Cynthia Westover
Born 31 May 1862 in Afton, Union County, Iowa.[1] Daughter of Oliver S. Westover and Lucinda Lewis.[2] Moved to New York City to pursue a career in opera, 1882.[3] Appointed as a United States customs inspector, 1887.[4] Served as secretary to the New York City commissioner over street cleaning, 1890–1892; invented and patented a cart for emptying dirt and an improved street cleaner’s handcart.[5] Editor and contributor to several newspapers and magazines, including the New York Recorder, 1894; New York Tribune, 1897; and Ladies’ Home Journal, 1899.[6] Married John Alden, 15 August 1896, in New York City.[7] With several journalist friends, organized the Sunshine Society, 1896.[8] Organized the International Sunshine Society, incorporated 9 March 1900, and served as president throughout her life.[9] Met with Emmeline B. Wells in Washington, DC, at a Republican Party banquet, 28 February 1901.[10] Under the auspices of the Sunshine Society, organized a home for blind children under the age of eight, 1902.[11] By 1931, the International Sunshine Society had five hundred branches in nine countries and managed many services, notably homes for orphans and the blind, hospitals, summer camps, and facilities for women who worked.[12] Died 8 January 1931 in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.[13]
[1] Albert Nelson Marquis, Who’s Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States, 1908–1909 (A. N. Marquis, 1908), 19; 1900 U.S. Census, Brooklyn Ward 19, Kings Co., NY, enumeration dist. 290, 91A.
[2] Manhattan (New York City) Marriage Records, 1866–1937, microfilm 1493575, certificate 12576, 15 Aug. 1896, FamilySearch Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City (FamilySearch Library hereafter cited as FSL); Brooklyn, NY, Death Certificates, 1919–1949, microfilm 2069221, certificate 815, 8 Jan. 1931, FSL.
[3] Robert McHenry, ed., Liberty’s Women (G. and C. Merriam, 1980), 5.
[4] Marquis, Who’s Who in America, 19.
[5] McHenry, Liberty’s Women, 5; Marquis, Who’s Who in America, 19; “Alden, Cynthia May Westover,” in Mabel Ward Cameron, comp., The Biographical Cyclopaedia of American Women (Halvord, 1924), 1:377–378.
[6] McHenry, Liberty’s Women, 5; “Alden, Cynthia May Westover,” 378.
[7] Manhattan (New York City) Marriage Records, 1866–1937, microfilm 1493575, certificate 12576, 15 Aug. 1896, FSL.
[8] McHenry, Liberty’s Women, 5.
[9] McHenry, Liberty’s Women, 5; Marquis, Who’s Who in America, 19.
[10] Emmeline B. Wells, Diary, 28 Feb. 1901, Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells, Church Historian’s Press, churchhistorianspress.org/emmeline-b-wells.
[11] McHenry, Liberty’s Women, 5; “Department of the Blind,” Household Journal and Floral Life 6, no. 8 (Aug. 1913): 9–10.
[12] McHenry, Liberty’s Women, 6.
[13] Brooklyn, NY, Death Certificates, 1919–1949, microfilm 2069221, certificate 815, 8 Jan. 1931, FSL.