Cornelia Hancock, (1840-1927) was the great granddaughter of Judge William Hancock, Jr. Educated in Hancocks Bridge and Philadelphia, she taught school at the Alloways Creek Meetinghouse school “Buttonwood Academy.”
In the midst of the American Civil War, she left for Gettysburg where she served as a nurse. After tending to the wounded, Cornelia wrote her sister, “…I feel assured I shall never feel horrified at anything that may happen to me hereafter.”
After the War, she directed the Freedmen’s
school for former slaves, founded the Children’s Aid Society of Philadelphia and helped plan Wrightsville, a model workers’ community
in Philadelphia.
Teacher, Nurse, Social Reformer |