ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the lives of American woman Betsy Mix Cowles. Cowles had a personal relationship with the Brown family. As Cowles settled into her new teaching position in Delhi, New York, in the wake of Harpers Ferry, she watched with interest as Republicans across the nation began to jockey for position in the battle for the 1860 presidential nomination. Betsy received updates about war developments in Ohio from friends and family. Cornelia's passionate abolitionist sentiments emerged in her description of the happenings in Austinburg during the weeks preceding war. The Civil War opened doors for women in reform through the Sanitary Commission and the Women's National Loyal League, but it also made available new occupations and roles previously closed to women. By 1864, Cowles had retired from teaching and returned to Ohio. A debilitating case of cataracts was causing blindness in one eye. Cowles, the remarkable reformer died in her hometown of Austinburg, in 1876, after a brief illness.
