Jewish American Heritage Month

15 women from York County’s past who influenced, inspired and created change – York Daily Record

Posted By admin on August 26, 2020

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Three women with strong York County ties have won national honors in August, an anniversary month for womens suffrage.

A century ago on Aug. 18, Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment, becoming the 36th state to do so and thus meeting the legal threshold to give women the right to vote in the presidential election of 1920.

Special Olympian Loretta Claiborne today focuses especially on the treatment of people with disabilities.(Photo: Photo REED SAXON, AP, ILLUSTRATION: USA TODAY NETWORK)

So its timely to recognize Special Olympian Loretta Claiborne and forensic pediatrician Leslie Strickler, who gained Women of the Century honors in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, respectively.

Dallastown graduate and forensic pediatrician Leslie Strickler is among 10 women found to be the most inspiring in New Mexico.(Photo: _JOHN ARNOLD, UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIENCES, ILLUSTRATION_ USA TODAY NETWORK)

And Logos Academys Arlette Morales was named among 12 Faces of Activism.

Arlette Morales is a 17-year-old York, Pennsylvania activist who advocates for Latino, immigrant and Black rights by way of protesting and and other forms of community involvement, July 24, 2020.(Photo: Cameron Clark, York Daily Record)

All three honors came from national surveys published by the USA Today Network.

With all this in mind, we turn to women from history with York County ties, all deceased, who influenced, inspired and, in many cases, created change locally and nationally. Here are 15, among scores of deserving accomplished women from our past:

Susanna Wright: This native of England came to Columbia in Lancaster County in 1726, before York County separated, and lived in the river town for the rest of her life. This daughter of widowed Quaker John Wright ran the household that supported the family ferry business and other enterprises. In addition, she mediated legal disputes, wrote poetry and essays, owned an extensive multilanguage library and corresponded with Benjamin Franklin and others of prominence. Also, Ann Jessop came to York in the 1780s, and like Susanna Wright, was the genesis of one of the region's most influential and productive families.

Shinah Etting: A visitor to York in 1773 admired this young matriarch of what is believed to be York's first Jewish family. Those who have known York ... cannot fail to recollect the sprightly and engaging Mrs. E., the life of all the gaiety that could be mustered in the village, he wrote. After her storekeeper husband died, this mother of eight relocated to Baltimore, where her family gained a spot on a short list of the city's most influential and respected residents.

Widow Mihmims: Massachusetts statesman Timothy Pickering, visiting York as part of the Continental Congress nine-month stay, observed his landlord, the Widow Mihmims, constantly working alone at her spinning wheel. Perhaps she was spinning to make ends meet in times of the wars scarcities and high prices. Or perhaps she was making clothing for those serving in the military. Either way, she was contributing to the community alone at her machine. She is representative of the untold number of women who contributed to the community and beyond from their homes: hosting and working. Pickering wrote: She lived all alone and now sets from morning till night at her spinning wheel, which, by the way, is a very modest one.

Amanda Berry Smith: The household near Shrewsbury where this freedwoman grew up served as an Underground Railroad station before the Civil War. Later, she committed her life to Christian missionary work and traveled internationally. Smith also founded and operated an industrial home for Black children in suburban Chicago. Similarly, two other late 19th-century Black women with York County links, Mary J. Small and Frances Harper, were widely known for missionary and social action work, respectively.

Mary Cadwell Fisher: A trained teacher, this respected woman learned nursing and humanitarian work at the Civil War Hospital in York. This leader in the Ladies Aid Society traveled to Gettysburg after the battle to tend to the wounded. The experienced nurse later wrote in a Philadelphia newspaper that "no imagination could paint the picture in that wood" as she aided the fallen soldiers.

Isabel Small: An early York County philanthropist, Isabel Small, with her husband, Samuel, created and funded institutions that formed a foundation in York. For example, when Samuel died in 1885, he bequeathed $8,000 to the Childrens Home of York. Upon her death in 1890, Isabel earmarked $30,000.

And she bequeathed a similar amount to another Small family enterprise, York Collegiate Institute, one of the forerunners ofYork College. The Small family also started and supported York Hospital and the York Benevolent Association.

Mary A. and Eleanor D. Wallace:These sisters took over operation of their father's gristmill near Cross Roads a couple of years after his death in 1861. Alexander Wallace had operated the southeastern York County mill for about two decades, and his daughters carried on his legacy until 1895. Women typically were not involved in milling in those days. Mary Wallace gained another distinction. She lost an arm in the machinery but kept working in what is known as the Wallace-Cross Mill today.

