Date Span: | 1852-2001 |
Creator: | Robinson-Lacy Family |
Extent: | 10.00 linear inches. |
Collection Number: | IWA0424 |
Repository: | Iowa Women's Archives |
Summary: | Correspondence diaries, scrapbook, and genealogical information regarding this Dubuque-area family. |
Alternate Extent Statement: Photographs in boxes 1 & 2.
Access: The papers are open for research.
Use: Copyright held by the donor has been transferred to The University of Iowa.
Acquisition: The papers (donor no. 617) were donated by Margaret Zimansky in 1999 and succeeding years.
Preferred Citation: Robinson-Lacy Family papers, Iowa Women's Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.
Repository: | Iowa Women's Archives |
Address: | 100 Main Library University of Iowa Libraries Iowa City, IA 52242 |
Phone: | 319-335-5068 |
Curator: | Kären Mason |
Email: | lib-women@uiowa.edu |
Website: | http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa |
Mary Woodbury Lacy was born in rural New York in 1824. She married Dr. Samuel Lacy in 1846 and came to Lima, Iowa, in 1855 with four children, Burritt, Benjamin, Charles, and Frank. A daughter, Louisa, was born in Lima in 1859. In 1865, Mary Woodbury Lacy left her husband and returned to New York with the three youngest children. There she studied medicine at the New York Medical College for Women and practiced medicine in the Ithaca, New York, area for twenty years. In poor health, she moved to Iowa to live with her son Benjamin in 1886 and died there in 1897.
In Dubuque, Benjamin Lacy had joined the law firm of Robinson and Adams and married May Robinson, oldest daughter of Frank and Laura Goddard Robinson. Laura Robinson was an early member of the Dubuque Ladies´ Literary Association (DLLA), one of the earliest women´s clubs in the United States. According to historian Louise Noun in Strong-Minded Women, officers of the DLLA formed the Northeastern Iowa Suffrage Association in 1869; it was the first suffrage association in Iowa. Frank and Laura Robinson had three children, May, Belle and Grace. Belle Robinson kept a diary from 1875 to 1877 and 1878-1879 when she was twelve to sixteen years of age. Her health was never strong and she died in 1887. Her mother died two years later. Benjamin and May Lacy had six children, Frank, Burritt, Laura, Robert, Clive and Margaret. Grace Robinson married Benjamin Lacy´s first cousin, Westel Willoughby, and had two children, Robinson and Laura.
Browse by Series:
Series 1: FAMILY HISTORY
Series 2: DIARIES
Series 3: CORRESPONDENCE
Series 4: PHOTOGRAPHS
Series 5: SCRAPBOOK
This collection is indexed under the following subject terms.