Ackermann, Jessie

Biography

Jessie A. Ackermann was born in Illinois in 1857, the daughter of Charles and Amanda Ackerman(n), although some sources quote her as saying that she was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 4, 1860. She grew up in Chicago and later moved to California with a stint at the University of California, Berkeley in 1880. She was involved in the temperance movement by 1881 and began working with the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1888. Ackermann was appointed world missionary for the WCTU in 1889. In this role, she traveled to Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, South America, and South Africa, sometimes on multiple occasions. Her travels earned her the honor of becoming a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.

Ackermann wrote numerous newspaper articles and was the author of three books: The World Through a Woman’s Eyes (1896), What Women Have Done with the Vote (1913), and Australia From a Woman’s Point of View (1913). Although she traveled for many years, she spent the late 1890s in Chicago, the late 1920s and early 1930s in Johnson City, Tennessee, and the remainder of her life in Los Angeles and Pomona, California. Ackermann died in Pomona on March 31, 1951.

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