Elizabeth Beardsley
Ruthmere Mansion, now Ruthmere Museum, was the home of Elizabeth Beardsley (and her husband, Albert). Witty, intelligent, unique, and dynamic, Elizabeth was one of the most well-known women in Elkhart at the turn between the 19th and 20th centuries. Elizabeth was always an Elkhart native, born in 1850 to pioneer citizens Silas and Jane Baldwin. Her father held quite a few important titles in the town throughout his life, including the postmaster and the first local station agent for the railroad company. For that reason, Elizabeth grew up within a wealthy home and became integrated with many of the well-to-do members of society at the time. All four of her siblings predeceased her. Most tragic was the death of her brother, Frank, who was killed at the age of 18 during the Civil War. Some surmise that Elizabeth developed her patriotic nature because of her brother’s untimely death. She expressed her patriotism by donating American flags to local public schools and other city buildings.In 1872, Elizabeth married Albert R. Beardsley of Elkhart’s founding family. They moved into a new home at 311 W. High St., which was later donated to the League of Women Voters and still stands today. Albert helped to run the family businesses, eventually joining up with Dr. Franklin Miles in 1889 to form the medical company, Miles Laboratories. The business proved to be a national success. With their accumulating wealth, Elizabeth and Albert commissioned E. Hill Turnock to build a new home, Ruthmere Mansion. The mansion was completed in 1910 and was named after Elizabeth and Albert’s only daughter, Ruth, who died in infancy in 1881.While Albert ran the business, Elizabeth bloomed into a socialite and suffragette. Ruthmere’s lavish parties would often make local newspapers – Elizabeth would regale her guests with tales of her travels across the world and the rich details of the art and architecture within her elegant home. But even beyond the social extravagance, Elizabeth was politically involved, working for women’s rights - including the right to vote. She often paid for the education of local young women and opened her home as a venue for them to practice their musical arts. Her civic activities included being the first president of the Indiana Department of the Woman’s Relief Corps and the first president of the Shiloh Field Woman’s Relief Corps. She was also credited with supporting the public library’s first form of bookmobile and being a member of the library’s board of trustees. Unique for her time, Elizabeth smoke, drank champagne and swore when the spirit moved her. She cultivated her own garden in Ruthmere’s greenhouse and was often seen pampering her Chow dog, Wang. Under her direction, Ruthmere became a gathering place for the Elkhart community – artists, businessmen, and politicians. She and Albert both passed in 1924, but their home is still one of culture, art, and music.
Rachel Beardsley
Not much is known about the first two ladies of the Havilah Beardsley House; like many women of the 19th century, they were undoubtedly overshadowed by the accomplishments of their husbands and were seldom spoken of in collected histories.Rachel Beardsley, (née Calhoun), was the wife of Elkhart’s founder, Havilah Beardsley. She was born in Pennsylvania sometime between 1796 and 1801 and John C. Calhoun, Vice President to both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, was her first cousin. By 1823, her family had relocated to the Greenfield, Ohio area. Rachel married Havilah that year. Together, Rachel and Havilah ended up settling in the area that would become Elkhart, Indiana by 1830. On all accounts, their marriage was a happy and successful one, and it produced 7 children (5 of which survived to adulthood). They built the first brick home in Elkhart in 1848 - what is now known as the Havilah Beardsley House. Although Havilah died in 1856, Rachel would outlive him by 34 years. Her son, James Rufus, inherited the Havilah Beardsley House after Havilah’s death and built the East Wing, or the Grandmother’s Quarters, where Rachel lived until she passed away in 1890.
