Josephine Cushman Bateham

Josephine Cushman Bateham ( Josephine Abiah Penfield; after first marriage, Cushman, after second marriage, Bateham; pen name, Mrs. J. C. Bateham; November 1, 1829 – March 15, 1901) was an American social reformer, editor, and writer in the temperance movement. The Sabbath Observance Department of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was organized at the St. Louis (National) Convention in 1884, and Bateham, then of Painesville, Ohio, was appointed its first Superintendent, continuing in charge of the department until compelled by failing health to resign in 1896. In addition, Bateham was a supporter of social reform for women.

Early life and education Josephine Abiah Penfield was born on November 1, 1829, in Alden, New York, to Anson and Minerva (Dayton) Penfield. She had one sister and four brothers. When she was five years old, her family moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where her father worked as a mechanic and manufacturer of edge tools.

Penfield went on to attend Oberlin College, graduating in 1847

Career After graduating from Oberlin, Penfield taught at a local school for a year. On July 20, 1848, He was also the founder, editor, and publisher of the Ohio Cultivator in Columbus, Ohio. They resided in Columbus fourteen years, spending part of their summers in travel in Europe and the United States. Having previously been a contributor to the Oberlin Evangelist, Bateham became the editor of the Ohio Cultivators ladies department, while Frances Dana Barker Gage was an associate editor. Bateham wrote articles on dress, education, exercise, gardening, health, housekeeping, peace, and woman's rights. She continued to be a contributor to the Ohio Cultivator after her husband sold it in 1855; it merged with the Ohio Farmer in 1864.

In 1890, Bateham relocated to Asheville, North Carolina and continued her work for the WCTU, traveling to nearly every U.S. state and territory and through the Hawaiian Islands to deliver nearly 300 lectures. She wrote many leaflets on Sabbath questions, of which she sent out more than a million pages every year.

Personal life From 1892 to 1897, she lived in Williamsburg, Kentucky with daughter Sarah. In 1897, she removed to Norwalk, Ohio, where two other children made their homes.

Edited volumes The invalid singer; life and writings of Minnie D. Bateham, by Mrs. J. C. Bateham (1895)