State, if not in the United States.

It is quite sure that Iowa may justly claim the first woman in
the profession of dentistry--Mrs. Lucy B. Hobbs, as early as
1863.[417] At Cresco there is the firm of Dr. L. F. & Mrs. M. E.
Abbott, dental surgeons. At Mt. Pleasant, Mrs. M. E. Hildreth is
a licensed dentist in successful practice.

Rev. Augusta Chapin was, I think, the first woman to enter the
sacred office in this State. Miss Safford, Algona; Mrs. Gillette,
Knoxville; Mrs. M. A. Folsom, Marshalltown; Florence E. Kollock,
Waverly; Mrs. M. J. Janes, Spencer; Mrs. Hartsough, Ft. Dodge,
are regularly ordained preachers of the Universalist and
Unitarian faiths. There are several licensed preachers of the M.
E. Church, but none have received regular ordination.

Iowa furnished the following women who went to the front as
nurses during the war: Mrs. Harlan, wife of Senator Harlan; Mrs.
Almira Fales, Mrs. Anne Wittenmeyer, Miss Phebe Allen, Mrs.
Jerusha R. Small, Miss Melcena Elliott, Mrs. Arabella Tannehill.
These all did good service in hospital and on the field, and some
of them laid down their lives as a sacrifice. We copy the
following as one of the many facts of the war:

Some years ago Adjutant-General Baker of Des Moines received
a letter of inquiry asking about a certain soldier in the
Twenty-fourth Iowa infantry. The tone of the letter was so
peculiar as to attract considerable attention and create
much comment in the office. In reply the general stated that
the records of the regiment and the record of the soldier
(whom, for the sake of convenience, we will call Smith,
although that is far from the real name) were in his office.
A few days afterwards a gentleman from Northern Iowa
appeared, inquired for General Baker, and was closeted with
him long enough to divulge the following singular tale:

When the war broke out Miss Mary Smith, daughter of the
general's visitor, was residing in Ohio, working for a
farmer. Her father's family had moved to Iowa the fall
preceding the attack on Sumter, leaving Mary behind to
follow in the spring. Various causes conspired to delay her
departure for her Iowa home until autumn, and it was
September before