Person:Ellen Starr (5)

ELLEN GATES STARR ( 1859 - 1940)

" Miss Starr and Jane Addams co-founded Hull House in Chicago, and she was associated with the institution for more than forty years. They became lifelong friends while classmates at Rockford College, IL. After years spent in settlement work in Chicago, she took up the cause of organized labor, playing a leading role in the garment strikes of 1915-1916. In her later years she turned to religion. First a Unitarian and then an Episcopalian, she became a convert of the Roman Catholic Church on March 2, 1920.

She was a descendant of Dr. Comfort Starr, who was a member of the first board of trustees of Harvard University. Men of the Starr family, who migrated to Deerfield, MA became renowned as Indian fighters. Taught her "Three R's" in a country school, upon leaving Rockford College became an English teacher in the Chicago school system. In 1888, she went abroad with Miss Addams, toured the slums of European cities and visited Toynbee Hall in London, the first settlement house in that city. They were impressed by what they had seen, and upon their return to Chicago they founded Hull House.

She taught immigrants the language of their new country and its principles of democratic citizenship. From the start, she made the literary and cultural work of the institution her special province. She founded the Hull House book bindery after studying the craft in Europe, and also established the first free art class in Chicago.

In the decade following 1910, Miss Starr's ardent support of labor unions led to her arrests during strikes. She made a practice of approaching a policeman who was placing a striker under arrest and saying, "As an American citizen, I protest against the arrest of this person, who is doing nothing against the law." The story is told that because a policeman in court once testified that she had said "Leave them girls be," she was released and the case against her dismissed, the lawyer representing her having emphasized that the grammar could not possibly be Miss Starr's.

In 1916, she became a candidate for alderman from the Nineteenth Ward of Chicago, which she described as "the rottenest ward in the city." She was defeated, and during her campaign declared that neither woman nor a Socialist could be elected , explaining that she had become a candidate solely for "educational" purposes.

Throughout her life, Miss Starr held her aunt, the late Eliza Allen Starr, in the highest esteem. Her aunt was a devout Roman Catholic and decorated by Pope Leo XIII. She inspired the sociologist's interest in Catholicism, which eventually took form in her conversion at the Benedictine Abbey, St. Benedict , AL.

In 1929, she underwent a spinal operation. After two years spent almost entirely in hospitals, she retired to the convent where she died, becoming a Benedictine oblate in the Spring of 1935.

(Obituary excerpts)

Note: Patricia Mary Starr is the half 9th cousin once removed of Ellen Gates Starr, co-founder of HULL House in the home of Charles J. HULL in 1889. That same year, Patricia's paternal great-grandmother, Celia Braley HULL died, leaving a son, Lee HULL Starr. Harvey Newquist's grandmother, Genevieve Coughlin Newquist, was active in Chicago charities between 1882 and 1902 including HULL House. This 1856 mansion is still preserved as a memorial to those who helped immigrants get settled in Chicago.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Ellen Gates Starr.

1.   Ellen Gates Starr, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.