Lillian Honeywell Beall from Iroquois County, Illinois, at 22 years old, was the youngest college professor in the United States.

Lillian Honeywell Beall

Mrs. Lillian Honeywell Beall was born March 31, 1864, in Iroquois County, Illinois. She received a good education in the local schools but realized she deserved a more extended course.

She heard of the fame of Hedding College (1855-1927) in Knox County, Illinois, and entered that institute as a student in 1881. She graduated in 1884 at 20 years old with the highest honors. While in school, she won 1st prize in an oratory competition.

Beall returned to Hoopeston, Illinois, to become the assistant principal for Hoopeston High School. She held that position for two years before returning to Hedding College to work as a math professor. Her name went unchallenged through the leading educational papers as the youngest college professor in the United States.

Hedding College buildings and grounds. Circa 1880s

Her fame as a teacher extended over more than Hedding College's territory. She was in receipt of offers of professorships in other prominent institutions. All of these were refused. In 1888, she resigned from her position, although assured by the leading trustees of the institution that her salary would be advanced and guaranteed.

The photograph shows a building, students, and faculty on the campus of Hedding College in Abingdon, Illinois. A large group of people is sitting and standing in front of the building. The building has three stories, and an added two-story building is on the right. The building has what appears to be a bell tower on the roof. Two other towers are visible on the left and right parts of the roof. Two young men are standing on the roof on the right. The people wear winter clothing, and snow is on the ground. Four of the individuals are holding onto bicycles.

In June 1888, she was elected to fill her old chair of Mathematics at Hedding College. In addition to her duties in the classroom, she was the acting preceptress (a woman who is a teacher instructor) of the college during the illness of Mrs. Evans. Lillian is very highly thought of as a lady and a Professor of Mathematics, and she commands the highest respect of all with whom she is acquainted. 

She was united in marriage in 1889 to Rev. Thomas Allen Beall. 

Hedding College merged with Illinois Wesleyan University in 1930.

Hedding College Bell was located in the bell tower in the photograph above.

Lillian Honeywell Beall died on February 6, 1961, and was buried at Floral Hill Cemetery in Iroquois County, Illinois.

MESSAGE RECEIVED 2019
Dear Dr. Gale. Your article, "Lillian Honeywell Beall, at 22 years old, was the youngest college professor in the United States," was reprinted in the Iroquois County Historical Society's Summer Newsletter, 2019 Volume 53, Issue 2. 

"Thank you again for allowing us to share your story with our readers. I added your email address and hope you enjoy reading our future newsletters." 

Catherine Williams,
Iroquois County Historical Society
Old Courthouse Museum
103 West Cherry Street
Watseka, Illinois 60970

---

On Monday, August 16, 2021, I received this email. Below is an excerpt:

Dear Dr. Gale,

My name is Amy (Koch) Schwartz and I am the youngest of Lillian Honeywell Beall's great-granddaughters.  

My mother (Hazel Beall Koch) always referred to Lillian as "Mom Beall."  She was one of two grandmothers who helped raise my Mom and her two sisters after the death of their mother.  My Mom was only 5 weeks old when her mother died of an infection on Christmas Day, 1923. "Mom Beall" homeschooled the two older sisters during the three years she helped care for the family. As a result of "Mom Beall," one of the three girls pushed ahead in school and graduated early!

Sincerely,

Amy Schwartz

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Firefighter Annette Nance-Holt, the First Female named as Chicago Fire Department's 1st Deputy Commissioner.

A Chicago firefighter, whose son was killed in one of the most infamous shootings in Chicago history, has become the first woman ever to serve in the department’s second in command.

Chicago Fire Department Deputy District Chief Annette Nance-Holt has been promoted to the rank of First Deputy Commissioner, the first woman ever to hold that post in Chicago history.

Annette Nance-Holt was appointed as the first deputy commissioner, the position most recently held by Fire Commissioner Richard Ford II. She was named to the department’s top post in October of 2018. Ford, a 35-year veteran, had since February 2016 served in the No. 2 position, before appointed to fill the $202,728-a-year position of Commissioner.

"The one thing I hope to bring is for little girls to look at me and say, 'Hey, I can do it,'" she said. "Because I never saw a firefighter when I was a little girl, African-American, and I never saw a woman at all, because there were none when I was a little girl." 

Nance-Holt's career started in corporate America as a tax accountant. But when friends started training for the fire academy, so did she. 

Her first assignment was with all male, all white firefighters. Throughout her 29 years on the job, she has witnessed CFD address several class action lawsuits and some ugly incidents regarding racism and sexism. Nance-Holt said she sees the department evolving. 

"I think we've evolved a lot from when I came on the job. When I came on the job it was quite different to me, QUITE different," she said. "And I went to a firehouse where there were no firefighter women. I was the first one to go there. And, uh, I did not feel that warm welcome when I went there."

She joined the department in 1990 — four years after the very first female firefighters were hired in November 1986, following charges of discrimination. She moved up through the ranks, promoted to lieutenant of the Fire Prevention Bureau in 1993, and then to lieutenant Emergency Medical Technician in Fire Suppression & Rescue, in 1995, a position she held until 2001.

From 2001 to 2014, she moved from the rank of lieutenant EMT in the Training Division to captain EMT in Fire Suppression & Rescue, during that time also serving as a federal monitor in the consent decree of the Lewis class-action suit that led to the hiring of of 111 candidate firefighters in 2012.

In 2014, she was promoted to battalion chief EMT in Headquarters Relief, then in 2016 promoted to deputy district chief at 4th District Headquarters, a position she’d held until her promotion Thursday to the $197,736 first deputy commissioner position. In her new role, she will be responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations of the department.

“First Deputy Annette Nance-Holt is one of the most efficient officers I have had the pleasure of working with,” Fire Department Commissioner Richard C. Ford said. “She is an outstanding tactician and administrator. Her abilities and leadership are respected by both officers and the rank and file.”

The appointment to the department’s No. 2 position — no woman has held that or the top position of commissioner in the department’s 160-year history — was quietly made by Ford, himself appointed by outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel to replace retired Commissioner Jose Santiago.

Blair Holt

Nance-Holt is the mother of 16-year-old Blair Holt, a Julian High School honor student who was killed on a CTA bus in 2007, trying to shield a friend after gang member Michael Pace opened fire at a rival gang member on the crowded bus after school. Pace was originally sentenced to 100 years in prison, but that sentence was reduced earlier this year, after an appeals court ruled the original judge improperly expressed personal views at sentencing. Nance-Holt and Blair’s father, retired Chicago Police Cmdr. Ronald Holt, became prominent gun control activists and advocates for crime victims after their son’s death.

Annette Nance-Holt and Ronald Holt hold honorary street signs for their son, Blair Holt, during a street-naming ceremony in front of Percy L. Julian High School on 103rd and South Elizabeth streets in Chicago on May 10, 2017.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.