Water Gap, six miles below, and the North Mountain, 20 miles in the opposite direction, can be distinctly seen from its upper windows.” Also in the 1913-14 school catalog is an estimate of approximate expenses: $56 per term, including tuition, room and board at a local Muncy home, laundry, and incidentals. About 1927, after providing higher education for both Lycoming County residents and others from around the district for almost 60 years, the Normal School became a branch of Mansfield State College. For many years, a very loyal alumni association held reunions each year, a number of them organized by 1893 graduate Susan Heim Little.

MUNCY NORMAL SCHOOL As the Normal School’s reputation grew and the number of students increased, the course of study expanded to include a college preparation course West Branch Life 97

Women of Distinction: Prominent Women Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, January 12, 2020

Louise McCarty Plankenhorn: The woman who lived in a castle By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

hen I was a kid in the early 1950s, living on Eldred Street in Williamsport, at least once a year my mother, Helen McMunn Sieminski, would lead me and other neighborhood kids on a hike to “The Cross.” Our destination was the 24-foot-high concrete and steel cross at the top of Grampian Hill. An imposing stone entrance and a set of stone steps led to the cross. One highlight of the trip was hiking past all the mansions on Grampian Boulevard. The one that intrigued me most was yellow stucco and had a tower. To me it was a castle, and I tried to imagine who might live there. Now I know that it was the home of Frank E. and Louise McCarty Plankenhorn and their daughter, Ann. Louise was known in Williamsport for her musical talent and her club and civic work. Frank Plankenhorn was a successful Williamsport businessman and postmaster, who was responsible for the development of the Grampian Hills.

EARLY LIFE Louise McCarty was born in Williamsport on Oct. 4, 1889. She was the adopted daughter of Harry C. McCarty and Anna Mary Moore McCarty, and she had an older sister, Catherine. From an early age Louise attended private boarding schools and studied music. At 14, she was a preparatory student at Wilson College, Chambersburg, well known for its exceptional music de-

partment. Her sister, Catherine, was also at Wilson. From 1905 to 1907 Louise attended Lasell Seminary for Young Women, now Lasell University, on the outskirts of Boston. Lasell publications cited her virtuosity at the piano. She also studied at the Misses Rayson’s School in New York City.

JULLIARD SCHOOL When Louise was 17, she entered the Institute of Musical Education, predecessor to the Julliard School. Enrolled in the Diploma Piano program, Louise studied at Julliard from 1907 to 1910, where she was a taught by the renowned pianist Carolyn Harding. She began her performances in Williamsport as early as 1904, while she was still a student. According to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette on Feb. 25, 1904, she had two piano pieces and a soprano solo in a musicale at the Bethany Presbyterian Church at the corner of Green and High Streets. “For the benefit of those who do not know where this church is located,” advised the article, “take a Vallamont car and get off at High Street, and follow the crowd.”

MARRIAGE On Sept. 3, 1912, Louise married a South Williamsport man, Frank Edward Plankenhorn (1880 to 1956). At the time of the 1900 census, Frank

was a 20-year-old, working four months of the year as a schoolteacher. In 1902, he was a letter carrier. He was promoted to a postal clerkship when he and Louise married in 1912. According to a profile published in the Grit on Oct. 24, 1954, he resigned from the post office in 1916 and devoted his time to two textile firms he had established that made uniforms for postal workers — Penn Garment Company and Plankenhorn Braid Works. In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Frank Williamsport West Branch Life 99

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Facing page, Louise M. Plankenhorn on her 101st birthday, Oct. 4, 1990. Photo courtesy of the Lycoming County Genealogical Society. Above, the former home of Louise and Frank Plankenhorn, 235 Grampian Blvd., Williamsport. postmaster. In 1920, Frank and Louise were living on Center Street in Williamsport with their daughter, Ann Louise (1919 to 2017), born the previous year. Louise did not pursue a professional career in music. She taught music locally and entertained at various events, as noted often in the local newspapers. She did encourage and support others, including urging Mary Landon Russell to write “A History of the Music of Williamsport” (1957). Landon’s thesis remains the definitive history of music in the area.

TWO MANSIONS My “castle,” the Plankenhorn mansion at 235 Grampian Blvd., is a city landmark. In 1925, the Plankenhorns purchased an existing home built in the late 1890s and extensively enlarged and renovated it. They also bought an additional 200 acres north of the home. The entire 200-acre Grampian Hills Development was envisioned by Frank Plankenhorn as a rival to the Vallamont neighborhood, designed to attract wealthy families who were beginning to move away from Millionaires’ Row as the lumber industry de100 West Branch Life

clined. The homes were constructed following rigorous design specifications outlined by Frank. Stone masons from Italy were hired to build the impressive stone monument at the entrance. Frank himself planted the pin oaks that graced the winding streets and bought the equipment needed to pave the streets. Louise purchased a second mansion in 1944. As her obituary in the Sun-Gazette explains, “she rescued the Herdic House from being auctioned, and perhaps torn down, by rushing downtown with a check and a plea for restoration. Thereafter she worked to return the structure to its original grandeur but terminated her effort due to her husband’s failing health.”

DEATH Frank Plankenhorn died on July 23, 1956, after a long illness. Louise eventually moved to Hingham, Massachusetts, where she lived with her daughter, Ann. The Grampian Boulevard “castle” was sold to Williamsport builder Richard Lundy. Louise died in Hingham on May 11, 1992, at the age of 102. She and her husband are buried in Wildwood Cemetery.

Women of Distinction: Prominent Women Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday-Sunday, September 12-13, 2020

Lucy, Josephine, and Minnie Munson: A local family leaves traces to today By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

rom the mid19th century, the Munson family was prominent in Williamsport business, legal, and social circles. The story of three generations of this family captures local life in this time period. While father, son, and grandson were leaders in the community, their wives were active in intellectual and social clubs and charitable activities. Family homes in Williamsport, Muncy, and Eagles Mere became landmarks, some of which are still standing and even currently for sale. Three generations of the Munsons will be featured in a series of two articles.

