GIST, Lillian Jeannette (Hurlburt) 1854-1949

GIST, HURLBURT

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 1/18/2013 at 17:27:54

FORMER RESIDENT,
PROMINENT WOMAN,
DIED IN FLORIDA

Mrs. Lillian Gist, 95,
Former Pastor's Wife,
Led Remarkable Life

Word had been received here of the death of Mrs. Lillian Gist, 95, a former resident of Osage. Mrs. Gist died July 3 at Tampa, Florida. She lived in Osage from 1892 to 1899, during which time her husband, W. W. Gist, was pastor of the Congregational church here.

Mrs. Gist was one of the nation's most remarkable women and raised a distinguished family. The following account of his mother's life was prepared by Nathan Howard Gist, New York minister, lecturer and writer, who visited here last year and spoke to the Rotary Club of Charles City.

Dr. Lillian Jeannette (Hurlburt) Gist was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, November 24, 1854. She was the daughter of the late Dr. Russell Burlburt, for many yeawrs a prominent Methodist minister and later a physician.

She resided as a girl in several different cities in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, and was graduated from the Illinois Female College on June 3, 1875. She took the classical course and received the degree of Mistress of Liberal Arts.

In 1936, at the age of 81, Mrs. Gist returned to this college, now called MacMurray, located at Jacksonville, Illinois, and received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. While completing her college course, Mrs. Gist taught French and German.

Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa conferred on her the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1908, she having been a student there some 30 years before.

At nearly 80 years of age, Mrs. Gist entered Claremont College, Claremont, California, and pursued a strenuous course of study for more than a year in the history of philosophy and Latin, translating 90 lines a day in that classic, never missing a class, and producing a thesis on "Lucretius, the Poet of Nature." Then on June 8, 1935, this mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, was graduated with the degree of Master of Arts, and was awarded the hood as the outstanding student of her class.

A few days later she was heard in a national broadcasting hookup, when she modestly, by request, told why she took up that course of study. She said one reason was that three of her then eight living children had the degree of Master of Arts, and she decided not to be outdone by them. She also had a thirst for knowledge, and felt that she owed it to herself to continue her studies.

Prominent magazines have told the story of her life. Newspapers at home and abroad have often referred to her as the oldest co-ed in the world, and with her Mistress of Arts, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and Doctor of Letters, some publicists have referred to her attainments by saying she was the most highly "degreed" woman they had heard of.

July 26, 1876, she was married to William W. Gist, who was a teacher and school superintendent in Willoughby, Ohio; twice was professor of English literature in Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; was pastor of the Congregational church of Marion, Iowa, then of the Congregational church of Osage, Iowa; and from 1900 to the time of his death in 1923 was a member of the faculty of the Iowa State Teachers College at Cedar Falls, teaching English literature, rhetoric, and Bible. Dr. William W. Gist was a private in the 26th Ohio infantry in the Civil War, and was elected Commmander of the Department State of Iowa, G.A.R., at Fort Dodge, June 6, 1923, dying two days later at his home in Cedar Falls.

Eleven children were born to Doctor and Mrs. William W. Gist, seven of whom are living: Miss Ruth Gist of Washington, D.C., Charles R. Gist, in business in Tampa, Florida, Arthur S. Gist, president of Humboldt State Teachers' College, Arcata, Calif.; Nathan H. Gist, lecturer and minister of New York City; Col. Julian H. Gist, retired, Tampa, Florida; William W. Gist, Jr., California; Mrs. C.W. Sward, Chicago. Twelve grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren of Mrs. Gist survive.

Dr. Lillian H. Gist was a member of the Phi Nu Society at Illinois Female college, a member of the PEO sisterhood, and had numerous connections in literary circles. Always an avid student, she had a working knowledge in five languages and was a profound reader of Hugo, Dickens, and George Eliot.

Mitchell County Press, August 11, 1949