Fisher, Dorothy Canfield (1879-1958). American novelist; educational and social reformer. Dorothy Canfield and Willa Cather became friends in 1891 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where Canfield's father, James Canfield, had come to serve as Chancellor. The family moved to Columbus, OH, in 1895 when James Canfield assumed the presidency of Ohio State University, from which Dorothy graduated in 1899. She then followed her father to New York City, where he became Librarian of Columbia University, and she pursued graduate study in Romance Languages at the University of Paris and Columbia, from which she earned a PhD in 1904. On Cather’s first trip to Europe, she spent time in France and England with Canfield, including an awkward visit to the home of poet A.E. Housman. Cather derived the central character of “The Profile” (1907) from Canfield’s friend Evelyn Osborne, whom Cather had met in Europe. Cather and Canfield became estranged for more than a decade because Canfield objected to the story’s planned inclusion in The Troll Garden (1905). Canfield married John Redwood Fisher in 1907, and their primary residence was Arlington, VT. Canfield Fisher had spent 1916-1918 in France engaging in war relief work, and Cather’s consultation with her about the accuracy of her depiction of wartime France in One of Ours (1922) led them to reconcile. In 1925 Canfield Fisher became a founding member of the Book of the Month Club selection committee. She published her novels (most of them very popular) under the name Dorothy Canfield but her various nonfiction works as Dorothy Canfield Fisher.

Canfield, James Hulme (1847-1909). Educator, chancellor of the University of Nebraska. James Canfield was born in Ohio but grew up in Vermont and New York City. After graduating from Williams College in 1868, he went west, where he married Flavia Camp in 1873. Their children were James A. Canfield and Dorothy Canfield (Fisher). He was appointed professor of history at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1877; from there he was called to be chancellor of the University of Nebraska in 1891. Cather’s class made him an honorary member of their class, as they had all entered the university that year. A dynamic man, he was popular with the students and with people throughout Nebraska, a tireless campaigner for the value of the rapidly growing university to the state. Ohio State University called him to its presidency in 1895; from there he went to Columbia University as head librarian from 1899 until his death in 1909.

Fiske, Minnie Maddern (1865-1932). American actress. Considered one of the most important actresses of her era, Fiske was born into a theatrical family and began acting professionally as a child. She championed realism in the theater and was particularly dedicated to the work of Henrik Ibsen. Cather saw Fiske peform several times; after seeing Tess of the D'Urbervilles in 1897, she praised Fiske's work extravagantly, claiming "No woman on our stage today has such an intelligence or, in my opinion, such a future." She interviewed Fiske in Pittsburg in 1899 and saw her celebrated performance in Hedda Gabler in 1903. In 1931, Cather and Fiske were both on Good Housekeeping's list of "America's Twelve Greatest Women."

Sawyer, Edith McClung (1884-1958). Isabelle McClung Hambourg’s sister. The youngest child of a socially prominent Pittsburgh, PA, family, Edith McClung lived in the family home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood in 1901, when her older sister Isabelle invited Cather to join the household. Some time after her social debut in November 1903, Edith left for New York City to take a nursing course and then worked as a nurse in Hudson, NY. She married John Leroy Sawyer and in 1913 moved with him to his hometown of Cherry Valley, NY. She died in Cherry Valley.

Hill, Charles Francis (1874-1953). American journalist and writer. Born in Philadelphia, PA, eldest son of Will and Fannie Hill, Francis Hill grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. In the early 1890s he spent several years on an uncle’s ranch in Montana, then returned to Pittsburgh to work as a journalist. Hill wrote The Outlaws of Horseshoe Hole (1901), a boys’ book about rustling in Montana, and Once on the Summer Range (1918). He planned another book about life in a Pennsylvania village, which Cather, in a 1902 article, “Pittsburgh Authors Known to Fame,” predicted would become a permanent part of American literature. Hill later aspired to be a playwright, copyrighting a one-act play, Pittsburgh, in 1914. In the 1920s and 1930s he worked for the Philadelphia Record. He died in Cleveland, OH. In the late 1890s he became a friend of Willa Cather, who brought him to visit George and Helen Seibel; he also visited Cather at the McClung house. Cather told Dorothy Canfield that both Hill and Isabelle McClung were deeply involved with her work on The Troll Garden (1905) stories. By 1910, when Cather made her last known reference to Hill, they seldom saw each other.

McClung, Samuel A. (1845-1915) American jurist, Isabelle McClung’s father. Born in Alleghany County, PA, to a Presbyterian minister and his wife, Samuel McClung graduated from Washington College in 1863 and in 1868 was admitted to the bar and moved to Pittsburgh, PA. He was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1872 and was known for his conservatism. He married Fannie Merritt in 1874 and they had three children, Isabelle, Samuel Jr., and Edith. In 1901 Isabelle McClung invited Willa Cather to reside in the McClung family home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and she lived there until her 1906 move to New York City. Cather often returned there to write until Judge McClung’s death caused the sale of family home in 1916.

Smith, Marion Winnafred Canfield (1873-1970). Artist, teacher, and Cather's college acquaintance. Born in Lincoln, NE, Smith attended the University of Nebraska and was also educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago. After teaching high school for a short time, Smith became the first art instructor at Kearney Normal School in Kearney, NE, in 1905, and remained until her retirement in 1943. Smith traveled to the Rosebud Indian Reservation and painted several watercolor portraits of Sioux people. A relative of James H. Canfield, Smith spent Thanksgiving with Cather at the Canfields in 1893.