Historian. Author. Newspaperwoman. Women’s Suffragist. All ways to describe Nettie (Skiff) Sanford Chapin, a native of Ohio who worked as a teacher, writer and activist, first in Newton and later in Marshalltown, who dedicated her life to documenting Iowa history, supporting equal rights for women and caring for soldiers and orphans. In her 1901 obituary published in the Evening Times-Republican, the newspaper called her “one of Iowa’s most energetic women” writing “probably no other Marshalltown woman attained such prominence as did she when in her prime and some of her literary ventures, particularly those of a historical nature and referring to pioneer days in Iowa, will live forever.”

Chapin was born in Portage County, Ohio on March 28, 1830. In 1856, she and her father Stephen Skiff settled in Jasper County, Iowa on a farm in Malaka township. That autumn, she secured a position as a school teacher in Newton. She then went before the board months later to be examined for her teaching certification. Her obituary noted that en route to take the test, she got lost on the prairie during a snowstorm.

“Her horse after wandering around for about four hours, with a little sled, finally came along to a fence on College farm and she was saved from death from the cold and exposure,” the paper reported. “When, in a half frozen condition, she presented herself to the county examiner, he remarked, ‘I guess you will do: a pretty plucky girl anyhow.’ And she received her certificate.”

Moved by the plight of the Union soldiers during the Civil War, Chapin helped start a sanitary society out of Newton, collecting food, clothing and personal care products. In November 1863, Chapin wrote to Annie Wittenmyer, later known for her founding of the The Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans Home, also called The Annie Wittenmyer Home in Davenport (of which Chapin was an early supporter.) In the correspondence, Chapin expressed her backing of Wittenmyer’s work as a Sanitary Agent for the Iowa State Sanitary Commission, despite opposition from male contemporaries.

“It is a strange, passing strange, that the charities of women must pass through the censorship of all the pantaloons in this state … The heart that has the warm impulses of kindness and love for the soldier that woman has, generally has the head to … plan for concentration of action with others … Believe me the whole movement against you and women’s rights to dispense alms will fall to the ground. The idea is too absurd to be entertained by the intelligent people of the country.”

On Sept. 24, 1863, Chapin united in holy matrimony with her first husband, Daniel Sanford of Rhodes. The following year, the couple moved to Marshalltown and later had two children, Philip, born Aug. 21, 1866 and May, born Feb. 23, 1868. Sanford passed away in 1873.

Chapin served as president of the Marshall County Orphan’s Home Society in 1865 and also gave public lectures on women’s suffrage. In 1867, Chapin published her first book, entitled “History of Marshall County, Iowa.” In addition, she published pamphlets entitled the “History of Jasper County,” and “The History of Polk County.” In 1875, she became the first woman west of Chicago to found a newspaper, calling it The Ladies Bureau, later known as The Woman’s Kingdom. In 1877, she moved to California to be with her daughter and established the San Gabriel Valley News, which proved unsuccessful. From 1871-72 she wrote as a correspondent for several Iowa newspapers including the Marshalltown Times, while serving in the fourth auditor’s office, in the U. S Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C. She was also an early female writer for the journal “The Annals of Iowa.”

On June 17, 1886, she wed the Honorable E.N. Chapin, editor and publisher of the Marshall County Times. She continued to author Iowa history books and in 1888, she was made the vice president of the Women’s National Press Association, of which she had been the treasurer and a charter member. In 1890, she published the book “The Iowa-Cranks” but was advised by Rev. F.E. Judd of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Marshalltown to write under her husband’s name as the tome was anti-prohibition in content.

In 1893, she wrote for “The Pioneer,” a monthly paper dedicated to Marshall County history, a precursor to this newspaper’s “Past Times.” She served as president of the Marshall County World’s Fair Association, as a national delegate of the Women’s Relief Corps and as a national delegate to the convention of the ladies of the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic.)

On Aug. 20, 1901, Chapin passed away from a valve disorder of the heart, and is buried in Riverside Cemetery alongside her second husband in a plot also containing relatives of her first husband’s.

“She supported other women, and worked in so many ways to improve the world around her,” said Dorie Tammen, the cemetery’s general manager. “She was a woman ahead of her time.”