 She is the namesake of Spelman College, founded to educate black women in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial.Laura Celestia Spelman was born in Wadsworth, Ohio to Puritan descendant Harvey Buell Spelman (1811–1881) and Lucy Henry (1818–1897), Yankees who had moved to Ohio from Massachusetts.Harvey was an abolitionist who was active in the Congregationalist Church, the Underground Railroad, and in politics.