Warren County Historical Society

Making History, Not Just for Men

From the WCHS Archives
Lebanon has long been noted for its list of distinguished sons, but few daughters have been recorded for the Hall of Fame. Several however, who have not been heralded as heroes, are entitled to a place of honor for deeds as gallant and service as faithful as any man has given. None is more worthy than Miss Amanda Stokes, first volunteer war nurse of Warren County. It is a privilege to offer this tribute to such a loyal daughter.

The Stokes family came from London, England, with a party of Friends setting sail in 1677. Anyone who has seen the vessel Arbella anchored in the harbor of the Pioneer Village at Salem, Massachusetts, will share my amazement that 150 human beings, with their household and personal possessions and some domestic animals, could find the courage, strength and unlimited faith to pack themselves into a ship scarcely larger than this room and sail for a foreign land. Their calm faith in God puts to shame the half-baked confidence of most Americans today.

The Stokes family settled in New Jersey, and the records show marriages and property transfers. While Ohio was new, they joined the band of Quakers coming west and established homes in Warren County in the early 1800s. Property transfers are recorded in the courthouse here as early as 1819.
The parents of Amanda Stokes were Ellis and Hannah Morgan Stokes. They were married in New Jersey and had six children. These were Horace, who was clerk of courts in Warren County, 1840-1846; Alfred E., sheriff, while Mathias Corwin was auditor, 1859-1862; Walter, who became county commissioner; Maria, Hannah; and Amanda, born in 1821, the year Tom Corwin was elected to the legislature and before Jeremiah Morrow was elected governor of Ohio. These children of Ellis and Hannah Stokes received the best education the early schools afforded. They were Quakers and the children were raised in that faith on a farm near Waynesville.

When President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers in the defense of the nation April 15, 1861, a mass meeting was held in Washington hall. The county’s full quota of men was raised almost instantly.
At the beginning of the war, Miss Amanda Stokes was engaged to be married, but the man she loved marched off to serve his country and gave his life.

Miss Dorothea Dix was made superintendent of female nurses in the United States on June 10, 1861 and women all over the country offered their services. Only those of finest Christian morals, character and ability were accepted. The testimony received from all quarters to the faithfulness and great moral worth of these nurses is greatly to their honor. Not one of them, so far as we can learn, ever disgraced her calling, or gave cause for reproach. Angels of mercy, but for whom tender and judicious ministration, hundreds and perhaps thousands would not have seen another morning.
Miss Amanda Stokes sold her wedding trousseau and everything she had of value, amounting in all to about $1,000, and reported for duty with the northern Army. She served in the Army for five years and was at Stone River, Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Chickamauga and with Hooker at Nashville. While stationed in a hospital near Chattanooga during the heavy fighting there, she was directed to take a wounded soldier to another place. In crossing the Chattahoochee River in an ambulance, the horses became frightened and ran off the bridge into the river. Miss Stokes managed to climb out of the top of the ambulance and to help save the wounded soldier, although she lost all her records in the accident. Her strenuous work at that time ruined her health. She, like the other volunteer nurses of the period, used her money to aid the soldiers and to buy delicacies for those who were sick or wounded.

At the close of the war, Miss Stokes was practically without money. The women of the war did not figure in the official reports, and the absence of a precedent was, for a long time, an obstacle in efforts to secure a pension. Through the influence of Gen. Durban Ward in 1878, she was appointed a matron of the Ohio Sailors and Soldiers Orphans Home at Xenia, which position she held until 1881. A year before her death, she was appointed librarian of the home. From letters published in The Western Star, it is shown that before her death, she received a small pension. These letters also show that the person who gave the most persistent effort toward securing this was Mr. George Frost. In fact, the pension committees of both houses were given to understand that a large number of citizens in Warren County had their hearts set on having Miss Stokes pensioned and would not be denied. The files of the service of Miss Isabella Fogg of Maine (whose service was almost identical with that of Miss Stokes) was cited as a precedent. Miss Clara Barton, charter member of the D.A.R., gave simultaneous service with these and was the founder of The American Red Cross.
Amanda Stokes died while discharging her duties at the home in Xenia, on March 25, 1885. Her funeral was held in the East Baptist Church of which she was a member, and the sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Sumrall, pastor of the church, assisted by Dr. J.P. Scott of the First Presbyterian Church, Rev. J.J. Hill of the Methodist Church, and Rev. T.A. Brandon of the Christian Church. Her casket was draped with the American flag and there was a wreath on top from the home in Xenia. The Grand Army of the Republic had the services in charge, the second time in its history such service had been held for a woman.

In 1906, the Daughters of America named their lodge the Amanda Stokes Council, No. 132, in memory of Miss Stokes.

Amanda Stokes had dark brown, naturally curly hair which she wore in curls about her head, parted in the middle. She had rather heavy dark brows and brown glowing eyes. She had rather finely proportioned features with her mouth a little too generous, but with a warm friendly smile. She considered herself a plain woman, and always dressed simply in the fashion of the day. Her gentle firm hands gave themselves to the care of the sick and injured, and her life was given to her country as much as any soldier’s dying on a battlefield. Her service should be recorded in letters of gold.