NOTABLE WOMEN IN
THE HISTORY OF BURLINGTON COUNTY – PART II
In addition to the
6 women listed as a part of Mr. Laufer’s Lecture,
the following 9 women
merit inclusion in the list of Burlington County Women
who have made
significant contributions to society.
Born on her father’s plantation in Burlington Township, while in London in 1715 she obtained what was probably the first patent issued to an American colonist for her method of stamping corn into cornmeal. The trade name for the product was “Tuscarora Rice.” In 1716 she was issued a patent for a method of working straw for hats and bonnets. Both patents had to be issued under her husband’s name.
A Riverside resident, she was the first woman elected to the Burlington County Medical Society in 1896. She operated a maternity hospital in Riverside until 1930. She delivered almost 3,000 babies in the area. She received the Medical Society of New Jersey’s Golden Merit Award for over 50 years of medical practice.
Having grown up as a slave in Maryland, she escaped in 1804 to New Jersey where her husband, who bought freedom, was living. She was captures, returned to Maryland and escaped again to Shamong. Two of her 18 children became prominent: James Still, the “Black Doctor of the Pines,” and William Still, an abolitionist famous for his involvement with the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia.
A member of the famous Burr Family of Burlington County and resident of Peachfield Plantation on Burrs Road, Mount Holly.
A member of the illustrious Burr Family and resident of Peachfield Plantation, married Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy.
Wife of Hezekiah Smith, of the H.B. Smith Machine Company (1865). A socialite, physician and entrepreneur, she was active in her husband’s business and editor of the New Jersey Mechanic. Buried in St. Andrews Cemetery, Mt. Holly.
An active lay physician, Morris left one of the few civilian diaries of the Revolutionary War written by a woman. These diaries have been quoted in many works on the era. She later recorded the ravages of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia.
In a 1975 memoir, Gently, Sister Gently, she chronicled her life as a Quaker farm wife, mother and missionary. She resided at River Side Homestead (Taylor Farm), on Taylor Lane, Cinnaminson.
A resident of Riverton, she made significant contributions to children’s education at the local and state levels. One of the founding members of “The Porch Club”, a women’s club which involved itself in many social and educational undertakings. She was elected the first female member of the Riverton School Board in 1897, was elected the first president of the New Jersey State Congress of Mothers which eventually became the State PTA.