Born in Sandy Springs, Ohio Annie Wittenmyer was born into a family that focused on education. For this reason, despite being a girl, she was allowed her schooling. Early in her life, Wittenmyer was interested in poetry and by age 12 had published her first poem. When she was 20, she married William Wittenmyer and the couple moved to Keokuk, Iowa in 1853. As she grew up with a family dedicated to education, Wittenmyer’s life early on had the same focus. The same year she started the first tuition-free school. The school also provided clothes and food for those who were needier.
Once the Civil War started she changed her focus to relief work. She became the secretary of the Soldiers’ Aid Society and visited troop encampments where she organized local aid systems to help better collect hospital supplies that were always needed. When it came to the Union army, Wittenmyer did more than anyone else to aid the soldiers. The poor conditions of the camps upset her and she made it her new mission to do something about it. She urged her fellow Iowan women to send food to the wounded soldiers. As the problem became better recognized, Wittenmyer was put in charge of all hospital kitchens for the Union army. When the war ended, she worked day and night to find homes for orphaned children as a result of the war. Today she has orphanages all around the state. In 1862 she was appointed to the Iowa State Sanitary Commission, a first for a woman. At age 72, in 1900, Wittenmyer died in Pennsylvania. Annie Wittenmyer was one of the most important women to the Union army during the Civil War.
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