Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Ella Alexander Boole 1858 ~ 1952

Ella Alexander Boole

Mrs. Ella Alexander Boole was born at Van Wert, Ohio, where she attended the graded and high schools, after which she entered the University of Wooster at Wooster, Ohio, being graduated in the classical course in 1878. Her record in college was second in her class of thirty-one, twenty-eight of whom were young men, and she was awarded the first prize in the Junior Oratorical Contest After her graduation, she served as assistant in the high school in her native town for five years and in 1883 was married to the Rev. William H. Boole, an honored member of the New York East Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Her interest in the temperance work began at the time of the Crusade when as a schoolgirl she came in touch with that mighty movement. Her platform work began in 1883 and since that time she has been actively engaged in the prosecution of religious, temperance and philanthropic work. She has served New York Woman's Christian Temperance Union as an officer since 1885, having been elected corresponding secretary, first vice-president, secretary of the Young Woman's Branch, and in 1898 was elected president of the state.

In 1903 she was elected secretary of the Woman's Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, United States of America, and her active leadership in home missionary work was felt not only in that church but in Interdenominational home missionary endeavor. In 1909 she was again elected president of New York State Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which position she still holds.

As a member of the Woman's Press Club, chairman of the Woman's Anti-Vice Committee of New York City, president of the Allied Forces for Civic and Moral Betterment in the state of New York, and of many important committees in philanthropic work, she is well known among literary people and her platform experience has extended all over the nation.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.