Category Archives: Ohio Women’s History

BECOMING FEARLESS AND FREE: BONNIE MITSUI (1944-2013): Pioneer in local, organic agriculture

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Tai Chi instructor Vince Lasorso spent hours weekly with Bonnie Mitsui the last two years of her life. She came to him with a cancer diagnosis, and told him that she was ready to die. Due to several severe strokes, she had persistent pain in her arms and legs and had years ago switched her dominant hand, painting and working primarily with her left. She had accomplished much with her influential experiment, Turner Farm, both on the farm and in the region. And had overcome significant emotional and psychological barriers from losing her mother and inheriting wealth at an early age. She had reconciled with her son and met her grandchild before she died and this provided her great comfort.

Bonnie Mitsui will be remembered as the founder of Turner Farm, a local organic Community Supported Agriculture farm, where literally hundreds of people worked over the years as part of a number of CSAs and as interns training to become farmers in their own right. Professor Alan Wight has noted that there were two nodes of farmer training and visionary work that helped to build a vibrant local and organic food economy in Cincinnati and Turner Farm was one of them.

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Peppy Laakso – A Rosie – Youngstown

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Video: Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor

Below: found in “The Vindicator” archives.

HOMETOWN PROFILE: North Jackson woman, 99, served as ‘Rosie the Riveter’

NORTH JACKSON — Josephine “Peppy” Riffle Laakso will celebrate her 100th birthday in September. She also will be celebrating many lifetime achievements.

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Sisters in Restaurant Success: A History of The Maramor Downtown Columbus

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This article was copied from The Boston Hospitality Review, and the images, as explained below come from the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, Ohio. I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I did.

By Jan Whitaker

In the summer of 1920 a woman named Mary Love opened The Maramor, a tea room-style restaurant in downtown Columbus, Ohio. The location was in a house once owned by the city’s richest man. After being vacated by his widow in 1895, the handsome 3-story building had housed a variety of tenants including doctors, a Turkish bath, and the State Palace, a Chinese-American restaurant.

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Kim Russell – Oberlin College

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Ohio Woman Making History

Generally, I am only writing about women who have passed, but right now, our rights are on the line. We are in an era of modern suffrage, in the sense that women are being erased whenever they speak. DEI on college campuses needs to be eliminated, just as Affirmative Action was ended by the Supreme Court. There is no “inclusion” on college campuses when you “exclude” women under the guise that you are somehow looking out for people’s rights. If a man wants to pretend to be a woman, the first thing he needs to do is RESPECT women. Non-biological women do NOT get to get awards on International Women’s Day (President Biden), they do not get to invade our sororities (University of Wyoming), they do not get to go into our locker rooms (Ohio State University – Phillip Heit), and they do not get to play women’s sports.

Where is #metoo now? Where are the #feminists who profess to be concerned about women’s rights? While these two groups annihilate women, in favor of men, conservative women are standing strong and standing up to the hypocrisy we are now facing. Now we know who is really in favor of women’s rights. Now we know, what some of us have suspected all along. They didn’t burn any bra’s, they handed them over to men and asked them to join along.

Oberlin College lost a lawsuit against Gibbon’s Bakery, for trying to take down this wonderful small business owner. Do they really need to exist anymore as a college? Should you really be putting your money into a business that continues to eradicate decent people, trying to look out for the welfare of others? Kim Russell is a heroine. She will go down in history, like Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan for protecting women from men who are trying to take advantage of women. Misogynists, plain and simple. Oberlin is a misogynist and they are Anti-American, Anti-Small Business, this is not a safe place for young women to attend college.

Mary Johnson – Worthington

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Mary Johnson Sessions

Today, I had the opportunity to visit the Orange Johnson House in Worthington, Ohio. They were celebrating the 200th birthday of Mary (July 12) and the 250th birthday of Thomas Worthington, our sixth governor (July 16). The historical home featured antiques from this time period and there were docents, dressed in costume, around the home in each of the rooms. They gave us explanations about the home and the room we were in. Mary’s family, Orange and Achsa (nee Maynard), herself and her brother were the second family to occupy this home. The original back portion of the home was built in 1811 by Arora Buttles. The Johnson family moved in around 1816 and added a second portion which we can still see today. The design of the house came with interesting features, due to the new addition. This included a three or four step entryway from brother’s room to the sister’s room (which originally was a window). Outside of the family bedrooms was a porch that connected all the bedrooms.

Mary’s father was one of the first settlers to Worthington and a wealthy man. He sent his daughter to be educated at the Worthington Female Seminary, where she would study to become a teacher. Mary had many suitors, with well-mannered rejection letters. There are many letters you can find at the home, which are transcribed. There are also copies of the original ones in a glass showcase. However, even though they were transcribed, they were not edited, thus it can be complicated to read. She would go on to marry a friend of her father’s, Frank Sessions. They moved to Broad Street, which is the same property/land which now houses the Columbus Museum of Art. Some of Mary and Frank’s art work were donated to this museum, as they were avid art collectors.

Marital Home of Frank and Mary. It is now the Columbus Museum of Art housed on this property.

Mary travelled quite a bit with her husband. One of these places was Europe. She was also at the inauguration of President Harrison. Mary died in 1919 at the age of 96 in her beloved home above.

Mary and Frank

Mary and her cousin Helene.

Mary’s burial place at Greenlawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio:

Of course, you will have to go to the home to see much better versions of these photos, up close and personal. You won’t regret it!