Susan Ray Beardsley
Not much is known about the first two ladies of the Havilah Beardsley House; like many women of the 19th century, they were undoubtedly overshadowed by the accomplishments of their husbands and were seldom spoken of in collected histories.James Rufus, the son of founder Havilah Beardsley and his wife, Rachel, married Susan “Susie” Morris Ray in 1873, making her the new lady of the Havilah Beardsley House. Susan Ray was born in 1852 in Shelbyville, Indiana – one of twelve children born to Martin Morris and Susan Frances (Cross) Ray. Given that James Rufus was born in 1829, he was 23 years his wife’s senior. Shortly after Susan Ray moved into the home, the Havilah Beardsley House received the intensive renovation that would put it up to date with all of the latest architectural and interior design trends, ultimately converting it to the Italianate style it appears as today. It’s quite likely that Susan Ray had a large hand in the remodel. Susan Ray occupied herself both as a mother and as an artist. With James Rufus, she had four children: Rufus Ray (1875-1927), Florence (1879), John Wallace (1882-1937), and Helen Louise (1889-1980). After the death of her husband, she and Helen both traveled to Europe (1903) and eventually sold the Havilah Beardsley House to move to Chicago (1913). Living in Chicago proved to be fruitful – Susan Ray took classes at the Art Institute, and some of her art is now on display in the Havilah Beardsley House Museum.Susan Ray died in 1915 at the age of 63.
Alexa Canady
Dr. Alexa Canady was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1950. In 1981 she became the first African American woman certified neurosurgeon in the United States. She was a pediatric neurosurgeon for most of her career. She served as chief of neurosurgery in a children’s hospital for 14 years. Even after her retirement in 2012, she advocates for women’s participation in the neurosurgical field.
Christina Koch
Christina is a Michigan native who holds the record for the longest tour in space. She spent 328 days in space, landing on Earth on February 26, 2020. She became a NASA astronaut in 2013 and began her training for her trip to space in 2015. She enjoyed her extended mission, but she missed her loved ones. In an interview, she explains that she would love to venture further into space.
Helen Free
Helen Free and her husband worked together at Miles Laboratories in Elkhart, IN to create the chemically coated paper dipstick in 1956 that would help people perform diabetic testing at home with ease. This invention was characterized as a historic landmark by the American Chemical Society. They went on to create other at-home tests.
Mae R. Chiddlster Simpson
A photograph to come! Mae Roxanna Chiddister Simpson was born April 23, 1892 in Lagrange County.Mae moved to Goshen, Indiana following her marriage to Aldo Simpson an attorney and later Elkhart County Circuit Court Judge. (Mae and Aldo dated for eight years).After her marriage to Aldo, she began an active career, including working behind the scenes in local politics; also serving on several board of directors for various groups.In the 1980’s when a series on notable local women was written for the Goshen News; there were probably women who might have remembered back to 1918 when Mae stood outside her precinct polling place asking male voters to sign a petition for the approval of the constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. She continued her efforts for suffrage until it became law in 1920.Mrs. Simpson also worked as a Republican precinct committeewoman; supporting many political activities over the years. In addition to her political interests, Mae belonged to many clubs and organizations. She was a charter member of the Child Study Group which later was incorporated into the Women’s Federated Club, was a member of the Mothers of World War II, Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary, Four Arts Club and Fairview Grange. In 1970 she was honored as a 51-year member of the Starlight Chapter of Eastern Star. Some of the boards that Mae served on included the American Red Cross, Elkhart County Tuberculosis Association and Goshen General Hospital.Mae passed away on July 21, 1978 at the age of 86.(these facts were gathered from a Goshen Newspaper article from March 9, 1984 by Carol Summy which was part of a series on Goshen Women)
Anna Hunsberger
More information coming
Glenwyn Anglemyer
More information to come
Helen Klein
More information to come
Evelyn Lehman Culp
Evelyn Culp was the Library Director of the Nappanee Public Library (NPL) from 1957 to 1977 and after that, she served eleven years as a Board Trustee. When she took the job as the Director at NPL, she decided that she would “wake up that sleepy library and put some life in it”. She did just that. Evelyn was the catalyst in creating the Library’s Heritage Collection and contributed time and effort to make the Heritage Collection renown. In the 1980s, the Collection and the rooms that it made up in the Library were recognized as being “unique to any Library in the state.” Today the Heritage Collection has outgrown the space at the Library and has been housed at the Nappanee Center since March 2007. Evelyn gave over 2500 programs as a storyteller. She gave many of them as President’s First Wives mainly Mary Todd Lincoln and Dolly Madison. Her black velvet dress was used for many of those programs was designed for Betsy Stockbridge (a Michigan Senator’s wife) when she was presented to Queen Victoria. Evelyn was a member of the Nappanee Historic Preservation Commission and Thursday Club. Evelyn’s legacy lives on with the Heritage Collection and in 1988 the Heritage Collection was renamed the Evelyn Lehman Culp Heritage Collection. She passed away in 2002.
