Category: Progressive Period (1900-1919)

Marie Ellene Seibel Olin, the “adopted mother” of the Buchtel College campus (now The University of Akron), was also an active member of many community and religious organizations in Akron.

She was born in Cleveland but grew up in Mantua, Ohio. She was the daughter of Mary Ann Johnson and Charles M. Seibel, who was the earliest music teacher in Mantua. She graduated from Kent High School, where she met Oscar E. Olin. They married March 21, 1878.

Both had teaching in their blood. When they moved to Kansas, she taught there for three years while he worked as head of the English department at the Kansas State Agricultural College. When they came to Akron, he was the head of the philosophy department and later vice president of faculty for Buchtel College. Oscar was so well liked among students that he was nicknamed “Daddy” Olin. It was only natural that students, faculty and the Akron community would see his wife as the mother of the campus. He and his wife had two daughters, Charlotta and Esther, who both became teachers. The family lived at 433 Carroll Street.

Theirs was an “Akron-minded family,” the Akron Alumnusmagazine said. They were active in the First Universalist Church. She was involved in the Women’s Universalist Missionary Association along with Grace Olin, who was married to Charles Olin, a cousin of Oscar’s.

Marie Olin was also a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

From 1910 to 1912, she was president of the Akron Federation of Women’s Clubs. She was also the president of many other organizations, including the Cuyahoga Portage Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the New Century Club (1915-1916), and the Home and School League (1916-1917). She helped Blanche Carnahan Seiberling organize the Home and School League.

She was named an honorary member of the New Century Club and was a member of the Summit County Woman’s Suffrage Association.

Olin died on June 18, 1931, in the same Mantua house that she grew up in.

Photo courtesy of The University of Akron Archives.

–Stephanie Devers

Maude Watters Milar played an active part in shaping women’s groups in turn-of-the-century Akron, Ohio. She was especially involved with the start of the Girl Scouts and the Mary Day Nursery.

Maude Watters married Wilbur W. Milar, president of the Harter-Milar Hardware Company and superintendent of the parks system in Akron. They lived at 62 Adolph; both were active in community organizations.

Both were board members of the Mary Day Nursery and Children’s Hospital. Milar was not only on the board, but she was also a charter member of the organization. The Mary Day Nursery served the children of working mothers. Milar’s involvement began in 1890 and ended with her resignation in 1935. During that time, she was also an associate of the Women’s Board and a member of the House Committee.

In addition to her extensive involvement with the Mary Day Nurser and Children’s Hospital, Milar was also a part of many city organizations. From 1913 to 1914, she was president of the Home and School League, an association committed to improving the link between parents, teachers and school administration organized by Blanche Carnahan Seiberling. In 1919 Milar became the chairman on the Women’s Unity of the Summit County War Work Council, a part of the Women’s Division of the Council of National Defense.

In 1927, Milar was elected the Akron head of conservation and became the state chairman for Forest Week in that same year.

She was also an active part of Akron girl scouting. She was a member of the council that helped to organize the Girl Scouts in Akron and remained a committee member until the family moved to Boston. She was also involved with the Girl Scouts in Boston.

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.

–Stephanie Devers

Mary D. Jewett had two careers, one as a educator in Akron, Ohio, the other as a physician, primarily in Winterhaven, Fla.

Mary Jewett was born in Mogadore, Ohio. She came to Akron as a “day student” at the old Buchtel College (now The University of Akron) in its opening term (September 1872). In 1876 she earned both a B.S. and A.B. In 1877 and 1878, she tutored Latin in Akron.

In 1879 she became “lady principal” and instructor of Latin and German at Hiram College (Ohio), leaving there in 1883 to pursue post-graduate education in Modern Language and Literature at Wellesley College (Massachusetts).

In September 1884, she was back in Akron, this time teaching English Literature and Logic at her alma mater. In 1887, she was named the Pierce Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature. By the late 1880s, Jewett had already decided her future was not in education – or in Ohio. She packed her bags, enrolled at New York University, and started preparing for a career in medicine.

By the 1890s, she was a physician and moved to Winterhaven, Fla., where her mother, sister and step father (Dr. F.W. Inman) had already settled. It was in Winterhaven that she set up her medical practice and pursued an active civic life. She organized the Women’s City Club there and built a school for African-American children in the area.

Jewett died in 1928 in Winterhaven. She never married. Her obituary in the Akron Alumnus magazine (March 1928) called her “one of the foremost women physicians in the country.” She is buried in the Inman family cemetery in Inman Park, Winterhaven.

Illustration courtesy of The University of Akron Archives.

