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Gertrude Ferguson Penfield Seiberling, 1866-1946

Gertrude Ferguson Penfield Seiberling, benevolent supporter of the arts, gave unselfishly of her time, talents and resources to better the people of her community, Ohio and the nation.

Born on January 23, 1866, Seiberling-then Penfield-grew up in Willoughby, Ohio, where her father owned a leading manufacturing company. When she was 21, she graduated from Lasell Seminary for Young Women in Auburndale, Mass. Later that year, she was introduced to Franklin Augustus Seiberling and the couple married.

After her marriage, Seiberling came to Akron with her husband. Never one to miss an opportunity, Seiberling helped supplement the family income by giving singing lessons to young girls.

Because of her love of music, Seiberling became a charter member of the Tuesday Afternoon Club, which was later renamed the Tuesday Musical Club (T.M.C.). F.A. Seiberling was once quoted as jokingly saying the T.M.C. meant “Trouble Must Come.” Because of the group’s dedication and skill, performance requests came from all over the city.

Seiberling played an important part in bringing renowned performers and orchestras to Akron by helping to organize and finance these activities. Also active in theater, Seiberling performed at the Akron Opera House and demonstrated her golden contralto voice at the White House for President William Howard Taft. She founded the St. Cecelia Choral Society and was a frequently featured vocalist for the Christmas services at Trinity Lutheran Church in Akron, where she was a member.

It was during this time that her husband co-founded the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company with his brother, C. W. Seiberling. As her husband’s business prospered at the turn of the century, Seiberling enrolled at Buchtel College to study architecture, gardening and interior design so she would be able to assist in building the new family home. After extensive travel abroad to gather design ideas and materials, the Seiberlings returned to Akron to build Stan Hywet, a beautiful 100-room, 1,400-acre estate patterned after an English Tudor-style mansion.

Even with the daunting task of raising her large family, Seiberling’s interest in the arts continued. She became honorary president of the Tuesday Musical Club, served on the board of directors for the Cleveland Institute of Music and was an honorary member of the Philadelphia Music Club and the Westminster Choir of Dayton, Ohio. She held honorary memberships in the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Music Arts Association in Cleveland.

Seiberling was a gifted and talented artist as well and exhibited paintings in New York and Ohio. She held memberships in the Women’s Art League of Akron, the Akron Art Institute, now known as the Akron Art Museum, and the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors.

Seiberling founded and served as the first president of the Akron Garden Club in 1924, and held board positions on state and national garden clubs as well. She was active in the Peace Society and the Ohio Women’s Suffrage Association.

Seiberling died on Jan. 8, 1946. Because of her unfailing support of the arts and tremendous cultural contribution to Summit County, the Women’s History Project elected her “Woman of the Year” posthumously in 1993. At her death, the Beacon Journal reported that she was “a gracious matron and an outstanding musical enthusiast…[who] inspired in every way to make the world about her a better place.”

Photo courtesy Women’s History Project of the Arkon Area

–Penny Fox

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Blanche Carnahan Seiberling, 1873-1932

Blanche Carnahan Seiberling considered her community work as a kind of career, one to be pursued diligently with creativity and commitment.

Blanche Carnahan (also spelled Karnaghan in some records) was born in Finley, Ohio. She was the daughter of Theophilius and Mary Carnahan. Well educated, she married Charles Seiberling in 1895. Charles Seiberling and his brother Frank went on to start Goodyear Tire and Rubber and later Seiberling Rubber in Akron, Ohio.

Blanche and Charles Seiberling moved to Akron and built a mansion that came to be known as Triacres. While not as grandiose as Frank and Gertrude Seiberling‘s Stan Hywet House, Triacres became the heart of much community work in the city of Akron. The Home and School League was born there when Seiberling invited a group of friends to talk about improving relations between family and teachers. Seiberling became the first president of the league and was named its honorary president.

It was at Triacres that Seiberling and her friends came up with ways to introduce garden club work into the schools. Seiberling had long been a member of the Garden Clubs of America.

She was also a member of the Portage Country Club and the Woman’s City Club.

In the early 1920s, Seiberling withdrew from community work. She died in July 1932 after a long illness. She left her husband and daughter Catherine M. Stewart, who went on to an active philanthropic and community career of her own.

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.

–Kathleen L. Endres

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Mary Zipperlen Schumacher, 1860-1936

Every concert presented by the Tuesday Musical Club in Akron, Ohio, is a lasting testament to Mary Zipperlen Schumacher. It was Schumacher’s bequest that made the concerts economically viable.

