Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/314

 Mary B. Welch as dean. A number of young ladies, graduates of the State University and other literary schools, have gone to this School of Domestic Economy to finish their education.”

Many of the most talented editorial writers for Iowa journals have for many years been women; and among Iowa authors of books on various subjects are many brilliant women.

Ellen S. Tupper of Iowa was for twenty years the highest authority in the United States on bee-keeping. She contributed to the best bee journals and conducted departments in the New York Tribune, the Iowa Homestead, and other papers of wide circulation. Two of her daughters were talented Unitarian ministers. Mary A. Emsley of Mason City and Louisa B. Stevens of Marion, were among the pioneer women bankers of Iowa. Mrs. M. A. Turner was for many years secretary and treasurer of the Des Moines Street Railway Company.

During the War of the Rebellion Iowa furnished many devoted and heroic nurses to the army in the field and camp. Among them may be mentioned Annie Wittenmyer, Ann E. Harlan, Almira Fales, Phoebe Allen, Mrs. I. K. Fuller, Mrs. Simmons, Jerusha R. Small, Melcena Elliott and Arabella Tannehill. No State in the Union has produced a truer heroine than Iowa, in the brave little Irish girl of Boone County, Kate Shelley, who at the peril of her life, saved a night train loaded with sleeping passengers on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway.

The legislation of Iowa as to the rights of women, from the first, has been more liberal than that of a large majority of the States. Under the first code of the Territory, 1842-3, the widow inherited one-third of the real estate and personal property; and if there were no children she received one-half of all property. If there were no kindred, she received the entire estate. The code of 1851 provided that the personal property of the wife did not vest in the husband at once but, if left in his control,