Cynthia Leonard

Cynthia Hicks Van Name Leonard (February 28, 1828 – April 9, 1908) was a suffragist, aid worker and writer, notable for her pioneering efforts toward social reform.

[2][3] Leonard organized the Good Samaritan Society, and after the Great Chicago Fire in 1881, she established a homeless shelter for the "unfortunate" women of the city.

She was instrumental in the decision to place matrons in Chicago prisons, and she authored two novels: Adventures of Lena Rouden, or the Rebel Spy and Fading Footprints, or the Last of the Iroquois.

[1] After she separated from her husband, Leonard took their two youngest daughters, Nellie and Suzanne, to New York City to launch the girls' musical careers and to broaden her own political horizons.

What have I done that I should be famous – nothing but powdered a bit gently the cheeks that God gave me and smoothed the hair that I was born with, laughed and proven a faultless set of teeth.