In the early days of the Tuesday Musical Club, the organization faced an uncertain future. Even a fund-raising campaign championed by the city’s newspaper, the Beacon Journal, could not guarantee the future of the concerts. Schumacher, a pianist and a long-time member of the Tuesday Musical Club, assured that future by leaving a sizable amount – some $50,000 – to the organization to underwrite the costs of concerts. She also endowed scholarships for students at the Ferdinand Schumacher School and left a large bequest to the Sumner Home for the Aged.

Mary Schumacher was the second wife of the “cereal king” of Akron. Ferdinand Schumacher was almost 40 years older than his bride.

Mary Zipperlin was born in Cincinnati in 1860. The daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Adolph Zipperlin, Schumacher had one sister, Hermine Hansen, who became another prominent Akron community leader.

Schumacher was involved in a number of other Akron women’s organizations as well. She was a charter member of the Akron Women’s City Club. She was also active in the Akron and Summit County General Federation of Women’s Clubs and the Sumner Home for the Aged.

Schumacher traveled extensively which helped the Tuesday Musical Club enormously. She cased the world for musical organizations and up-and-coming artists.

Her travels also meant that she would be a popular speaker to the various clubs and organizations in the city. She talked about her trips to the Pacific (Tristan da Cunha), Africa as well as Europe. Her travels also led her to an interest in aviation. She flew on a plane for the first time in 1919 and soon affiliated with the Akron women’s organization affiliated with the National Aeronautical Association.

Schumacher died in Akron’s City Hospital in September 1936. She had been ill for several weeks. Cremation took place in Cincinnati.

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.

–Kathleen L. Endres

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Elizabeth Robinson Saalfield, 1888-1971

Elizabeth (Bess) Robinson Saalfield focused her benevolent activities primarily around the Mary Day Nursery and Children’s Hospital in Akron, Ohio.

Elizabeth Robinson was born into one of the most prosperous, important families of Akron. She was the daughter of the founder of Robinson Clay Products. She lived a pampered life. She went to the best schools, graduating from Wellesley College in 1909; and she married well, to A.G. (Albert) Saalfield, who would soon take over the management of Saalfield Publishing, a national publishing company located in Akron.

The Saalfield mansion, Robinwood, became the center for visiting dignitaries, including movie star Shirley Temple, who had business dealings with Saalfield Publishing. (Saalfield published the “authorized” Shirley Temple books.)

Robinwood was also a meeting place for benevolent women in the city, especially those associated with the Mary Day Nursery and Children’s Hospital. Saalfield got involved with the Mary Day Nursery shortly after graduating from college. She served on many committees but her “special project” was the Children’s Charity, a kind of self-help program where Akron children donated money each year toward the purchase of needed hospital equipment at Children’s Hospital. Saalfield helped establish the charity in 1913 and supervised its growth until 1949.

Besides the Children’s Charity, she also served on the board of the Mary Day Nursery and for a time was president of the Women’s Board of Children’s Hospital, which with the trustees ran the hospital corporation. In 1960, she was given one of the few 50-year awards for volunteer work at Children’s Hospital.

Besides her involvement with Children’s, she also served on the Women’s Board of the Sumner Home for the Aged and worked in a variety of associations affiliated with her church, First Presbyterian.

Saalfield died in 1971 in Norfolk, two years after her husband.

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.

–Kathleen L. Endres

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Mary Paul, 1879 – 1961

Mary Paul, a quiet and gentle-spirited woman, broke new ground for women in Summit County by being the first woman to hold public office.

Paul was born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, the daughter of Robert Spencer Paul and Sarah M. Romig. The third of four children, Paul attended Spicer School and Akron High School. After graduating, Paul worked as office manager for her family’s engineering firm.

When her brother, Edward W., was elected county engineer in 1913, she joined him at the courthouse and served as county recorder for 12 years. Always known for her keen sense of detail and precision, Paul was elected county recorder. She was the first woman in the county to hold such a position and won re-election twice.

Under the guidance of the Republican Party, Paul ran for mayor of Akron in 1929, but withdrew because she failed to receive the endorsement of the local newspaper, theBeacon Journal. She also studied law at Akron Law School, but never took the bar exam, saying, “I didn’t think I’d make much of a lawyer.”

Never married, Paul worked for public welfare with the Works Progress Administration under President Roosevelt’s New Deal Cultural Program. She also worked with the National Youth Administration and the Barberton Welfare Department. She was a title transfer clerk for the county auditor’s office until a few years before her death.

In her spare time, Paul was a member of the Pythian Sisters and the Royal Neighbors of America. The Past Chiefs Association and Nomads of Avrudaka show her on their membership lists as well.