Peg Hoffer
She was born March 12, 1921, in Elkhart, Indiana to Harold O. and Eva (Browning) Mountjoy. Several weeks before Peg’s birth, her mother, Eva, cut her hand pealing some fruit. The cut became infected, sepsis developed, and Eva passed away less than two weeks after Peg’s birth. Peg was raised in Nappanee by her aunt and uncle, Nettie and Edrie Himes, as one of their children. She stated on numerous occasions how fortunate she felt to have been raised by “Mom” and “Pop” Himes in their loving home.Peg grew up in Nappanee and graduated from Nappanee High School in 1939 where she was involved in the band and served as the Band’s student conductor. After high school, she attended Ball State Teacher’s College. After a year of college, she moved to Indianapolis where she worked in the State Capitol Building in the office of the State Auditor. While living in Indianapolis, she met Leonard Seeber, an army lieutenant from Nebraska stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison, and they were married in Cochise County, Arizona in August 1943. Their son, Robert “Bob” Browning Seeber, was born in September 1944. Leonard was killed while on active duty in Italy in 1945. After Leonard’s death and some time spent in Arizona near the Mexican border where she and Leonard had lived after their marriage, Peg returned to Nappanee where she and Bob lived with her Aunt Nettie and Uncle Edrie. In 1948, she was introduced to Harold L. Hoffer, an Army officer who had returned from the war in Europe and was attending the University of Notre Dame. After Harold’s graduation from Notre Dame, Peg and Harold were married on November 18, 1950, in Elkhart. Son, Brian Lee Hoffer was born in December 1954 and the Hoffers resided near Nappanee while Harold was President of the Exchange State Bank in Wakarusa and later served as Executive Director of the Nappanee Chamber of Commerce.Peg stayed home to care for the house and her sons but remained very active in both politics and the Nappanee and Elkhart County Community. Harold and Peg were also original investors in Northwood Enterprises, Inc. which was the initial owner and developer of the Northwood Subdivision on the north side of Nappanee and across the road from their home. Peg always had an interest in local school matters and, in 1968 she ran for, and won, a position on the Wa-Nee Community School Board of Trustees. During her early years on the School Board, the school corporation was involved in decisions involving merging the local high schools in Nappanee and Wakarusa. This was a time of some controversy as the two communities dealt with coming together to create a new high school. Harold and Peg had involvement in both communities and Peg strove to promote compromise to reach what she felt would be a benefit for both communities. The resulting development of NorthWood High School was certainly not without bumps in the road but, the accomplishment of building the new high school and seeing the acceptance and support for NorthWood among both communities was a highlight of Peg’s career and reflected the unity of the School’s Board of Trustees.Politics was another passion that Peg pursued. She came to that passion honestly, as her uncle, Edrie Himes, who raised Peg, was elected to the Nappanee City Council, and her Aunt, Nettie, was a precinct committee woman for the Republican Party and took Peg with her as a little girl as Nettie visited Republican constituents in her precinct. It only seemed natural after her marriage to Harold that she also become a precinct committee woman (and take her son with her when she made her own rounds of her own precinct). She was elected as Vice-Chairman of the Elkhart County Republican Party and was also the Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party for the local congressional district. In 1964, she was designated by the Republican Party to cast one of Indiana’s votes in the electoral college if the Republican Party had carried Indiana in that election.Her view of political parties reflected a devotion to the fact that the two-party system was the bedrock of the success of the American government. While she was a devoted republican, she had very close friends who were democrats and her sons learned that no division of politics should ever come between a friendship. Given her belief in the two-party system, her belief in the need for the Senate and the House to occasionally compromise to provide a working government was not surprising. Those