EDGAR AND LUCY MUNSON Edgar Munson (1820– 1901) and his wife, Lucy Maria (Curtis) Munson (1820–1902), were the first generation of Munsons to live in Williamsport. They came from Steuben County, New York, about 1870, at the height of the lumber era. Edgar’s father, Jesse Munson, had purchased large tracts of land in the local area, and Edgar and Lucy originally came to Williamsport so that he could supervise the lumbering of that land. Edgar was owner of the Susquehanna

Saw and Planing Mill at the foot of Maynard Street and was involved in many other businesses, among them the railroad, banking, coal mining, and the water company. Lucy Maria Munson was from a well-

educated and prosperous New England family. She attended Mt. Holyoke Seminary in the mid-19th century. According to Thomas Lloyd’s History of Lycoming County (1929), Lucy Munson “will be long remembered for her charm of manner and qualities of heart and mind, exhibiting talents of a literary order of high degree.” The couple were married in Meriden, Conn., in 1852 and had three children: Cyrus Larue (1854), Robert (1857), and Edwin (1858). The Munsons were members of Christ (Episcopal) Church, on East Third Street, where Edgar was a senior warden. A stained-glass window in the church honors their memory. Lucy was a founding member of the Clio Club, an invitation-only club whose object was “the pursuit of study as a means of intellectual culture and general improvement.” In the early years of the club, each member was expected to give a talk on a historical theme. Lucy’s talk in December 1879 was titled “Richard Coeur-de-Lion and the Third Crusade. 1189–1199.” The Munsons lived on Millionaires’ Row at 870 W. Fourth St., next door to the Judge J. W. Maynard home, now the site of the Lycoming County Historical Society and Thomas T. Taber Museum. West Branch Life 101

Prominent Women : Women of Distinction Edgar died in 1901; Lucy died a year later, in 1902. They are buried in Wildwood Cemetery.

CYRUS LARUE, JOSEPHINE AND MINNIE MUNSON Edgar and Lucy Munson’s oldest son, Cyrus Larue (1854–1922), was associated with many local business ventures and was a prominent local attorney. He graduated from Yale University. Active in state politics, he even considered becoming the Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania in 1910. Cyrus was an early property owner and developer in the resort community of Eagles Mere. His cottage, called Wyno, was built about 1887. Among other Eagles Mere investments, he was involved with the Eagles Mere Light Company, which brought electricity to Eagles Mere in 1900. In 1877, Cyrus married a Williamsport woman, Josephine Anthony White (1856– 1889), the daughter of Henry and Catherine (Grafius) White. Henry and Catherine White built the home known as White Castle, which stood on West Fourth Street, where Way’s Garden is now. Josephine was involved in church groups at Christ (Episcopal) Church, where her husband was a vestryman and lay reader. According to a paper written by Suzanne Gehret as a Lycoming College history project, she was the director of a visitation group, visiting the sick, poor, and elderly. Cyrus and Josephine had two sons, Edgar (1881) and George (1883). Josephine died in 1889 at the young age of 33. In 1891 Cyrus married Minnie Wright Tuller (1858–1931), from Rome, New York. She was the daughter of Ackley Post and Jane (Bailey) Tuller. Minnie attended Wells College as a seminary student, unusually for the time. She had been married and divorced when she and Cyrus were married. They did not have children but raised his children together. Most likely it was Minnie’s mother-inlaw, Lucy Munson, who introduced Minnie to a group of Williamsport women involved in charitable activities. Minnie became very active in the community. She was a benefactor of the Home for the Friendless, founded in 1872, which provided a home for children and elderly women in need. In 1906 Minnie donated 30 yards of seersucker for sewing days. Cyrus was on the Home’s advisory board, 102 West Branch Life

PHOTO PROVIDED

Opposite page, a school photograph of Minnie Tuller, later Munson, taken in 1873 or 1874 in Rome, New York. Above, a postcard from the collection of the Eagles Mere Museum shows Wyno, the Eagles Mere home of the Munson family. and both husband and wife made bequests to the Home. A founder of the Williamsport YWCA in 1894, Minnie worked with the YWCA and served on its board of directors for many years, work carried on by her daughter-in-law Louise Munson. Like her mother-in-law, Minnie was an early member of the Clio Club. In 1910, Minnie gave a talk called “Jane Addams and Settlement Work.” Cyrus and Minnie’s cottage in Eagles Mere is two and a half stories, with a twostory bell tower. An eyebrow dormer, reminiscent of H. H. Richardson’s work, is centered in the roof between the cross gables and two stone chimneys. It remained in the family until Louise Munson’s death and was the site of many grand parties. It is for sale today. In the early 1900s Cyrus and Minnie built a home called Bungalow at 860 Vallamont Drive, on the north side of Vallamont at the head of First Avenue. The shingled cottage was designed by noted Philadelphia architect Charles Barton Keen and was featured in the March 1909 issue of Carpentry and Building. The home, now with many additions and enlargements, is also for sale. While on a tour of the “Orient,” Cyrus contracted pneumonia; he died in Beijing, China, in 1922. Minnie died 9 years later. Both are buried in a large mausoleum in Wildwood Cemetery. Look for the colorful story of Cyrus and

Josephine’s oldest son, Edgar, and his wife, Ellen Louise (Franchot) Munson, in next month’s Lycoming County Women column.

Women of Distinction: Prominent Women Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, November 1, 2020

PHOTO PROVIDED

The Junior League at a meeting at Wyno Farm. Photo courtesy of the Lycoming County Historical Society.

Louise Franchot Munson: Known for her good deeds and great parties

By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

ouise Franchot Munson, wife of Edgar F. Munson, was the most flamboyant of the three generations of

Munson women profiled in this series. See the September 13th column for the stories of Lucy (Curtis) Munson, wife of Edgar Munson, and Josephine (White) Munson and Minnie (Tuller) Munson, wives of Cyrus Larue Munson.

Louise was known for her dedication to charity work, her love of art and decoration, and the extravagant parties she hosted. She was the president and/or founder of multiple Williamsport charitable and civic organizations. Her sense of style is eviWest Branch Life 103

Prominent Women : Women of Distinction dent in her elaborate redecoration of her Muncy home and in her redecoration of Pennsylvania Governor Earle’s residence in Harrisburg. Her homes in Williamsport, Muncy, and Eagles Mere are still landmarks in our area today. And the parties she hosted at these homes were legendary, in one case even featuring an ice ballet company brought in from New York City. In addition to her social circles in Williamsport, Muncy, and Eagles Mere, she had wide circles of friends in Philadelphia and New York. Louise was born in Olean, New York, on December 2, 1882. She was the eldest child of Nicholas and Anna (Wood) Franchot. Her father, a wealthy businessman, was one of the nation’s leading oil producers and a prominent figure in state politics. Louise was educated by private tutors, in the Olean public schools, and at St. Timothy’s, a private girls’ school in Maryland. In 1907, Louise married Edgar F. Munson (1881–1930) of Williamsport. Edgar was the oldest son of Cyrus Larue and Josephine (White) Munson. Like his father, Edgar was a Yale-educated lawyer practicing in Williamsport. In addition, he was president of the E. Keeler Company and vice-president of the Williamsport Wire Rope Company and the Williamsport Savings Institution. Edgar served as a Lieutenant Colonel during World War I and was the Judge Advocate of the United States Army. Louise and Edgar had three children: George (1908–1988), Nicholas (1911–1999), and Anne Louise (1914– 1963).

