Celebrating McDonough County’s 200th & the Women Who Made a Difference
As McDonough County celebrates its 200th anniversary and March is Women’s History Month, The Community News Brief is pleased to showcase the McDonough County women of yesteryear who led the change in numerous ways. Part 1 featured Clara Bayliss, Lida Crabb and Rebecca Everly.
On Sept. 12, 2015, the Macomb Woman’s Club GFWC dedicated the McDonough County Women’s Social Services Memorial on the west side of Chandler Park, “Facing the Storm,” which honors, memorializes and celebrates women in Macomb. The bronze statue and monument memorialize the women who made it their life’s work to protect children, women and animals before laws and societal norms were in place to do so. The eight women named on the monument benefitted the Macomb community by stepping out and making a difference: Clara Bayliss, Lida Crabb, Rebecca Everly, Rose Jolly, Dr. Elizabeth Miner, Sadie Moon, Dr. Ruth Tunnicliff and Josie Westfall.
Rose Jolly (1876-1937): A Crusader for Children & Animals One of McDonough County’s great social crusaders during the Progressive Era was Rose Jolly, who was born in Macomb, the daughter of British immigrants. As a young woman, Rose worked in the hotel business with her father, and met a range of people who were visiting Macomb.
Jolly was an excellent student at a time when only a few women were starting to seek careers and even fewer were accepting leadership positions. She worked in Chicago in the mid 1890s, eventually returning to Macomb, where, in the early 20th century, Rose became the organizer and most active leader in the county’s first social organization, the McDonough County Humane Society.
Formed in 1909, the local humane society was devoted to “the protection of children and animals.” Rose was clearly the central figure, though she had to surround herself with male leaders because it was expected that men would have to lead any agency of significance.
In December 1909 as reported by the Macomb Journal, Jolly, who was serving as the secretary of the McDonough County Humane Society, returned from Springfield, where she had been a delegate to the second annual convention of the Illinois Humane Society. She reported a good attendance and good interest shown. Twenty-five delegates from throughout the state, representing as many counties, were present. While at the convention, Miss Jolly made arrangements with Attorney George A. H. Scott, secretary of the state society at Chicago, to be in Macomb at the first annual meeting of the McDonough County Humane Society to be held in January.
Jolly was the county’s pioneer in what would now be considered “children and family services” or “anti-cruelty work.” It was Rose who filed papers to seize neglected and abused children. It was Rose who gave them immediate attention, placed a number of them in alternate homes or Illinois orphanages and initiated precautions of various kinds. And it was Rose who rescued tormented animals … and for all this, she was never paid. It was also during this time that she called on the county for the establishment of a local orphanage and a dog pound.
“Rose Jolly was quite an activist,” said Macomb Woman’s Club GFWC Tina Belz during the dedication of ‘Facing the Storm’ in 2015. “There was no advocacy at that time for animals. They were considered property, as were wives and children.”
Jolly also helped remove abuse victims from their homes and then advocated for them in court. Her work was not always lauded.
“There was a man who went in front of the court and said, ‘I can do whatever I want, they are my property.’ It shows what things were like back then,” Belz added.
Rose served as the secretary for her friend Josie Westfall’s orphanage from 1911 until her death in 1937.
Dr. Elizabeth Miner (1867-1961): The County’s First Female Physician McDonough County’s first female physician Dr. Elizabeth Miner was born Dec. 25, 1867, in Blakesburg, IA. She graduated from Shenandoah (IA) Teachers College, and worked as a teacher. A few years later, she went back to school and earned her medical degree from the Denver, CO Medical School in 1895. As yet another woman before her time, Dr. Miner rose against significant odds to be a statewide medical leader.
Her first husband died of a disease shortly after they were married, and following his death, she decided to change the direction of her life and pursued a career in medicine, enrolling in medical school in 1891. Because very few medical schools accepted women, she applied using her initials, “E. R.,” and was accepted. When she arrived, she was told that the school did not accept women, upon which she told them that they just had, so with that, Elizabeth broke one of the glass ceilings holding women back and was admitted to medical school. She practiced briefly in Greeley, CO, before marrying William Miner and moving to Macomb in 1895.
Dr. Miner opened her practice in Macomb, and also served on the boards of the Holmes, St. Francis, and Phelps hospitals and also taught in the nursing schools. Her medical practice was located in an upstairs office on the south side of the Downtown Square.
“At the end of three months I had earned just $5 from my work. I have never known another doctor who had such a hard time getting started. There was a deep prejudice against a woman in medicine, and the other doctors were not very friendly. Women as well as men tended to shy away from a female physician.”
In addition to being the first female doctor in the county, she was a charter member of the McDonough County Medical Society, which was organized in 1897, and served as the society’s first secretary. She was a candidate for the position of Supreme Medical Director of Illinois in 1897, but at the last vote she was defeated by the past director. In 1945, she was honored by the McDonough County Medical Association practicing medicine for 50 years.
In the community, Dr. Miner was a member of the General Macomb Chapter DAR, Delphian Society, Business and Professional Women’s Club, and the First Baptist Church of Macomb.
After retiring, she and her husband spent their winters in St. Petersburg, FL. It was also in her retirement that she became an avid chess player and champion, winning many tournaments. Dr. Miner also enjoyed singing and was a member of The Three Century Choral Group for many years and appeared in “Granddad,” in a newsreel of Florida, which was played in theaters around the country.
Sadie “Mother” Moon (1880-1956): A Mother to Many Sadie Moon earned the nickname “Mother Moon” as she had been a mother- figure to many individuals throughout her lifetime, and because of her caring, nurturing demeanor. Moon reached out selflessly whenever there was the opportunity to better the lives of others, and she treated all children as if they were hers even though she was raising 10 children of her own.
Mother Moon helped many who were sick or needy throughout Macomb and McDonough County, often helping other mothers who didn’t know how to care for their sick children, and never worrying about her own health and safety.
She led Sunday School classes for boys for 16 years, teaching them to give generously of their time and service but reminding them to give “quietly.” To the boys who later were sent to war, Moon tirelessly wrote letters of encouragement.
Individuals who were unhoused, who were known as “tramps” or “hobos” at the time, often rode the railway freight trains across the country. When they stopped off in Macomb for handouts and meals, they usually found their way to Mother Moon’s house because they left a chalk mark on the houses where others coming later were sure to find a free meal. Mother Moon would not allow her family to erase the chalk mark, even when her family barely had enough food for themselves.
“A life of service is one of immeasurable impact. We have all been blessed with “Mother Moons” in our lives. They leave us a powerful legacy and a wonderful model of a life well-lived....” Jane Leighty Justis (Leighty Community Foundation of NE Iowa Brochure).
Jane’s Leighty’s father, Herman Daniel Leighty, the youngest of five children of the Isaac and Ethel Leighty family, was known as “Little Ike,” shortened to Ike. They were sharecropper farmers in western Illinois, and in 1919, as a result of helping neighbors during a tuberculosis epidemic, Ethel contracted the disease. The family was forced to leave the expansiveness of farm life and moved to a small home on West Kelly Street in Macomb. When Ike was five, his mother died. Isaac kept the family together, assisted by neighborly love and care from the Moon family. Mother Moon melded the Leighty children with her own, seeing that they got to Sunday School, and had clothing, food, and friendship.
Mother Moon’s lives on today in the “Mother Moon Service Scholarship” for graduating seniors at Macomb High School.
*Excerpts taken from WIU Archives & Special Collections; the writings of John Hallwas; Woman’s Club of Macomb; and online sources (Macomb Journal archives, University of Illinois Carli Press, etc).
