March is Women’s History Month. A northern Illinois musician shares her special ties to a Rockford area pioneer.
Jane Addams is known for many things. She’s the co-founder of the Hull House in Chicago, the first American woman to earn a Nobel Peace Prize and founding member of the National Child Labor Committee to name just a few. She was born in Cedarville, Illinois and graduated from Rockford Female Seminary, which is now Rockford University. Her works have descended through the family of a local artist.
“When my grandmother helped raise me,” said musician Kristin Lems, “she talked about Jane Addams all the time. She was like a household icon, you know, the person that we all aspired to be like. And my grandmother did like, 60 years of volunteer work. She died at 97.”
Lems is an educator, singer and songwriter. We sat in her condo as she showed off a few artifacts and some books about the innovator. She grabbed a photo.
“My grandmother also wrote and did oral histories about her time at Hull House,” Lems added. “And then, to make it even more remarkable, when my mother was born, Jane Addams knitted a sweater for her. And you should probably take a picture of that. This is my little mother, Carol Silver, and her mother, Edna Silver in 1924.”
She also showed off a signed autograph of Addams.
“It said, 'faithfully yours Jane Addams,'” she explained.
Lems said her great grandmother Nelly Wicks was sent to Chicago from New York when she was 11 years old. That’s when Wicks was rescued by some of the Hull House women.
“And one night in March 1890," she said, "her alcoholic father was beating her mother in labor, and Nelly ran to the first house she could find with lights on. It was Hull House.”
Her great grandmother lived at 801 S. Halsted. Hull House, which is now a museum, is located at 800 S. Halsted in Chicago.
Lems said Addams and other women ran across the street with their umbrellas and drove the father away.
Lems learned about the story through her mother and grandmother, but she also has Wicks' diary.
“I inherited it,” she said. “So, it's a handwritten account of her relationship with Jane Addams, how much she loved her. Then my grandmother, who was one of the Hull House children, Nelly brought her to Hull House to teach her how to eat at a table and all that kind of thing.”
Lems’ grandmother helped raise her. She says she talked about Jane Addams all the time. That planted a seed in Lems and her family.
The essence of Addams was all around them. Lems started working for National Louis University in the 1980s. The first day she walked in, she saw a huge picture of the icon.
“I couldn't believe it. I mean, it was 10 feet tall and five feet wide,” she said. “Jane Addams sitting and talking to children. And I thought, ‘oh my gosh, this is the place I'm meant to work.'”
Lems does research about Addams and was even given a six-month sabbatical to study her.
“So, during this six-month sabbatical,” she said, “I wrote the framework of my play, which is a musical, which is called ‘Saint Jane and the Wicked Wicks.’ I guess you could figure out who the Wicked Wicks are. That's my family.”
Lems said the relationship between Addams and her great grandmother lasted for 30 years.
“Nelly Wicks was not a society lady who came to volunteer,” Lems explained. “She was a woman in urgent need of help, and she went to Hull House all the time to help her, and Jane Addams was always there to help her.”
Lems said her grandmother lived a life of service because of what she learned from Addams. Lems explained that this spirit infused her and her entire family.
