Editor’s observe: together with the two hundredth celebration of the institution of Sidney, the Sidney Every day Information might be publishing a 12 months lengthy collection in regards to the metropolis’s historical past.
SIDNEY — Mom Theresa as soon as stated, “I alone can not change the world, however I can forged a stone throughout the waters to create many ripples.” These ripples in flip have an effect on the world round us, inspiring others to create extra ripples, sparking change after change. Everyone seems to be born with the potential to forged their very own stone by the waters of time, and their impacts are felt all through historical past. One doesn’t should be world-renowned to ensure that their efforts to make a distinction, and that is usually the case with many unsung heroes, particularly all through Shelby County’s Historical past. As we have fun Sidney’s Bicentennial this 12 months, we mirror on lots of the robust and brave women and men whose tales have contributed to its success all through the final two centuries. For this text, we are going to give attention to the numerous extraordinary ladies from Sidney who adopted their desires and passions, and in the long run precipitated many ripples to vary the world round them.
One of many earliest, and presumably most well-known, ladies was Julia Lamb. She based the primary Christian Women Support Fee in Shelby County and in the course of the Civil Battle helped put collectively care packages and hosted advantages to boost cash for support for the county’s many troopers. She was additionally a particularly beneficiant philanthropist all through her later life, donating to a number of organizations such because the Presbyterian Church. One in every of her most memorable contributions, nonetheless, was the land for the creation of a playground alongside the Nice Miami River. As per her directions, this land continues to be in use to at the present time as Julia Lamb Discipline the place many schoolchildren collect to play.
Though there have been a number of feminine missionaries from the realm, three ladies specifically stand out specifically. First, we’ve Ella Schenck, the daughter of a touring preacher at Lockington. She devoted eight years of her life to the schooling of individuals in West Africa earlier than she was brutally murdered on the age of 32 in a bloodbath at Rotufunk in Sierra Leone in the course of the Hut Tax Battle in 1898. The United Brethren Church in Sidney devoted their newly constructed constructing to her in 1902 and it nonetheless stands on the nook of West Ave. and Beech St.
Second, can be Ida Haslup Goode. After graduating from Sidney Excessive Faculty in 1875, she obtained her instructing certificates from Indiana Wesleyan College and have become the primary feminine principal at Sidney Excessive Faculty. Ida Haslup then took a job in Pueblo, Colorado till the dying of her buddy when she returned and married her widower, W.H.C. Goode. After her husband’s dying in 1923, she took operational management of the American Metal Scraper Firm and managed it for plenty of years. Ida Haslup Goode was extremely concerned with the Methodist Church in Sidney and the Girls’s Residence Missionary Society. She helped sponsor the expansion of Bennett Faculty in North Carolina for African American Girls in addition to the Geo. O. Robinson Faculty in Puerto Rico. She handed away in 1958 only a few months shy of her hundredth birthday after a life devoted to schooling and serving her religion.
Third, can be Laura Richards, who graduated from Sidney Excessive Faculty alongside Lois Lenski in 1911. She first served as a nurse for the Pink Cross in France throughout WWI, however felt referred to as to affix the Presbyterian missionary. By means of the church she traveled to China first as a nurse, then felt the decision to determine an orphanage for youngsters who had been forged away. Throughout the time Laura ran the Canaan Residence orphanage in a distant area of northern China she confronted excessive poverty and famine amidst a rustic in political chaos. She stored her religion regardless of the chances and was capable of save the lives of over 250 youngsters within the years she lived there. Even after her return to the US she continued to really feel the decision to evangelize youngsters and made a number of ventures to the Philippines.
Many ladies all through Sidney and Shelby County have additionally made strides in a number of totally different job fields moreover schooling and missionary work throughout the previous twenty years. Delia Amos, later married to a Holbrook and a Smith, turned the primary feminine newspaper editor in Ohio when she took cost of the Sidney Every day Information in 1891. She additionally was president of the Ohio Girls’s Press Affiliation and a world traveler. After she married her first husband, Delia moved to Los Angeles, California the place she turned the joint proprietor and supervisor of the Western Reserve Democrat.
One other lady from Sidney who made many ripples within the media business was Margaret (Margo) Russell. After getting her begin first as a journalist, Margo shortly turned editor of the pioneer publication “Coin World” revealed by Amos Press. She was identified by many in coin gathering circles because the “First Girl of Numismatics.” Margo was an adviser to Congress on a number of issues that involved the coin membership group and was even appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 to function a member of the US Assay Committee, which was a panel created for the affirmation that sure cash met their statutory necessities. She was a recipient of a number of awards by the American Numismatic Affiliation and obtained their highest honor, the Farran Zerbe award, in addition to was inducted into the ANA Corridor of Fame in Colorado.
A number of ladies have additionally made strides in recognizing the necessity for higher lodging for individuals, most particularly youngsters, with bodily and psychological diseases. Helen Coffield was instrumental in making a summer season camp for developmentally disabled youngsters in 1969, and later helped set up the Shelby County Faculty for the Mentally Retarded in 1975. She was acknowledged as an “Excellent Citizen” by the Sidney Metropolis Council in addition to listed as one of many prime ten individuals within the Miami Valley in 1986. Marianne Helmlinger was an advocate for people who had a psychological sickness inside the group. Apart from being a trainer for 38 years, she additionally sat on the Ohio Nationwide Alliance for Psychological Sickness (NAMI) board for 28 years and was thought-about a pioneer for psychological well being advocacy in Ohio.
Alongside the numerous ladies who’ve impressed adjustments on the earth round them, there have additionally been many ladies in Sidney’s historical past who’ve gone out into the world to pursue their desires and passions. Farida Wiley is a wonderful instance of how pursuing your ardour can result in a profession of your desires. She traveled from Sidney to New York Metropolis as a self-taught naturalist, instructing botany to blind college students on the American Museum of Pure Historical past the place she maintained a profession for 60 years. Her favourite pastime was to steer excursions by Central Park to view the wide range of birds that flocked there at totally different instances of the 12 months, which was an exercise she maintained even into her early 90’s.
From birds that fly within the sky to fish that swim within the sea, Sidney had a lady keen about each extremes. From an early age, Aunalee Crusey Kerns and her twin brother, Elmer Jr., had been avid fishermen and took part in a number of juvenile competitions. Aunalee had a pure knack for the game and went on to turn out to be a well-known trick fly-fisherwoman. She turned a nationwide ladies’s fly and bait casting champion and as soon as toured round the US and Canada to carry out tips together with her rod and reel, similar to flicking a cigarette butt out of an individual’s mouth from throughout the size of a swimming pool. An article in LIFE journal titled “Educate Me to Forged” featured Aunalee in addition to did many sporting adverts within the 1950’s and 60’s.
At present there are nonetheless many extraordinary ladies making a optimistic influence on the world round them, from Dr. Lisa Alvetro who based the Smiles of Hope charity in Tanzania, to Libby Van Treese who’s the holder of 11 nationwide trick titles in water snowboarding, to Julie Ehemann who turned not solely the primary feminine mayor of Anna however the first feminine county commissioner in Shelby County. These ladies have all taught us that any lady will be extraordinary as long as they attempt in direction of their targets and proceed to attain them! To seek out out extra info on lots of the feminine contributors to Shelby County’s historical past, take a look at the Shelby County Historic Society’s web site: www.shelbycountyhistory.org.
Helen Coffield on the Shelby Hills groundbreaking ceremony.
Aunalee Crusey Kerns poses for a photograph together with her fishing rod.
Farida Wiley
Laura Richards with a number of the youngsters at her orphanage.
The author is tHe curator of the Shelby County Historic Society.
