Woman of the Century/Jane Amy McKinney

2280048Woman of the Century — Jane Amy McKinney

McKINNEY, Mrs. Jane Amy, educator and philanthropist, born in Vermont, 25th October, 1832. She still retains her family name, Amy. From both father and mother she inherits marked characteristics. They were devoutly religious and possessed a robust humanitarianism, which bore fruit while they lived and left its impress on their daughters. The mother's family was devoted to literature and scientific investigation. One of her brothers was the first man to construct a galvanic battery to control electricity, before Morse took up the invention. For years the effort of his inventive genius was unknown, but recently it has been chronicled in electrical literature. Mrs. McKinney's family moved to northern Ohio in 1835, and settled in Mentor. Jane was educated in the Western Reserve Seminary and in Oberlin. She was married in 1856 and went with her husband to Winneshiek county, Iowa, where her home was until 1888, when she removed to Chicago, Ill., where she now resides. Since the age of fifteen she has been engaged in educational and philanthropic work almost continuously. In Iowa she was actively engaged in temperance work and in the advocacy of woman suffrage. She has served a term of four years by election of the legislature as trustee of the hospital for the insane in Independence, Iowa. Since girlhood she h;is keenly felt the injustice of woman’s disfranchisement. She believes the home and the State are losers because of it, and the onward march of civilization is impeded thereby. Her devotion to the cause of woman's advancement, physical, mental and political, has been vigorous and continuous and is the passion of her life She is president of the Cook County Equal Suffrage Association. Recently she has taken up kindergarten work, and has for two years served as supervisor of the Chicago Kindergarten Training School. She is a woman of distinct individuality.