When Celia Esselburn Frank died in 1930, the Beacon Journal called her a “pioneer Akron social worker.” That seemed an apt description. What made her different was how she worked. She had no affiliation with any charitable organization or agency in the city. She just did her relief work on her own.
Celia Esselburn was born near Lodi. Her father was Lewis Esselburn, a Medina County merchant. Before she married, Esselburn was a telephone operator staffing Akron’s first exchange. She was married to J.C. Frank, an Akron attorney.
Once she married Frank, she started helping the needy of the city. Her home became a kind of clearing house for used clothing for the needy.
According to the Beacon Journal, Frank worked under the direction of the Probate Court. She distributed used clothes to those in want. In reporting her death, theBeacon Journal said, “Social work was her great aim in life through her efforts, happiness was left where squalor and want was found.”
Frank was a member of First Church of Christ Scientist.
Ruth Ebright Finley, “girl reporter, sob sister, feature writer” for the Akron Beacon Journal in the early 20th century, went on to a career as an editor, a biographer, an expert on American quilts – and one of the greatest clairvoyants of the 20th century.
It’s a long trip from Akron to the afterlife but was an easy one for Finley because she lived two quite separate lives.
Ruth Ebright was born in Akron, the daughter Dr. L.S. Ebright and his wife, the former Julia Ann Bissell. Her father himself lived a kind of dual existence, one as a physician and one, for a time, as the postmaster of Akron.
Ebright was well educated for her day. She enrolled in Oberlin in 1902 but returned to Akron the next year to go to old Buchtel College (now The University of Akron). She never completed her degree.
Instead she started her reporting career with the Beacon Journal. This was a time of sob sisters and sensational journalism. Ebright won a name for herself when managed to get an interview with the former Akronite wife of inventor Thomas Alva Edison. She then went on to the oldCleveland Press. She was best known for her stories on the working conditions of labor women and she is credited with helping get a bill passed that was designed to benefit working women. It was while at the Cleveland Press that she met and married Emmet Finley, an editor there.
Finley had a varied journalistic career after that. She was woman’s page editor of the Cleveland Press, fiction editor of the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, managing editor for the old Washington Herald, woman’s editor of the Enterprise Newspaper Association, assistant editor ofMcClure’s magazine and editor of Guide Magazine and theWoman’s National Political Review.
There were many dimensions to Finley’s life. Building on her interest in quilts and quilting, she wrote the book, Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them. Part of the movement to reawaken American interest in quilts and quilting, Finley designed the quilt given first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. There was a certain irony in this because Finley was a critic of the New Deal, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the first lady on the pages of the Woman’s National Political Review, the periodical she edited.
Finley was also an historian of sorts. In 1931, she published a biography of antebellum magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale. The Lady of Godey’s: Sarah Josepha Haleis still considered an important resource on Hale and her popular woman’s periodical.
Even as Finley continued her career as an editor, quilt expert and historian, she and her husband were exploring different aspects of reality.
As Joan and Darby, the Finleys became chronicling their exploits in the afterlife in their 1920 book Our Unseen Guest. That book chronicled how they first got involved in the paranormal. In Cleveland in 1916, they played with a Ouija board and met their guide to the afterlife, a volunteer ambulance driver who had died in France the year before. Although Our Unseen Guest quickly became a classic in psychic literature, the Finleys were able to keep their involvement in the paranormal secret.
Ruth Ebright Finley died in 1955. Her husband had died five years earlier. The couple did not have any children. Ruth Ebright Finley’s papers are located in The University of Akron Archives.
Photo courtesy of The University of Akron Archives.
Carrie Peterson Dick was a woman more comfortable in the background but her involvement in Akron’s arts and welfare communities belied that tendency.
In history books when Carrie Peterson Dick is mentioned at all, she is identified with her husband, Congressman and “president maker” Charles Dick of Akron. But when her husband was off studying law or fighting in the Spanish-American War or serving in both houses of Congress or making a president (McKinley), Dick had her own life building and strengthening many of the cultural and welfare institutions and organizations in the city of Akron.
