Jane Currie Blaikie Hoge

Who was Jane Currie Blaikie Hoge?

Jane Currie Blaikie "A. K." Hoge was a welfare worker, fund raiser, and nurse during the American Civil War. She was a founder of a homeless shelter in Chicago before the war. After the war, she raised funds, helped organize and served on the board of trustees of the Evanston College for Ladies. She served as head of the Woman's Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in the Northwest for thirteen years.

Hoge born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 31, 1811 to George Dundas Blaikie and Mary Monroe. She was educated at the Young Ladies College in Philadelphia. She married Abraham Holmes Hoge on June 2, 1831. They had thirteen children. Eight lived to maturity. She moved from Pittsburgh to Chicago in 1848.

Hoge was a founder of the Chicago Home for the Friendless in 1858. She was active in recruiting nurses for the Union army during the Civil War and would recount her experiences in her 1867 memoir The Boys in Blue. Hoge co-administered the Chicago Sanitary Commission with Mary Livermore. The volunteer organization raised funds and collected and distributed medical supplies and food to soldiers of the Union Army.