ACTIVITIES IN THE COMMUNITY Louise consistently took a leadership role in Williamsport charities and clubs. During World War I, she was president of the newly formed Lycoming County Red Cross, in which she and her husband remained active for many years. She served on the board of the Home for the Friendless, the Williamsport Training Home for Girls, and the 1913 campaign to renovate the first YWCA building at the corner of East Third and Mulberry Streets, which had been the Crawford Hotel. She was president of the Community Chest, the forerunner of the United Way. 104 West Branch Life

In 1926, Louise was one of the founders of the Junior Charity Guild, a forerunner of the Junior League. From 1927 to 1929 she was the second president of the newly founded Women’s Club.

THE THREE MUNSON HOMES Louise and Edgar had three homes: 830 First Avenue in Williamsport; Wyno Farms, now the Bush House, in Muncy; and a cottage in Eagles Mere. Their 9000 square foot yellow stucco home on the corner of First and Rural Avenues is now the Chateau Apartments. Built in 1907, it was converted to apartments in 1931. The Lycoming County Historical Society has several photos of the ornate interior of the house. In 1925, the Munsons purchased an estate in Muncy that dated back to 1847. Louise did extension renovations. She added marble floors and handcarved mahogany pillars and incorporated Marie Antoinette’s boudoir and a desk from one of British Admiral Horatio Nelson’s ships. The home is now an event venue, used for weddings and other celebrations. The cottage in Eagles Mere had been in the Munson family since it was built in 1886. According to Barbara and Bush James, in Mere Reflections, a Unique Journey through Eagles Mere (1988), Louise was the acknowledged champion of extravagant house parties in Eagles Mere. In 1926, she “was determined to host a winter Christmas party in Eagles Mere. She paid to have the toboggan slide built and then hired a complete ice ballet company from New York City to perform for her guests.”

LATER YEARS Edgar Munson died on October 4, 1930, at Wyno Farm, after a short illness. He was 49 and their children were in their teens and twenties. Louise continued to live in Muncy, where she had an antique store. After Edgar’s death, Louise had a successful interior decoration business, with clients in Muncy, on the Philadelphia Main Line, and in New York City. One of her important commissions during this period was the complete refurnishing and redecoration of the

executive mansion in Harrisburg, during Governor Earle’s administration. She also traveled extensively. In 1937 she set off on a two-year world cruise, spending time in Honolulu, China, and Japan. In 1940, Louise was sued for $500,000 “for balm” by Charles Duncan, the estranged husband of her daughter, Anne. According to newspaper stories, Anne was unhappy in her marriage and her mother helped her to leave her husband and move back to Pennsylvania. Duncan did not win his case and the marriage ended in divorce. In 1944, while she was living in Acapulco, Mexico, Louise married James B. Windham. They later divorced and she resumed using the name Munson. In the late 1940s, she was living on the island of Capri in Italy, where she died on January 29, 1949, at the age of 67. According to several sources, she was suffering from terminal cancer and took her own life. She is buried on Capri.

Women of Distinction: Prominent Women Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday - Sunday, August 21, 2022

The Weaver sisters: From Freeport to Millionaires’ Row Emily had seven more children after their move to Williamsport: Charlotte, Mary Louise, Hugh, Gula, Emily, Jennie isters Emily and Louisa and John. Weaver were from a distinAlong with her younger sister, guished family in Freeport, Louisa, Emily was very involved in Pa., a small town along the church and charitable work. In her obitAllegheny River north of uary, she was called “one of the most Pittsburgh, but they both made their noted and honored women of mark on society in Williamsport, beWilliamsport” (Grit, Dec. 8, 1912). coming prominent in civic, charitable Emily spent 65 years in Williamsport. and religious affairs during the lumber For more than 40 of them, she was era. president of the Ladies’ Aid Society of Christ Church. For many years, she was EMILY WEAVER WHITE also the president of the Ladies’ Aid SoEmily Weaver was born on ciety of the Williamsport Hospital. March 11, 1824, to Henry The Weaver sisters and their Weaver (1798-1834) families were very active and Mary Staufer in Christ Episcopal (1796-1853). In Church, the church of 1843, when she many of was 19, she Williamsport’s married John wealthy families, White, a located at the civil engicorner of Mulneer (1818berry and East 1890). Third streets. Their first Emily continson, ued to be a Henry, busy member was born of society the next even after her year. Seehusband’s ing that death in 1890, there was although the outstanding census amuseconomic ingly lists her opportunity in occupation as Williamsport at “Lady.” the time, they The Whites might took advantage be remembered most Emily Weaver White and John White befor the castle-like resicame one of the promidence in which they lived nent and successful lumber for many years, at 847 W. manufacturers in the West Fourth St. (now the location of Way’s Branch Valley. He partnered with Peter Garden). According to “Lost Herdic in several successful firms. Williamsport,” by Samuel Dornsife, the

By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

mansion was built by Robert Faries. Dornsife described it this way: “The unique brick structure, stuccoed to resemble blocks of stone, was an amalgam of styles. The flat overhanging roof showed a definite Italianate influence, the cupola, Moorish. Perhaps more than any other feature, the crenelated Gothic style towers gain the mansion the nickname...” Emily and her husband and their eight children and four servants moved in about 1866. The children eventually grew up and moved out. The year before her death, according to Dornsife, Emily White put up the house for sale. However, it remained unsold for many years. The one prospective buyer wanted to turn the castle into a boarding house (or perhaps a brothel), motivating J. Roman Way, the neighbor across the street, to buy the property in 1913 and have it torn down and transformed into a garden he could see from his home. For the plans of his garden, Way turned to famous Philadelphia landscape architect Oglesby Hall. The park was donated to the city of Williamsport by Way in 1913 and is used today for public events, including the annual Bald Eagle Art Show. Emily Weaver White died on Dec. 4, 1912, at the age of 88.