A charter member of the Fifty Year Club, Dick also helped start the Art and History Club. She was also one of the founding members of the Akron Art Institute and the first woman member of its board. Because of her position in the community, she was also invited to serve on the boards of the Sumner Home for the Aged and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). Both Dicks were members of Trinity Lutheran Church.
That type of community involvement seemed inconsistent with the Beacon Journal’s characterization of Dick as a “quiet little woman, she has preferred to remain in the background.”
Carrie Peterson married her high school sweetheart in 1881. They had met at Central High School. The couple had five children. The Dicks are buried in Glendale Cemetery.
Maud Hayes DeVaughn was a leader in the fight for prohibition in Akron, Ohio, and played active roles in many other organizations during her 75 years.
DeVaughn’s 16 years as officer of the Summit County Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) displayed her strong beliefs in prohibition. She served as secretary for nine years, and she retired 1933 after seven years as president.
After her term with the WCTU was complete, DeVaughn moved over to leadership roles at the Akron and Summit County Federation of Women’s Clubs. She served as president of that organization in 1936.
DeVaughn was also the founder and president of the South High PTA.
DeVaughn began a radio series in 1936 that focused on Akron women and public welfare. She was a member of the Board of Maintenance of the YWCA and the Board of Goodwill Industries.
A member of First United Brethren Church, DeVaughn died in 1943.
Photo courtesy of The University of Akron Archives.
Mrs. Inez G. Crisp was a writer and an artist, as well as a prominent member of many social organizations in Akron. She was also a controversial leader of the Akron and Summit County Federation of Women’s Clubs.
Crisp was involved in the Akron Woman’s City Club and on the board of its Little Galleries organization. She was the oldest member of the Aeronautical Association and was associated with the Mary Day Nursery and Children’s Hospital. For a time, she served as president of the Order of Golden Arrows, Phi Beta Phi fraternity and the Akron Panhellenic Council. She attended college at Ohio University.
In addition to these organizations, Crisp was a member of the Women’s Art League, which was a club of women artists. In order to participate in the Art League, a potential member had to submit some of her paintings to a 12-woman jury for review or have a painting accepted by the Akron Art Institute for its May show. When the Art League began in 1933, there were 20 members; but by 1939, when Crisp was treasurer, the organization had expanded to 40. Eventually, Crisp became a president of the group.
Crisp was elected president for the Akron and Summit County Federation of Women’s Club in 1923; but just one year later in May 1924, she stepped down from the position. According to stories printed in the Akron Beacon Journal, Crisp was accused of being “influenced by political backers of Mayor Rybolt’s motorization plan to oppose any federation move which would not be in support of Rybolt’s scheme.” However, she blamed her health. “My family, health and home make it necessary for me to resign. Things have been unfortunate in the organization. I hope they will be able to get together and solve their problems,” said Crisp. Anna (Mrs. C.H.) Case was appointed to complete the remainder of Crisp’s presidential term.
During her lifetime, Crisp had her artwork displayed at O’Neil’s and the Akron Art Institute. She wrote several fiction stories and historical articles that were published.
Crisp was born in Mount Sterling, Ohio, and came to Akron in 1909. She was married to Raymond G. Crisp, who was the chairman of Fred J. Crisp Co., a company that supplied builder materials. The Crisps resided at 1934 Highbridge Road.
When Crisp died at St. Thomas Hospital in 1965 at the age of 78, she was a widow. She left one son, George E. She is buried in Chestnut Hill Cemetery.
Mrs. Lulu E. Crawford was part of a generation of well-educated women who devoted their energies to bettering the city of Akron through civic organizations.
A graduate of old Buchtel College (now The University of Akron), Crawford was a gifted public speaker. The Beacon Journal described her as “skilled in elocution and public speaking.” In fact, she taught and studied elocution (the practice of public speaking) at Emerson College in Boston before her marriage. She was married to Robert K. Crawford, one of Akron’s most popular real estate developers.
