They lived through the 1919 flu epidemic
Here is a photograph of the home economics laboratory at Bluffton College during the 1918-19 school year.
From left, Ruth Parrish, Mamie Stearns, Lelia Roth, Lillie Gratz, Edna Steinman, Marie Ringelman, Elizabeth Boehr, (center), Elrena Tschantz, Helen Schwartzentraub, Viola Welty, Blanch Augsburger, Lillian Lantz, Evelyn Weaver.