LOUISA WEAVER LOGAN Louisa Weaver was six years younger than her sister Emily. She was born on Feb. 28, 1830. Her father, Henry Weaver, died when she was only four. In 1851, when she was 21, she married Dr. William Fullerton Logan (18261910). William, also a native of Freeport, attended Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College) and studied medicine in Freeport under Dr. F. Borland. He graduated from West Branch Life 105

Prominent Women : Women of Distinction Western Reserve the year that he and Emily were married. The Logans moved to Williamsport in 1859 with their two children, Harry and Elizabeth. Their third child, Mary Emily, had died in 1857 when she was just one year old. For most of their time in Williamsport, they lived at 410 Third Ave., a few blocks from Emily, Louisa’s sister. William bought a drug business on Pine Street which he continued until shortly before his death. He was elected mayor of the town twice, in 1867 and 1878, and also served as postmaster. At Christ Episcopal Church, Louisa was the treasurer of the First Ladies Aid Society and of the women’s Relief Auxiliary. In that capacity she oversaw aid to local victims of the major flood in 1889 (the one that famously destroyed Johnstown). Many Williamsport families had to be temporarily relocated to higher ground in Brandon Park. Louisa was prominent in other local charitable associations. She was a charter member of the Home for the Friendless and was treasurer of that institution, founded in 1872, until the day she died in 1910, so for over 40 years. The Home for the Friendless served older women who could not live alone and Louisa Weaver Logan children who were not quite orphans, but perhaps had lost a parent and needed help. The Christ Church Messenger said at the time of her death that she had a “fragrance of holiness about her.” 106 West Branch Life

William Logan died in 1892. He had served in the Civil War as a surgeon and was a vestryman at Christ Church. He was also for a time the president of Wildwood Cemetery, where he and Louisa are buried together, not far from her sister Emily and family. Louisa carried on her charitable work until her own death in 1910.

Emily Weaver White and her sister Louisa Weaver Logan moved from Freeport to Millionairesʼ Row during the lumber era. Emily lived in a castle-like residence, above, at 847 W. Fourth St., now the location of Wayʼs Garden. Photos provided by William Gibson. PHOTOS PROVIDED

Women of Distinction: Prominent Women Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday - Sunday, October 9, 2022

The indomitable

Susan Emily Hall By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

EPISCOPAL INSTITUTE IN VERMONT

“Indomitable,” “legendary” and “formidable” were among the adjectives used to describe Susan Emily Hall, who lived during the 19th century in what is now Halls Station. Susan was instrumental in the founding, construction and support of several Episcopal churches in Lycoming County, including the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rev. John Henry Fairfield TownHopkins ship and the Church of Our Savior on Loyalsock Avenue in Montoursville. As she pursued her lifelong calling to aid the Episcopal clergy of Lycoming County, she dressed like an Episcopal nun or priestess — all in black with a simple white collar, long hair parted down the middle. She often spoke of herself in the third person and in the past tense, as if she lived in the past. Born in 1814, Susan was the 10th of the 11 children of Charles and Elizabeth Hall. She grew up at Muncy Farms, in the house that Samuel Wallis had built in 1769 for his wife, Lydia Hollingsworth. Eventually, the house became the dowry of Elizabeth Coleman, Susan’s mother, when she married Charles Hall of Sunbury, a wealthy young lawyer who already owned 4,000 acres in the West Branch Valley.

Charles died when Susan was 7 years old, and she was sent to be educated at the Episcopal Institute, a boarding school in Burlington, Vermont. The school had been founded by Rev. John Henry Hopkins, father of John Henry Hopkins Jr., who was rector of Christ Church in Williamsport from 1876 to 1887 (and known locally as the author of the Christmas carol “We Three Kings of Orient Are”). Her experience at the school and close friendships with the sons of Rev. Hopkins had a profound impact on her life. While she was still at school, Susan became engaged to Edward Augustus Hopkins, John Henry’s younger son. Edward enrolled at the University of Vermont but left after one year to enlist in the navy. Years went by and, despite their engagement, he never returned to Vermont. Eventually the engagement ended. Susan then developed a friendship with Edward’s younger brother, John Henry Jr., who graduated from the University of Vermont and from the General Theological Seminary in New York City. In 1872, he was ordained an Episcopal priest. And in 1876, Susan was instrumental in his appointment as rector of Christ Church. Susan never married and never had children. The work of the Episcopal Church became her life. And her friendship with the Hopkins family was the particular inspiration for several projects, including the establishment of a place where Episcopalian missionaries and clergymen could stop and rest during their journeys devoted to evangelizing throughout the valley. One author referred to the relationship of the

lady and the rector as “A Victorian Romance of Heart and Mind” (Now and Then, April 1992).

ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH One of Susan’s most interesting projects was the design and construction of St. James Episcopal Church on Main Street in Muncy, a project on which she and Rev. Hopkins collaborated. Susan was adamant that this church, which was to replace one consecrated in June 1832, not Susan Hall be a plain-looking brick church. According to Katherine Yurchak, who wrote about Susan in her book “Where Wigwams Stood” (1994), when Susan heard that a brick church was going to be built, she “stormed” the next vestry meeting, in her usual determined manner and demanded to know all about it. On hearing of how modest the plans were, Susan exclaimed, “Nonsense. I won’t hear of it. We will build a proper Episcopal church, gothic and stone.” That church is now on the National Registry of Historic Places. The church vestry cut ties with the architect they had contracted with and, with the help of Rev. Hopkins, hired architect Richard Upjohn. Upjohn was well known for his gothic revival architecture; among the churches he had designed were Trinity Church in New York City and the Harvard College Chapel in Cambridge, MassachuWest Branch Life 107

Prominent Women : Women of Distinction

setts. The congregation in Muncy had another problem: using granite would be much more expensive than using brick. But Susan found a solution. First, she arranged to get stone from a farm in Montgomery. Then, she came up with a plan to deal with the toll to bring the stone over the bridge, which would be enough to put the project over budget. Susan’s idea was to have the stone quarried but wait until the Susquehanna was frozen and then work at night to bring it to Muncy. The men of the parish would bring the granite over with ropes and sledges, and the women of the parish would keep them fortified with hot food. Her plan worked. Although the project was still over the original budget, Susan raised more funds and gave of her own money to build the church she wanted. The cornerstone was laid in August 1858 (Minute book of the St. James Church, Muncy, Penna, 150th Anniversary, July 25, 1947).

