Theresa Sartori was born in the city of Baden, Germany, on September 27, 1833. She was the only daughter of Conrad Wangler, who had three younger sons. Her father, the burgomaster of the city, would not allow Theresa to marry Joseph Sartori. So Sartori left for the United States, leaving her behind. In 1857, he sent for her to come over to the United States to be with him. [1] She landed in New Jersey, where Sartori met her and they were married there. [2] After they were married, they traveled across country, stopping in Chicago and Dubuque, before ending their journey in Cedar Falls. When they arrived in Cedar Falls, they purchased some land to build their family home, which still stands today at 603 Clay Street. Theresa gave birth to their two children, Joseph Francis and Ludwig, but only Joseph lived into adulthood. [3]
Joseph Sartori became an important businessman in Cedar Falls, and his wife also played a role in Cedar Falls society. In 1860, Theresa was elected the first president of a Ladies’ Aid Society at her church. She held that post for forty years. She also participated in other activities around the community. She helped the sick and homebound in Cedar Falls and she was also a member of the Women’s Relief Corps. [4] She founded the Cedar Falls Woman’s Club together with Sarah Radell, a close friend. [5] Theresa Sartori developed cancer in her later years and suffered with it until her death on December 24, 1901. After her death, her husband and son arranged for a hospital to be built in Cedar Falls to honor her. This hospital became known as the Sartori Memorial Hospital. [6]
1. Neva Henrietta Radell and The Sartori Committee, The Sartori Legacy (Cedar Falls: Cedar Falls Historical Society, 1985), 4..
2. Cedar Falls Historical Society Archives: Series III: Box 11A: Folder 2 (Sartori Family), Biographical Material of Sartori family.
3. The Sartori Legacy, 5.
4. The Sartori Legacy, 22.
5. Glenda Riley, Cities on the Cedar: a portrait of Cedar Falls, Waterloo and Black Hawk County (Parkersburg, Iowa: Mid-Prairie Books, 1988), 41.
6. The Sartori Legacy, 23.
Cedar Falls Historical Society Archives: Series III: Box 11A: Folder 2: Sartori Family.
Radell, Neva Henrietta, and The Sartori Committee. The Sartori Legacy (Cedar Falls: Cedar Falls Historical Society, 1985).
Riley, Glenda. Cities on the Cedar: a portrait of Cedar Falls, Waterloo and Black Hawk County. Parkersburg, Iowa: Mid-Prairie Books, 1988.
Johanna Raab was born in Altzecksdorf, Austria on September 19, 1830. Her father passed away when she was a child of seven years. [1] She helped to support her family after her father's death, by selling crafts around their neighborhood. This early experience in the business world helped to serve her family and husband throughout her life. [2] At the age of twenty-one she married John Raab, who was a potter by trade. [3] They remained in Austria for a few more years, before they decided to move to the United States. They first settled in Philadelphia, where they remained for one year. Then they headed west and settled in Cedar Falls, after hearing about it from Ben Theimer, an Austrian immigrant who had been there. [4]
They purchased a home at 312 State Street, where they started up a pottery business in the front of their home. [5] Johanna had interests outside of the family busines, mainly focusing on the Woman's Suffrage movement, even gaining the right to vote in two presidential elections before her death. [6] Johanna and her husband, John, ran the business together from their house until John died in 1908. She assisted him in the operation of the business as well as made delivery runs to Waterloo. [7] After her husband's death, Johanna became the sole operator. Even though she never learned how to speak English well, she became an excellent businesswoman. She ran the pottery business and continued living in the house until her death on December 29, 1930. [8] Her daughter was running the family business at the time of her mother’s death. [9]
1. Cedar Falls Historical Society Archives: Series IV: Box 5: Folder 2 (Raab Clippings): Johanna Raab's 100th birthday celebration.
2. Mary Logan Sweet, Stoneware in Cedar Falls (Cedar Falls: Cedar Falls Historical Society, 1984), 11.
3. CFHSA: Series IV: Box 5: Folder 2 (Raab Clippings): Johanna Raab obituary in Waterloo Tribune, December 29, 1930
4. CFHSA: Series IV: Box 5: Folder 2 (Raab Clippings): Johanna Raab's 100th birthday celebration.
5. CFHSA: Series IV: Box 5: Folder 2: Johanna Raab obituary.
6. Stoneware in Cedar Falls, 14.
7. Stoneware in Cedar Falls, 15.
8. Herbert Hake, 101 Stories of Cedar Falls (Cedar Falls: Cedar Falls Historical Society, 1977), 30.
9. CFHSA: Series IV: Box 5: Folder 2: Johanna Raab obituary.
CFHSA: Series IV: Box 5: Folder 2: Raab Clippings: Johanna Raab's 100th birthday celebration.
