Belle Coddington
An older white woman wearing black, with white hair parted center and drawn back.
Belle Coddington, from an 1895 publication.
Born
Arabella Letitia Graham

December 30, 1842
Champaign County, Ohio
DiedDecember 26, 1920
California
NationalityAmerican
Other namesArabella Graham, Arabella Graham Tannehill, Arabella G. Coddington
Known fornurse during American Civil War

Arabella Letitia Graham Tannehill Coddington (December 30, 1842 – December 26, 1920) was a teacher in Iowa, and a nurse during the American Civil War.

Wartime service

Belle Graham Tannehill was a schoolteacher in Iowa as a young woman. She applied to the Army Nurses' Corps soon after she became a widow at age 20, in 1863. "I do not suppose an officer in the army, from general down to second lieutenant, ever received his commission with greater delight or enthusiasm," she recalled of her acceptance.[1] Early in 1864 she was assigned to Benton Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri,[2] as a ward matron under the supervision of Emily Elizabeth Parsons.[1] She also worked at the Union hospital in Nashville, Tennessee,[3] before returning to St. Louis in 1865, doing work with the United States Christian Commission to assist soldiers mustering out and re-entering civilian life.[1]

Coddington experienced longterm health effects from measles, which she contracted at Benton Barracks. Her pension as a disabled veteran's widow was increased by Congress in 1888, with acknowledgment of her own service: "Prior to her marriage with the soldier she was a hospital nurse, served faithfully as such, and was exposed to and contracted a contagious disease (measles), with which she was seriously and dangerously sick, from which and its results her health was so seriously and permanently impaired that she is a suffering invalid at the present time, and largely disabled from doing any labor for her own support."[4]

After the war

Tannehill's service as an army nurse was mentioned in pro-suffrage literature, as an example of Iowa women's contributions to the nation.[5] After the war and her second marriage, Belle Coddington was active in the National Woman's Relief Corps in Iowa.[6][7] She wrote a memoir of her time as a war nurse for Mary A. Gardner Holland's Our Army Nurses (1895).[1] She was active in church work for many years in Mount Pleasant, before resigning in 1899.[8] In 1900 and 1901, she spent the school year in Chelan, Washington, with her daughter, who was a teacher.[9]

Coddington's name is included on the bronze plaques in the Henry County courthouse, recording the names of those from the county who served in the American Civil War.[10] In 1925[11] a chapter of the Daughters of Union Veterans was named for Belle Coddington.[12][13]

Personal life

Belle Graham married twice. Her first husband was Ninnian H. Tannehill; they married in 1862, and he died from typhoid fever in 1863, at a military hospital in Louisiana. After the war, in 1866, she married Eli Helmick Coddington, a disabled veteran and a Methodist Episcopal minister from Mount Pleasant, Iowa. They raised two children, Clinton and Laura; two other sons died in infancy. She was widowed again when Eli Coddington died in 1877; their only surviving son died in 1894, in Colorado.[14][15] Belle Graham Coddington died in 1920, while visiting her brother Andrew M. Graham (1847-1928) in California.[16][17] Her grave is with her husband's and her children's, in Iowa.[18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Holland, Mary A. Gardner (1895). Our army nurses. Interesting sketches, addresses, and photographs of nearly one hundred of the noble women who served in hospitals and on battlefields during our civil war. The Library of Congress. Boston, Mass., B. Wilkins & co. pp. 110–121.
  2. ↑ Brockett, Linus Pierpont; Vaughan, Mary C. (1867). Woman's Work in the Civil War: A Record of Heroism, Patriotism and Patience. Zeigler, McCurdy & Company. p. 784.
  3. ↑ Gue, Benjamin F. (1903). From 1866 to 1903. Century History Company. p. 258.
  4. ↑ "Mrs. Arabella Coddington, Report of the Committee on Invalid Pensions". Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1888.
  5. ↑ Stanton, Elizabeth Cady; Anthony, Susan B.; Gage, Matilda Joslyn; Harper, Ida Husted (1886). History of Woman Suffrage: 1876-1885. Fowler & Wells. p. 631.
  6. ↑ National Woman's Relief Corps (U S. ) (1891). Journal of the Ninth Annual Convention of the National Woman's Relief Corps. National Tribune Company. p. 6.
  7. ↑ "Department Officers". Muscatine News-Tribune. April 19, 1891. p. 4. Retrieved August 31, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Untitled news items". Mount Pleasant Daily News. August 16, 1899. p. 4. Retrieved August 31, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Untitled news item". Ottumwa Tri-Weekly Courier. September 20, 1900. p. 5. Retrieved August 31, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Plaques of Henry County Civil War Roster". Iowa Civil War Monuments. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
  11. ↑ "D. of U. V. Meet Thursday Evening". The Mount Pleasant News. August 16, 1945. p. 5. Retrieved August 31, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "3000 Attend Dedication of Mt. Pleasant War Sight". The Burlington Hawk-Eye. June 10, 1930. p. 2. Retrieved August 31, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Chapter Given Picture". Burlington Daily Hawk Eye Gazette. August 15, 1935. p. 7. Retrieved August 31, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  14. ↑ Biographical Review of Henry County, Iowa: Containing Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of Many of the Prominent Citizens of To-day and Also of the Past ... Hobart publishing Company. 1906. pp. 217–219.
  15. ↑ "Resolutions of Condolence". Mount Pleasant Weekly News. November 28, 1894. p. 4. Retrieved August 31, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  16. ↑ "Letter from Mrs. Coddington". Mount Pleasant Daily News. June 25, 1920. p. 3. Retrieved August 31, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  17. ↑ "Roll of Deceased Members". Journal of the 38th Annual Conference, Department of Kansas, Woman's Relief Corps. 35: 64–65. 1919.
  18. ↑ "Mt. Pleasant, Ia". Burlington Gazette. January 3, 1921. p. 3. Retrieved August 31, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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