An avid stamp collector all her life, Paul also enjoyed music, reading and nature walks. She prepared baskets for needy families during holidays and often helped people financially. Her interest in writing prompted her to contribute a chapter entitled, “Environs and Landmarks,” in the 1925 Centennial History of Akron.

Those who worked with her remembered Paul as “Miss Precision.” A story in the Dec. 18, 1961 issue of theBeacon Journal said, “You might never guess she knew anything-unless you asked her. Then, whatever it was, you could be sure of a ready, complete and accurate answer.”

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

–Penny Fox

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Edith Nash

Under Edith Nash’s supervision, the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) of Akron grew from a small but thriving organization into a force within the city. It was under Nash’s leadership that Akron’s YWCA swelled in membership, built a new headquarters and introduced new services to the city. At the brink of her success, Edith Nash resigned and left the city.

Little is known of Edith Nash’s career before Akron. According to sketchy YWCA personnel records, Nash had been with the Oberlin YWCA before coming to Akron. At the time she was appointed general secretary of the Akron chapter (1917), she was in her early 30s.

Nash had great skill in administrative matters and soon took Akron’s YWCA into new directions. In 1918, Nash argued that Akron home owners were reluctant to rent to women workers coming into the city during the war. Soon after, underwritten by money from Henry Firestone, owner of Firestone Tire and Rubber and an important employer of women workers, the first dormitory for women workers was opened. By 1920, the YWCA patched together three homes on South Union Street, called the “Blue Triangle,” as a dormitory for women workers. That dorm would have to suffice until 1931 when the grand, new YWCA headquarters opened on South High Street.

Nash also supervised the expansion of the old Grace House headquarters to include a dining room and club house. In 1918, she oversaw the opening of the YWCA’s first summer camps for Akron girls and working women. In 1925, she negotiated the YWCA’s purchase of land on Lake Erie. That land was transformed into Camp YaWaCa, the YWCA facility used by Akron working women and girls for decades.

But perhaps the greatest testament to Nash’s capability was the grand, state-of-the-art YWCA headquarters, opened in 1931. With a supportive group of board members, including Mary (Mrs. O.C.) Barber, Grace (Mrs. W.S) Chase, Elizabeth (Mrs. George W.) Crouse, Louise (Mrs. W.S.) Voris and Mary (Mrs. J.B.) Wright, Nash supervised the fund-raising campaign and the construction of an enormous building on South Water Street. The Beacon Journal praised the building and C.W. Seiberling, one of the owners of Seiberling Rubber, had only praise for the general secretary who seemed to make everything possible.

And then, Edith Nash resigned. After 14 years of enormous successes, Nash left Akron. She said she planned to travel and study the labor movement.

 

Photo of Edith Nash courtesy of the Beacon Journal.

–Kathleen L. Endres

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Elizabeth Huston Musser, 1858-1944

Elizabeth Huston Musser played a role in founding many of the children’s health and welfare organizations of early 20th century Akron.

Born in Kankakee County, Ind., Musser attended Bucknell College in Lewisburg, Pa. She moved to Akron in 1887 when she married Harvey Musser, an attorney who went on to become a senior partner in the law firm Musser, Kimber and Huffman. Her husband’s position gave her a measure of affluence that allowed her to concentrate on her benevolent activities on behalf of the children of Akron.

Musser was involved early with the Mary Day Nursery and Ward for Crippled Children and is generally credited with being one of the figures credited with the establishment of Children’s Hospital. She was also a founder (along withElizabeth Saalfield) of the Children’s Charity, a kind of self-help program where Akron children donated money each year toward the purchase of needed hospital equipment at Children’s Hospital.

Musser was also involved in Akron social organizations. She was a member of the Akron Woman’s City Club and an early president of the Akron Chapter of the Needlework Guild of America. She was also a member of the Summit County Woman Suffrage Association, and held a life membership in the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association.

–Stephanie Devers

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Katherine McEbright Milliken, 1850-1929

Katherine (“Kit”) McEbright Milliken, first woman to graduate from Cornell University, was a leader in Akron’s social and philanthropic scene during the Progressive period.

She was the daughter of Thomas and Nancy (Liggitt) McEbright. Her father had been a Civil War physician who moved to Akron in 1864. Her mother was the daughter of a judge in Millersburg, Ohio. Her father, especially, had a commitment to education. For many years he served as a member of Akron’s Board of Education. Both daughters, Katherine and Carita, graduated from college at a time when few women went on to higher education. Carita McEbright, who taught at Buchtel College (now The University of Akron), was another social and philanthropic leader in the city during the Progressive period.

