Source: The Wittenberger (1922), pp. 220-221.
鈥淎 Mission of Love鈥�: Rosa Hewitt
The staff of the 1919 Wittenberger dedicated the yearbook to nine men and one woman who 鈥済ave their lives in the struggle for Democracy and World Freedom,鈥� known to us as the First World War. The woman was 鈥� Mrs. W. C. Hewitt,鈥� born Rosa B. Hersch in Dayton in 1870. She married Will C. Hewitt in 1893; he worked for the Tribune Publishing Company and in 1918 was Executive Secretary of the Red Cross.
During the war, a Student Army Training Camp (S.A.T.C.) was set up at Wittenberg College. When the influenza epidemic of 1918 came to town, a special hospital was set up to treat afflicted student cadets. (By the way, this is the source of the campus myth of a hospital on campus during the Civil War.)
The Wittenberger dedication told Rosa Hewitt鈥檚 story this way:
This noble woman was the one who gave her life while nursing patients of the Wittenberg S.A.T.C. during the influenza epidemic. When the plague broke out in Springfield she was one of the first to volunteer to relieve the patients in our temporary hospital at Wittenberg, and her kind and loving attentions were always in evidence wherever she happened to be. The Wittenberg company attended the funeral service in a body as a token of their sympathy and as taps were sounded the soul of this dear woman passed to its reward.
According to a death notice in the Dayton Daily News, she died at her home on High St. on October 16, 1918. 鈥淗er illness had been contracted while on a mission of love. She had been working day and night as a nurse of the afflicted students in the Wittenberg college military training camp.鈥� She was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery.
About The Project
With Wittenberg now celebrating its 175th year, and the University unable to hold regular in-person classes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor of History Thomas T. Taylor has started circulating several pieces on Wittenberg's history. Some originated in earlier series, either This Month in Wittenberg History or Happy Birthday Wittenberg. Others have their origin in the Wittenberg History Project or in some other, miscellaneous project. Sincerest thanks to Professor Taylor for connecting alumni, faculty, staff, and students through a historic lens.