Rebecca Cromwell Rouse (1799-1887) was a member of the First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland Society and founded the Ladies Tract Society, which distributed religious pamphlets. In 1843, she founded and became president of the Martha Washington and Dorcas Society, which was the first city-wide organization in Cleveland focused on giving aid to the poor. She also organized the Protestant Orphan Asylum, later known as Beach Brook Inc., the Cleveland Ladies Temperance Union (1850), and the Ladies' Aid Society (1861-1865), which eventually became the Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio and was a precursor of the American Red Cross of Cleveland. | Source: Ohio Historical SocietyDownload Original File
