Elizabeth Marsh Jensen papers

Elizabeth Marsh Jensen (1900-1999), daughter of Fred and Ivy Crites Marsh, was born in Nebraska. She graduated from Nebraska Central College (which merged in ca. 1963 with William Penn College), taught school in Nebraska, 1918-1922, and received a Master's in Economics from Haverford College in 1925. A Quaker, she was a member of Nebraska Yearly Meeting (see Nebraska Yearly Meeting folder dated La Grange, Wyoming, 1979). She served in Five Years Meeting of Friends (now Friends United Meeting), and as Young Friends Secretary from 1925 to 1930. She worked towards the establishment of an adult Quaker study center near Philadelphia, Pendle Hill, in 1930, and served on its Board until her marriage, continuing on committees thereafter. After her marriage to Daniel Jensen in 1935, they established the T-Box Ranch near Fort Morgan, Colorado, where their daughter Karen was born in 1936. Jensen worked for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in several capacities: as Home Service and Personnel Director, 1930-1935, and Personnel Director again in 1948. Jensen and her husband served in Mexico for two years, 1940-1941, working with Spanish Civil War refugees, and returned to Colorado in 1941. She worked for the AFSC in Richmond, Indiana, for four months to solicit gifts in kind (grain, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.) in 1946; and in Philadelphia, helping to find staff to work with Palestinian refugees on the Gaza Strip in the late 1940s. Jensen worked for the Des Moines office of AFSC (at least in 1958, possibly for longer). She served on the National AFSC and Des Moines AFSC Boards beginning in 1967. In 1949, the family moved west again, setting up the Double Slash J Ranch where many visitors found hospitality. She served as a delegate to Friends World Committee in 1967, and held many offices in local organizations. Jensen received an honorary doctorate from William Penn University. She often referred to herself as a "ranch wife."

Daniel Jensen (1893-1971) attended Wesleyan University and worked in several capacities for the YMCA. After 1929, he started in the ranching business. He also worked for AFSC for two years among Spanish refugees in Mexico, 1940-1941. He served as YMCA secretary in Omaha, Chicago, Monterey, and Mexico.

(Biographical information from registration forms for the Fourth Friends World Conference, 1967; In Memoriam for Daniel Jensen; EMJ obituary in Friends Journal, February, 2000; and other internal evidence)