Edith Belle Kauffman
I started this blog about Edith Belle with no knowledge about her. She died in 1933, long before I was born and before Dad and Mom even met. I knew Edith’s brother, Uncle Walt, my brother’s namesake. But I was young, barely 9, when he passed. But he was a legend and I should have expected nothing less of his sister. When I finished my first cut on this blog, I realized how little I knew about Edith. I went back downstairs and looked in Uncle Walt’s boxes for his old letters, Valentine’s and birthday cards and I found an album with this label.
It contained a gold mine of letters, newspaper clippings, pictures, site plans, theatre brochures, sketches and more all about Edith Belle. In the front of that album was a single page, a letter from an unknown person from the Women of Youngstown Garden Club.
Uncle Walt put it on the first page of his album. Read it and you will know why.
As you read thru this blog, be sure to read the many comments at the end. I, we never knew Aunt Edith. But reading them, we will know a bit about her.
I have included a lot of stuff about Edith. Do not be overwhelmed and skip thru without going to the end and reading those tributes to her.
Edith Belle Kauffman was special!
Edith Belle Kauffman was the daughter of Levi and Ann Elizabeth Coover Kauffman, born August 13, 1857 in Mechanicsburg, PA. She was the youngest of five children, only three were to survive. Her oldest brother, my grandfather, Percival Coover Kauffman was born in 1858. Her second brother, Walter Lee Kauffman (“Uncle Walt) was born in 1860. She was born on November 7, 1863. Harvey and William died young.
The Kauffman’s lived in Mechanicsburg, PA on 70 West Main Street. They were right next door to the Coover’s, parents of Ann Elizabeth, who were on the left side at 74 West Main Street. There was a door between the two homes.
Levi Kauffman HomeAnn Elizabeth’s father was John Coover, a prominent member of the community who owned substantial land around the town. Coover had five daughters and no sons, highly sought after. Levi owned a drug store and hardware store and later started a local bank. His father, Andrew Kauffman also lived in town, having grown up as a Mennonite on a farm outside of Lancaster. He and other’s in the Kauffman clan fled the farms as land became scarce and moved to the cities and towns.
Edith Belle was special. She was the youngest in the family and a girl. Cute, peppy, interested in everything, she was loved by all.
Letter from her Parents when she was Seven
Edith Belle grew up with her brother’s and cousins in Mechanicsburg. Her cousins, children of the sons and daughters of their grandparents Andrew Isaac Kauffman and Katharine Shuman Kauffman lived in town as well.
She was a serious student, smart, hard working. Her grades when she was 13 showed that she strived for perfection. She had 100 in everything and was top in the class.
She attended Irving Female College and graduated in 1883. She gave the Salutatory at commencement.
Her father, Levi, died of Typhoid in 1882, just a year after he and his wife Ann Elizabeth celebrated their Silver Anniversary with a gathering of their friends.
Her oldest brother, Percy had moved to Hazelton, then on to Tacoma Washington. Walt had moved to Middletown, and became involved in the steel industry. Then he moved on to Youngstown, He was in the process of opening a new manufacturing facility for US Steel. Edith lived with her mother in Mechanicsburg. After her father’s death, she moved to Youngstown to live with her brother after he established himself there. She was followed shortly thereafter by their mother. Her mother, Ann Elizabeth Kauffman died on May 19, 1919 in Youngstown at the age of 86.
Edith was quickly establishing herself in a variety of Youngstown activities. She loved gardening and became involved in projects to beautify her newly adopted town.
She loved acting. She helped organize local plays and often acted in them.
She helped organize the garden club of Youngstown which was founded 100 years ago in July 15, 1915.
Her many projects led to her being appointed to the Youngstown Planning Commission. She was the first woman to be placed on it.
And when an international crisis arose in Serbia, she was quick to organize relief from the local area.
And some art And did I mention that she loved to write poetry?
Miss “Ohio”
She was able to convince the gifting of land for what was to become the Quarry Gardens at Mill Creek Park.
