In Ohio Northern’s early days, Elizabeth Burkholder Wiseley, Ph.B. 1913, was an active and respected student leader who went on to have a national role with the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).
At ONU, she served as president of the YWCA from 1911-1913; was a member of the Franklin Literary Society; wrote for the Northern Lights student newspaper; and was vice president of the Domestic Science Club. Along with fellow Franklin Society members, she founded a Girls’ Progressive Party that supported women’s rights.
Well-known on campus, Elizabeth also led the ONU parade before a football game and was the pitcher during the (then) annual junior-senior women’s baseball game.
In the 1912 Northern Yearbook, she penned an essay titled “Why I Believe in Woman Suffrage.” She argued that a “new era was dawning” for women and that women should be allowed to vote in U.S. elections.
“Nothing can so broaden woman’s outlook upon life as an interest in public affairs. … In her new status she will wield a greater influence for good, widen her life and range of interest, strengthen her intellect, and make her life not only richer and fuller to her country but infinitely more charming in the home which she loves and in which she will ever reign supreme.”
After graduation, Elizabeth worked as a field secretary for the YWCA for many years in locations such as Dayton, Ohio, Oakland, Calif., and Denver, Colo. In 1918, as part of YWCA’s war support efforts, she relocated to Missouri to help organize the YMCA/YWCA War Funds campaign work for the state. Her war organizational work earned her a service star on the Ada village service flag during World War I.
Shortly after she married, she returned to northwest Ohio and stayed involved in her church and the Lima YWCA.
She died in 1950.