Gutsy Women: November 2005

Monday, November 28, 2005

Valaida Snow, Musician

Valaida Snow was born into a family of musicians on June 2, 1903 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her mother taught Valaida, her sisters and her brother how to play multiple instruments. She and all her siblings eventually became professional musicians. Valaida learned to play the cello, bass, violin, banjo, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, saxophone and trumpet.

With her musical talent Valaida was naturally an entertainer. At the age of fifteen years old she was already a recognized professional singer and trumpet player. While her beauty attracted audiences, it was her incredible talent as a jazz trumpeter that really captivated them. She was given the nickname of "Little Louis" because of her Louis Armstrong-like playing style. During her career she toured and recorded frequently in the United States, Europe and Far East both with her own bad and other leader's bands. From 1930 through 1950 Valaida was seen performing with various jazz "greats" including, Earl Hines, Count Basie, Teddy Weatherford, Willie Lewis and Fletcher Henderson.

She was also an actress and she debuted her acting career on Broadway in 1942 as Mandy in the Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle's musical Chocolate Dandies. She went on to appear in many other Broadway productions including Pieges in 1939 with her husband Ananais Berry.

After headlining at the Apollo Theater in New York, Valaida returned to Europe and the Far East to perform. World War II had already begun and she was arrested by the Germans for theft and misuse of drugs. She was held prisoner for 18 months at Wester-Faengle, a Nazi concentration camp. Later, in unstable health, she was released as an exchange prisoner. Although imprisonment caused her great physical and psychological health problems, she resumed performing and appeared at several prestigious engagements. It was during this time that she married producer Earl Edwards.

Valaida's contagious energy and spark was characterized in her 1930's style. In the 1940's her style changed to reflect the deep blues feeling she was known and admired for as well as her tremendous breadth and depth of talent. She made her last performance at the Palace Theater in New York in 1956 and died that year on May 30th of a cerebral hemorrhage. Her rare talent was as much a curiosity as it was admired as she was a women in the male dominated jazz world. She was truly another gutsy woman!

Source: http://GustyWomen.blogspot.com

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Sunday, November 20, 2005

Elizabeth Van Lew, Civil War Spy

Elizabeth Van Lew was born October 17, 1818 in Richmond, Virginia to a prominent, wealthy family. She gained her education in a Philadelphia Quaker school where she eventually became an abolitionist. When she returned to her family's home in Richmond she convinced her mother to free the family's slaves.

After the Civil War started, she openly supported the Union. She took items of clothing, food and medicine to the prisoners at the Confederate Libby Prison and passed information to U.S. General Grant, spending much of her family fortune to support her espionage. She is thought to have also helped prisoners escape from Libby Prison. To hide her activities she took on an alias name of "Crazy Bet," dressing oddly. She was never arrested for her spying activites.

Her espionage activities even reached as far as the Confederate White House. One of the Van Lew emancipated slaves, Mary Elizabeth Bowser, whose education in Philadelphia was financed by Elizabeth, returned to Richmond and Elizabeth helped her to get employment in the Confederate White House. As a maid, Bowser was ignoed as she served meals and overheard conversations. She was also able to read documents she found in the House. Bowser passed what she learned to fellow slaves, and with Van Lew's aid, this valuable information was also shared with General Grant.

After the war ended, Grant appointed Van Lew as postmistress of Richmond where she was largely shunned by her neighbors. She had spent most of her money on her pro-Union activities, and, although she stayed in the family mansion until her death in 1990, she died in poverty, living only on an annuity from the family of a Union soldier she had helped.

Elizabeth Van Lew was truly a remarkable and "gutsy" woman!

Source: http://GutsyWomen.blogspot.com

Friday, November 18, 2005

Hazel Mountain Walker

Hazel Mountain Walker, born February 16, 1889 was the daughter of Chrles and Alice Mountain. As a young woman she attended Cleveland Normal Training School and in 1909 earned a Bachelor's and Master's in Education from Western Reserve University. During the summer break, when she was not teaching, Hazel worked towards a Law Degree at Baldwin-Wallace College where she earned her degree and passed the bar in 1919. Her motivation to become an attorney was to prove that black women could become lawyers.

She married George Herbert Walker on June 28, 1922. Unfortunately, he died in 1956. Then, in 1961 she married Joseph R. Walker of Massachusetts. She never had any children.

Hazel taught students who came from homes where no English was spoken and/or their families could not read at the Mayflower Elementary School from 1909-36. She also tutored black children from the juvenile court system who were from the South and having trouble adjusting to the Cleveland schools. In 1936 she became the principal at Rutherford B. Hayes Elementary School and in 1954 the principal at George Washington Carver Elementary school where she worked until she retired in 1958. In 1961 Hazel was elected to serve on the Ohio State Board of Education. She resigned in 1963 and moved out of state.

Hazel Walker was one of the first African Americans to be a part of the Women's City Club. She named the Karamu House in 1924 where she was a member and an actress. She was also a member of the Cuyahoga County Republican Party executive committee during the 1930's.

Certainly Hazel Mountain Walker was another gutsy woman!

Source: http://GustyWomen.blogspot.com

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Abbie Burgess Grant

Abbie Burgess was born in 1938 in Maine, she was one of ten children. She had two older sisters, one older brother, five younger sisters and her youngest sibling was a boy. She had limited formal schooling and was, instead, home-schooled by her mother. She could read and write.

In 1853, Abbie's father, Sam Burgess, was appointed Lighthouse Keeper at Matinicus Rock. As a young woman she married Isaac Grant, son of Captain John Grant, the keeper of Matinicus after her father. Together they had four children: Francis, Melvina, Mary Louise and Harris.

