Well Educated Women of East Mills Avenue, 1940 edition

Looking at the 1940 Census pages for East Mills Avenue I was struck by how well-educated so many of the women living on the street were (in 1940 the census-taker asked how many years of schooling each adult had completed). In 1940 only about 3.7 percent of all women in the United States had 4-year college degrees (and only 4.9 percent of men).  On East Mills there were 13 women with four or more years of college; 2 women with two years of college; and three current female college students--- 35 percent of women living on E. Mills Avenue in 1940 were college-educated. Although six of these women were working in their homes as wives and mothers, nine were in the paid workforce. There were six teachers, a doctor, a stenographer, and a retired teacher who had also been a social worker at Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Helen E. Mabon (Hiestand) (1905-1985) – Physician – 24 E. Mills Ave.

In 1940 Helen E. Mabon was a lodger in the household of William Kleeman, Jr. who owned 24 E. Mills Avenue and lived in one of the two apartments in the building. Her occupation was listed as private physician. Daughter of a minister, she moved around Ohio as a child. She attended Miami University, and medical school at the University of Cincinnati. Helen began as a resident at Cincinnati General Hospital in 1932, and then worked in the Hamilton County Tuberculosis Sanatorium. According to city directories, in 1940 she had an office on Vine Street between Hereford and Hillsdale Streets in Hartwell, just south of Wyoming. In the 1950s she married Dr. Robert F. Hiestand and they lived and had an office in the  Hyde Park neighborhood of Cincinnati. By the early 1960s she was working for the Cincinnati Health Department.

24 E. Mills Ave.

Ilo Feurt (1906-1969) – Teacher – 24 E. Mills Ave.

Ilo and her mother, Mary Ella Henry Feurt, rented the second unit in the building owned by William Kleeman, Jr. at 24 E. Mills Avenue. She was born near Portsmouth, Ohio. Ilo attended Ohio University in Athens, where she received a B.S. in Education, and was part of the following organizations: Phi Mu, Y.W.C.A., Folklore Club, Psychology Club, Cosmopolitan Club, and Women’s League. After her 1927 graduation, she moved to Cincinnati to teach in the Cincinnati Public Schools. She worked at several schools, including Dyer School, Mary Dill School, and Schiel School. In 1948 she was director of one of Cincinnati Public Schools’ remedial reading centers. Ilo lived in Cincinnati when she first came to the area, moved to Wyoming sometime after 1936, was in Wyoming as late as 1951, but was back in Cincinnati in 1960.

Ilo Feurt
Source: 1925 Ohio University Yearbook

Stella (Martha Estelle) Radabaugh Anderson (1881-1965) – Teacher – 101 E. Mills Ave.

Stella was from Montgomery/Sycamore Township, Ohio, and began her teaching career at the age of 18; though she also reports attending college for four years. She worked for Evendale School district before she was married. After marriage in about 1909, she and her husband lived on Beech Avenue in Wyoming; they never had children. In 1919 they bought the home at 101 E. Mills Ave. Stella taught 6^th grade, and eventually became principal of Wyoming’s Elementary School, retiring in about 1961. In 1940 Stella and Jacob had two teachers as lodgers in their home, Louise Brand and Opal Shifflet.

Mrs. Stella Anderson, 1943.
Source: Wyoming Historical Society.

101 E. Mills Ave.

Louise “Suzie” Brand (1905-2000) - Teacher - 101 E. Mills Ave.

Louise was born in Findlay, Ohio, where her father was a supervisor in the brickmaking business. The family moved around a bit, spending parts of her childhood in Madison, Ohio and Uhrichsville, Ohio. Louise attended Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, graduating in 1929. She also received a degree in elementary education from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio and a master’s in education from Columbia University in New York. Louise came to teach fifth grade in Wyoming in 1935 and remained a Wyoming teacher until her retirement in 1974. Former students still remember receiving raps across their knuckles from Miss Brand.

Miss Louise Brand, 1944.
Source: Wyoming Historical Society.

(Grace) Opal Shifflet (1902-2001) – Teacher – 101 E. Mills Ave.

