Officer, Julia E. (1858-1940)

OFFICER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 1/1/2024 at 20:38:01

Julia Emma Officer
(December 17, 1858 – December 2, 1940)

Miss Julia E. Officer
Julia E. Officer, musician, was born in Council Bluffs, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Mills Pusey Officer, who came to Iowa in 1856, both descended from pioneer Pennsylvania families. She was graduated from the college for women at Rockford, Ill, with the degree B. A. She was also graduated from the musical department of that college with the degree B. M. She took post-graduate work in music in Boston and Chicago. She has appeared as concert pianist in many cities. She was a teacher of piano in Chicago, Omaha and Council Bluffs, having also been pipe organist in prominent churches of these cities. During her resident in Chicago she was a member of the Apollo Musical Club. During the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, she was manager of the musical features of the exposition, and of the musical festival. For three years she was director of the choir in the First Presbyterian Church of Council Bluffs. She is prominent in promoting public supervised playgrounds. At her own expense she brought a number of celebrated speakers to lecture on the subject. She has made a valuable collection of historical pictures of pioneer days of Council Bluffs, which she presented to the public library. One is a picture of Abraham Lincoln in 1859 on his visit to Council Bluffs, when he determined that the city should be the eastern terminus of the U. P. R. R. She is a charter member of the first literary woman’s club of Council Bluffs, president of the first woman’s musical club of Omaha and Council Bluffs.
Source: Blue Book of Iowa Women, by Winona Evans Reeves, 1914, p.281