Milliken was married to a physician/surgeon, Charles. The couple lived in the most affluent part of Akron at the time – East Market Street. They had no children.

Milliken never worked outside the home for pay; she was too busy with her volunteer activities. The Akron Alumnusmagazine referred to her as “a leader in Akron’s social and philanthropic work.” In many instances, she started the organizations that continue to endure in the city today.

For example, she and her husband started the Sumner Home of the Aged in West Akron and for many years she served on its board. In 1913, she was president of the Women’s Auxiliary Board of City Hospital. She was also given credit, along with Mary Gladwin, in starting Akron’s chapter of the Red Cross.

From 1919 to 1920, she was the chairman of theKatherine Claypole Student Loan Fund to assist worthy Buchtel College students. The committee was comprised of representatives from each of the four member organizations: the New Century Club, the Fortnightly Club, the Isabella Club and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In 1896, she was one of the first members of the Akron Branch of the Needlework Guild of America. She was a charter member of the College Club of Akron, an organization for college-educated women in Akron. She was also a member of the Division of Literary Extension in the Department of Applied Education for the College Club.

When Milliken died in 1929, all of her assets went to her sister. But the will also stated that once Carita McEbrightdied, the remaining moneys should be used to establish a student aid fund at The University of Akron. She also wanted a memorial built to honor her husband.

–Stephanie Devers

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Carita McEbright, 1865-1940

Miss Carita McEbright was a member of the speech department at The University of Akron and a devoted Shakespearean student. She was a founding member of the Mary Day Nursery and Children’s Hospital and devoted much of her time toward the development of it.

When she became a member of old Buchtel College (now The University of Akron) faculty in 1910, McEbright served as the entire speech department. The Beacon Journaldescribed her as “one of the most beloved figures on the university campus for 25 years.” She remained in the speech department throughout her career, which ended with her retirement in 1935.

Her father, Dr. Thomas McEbright, who was one of Akron’s leading physicians and president of the board of education, influenced McEbright’s interest in education and the hospitals. Her early work experience included teaching physical education and expression in Akron public schools and one year at Congregational College in Yankton, S.D.

As a young woman, McEbright studied under famed Shakespearean actor Robert Mantell and she produced the first Akron Shakespearean program at a Central High graduation. She produced many dramatic programs and participated in early amateur theatricals around 1900.

McEbright attended old Buchtel College as a student for three years and finished her studies at Cornell University in 1887. At Cornell she became a charter member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and later served as faculty advisor for the Akron chapter of the sorority. She was also a member of the Akron Panhellenic Association.

McEbright shared the same commitment to community activities as her sister Katherine McEbright Milliken. McEbright held the position of secretary in “Daughters of the King” and she served on the original Mary Day Nursery board and as president of the organization. In 1905 she helped establish the Mary Day Nursery’s Ward for Crippled Children and from 1918-1919 she served on the Mary Day Nursery publicity committee.

Until her death in 1940, McEbright was a member of the Women’s Board of Children’s Hospital and she served as secretary of that board for a time. In 1911, she became a charter member of the College Club. McEbright was a founding member of the Little Theater movement in Akron and she served as honorary president of the Cornell Club of Akron as well. She was a member of the First Congregational Church throughout her life and she had membership in the Burns Club and the Art and History Class.

At the age of 75, McEbright suffered a stroke and died suddenly. She died in her home, 386 East Market St., which had belonged to the McEbright family since 1903.

Photo courtesy of The University of Akron Archives.

–Janelle Baltputnis

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Sarah S. Lyon

Sarah S. Lyon was part of a new generation of women activists hired by Akron’s Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) to bring needed services to women in the city.

Little is known about Lyon before she came to the city – or after she left it. She was hired by the Akron YWCA in 1907 as its industrial secretary with the responsibility of strengthening the ties between the association and the working women in the city. According to a 1908/1909 report, she concentrated on the factory women, visiting the city’s factories every noon hour to announce YWCA-sponsored classes and socials.

By 1910, Lyon had been promoted to general secretary, responsible for all YWCA programs in the city. This was a time tremendous vitality and energy at the YWCA. In 1911, seeing a need for “some sort of college women’s association,” she worked through the YWCA’s student committee to organize the College Women’s Club in 1911. She held a tea for college women on Sept. 22 and one month later, on Oct. 22, the first meeting of the College Club of Akron was held. This organization outlived Lyon’s tenure with the YWCA.

In 1917 Lyon left the YWCA; she was replaced by Edith Nash.

When she lived in Akron, Lyon roomed with the Sylvanus E. Phinney family at 193 Merriman Road.

Photo courtesy of The University of Akron Archives.

–Janelle Baltputnis