–Kathleen L Endres

Grace (also known as Gracia) Belle Gorton Olin, Buchtel College (now The University of Akron) graduate, played an important role in the college community and the city of Akron.

Grace Belle Gorton was the daughter of the Rev. James Gorton and Sarah Hitchcock Gorton. She graduated from Buchtel College in 1887 and was an active member of the Delta Gamma fraternity. The college is also where she met Charles R. Olin, class of 1885. They were married on June 28, 1888. They lived at 421 Spicer and had three children, Robert R., Charles Ralph, and S. Estella.

Both Olins were active within the college community. Charles, a former math professor, became the secretary of the college; his wife became her class’ secretary in 1936, keeping the university informed of what her former classmates were doing. Her involvement reached beyond the campus, however.

The Olins were members of the First Universalist Church. She was an active member of the Woman’s Universalist Missionary Association, along with Marie Seibel Olin, the wife of Charles’ cousin Oscar.

Olin was also a member of the Tuesday Afternoon Club, which later became the Tuesday Musical Club. She was also active in the Woman’s City Club. In addition, she was a charter member of the College Club of Akron.

She was well liked. When her husband retired, many wonderful things were said of him. But he emphasized that without his wife nothing would have been possible — “this lady at my side has helped me to make these things possible … what you say of me, you say of Mrs. Olin.”

–Stephanie Devers

Mary Gladwin was drawn to nursing when, as a young girl, her father told a story of being aided by a nameless nurse on a French battlefield. To say she was inspired by the story would be an understatement.

Gladwin chased her dreams and served as a nurse in the Spanish-American War, the Phillipine insurrection, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. She was among the first Red Cross nurses to work in Europe in WWI, serving as supervisor of nurses at the American Hospital in Belgrade, Serbia.

She also played a key role in the Red Cross flood relief efforts in Dayton in 1913 as a nurse supervisor. She was appointed to the National Committee of the American Red Cross shortly thereafter. Gladwin received formal charter and commission to start the Red Cross in Akron in June 1916. Two weeks later the newly elected men who ran the Akron Chapter formed a Women’s Auxiliary with Gladwin serving as the chair. She also wrote a book, Ethics for Nurses, that became known as the “Nurses Bible” in Akron hospitals.

Gladwin was born in Strole-Upon-Trent, England, on Dec. 24, 1861, and moved to Akron in 1868 with her parents. She graduated from Buchtel College (now The University of Akron) in 1887 and later earned a nursing degree from the Boston City Hospital School of Nursing.

She died Nov. 22, 1939 in Akron. Her greatest posthumous honor came 40 years later when The University of Akron dedicated Mary Gladwin Hall on Sept. 21, 1979.

Photo courtesy of the Mary Gladwin Collection, The University of Akron Archives.

. –Zachary Jackson

Mary Pauline Edgerton, respected community leader, made a lasting and significant impact on the people of Summit County.

Born in Tallmadge, Ohio, and one of eight children in a leading pioneer family in Akron, Edgerton moved west with her father, Sidney, and mother, Mary Wright Edgerton. They were one of the first groups to travel out west by wagon train. While living there, her father helped organize the Republican Party, was appointed United States Judge for the Idaho Territory and later became the first governor of the Montana Territory.

Influenced by her father’s political career, Edgerton came back to the Akron area with her family and settled down around 1863. She was also influenced by her mother, who was recognized for her historic account of their life in Montana entitled A Governor’s Wife on the Mining Frontier.”

With a supportive family behind her, Edgerton became interested in promoting reading — education in general – in the citizens of Summit County. She sought out the help of City Council for funding for a public library, but was disappointed at their lack of interest. She persisted, however; and as a result, Akron had its first public library through financial contributions from Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie, a nationally recognized philanthropist, has been credited with helping to establish more than 2,500 free libraries around the country.

Never marrying, Edgerton worked as the chief administration officer for Akron’s public library for more than 30 years. She encouraged young people to read and helped them select books that were of good literary quality. She is also credited for establishing and organizing the reference and catalog departments there.

In tribute to her exemplary community service, the August 29, 1931 issue of the Beacon Journal said, “she gained the respect of the leaders and the love of her fellow workers and those she befriended, going out of her way to add the human touch to her professional work.”

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.

–Penny Fox

Margaretha Gerhardt Burkhardt was not yet 35 when she took over the family brewery. Over her 40 years with the brewery business, she expanded it and made it more productive and profitable than ever before.

Margaretha Gerhardt was born in Germany and emigrated to America in 1870. Wilhelm Burkhardt, who would become her husband, had been born in Germany also. He was trained in brewing before he emigrated to America in 1868. Initially, he settled in Cleveland, working as a brew master. When he settled in Akron, he became part owner of the Wolf Ledge Brewery, located in the city’s German community. In 1874 Wilhelm Burkhardt and Margaretha Gerhardt married. They had two children, William and Gustav.

