Ida Whipple Benham (January 8, 1849 - May 21, 1903) was a peace advocate.

Early life

Ida Whipple was born in a farmhouse in

Ledyard, Connecticut Ledyard is a New England town, Town in New London County, Connecticut, New London County, Connecticut, United States, located along the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River. The town is named after Colonel William Ledyard, a American Revolutio ...

, on January 8, 1849. She was the daughter of Timothy Whipple (1821-1892) and Lucy Ann Geer (1825-1884), and came from a Quaker family.

Career

At an early age Ida Whipple Benham began to write verses. At the age of thirteen years she taught a country school. She was made familiar with the reforms advocated by the Quakers, such as

Temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...

, anti-slavery, and the abolition of war. She lectured on peace and temperance. She was the director of the

American Peace Society The American Peace Society is a pacifist group founded upon the initiative of William Ladd, in New York City, May 8, 1828. It was formed by the merging of many state and local societies, from New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, of ...

, and a member of the executive committee of the

Universal Peace Union The Universal Peace Union was a pacifist organization founded by former members of the American Peace Society in Providence, Rhode Island with the adoption of its constitution on 16 May 1866; it was chartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 9 Apri ...

. She took a conspicuous part in the large peace conventions held annually in

Mystic, Connecticut Mystic is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Groton, Connecticut, Groton and Stonington, Connecticut, United States. Historically, Mystic was a significant Connecticut seaport with more than 600 ships built over 135 years starting in ...

, and she held a monthly peace meeting in her own home in Mystic. She was the vice-president of the Connecticut Peace Society, founded by Jonathan Whipple, Zerah C. Whipple, Enoch Whipple, Timothy Whipple, Jeduthun Whipple, Julia Crouch Culver and Emeline Crouch, daughters of Zachariah Crouch, Jonathan Whipple Jr., and his daughter Content Whipple Waley. She contributed poems to the ''New York Independent'', the ''Chicago Advance'', ''

The Youth's Companion ''The Youth's Companion'' (1827–1929), known in later years as simply ''The Companion—For All the Family'', was an American children's magazine that existed for over one hundred years until it finally merged with ''The American Boy'' in 1929. ...

'', '' St. Nicholas Magazine'' and other prominent periodicals. In 1900 one of her poems, "I Wait For Thee," was set to music by C. B. Hawley.

Personal life

Ida Whipple married on April 14, 1869, Elijah Bailey Benham, of

Groton, Connecticut Groton is a town in New London County, Connecticut located on the Thames River. It is the home of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is the major contractor for submarine work for the United States Navy. The Naval Submarine Base New London is ...

. From 1886 to 1903 she lived at 7 Elm Street,

. The house was built in 1866 for Rev. William H. Randall. It was a Greek Revival style. Randall was the grandson of Jedediah Randall, a wealthy Mystic merchant, and the son of William Pitt Randall, partner in a whaling firm and founder of the Reliance Machine Co. She died on May 21, 1903, and is buried at Ledyard Union Cemetery,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benham, Ida Whipple 1849 births 1903 deaths People from Ledyard, Connecticut Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century