Croly, Jane Cunningham (19 December 1829–23 December 1901), writer and women's club leader, writer and women’s club leader, was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England, the daughter of Joseph Howes Cunningham, a Unitarian preacher, and Jane Scott. Croly’s family emigrated to the United States from England in 1841, perhaps prompted by the unpopularity of her father’s extreme Unitarianism and his efforts to educate workers. She was twelve years old when they settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, and then in Wappinger’s Falls, New York. She kept house for her Congregationalist minister brother and acquired enough learning to teach district school and write a semimonthly newspaper for her brother’s parishioners....
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Croly, Jane Cunningham (19 December 1829–23 December 1901), writer and women's club leader
Karen J. Blair
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Ruffin, Josephine St. Pierre (31 August 1842–13 March 1924), editor and woman's club organizer
Roger A. Schuppert
Ruffin, Josephine St. Pierre (31 August 1842–13 March 1924), editor and woman's club organizer, editor and woman’s club organizer, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eliza Matilda Menhenick of Cornwall, England, and John St. Pierre, a clothing seller whose father was a French immigrant from Martinique. Though Josephine’s complexion was very light, public schools in Boston were closed to people of color until 1855, so she received her early education at nearby Salem and Charlestown. Later she attended Boston’s Bowdoin School and took two years of private tutoring in New York. In 1858 she married ...
