War Brides

By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

 

During and shortly after World War II, American servicemen married approximately 60,000 European women, plus another 4,000 from Australia and New Zeeland. At the time, the Immigration Act of 1924 imposed a strict limit of 165,000 immigrants per year with quotas based on country of origin. Asian immigration was entire prohibited. In December 1945, Congress passed the War Brides Act which allowed the foreign wives of American servicemen and their children to enter the United States as non-quota immigrants. The act originally applied to only European and Chinese wives, but was later amended to include Filipino, Japanese, and Korean women as well.

After the bill’s passage, the State Department established special offices in London and Paris to expedite the immigration process for the approximately 50,000 British and French war brides, and their 30,000 children. At first, the brides were responsible for arranging their own transportation to the United States. From January through November 1946, however, the U.S. government transported war brides on former troop transport ships. The ships were retrofitted with cribs and playrooms for the children. Red Cross volunteers provided bride classes and helped arrange transportation to get the brides to their intended destinations. The ships left weekly from Southhampton, England; Naples, Italy; and La Havre, France for ports along the east coast. Several railroad companies offered free war bride trains to get the brides to points further inland.

Over twenty Chemung County men married war brides. The women came from Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, and Poland. The first of them to arrive in the United States came from England in late January 1946 along with her four-month-old daughter. The others began to trickle in over the following months and years.

On June 10, 1946, Mrs. Robert Barr, who herself had been a war bride following World War I, hosted a group of nine war British brides for lunch at the Mark Twain Hotel. The original group included one Australian, four English, one Irish, and three Scottish brides. Together, they established the British War Brides Club of Elmira & Vicinity. As more and more war brides arrived, their numbers swelled to 15. For the next several years, the group met regularly for luncheons, summer-time picnics, and an annual Christmas party. In 1948, they reorganized as the International War Brides Club and began accepting members from everywhere. They continued to host the regular events and participated in community events like the International Festival at the Jewish Community Center on March 3, 1952.

So, who were some of these women who chose to leave their homelands for love?

 

Elizabeth Punzo & Eugene Sabatini, 1964

 

Elizabeth Mitchell Punzo was born in Ivergordon, Scotland. During World War II, she was living and working in London where she met Sgt. James A. Punzo of Elmira. They were wed on October 23, 1943 at Westminster Cathedral. After the war, she and their daughter Margaret moved to Elmira in 1946. She was one of the founding members of the British War Brides/International War Brides Club. She and her husband were officers in the Italian American Veterans Club and Women’s Auxiliary. Despite the distance, she stayed close with her 15 siblings and even hosted her niece, Jacqueline Gough, when she came to attend American high school in the 1950s. She died on October 23, 1970 on her 27^th wedding anniversary.

 

Etta and Arnold Jerome, ca. 1940s

 Etta (Maria Antoinetta) Starace Jerome (1906-1999) was born in Naples, Italy. She studied Foreign Languages at the University of Naples and later nursing with a specialization in pediatrics. In Italy prior to World War II, she worked as a nurse with both the Red Cross and Italian Army. She met Arnold Jerome of Elmira while he was serving as an Army MP stationed in Naples. They married in 1946. Here in Elmira, she helped to organize the International Club of Elmira, as well as several aid organizations for people in Italy and France. A skilled painter and photographer, she participated in various local art shows and clubs including Camera Club and Art Club where she won several awards for her work over the years. She volunteered in pediatric department of St. Joseph’s Hospital and taught Italian at the Elmira Free Academy adult night school for 20+ years. She was heavily involved in Our Lady of Lourdes Church and Mt. Savior Monastery, where she was eventually buried.

  

Hiroko & Samuel Tolbert, 1952

Hiroko Furukawa Tolbert O’Connor (1930-2021) was born in Japanese-occupied Korea while her father was stationed there with the Japanese Imperial Army. Her family returned to Japan where she graduated from Mizukaido High School and served as captain of the girls’ basketball team. During the American occupation of Japan following World War II, she took a job working for the PX. That was where she met Sgt. Samuel Tolbert of Golden Glow Heights. The two were married in 1952 and went on to have four children together. She helped him run the family poultry farm and owned Tolbert’s Market. She organized reunions for Japanese women living in the area and participated in the YWCA International Club where she gave lessons on Japanese food and culture. After her divorce from her first husband, she remarried in 2009. She is one of the women featured in the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit Japanese War Brides: Across a Wide Divide, on display at the Chemung County Historical Society December 2025 through February 2026.

 

Introducing the Chemung County Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection

 By Rachel Dworkin, archivist

The Woman Suffrage Party of Chemung County was established in 1916 with the goal of securing women the vote. It was not the first pro-suffrage organization to be established in Elmira but, thanks to their efforts, it would be the last. In 1917, New York passed a ballot initiative granting women the right to vote. The Woman Suffrage Party played an important role in ensuring that the initiative passed. The group was an important part of our local history and, earlier this year, we received a grant to digitize their records.