RETREAT FOR EPISCOPAL CLERGY When Hall estate passed into the hands of her nephews, Susan used her share of the proceeds to acquire another property close by, called “Oaklands.” Susan then remodeled the property to be a retreat for Episcopal clergy. Yurchak describes the renovations as very ornate; money does not seem to have been an issue. In one special room on the third floor of the mansion known as the Bishop’s Room, “a cathedral effect was sculptured into the ceiling’s plastered de108 West Branch Life

sign. The large mahogany bed, made especially for the chief cleric of the church, was adorned with angelic carvings on opposite posts of the headboard.” The room had a beautiful view of the Susquehanna. Oaklands today is the home of Ashler Manor, part of Families United Network, a social service agency; previously, it was an upscale restaurant called Ashurst Manor. Susan was also known for the exquisite embroidery she did on altar vestments for her church. The thread she used was special-ordered from Philadelphia. According to Yurchak, once when Susan was in the city, she went to purchase the silk thread in person. The clerk was having trouble finding it and commented, by way of excuse, “We don’t sell much of it. Only the old Susan Hall up at Muncy uses it.” She replied, “Well, I’m that old Susan Hall, so hurry up and find it.”

LATER YEARS Eventually Susan moved from Halls Station to Williamsport, where her generosity to the Episcopalian church continued. She died in 1895 and was buried at Halls Cemetery, on the former Hall estate, near the intersection of the old Lycoming Mall Road and John Brady Drive. Her funeral was at Oaklands, then the home of Mrs. Henry Ashurst, Susan’s niece. Clergymen from the Episcopalian churches in Williamsport, Montoursville, Muncy, and Fairfield Township officiated. The more than 150 carriages in the cortege to the grave in Hall’s Cemetery were a testament to her passion and generosity.

IMAGES PROVIDED

An architectural drawing from the collection of the Lycoming County Historical Society shows Oaklands.

Women of Distinction: Prominent Women Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday - Sunday,December 18, 2022

The Mass of the

Shepherds of Provence By Dewing Woodward

Edited by Mary L. Sieminski West Branch Life [Note from the Editor: Williamsport artist Dewing Woodward (1856–1950) and her partner, Louise Johnson (1863–1947), spent five years living in Provence, in the south of France, during the late 1800s. Woodward wrote up the story of their Christmas visit to the ancient Arles Chapel. The story was printed by Maverick Press in Woodstock, New York, in 1911, and Woodward used it as a Christmas card. At least one copy survives, and I was able to read it in the Special Collections Room of the New York Public Library. It is reproduced here, slightly shortened, with a few annotations for clarity.]

Go, little book, Go wish to all Joy in the heart, A feast in the hall

CHRISTMAS

he white ribbon of road which winds through the Crau [a region in Provence] among vineyards submerged for winter and olive orchards stripped of all but their little gray leaves was almost gay. As far as one could see, groups of people were following its devious way through the plain, all in one direction, giving an air of festivity to the region, usually deserted, of Les Baux. The larger number of the travelers were shepherds, handsome fellows; looking like priests of some strange cult, staff in hand, wrapped in long brown cloaks falling in heavy folds quite to their feet. Here and there a cart from some Mas [traditional farmhouse] was seen, and one

IMAGES PROVIDED

Illustrations by Kate Anderson show a shepherd and lamb at the Mass, above; and Dewing Woodward, Louise Johnson, Gris Gris the donkey and Dandelion, their dog, on their way to the Cathedral at Arles in Provence, France, for Christmas midnight Mass, facing page. tiny turn-out was noticeable in the front. A beautiful mouse-colored donkey, marked with the blackest of crosses, decorated with the reddest of pompons and the shiniest of brass-trimmed harness trotted along merrily playing with a small brown spaniel who leaped at his nose every other step, drew a

yellow cart containing two women. We were going. “We” being my housemate [Louise Johnson], our dog Dandelion, Gris-Gris the donkey, and myself—going with the shepherds and the farmers to the Christmas Mass in the Chapel of Les Baux. …. As we neared the hill out of whose West Branch Life 109

Prominent Women : Women of Distinction crest the hamlet and chateau of Les Baux are carved, the violet twilight began to veil the land and the road looked very steep and long, winding, winding up into the sky, the crenellated buildings frowning over at us from above. Gris-Gris grew disheartened as he caught sight of the ascent, waved his ears in polite protest and stepped, looking around at us appealingly. After a few moments urging, we decided to walk, knowing it was useless to argue with Gris-Gris—“even with a stick.” Those superb shepherds must have been vastly amused at the spectacle we then presented. A driverless donkeycart pushed from behind by one foreign lunatic while another led the unwilling beast by his velvet nose, and a small liver colored Clumber Spaniel throned triumphantly in his mistress’ place. We were received at the inn—literally with open arms, although our host was visibly embarrassed as to how he should dispose of us. The donkey he could easily house, but we were the first foreigners who had demanded from him hospitality for the night. We assured ourselves first of Gris-Gris’ comfort, then followed the innkeeper into a lovely, low shadowy room; the vaulted roof supported by five great pillars cut out of the rock, a huge fire-place filling one entire side, with several fowl turning on a spit before the fire . . . . The room was evidently formerly the refectory of a convent, an almost effaced fresco on the wall facing the fire-place had once been the Lord’s Supper, the heavy table underneath it was supported by fat sculptured angels—in guise of legs—and flanked by benches that resembled choir stalls. On the table were ranged plates and spoons of olive wood, and porringers [low bowls] of green pottery for many guests. Beside the fire in a sculptured chair with hood and wings sat a beautiful old priest, who gave us his benediction as we saluted him, then consulted with the inn-keeper in the tongue of Provence. A conclusion was reached at his suggestion, and the host lighted a candle and led us by many turns around many corners, up and down many little flights of stairs through a subterranean passage into a room almost as large and 110 West Branch Life

cessional, filling it with a golden glory of color and sound, then crowded the choir to overflowing and stood in double line from the channel steps to this door. The singing—it cannot be described— the Mass was Gounod’s; but the sonority and magnetism of those male voices, the silver flute in the throat of the beautiful lad who sang soli, my own throat closes as I recall it. The mass concluded, the officiant with his acolytes descended the altar steps, and chanting, the Recessional, wound, overlapping seven times around the little chapel, passed still chanting, along the street under the shining stars to the inn where on the steps the torches were reversed and extinguished and stored carefully in the hall against the need of another Christmas. The fowl we had seen roasting on the spits were being swiftly dismembered, we were each served with a generous trencher full, and we ate and drank hot spiced wine from the green ecuelles [soup bowls], told stories and sang songs until the rosy dawn looked between the mullions to warn us that the Mass and Reveillion of Les Baux were but another memory. quite as imposing as the one we had left . . . With much difficulty and many blunders, we retraced the way to the refectory, although from afar the savory odors and cheery voices served as guides. Many of our neighbors from Raphele-les-Arles were there and we gathered with them about the fire-place and were served by [a] pretty girl with dried figs, grey bread and porringers of hot spiced wine to stay us until the hour for Mass. Many were the legends told by those dark-faced golden-throated men and women. At eleven o’clock, each shepherd wrapped himself in his mantle of rust-colored homespun, lighted a torch at the blaze in chimney and we all walked together to the little chapel hard by. It is a bare, poor little chapel, carvings eaten away by exposure; statuettes broken or missing entirely, but in the clear starlight of the southern night it was very lovely. The shepherds ranged themselves in a double line on each side of the long flight of steps leading to the entrance, the dancing light of the torches gilding every jutting fragment of stone, and sang cantiques [hymns] of Noel while awaiting the officiating priest. . . . We were given the high carved stalls belonging to the Chatelaines [the mistresses of the chateaus], a point of vantage. Seven times around the little chapel went the Pro-

