Elizabetha R. Kiplinger

Elisabeth "Betha" (Ruth) Kiplinger (1835-1911) was baptized as Elisabetha Ruth in Herschberg, Germany. Her husband was Elias L. Kiplinger (1836-1928), a pastor in the German Evangelical Free Church in Holdredge, Nebraska, and was President of the Loomis State Bank. Elias was born in Ohio and the couple were married in Huntington, Indiana, on Dec. 16, 1860. Their son Frederick Wiliam Kiplinger (1864-1935) was born in Plainfield, Illinois. The next son, Robert Ernest Kiplinger (1869-1890) was born in White River, Indiana, as was Mary Leona Kiplinger (1872-1953). The middle child, known as Ernest, died in 1890 of typhoid, the same disease that felled Leland Stanford Jr. After reading in Ladies Home Journal of the Stanford's endowment of the university in memory of their child, Elisabeth and Elias in 1893 donated funds to build "Ernest Hall" at the Theological Seminary in Bareilly, India. They also donated money to build the "Ernesto Memorial Chapel" in Abra Honda, Puerto Rico, in 1907 and construction was completed in 1912.