Five years later, the Burkhardts faced a business disaster. The successful Wolf Ledge Brewery, a wooden brew house, burned to the ground. Burkhardt’s partner wanted no more of the brewery business. Burkhardt bought his partner out and rebuilt the brewery.

Two years later, Wilhelm Burkhardt died of blood poisoning. He was only 32 years old and his wife Margaretha had to make a decision. Should she sell the business or keep it and run it? She had two young sons and there were few – if any women in the Akron area – running a brewery.

Burkhardt opted to keep the business. In fact, she proved to be a woman of tremendous business acumen. For more than 40 years, Burkhardt was the driving force behind Burkhardt’s Brewery in Akron. She faced many challenges, one of which was the disastrous 1890 tornado that damaged the brewery. (She refused charity and instead donated money to help others rebuild their homes.)

By 1899, Burkhardt had brought both her sons into the family business. With the turn of the century, she started an expansion policy that increased production 100 fold, modernized the plant, improved and enlarged the bottling works and diversified the business into real estate and coal.

Margaretha retired as president of Burkhardt’s in 1911 but she retained her controlling stock and remained a director of – and a key force in — the business until her death in 1925.

Burkhardt lived to see prohibition introduced into the state in 1918. In 1919, Burkhardt had to shift to soft drink production and for a time produced Hires Root Beer. Its soft drink business was never successful but the company was sufficiently diversified that it survived prohibition.

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.

–Kathleen L. Endres

Emily Bronson Conger, a revolutionary 19th century woman, was a role model for women who wished to pursue nontraditional paths.

The granddaughter of Herman Bronson, founder of Peninsula, Ohio, Conger came from strong patriotic stock. Little is known about her early years and education. She married Union Civil War Col. Arthur Latham Conger around 1865, and they had three sons-Kenyon B., Arthur W, and Latham H. Conger.

Conger’s husband was a successful farmer and Akron industrialist. When he was elected treasurer of Summit County, she joined his administration as deputy county treasurer. This was unusual, because women had not been granted the right to vote at that time.

In addition to her official role in county government, Conger was talented in music and volunteered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. She was a natural hostess and was often giving grand social parties.

Being the patriot that she was, it was natural for Conger to take interest in organizations like the Dames of the Loyal Legion, the Order of the Eastern Star and the Women’s Relief Corps. She started the Cuyahoga Portage Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Shortly before her husband’s death in 1899, Conger embarked on a new journey. The study of osteopathy fascinated her because she had seen the miraculous recovery by her husband after a serious stroke. She studied at a school in Missouri and was one of the first women in the United States to be given a degree in the field. She firmly believed in the practice and resisted efforts to prohibit it and became vice president of the American Association of Osteopathy.

After her husband’s death, Conger traveled with one of her sons to the Philippines to work with American soldiers. She also helped care for mothers and their babies. Known as Senora Blanca by the natives, she wrote a book called An Ohio Woman in the Philippines, based on her experiences.

Photo courtesy of the Women’s History Project of the Akron Area.

–Penny Fox

Frances C. Allen, first woman elected to the Akron Board of Education, is credited with helping her husband develop the oats cooking process used in the development of breakfast cereal.

Born in Barghill, Ohio, on April 14, 1849, Allen attended Hiram College (Ohio) and taught school in New Castle, Pa., before moving to Akron. She also taught at the old Perkins School in Akron.

She married Miner Jesse Allen in Akron in 1876. He was a partner in Cummings and Allen Flour which, through mergers, became part of Quaker Oats. The Allens developed in their family kitchen the oats cooking process used in the development of breakfast cereals.

Frances Allen was also in the missionary activities of her church, High Street Church of Christ. She was one of the founders and first secretary of the missionary society. In addition, she was a member of the Ohio Christian Women’s Missionary Association.

Allen made local history when she and Mrs. O.L. Sadler, a local suffragist, ran successfully for the Akron Board of Education in 1896. In 1894, the Ohio legislature gave women the right to vote in school board elections. At the same time, women became eligible to hold a seat on the school board. Both Allen and Sadler won in 1896. Both women served their full two-year term. Sadler refused to run again; Allen was nominated but failed to win reelection. Twenty years would pass before the next woman would take a seat on Akron’s school board.

After her husband died in 1915, Allen moved to Cleveland. She helped to establish the Cleveland Heights Christian Church and helped to financially underwrite both its building and maintenance. She also provided funds for educational work in India and the Philippines.

Allen died in 1946. She is buried in Akron.

–Kathleen L. Endres