Women of Distinction: Working Women Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Saturday - Sunday, February 6 - 7, 2021

Sister act 3 women excelled in business, philanthropy a century ago By MARY SIEMINSKI West Branch Life

hundred years ago, the business community was dominated by men, and most of the female leaders in the community were the wives of prominent

men. But three sisters, Nellie, Jennie, and Fannie Page, were the exception to that rule. They owned and managed the Page Furniture Company at 209-213 E. Third St. for over 40 years, and none of the three ever married. In addition to their family business, the women were active in multiple charitable institutions, all within a few blocks of the family home on East Church Street, including the YWCA and the First Presbyterian Church. One sister, Fannie, even founded a community center and a neighborhood playground. The furniture company was established in 1840 when their great-grandfather, Abram Page (1790-1855) opened a shop at the same location, specializing in homemade rocking chairs. The business was passed down to his sons, Ephraim, Abraham, and Harry, and then his grandson, Alfred Washington Page (1844-1906), and lastly to four of Alfred’s children, Abraham (1867-1935) and Nellie, Jennie, and Fannie.

PAGE FURNITURE COMPANY Established before Peter Herdic came to town and before the height of the Lumber Era, the Page Furniture Com112 West Branch Life

PHOTO PROVIDED

An image of Page Furniture, 209-213 E. Third St., around the year 1900, from the collection of the Lycoming County Historical Society. pany was in business for 105 years. In 1930 Fannie Page was the president, Nellie Page, secretary, and Jennie Page, treasurer. On June 1, 1945, the sisters sold the business to J. P. & M. Sullivan. The building is now the offices of

Bayada Home Health Care. Their father was a Civil War veteran, and with their mother, Caroline Reighard Page (1844-1909), had a total of six children. The Lycoming County newspaper collection (available online

Working Women : Women of Distinction through the James V. Brown Library) reveals details about their lives. All three sisters attended Williamsport public schools, first the Franklin School, on Mulberry Street just south of the former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks (now Little League Blvd.), followed by Williamsport High School, then at the corner of West Third and Walnut streets. (They often made the honor roll, according to newspapers.) Jennie, the middle daughter, taught at Franklin School for several years and was the assistant principal in 1904. Nellie Grant Page (1872-1946) was born after her father returned from his Civil War service, perhaps inspiring her middle name (Ulysses S. Grant was a Civil War general before he became president). In 1904 Nellie enrolled in nursing school at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. She returned two years later, at the time of the death of her father, and began to take an active role in the business, which was now furniture sales, rather than manufacturing. Jennie Murray Page (1877-1962) was born at the height of the lumber era. The same year that Nellie returned from Philadelphia, Jennie resigned her teaching position at the Franklin School and joined the family business. Fannie E. Page (1882-1953) was a community activist. In 1913, the YWCA, a few blocks from their home, launched a capital campaign to purchase and renovate the former Crawford Hotel, a large four-story building at the corner of East Third and Mulberry streets. Fannie was a captain in the fund-raising effort, the third-most successful of its campaign chairs. She made a bold move to recruit several “working girls” to join her, resulting in employees of the local silk mill collecting over $30 to aid the effort. Fannie also showed her concern for families less fortunate than hers by working for over a decade with another young woman, Mary Young, the daughter of John M. Young, a prominent businessman and his wife Amelia, to establish a community center and playground for their neighborhood. The neighborhood was slowly becoming home to many Italian immigrants and was also the location of first Jewish house of worship in Williamsport. The community center established by

Fannie and Mary Young was called the Home Club. They rented a building at 118 Chatham Street. The Club became the social center for the community, especially women and girls, hosting events for all ages, a sewing circle, and even a grocery section where members could obtain goods at cost. The Home Club organized a kindergarten class for the mostly Italian and Jewish children. Public school teachers reported that the kindergarten students entered first grade well prepared.

EAST END PLAYGROUND The East End Playground was an outgrowth of the Club and also managed by Fannie and Mary Young. It was located at Basin, Academy, and Canal streets (where Starbuck’s is located now) on land leased from the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. This allowed neighborhood kids who lived in crowded conditions to have space and supervision for play. There was a baseball field and a basketball court, and flower gar-

dens lined the playground. Nellie and Jennie were also active in the community, including as members of the First Presbyterian Church (now Liberty Church) located at the corner of Mulberry and East Third streets. Jennie served as the president of the mission board. They both had leadership roles in the YWCA. Jennie was on the Board of Directors in 1921 and both were active in the YWCA’s Business and Professional Women’s Club, even travelling to the national convention in Hot Springs, Ark., in 1922. They also traveled recreationally. Multiple newspaper stories document the frequent travel of the two older sisters—-to New York City and Boston, to England and Scotland, to Alaska and many other places. In the 1920s, Nellie, Jennie and Fannie moved to 810 Hepburn St., where they lived for the rest of their lives. They were successful businesswomen who also acted for the betterment of their community — and most unusually for the time, all without a husband.

West Branch Life 113

Women of Distinction: Working Women Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, April 12, 2020

Ella N. Ritter: A colorful character disguised in monochrome

physicians who had settled in the city, Dr. Ritter most closely resembled the revered Dr. Jean Saylor-Brown. Both women preferred surgery to other types of medicine. When Dr. Saylor-Brown began her final battle with valvular heart failure, it was Dr. Ritter she asked to her bedside, and on June 21, 1928, it was Dr. Ritter who sadly announced her colleague’s death to the community.

By JUDITH GOULDIN, M.D. West Branch Life

lla N. Ritter was born on Jan. 12, 1866, in northern Lycoming County, an area so rural that bears were believed to outnumber people. Her half-brother, James, forged a career path meandering through education and medicine. Eventually he settled into a physician position at a private hospital in Jersey Shore. Following his lead, Ella went to Mansfield State Normal School, now Mansfield University, to study the prerequisite subjects for medical school — Latin and the sciences of biology, chemistry and physics — and to earn her teaching certificate. She graduated in 1885, and after four years in the classroom, she matriculated at Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. She earned her medical degree in 1893 and then remained in the city for a post-graduate year, 1893 to 1894, at West Philadelphia Hospital for Women.