Crawford, an Akron native, got involved with women’s organizations when she was still in college. She was a member of Delta Gamma sorority and retained her ties to the organization even after graduation by serving as a national vice president of Delta Gamma. She also was involved in the Akron Panhellenic Association, a federation of sororities in the city.
She was charter member of the College Club of Akron and later served as the group’s president. She was also a charter member of the Woman’s City Club and served as president and secretary of the club’s Little Theater Group.
Crawford got involved in the city’s Women’s Council, a federation of women’s organizations that would be renamed the Akron Federation of Women’s Clubs. In 1919 she helped revise the Women’s Council constitution. She was also on the nominating committee for the Akron and Summit County Federation of Women’s Clubs, a particularly powerful position in light of the many women involved in civic and community organizations in the Progressive period. She also held the position of president in the New Century Club from 1934-1935. In addition, she was a board member of Peoples Hospital. She was a member of the First Congregation Church as well.
Crawford died in Peoples Hospital in 1955, at the age of 80, after a brief illness. When she died, Crawford left four children. The Crawfords resided at 785 Merriman Road. She is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Akron.
Mrs. Leah C. Chittenden was an Akron school-teacher who was active in several educational organizations.
Chittenden was a member of the North Hill Literary Club from 1918-1919 and she served on the club’s advisory board. She held the position of first vice president of the Akron Home and School League in 1925 and she was chairman of the Department of Applied Education.
In addition to her educational interests, Chittenden was the recording secretary of the Akron and Summit County Federation of Women’s Clubs and librarian of the Federation’s Garden Club. Beginning in 1919, she was supervisor of all the city garden work. In the mid 1920s, Chittenden was on a committee to help organize a speakers bureau for the Community Chest campaign, which was the forerunner of United Way. She attended Church Hill Methodist Church.
Chittenden, who was born in Salem, Ind., lived in Akron for 41 years until retiring to Florida in 1949. She was married to Thomas A. Chittenden, who was a high school teacher. When she died, Chittenden left two sons, Walter and Thomas. The Chittendens resided on Glenwood Avenue.
Chittenden died in 1972 in Florida after a long illness. She is buried there.
During the Progressive period and well into the Depression, Ella Hawley Chapman had a reputation as one of the best caterers in the city of Akron, Ohio. At the time of her death in 1944, she was also the oldest living African-American citizen who had been born in Summit County.
Chapman was an Akron native. She was born on the land where the old Bowen School stood (now the Administration Building for Akron Public Schools) at the corner of Broadway and Perkins.
She went to Bowen School before she started her work life. She worked first for the family of M. O’Neil, owner of a large Akron department store. Once her cooking and baking skills were discovered, however, she started working for the O’Neil’s Department Store as a caterer. Under that affiliation, she catered some of the biggest weddings and social affairs in the city.
Chapman was a member of the Summit County 50-Year Club and the Wesley Temple, A.M.E. church.
Susannah Chamberlain Cole helped build Buchtel College (now The University of Akron) as a student, alum and teacher.
Born in Cuyahoga Falls, Susannah Chamberlain was the daughter of Charles W. and Sarah Chamberlain. Her father was superintendent of the Akron Division of the C. A. & C. Railroad. She entered Buchtel College on the first day it opened and was a member of its first graduating class. As a student, she founded the Carey Literary Society, a group that studied women writers, and became its first president.
After she graduated, she worked for a time on the staff of the Daily Argus and The Sunday Gazette. At the time, newspaper work was not considered an “acceptable” career choice for women so Chamberlain also taught English and Rhetoric at Buchtel College from 1873-1887. One of her students John Botzum, who went on to his own successful career as a writer, remembered her as a “brilliant and good woman” who helped to mold his career. She, in turn, referred to her students as “her boys and girls.”