Becoming a member in the Woman Suffrage Party was simple. All one had to do was sign their name to the membership slip and donate 25 cents to the cause. The work of the Woman Suffrage Party, however, was anything but simple. During 1917, they met weekly and worked tirelessly to for the cause. Members volunteered as military census takers and Liberty Bond saleswomen, going door-to-door to hundreds of Chemung County homes to do important war work and promote women’s suffrage. They lectured at local churches, clubs, and factories, even bringing in foreign language speakers to speak to different immigrant groups. The club maintained a booth at the Chemung County Fair where they handed out leaflets and free soft drinks. They also hosted market days where they distributed literature and sold flowers, fruit jellies, and cakes to raise money for their efforts. On November 3^rd, three days before the election, they held a rally and downtown parade. On election day, 111 members served as poll watchers.

How do we know about these activities? We were donated the records of the organization by the descendants of the Party’s recording secretary, Mildred Sheely Scharf. The collection includes the minutes from May 11, 1916 through May 17, 1918; programs for events hosted by the Party; handbills; newspaper clippings; correspondence; and pieces of letterhead. And we recently digitized all of it. You can view that collection here: https://nyheritage.org/collections/chemung-county-womens-suffrage-collection

 

First page of the minutes of the Woman Suffrage Party of Chemung County

The collection is hosted by New York Heritage, a collaborative project hosted by the eight of the nine New York Library Councils. The website documents New York state history through maps, yearbooks, directories, photographs, oral histories, and more. These items come from over 430 archives, libraries, and museums across the state, including us! At present, we have 12 different digital collections up on New York Heritage including county atlases, high school yearbooks, city directories, and three different oral history projects. Some of these collections were developed in partnership with the Chemung County Library District and the Corning Museum of Glass. All our various collections are available here: https://nyheritage.org/organizations/chemung-county-historical-society

 This spring, we applied for and received a grant to digitize the Woman Suffrage Party papers, along with other suffrage-related material in our collections including photographs of local suffragists, handbills from earlier suffrage campaigns, and writings for and against by local authors. We will be adding that material to the digital collection over the course of the rest of the year.

The grant was through the South Central Regional Library Council and funded the purchase of a new scanner to replace our old one. Our new scanner is an Epson Perfection V850 Pro. In addition to doing documents, the new scanner has attachments to scan slides, film, and even large-form glass plate negatives. As part of the grant, we are required to digitize and share at least one collection with it each year. We have a lot of options to choose from for our next project. Tell me, gentle reader, which would you prefer: a collection of glass-plate negatives of American LaFrance products from the early 1900s or a collection of film negatives of houses demolished for urban renewal in the 1960s and 70s?

Our new scanner!

 

Lunch in the Rest Room

 by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

This curious headline from the Elmira Star-Gazette was published on April 27, 1920. Today it conjures up images of late-night comedy sketches, but at the time, its meaning was clear to everyone. It is a good reminder that context is important to understanding history.

The context behind this headline is not a joke but involves a new group hosting a lunch. The group, calling themselves “Mark Twain,” was the local chapter of the New York Home Bureau. The bureau, formed in 1919 by educators from Cornell University, was a state-wide system that provided the latest information to the community on household economics and farm management. It was geared for rural women interested in improving their lives. While much of the country’s economy and day-to-day living still revolved around agriculture, advances in technology were shaping 20^th century farm life to look very different than earlier. The Cornell educators, mostly women scholars, saw a public interest and need for reliable, scientific information and wanted to help.  

That an organization like this came from Cornell University was a natural. Cornell is a land-grant institution, and like other land-grant colleges and universities was created as a result of the first Morrill Act signed in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln. The original 69 institutions were financed by the sales of federally owned land, often land the government had seized or acquired through treaty or cession from Native American tribes.

Land-grant institutions used a new approach to educating students. Earlier, American universities relied on a European model that required students to study the classics, often in Greek or Latin. Topics like classical archeology, art history, history, literature, philosophy, and religion were thought to provide students with what they needed to succeed in life.

The new American model of education offered students practical courses in agriculture, science, military science, and engineering. Also in their mission, the new institutions offered university knowledge to the wider community. With this in mind, Cornell educators reached out to rural farmers. Through organizations like the Home Bureau, Farm Bureau and later Cornell Cooperative Extension, they shared the latest information. Today there are 106 land grant institutions throughout the country.

During World War I, a group of Chemung women who were interested in learning about better ways to preserve food formed the Mark Twain chapter of the Home Bureau. By May of 1920, the chapter had over 400 members.

Canning jar from CCHS collection

It was an active chapter which undertook all sorts of projects. Notable among them, with help from Steel Memorial trustees, was the establishment of the Chemung County Library system. This was the first county-wide library system in New York State. Other projects they pursued were improvements in school nutrition, including hot lunches in schools, food preservation, clothing, and crafts. By 1923, Chemung County had 31 Home Bureau chapters.

The Home Bureau doesn’t exist anymore, but Cornell Cooperative Extension continues to have a presence in all 62 New York counties.

