IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
ELIZABETH FAGAN LYNCH
(1908- )
“A
Trunk and Its
Chips,” 1991
166 pages
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ACQUISITION: |
“A Trunk and Its Chips” was donated by Elizabeth Lynch (donor no.
684) in 2000. |
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ACCESS: |
“A Trunk and Its Chips” is open for research. |
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COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright has been retained by the donor. |
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PROCESSED BY: |
Doris Malkmus, 2001. [LynchElizabeth.doc] |
Biography
Elizabeth Fagan Lynch was born March 15, 1908, the
youngest of twelve children of Matthew and Elizabeth Fagan. She grew up on a farm in Dubuque County and
attended rural school before enrolling at the Immaculate Conception Academy
boarding school in Dubuque for four years of high school. After graduation, she taught rural school
and earned a B.A. degree from the University of Dubuque. She taught from1927 until her marriage to Ralph
Lynch in 1940. Elizabeth and Ralph
Lynch had two children, Jeremiah and Mary Ann, born in 1944 and 1946
respectively. Mary Ann died soon after
birth. In 1949, a teacher shortage
changed the ruling against married teachers.
Elizabeth Lynch resumed teaching when her son entered the rural school
where she taught. Over the next years,
she farmed, taught, and earned an endorsement from the State University of Iowa
to teach Special Education in 1965. She
taught Special Education for twelve years before retiring in 1977.
After Ralph Lynch died in 1964, Elizabeth and Jeremiah Lynch continued to farm with the help of her brother-in-law Al Lynch for the next thirteen years. When her son married in 1977, Elizabeth Lynch moved to an apartment in Dubuque, staying involved with friends and church activities.
Additional biographical
information is found in the reminiscence.
Scope and
Content Note
The
reminiscence “A Trunk and Its Chips” was self-published by Elizabeth Lynch in
1991 and includes 166 pages. The prose
is lively and informal, but always informative. It begins with a brief account of the journeys of her
grandparents from Ireland to Iowa in the nineteenth century and brief
biographies of her brothers and sisters. The remainder of the reminiscence
consists primarily of details from her memories of her childhood on the farm,
descriptions of the weekly and monthly rhythms of work, play, illness, and
church activities. A collage of
photographs illustrates these memories.
SCVF Description
Folder 1 “A
Trunk and Its Chips,” by Elizabeth Fagan Lynch