CFHSA: Series IV: Box 5: Folder 2: Raab Clippings, Johanna Raab obituary in Waterloo Tribune, December 29, 1930.
Hake, Herbert, V. 101 Stories of Cedar Falls. Cedar Falls, Iowa: Cedar Falls Historical Society, 1977.
Sweet, Mary Logan. Stoneware in Cedar Falls. Cedar Falls, Iowa: Cedar Falls Historical Society, 1984.
Ruth Suckow Nuhn is one of the most important literary figures from Iowa. [1] She was born Ruth Suckow on August 6, 1892 in Hawarden, Iowa, the daughter of a Congregationalist minister. She and her sister Emma, traveled across the state of Iowa as her father served in different communities as minister. [2] She attended three years of college at Grinnell, but did not complete her degree. She traveled around the country and worked the writers’ retreat, Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs. She also served on President Franklin Roosevelt’s Farm Tenancy Commission during the Depression. [3]
During the late teens and early 1920s, Suckow began writing and soon received recognition for her work. In 1929, she fell in love with and married Ferner Nuhn, a young literary critic from Cedar Falls. She was not interested in glamour or movie stars; she was only interested in writing about farmers and small town people, the types she encountered in her everyday life. [4] The titles of her books make that clear. They include Country People (1924), The Odyssey of a Nice Girl (1925), Iowa Interiors (1926), and The Folks (1934), among others. Most of her works were fiction but she also wrote some nonfiction pieces for journals. [5] Ruth and Ferner Nuhn moved to California in 1950 because of failing health. She died there on January 23, 1960. [6] In 1982, the community of Earlville, Iowa, one of the places Ruth Suckow had called home, dedicated a park to her on the site of her old residence. Her husband, Ferner Nuhn, led the dedication ceremony. [7]
1. Rebecca Christian, "She Wrote of Iowa and Life," The Iowan (Winter 1992), 10.
2. Cedar Falls Historical Society Archives: Series III: Box 8: Folder 10 (Biographical Material and Works by Ruth Suckow Nuhn): Ruth Suckow timeline.
3. Christian, "She Wrote of Iowa and Life," The Iowan (Winter 1992), 10.
4. Christian, "She Wrote of Iowa and Life," The Iowan (Winter 1992), 12.
5. CFHSA: Series III: Box 8: Folder 10 (Biographical Material and Works by Ruth Suckow Nuhn): Ruth Suckow timeline.
6. Christian, "She Wrote of Iowa and Life," The Iowan (Winter 1992), 68.
6. CFHSA: Series III: Box 8: Folder 13 (Ruth Suckow Memorial Park, Earlville, Iowa): Dedication Article from the Des Moines Register.
CFHSA: Series III: Box 8: Folder 10: Biographical Material and Works by Ruth Suckow Nuhn.
CFHSA: Series III: Box 8: Folder 13: Ruth Suckow Memorial Park Earlville, Iowa.
Christian, Rebecca. "She Wrote of Iowa and Life." The Iowan(Winter 1992), 41:2, 10-13, 60, 68.
Jessie Parrott Loomis was born in Waterloo on October 4, 1912, the daughter of Robert and Ellen Parrott. Mrs. Loomis was considered one of the best artists in Iowa; her paintings were accepted at major galleries around the state and Midwest. She was a very prominent figure in art in the region, receiving invitations to lecture at various prestigious galleries. [1] Mrs. Loomis was an art critic for the Waterloo Courier, and also taught art at Waterloo West High school. She worked very hard to promote the arts in the Cedar Valley by teaching people about art at numerous places, including the University of Northern Iowa (then the Iowa State Teaching College). [2] She died on December 2, 1966, from injuries sustained in a car accident the previous month, which had occurred as she and her husband returned to Waterloo from an Iowa football game. [3]
1. "Dedicate ‘Messiah’ To Jessie Loomis," (obituary) in Waterloo Courier, December 4, 1966, 14.
2. Phyllis Singer, "Jessie Loomis loved our town," Waterloo Courier, December 5, 1966, 6.
3. "Dr. Loomis, Wife Injured in Crash," Waterloo Courier, November 13, 1966, 13-14.
Singer, Phyllis. "Jessie Loomis loved our town." Waterloo Courier, December 5, 1966, 6.
"Dedicate ‘Messiah’ to Jessie Loomis," Waterloo Courier, December 4, 1966, 14.
"Dr. Loomis, Wife Injured in Crash," Waterloo Courier, November 13, 1966, 13-14.
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