not capable of compromising when necessary was looked upon by her with disfavor.Harold and Peg purchased a cottage on Lake Michigan near Onekama, Michigan which became an important part of their lives and at which they and their family spent a significant amount of time. They also enjoyed traveling with numerous trips to Florida, Arizona, the Colorado Rockies, as well as Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana, and the Canadian Rockies. Peg was also a willing participant to a family trip to Colonial Williamsburg and to battlefields of the American Civil War, including Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Amazingly, as children, both Harold and Peg knew relatives who were participants in the Civil War.The Hoffers were active in the Nappanee United Methodist Church, with Harold serving in various capacities, including teaching Sunday School for 35 years. Peg also served in many capacities and on numerous committees and leadership positions. Both Peg and Harold loved to golf and belonged to the Tippecanoe Lake Country Club where Peg won a women’s league championship. That passion for golf extended to their involvement on the initial committee which resulted in the development of the initial 9 holes of what is now the City of Nappanee’s McCormick Creek Golf Course.Harold passed away in January 1989 and, at the time of his death, he was serving as a founding commission member of the Elkhart County Convention and Visitor’s Commission and was also the Executive Director of the Nappanee Chamber of Commerce. After his death, Peg was asked to take his place on the County Convention and Visitor’s Commission. Because she had been helping Harold with the Chamber of Commerce, she continued to assist the Chamber after his death and served for a time as the Chamber’s Executive Director when a subsequent vacancy in that position occurred.Peg was also asked to serve on both the City of Nappanee’s Redevelopment Commission as well as the Elkhart County Redevelopment Commission, both of which positions she held for a number of years, including serving as President of the County Redevelopment Commission for several years.Peg devoted significant time and attention to the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Commission and served as its President for a number of years. She truly loved that organization and was very proud of the excellent staff and the accomplishments and service provided to tourism in Elkhart County by the Commission and the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau. For her service to the Commission, she was honored by the Indiana Department of Tourism at a ceremony in Indianapolis. In 2016, at age 95, she served as a torchbearer carrying the State of Indiana’s bicentennial torch celebrating Indiana’s 200 years of statehood.When the Psi Iota Psi sorority established its chapter in Nappanee, Peg was a founding member and served as the sorority’s chapter President. She served the Friends of the Nappanee Public Library for many years, including service as its President. She was also a longtime member of the Thursday Club and served on several occasions as its President. This club, which has existed as an independent club in Nappanee for over 100 years, was a great source of enjoyment for Peg.No discussion of Peg’s life would be complete without a discussion of her love of the game of bridge. She and Harold belonged to a couples bridge club and enjoyed regularly playing bridge with their friends. Peg also played in a bridge club in Nappanee where its members were quite serious about the game. Peg also spent a week each year in Onekama at either the Hoffer cottage or the McDonald cottage where Peg and her longtime friends Lois Weddle, Kay McDonald and Helen Black would spend mornings, afternoons and evenings playing as many hands of bridge as they could.Peg loved spending time with her family and supporting her sons and, in common terms, she was a “gamer”. If Harold was away, she never hesitated to put on a baseball mit and play catch, toss a football, or shoot a game of “horse”. She even was tackled in an annual neighborhood football game on the 4th of July after catching a key pass. When it came to target shooting, she picked up a rifle and participated as well. She was a wonderful, loving mother and her children knew that she would do anything in her power to support them.As a young girl, she had both smallpox and a severe case of pneumonia, the latter of which almost