S. Izetta (Isettia) Davis
S. Izetta (Isettia) Davis, the daughter of Joseph T. Davis and Caroline (or Celia) Kimer Davis, more commonly known as Izetta George, was born circa 1862 in Missouri.
General Notes
Isetta Davis: Attested as such in the 1870 federal census record, although the online indexing is inaccurate, and she cannot be found directly therein. Izetta is perhaps an alternate reading here.
Izetta Daves: Attested as such on one of the pictures from her youth.
Izetta George: Attested as such in a few Denver public sources; see below.
Isetta S. George: A possible reading of her name in the 1910 federal census.
Izetta S. George: The more likely reading of her name therein.
S. Izetta George: Attested as such in most of her official correspondence and charity work; see below.
Izett S. George: Attested as such in the 1900 federal census.
Izetta Rogers: Not attested, but implied in her daughter’s California Death Index entry, stating her mother’s maiden name to be Rogers.
Her name is consistently given as "S. Izetta George" in attestations of her in official capacity in the 1900s. Her maiden name I take from her childhood picture, which I had originally taken to read Daves instead of Davis. I identified her family therefore only after seeing the Davis family just after her census entry with Goodwin George in 1880.
Her Early Life
We can date her birth to Missouri circa 1862, on the strength of multiple different census entries (1880, 1900, 1910). The 1870 census entry dissents, giving her birth place as Iowa.
c. 1866: Her family moves to Iowa before she is four, since her next youngest sibling, Rowena, is born there in 1866.
1870: Izetta appears in the 1870 census in Hamburg, Fremont, Iowa, at home at the age of 8. We can find the entry in online indices through searching for her sister Rowena. Her birthplace therein is given as Iowa.
1877: The marriage record of Goodwin George to Izetta Davis gives the date of the marriage as July 25, 1877, recorded on March 27, 1878. The record was made by Duncan Brown, Minister of the Gospel, Holt County, Mound City, Missouri. So Izetta would have been in Iowa in 1870, Missouri in 1877, and back in Iowa in 1880.
1880: Izetta appears in the 1880 census with her husband Goodwin George in Hamburg, Fremont, Iowa. She is listed as keeping house, aged 18. This entry is the source for the birth-places of her parents; her family as a whole appears next to them in this census entry. (Note that in the online version, she is mis-indexed as Izatta.) Colbert C. George is born in this year.
Her Move to Denver
1880s: She moves with Goodwin, their son Colbert and her father Joseph to Denver at some point between 1880 and 1887.
1887: Charlotte George is born in Denver in this year.
The Charitable Organization Society
Denver’s Charitable Organization Society was founded in 1887 by "Father William O'Brien, Reverend Myron Reed, Dean H. Martin Hart and another Catholic priest" and Frances Wisebart Jacobs. Much external information is available on this organization, including short studies of the people active in it, many of whom would have worked with or been familiar to Izetta. The career of Frances Wisebart Jacobs is particularly instructive. She had been the president of the Hebrew Benevolent Ladies Aid Society in Denver and was active in the establishment of Denver’s National Jewish Hospital in 1899. Her particular interest in this regard was in tuberculosis, a repeating theme in Izetta’s life as well. She served as the secretary of the Charitable Organization Society, the same position Izetta would later hold.
See also the 1892 annual meeting report for the Social Welfare Forum and all the other associated organizations. Beginning on page 90 is a report by Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, who I think was one of its founders. He reports on consumptives, men with TB: thousands of them came to Colorado from the East, sent there by people who thought the climate would help them. In fact by the time they arrived they were weakened and they could not find "light work," as the frontier requires strong men. Because they could find no employment, they ended up in poor boarding houses and were too weak and poor to go home to die with their loved ones. He writes about being summoned as a minister to the "undertaker’s shop," to say prayers. He and the undertakers are the only ones there, except "perhaps the keeper of the boarding-house where the lad died or an officer of the Charitable Organization Society." (This officer could have been someone like Izetta.)
Her Career, 1880s
Izetta was active in the Charitable Organization Society. Family stories from Leona Jane Neer recall that Izetta would cut off the welfare of anyone who was caught drinking in a bar. Izetta’s caricature reportedly appeared in the Denver Post encased in a block of ice. In August 2003, Lee produced a slip of paper she said she had been carrying in her purse for 35 years, which read "Ben Lindsey / Denver / 1900 to 1927." This is the name and the exact tenure of the judge who founded America’s juvenile justice system. As Lee put it, "He’s the one who got Izetta into that block of ice." What precisely that means remains unclear, but it was the only lead pointing towards the Library of Congress discoveries outlined below. Ben Lindsey worked with a number of other people on juvenile justice, including Molly Brown, suffragist, Senate candidate and Titanic survivor, who most likely would have known and worked with Izetta George as well.
