The Blind History Lady Presents; The First Things I Learned

By Peggy Chong

The first book in a historical series of stories that look back at the day-to-day, lives of the average blind man or woman in the United States over the past two centuries. Learn about the blind persons who had come before, all they had to traverse to live a normal life and to accomplish all they did and with so few resources that the blind take for granted today.

The Blind History Lady will explore the lives of blind editors, teachers, barbers, electricians, politicians, piano tuners and so many other professions that the blind of the United States have engaged in, over the many decades that will surprise even the Blind History Lady. A look at their lives will show how techniques used by the blind have evollved or disappeared. How the many adaptions to the sighted world have now become a part of the sighted world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peggy Chong
• Release date: Mar 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310804458

Peggy Chong

Peggy Chong is a long-time researcher and Historical author of many articles on the blind in the United States. She has written for publications that include The Braille Monitor, Dialogue Magazine, Future Reflections, The Minnesota Bulletin and the Iowa History Journal. In her growing series, The Blind Lady Presents, she introduces to sighted and blind alike, the many average blind persons in the United States who had to overcome not-so-average barriers to lead a normal life, support their families and succeed. She recounts all they had to do to become chemists, newspaper editors, plumbers, barbers, piano tuners, boat builders, teachers, lawyers, politicians and so much more.

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The Blind History Lady Presents;

The First Things I Learned

By Peggy Chong

Distributed by Smashwords

Copyright 2016

Look for other articles by the Blind History Lady through your local eBook retailer.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 - The HIstory of the Industrial Home for the Blind of Iowa

Chapter 3 - Home for Sightless Women

Chapter 4 - The Home and Center for the Blind of Minnesota

Chapter 5 - Promoting Quality Education for Blind Children

Chapter 6 - Applying Technology to Improve Our Lives

Chapter 7 - Promoting Independence with the White Cane

Chapter 8 - Evangeline N Larson

Chapter 9 - Helen Elizabeth Dobbins-Brown

Chapter 10 - Henry F Schluntz

Chapter 11 - Francis D Opdyke

Chapter 12 - Thomas David Schall

Chapter 13 - Lillian Blanche Fearing

Chapter 14 - Charles Abbott

Chapter 15 - Ethel Ulysses Parker Jr.

Chapter 16 - Standing On Their Shoulders-Minnesota

Chapter 17 - Standing On Their Shoulders-Giants Who Helped Build Our Affiliate in New Mexico

Chapter 18 - Standing On Their Shoulders-Iowa Style

Chapter 19 - End Notes

Introduction

My name is Peggy Chong and I am the Blind History Lady. I wish to introduce to you and the world, sighted and blind alike what it really was like to be an average blind person in the United States of America over the past two centuries.

For more years than I care to admit to in this writing, I have been collecting news articles and other material about blind persons and programs for the blind from across the country. It began when reviewing old records in the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota's old files where I was a long-time member. I began to run across references of blind people I did not know.

Being raised in the blind community all my life, I, arrogantly assumed, I knew it all when it came to blindness. Many of the sighted people I knew in my community assumed I was an expert on blindness because I was blind and I bought into their assumption. For that place in time, I probably was an expert as I did know more than many other blind and sighted people at that place and in that time. But going through those files made me realize just how little I did know about the blind persons who had come before, all they had to traverse to live a normal life and to accomplish all they did and with so few resources that we, the blind take for granted today.

Since the middle 1990's, I have learned so much more about the lives blind people in our country have led. The careers they tried and succeeded in, the blindness techniques they used to live a better life, the changes in our society that changed the attitudes, opportunities, success and misconceptions of and with the blind and more importantly the re-purposing approach, with only the limited resources immediately available to them, that so many successful blind people experimented with to better their lives, and the lives of those around them, be they blind or sighted.

Examples of some of the contributions that have become common-place in our society yet were meant for the blind will surprise you as they did me. The typewriter was an invention for the blind. According to an article in the New York Times on October 28, 1999, the typewriter was an invention for the blind. Pellegrino Turri of Italy was in love with a blind, very married, Countess. The couple wished to exchange correspondence, privately. He designed the very first typewriter for his lover to write to him without the knowledge of the Count. Other inventions for the blind included carbon papers, the record player, sock sorter and even the scanner that is now in almost every office and many homes today.

