Category Archives: Women

The jelly-cake controversy of 1891

Posted on December 13, 2019 by editor

When Springfield shoe merchants J.F. Miller and P.P. Powell offered a grand piano as top prize in the jelly-cake bakeoff at the Sangamon Fair and Springfield Exposition in 1891, they expected a bushel of free publicity. They got more than … Continue reading →

Posted in Amusements, Celebrations, Social life, Spectacles, Women | Leave a comment

World War I memorial (new)

Posted on September 27, 2019 by editor

An obelisk bearing the names of 113 Sangamon Countians who died of wounds or disease in World War I was created in the early 2000s by John Kerasotes, a member of Springfield’s pioneering movie theater family. Kerasotes, however, remained anonymous, … Continue reading →

Posted in Historic Sites, Local government, Markers, Military, Sangamon County, Women | Leave a comment

First woman principals in Springfield public schools

Posted on August 14, 2019 by editor

Women served as principals in the Springfield public schools for the first time in the 1874-75 school year, but only following a debate in which some board members declared they opposed “so hazardous an experiment as the employment of lady … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Local government, Schools and school districts, Women | Leave a comment

Pioneer women’s memories

Posted on July 28, 2019 by editor

For the 1879 meeting of the Old Settlers of Sangamon County, president Roland Diller read letters he had solicited from some of the county’s pioneer women. They were reprinted in the History of Sangamon  County, Illinois, published in 1881 by … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Children, Early residents, Family life, Women | 2 Comments

Ruth Ellis, lesbian activist

Posted on June 19, 2019 by editor

Ruth Ellis was an openly lesbian woman at a time when that was almost unheard of, the first 40 years of her life in her hometown of Springfield and for 60 more years in Detroit. She became celebrated in 1999, … Continue reading →

Posted in African Americans, Ethnic groups, Prominent figures, Women | Leave a comment

First woman dentist

Posted on April 23, 2019 by editor

Jennie F. Spurrier (1847-1912) was a dentist in Springfield beginning in 1877, making her the city’s first woman dentist and one of the earliest female dentists in the U.S. From what we know of her, she also seems to have … Continue reading →

Posted in Medicine, Prominent figures, Women | Leave a comment

‘Segregated district,’ 1909-15

Posted on April 10, 2019 by editor

In the early 20th century, the city of Springfield set aside a few square blocks where prostitutes were allowed to ply their trade without interference from police. The theory behind the quasi-legal “segregated district” was to keep the rest of … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and vice, Local government, Public health, Springfield Survey, Women | 1 Comment

Catharine Frazee Lindsay, community visionary

Posted on March 7, 2019 by editor

Catharine Frazee Lindsay is remembered mainly as the mother of Springfield’s famous poet, Vachel Lindsay. But many of her son’s ideals and, perhaps, some of his literary talent were inherited from his indefatigable mother. Despite a variety of personal trials, … Continue reading →

Posted in Churches, Historic Sites, Lindsay, Vachel, Local government, Prominent figures, Women | 3 Comments

Widow’s letter, 1841

Posted on February 2, 2019 by editor

Letters recently acquired by the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library show how one Springfield widow struggled to make a living in the 1840s. The story of Dorothea Grant also illustrates how some employers treated their African-American servants at the … Continue reading →

Posted in African Americans, Business, Early residents, Women | Leave a comment

Temperance movement, 1874

Posted on December 28, 2018 by editor

Springfield’s women’s temperance movement lost much of its momentum in 1874, after a (male) Methodist minister went out of his way to blame the local liquor trade on immigrant Germans and Irish. Doubly unfortunate for the crusading women, Rev. William … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Churches, Crime and vice, Ethnic groups, Hotels & taverns, Women | Leave a comment