According to family stories, Izetta was a Christian Scientist. Christian Science, ’discovered’ by Mary Baker Eddy in 1866, did not receive its first church until 1875, in the northeast, but had spread to Chicago by the 1880s.
A collection of letters details Izetta’s career from the 1880s to the 1910s.
In the period from 1888 to 1892, Izetta began her service as Secretary of the COS. Since the Charitable Organization Society was founded in 1887, since one of the letters refers to her 21 years of service as assistant secretary and secretary, and since a 1909 letter from Judge Lindsey to a third party shows that service to be ongoing, she did not served the COS from its inception, but could have been Secretary as early as 1888. (If her 1913 activity in Massachusetts means she was no longer with COS, then she was Secretary at the latest by 1892.) Some sources describe Frances Wisebart Jacobs as secretary of the COS until her death in 1892. If this is true, then Izetta succeeded her in 1892.
c. 1889: If the picture we believe to be of Charlotte George and labeled "Mama at Two" is accurately identified, then Charlotte must have been in St. Louis Missouri in this year, presumably with her parents.
Her Career, 1890s
1890: We have a letter (page 1 & page 2) to Izetta written in Chicago, dated 10 June 1890. Since the author of the letter describes Charlotte ("Lottie") calling her "Mama George" then the letter is from Izetta’s mother-in-law. When Charlotte herself labeled this letter and gave it to her daughter, she refered to the author as "Grandma George." The letter mentions that Charlie is living with the author, and Bertie (presumable Colbert) with Izetta. If Lottie was correct in calling Charlie "Pa Pa" then this suggests Charles as Goodwin’s father’s name. We presume that the son mentioned in the letter is Goodwin himself. This is his last attestation.
1890: The 1890 census is in fragments. In the 1890 Denver, Colorado City Directory she appears as Mrs. Izetta George, living at r. 341 Prospect Avenue. Goodwin appears to be absent.
1892: Mrs. Izetta George appears as "registrar Charity Organization Society" in Denver City Directory for 1892, with the address given as "32 Court House r 1000 Ogden." Goodwin, Charlotte, and Colbert are not present.
1893: Izetta’s article published the following year describes the consequences on charity work of the collapse of silver prices and the subsequent social crisis in Denver.
1893: The Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections at the 20th Annual Sesssion Held in Chicago, Ill., June 8-11, 1893, lists on page 440 "Miss Izetta George" from Denver as a member of the Committee on Time and Place. I suppose this to be a committee formed to plan the location of the next conference, but I am not sure.
1894: The Social Welfare Forum, the Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction at the 21st Annual Session Held in Nashville, Tenn., May 23-29, 1894, includes a short article by Izetta George called "Denver’s Plan." This article is also cited in summary form in the 1908 "A Guide to the Study of Charities and Correction by Means of the Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction," compiled by Alexander Johnson. A related publication I find only in partial form online, undated and without full citation, is the National Bulletin of Charities and Correction, published by the National Conference on Social Welfare, which reads, in part, "One session was devoted to Municipal Charity Works, the principles of which were laid down by Mrs. S. Izetta George, Secretary of the Charity Organization Society of Denver."
1895: Secretary: Charity Organization of Denver: Denver, Colorado. The Denver City Directory, 1895, lists her as Secretary of the COS.
1895: Dangerous Illness, 2 Feb 1895, Denver, Colorado. The Rocky Mountain News reported her as dangerously ill on this day.
1895: Nat’l Convention of Charities, 21 May 1895, New Haven, Connecticut. The Rocky Mountain News reported her attendance of this event.
1896: The Charities Review, A Journal of Practical Sociology, volume 5 number 5 (March, 1896), lists Mrs. Izetta George of Denver Colorado as a member of the Standing Committee on Charity Organization (page 236), in its section announcing the 23rd National Conference of Charities and Correction.
1899: Mrs. S. Izetta George is listed as the President of the Board of Control of the State Industrial School for Girls in "Laws passed at the Twelfth Session of the General Assembly of the State of Colorado."
Her Career, 1900s
1900: I was first unable to find her in the 1900 census, but see now that she appears listed as "George Izett S" born in 1862 in Missouri. In that entry her father’s birth-place is given as Missouri and her mother’s as Kentucky. This conflicts with information from previous entries. Her occupation is given as "Clerk [?] Charity organization," and she and her daughter are listed without Goodwin as lodgers with the family of an attorney named Fred Bulter. She is listed as widowed in this census entry. She is also listed as the mother of two living children, but Colbert does not appear in this entry, and must be living elsewhere.