Chamberlain ended her teaching career, like most women of the time, when she married in 1887. She married Frank F. Cole, a Michigan newspaperman.
Cole was active in various women’s organizations in the city, especially the North Hill Literary Club and the Fifty Year Club, which she help found. She also maintained close ties to her alma mater, frequently writing for its alumni magazine on the early days of Buchtel College.
When she died on April 1, 1929 in Akron at the home of her daughter, the Beacon Journal remembered her as “one of Buchtel College’s most prominent alumnae” and the Rev. Spanton called her “one of the outstanding characters of early Akron.” With her death, a chapter in Buchtel College history had ended.
Photos courtesy of The University of Akron Archives.
Mrs. Anna Trowbridge Viall Case earned her place in Akron history with her service to the public schools by being on the Board of Education longer than any other woman up to that point. She also earned a place in history for her service to the community through involvement in various civic organizations. Her contributions were so great, in fact, that the Beacon Journal named her Akron’s Woman of the Year in 1938.
During her 24 years on the Board of Education–10 as president–Case brought about many innovations. She promoted the employment of African-American teachers; she helped formulate programs to help mentally handicapped students; she worked to coordinate services between the Summit County Mental Health Association and the schools so that troubled pupils could get the help they needed; and she pushed for expanded vocational and recreational facilities for Akron schools. When she retired from the Board of Education in 1957, the Akron school system was better because of her association with it.
Part of her success revolved around her personal style. Case made it her business to be familiar with everyone associated with the schools, from the custodians to the principals, from the bus drivers to the teachers. She disliked controversy. She allowed everyone to have their say and tried to work out compromises. She also had strong administrative skills, following through on her many responsibilities.
Case also served as president of the Akron and Summit County Federation of Women’s Clubs at a time when the organization faced real crises. Inez Crisp had resigned as president, citing health reasons, but political charges loomed in the background. Not only was Case able to rebuild the group but she also expanded its membership. In 1926, the end of her term, the Beacon Journal marveled at the Federation’s successes. “Mrs. Case has served as head of the local federation for the last two years and during that time the organization has enjoyed its most successful years, also increased its membership more than one-third.” Case then went on to a statewide position in the organization — vice president of the northeast district of Ohio Federation. As vice president, she oversaw 16 branch federations, which represented 162 separate clubs. Upon her election as vice president, the following comment was made about Case: “Truly a woman who undertakes to steer this largest of all women’s organizations through a two-year term of office is making a sacrifice worthy of a real citizen.”
Case also became the vice president of the Travelers’ Aid Society, third vice president of the Women’s Association of the First Congregational Church and president of the New Century Club. In addition to being a charter member of the Woman’s City Club, she was also director and chairman of committees in that organization.
She served on the executive board of the Akron Home and School League. She was also an associate member of the Akron branch of the National Story Tellers’ League and she was head of the women’s committee to organize a speaker’s bureau to help the Community Chest campaign. The Community Chest was the forerunner of United Way.
Case was also on the educational publicity committee and the chairman of the board “to aid the Better Akron Federation in the work of all its agencies.” She was a member of the College Club, the League of Women Voters and president of the Young Women’s Christian Association from 1917-1919. In 1925, she was appointed to vice president of the Ohio Public Health Association, which brought her back to her educational and personal roots.
Anne Trowbridge Viall was born in Tallmadge, Ohio, in 1883. She attended Lake Erie College, originally planning to be a teacher. During her senior year, however, she shifted her career plans to social work. In 1905 she was a district visitor for Cleveland’s Associated Charities, delivering milk tickets and eggs to TB patients in the Haymarket district, primarily Polish and Hungarian immigrants. In 1908, she was named city supervisor. Her career ended in 1911 when she married Claude Case, a veterinarian at the Akron Veterinary Hospital, and moved to Akron. The couple, who resided at 26 Orchard Road, had one son.
Photo courtesy of The University of Akron Archives.
