Ella Brockway Avann

Ella Brockway Avann
"A Woman of the Century"
Born	Ella Eleura Hoag May 20, 1853 Newaygo, Michigan, U.S.
Died	October 22, 1899(1899-10-22) (aged 46) Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
Resting place	Riverside Cemetery, Albion, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	educator writer
Alma mater	Albion College
Spouse	Hamline Brockway ​ ​ (m. 1873; died 1887)​ Joseph M. Avann ​ (m. 1891)​
Children	2

Ella Brockway Avann (née Hoag; after first marriage, Brockway; after second marriage, Avann; May 20, 1853 – October 22, 1899) was a 19th-century American educator and writer. After graduating from Albion College of Michigan, she subsequently became preceptress of that institution. She filled the chair of English literature and also lectured on the history of music. For 10 years, she was president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary society. Avann made frequent contributions to the religious press. She held official positions in various literary, social and benevolent societies.^[1]

Ella Eleura Hoag was born in Newaygo, Michigan, May 20, 1853.^[1] Her father, the Rev. G. W. Hoag, born in Charlotte, Vermont, was of Quaker parentage and a pioneer in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Michigan, having gone to that State in boyhood. Her mother, Elizabeth Bruce Hoag, from Rochester, New York, was gifted with pen and voice, and was a high official in the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of her church. At the age of 12, Avann went to Albion College, Albion, Michigan, and was graduated in 1871.^[2]

In 1873, she married L. Hamline Brockway, of Albion, where they lived for 15 years, when his election as county clerk caused their removal to Marshall, Michigan.^[3]

In 1885, Avann, then Mrs. Brockway, thinking "some good should come as the hours go by", couseling with Mrs. A. G. Dickey, organized "the Monday club" in Marshall and was elected its first president.^[4] After her husband's death in August 1887, Mrs. Brockway (with her son, Porter Bruce Brockway, aged 12, and daughter, Ruth Brockway, aged 6) returned to Albion.^{[citation needed]}

In January 1889, she became preceptress of Albion College,^[3] displaying great executive ability. She had great influence over the young women of the college and exercised that power without apparent effort. She led the department of English literature, and also lectured on the history of music. For ten years, she was president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of Albion district.^[5]

In June 1891, she resigned her position in Albion College and on August 11, 1891, she married Rev. Joseph M. Avann, of Findlay, Ohio. She was a pleasing speaker, and occasionally she gave a literary address or spoke in behalf of some benevolent cause away from home. She made frequent contributions to the religious press, and was connected with various literary, social and benevolent societies, holding official positions.^[5]

Taken with convulsions, Avann died suddenly at her home in Toledo, Ohio on October 22, 1899, after an illness of 30 hours.^[6]

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Albion College (1890). "ELLA HOAG BROCKWAY". Year-book of Albion College (Public domain ed.). The College.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Herringshaw, Thomas William (1904). "AVANN, ELLA H. BROCKWAY". Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century: Accurate and Succinct Biographies of Famous Men and Women in All Walks of Life who are Or Have Been the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States Since Its Formation ... (Public domain ed.). American Publishers' Association.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). "AVANN, Mrs. Ella H. Brockway". A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 36.

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