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Dexheimer, Florence Chambers, 1866-1925 / Sketches of Wisconsin pioneer women
([1924?] )
Jennings, Nettie
Jane Jennings, pp. 18-21
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Page 18
- JANE JENNINGS -. Author-Nettie Jennings Monroe ................................. .........I...........I....... . ...... ............ Jane Jennings was the daughter of John and Ann MacIntyre Jennings, and the third child of a family of twelve children. They lived on a farm about two miles from the village of Monroe, Wisconsin. Jane's mother often said "Jane was once a little girl but never a child". She never romped and played as the other children did. At the age of five Jane assumed responsibilities and duties in caring for the children younger than herself, she was her mother's constant helper. She was the leader of the family. At the age of sixteen she taught in country schools, she was a great reader and constantly improving her- self; she never read cheap literature, the best to be had was her choice and in this way perfected her own English which was faultless. Courage, charity and self-sacrifice were her greatest characteristics with innate refinement that gave her re- tiring nature a manner which appeared unresponsive and cold. It was difficult to understand why her thoughts were always for others and never for herself. In 1864 there were thousands of wounded and sick soldiers lying in Armory Square hospital, Washington, D. C., one of these soldiers was her brother, Dudley. Jane made up her mind that her brother and other wounded soldiers needed her help in nursing them, she had had experience in nursing members of her family. Her preparations were few, she put her wearing ap- parel in an old valise and started for Washington. It meant something in those days to take such a trip and especially by one who had not been a hundred miles from home. She took sufficient lunch to last her to Washington, 18
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