Catherine Meyer: This Red Lion businesswoman was blessed with one of the most respected business minds in the area. Her ventures included development of a general store and rail station, and she played a role in the incorporation of Red Lion in 1880. Despite these accomplishments, Meyer never voted in a national election. She died in 1919, a year before the 19th Amendment was ratified. For her leadership, she gained the title of the "Mother of Red Lion."

Anna Dill Gamble: This Paris-born, York County-educated writer, activist and historian served as county chairwoman to persuade men to vote for women's suffrage. Gamble spent about two years in an intense campaign, though defeated in the county and state in the general election in 1915. Later, she became involved in peace and international relations, speaking widely on behalf of the International Council of Catholic Women. Also, the effort to win the suffrage vote in 1915 crossed racial lines. Ethel Armstrong Cowles chaired efforts in the Black community to gain the vote.

Florence M. Gipe: This longtime head of nursing at York Hospital went on to earn her doctorate in nursing at the University of Maryland. She later served as dean of the Maryland School of Nursing, and her teaching and published works helped establish nursing academically rather than as vocational training. Historian June Burk Lloyd quotes a story on the University of Maryland School of Nursing website that sums up Gipes philosophy: You train dogs, you educate nurses.

Katherine Beecher:This businesswoman founded Katherine Beecher candies in Manchester, an example of a woman-operated business that started in the kitchen. Western York County snack food makers Martins, Utz and Wege are others. The military's demand for candy during the war nourished Beechers candy making. Beecher was at home in the company's kitchen or dealing with customers and other business matters.

Martha Bailey: This Dillsburg native, one of the county's early women medical doctors, started as a country doctor. Her contributions to health care extended thousands of miles farther. She contributed to rural health care with the Pennsylvania Health Department, served at a Presbyterian mission school for Black people in Alabama and worked for native American and Alaskan rights. Some years earlier, Laura J. Dice, a pioneering York physician, was secretary of the county medical society and a leading suffragist.

Lillie Belle Allen: This visitor from South Carolina was shot while visiting York in the race riots of 1969. Her assailants were not brought to justice for more than 30 years. That was a gap that has caused her family to point out at a recent memorial that Allen had no voice and was seemingly a nonexistent person. Also, two Black women of this era with county ties are remembered for their civil rights work: Gladys Rawlins, who founded Green Circle, an international program to promote racial understanding, and Daisy Myers, who earned the title Rosa Parks of the North. She and her family endured racial discrimination in Levittown in the 1950s, and Gov. George Leader, a York native, sent in the state police to bring order.

Mattie Chapman: County voters elected this Albany, Georgia, native to the post of county prothonotary in 1975, the first Black woman elected to county office. She started in the prothonotary's office as a clerk 19 years earlier, the first Black person to work in the courthouse. She led the entire ticket in winning a second term. When the popular Chapman died in 1982, Judge James Buckingham said: I believe when (Prothonotary) Mattie Chapman passed, a light went out in this Court House.

Delma Millain Rivera: Delma Rivera, served on numerous community boards, including the Salvation Army, the York Health Corp. and the United Way of York County. She and her husband, pioneering Latino physician Edwin A. Rivera, helped found Yorks Spanish American Center. Legacies, an AAUW publication, said this about Delma Rivera in 1984: Love of people and her heritage remains the motivating force behind Delma Rivera's years of work with the Hispanic community of York.

We add one more because this accomplished womans life and times so greatly represented the qualities of the 15 influencers already named.

Flo Snyder Neff started in the office of York Corp., writing poetry of hope in newsletters sent to Yorkco employees working on defense jobs at home and away at war. You could accurately say this office worker, one of 5,000 Yorkco employees, inspired a critical defense company with her pen in a time of crisis in World War II.

She later trained as a nurse and then continued her education in a different field to become a pioneering guidance counselor in the Red Lion Area School District. Her work is remembered in the school district today.

For many years in the home, she cared for her mother and then for her husband.

Like so many county women, she achieved on many fronts, whether with quiet work in the home or as a pioneer in her professional field.

Sources: James McClures Never to be Forgotten, YDR files, AAUWs Legacies, Friends of Lebanon Cemetery and York County History Center archives; June Burk Lloyds Universal York blog.

I will present in the OLLI-Penn State Fall Series on two womens history-related topics: Women in World War II, 11 a.m. Oct. 8 at York JCC, and When Women Marched: Suffrage in York County, 1 p.m. Nov. 12 at York JCC.

Also, this OLLI presentation: When Streetcars Shrunk York County and the World, 11 a.m. Nov. 18 at Wisehaven, Terrace Room. Registration details, $8 for OLLI members, $15 for nonmembers: https://olli.york.psu.edu/.

Jim McClure is the retired editor of the York Daily Record and has authored or co-authored seven books on York County history. Reach him at jimmcclure21@outlook.com.

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15 women from York County's past who influenced, inspired and created change - York Daily Record