ELLA FLAGG YOUNG DIES IN SERVICE OF HER COUNTRY. Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, former superintendent of schools of Chicago, died October 26, 1918 at Washington, D. C. a victim of Spanish influenza. She was 73 years old. Stricken in Cheyenne, Wyo., about two weeks before, while speaking for the Liberty Loan, Mrs. Young refused to yield to the disease and continued her trip through Wyoming and Utah. She returned to Washington a week later. Pneumonia developed within a few days and she died at 9:30 A. M., October 26, 1918. Mrs. Young had been a member of the woman's liberty loan committee since the campaign for the second loan but she made no speaking trips until this fall. BRINGS BODY TO CHICAGO. Miss Mary Synon, Mrs. George Bass, Mrs. Kellogg Fairbank and Mrs. Antoinette Funk, the four Chicago members of the committee were appointed by Secretary McAdoo to represent the treasury department at the funeral which took place at Rosehill on Monday. Mrs. Bass and Miss Synon came to Chicago with Mrs. Young's body. "Mrs. Young died in the service of her country, working like a soldier", Secretary McAdoo said. Miss Laura Brayton for thirty years the friend and companion of Mrs. Young was unable to attend the funeral. Miss Brayton had been suffering from the influenza for several weeks and was too ill to travel. Mrs. Young devoted more than fifty-five years of her life to active educational work. For the greater part of this time she was recognized as a leader in educational progress. The climax of her career, perhaps, was when in 1909 she was chosen superintendent of Chicago's public schools. When this responsibility was placed upon her, she stepped into a salary of $10,000 a year. But at the same time she became the active business head of $50,000,000 worth of property, also she became the directing chief of some 6,000 teachers who were guiding the education and shaping the lives of nearly 300,000 children. Six hundred janitors worked at her will. She was then 64 years old and the widow of a Chicago merchant. It was claimed for her that she was the first "$10,000 woman” in public life. Mrs. Young initiated many reforms in the schools of Chicago, among them being the teaching of sex hygiene, the enlargment of the kindergarten course, an increase in the scope of vocational training and the simplification of the curriculum of the primary grades. She was born in Buffalo, New York on Jan. 15, 1845 and was brought to Chicago by her parents when a young girl. She was graduated from the Chicago public schools and was appointed teacher in the primary grade in 1862 when she was 17 years old. William R. Harper, former president of the University of Chicago, who opposed the appointment of women to important posts, made an exception of Mrs. Young and offered her a professorship in the department of pedagogy in 1899. Mrs. Young at first declined, saying: "I haven't a doctor's degree, and I don't want to be teaching those who are working for their higher degrees when I haven't one myself." "It is the woman we want, not the degree," said Mr. Harper. Finally she consented to take the place on the condition that she should first earn the degree-which she did. Mrs. Young was a pioneer publicist, one of the pioneers in advocating suffrage-always in a dignified way-and had a keen insight into public matters. Owing to the health regulations the only services held in Chicago over the body of Mrs. Young were at the grave at 10 o'clock Monday morning at Rosehill. Brief but impressive were the funeral services for this notable woman, former superintendent of the Chicago public schools who died in Washington fighting for the success of the fourth Liberty Loan. The ceremony was semi-military in character. Slightly more than 100 of her old friends were grouped about the grave as Mrs. Young's body was lowered into its last resting place at Rosehill cemetery. Because of the epidemic of influenza this was the only service. "Child of Chicago in the best sense, the city is all the better for her having lived and worked here," said the Rev. John Timothy Stone of the Fourth Presbyterian church who preached the funeral sermon. The train which brought the body of Mrs. Young from Washington to Chicago was met at the Baltimore and Ohio station by friends of the former superintendent of schools and by the nineteenth depot company, Illinois reserve militia, under command of Capt. J. C. Mannerud, which accompanied the funeral party from the station to the cemetery. Instead of going to the cemetry by train as had been planned, the party went to Rosehill in automobiles. The body was borne to the grave from the hearse by J. E. Armstrong, Ernest C. Cole, William M. Roberts and H. B. Allison, assistant superintendents of schools and Orville T. Bright, H. G. Clark, R. M. Hitch, J. H. Stube, C. D. Lowry, and F. M. Simmons, district superintendents. Members of the school board, Supt. Peter A. Mortenson and representatives of the various teachers' and principals organizations were present. The Chicago Liberty Loan committee was represented by Miss Grace Dixon, chairman of the woman's division. The city hall and the rooms of the Chicago Board of Education were draped in black from the time the news of Mrs. Flagg's death was received until after the funeral services. PUBLICATIONS OF THE ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY AND SOCIETY. No. 1. * A Bibliography of Newspapers published in Illinois prior to 1860. Prepared by Edmund J. James, Ph. D., and Milo J. Loveless. 