Over the years I have written many articles for blindness publications, introducing the blind of today, to those blind people I found in the files that I now consider our blind ancestors of the past. Through countless hours of reading, researching and analyzing over and over again what I have learned, I was amazed that some of my pre-conceived ideas that I took as fact, were filled with as much prejudices as I had accused others of holding towards the blind.

I looked for a commonality amongst the successful blind persons, those who led happy, satisfying and fulfilled lives in their community and some who, yes, became financially very well off. Oddly, I find very few similarities other than a strong desire to take control of their lives and having a strong support network. Even in their desire to be in control of their own destiny, there were so many variations. Some of the blind people I have studied and researched seem to have that characteristic born into them while others had to face desperate times before taking a risk and step out of their comfort zone. Most are somewhere in between.

Each of the blind persons who found success in their lives, be it monetarily or personally, had strong support networks that provided critical feedback and an ability to pursue their goals unencumbered. The support networks all differed. Some had strong family support with high expectations. Others had strong support from their fellow workers who knew their skills had not diminished because of blindness, while others fund support, information and inspiration from the blind community.

One question I kept asking myself as I found one more little tidbit of blind history was, Why haven't I heard of this before?. If I did not know of this fact or that person, how would other blind people know this valuable piece of information that stopped me from re-inventing the wheel again and again?

As I said, I was active in the organized blind movement, from the age of 14. I grew up around blind people all my life, attended school with other blind persons and regularly read blindness publications. I considered myself well-informed. It was not until I began to research my family tree, getting over-involved with genealogy, did I realize that even in our biological families, where we have the older generation relating stories of the past, the family bibles, old photographs and letters, yet we as family, do not even know some of the most profound facts about our grandparents and don't think about asking until it is too late. I realize now just how disadvantaged the blind as a minority are when it comes to learning about those who have come before us as we do not have the family ties that bind.

Those you will read about in this book I think of, as another set of my ancestors. They are the ones who have come before us, making us, the blind, who we are today. They have blazed trails for us that in too many instances have succumb to weeds, too often lost to us forever.

Collecting school for the blind enrollment records from the 1800's, I have found hundreds and hundreds of names of blind children that are lost to time at this point. Thanks to the enrollment records, we know they lived in a specific state, maybe a birth record and attended school, but what happened to them afterwards? Far too many dropped out of sight, not even a death record. Now knowing the general history of the blind in the 19th century and into the 20th century, we can guess that they may have gone home to be in the care of family. Yet, because of state and local welfare laws requiring family to financially support their disabled family members, it is more likely that blind people ended up abandoned in most ways by their family who could not afford to support them, trying to do what was best for their blind loved one. Far too many untrained blind adults were placed in asylums, not necessarily for the blind, Homes for the blind or poor. Many lived in conditions that would be considered appalling by today's standards. The vast majority of blind people of the 19th century were so poor that they did not even come to the attention of the authorities when they died.

Just as I have shared with family my discoveries of our family history with my relatives, I wish to share with the world, the blind branch of our family tree full of blind ancestors in all walks of life, doing all kinds of interesting and sometimes surprising feats in the United States.

In this book I would like to begin to introduce to you the ancestors of the blind that I have come to know and have shared over the years with many. I hope that you will enjoy reading about the successes, set-backs, opportunities, the lack of opportunities and the journey of the blind of the United States as they really lived.

The Blind History Lady plans to have many more, in-depth profiles of many more blind persons of our past from all walks of life, across our country who we can all learn something from and about. Please look for my stories in your favorite electronic bookstore.

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The History of the Industrial Home for the Blind of Iowa

Several years ago, while searching through old Iowa newspapers on an unrelated topic, I ran across a reference to the Industrial Home for the Blind. After asking several long-time residents of Iowa connected to the blindness field, I soon discovered that no one knew about this home. I was curious. Recently, I had some time to devote to this topic and was surprised at what I learned.

In the history of the blind in Iowa, it is said that before the arrival of Kenneth Jernigan, the noted director of the Commission for the blind from 1958-1978, Iowa had the worst reputation for service to the blind of the country. But rarely had I ever run across any specifics to verify that assertion. The story of the Industrial Home for the Blind is certainly a good example of such a case.

