Mary Ann Bickerdyke
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a.k.a. "Mother" Bickerdyke.
1817-1901
Mary Ann Ball was born in Knox County, Ohio in 1817. By 1861 after
the outbreak of the Civil War, Mary Ann was Mrs. Bickerdyke and was
living in Galesburg, Knox County, Illinois. During that first summer
of the War, Edward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and
Henry Ward Beecher) visited Galesburg and spoke at the Congregational
Church. The service included the reading of a letter written by a man
from Galesburg telling of the poor conditions of the military camp at
Cairo, Illinois, where several hundred of Galesburg's men were
stationed.
The congregation prepared to send supplies for the men at Cairo and
suggested that Mary Ann Bickerdyke accompany them. Mrs. Bickerdyke
was then 44 years old, a widow with two young sons. Mary Ann agreed
to take the supplies to Cairo. She devoted the next four years to the
cause. It is believed that she ministered to the needs of the wounded
in no less than nineteen battles, bettering the lives of the soldiers
who gave her the nickname "Mother Bickerdyke". In the process, she
gained the respect of Generals Grant and Sherman.
Following the war she returned to Galesburg. Later she traveled
through Kansas and California. She was instrumental in obtaining
pensions for veterans and for Civil War nurses. By 1901, she had
returned to her childhood home in Knox County, Ohio, where she died.
She was buried in Galesburg.
A monument in her honor stands on the lawn of the Courthouse of Knox
County, Illinois. Upon the monument is a phrase which exemplifies
Mother Bickerdyke's importance in the Civil War: General Sherman's
quote claiming, "She outranks me."
