Albion Fellows Bacon

Robert G. Barrows

Description

The story of Albion Fellows Bacon, Indiana's foremost "municipal housekeeper."

Albion Fellows Bacon
Indiana's Municipal Housekeeper
Robert G. Barrows

Examines the career of a leading Progressive Era reformer.

Born in Evansville, Indiana, in 1865, Albion Fellows was reared in the nearby hamlet of McCutchanville and graduated from Evansville High School. She worked for several years as a secretary and court reporter, toured Europe with her sister, married local merchant Hilary Bacon in 1888, and settled into a seemingly comfortable routine of middle-class domesticity. In 1892, however, she was afflicted with an illness that lasted for several years, an illness that may have resulted from a real or perceived absence of outlets for her intelligence and creativity.

Bacon eventually found such outlets in a myriad of voluntary associations and social welfare campaigns. She was best known for her work on behalf of tenement reform and was instrumental in the passage of legislation to improve housing conditions in Indiana. She was also involved in child welfare, city planning and zoning, and a variety of public health efforts. Bacon became Indiana's foremost "municipal houskeeper," a Progressive Era term for women who applied their domestic skills to social problems plaguing their communities.

She also found time to write about her social reform efforts and her religious faith in articles and pamphlets. She published one volume of children's stories, and authored several pageants. One subject she did not write about was women's suffrage. While she did not oppose votes for women, suffrage was never her priority. But the reality of her participation in public affairs did advance the cause of women's political equality and provided a role model for future generations.

Robert G. Barrows, Associate Professor of History at Indiana University at Indianapolis, was previously an editor at the Indiana Historical Bureau. He has published several journal articles and book chapters dealing with Indiana history and American urban history, and he coedited (with David J. Bodenhamer) the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis (Indiana University Press).

Contents
The Sheltered Life
The Clutch of the Thorns
Ambassador of the Poor
The Homes of Indiana
Child Welfare
City Plans and National Housing Standards
Prose, Poetry, and Pageants
Municipal Housekeeper and Inadvertent Feminist

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Chapter 1: The Sheltered Life
Chapter 2: The Clutch of the Thorns
Chapter 3: Ambassador of the Poor
Chapter 4: The Homes of Indiana
Chapter 5: Child Welfare
Chapter 6: City Plans and National Housing Standards
Chapter 7: Prose, Poetry, and Pageants
Chapter 8: Municipal Housekeeper and Inadvertent Feminist

Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Historical
• HISTORY
• Lettres et linguistique
• Biography
• Philanthropy
• General officer
• History of the United States
• History of the Americas
• General
• United States
• Autobiography
• American History

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 22 octobre 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253028563
• Langue: English

Extrait

Albion Fellows Bacon
M IDWESTERN H ISTORY AND C ULTURE General Editors James H. Madison and Andrew R. L. Cayton
Albion Fellows Bacon (ca. 1913) in her bedroom “office,” where most of her letters and speeches regarding housing reform were written. The photograph on top of the desk is of her deceased daughter, Margaret. Albion Fellows Bacon Collection, Special Collections, Willard Library
Albion Fellows Bacon
Indiana’s Municipal Housekeeper
R OBERT G. B ARROWS

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington and Indianapolis
THIS BOOK WAS PUBLISHED WITH THE GENEROUS SPONSORSHIP OF Barbara Evans Zimmer
This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404–3797 USA http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress Telephone orders   800–842–6796 Fax orders   812–855–7931 Orders by e-mail   [e-mail] © 2000 by Robert G. Barrows All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984. Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barrows, Robert G. (Robert Graham), date Albion Fellows Bacon : Indiana’s municipal housekeeper / Robert G. Barrows. p.   cm. — (Midwestern history and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–253–33774–7 (cl) 1. Bacon, Albion Fellows, 1865 – 2. Women social reformers—Indiana—Biography. 3. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. 4. Indiana—Social life and customs. 5. Indiana—Biography. I. Title. II. Series.
CT275.B144 B37 2000 303.48’4’092—dc21 [B] 00–025134

1   2   3   4   5   05   04   03   02   01   00
To my mother and to the memory of my father

With thanks for nature and nurture
CONTENTS
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I NTRODUCTION
1. The Sheltered Life
2. The Clutch of the Thorns
3. Ambassador of the Poor
4. The Homes of Indiana
5. Child Welfare
6. City Plans and National Housing Standards
7. Prose, Poetry, and Pageants
8. Municipal Housekeeper and Inadvertent Feminist
N OTES
S ELECT B IBLIOGRAPHY
I NDEX
I LLUSTRATIONS
 
 
 
 
 
Albion Fellows Bacon in her bedroom “office”
Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church (ca. 1866)
Albion’s childhood home in McCutchanville
Albion and Annie Fellows (ca. 1880)
Hilary Edwin Bacon (ca. 1888)
Albion Fellows at the time of her marriage (1888)
Old St. Mary’s tenement in Evansville
Bungalow at the Working Girls’ Association summer camp
Albion Fellows Bacon (1907)
“Cheese Hill” tenement in Evansville
The Albion Apartments
Margaret Gibson Bacon
Tenement family pictured in Beauty for Ashes
Albion Mary Bacon
Hilary, Jr. and Joy Bacon with their parents 79
Albion Fellows Bacon (1914)
Tubercular family pictured in Beauty for Ashes
“An Attractive Evansville”
The Bacons’ house as it appeared ca. 1985
Illustration from Bacon’s The Charm String
Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church (ca. 1910)
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
 