Opal grew up on farms in Illinois and Ohio, graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1925, and became a teacher. Based on city directory listings, it appears she may have worked for schools in Columbus, Ohio and Richmond, Indiana in the 1920s and 1930s. before coming to teach in the Wyoming Schools. She taught second grade for many years, and later was a school administrator.

Louise Brand and Opal Shifflet were long-time housemates. After rooming with the Andersons they shared an apartment on Mt. Pleasant Avenue for many years, and then were both residents of the Maple Knoll Village retirement community.

Miss Opal Shifflet, 1940.
Source: Wyoming Historical Society.

Cora Adel March (1868-1958) – Retired Teacher/Social Worker at Children’s Hospital – 5 Elm Avenue (on the corner of E. Mills Ave.)

Cora was from Columbiana County, Ohio, where her father was a blacksmith. She graduated from The College of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio, in 1896. She began her teaching career back home in Columbiana County, but in about 1900 moved to Wyoming to teach at the high school. In 1905 she was a lodger with the Edward Hess family, whose home was located where the Wyoming School Board office building is today. By 1909 her retired, widowed father and younger sister had moved to the area; the three lived together on Grandview Avenue in Woodlawn, Ohio.

Cora taught science at Wyoming High School until 1915, and then began working in the social services department at Children’s Hospital. By 1927 Cora, her sister, and father had moved to the home at the northwest corner of E. Mills and Elm Avenues in Wyoming. Cora later worked in the personnel department of the Richardson Co., Lockland, Ohio. She was a member of the Wyoming Garden Club, the Wyoming Woman’s Club, and the Wyoming Presbyterian Church.

 

5 Elm Ave. at corner of E. Mills Ave.

Grace Ruth Mittendorf (1885-1974) – Teacher – 324 E. Mills Ave.

Grace was born in Baltimore, Maryland; her father was a minister temporarily in that city, and soon they returned to his home in Dayton, Ohio. Her parents both died while she was a child, in the early 1890s. She then lived in the Clifton neighborhood of Cincinnati, with her half-brother. She graduated from Hughes High School, the University of Cincinnati, studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, and became a teacher of the French language. Grace taught at Wyoming High School for about 31 years, retiring in 1948. She lived with her half-brother and his wife until their deaths in the late 1930s, then moved to Wyoming, where she was a lodger in the Hyndman home. After retiring she moved to Dayton, where she did volunteer work reading to and recording college textbooks for blind students.

Miss Grace Mittendorf, 1943.
Source: Wyoming Historical Society.

Elizabeth Hyndman (1890-1967) - Teacher - 324  E. Mills Ave.

Elizabeth was born in the house at 324 E. Mills Avenue, Wyoming. Her father had a local roofing business. Elizabeth obtained a graduate degree in education from the University of Cincinnati. She taught at Garfield School in Cincinnati, and then in the early 1930s began teaching at the school in Hartwell.

324 E. Mills Ave.

Other College-Educated Women

Several other women living on E. Mills Ave. had attended college, but did not work outside the home: Emma Kleeman (22 E. Mills); Opal Switzer (39 E. Mills); Elaine Miller (41 E. Mills); Alene Rogert (116 E. Mills); Eva McCall (126 E. Mills); Ruth Cordes (320 E. Mills). There were also three young women in college in 1940: Mary Louise Scroth (115 E. Mills) and Emily and Shirley Cordes (320 E. Mills).

Other Working Women

I don’t mean to give short shrift to the other working women on East Mills Avenue in 1940, those who did not have a college education. Ermadel Kleeman (24 E. Mills) did private housekeeping; Christime Miller (320 E. Mills) and Elizabeth Fisher (324 E. Mills) were live-in housekeepers for the families at those homes; Virginia Vonderahe (36 E. Mills) was a nurse; Ruth Ellen Wright (45 E. Mills) was an assistant treasurer at a paper box company and her sister Martha C. Wright (45 E. Mills) was a clerk with the telephone company; Margaret Stoops (123 E. Mills) was an order clerk for a paper company; Clara Keith (129 E. Mills) was a telegraph operator; and Florence M. Smith (128 E. Mills) was a stenographer at a soap plant (and she had completed two years of college).