cost her life. However, growing up, she loved to play tennis and her greatest achievement was as a very young girl almost defeating the reigning women’s city tennis champion. Her love of the game was shown when at over 80 years of age, she went on the court to hit tennis balls with her granddaughters.She was also a lover of animals from an early age and raised, and loved, numerous dogs and cats (as well as a baby squirrel found abandoned in the neighborhood). No family member needed to resort to boarding an animal on vacation as Peg always looked forward to looking after the family pets while their owners were away.Peg was very active in the lives of her grandson, Eric, and her granddaughters, Erin and Kerry. She spent countless hours with them, and attended many sporting events, whether baseball, tennis or volleyball and went to as many school activities as she could, including college graduations and honors celebrations. They each were devoted to her as she was to them. Her first goal was always to support her family in their various endeavors. She loved being a mother and grandmother, was a great cook, an avid bridge player and golfer and, a great supporter of Notre Dame and Indiana University athletics. Late in life, Peg received a very pleasant surprise. At the death of her mother, her father, Harold, had consented to her being brought up by her mother’s sister and her husband. Her father lived in various cities, including the Chicago suburbs, Fort Wayne, and Indianapolis, in connection with his employment with the Social Security Administration. He had remarried and had a daughter, Ginny, seven years younger than Peg. Peg’s path with Ginny rarely crossed and Ginny moved away from Indiana and the two sisters lost touch. However, in the 1990’s Ginny, now residing in Houston, made contact through a genealogy site with Peg’s son, Brian. As a result, the two sisters reunited, setting up a series of visits between the two sisters and their families and establishing a relationship that enriched the lives of the entire family. Of the many qualities that Peg displayed, perhaps her best talent, besides devotion to family, lay in her ability to develop and support her many lifelong friends. If she was your friend, her loyalty and devotion knew no bounds. She worked hard at her friendships and her friends knew that there was never any doubt that she would support them. Her friendships were a great enrichment to her life and a source of great joy. Very touching to her family after her death were stories from her friends and the children of her friends attesting to what a good friend she had been to them or their relatives. An attempt to list even her close friends would be an effort in futility as even her close friends were numerous and extended to all age groups. She maintained friendships with her classmates from the Nappanee Class of 39 that extended well into her 90’s. When her very close friend, Lois Weddle, passed away in 2013, Peg gave a very stirring eulogy at the age of 92.Peg loved Nappanee and her knowledge of Nappanee and its development was encyclopedic. Of particular interest was her knowledge of the various family histories of Nappanee families and the location of their homes. To listen to Peg and her brother-in-law, Frank “Boone” Hoffer, recite the owners of houses in the 1930s and 40’s on any particular Nappanee street and on a house by house basis was astounding.
Bonnie Hochstetler
Bonnie moved to Nappanee from Memphis, Tennessee in 1961. She had worked at McCormick Motors for 37 years as an Executive Secretary and was awarded the 2000 Secretary of the Year from the Nappanee Area Chamber of Commerce. In 1987, she joined the Nappanee Kiwanis Club, the first year that Kiwanis opened their membership to women. Bonnie received the Kiwanis International George F. Hixon Fellowship award presented by the Nappanee Club in 2004. She was a member of the Nappanee Neighborhood Watch, which formed in 1996. Bonnie served as the Nappanee chair several times of the CAPS of Elkhart County “Lifesaver Project.” Bonnie was a member of the American Legion Post 154 Auxiliary. On May 19, 2010, she was presented with the Silver Beaver Award from the LaSalle Council of Scouting. On October 14, 2010, she was designated a James E. West Fellow by the Boy Scouts of America. In 2017, she received the honor of Nappanee Area Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year for all she had done for Nappanee. Bonnie passed away in 2018.
