Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/770

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WHEELOCK.
WHEELOCK.

great-grandfather was a captain in the Revolutionary War. Her father, a Christian minister, died when she was but three years old, leaving a family of small children, of whom she was the youngest. Her mother, a woman of ability and force, proved equal to the charge. In 1865 Dora was graduated from the high school of Berlin, Wis., and in July, three weeks after, became the wife of Oren N. Wheelock, a merchant of that city. They lived first in Iowa, and then in Wisconsin, till 1873, when they settled in Beatrice, Neb., their present home. Mrs. Wheelock has always been interested in church, foreign missionary and school work. Since 1885 she has been an influential worker in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, serving for several years as local president and three years as president of Gage county. In the spring of 1889 she was elected to a position on the board of education of Beatrice, which office she still holds. She is State superintendent of press work, and reporter for the "Union Signal" for Nebraska. She has written much and might have written more, but for the many paths in which duty called her. Her articles have appeared in the "Youth's Companion," "Union Signal" and various other publications. She is a variously gifted woman, a musician, both vocal and instrumental, and an artist who might have won recognition had she chosen to make painting a specialty. She is strong in the advocacy of woman's enfranchisement, though not known as a special worker in the field. She strives to be one of the advance guard in the cause of woman's progress.


WHEELOCK, Miss Lucy, educator, lecturer and author, born in Cambridge, Vt., 1st February, 1857, in which town her father has been LUCY WHEELOCK. pastor for many years. She is of New England descent. Her education was begun under the care of her devoted mother, and was continued in Chauncy-Hall School, in Boston, where she became an excellent classical and German scholar and a writer of both prose and verse. Towards the close of her course in that school, she was drawn towards the education of very young children according to the kindergarten system, and took a thorough course of instruction to prepare herself for that work, receiving her diploma from the hand of Miss Elizabeth Peabody. She began to teach in the kindergarten that had been recently established in the Chauncy-Hall School, which position she has held for about ten years. Her work has made her a successful exponent and advocate of the system of Fröbel, which she is often called upon to expound before educational institutes and conventions. During the last four years she has taught a training class of candidates for the kindergarten service, coming from all parts of the Union and Canada, increasing in number from year to year. In addition to preparing numerous lectures, she has translated for "Barnard's Journal of Education" several important German works, and has contributed to other educational journals many practical articles. She has also translated and published several of Madame Johanna Spyri's popular stories for children, under the title of "Red Letter Tales." Her interest in young children early led her into Sunday-school work, and she soon became superintendent of a large primary class connected with the Berkeley Temple, in Boston. Her success in that work won her a reputation, and she is now a favorite speaker in Sunday-school institutes and gatherings, as well as those for general educational purposes in New England, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Montreal. She devotes a great part of her summer vacation to work of that sort. She also teaches a large class of adults in the Summer School of Methods in Martha's Vineyard, and gives a model lesson weekly, for eight months in the year, to a class of about two-hundred primary Sunday-school teachers. She publishes weekly in the "Congregationalist," "Hints to Primary Teachers," in the same line of work.


WHIPPLE, Miss M. Ella, physician, born in Batavia, Ill., 20th January, 1851. Her parents were both of English descent, her father being a lineal descendant of the Whipple who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Her father was born and bred in Chautauqua county, N. Y., and her mother was born in New Jersey and bred in Orange county, N. Y. They both removed to Illinois, where they were married. In 1852 they started across the plains by ox team to Oregon, being six months on the way. Her mother was a teacher for many years and wrote for the papers of the day. Dr. Whipple's early childhood was spent on a farm. She was studious, industrious and persevering, and always at the head in school work. Her school-days were spent in Vancouver, Wash., where her parents went to educate their children. She was graduated in 1870 from Vancouver Seminary. Two years later she received the degree of B.S. from Willamette University, and had also completed the normal course in that institution. The nine years following were spent in teaching in the schools of Oregon and Washington, where she acquired the reputation of a very successful teacher. She was for two years preceptress of Baker City Academy, and later was principal of the Astoria public schools. Deciding to prepare herself for the medical profession, she gave up teaching and, after a three-year course of study, was graduated with honors from the medical department of the Willamette University in 1883. She received the advantage of special study and hospital practice in the sanitarium in Battle Creek,