Woman of the Century/Mary A. Bickerdyke

BICKERDYKE, Mrs. Mary A., philanthropist and army nurse, born near Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, 19th July, 1817. She is the daughter of Hiram and Anna Ball. The mother died when Mary was only seventeen months old. The little one was reared by her grandparents. Her grandsire was a Revolutionary soldier named Rogers and a descendant of the Rogers who landed on Plymouth Rock. While young, she was married to Mr. Bickerdyke, and in a few years was left a widow, with helpless little ones to rear. When the Civil War came, she left home and loved ones to offer her services as nurse to the soldiers, who were dying by scores for lack of food and care. When the supplies to the army were sent from Galesburg to Cairo, Mrs. Bickerdyke accompanied them as delegate. After the battle of Belmont she was assigned as nurse to the field hospital. Fort Donelson brought her in sight of battle for the first time. She obtained supplies sometimes by visiting the North and superintending fairs, by a simple note to a pastor at sermon time, and by her famous "cow and hen " mission, by which she furnished the wounded soldiers with a hundred cows and a thousand hens, to provide fresh dainties for the sufferers. During the winter of 1863-64 she made a short visit home, and returned and took part in the establishment of Adams Block Hospital, Memphis. Tenn. This accommodated about 6,000 men, and from this she became MARY A. BICKERDYKE. the matron of Gayoso Hospital, in which were more than 700 wounded men brought in from Sherman's battle of Arkansas Post. She took charge in Memphis, Tenn., of a small-pox hospital and cleansed