Historic Women of Ohio

Martha Finley

Martha Finley was born in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1828 and lived in Circleville until she was 7 years old when she moved to South Bend, Indiana.  She lived there, except for a year in Philadelphia, until she was 25 in 1853.   She returned to Pennsylvania, became a teacher and writer, spent a year in New York and by 1867 had begun her most famous series of stories in 28  volumes featuring Elsie Dinsmore.  The series was written over 38 years and sold 5 million copies. 

Martha ended up in Elkton, Maryland where she continued to write fiction for young girls including a series in seven volumes concerning a girl named, Mildred Keith.  She also wrote more than 50 short books and pamplets that were published by the Presbyterian Publishing Company. 

Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke

Mary Ann Ball was born in Knox County, Ohio in 1817.  She married Robert Bickerdyke in 1847 and moved to Galesburg, Illinois.  She was known for her understanding of herbal medicines.  At the start of the Civil War she was asked to take charge of medical supplies being sent to soldiers in the camp hospital near Cairo, Illinois.  Without military permission she entered the camp hospital and was incensed by the conditions she found.  She cleaned up the hospital, taught the men to cook, obtained a broader variety of foods for them to eat and ministered to their wounds and spirits. 

Following the battle at Fort Donelson she boarded a steamer and took charge of the wounded.  She walked the battlefields at night with a lantern looking for those wounded who might have been missed.  Her work was recognized by the American Santiary Commission.  General  William T. Sherman asked her to serve with his soldiers as he marched through Georgia.  She resigned her commission as a sanitary agent in 1866.  

After the war, her activism continued in support of other causes.  Galesburg, Illinois erected a monument to her on the courthouse lawn.  In 1943, a victory freighter was named the Mary A. Bickerdyke.  

Nell Dorr

Nell Dorr was born in Cleveland in 1895.  Her first experience with photography was mixing chemicals for her father who was a prominent photograper in Cleveland and offical photographer for the Baltimore and Ohio Railway.  She moved to Florida in 1923, at which time her father finished her education in photography, and she opened her first portrait studio.  She eventually moved her studio to New York where she became fully involved in the photographic world.  In 1934 she held her first exhibition of portraits of prestigious men in the Delphic Studio.  Among those men was John Van Norstrand Dorr, whom she later married.

As the years passed photography became regarded as an art form that could yield aesthetic and artistic satisfaction.  After more exhibitions, the death of her youngest daughter and the publication of several books she gave up her commercial business and began to concentrate on mothers and daughters.  This is the work she is best known for.  Dorr died in Connecticut in 1988.

Hallie Quinn Brown

Hallie Quinn Brown, daughter of former slaves, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1845 and raised in Chatham, Ontario where her parents fled because of discrimination. There the children were educated until the family moved to Wilberforce, Ohio in 1870 so they could attend Wilberforce University.  Hallie graduated from Wilberforce in 1873. 

She began a career as a teacher in  Mississippi, next she taught at Allen University in South Carolina and later served as dean at Tuskegee Institute in Atlanta.  Finally she returned north to teach in the Dayton Public Schools, Dayton Ohio and later to her alma mater to teach elocution. 

In 1881 Wilberforce University established the Grand Concert Company, to tour the country and raise funds. Brown was a leader of the group.  When they toured England her ability as a speaker led to her being presented to Queen  Victoria, and an English philanthropist donated money for a new dormitory on the Wilberforce campus.

In 1894 she began a five year stint as a lecturer for the British Woman's Temperance Society.

She returned to teach at Wilberforce in 1906 but her work as an activist equaled her work as an educator.  In 1925 as president of the National Federation of Colored Women's Clubs she led a demonstration protesting segregation at a Washington D.C. convention of the International Council of Women.

Brown authored several books on women and public speaking.  She died at her Wilberforce residence in 1949.