Susan Augusta Pike Sanders was born in Maine on March 25, 1842. She was the third of seven children and the first daughter of Harrison Wallace Pike and Susan A. Mayberry Pike. The family moved to Bloomington, Illinois in 1854 following Harrison’s brother Meshack. Meshack had moved to the area earlier and in 1853 opened the Pike House Hotel located near the corner of Monroe and Center streets in downtown Bloomington.
Sue Pike Sanders spent much of her life engaged in public service. Much like her mother, she prized literacy, writing, and education, and kept scrapbooks of historical newspaper clippings which she later contributed to the McLean County Historical Society.
Before engaging in public service, Sue Pike was a teacher. She began in teaching at the “Reeder District” in Heyworth, McLean County, IL in June, 1858. In 1861 she placed a small flag bearing the emblem of “Old Glory” over her desk at that school. This act did not go over well with some of her students as Heyworth was primarily populated with Copperheads. [A Copperhead was a Northern Democrat who opposed the Civil War and wanted an immediate peace settlement with Confederates] and the flag was ripped down. Sue lectured her pupils about the story of the flag's stars and stripes, and the importance of defending them. In honor of her inspiring display of patriotism, a bronze medal was made and distributed all over the nation. Sanders is variously credited with founding or leading "The Girls of '61" a group of women of the community who had worked for the soldiers of the Civil War. The organization, founded with the outbreak of World War I in 1917, was an offshoot of the Women’s Relief Corps, an aid society formed to support Union soldiers in their fight. The WRC in Bloomington was created to send aid in particular to the 33rd Illinois Infantry Regiment, made up of many men from McLean County.
At the National Convention in Washington D.C. in 1892 Sue gave a small speech similar to the one she gave to the schoolchildren about “Old Glory” to motivate the ladies of the WRC. In her account of the Convention she wrote “I said, ‘Ladies of the National Woman’s Committee of the WRC, I want to know if among you there are 18 delegates that will volunteer to defend this convention from intruders.’ As I requested obligation to defend each sights, an Indiana woman sung out, “I’ll defend it with my honor and fist if necessary.’ Such was the spirit of my delegates.” Mrs. Sanders would serve as president of the National WRC.
Mrs. Sanders was involved in the creation of Bloomington’s first public library [later named Withers Library]. She co-founded and became secretary of the Delavan Cemetery in 1872 and helped raise funds and provide labor to make the cemetery presentable. She co-founded a social club known as the B.D. Society in 1880 with the initials standing for "something secret". Sue also took on the role as historian for the Letitia Green Stevenson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1902 and helped found the Lucy Orme Morgan Home for Girls. She was editor of the National Vidette in Delavan from 1885 through 1890.
Susan Pike married James T. Sanders on September 19, 1867 in Jacksonville, IL. They had four children: two sons, Harold Pike Sanders and Royal Woodson Sanders; and one daughter, Bernadine Sanders, who died at the young age of fifteen due to diabetes; and a fourth child who died in infancy.
Mrs. Sanders died on September 8, 1931 after experiencing a parlyzig stroke, similar to the one that took her husband’s life three years before. She had been ill for several years prior to her death and had been hospitalized at St. Joseph’s Hospital a few weeks before she died. She was buried at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery next to her husband and one of her children.
--Sources: the McLean County Museum of History,Bloomington, Illinois;
McLean County Illinois in the World War 1917-1918, E. E. Pierson and J. L. Hasbrouck Editors. Bloomington, Ill. The McLean County War Publishing Company Bloomington, Ill.
Susan Augusta Pike Sanders was born in Maine on March 25, 1842. She was the third of seven children and the first daughter of Harrison Wallace Pike and Susan A. Mayberry Pike. The family moved to Bloomington, Illinois in 1854 following Harrison’s brother Meshack. Meshack had moved to the area earlier and in 1853 opened the Pike House Hotel located near the corner of Monroe and Center streets in downtown Bloomington.
Sue Pike Sanders spent much of her life engaged in public service. Much like her mother, she prized literacy, writing, and education, and kept scrapbooks of historical newspaper clippings which she later contributed to the McLean County Historical Society.
Before engaging in public service, Sue Pike was a teacher. She began in teaching at the “Reeder District” in Heyworth, McLean County, IL in June, 1858. In 1861 she placed a small flag bearing the emblem of “Old Glory” over her desk at that school. This act did not go over well with some of her students as Heyworth was primarily populated with Copperheads. [A Copperhead was a Northern Democrat who opposed the Civil War and wanted an immediate peace settlement with Confederates] and the flag was ripped down. Sue lectured her pupils about the story of the flag's stars and stripes, and the importance of defending them. In honor of her inspiring display of patriotism, a bronze medal was made and distributed all over the nation. Sanders is variously credited with founding or leading "The Girls of '61" a group of women of the community who had worked for the soldiers of the Civil War. The organization, founded with the outbreak of World War I in 1917, was an offshoot of the Women’s Relief Corps, an aid society formed to support Union soldiers in their fight. The WRC in Bloomington was created to send aid in particular to the 33rd Illinois Infantry Regiment, made up of many men from McLean County.
At the National Convention in Washington D.C. in 1892 Sue gave a small speech similar to the one she gave to the schoolchildren about “Old Glory” to motivate the ladies of the WRC. In her account of the Convention she wrote “I said, ‘Ladies of the National Woman’s Committee of the WRC, I want to know if among you there are 18 delegates that will volunteer to defend this convention from intruders.’ As I requested obligation to defend each sights, an Indiana woman sung out, “I’ll defend it with my honor and fist if necessary.’ Such was the spirit of my delegates.” Mrs. Sanders would serve as president of the National WRC.
Mrs. Sanders was involved in the creation of Bloomington’s first public library [later named Withers Library]. She co-founded and became secretary of the Delavan Cemetery in 1872 and helped raise funds and provide labor to make the cemetery presentable. She co-founded a social club known as the B.D. Society in 1880 with the initials standing for "something secret". Sue also took on the role as historian for the Letitia Green Stevenson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1902 and helped found the Lucy Orme Morgan Home for Girls. She was editor of the National Vidette in Delavan from 1885 through 1890.
Susan Pike married James T. Sanders on September 19, 1867 in Jacksonville, IL. They had four children: two sons, Harold Pike Sanders and Royal Woodson Sanders; and one daughter, Bernadine Sanders, who died at the young age of fifteen due to diabetes; and a fourth child who died in infancy.
Mrs. Sanders died on September 8, 1931 after experiencing a parlyzig stroke, similar to the one that took her husband’s life three years before. She had been ill for several years prior to her death and had been hospitalized at St. Joseph’s Hospital a few weeks before she died. She was buried at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery next to her husband and one of her children.
--Sources: the McLean County Museum of History,Bloomington, Illinois;
McLean County Illinois in the World War 1917-1918, E. E. Pierson and J. L. Hasbrouck Editors. Bloomington, Ill. The McLean County War Publishing Company Bloomington, Ill.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
