Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020
Lenora Elizabeth Walter was born April 24, 1847, in Delphi, Indiana. With her parents, Lenora moved to Minnesota in 1856.
Lenora’s future husband, Eli Southworth, had been born in Mattapoisett, Plymouth County, Massachusetts on September 15, 1844, and moved to Minnesota Territory in 1856. Eli, at age 17, served in Company A, Fourth Minnesota Infantry Volunteers until 1862, when he was discharged on October 22, 1862. He then became a lawyer.
Lenora married Eli on April 24, 1865, and lived in St. Anthony, St. Lawrence, Belle Plaine, Jordan, and in 1874 they moved to Shakopee, where they lived for most of their lives. Lenora and Eli had two children, Walter and Virginia.
Lenora was a strong supporter of women’s suffrage in Shakopee.
She was the wife of the Shakopee city attorney. She was financially comfortable, educated, and deeply involved in the Shakopee community and the rights of women. And Lenora’s husband was also supportive of women’s vote.
In 1883, Lenora was vice president of the women’s suffrage committee in Shakopee. When the committee started again in 1918, Lenora Elizabeth Walter Southworth was again in the group.
Besides her work on suffrage, Lenora was president of the local Women’s Relief Corps. The Women’s Relief Corps was the women’s auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization of Northern Civil War Veterans. Lenora was also active in the Eastern Star Chapter, which was a public works group connected to the Freemasons.
Eli practiced law in Shakopee after he was admitted to the bar on June 18, 1874. He also gave freely of his time in Shakopee. He was city attorney for many years.
Lenora had a long life in Shakopee. She had sympathy and kindness for people who were suffering, a gentle humanity, and “a bright and cheerful optimism in all things, generous hospitality, charity, and above all else her unfailing devotion to her family and her home,” said the Weekly Valley Herald on March 26, 1925.
Lenora had been in failing health for the last two years, and she was taken to Sioux City, Iowa, to the home of her daughter, Virginia.
She passed away on Tuesday evening, March 10, 1925, at St. Joseph’s hospital in Sioux City. According to the Shakopee Tribune on March 12, 1925, “Her long life in this community was characterized by sympathetic kindness for suffering, gentle humanity, a bright cheerful optimism in all things, generous hospitality and charity.”
Lenora’s funeral was at her house in Shakopee by the St. Peter’s Episcopal church, with burial at Valley Cemetery.
“All of her life she evinced strong interest in church work, and in that, and in her social and club affiliations, and especially in the home bereft of her love and care her loss is irreparable. The memory of her since, womanly life will live as a good influence in the hearts of all who knew her, and as a rare blessing, and deep and abiding comfort to the husband and children left to mourn,” said the Weekly Valley Herald.
Eli Southworth died on May 29, 1925, just three months after his wife. He had been secretary of the State Board of Examiners for 17 years, commander of General Shield’s Post of G.A.R. for 30 years, and grand master workman of Minnesota for two years. He was buried in Valley Cemetery next to his wife on Memorial Day.
Bibliography
Weekly Valley Herald, 26 March 1925.
Shakopee Tribune, 12 March 1925.