 
 
 
Many individuals and institutions contributed to the preparation of this book. Albion Fellows Bacon’s descendants were of crucial importance. My largest debt is to the late Joy Bacon Witwer (Albion Bacon’s youngest daughter), who opened her home to me, granted me two oral history interviews, and made available for reproduction and research use both manuscript materials prepared by her mother and family photographs. (She had previously donated other materials regarding her mother and her aunt, Annie Fellows Johnston, to the Willard Library in Evansville.) She could not have been more gracious and encouraging, and I deeply regret that I was unable to bring this project to fruition before her death. Joy’s son, Scott Witwer, gave me a family copy of Beauty for Ashes , which I had never been able to locate outside a research library. Albion Bacon Dunagan (Albion Bacon’s granddaughter) discovered in her father’s possessions and made available for my use a manuscript reminiscence written by Bacon toward the end of her life. The late Hilary E. Bacon, Jr. (Albion Bacon’s son) responded to a query very early in my research and offered an explanation for why some looked-for items (letters to Albion Bacon from Jacob Riis, for example) are apparently no longer extant. I very much appreciate the family’s assistance and support.
During the course of my research I visited or corresponded with many libraries and archives. Some of them are large repositories, while others are quite modest institutions. Many of them (especially the publicly funded agencies) struggle with inadequate resources. The staffs of all were unfailingly helpful and knowledgeable, and their dedication to collecting, preserving, and making available the raw materials of history, often under trying conditions, merits our admiration. My thanks to the librarians and archivists at: Chautauqua Institution Library (Chautauqua, N.Y.), especially Alfreda L. Irwin; DePauw University Archives (Greencastle, Ind.), especially Wesley Wilson; Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library; Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace Archives (Stanford, Calif), especially Marilyn Kann; Indiana Historical Society Library (Indianapolis), especially Leigh Darbee; Indiana State Archives (Indianapolis); Indiana State Library (Indianapolis), especially John “Scotty” Selch and the late Marybelle Burch; Indiana University Archives (Bloomington); Indiana University Library (Bloomington); IUPUI University Library (Indianapolis); Indiana University School of Medicine Library (Indianapolis); Library of Congress, Manuscript Division (Washington); Lilly Library (Bloomington, Ind.); National Archives (Washington), especially Aloha P. South; Newberry Library (Chicago); Petoskey Public Library (Michigan); University of Southern Indiana, Special Collections Department (Evansville), especially Gina Walker; Willard Library (Evansville), especially Joan Elliott Parker, Lyn Martin, and Carol Bartlett.
Several past and present residents of the Evansville area are due recognition. Donald E. Baker, former head of the Willard Library (and later director of the public library in nearby Newburgh), provided encouragement, advice, and a few corrections. Joe Ballard at the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Area Plan Commission facilitated use of the early minutes of the Evansville City Plan Commission, and fought the bureaucracy on my behalf for a copy of Margaret Bacon’s death certificate. Bill Bartelt provided access to the archival records and photographs of Trinity United Methodist Church. Darrel Bigham shared his extensive knowledge of Evansville, both in person and via his publications, and suggested helpful contacts. The late Joan C. Marchand, who was the historic preservation guru in Evansville’s Department of Metropolitan Development, sent me information regarding the Bacons’ house and Hilary Bacon’s store. Kenneth P. McCutchan resolved an inconsistency regarding Albion Bacon’s employment as a young woman. The late Margaret McLeish, who grew up on the same block where the Bacons lived and knew the Bacon children, shared her memories with me in an oral history interview. Sylvia Neff Weinzapfel made available the early records of the Evansville YWCA.
I am grateful to David Klaassen at the Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota, for undertaking an ultimately fruitless search for Bacon materials in the collections there. Sarah McFall, assistant editor at the Atlantic Monthly Press, had better luck; she managed to track down correspondence dealing with Bacon’s article “Consolation” as well as her book of the same name. The Indiana Federation of Clubs (specifically, then-Historian Vivien Freese) kindly granted permission to use the IFC records on deposit in the Indiana State Library.
James H. Madison and Thomas J. Schlereth, who were the general editors for the Indiana University Press series “Midwestern History and Culture” at the time this manuscript was submitted for consideration, both offered useful suggestions for improvement. I want to thank Jim Madison, in particular, for his support over the years of my scholarship and my career. Nancy Gabin read a draft of the final chapter and provided helpful advice; its my own fault that I took only part of it.
I first proposed this project to Indiana University Press sponsoring editor Joan Catapano in the mid-1980s, when she surprised me by having heard of Albion Bacon. Joan then waited a long time; I appreciate her patience. Thanks also to Bobbi Diehl for her careful editing and to all the other pros at Indiana University Press who work the magic of turning manuscripts into books.
My colleagues