Rebekah Dulaney Peterkin

Rebekah Dulaney Peterkin
Born	September 24, 1847 Berryville, Virginia
Died	July 26, 1891 Cambridge, Maryland

Rebekah Dulaney Peterkin (a/k/a Rebecca Dulany Peterkin) (September 24, 1847 – July 26, 1891) is an American philanthropist who founded the first circle of the International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons in Virginia, and then the Sheltering Arms Hospital in Richmond.

Born in Berryville, Virginia as youngest child of Rev. Joshua Peterkin of Baltimore, Maryland (1814–1892) and his wife Elizabeth Howard Hanson (1820–1910), Rebekah Peterkin had a brother, future West Virginia bishop George W. Peterkin and a sister, Mary Beall Peterkin (1842–1857).

During the American Civil War, she assisted her mother and Capt. Sally Tompkins in Richmond hospitals. After the war, and the evacuation fire which destroyed much of Richmond and the livelihoods of many Richmonders, she grew keenly aware of the problems of members of her father's parish, St. James Church, many of whom could not afford medical or hospital care.

In 1883, Peterkin helped found the first Virginia circle (chapter) of the International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons, a Christian charitable organization. Six years later, after she convinced the owner of a local boarding house (a mansion before the war) to allow the organization to use the building rent free and a physician to donate his services. The group secured supplies and established Sheltering Arms Hospital to serve those unable to afford medical care. It was incorporated in March, 1891, with Peterkin serving as treasurer and R. Moses D. Hoge Jr, son of the minister of Second Presbyterian Church as warden.

Peterkin died in Cambridge, Maryland on July 26, 1891, and was interred with her parents and sister at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. Her brother, the Rt. Rev. George W. Peterkin, donated an alms basin to Christ Church (Easton, Maryland) in her memory in 1896.

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