Category: 1870-1889 (Born)
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Jessie Parsons Condit
1885-1983 Jessie Condit was executive director of the Children’s Aid Society on Springfield Ave in Newark, where she worked for 35 years. The Children’s Aid Society served “as a protective agency for children”, provided “guidance and treatment for behavioral problems” and placed “children in boarding and adoptive homes.” Jessie graduated Barnard College and started as…
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Mina Ginger Van Winkle
1875-1933 Mina Van Winkle was a famous suffragist who organized the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women in Newark in 1908. In 1912, the League was re-named the Women’s Political Union of New Jersey (WPUNJ), with Mina as president, and remained based in Newark, headquartered on Halsey Street. Mina was born in New York City, but…
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Margaret Brydon Laird
1871-1968 Margaret Laird was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement and NJ’s first Assemblywoman, elected with Jennie C. Van Ness. She was born in Newark and lived there most of her life. She attended Newark schools and graduated the Newark City Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1895 and lived in Newark until the…
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Lem See Wong
1880-? Mrs. Willie Hong, was called “the only Chinese woman in the city” in 1909 and “the only woman in Chinatown” in 1911. The Star Eagle wrote, “She is very nice indeed. Mrs. Theresa E. Burnett…visits her every week and teachers her the English language and Christian principles.” Willie Hong was sometimes called the “mayor”…
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Leah Adele Neuhut
1877-1908 Leah Neuhut, born to a rabbi in Newark, was blind from birth and deaf from 1904. She was called, “one of the most remarkable blind women in the country”. Neuhut had a reputation as a pianist, author, and speaker. She advocated on behalf of the blind to the state government. She also advocated for…
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Janet Gilchrist Paterson
*Image is Washington Street School Class for the Blind, undated c. 1871-1964 Janet Paterson helped found the first class for the Blind in Newark with Lydia Young Hayes and was the first teacher of the Blind, at Washington Street School in 1910. The NJ Commission for the Blind calls it the first “integrated class” in…
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Marguerite L. Gates
1885-1965 Marguerite L Gates was born in Massachusetts, attended Mt. Holyoke College and then came to work at Newark Library in 1907 for John Cotton Dana. She became head of lending and then assistant librarian, the secondary position in the library to Beatrice Winser, from 1930-1942. Marguerite was briefly Acting Librarian after Winser left but…
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J. Isabelle Sims
c. 1873-1952 J Isabelle Sims was a prolific Newark social worker and lifelong Newarker. Isabelle directed Fresh Air Fund Camps for 32 years and would travel to be at the Summit camp even when in a wheelchair in later life. She was an executive of 1923 Community Chest Campaign and director of the Newark Welfare…