Susan Frances Nelson Ferree


Susan Frances Nelson Ferree was an American journalist and social activist from Iowa. Ferree served as a Washington, D.C. newspaper correspondent. She favored women's suffrage and women's rights; she also affiliated with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Early years and education

Susan Frances Nelson was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, January 14, 1844. Her parents were Frances S. Wray Nelson and John S. Nelson, who was a lineal descent of Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson, the founder of Old York, Virginia. His oldest son, William Nelson, was at one time president of the king's council. William's oldest son, Thomas Nelson Jr., was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the war governor of Virginia. At the age of one year she, with her parents removed to Keokuk, Iowa, which was her home for many years.

Career

Ferree wrote poetry, but her forte was journalism, especially her newspaper correspondence from Washington, D.C. She supported temperance and the advancement of woman.

Private life

In 1860, she married Jerome Dial Ferree, a business man in Ottumwa, Iowa, and they resided in that town. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, Woman's Relief Corps, the Iowa Woman's Suffrage Association, Daughters of the American Revolution, and the local WCTU. In religion, Ferree was Episcopalian, and a communicant of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, of Ottumwa. By 1908, she had removed to San Diego, California, where she died September 30, 1919.

Attribution

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