Cordelia Perrine Harvey came to Wisconsin as a young school mistress. She would meet and marry Louis Harvey, who would rise to the governorship of Wisconsin. Cordelia’s life unraveled when she was widowed after less than three months in the Governor’s Mansion. Her husband’s tragic drowning left Cordelia rudderless and without a purpose. She would set aside her grief to become the healing angel of a nation wracked by civil war. Some consider her the mother of the modern Veteran's Administration.