First, some background. In August of 1852, Professor Samuel Bacon, a blind man, began a private school called the Institution for the Instruction of the Blind of Iowa in the town of Keokuk. He began this without any financial aid from the state of Iowa. In 1853, an Act was passed by the Iowa General Assembly that established the Asylum for the Blind. Professor Bacon's Institution was adopted for this purpose and it was moved to Iowa City, Iowa. The law directed that a board of Trustees be appointed to oversee the school. It opened for students in Iowa City on April 4, 1853 at no charge to any blind person in the state.

Professor Bacon became the principal of the school in Iowa City. There were 23 students that first term. In 1854, Professor Bacon recommended to the General Assembly that the name of the school should be changed to a title more in the line with education, the name; College for the Blind was officially adopted. He also encouraged the establishment of a place to teach the adult blind a trade, separate from the school.

In 1858, several citizens of Vinton began to raise money to bring the school for the Blind to their community. Land was donated and buildings were built in 1860. Soon after, the College for the blind was moved to Vinton Iowa, where it remains.

Soon after, an alumni Association was formed by the former students of the institution. During a meeting of the Alumni in June of 1886 at the College for the Blind in Vinton, a long discussion took place on the working conditions and opportunities, or rather the lack thereof, for the graduates of the College for the Blind. Many of the graduates, who had learned some skills at the College, left the school but found no one that would hire them. If they did get employment, it was for far less than they needed to survive. What employment opportunities they had, were mostly made by themselves, becoming their own employer. Many graduates ended up in the county poor house.

Two resolutions were passed at the Alumni meeting in 1886. One resolved that a Working home for the blind, where suitable handicraft, can be pursued by them, would serve best to aid them, and relieve the public of the burden of their maintenance. The second resolution called for the Alumni to submit the matter to the General Assembly of Iowa, and ask that the General Assembly work to establish such a Working Home so that the blind who live there can work as handicrafts to sustain themselves.

In 1870, a similar effort had been tried previously in Iowa. A bill was introduced in the state legislature that asked for $100,000 be appropriated to buy land, build buildings and establish a home for the blind that would allow the residents to work at such things that would earn them money. It was also to establish a workshop within the facility. A bill did pass the legislature in 1870 to establish a home for the blind, but it only had an appropriation of $2,000. There was no follow-up or action taken after the passage of the bill by the state.

The Alumni appointed a committee of Blind graduates of the college to put together a report on a potential, Industrial Home and go to the State Capitol and talk to members of the General Assembly. This was done and it met with a very favorable response according to newspaper accounts. They took with them a petition signed by many blind and sighted persons calling for a Home for the Blind.

On April 13, 1888, the Iowa General Assembly passed an act that called for the study of this issue. Three commissioners were appointed, one, a woman, was mandated by the act. One blind person was appointed to the commission and that was Miss Mattice, a teacher at the College for the Blind. Commissioners were: L. A. Riley, a Democrat, Colonel D. M. Fox of Des Moines, and Lorana Mattice a teacher at the College for the Blind in Vinton, Benton County, all supposedly experienced in the education of the blind. They were paid $3.00 a day and travel expenses, to carry out their duties and report back to the General Assembly, no later than September 1, 1889.

The Commissioners began writing to several Homes for the Blind across the country and around the world. They sought advice from Superintendents and Directors of institutions for the adult blind, receiving a lot of correspondence from institutions in Oakland CA, Iberia OH and Philadelphia PA. They were quite impressed with the Pennsylvania Home, in part as its Director; H. L. Hall was himself Blind and seemed to be doing a great job of managing the facility. Pennsylvania was purported to be the best facility in the country for blind men to work and earn a living. There, the blind men were earning an annual average wage of over $128. Mr. H. L. Hill was not only the Director, but its founder in 1874, the first of its kind in the country, according to the study of the Iowa Commissioners. They also had letters from Dr. Armitage, Honorable Secretary of the British and Foreign Blind Association.

They traveled to visit several institutions in New York, the Perkins School in Boston MA, the Ontario Institution for the Education and Training of the Adult Blind in Brantford,