Rhoda Coffin

Rhoda Coffin (1826–1909), was a Quaker social reformer, author, temperance crusader, and women's rights advocate who is best known for her efforts in prison reform. She held an integral role in establishing the Indiana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls in 1869. It became the first female-controlled women's prison in the United States. She also served as president of the reformatory's board of managers. Coffin's efforts on behalf of prison reform made her a leading figure in the national prison reform movement, and she traveled widely, wrote articles, and delivered speeches on the topic. She was also a champion of other causes that assisted women and children.

Coffin's charitable work began in the 1850s, when she and her husband, Charles Coffin, began visiting homes and distributing bibles in Richmond, Indiana, where they resided. In partnership with her husband, she established the Marion Street Sabbath School in 1864, and with other local women, the Home Mission Association in 1866. Under her leadership as president, the mission association established a Home for Friendless Women in Richmond in 1868. Following her success as a women's prison reformer in the 1870s, Coffin joined the temperance crusade. With other women she established a local chapter of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1874. Coffin's interest in social reform also led to her assistance in securing the appointment of the first female physician for the Indiana Hospital for the Insane in 1880. A bank scandal involving Coffin's husband and sons forced a move to Chicago, Illinois, in 1884. For the remaining twenty-five years of her life, Coffin resided in Chicago, where she continued to write and speak on prison reform and visited area prisons and insane asylums with her husband.

Early life and family

Rhoda Moorman Johnson, the fourth child of Judith and John Johnson, was born on February 1, 1826, near Paintersville in Greene County, Ohio. She grew up in a strict, Orthodox Quaker farm family. In 1845, her parents agreed that she could enroll at the Whitewater Monthly Meeting School in Richmond, the seat of government for Wayne County, Indiana, but she returned home in 1846 to help the family after her father became ill.

Johnson met her husband, Charles Coffin (1823–1916), while attending school in Richmond. Charles was the son of Elijah Coffin, the clerk (presiding officer) of the Indiana Yearly Meeting and a prominent Richmond banker. Rhoda and Charles Coffin married in 1847 and established their home in Richmond, where Charles succeeded his father as clerk of the Indiana Yearly Meeting in 1858 and became president of the Richmond National Bank in 1859. The Coffins became the parents of six children. As members of a prominent, upper-class Quaker family, they socialized with well-to-do families of Richmond and Indianapolis, Indiana.

Career

Early years

Rhoda and Charles Coffin became involved in charitable activities in the 1850s, when they began traveling to homes in Richmond to distribute bibles in conjunction with the work of the American Bible Society. They also became leaders in the Benevolent Society of Richmond, which was founded in 1858 to provide assistance to the poor. The Coffins's work further expanded in 1860 when they asked permission to form a youth prayer event at the Indiana Yearly Meeting's annual gathering. The successful event, which attracted 2,000 participants, lead to their establishing a weekly prayer group at their home and marked the beginning of Rhoda's philanthropic career.

As a benevolent, Christian reformer, Coffin believed it was her mission to assist those in the lower socio-economic classes. Although her charitable activities were largely in tandem with her husband's efforts, she also worked with other women on reform projects. In 1864 the Coffins successfully established Marion Street Sabbath School in Richmond and served as the school's co-superintendents. By its first anniversary in May 1865, the school's enrollment had grown from 30 to 250 students. In 1866 Coffin and other Quaker women established a Home Mission Association in Richmond. Under her leadership as president, the association's activities included sponsoring weekly prayer gatherings, distributing religious tracts, organizing Sunday schools, and visiting jails, but its major accomplishment, which occurred in 1868, was the establishment of a Home for Friendless Women in Richmond. The facility had an all-male board of trustees, but Coffin served as president of its board of managers. Through these projects Coffin developed her leadership and organizational skills as she and her husband broadened their reform activities to the state and national levels.