94 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1899. No. 2. * Information relating to the Territorial Laws of Illinois passed from 1809 to 1812. Prepared by Edmund J. James, Ph. D., 15 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1899. No. 3. The Territorial Records of Illinois. Edited by Edmund J. James, Ph. D., 170 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1901. No. 4. Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the year 1900. Edited by E. B. Greene, Ph. D., 55 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1900. No. 5. * Alphabetic Catalog of the Books, Manuscripts, Pictures and Curios of the Illinois State Historical Library. Authors, Titles and Subjects. Compiled by Jessie Palmer Weber. 363 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1900. Nos. 6 to 23. * Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the years 1901-1917. (Nos. 6 to 18 out of Print.) * Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. I. Edited by H. W. Beckwith, President of the Board of Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library. 642 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1903. * Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. II. Virginia Series, Vol. I. Edited by Clarence Walworth Alvord. CLVI and 663 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1907. * Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. III. Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, Lincoln Series, Vol. I. Edited by Edwin Erie Sparks, Ph. D. 627 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1908. * Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. IV. Executive Series, Vol. I. The Governors' Letter Books, 1818-1834. Edited by Evarts Boutell Greene and Clarence Walworth Alvord. XXXII and 317 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1909. Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. V. Virginia Series, Vol. II, Kaskaskia Records, 1778-1790. Edited by Clarence Walworth Alvord. L. and 681 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1909. Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. VI. Bibliographical Series, Vol. I, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879. Revised and enlarged edition. Edited by Franklin William Scott. CIV and 610 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1910. Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. VII, Executive Series, Vol. II. Governors' Letter Books, 1840-1853. Edited by Evarts Boutell Greene and Charles Manfred Thompson. CXVIII and 469 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1911. * Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. VIII. Virginia Series, Vol. III. George Rogers Clark Papers, 1771-1781. Edited with introduction and notes by James Alton James. CLXVII and 715 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1912. * Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. IX. Bibliographical Series, Vol. II. Travel and Description, 1765-1865. By Solon Justus Buck. 514 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1914. Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. X. British Series, Vol. I. The Critical Period, 1763-1765. Edited with introduction and notes by Clarence Walworth Alvord and Clarence Edwin Carter. LVII and 597 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1915. Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. XI. British Series, Vol. II. The New Regime, 1765-1767. Edited with introduction and notes by Clarence Walworth Alvord and Clarence Edwin Carter. XXVIII and 700 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1916. Illinois Historical Collections, Vol. XII. Bibliographical Series, Vol. III. The County Archives of the State of Illinois. By Theodore Calvin Pease. CXLI and 730 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1915. * Bulletin of the Illinois State Historical Library, Vol. I, No. 1, September, 1905. Illinois in the Eighteenth Century. By Clarence Walworth Alvord, 38 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1905. * Bulletin of the Illinois State Historical Library, Vol. I, No. 2. June 1, 1906. Laws of the Territory of Illinois, 1809-1811. Edited by Clarence Walworth Alvord. 34 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1906. * Circular Illinois State Historical Library, Vol. I, No. 1. November, 1905. An Outline for the Study of Illinois State History. Compiled by Jessie Palmer Weber and Georgia L. Osborne. 94 pp. 8 vo. Springfield, 1905. * Publication No. 18. List of Genealogical Works in the Illinois State Historical Library. Compiled by Georgia L. Osborne. 1914. 8 vo. Springfield, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. I, No. 1. April, 1908, to Vol. XI, No. 4, January, 1919. Journals out of print, Vols. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and Nos. 1 of Vol. VIII, No. 2 of Vol. X. • Out of print. |