PRACTICE IN WILLIAMSPORT Dr. Ritter decided to practice in Williamsport — the metropolis of her home county. She rented rooms at 600 Seventh Ave., just a block from elegant Millionaires’ Row, along which lived a number of patients who needed “female” surgery, Dr. Ritter’s specialty. Two years later, she moved to more spacious quarters at 1217 W. Fourth St. and her parents moved in with her. In 1906, the opportunity arose to buy 1211 W. Fourth St., a three-story building with charming bay windows. It 114 West Branch Life

GARDNER TRIBUTE

would serve as her home and private hospital until, suffering from cerebral atherosclerosis, she was moved to Darlington Sanitarium in West Chester, where she died from a stroke in 1948. Soon after her arrival in Williamsport, she joined the county, state and national medical societies. She was an active county society member for 53 years, serving as treasurer from 1909 to 1912. An avid teacher, she was a frequent presenter at the educational sessions of the county medical meetings. She also volunteered to speak on health-related issues in the community such as the Florence Crittenden seminars on virtue. Of the new generation of female

Delbert Gardner, a faculty member at Lycoming College during the 1950s, wrote a remembrance of Dr. Ritter, who had treated his family during the Depression years. It was published on Sept. 2, 1956, eight years after Dr. Ritter’s death, in the Elmira Sunday Telegram: “Dr. Ella Ritter, of Williamsport, Pa., looked like a figure out of the past when I knew her in the early 1930’s. Her brown hair was done up in a bun and covered with a hair net. ... She drove to her appointments in an old model T Ford which she cranked herself. Dr. Ritter had an excellent background ... (had trained in Europe), and she was a skillful surgeon. None of us knew how old she was, but we knew she had treated our grandparents for years.” “At the hospital Dr. Ritter was feared and respected as only the truly dedicated can be. No nurse or patient would think of disobeying her. ... They knew her basic concern was the good of the patient.” “Dr. Ritter came to the house countless times. ... Too often she didn’t get paid for the visit, but she never mentioned money. ... And we were never afraid to call her when we needed her,

Working Women : Women of Distinction Count Zeppelin himself, they were advised that a round-trip flight from Frankfurt to Weisbaden could be arranged if they were in Frankfurt by mid-afternoon that day. They were. Their airship, the 485-foot Viktoria Luise, floated 800 feet above the Rhine River Valley at 40 MPH. They felt none of the vibration or shaking typical of travel by train or automobile ... and no motion sickness! And the memory of that dirigible ride remained indelible. SUN-GAZETTE FILE PHOTO

Williamsport physician, Dr. Ella N. Ritter, formerly of 1211 W. Fourth St., was one of five physicians honored at a war conference of doctors from the Sixth and Seventh Councilor Districts of the Medical Society of Pennsylvania. In 1906, Ritter purchased the 1209-1211 W. Fourth St. home, a three-story building, as pictured in this provided photo. It served as her home and private hospital until she was moved to Darlington Sanitarium in West Chester.

no matter how much we owed her.” “After she had examined us in her precise manner, she would open her medicine case, take out several vials and mix her own medicine in a glass of water, giving specific instructions for its use.” “Kind as she was, Dr. Ritter expected bravery from her patients, and consequently she usually found it. ‘This is going to hurt,’ she would say, looking with her stern brown eyes, ‘but you can stand it.’ ” “The patient knew that she had no doubt of his courage. It did hurt, but we found to our surprise that she was right. We could stand it. And we felt better because of it.” “Perhaps that was her greatest gift ... (she) lent dignity to the human race.”

TRAVEL Dr. Ritter never married or raised children. Without obligations tethering her to home, she indulged her twin loves of medicine and travel. In 1903,

she took a sabbatical year to upgrade her surgical skills at Philadelphia Polyclinic Hospital. Her itineraries took her to medical centers in Europe, South America and throughout the United States. She thrived on the discussions between physicians from different medical cultures. In 1913, she sailed to Germany for the International Congress of Medicine. Some of her fellow American physicians on board were eager to fly on a zeppelin and invited colleagues along. No one would have guessed that the unstylishly dressed woman had the soul of a high-flying adventuress, but Ritter was all-in for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Trans-Atlantic dirigible travel remained 15 years in the future, so few Americans had experienced the feeling of floating on an ocean of air. Initially the group was disappointed, because the zeppelin, normally based in Berlin, was 300 miles away in Frankfurt. However, after a number of phone conversations, including one with West Branch Life 115

Women of Distinction: Working Women

Sales of the century Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, March 7, 2021

The shoppers and shop girls of

Bush & Bull Company

Working Women : Women of Distinction By JANET McNEIL HURLBERT West Branch Life

“We are not selling, but almost giving away ladies capes and jackets,” reads a newspaper ad placed by the Bush & Bull Dry Goods store in 1896. The rise of department stores in the latter half of the 19th century was to contribute to some new life style choices for women. WOMEN AS CUSTOMERS Toward the end of the 19th century, ladies began to leave the protection of their homes to shop in establishments that offered merchandise in departments designed just for them. The Bush & Bull Company of Williamsport (originally known as Bush, Bull, and Diehle Company), which eventually expanded to 4347 W. Third St., was one such store. This thriving business began in Easton in 1871. Plenty of advertising and good customer service were a recipe for success, and soon the store had spread to other cities, including Williamsport in 1884. A vast array of merchandise came from around the world, and shoppers wondered why they would ever again need to travel to New York City for their needs — or so the store proclaimed. Women could view merchandise as never before, as new ways of displaying products showed off the latest fashions attractively. Advertisements lured shoppers with one-day-only and half-price sales. What woman wouldn’t want bargain napkins and the best line of dress goods? Middle-class women were experiencing a new kind of freedom as well as becoming an increasingly important consumer group.