So why, in 1920, was the Home Bureau chapter holding a luncheon in a rest room?

The Rest Room in question was not a washroom, but a room where rural women visiting Elmira could rest. It was maintained by the city and county, and located on the 2^nd floor of 120 Lake Street. Designed to be “a comfortable place where farm women could wait until all members of the family were ready to go home,” it was relocated to the Federal Building in 1930.

Just goes to show that curiosity can lead to some odd discoveries.

 

A Woman of Means: Sarah Wey Tompkins

by Erin Doane, Senior Curator

At our Woodlawn Cemetery Ghost Walk in 2024, the final story was that of Sarah Wey Tompkins (1866-1929). As I was researching her life to write the script, I was struck by the fact that nearly half of her obituary was about her father, her brother, and her husband. My printout of the obituary has 21 inches of text. 9.5 of those inches are about the men in her life. Her actual name, not “Mrs. Ray Tompkins,” does not appear until after 4 inches of text.

Sarah Wey Tompkins, from her obituary, Star-Gazette, January 22, 1929

It was not at all unusual for a woman in the early 20^th century to be almost exclusively referred to as “Mrs. Husband’s Name” in public and to be known only in the context of her male relatives. Though both are pet peeves of mine, in this case, the conventions make some sense. Sarah Wey Tompkins was a woman of means because of the families she was born and then married into. While she was an active philanthropist, she owed her ability to donate large amounts of time and money to charitable causes to the men in her life. This context is just as important as her accomplishments.

Sarah Ross Wey was born on July 22, 1866. Her father was a prominent doctor and president of the New York State Medical Society in 1871. Her mother was the daughter of a doctor as well (as mentioned in Sarah’s obituary). On September 6, 1893, Sarah married Ray Tompkins, a prominent businessman and one of Elmira’s leading citizens. Their wedding was written up in detail in that day’s edition of the Star-Gazette. They were married at Trinity Church by Rev. Dr. George H. McKnight. A wreath of pink roses encircled the chancel rail and the font and pulpit were adorned with palms and ferns. Sarah, attended by her father, entered the church to the “Bridal Chorus” from Lohengrin played on the organ. She wore a white gown, a bridal veil, and carried a prayer book. The newly-wed couple exited the church to the Mendelssohn Wedding March from “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Mr. and Mrs. Tompkins then enjoyed breakfast with their family and friends at Sarah’s father’s house.

Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, 1904
Ray Tompkins is seated second from the left

The couple never had children, but Sarah filled her time managing the household and presided over many brilliant social events on behalf of her husband. Ray began his career in the wholesale grocery business. He then invested in railroads and became president of the Elmira Water, Light & Railroad Company. He served as president of the Chemung Canal Trust Company as well and was involved in many community organizations. By the time of his death in 1918, he was a very wealthy man.

It was noted in her obituary that Sarah practically gave up her social activities when Ray died, but she continued to contribute to the community, thanks to the large estate he had left to her. In 1923, she anonymously donated 750-acres of property to Yale to be made into a golf course in honor of her husband, who was an 1884 graduate and a star athlete while a student there. She was also a longtime supporter of Elmira College and was elected to its board of trustees in 1927. Tompkins Hall is named after her.

Tompkins Hall at Elmira College, 1930s

Sarah was the largest contributor to the fund to build the new Arnot-Ogden Hospital Annex, donating $200,000 for the project. On November 14, 1926, she laid the cornerstone to the new building. Several hundred people were in attendance. After Elmira Mayor David Heller and Dr. Arthur W. Booth spoke, Sarah Wey Tompkins, with the assistance of young Elizabeth Falck, ceremonially spread the mortar with a silver trowel. Miss Falck, by the way, was the daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Rathbone Falck who laid the original hospital cornerstone in 1887. After the stone was settled into place, Sarah announced, “I declare this stone to be truly and right laid.”

Elizabeth Falck (center left) and Sarah Wey Tompkins (center right) at the Arnot-Ogden Hospital Annex’s cornerstone laying ceremony, November 4, 1926

Most of her life as a widow was spent out of the limelight. She was an avid traveler, spending months touring the world in the 1920s. It was while on her way to Europe aboard the Vulcania in 1929 that she contracted pneumonia. She died at 11 o’clock in the morning on January 22 in Cannes, France. Her travel companion, Maude M. Howland of New York City, made the arrangements for her to be returned to Elmira. Her funeral was held at her home in Strathmont Park on February 14 and she was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery.

Gravesite of Sarah Wey Tompkins and Ray Tompkins in Woodlawn Cemetery, 2024

Sarah was the last member of that branch of the Tompkins family in Elmira. Her husband’s estate had gone to her upon his passing. Her will distributed their wealth among various organizations including Arnot-Ogden Memorial Hospital, Elmira College, the Southern Tier Children’s Home, and the Home for the Aged. Bequests were also made to a cousin and half a dozen employees.

List of bequest in Sarah Wey Tompkins' will, Star-Gazette, February 16, 1929