Ellen Webster Palmer (October 20, 1839 - May 1918) was an early advocate for breaker boys and child labor laws.
Ellen Webster Palmer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Ellen Mary Webster |
Early life
editPalmer was born in 1839 in Plattsburg, New York. She later moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where she became an elementary school teacher. She married Henry Wilbur Palmer in 1861 and together they had eight children.[1] They had three daughters, Lousie May, Helen Constance, and Madeline. Both of their sons, Bradley Palmer and Henry, were lawyers.[2] Three of their children died before 1885.[3]
Work
editPalmer was known for her work with breaker boys, young boys who ranged in age from 6-9 years old. For six days a week these boys worked 10-12 hour shifts down in the coal mines. At this time, there were not child labor laws that were enforced to protect the breaker boys.[1] Palmer helped found the Boys Industrial Association in 1891,[4] and by 1899 they had their own building on town land.[1] At the school the boys were taught mathematics, reading, and writing. In the summers, she took the breaker boys to Lake Nuangola in the summers.[4] Palmer was helped by Mary Trescott, a lawyer that worked in Wilkes-Barre.[5] She worked as a secretary for the BIA and helped Palmer expand and move the BIA to a larger building.[4]
Palmer also increased public knowledge of the conditions faced by the young boys, and in 1903 a state law was passed banning the employment of young children in the mines.[4]
In 1921 a statue to remember Ellen Webster Palmer was created and was located by the Susquehanna River in Wilkes-Barre.[6][7] When the statue was put up, hundreds of the alumni of the Boys Industrial Association school attended the ceremony.[8]
References
edit- ^ a b c Sally Teller Lottick (1992). Bridging Change: A Wyoming Vally sketchbook. Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. ISBN 978-0-937537-03-9.
- ^ "Mrs. H. W. Palmer Dies Very Suddenly". The Times Leader. 1918-05-03. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
- ^ Harvey, O. J., & Smith, E. G. (1909). History of Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Valley. (Vol. 4, pp. 2168–2170). Raeder Press.
- ^ a b c d Kashatus, William C. (2008-07-06). "Another angel of the anthracite". Standard-Speaker. pp. C1. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
- ^ "Ellen Webster Palmer improved the lives of breaker boys". Citizens' Voice. 2008-10-21. pp. T27. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
- ^ Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, ed. (1946). Pennsylvania: a guide to the Keystone state. New York: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Tinling, Marion (1986). Women remembered : a guide to landmarks of women's history in the United States. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-23984-7.
- ^ "Unveiled Monument on River Commons". The Times Leader. October 10, 1921. pp. [1], [2].