Jane Boyd earns rightful spot in Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame

CEDAR RAPIDS — At age 13, Floyd Kness nearly lost two fingers on his left hand after an accident involving his family's corn sheller. With no money or family doctor, Kness was left with few options.

The accident happened over Thanksgiving weekend in 1932, and the following Monday, Kness headed to Jane Boyd's office at the Tyler School where he was a student.

Immediately, Kness recalled in Harold Ewoldt's 1989 book 'Jane Boyd and Her Times,' Boyd took him to the doctor at her own expense.

There, Kness was told his fingers could not be saved. But Boyd refused the doctor's answer. For weeks after the accident, he remembers Boyd unwrapping and rewrapping his hand each day to reshape his fingers.

'Thanks to Jane Boyd for the fingers I still have 56 years later,' Kness said. 'And except for a few scars, they look good as ever.'

An advocate for many, Boyd played a pivotal role in the social welfare system of Cedar Rapids. Born Nov. 2, 1869, Boyd is remembered as someone with a deep compassion and sympathy for the poor and underprivileged.

Today, Boyd is commemorated through the Jane Boyd Community House — whose mission is to 'enhance the academic, emotional and social well-being of children and families in our diverse community.'

And in August, she'll join a long and growing list of Iowa women who have changed the face of the state, or played an important part in the history of Iowa through the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame.

She's to be inducted alongside U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, the first female U.S. senator from Iowa; Gov. Kim Reynolds, the first woman in Iowa to serve in her position; and Christine Hensley, the longest-serving Des Moines City Council member and community leader, it was announced last week.

But her legacy extends far beyond her namesake, with thousands of lives touched by Boyd during her nearly 38 years endlessly serving the children and families of Cedar Rapids, specifically the Oak Hill Neighborhood.

A city divided

Boyd first accepted a primary grade teaching assignment at Tyler School in the Oak Hill Neighborhood in 1894. Born in Tipton, Boyd briefly taught in Stanwood, Mechanicsville and Minneapolis.

Eventually, she would plant her roots in Cedar Rapids after experiencing the 'melting pot' of roughly 22 ethnic groups residing in the Oakhill neighbored and Tyler School District.

'It was an island of frustrations, suspicions, prejudices and poverty in the midst of a prosperous and self-centered Cedar Rapids of that time,' wrote Jarold Ewoldt in an undated article on Jane Boyd for the Community House Magazine that is part of The History Center's collection.

Lillian Cach, a former student of Boyd's, remembers an instance for which she believes Boyd earned her eternal glory — a lice outbreak at Tyler School.

'Undaunted, she treated the heads of the girls by wrapping them in medicated-treated (kerosene) towels, which they wore until the invasion was over,' Cach wrote in a letter preserved by The History Center.

Living to serve

For Executive Director Dorice Ramsey of the Jane Boyd Community House, she feels that Boyd is best remembered today because of the legacy her name has left.

The Jane Boyd Community House, now stretching across the city through six different locations, first opened its doors in 1921 just three years after Boyd retired from teaching to pursue social work within the community.

Once just five rooms, the first community house was donated by Dr. Wentzle Ruml and his wife and was later named in Boyd's honor.

Through her work there, Boyd lived to serve the community whether it be through providing clothing to families in the neighborhood, providing milk to the children or fostering education and growth through a variety of programs.

Boyd lived to serve Cedar Rapids and its children. Boyd never married and she never had kids of her own.

'She was very humble,' Ramsey said.

When asked once about her work within the Tyler School district, Boyd said, 'I am not a nurse nor a trained social worker. I only try to be a 'big sister' to mothers and a mother to the little ones,' as documented in History Center records.

'It was amazing that all of the things that she did in the '20s and early '30s to affect social change, but nothing was really documented about her,' Ramsey said. 'She lived and died in helping to make her community strong.'

Ramsey hopes that by being inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame, Boyd's deeds to the city will now become fully recognized.

'A lot of what is happening in the world today are some of the same things that were faced back in the 1920s,' Ramsey said. 'The cycle is repeating itself. She needs to be highlighted.

'She needs to be recognized for thinking and really addressing some major social issues that were taking place in the 1920s.'

Dying in service

'Jane literally gave her life for the cause for which she labored — the betterment of social conditions among the poor,' William Boyd, Jane's brother, wrote in his memoriam published after his death.

Boyd, who died in December 1932, was preparing warm garments for the poor when she pricked her finger on a needle while sifting through a pile of clothes at the Tyler School. She carried on with her work without seeking treatment.

Boyd received blood poisoning, and later suffered from pneumonia. She died at a Cedar Rapids hospital weeks later.

Her funeral, as documented in a 1932 Cedar Rapids Tribune article, was attended by hundreds.

'All races, all colors, all creeds. Little children with tear-filled eyes, trembling old people, rich and poor, were represented in the church where 800 mourners gathered ... to join in the last tribute to Miss Boyd,' it read.

She was referred to as a 'modern saint' by then-Coe College president Harry Morehouse Gage.

'Projecting her life in absolute loyalty to her ideals of service upon the lives of others, she was a cup of strength to other souls in some great agony,' he said.

The theme of the eulogies in honor of Boyd that day followed one simple message: 'Jane Boyd will never die.'

l Comments: (319) 368-8531; alexandra.connor@thegazette.com