Florence kelley brief biography of albert
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March 24 and March 25, 1892: The Cook County Court House
The weather was reported to be clear and in the 50’s, although the air in Chicago was perpetually filled with soot from the burning of coal. It was said that approaching travelers to Chicago knew their destination was near by the black cloud looming on the horizon.
Florence Kelley was entering the Cook County Court House on that blustery March day in response to a legal action brought against her by husband, Lazare Wischnewetzky, who had come into court in Chicago and brought an action of habeas corpus to seek the custody of his three children: Nicholas, age six, called Ko, a diminuitive for the Russian Kolya, Margaret, age four and John, age two.
Habeas corpus proceedings were brought before the Honorable Judge Frank Baker in his courtroom on that blustery March 24th and 25th, these proceedings being a matter of public record and reported in the official court records as well as in The Chic • Florence Kelley papper Florence Kelley was a prominent Progressive-Era social reformer known for her advocacy of protective legislation on behalf of working women and children. She was born in 1859, the daughter of William Darrah Kelley, U.S. Congressman from Philadelphia, and his second wife Caroline Bonsall. Kelley graduated from Cornell University in 1882 and pursued graduate study in law and government at the University of Zurich in 1883. While in Europe she began translating the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and began a long-standing correspondence with Engels. In 1884 she married Polish socialist Lazare Wischnewetzky. The couple moved to New York City, but divorced in 1891. Kelley took their three young children, Nicholas (1885-1965), Margaret (1886-1905) and John (1888-1968) with her to Chicago where she began living and working at Jane Addams' Hull House. During her years of work in the settlement house movement in Chicago, • Florence Kelley was born in 1859 Philadelphia to a wealthy Quaker family — her father, William Darrah "Pig Iron" Kelley, was a judge, a founder of the Republican Party, longtime member of the House of Representatives, a staunch abolitionist and a friend of Abraham Lincoln. He was raised in poverty — his widowed mother ran a boarding house in Philadelphia — and he was taken out of school and sent to work at a very young age to help his family make ends meet. His interest in child labor issues stemmed from working long hours as a child — child laborers in those days spent their shifts chewing green tea leaves to stay awake. William's daughter, on the other hand, was born into wealth and privilege, but that doesn't mean he spared her the gory details of his childhood drudgery. From her father, Florence — called "Florie" by her family — learned about child labor issues and women's suffra
Meet Florence Kelley: Labor Reformer, Abolitionist and Co-founder of the NAACP