The daughters of Judge Mackenzie

LIMA — They were the dutiful daughters of Judge James Mackenzie.Ella Grace, Isabel and Mabel Mackenzie knew their place in turn-of-the-century Lima society. Though they may have been raised in privilege, these single ladies spent their adult lives working hard and sticking together to make ends meet.The girls were three of the seven children born to James and Lucina Mackenzie, who had married in 1846.The family had made its name known long before James moved to Lima. In fact, the Mackenzie name was infamous in Canada where William Lyon Mackenzie had led a rebellion in 1837. At that rebellion’s collapse, he moved his family south to the United States. After the elder Mackenzie was pardoned by the crown, he returned to Canada and became the first mayor of Toronto.Of his family, son James was the only Mackenzie to remain in the United States.A lawyer and teacher, James landed in Ohio and made a variety of stops around the state before settling down with his family in Lima. Here, James eventually became a judge and the family built a large home on Market Street, which became legendary for its splendor.The library in that home was so large that local people were invited to borrow books, making it Lima’s first library. Also in that library, the poet James Whitcomb Riley recited his poem “The Bear Story” for the first time in the fall of 1875.Among those seated to hear the recitation were Ella Grace, Isabel and Mabel.As the girls got older, the family moved to a house at 227 S. Collett St. to allow son William Leonard Mackenzie to raise his own family in the grand Market Street home.On Collett Street, the three girls cared for their widowed father. At his death, the newspaper wrote that the judge, who suffered blindness in his later years “depended largely upon his three daughters to keep in touch with the affairs of the world, and faithfully and lovingly they have performed that duty.”Yet caring for their ailing father was not all the girls did.The oldest of the three, Ella Grace, followed in her brother Eugene’s footsteps, and became the second clerk of courts for Allen County. She earned $5 a week her first year there, and proved herself skillful enough to almost double that amount within the next two years.Ella Grace made a name for herself in the courthouse circles, where it was generally agreed that she knew everything that was going on there. She became an expert on the work of the county, was a valuable aid to fledgling attorneys, an adviser to newly-elected officials, and a guide to young reporters assigned the courthouse beat.She had gained such honor that by 1926, the Democratic Party asked her to represent the female members of the party they wanted to symbolically place on the ticket. Miss Mackenzie politely declined the offer, claiming she did not aspire to any office.Meanwhile, her sister Isabel, who was two years Ella Grace’s junior, worked as a teacher at West School. In her later years, she worked as the housekeeper in the family’s Collett Street home.And Mabel, the baby of the family, was a star in everyone’s eyes. She had given the valedictory speech for the 1880 class at Lima Senior, inspiring the 16th graduating class to always be “Fancy Free.” Eventually, she went to work at South Side Building and Loan, hired as an assistant secretary there by the stockholders.As the three women pooled their resources, they also joined their interests and became active in a variety of clubs and social organizations around town.Ella Grace fronted the local Daughters of the American Revolution for many years. The 1915 newspaper noted her reign was “as peaceable as possible, and she’s always succeeded in bringing out to the meetings the largest numbers and having the best program that the Lima Chapter has enjoyed since it was instituted five years ago.” Her sister Isabel was the chaplain.Mable fronted the 20th Century Club, and all worked for the Philomathean Club. They were also members of the Allen County Historical Society.The ladies were in agreement with the cause of the Business Women’s Club, a group for girls who were wage earners. There, working girls could take classes in English, sewing, basket weaving, embroidery, stenography, gymnasium and Bible. The club also maintained an employment and information bureau.In promoting the causes of that club, the local newspaper wrote in 1911 that “the good people of Lima should appreciate that a whole lot has been done for the boys and mighty little attention has been paid to the efforts that the girls are making to better the conditions of the wage earning class.”Indeed, life was not easy for these wage-earning women.In January 1924, the newspaper reported that Ella Grace had collapsed at the court house, following her normal walk to work. The temperature outdoors that day was 13 degrees — below 0. “She had walked from her home, as is her custom, and the effort proved too much for her,” the newspaper concluded.The following year, Ella Grace was walking with her sister Isabelle when a car skidded on wet pavement and knocked Isabel down as the women crossed the street.Ella Grace retired four years later from the court house. Among the honors she garnered during her 47 years of service was honorary membership into the Allen County Bar Association, and the nickname “Mother of the Courthouse.”A handful of years later, Mabel also retired, and the three sisters continued living a modest life at the Collett Street home.And it was at that home that all three sisters died within three years of one another. Ella Grace died in 1942, Isabelle in 1944, and Mabel in 1945.Upon their death, the glory of the Mackenzie name was restored to them as they joined their parents in the final resting place, the family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery.