The Cabbage Patch Settlement House in Louisville has been helping at risk youth and their families for over a century. But its founder, Louise Marshall, a wealthy woman with a famous great, great grandfather, is not all that well known.
Linda Raymond and Bill Ellison set out to change that by writing, “The Two Lives and One Passion of Louise Marshall: Founder of the Cabbage Patch Settlement.” Raymond and Ellison will speak Tuesday evening at the Filson Historical Society about Marshall’s life. I spoke with them about their book. Listen to our conversation in the media player above.
Linda Raymond on who Louise Marshall was:
"Louise Marshall was the member of a prominent Louisville family. Her great, great grandfather was U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall. Her family had wealth, her father was a lawyer and was know as the meanest man in town.
"She began teaching a mission Sunday school when she was 16 years old in the Cabbage Patch settlement just south of Louisville. And when she was 22, she got her father, the meanest man in town, to help pay for a more permanent settlement house that she dedicated her life to for the next 70 years."
Raymond on what drew Marshall to the people of the Cabbage Patch:
"There were Irish, there were German and there were black families there. They were all poor, they all worked for the L&N Railroad and they had big families and not much money. And Louise Marshall thought most of them were unchurched and the way to attract them to a better life was to live her faith and for her that meant serving the Cabbage Patch for 70 years."
Bill Ellison on why some people weren't fond of Louise Marshall:
"She had very strict rules. The people who came to the Cabbage Patch had to follow her direction. The kids had to behave themselves, and the kids, in particular, if they misbehaved she would banish them from the activities at the Cabbage Patch Settlement House."
Linda Raymond and Bill Ellison will speak at the Filson Historical Society on Tuesday, March 20, at 6:00 p.m. Details can be found here.
