Puella E. Dornblaser (October 7, 1851 – March 17, 1904) was an American newspaper editor and temperance activist based in Pennsylvania. Her temperance education and missionary work were focused especially in immigrant and mining communities.

Early life

Puella E. Dornblaser was one of eight children born on a farm in

Clinton County, Pennsylvania Clinton County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,450. Its county seat is Lock Haven. The county was created on June 21, 1839, from parts of Centre and Lycoming Counties. Its name is ...

, to Peter Dornblaser and Elizabeth Shaffer Dornblaser. She attended

Susquehanna University Susquehanna University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. Its name is derived from the original Susquehannock settlers of the region. Founded in 1858 as a m ...

.''Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania''
(J. H. Beers & Co. 1898): 631, 655. Her older brother Thomas Franklin Dornblaser (1841-1941) was a Civil War veteran and a longtime Lutheran minister in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Career

In 1875, she lived in

Valley Falls, Kansas Valley Falls is a city in Jefferson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,092. History Valley Falls was originally called Grasshopper Falls, from the falls in the Grasshopper River (now known as ...

with her older sister Amanda J. Townsend,Untitled news item, ''Oskaloosa Independent'' (March 25, 1904): 4. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

and edited a department of the ''Oskaloosa Independent''. In 1876, she was sworn in as First Assistant Enrolling Secretary of the Kansas House of Representatives. Back in her home state, Dornblaser became Clinton County president of the

Women's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program th ...

(WCTU) in 1886. She was vice-president of the Pennsylvania WCTU for eight years, and served a superintendent of the organization's mission among immigrants and miners. She was president of the Synodical Society of the English Lutheran Church for ten years, president of the Women's Mission Society of Central Pennsylvania, and worked in various capacities with the Eagle's Mere

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua bro ...

Society. She was also a vice president of the Ladies' Aid Society of Lock Haven Hospital. She was in charge of the Girls' Industrial School at Williamsport, and superintendent of the Board of Charities in that city.Obituary notice
''Lutheran Observer'' (March 18, 1904): 30. She sometimes used the pen name "Maud Muller" in newspaper writings. A contemporary observer described Dornblaser as "universally acknowledged as the wittiest and most original woman in the W. C. T. U. ... being eminently fitted for this work by her bright, vivacious manner."

Personal life

Puella E. Dornblaser died in 1904, aged 52 years, after several months' illness. Her remains were buried in a Dornblaser family plot at St. Paul's Lutheran Church Cemetery in Clinton County, Pennsylvania.

Dornblaser Field Dornblaser Field is the name of two outdoor athletic stadiums in the western United States, located in Missoula, Montana. Both were former home fields of the University of Montana Grizzlies football teams and were named for Paul Dornblaser, a c ...

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...

is named for her nephew Paul Logan Dornblaser (1887-1918), who died in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and was awarded posthumous Silver Stars for valor.Kim Briggeman
"UM's Dornblaser Field Named for WWI Hero who Died on French Battlefield"
''Missoulian'' (September 22, 2014).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dornblaser, Puella 1851 births 1904 deaths American temperance activists People from Valley Falls, Kansas