RESPECTABLE WORK FOR WOMEN Women, many of them single, now had a new opportunity for respectable employment outside the family home. Bush & Bull would later claim that, in its employ, “girls have grown from youngsters to middle age.” There was resistance from some customers to having female employees. Charles H. Eldon, a devoted Bush & Bull customer residing at 331 West Fourth Street, recalled that Miss Theresa Scott was the first female clerk in a dry goods store in this city. “I remember seeing her approach a customer and ask if she could wait on him. He replied that he preferred a man to wait on him.” Life seems to have been a congenial one for employees in the early 20th cen-

tury. By 1903 The Grit was describing the store as “mammoth,” with an army of clerks numbering 100. There was a voluntary staff association that planned all kinds of “outings.” Happy faces were pictured traveling on train excursions, riding in sleds, paddling in canoes, attending picnics and even taking camping trips in Sylvan Dell and Nippenose Valley, where there was a heavy curtain separating the women from the men in the tent. Women also planned activities just for themselves, including a chicken and waffle dinner, games of gaigle and euchre, and a hike organized by “the office girls.”

STORE LORE A monthly publication called “Store Lore,” “published in the interest of employees,” was considered so valuable that the store offered a yearly binding service for a small fee, and many former employees asked to be placed on its mailing list. Like the management of the store, the male leaders listed at the top of the newsletter’s masthead were all men, as were the editor and the assistant editor, but there were females filling the role of artistic editor and most of the department reporters were women. Some articles discussed store policy or inspired good customer service and work ethics. There were many photographs of employees enjoying activities together, and the pages were sprinkled with humor and moralistic sayings. Happenings in the women’s underwear department were always good for a joke. The “gossip” column shared personnel updates about vacations, promotions, new employees, deaths, and other life events. Sometimes a woman would resign to go work in the mills or to get married. During World War I, articles stressed patriotism as well as encouraging the purchase of war bonds and promoting volunteerism with the local Red Cross. A few female employees left to train to become nurses. It seems that no health news was too insignificant or private to mention: “Miss Pearl Butler has pink eye,” or “Miss Florence Edwards of the Hosiery section is confined at home with a general breakdown.”

of working and socializing while part of the Bush & Bull Company. Mrs. J. Fred Plankenhorn remembers when she worked at Bush & Bull from 1891 to 1892: “My department consisted of a small corset stock, ladies’ muslin underwear assorted, children’s caps, and some lace.” L.L. Stearns & Sons, a nearby competitor, remained in business during the Depression, but Bush & Bull closed; it was no longer listed in the 1936 City Directory. Over the previous decades, women shoppers who had walked through the store doors had become increasingly confident and independent in most aspects of their lives. However, it must be kept in mind that for the most part these were women who had access to a middle-class or better income and some release time from household responsibilities. And store employment had a history of being open to women, but only if you were of a certain race. Selected issues of “Store “Lore” are available in the Lycoming County Women’s History Collection. lycoming.eda/lcwhp.

THE BUSH & BULL FAMILY Men and women worked together in a “family” atmosphere—a term used frequently in the newsletter. The 40-year anniversary issue, entitled “Family Reunion,” featured letters from past employees, many of them by then women with married names, who recalled fond memories West Branch Life 117

Women of Distinction: Working Women Originally published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday, September 5, 2021

‘Rash and jealous lover’ Murder in the house at the corner of State, Canal streets By ELAINE M. DECKER West Branch Life

s far back as one can research the written history of Williamsport, stories of enterprising women becoming successful business owners can be found. The women in this story though, found that the law was not appreciative of certain endeavors. I am talking about the “bawdy houses” of Williamsport. They were peppered around the city, but the most infamous houses were near Front Street and in Swampoodle (an eastern part of the city that could easily provide enough fascinating stories for another article), and one especially renowned house on East Canal Street. This is the story of the women of 40 East Canal St. Mame Irvin began making news regarding her boarding house, a half double at the corner of State and Canal streets, around 1901. Today it is St Mark’s Lutheran Church’s parking lot. The house was raided on several occasions. She was often fined and/or jailed, and at times banished from town, but she always returned. That is what made her house wellknown, but it isn’t what made it famous. That happened on Nov. 8, 1912.

THE VIOLENT ATTACK The following is related from various local newspapers from the early 1900s. Grace Stidfole, 19, lived at the Irvin Boarding House. On the night of Nov. 7, 1912, she met with frequent acquaintance, John Erble. The two spent that night at a house on Academy Street and were returning at 8:30am the next morning when an argument broke out between them. He wanted her to leave the boarding house and live with him. She didn’t want to go. When they reached the Irvin Boarding House, he pulled out a gun and shot her. The door to that half of the house was locked, so she ran across the hall and into the kitchen of Annie Klump and hid in the corner. He found Grace there and shot her twice more. She was still able to run back outside where she finally collapsed a few feet away on the railroad tracks. Erble reloaded his gun and

slowly walked out of the house towards the river. Grace did not die on those tracks. She was taken to the hospital where she told the police who shot her and why. An Officer Berry found Erble by the river bank a short while later and took him by trolley to a cell. One of the bullets had entered Grace’s lung and could not be removed. It was to be a fatal shot, but she hung on for more than four months, dying on March 20, 1913.

ERBLE’S PUNISHMENT Meanwhile, Erble had been kept in his cell the entire time so he could be charged for first degree murder upon her death. His defense lawyer, William Spencer, stated at trial that it should be second degree murder because Erble was “a crazy, drunkin rash and jealous lover” and besides, he had consumed a considerable amount of gin that morning. That defense didn’t work and on Feb 3, 1914, he was the last man hanged in Lycoming County.

THE HOUSE’S OTHER OCCUPANTS The day after the shooting, Mame Irvin was arrested once more for running the bawdy house where it all happened and four days later the house on Academy Street was raided and the keeper of that house, Mary Bowes, was arrested. Edith Morton next ran the Canal street house until she got arrested in 1913. The housekeeper then took over and also got arrested and additionally was charged with the more serious crime of having an underage girl there. And what of the other side of the house where Grace Stidfole was shot twice in the kitchen? That side also has a tale. Beginning in 1879, liquor was being sold there illegally by Henry Arnold, who also was arrested for keeping a bawdy house. He died in 1892 and his wife died just four months later. Their daughter and her husband moved in. One day her husband disappeared and his wife had to take in laundry and do “other odd jobs” to survive. A year later her husband’s body was found washed up on the shores of the Susquehanna. She died just months later. Her sister Annie

Klump, whose kitchen was the scene of the shooting, lived there next. Annie would also be arrested for having a bawdy house. In this small corner of Williamsport, the women apparently co-operated. Their businesses weren’t legal, but they were run well. They not only became successful at it, but they did so while having to pay fines and go to jail regularly. It wasn’t as glamourous a profession as you see in old westerns, but it was lucrative, taken on sometimes out of desperation, and sometimes just because they enjoyed the wild lifestyle and the parties that went with it. These women are a part of Williamsport’s history.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Illustration by Kate Anderson Illustration, abstracted from various newspapers of the time.

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