1900: School for Girls: Resignation from the Board of Control, State Industrial School for Girls., 21 Aug 1900, Denver, Colorado. The following day she received a letter from the governor <../pictures/letter1900.jpg>, accepting the resignation. No reasons for the resignation are given.
1900: The Colorado Medical Journal, Denver, December 1900, Vol. VI, Number 12, page 555, News Items, lists Mrs. S. Izetta George as the secretary for St. Clair’s Orphanage, home to 115 children.
1900: The 1900 conference proceedings of all those organizations, page 376:
"Mrs [note the Mrs this time] George, of Denver, described the method of raising money in Denver for charitable purposes. The Charitable Organization Society there receives $9,000 annually from the city. That does not go to the central office but to the office of charities. The Charitable Organization Society controls the city charity work. The money for the seventeen charitable societies is raised once a year, and not a bit of politics enters into it."
1901: February 20; a letter from Izetta George to Ben Lindsey on this date is cited as being in box 80, file for 1901, in the BBL Papers, by Elizabeth J. Clapp, _Mothers of all Children_, 1998, Penn State Press. I did not find this letter when at the Library of Congress, so I will need to check this reference to see if it refers to that or another collection, and get the letter.
1901: Izetta George is listed on page 236 of the Charities Review published by the COS of New York. The full text is not available online; consult original.
1902: A book by Elizabeth Clapp, 1998, Mothers of All Children: Women Reformers and the Rise of Juvenile Courts in Progressive Era America, in its discussion on Judge Lindsey, states in footnote 77:
"Lindsey refused to employ women as probation officers in the early days of his juvenile court. Letter to Mrs. Izetta George, April 1, 1902, box 82, folder 4, BBI. Papers; Letter from Izetta George, April 2, 1902, box 82, folder 3, BBI. Papers."
1902: The Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, ed. Isabel C. Barrows, Boston, transcribes remarks made at the 29th Annual Session held in Detroit from May 28 to June 3, 1902. Mrs. Izetta George’s remarks appear therein on pages 518-520.
1902: In the article "Philanthropy, Charity and Social Problems," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 20. (Sep., 1902), pp. 150-161, Mrs. S. Izetta George is listed as one of the assistant secretaries due to attend the "next session of the National Conference of Charities and Correction... [to] be held in Atlanta, Ga., in the spring of 1903." She is also listed in the 20th Annual Report of the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York as the Corresponding Officer of the Denver chapter of the COS, listed here (but I believe erroneously) as founded in 1889. Her address is given as 1420 Champa Street.
1902: August 1; she addresses a handwritten letter to Judge Lindsey hoping that he will find her friend Mrs. Sales capable of managing her own affairs and of being guardian of her own children. The letter is on COS stationery, on which she appears as secretary, and of which the address is Room 35, Court House, Denver. The original letter can be found in the Benjamin Lindsey Collection, Box 1, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
1903: The Denver city directory lists Izetta living at 1420 Champa (the same address as her son Colbert). She is listed as Mrs S Izetta George.
1903: Albert Shaw’s "The American Review of Reviews" in its annual collection of the publication (Radcliffe Library, 1903: 701) quotes a Francis S. Kinder as follows: "The Secretary of the Denver Charity Organization Society, Mrs. Izetta George, who during many years’ work has had unusual opportunities for becoming acquainted with the actual conditions, has held the belief that a sanatorium or system of sanatoria, planned on a scale which only the national government could undertake, is required to adequately meet the needs of the time. This idea has also been indorsed (sic) by most of the physicians with whom I have discussed it." The article is entitled "The Consumptives’ Chances in Colorado", and is part of a larger collection of pieces on tuberculosis.
1903: February 11; she addresses a typewritten letter to Judge Lindsey in response to some earlier communication, affirming the accuracy of his remarks, and discussing her opinion that the Working Boys’ Home is "absolutely worthless." While she signs the letter as Secretary of the COS, the letter is on letterhead labeled "Eight Colorado Conference of Charities and Correction." Both her and Judge Lindsey appear therein as members of the Executive Committee. (The Working Boys’ Home was one of the charities appearing under the COS coalition in 1902/1903.) The original letter can be found in the Benjamin Lindsey Collection, Box 1, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
1903: February 14; she addresses a typewritten letter to Judge Lindsey on COS letterhead. The letter makes positive reference to a number of interactions between the two, including one dating back two years (to 1901?). The letter covers a number of topics, including a Parental School, the Night School, the Parental School Bill, and the Golden School. She has other issues regarding the Bill she would like to discuss with him, but will wait until she sees him. The original letter can be found in the Benjamin Lindsey Collection, Box 85, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Most interesting: her reference to the Parental School as an institution which "will take the place of parents who are incapable of managing their children properly (which would include most t of US.)" Does she have her own case in mind?
