Hancock, Cornelia (1840–1927)
Hancock, Cornelia (1840–1927)
American Civil War nurse, housing reformer and educator of freedmen. Born Feb 8, 1840, at Hancock's Bridge, NJ; died Dec 31, 1927, in Atlantic City; dau. of Thomas Y. Hancock and Rachel (Nicholson) Hancock.
Served as field nurse in Gettysburg (1863); in Washington, DC, cared for contraband Negroes from the South (1863); continued as field nurse near Brandy Station, VA, and at corps hospital in City Point, VA (1964); started school for freedmen outside Charleston, SC, under auspices of Friends' Association for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen (1866), which later became Laing School where she remained as principal (until 1875); joined in founding Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicancy (1878), soon renamed Society for Organizing Charity, where she served as superintendent (1879–c. 1888); active in establishment of Children's Aid Society (1883) and board member thereof (until1895); helped reform and improve living conditions in "Wrightsville," an isolated slum settlement outside Philadelphia primarily inhabited by immigrant refinery workers (late 1880s).
See also Henrietta S. Jaquette, ed., South after Gettysburg: Letters of Cornelia Hancock, 1863–1868 (1956).