The Edith Kauffman Memorial Quarry Garden was built on the site of a late 19th century quarry. The abandoned quarry along Glenwood Avenue near Mill Creek Park had become an eyesore. Edith Kauffman, while president of the Garden Club of Youngstown, persuaded property owners to donate land to the park for the development of a garden. After the land was deeded to the park in 1918, the garden was designed to be a secluded sanctuary for people as well as birds. Birdhouses and birdbaths were installed. In recognition of Edith’s efforts, the garden was named in her honor in 1933.
At the celebration of the history of the Garden Club 2015, Margie Rapp impersonated our Aunt Edith to the amusement of the group. The quarry area was named after Edith Kauffman in 1933.
I wrote to the park authorities in 2018 to find out the status of the park and plaque. Here is what I learned.———————————————————————————————————– In reviewing your inquiry, I was able to review the text written in The Green Cathedral by John C. Melnick, M.D. (pages 130-135) and also touch base with some of our most tenured employees whom I thought might have the best information and/or knowledge on the subject. I joined MCMP in 2015, so prior to that date I don’t have any direct knowledge pertaining to the activities of the Administration. According to staff members, the Edith Kauffman Quarry Garden Plaque was removed between two and three decades ago due to continues vandalism of the plaque and gardens, illegal activities including drug use and ultimately fear of the plaque being stolen and scrapped amidst the continued decline of the Youngstown metropolitan area. Around the same time that the plaque was removed, the garden/quarry area as a whole was no longer maintained as a formal gathering area and now only a few foot trails lead to that area today.
Aaron C. Young, PLA, ASLAExecutive DirectorMill Creek MetroParks
-You may ask yourself how such a vibrant lady might have escaped marriage. I suspect she had many suitors over the years. We do have a hint. A poem titled Jack’s Proposal and a second, untitled from the earlier days.
Jack’s Proposal 1905
Edith Belle died on October 19, 1933 in Youngstown. There were many tributes to Edith. I have included just a few:
“My friend, Edith Kauffman, has died and no one will miss her more than the many ordinary folks of the city for whom she was constantly working. She was a society woman, a cultured woman with a kindly friendly feeling for those who had not had the earl advantages she had been given.”
“Miss Kauffman was versatile. She could do anything and at an age when most women are busy with their knitting, she was playing difficult roles in amateur shows just to help the cause along, serving on the city planning commission, acting as mistress of ceremonies for a style show, setting you to do this for that person and that for some cause and make you like it. Youngstown has lost one of its very first citizens.”
“To know her was to love her, and we loved her for her love of beauty, her love of order, her love of nature, of service and sacrifice, and her love of humanity. –especially her love of little children. As a charter member of the Free Kindergarten Association, she gave generously – too generously, of her time and help, and of herself and we honor her for her sacrifice. We often felt that, in the language of Edna St. Vincent Millay, ‘she was burning her candle at both ends, but we are so proud, She did throw an lovely light.’ “
“The Park Commissioners in honoring Miss Edith Kauffman by giving a quarry garden in Mill Creek Park her name, have added another compliment to the many given his accomplished woman by representatives of the various institutions a nd agencies she has helped.”“Miss Kauffman’s intellect made her a leader in her own social group. Her literary ability, her wit and her vivacity made her a personality which graces and company and she was eagerly sought for her companionship.”
“Edith Kauffman was a character. We shall not see her like again. She was socially minded and socially distinguished — she was charming. By her rare conversational powers, her keen wit and her well informed mind, she easily made herself a center of interest of any crowd.”“There were no lamentations or timidities in Edith’s Psalms of Life. She was no clinging vine in our social garden. Although physically petite she was spiritually of heroic mold, highly individualized and superbly independent.”“The services today in honor of my sister will always stand out and be a wonderful memory for me. Edith was to me a remarkable women with a brilliant mind, and was always very close and dear to me. She and I were together for many years, and a more devoted sister no one ever had, as she was always thinking of my comfort and happiness.”
She is buried at the Chestnut Hill Cemetery in Mechanicsburg along with her parents and siblings.