1903: February 23; V.A. Gindra writes to Judge Lindsey asking him to confirm his ex-wife’s assertion that he could pay $300 to eliminate his obligations to her, per Lindsey’s agreement, and making his case for custody of their child. The original letter can be found in the Benjamin Lindsey Collection, Box 1, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
1903: June 10; she addresses a typewritten letter to Judge Lindsey on COS letterhead, on which she still appears as Secretary. The letter asks about the cases of the three Hefflinger orphans and Mrs Leora Gindra. Izetta refers to Mr Gindra’s offer of $350 (sic) and the court’s rejection of that offer, and asks for assistance on Leora’s behalf. The original letter can be found in the Benjamin Lindsey Collection, Box 1, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
1904: Izetta George is thanked in passing by Judge Lindsey on page 138 of his _The Problem of Children and how the State of Colorado Cares for Them_, a report of the juvenile court of Denver, wherein Lindsey describes her as the secretary of the Associated Charity organization (sic).
1906: San Francisco Earthquake: Sent to provide assistance to affected Denver natives, 1906, San Francisco, CA. We have a letter in our possession mentioning this trip. Recognition: Denver Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade thanks Izetta George., 19 Sep 1906, Denver, Colorado. The letter thanks Izetta George for accepting, in her capacity as Secretary of the Charity Organization Society of Denver, the appointment as personal representative of the Chamber of Commerce to San Francisco after the earthquake and fire. Is she in San Francisco when her father dies?
1907: Izetta George appears in the American Monthly Review of Reviews, page 701, by Albert Shaw. The full text is not online; consult the original.
1908: Recommendation: The Chamber of Commerce writes her a general letter of recommendation., 14 Dec 1908, Denver, Colorado. The letter her describes her as secretary of the Charity Organization Society "for many years", but given the following evidence, this should not be taken to mean that she was no longer serving in that capacity.
1908: The _Preliminary Announcement of the International Congress on Tuberculosis_ held in Washington DC from September 21 to October 12 lists a Mrs S Izetta George from Denver on page 180.
1909: June 14; Judge Lindsey writes a letter to a Mrs. Helen W. Rogers of Indianapolis in which she describes "Mrs. Izetta George" as the Secretary of Denver’s charities association, and states that he will ask her to forward literature to Mrs. Rogers. The original letter can be found in the Benjamin Lindsey Collection, Box 20, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
1909-1913? Lee Quinlan has a tea set inscribed in her honor by the COS. This was presumably the gift which accompanied an undated letter to her acknowledging 21 years of service as assistant secretary and secretary of the COS, and regretting her resignation for reasons of health. The letter’s signatories are difficult to read: a Reverend .... Ryan (?), a Mrs. A.M. Donaldson, and a Frank Graff (?).
Undated: Izetta George appears on pages 406 and 663 of "The Survey" by Survey Associates (1952) of v. 22-29, no. 7, April 1909-1913, published by the COS of the City of New York. Full text is not online; consult the original.
After Denver
In 1910, she appears as a single entry under Izetta George in the federal census in Malden, Massachusetts, where her occupation is given as "secretary" of "Ass. Charities", her birth place as Missouri, and those of her parents as Missouri and Iowa. This census entry also indicates her as widowed.
1911: Philip P. Jacobs, A Tuberculosis Directory, published this year in New York, lists Mrs. S. Izetta George as the secretary of the Malden Massachusetts Committee on Tuberculosis of the Associated Charities. She does not appear in the 1916 edition of the same book.
1913: General Secretary: General Secretary of the Associated Charities, Malden Mass., May 1913, Malden, Massachusetts. We have a letter <../pictures/letter1913.jpg> thanking her for her work in Malden in this capacity, and implying that she is moving on.
Circa 1914? We have two pictures of a young girl on a porch, one of which labels her Janey. In one picture, she is with Oliver Lee Neer, the other Izetta. Was Izetta George therefore in Douglas, Arizona in 1914? This is presumably after she has left Massachusetts.
1914: December 24; a letter from Judge Lindsey’s office but signed "B. Palmer" is addressed to Izetta George at "257 South Hill St., Los Angeles, California." The letter seems to make reference to an inquiry regarding possible openings in Judge Lindsey’s staff, but the context is not clear. The original letter can be found in the Benjamin Lindsey Collection, Box 48, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
She died of uterine cancer, in the care of her daughter Charlotte George. Charlotte's granddaughter Charlotte Ann Quinlan says that her mother told her this was when Charlotte George moved to Washington State with Floyd Manning. By her absence from Floyd Manning’s census entry in 1920, should we conclude she had died by then?
Research Notes
Death Certificate: The Washington State CHS reports finding no death certificate for her during the years 1914-1924.
