Lizzie Akers

Born: September 6, 1866, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Lizzie was the daugh­ter of Rev. Jo­seph Ben­son Ak­ers (1829-89), of the Meth­od­ist Cen­tral Penn­syl­van­ia Con­fer­ence, and Hen­ri­et­ta Gal­li­gher Ak­ers. Liz­zie’s mo­ther died when she was sev­en years old, and she de­vel­oped ju­ve­nile arth­ri­tis in her low­er ex­trem­i­ties at age 11. Grad­u­at­ing from Will­iams­port Dick­in­son Sem­in­ary in 1885, she set­tled in Bell­wood, and worked for the Al­toona Trib­une for three de­cades, then served as the Bell­wood tax col­lect­or, and worked as a seams­tress. And, for 64 years, she served in the Cra­dle Roll De­part­ment at the Bell­wood Meth­od­ist Church.