Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1901 — People and Events [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

People and Events

“Passing of a Grand Character. iFrom the Philadelphian: It is no common chance that takes away a noble mind, and the world lost a brave, good, noble woman when Cornelia E. Soovel of 4041 Walnut street died last Wednesday, She was a woman of great mental powers, a speaker of more than ordinary eloquence. In her youth she traversed a great portion of the Holy Land on horseback. She was the first woman who demanded the appointment of matrons at the police stations, and Mayor William B. Smith at once granted her request for this great and humane reform. Over of a century ago she married William G. Moorhead, one of the three famous Moorhead brothers of Pittsburg. As a partner of Jay Cooke Mr Moorhead built the Northern Pacific railway, which developed the great northwest. Two years after his death she married James Matlack Kcovel, of whom Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton said: ‘He was regarded by Abraham Lincoln as an able, „■ earnest patriot, devoted to the suppression of the rebellion.” Mrs. Scovel was a woman of great courage. She many years ago became the champion of the cause of woman; an eminent colaborer with that greatest woman of the nineteenth century, Frances Willard. She was at the very forefront of that great organization for good, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and many tears will be shed over this great, good woman’s grave by those who knew her best and loved her most. She was a Presbyterian In faith, but a broad Christian soldier devoted for life to the liberation of humanity. In Mrs. Scovel’s death the poor lost a benefactor, the oppressed a valiant friend, and God’s cause on earth lost a brave champi.n for the right.