Although her father and father-in-law held the title of Lighthouse Keeper at Matinicus Rock, it was Abbie that was in charge of the work. In 1873, Isaac was appointed Keeper at the White Head Light Station and he and Abbie tended the lights there. In 1875 Abbie received her appointment of assistant keeper at White Head. Unfortunately, in 1890 she was forced, by illness, to retire.

At the time of her death in 1892 she was living in a house on Maple Street in Portland, Maine.

Source: http://GutsyWomen.blogspot.com

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Maria Isabella Boyd

Born on May 4, 1844 in Martinsburg, Virginia, Belle (as she was called) came from a typical Southern family. Her father, Ben, was a store merchant and grocer. Unfortunately, several brothers died before the Civil War. Later, Belle's father joined the Virginia Cavalry and she was left with her sister Mary Jane, age 10, her brother Bill, age 4, her mother and grandmother. Between the ages of 12 and 16 she attended the Mount Washington Female College in Baltimore, Maryland.

Soon after the start of the Civil War she began organizing parties to visit the troops. At that time she also shot and killed a Union soldier who had pushed her mother. She was acquitted of the crime and shortly thereafter became a courier for Generals Beauregarde and Jackson. She carried information, delivered medical supplies and confiscated weapons. Belle made a few heroic rides through battle fields in order to get her "secrets" across the lines to the South.

During the war she was imprisoned three times. In 1862 she was imprisoned in old Carroll Prison in Washington, D.C. for one month.

In 1864 she left for England carrying information for the confederates. There she married a Union naval officer.

This gutsy woman died in 1900 in her home in Kilbourne City, Wisconsin (now known as Wisconsin Dells). She is buried in the Spring Grove Cemetery there.

Source: http://GutsyWomen.blogspot.com

Monday, November 14, 2005

Rachel Carson

Born on May 27, 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania Rachel Carson was the youngest of three children. She had a rugged childhood living in a simple farmhouse outside the western Pennsylvania river town. She credited her mother with introducing her to the wonders of nature that became her lifelong passion.

After her education was completed Rachel joined the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries as the writer of a radio show entitled "Romance Under the Waters," in which she was able to explore life under the ocean and bring it to her listeners. In 1936, after being the first woman to take and pass the civil service test, the Bureau of Fisheries hired her as a full-time junior biologist and for the next 15 years she rose in the ranks until she was the chief editor of all publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In the 1940's she began to write books on her observations of underwater exploration. She resigned from her government position in 1952 in order to devote all her time and energy to writing. The idea for her most famous book, Silent Spring, emerged and she began writing it in 1957. The book was published in 1962 and influenced President Kennedy, who had read it, to call for testing of the chemicals mentioned in the book. Rachel Carson has been called the mother of the modern environmental movement.

She died on April 14, 1964 in her home in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Source: http://GutsyWomen.blogspot.com

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Elizabeth Keckley

Born 1818/9 to George and Agnes Hobbs in Hillsborough, North Carolina, Lizzie, as she was referred to, had no formal education. Her parents were slaves and her father had a different master than her mother and lived 100 miles from Lizzie. Lizzie's father was allowed to visit only at Easter and Christmas. After age 7 or 8, she never saw her father again as his master moved away, taking George with him. Lizzie was with her mother most of the time until her teenage years, then she was given to the Colonel's son and his bride as a wedding gift. Lizzie's skills as a seamstress were taught to her by her mother during her childhood. Her skills as a seamstress eventually helped her earn her freedom and that of her son.

Her only child, George, was named after her father. George's father was a friend and neighbor of the Colonel's son. George was born through an unwanted and forced relationship. Lizzie went on to marrie James Keckly in 1852 and within a few years found out he was not emancipated and was an alcoholic. Lizzie's master had promised she could buy freedom for herself and her son after he died; but she did not have the money when he passed away. Thanks to the generosity of one of her patrons, she was loaned the $1,200 she needed for their freedom.

Lizzie had quite a list of accomplishments during her life including:

1. Starting a school for young black girls to teach them sewing and etiquette in Baltimore, Maryland (her first home after she gained her freedom).

2. She was the personal dressmaker for Mary Todd Lincoln after her work on Mary's Inaugural Ball gown pleased the President and Mrs Lincoln very much.

3. President and founder of the first Black Contraband Relief Association.

4. Lizzie was Mary Todd Lincoln's best friend and confidante. She seemed to be the only person who understood and tolerated Mary's unstable temperament and sharp tongue.

5. Wrote a book, Behind the Scenes, about the life of Mary Todd Lincoln, and the happenings in the White House during Lincoln's tenure. The book was very controversial and Mary Todd's eldest son had the book removed from publication.

Here's to another Gutsy Woman!

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Mary Edwards Walker, M.D.

Mary Edwards Walker was definitely a "gutsy" woman. She has the distinction of being a prisoner of war during the Civil War, writer, doctor, fashion trend-setter and the only female to receive the Medal of Honor.

She was born November 26, 1832 in Oswego, New York. She was the youngest of five daughters and one son, born to Alvah and Vesta Walker. Her father was a carpenter-farmer and abolitionist who believed in free thinking and many of the reform movements in the mid-1800's, including education and equality for his daughters, as well as dress reform. The girls provided farm labor, so their father did not expect them to wear restrictive undergarments while working. He also intended that all his children would be educated and pursue professional careers.

Mary had shown an interest in her father's medical books at an early age so was encouraged to pursue this career. While teaching she saved money and, in December 1853, enrolled in Syracuse Medical College. After three 13-week semesters of medical training she graduated in June, 1855. At 21 years old she was the only woman in her class, and the second female doctor in the nation.

Mary led a controversial life, most likely fostered by her father's thinking and she became an early supporter of women's rights and passtionately spoke about dress reform. In 1856, at her wedding to Albert Miller, another physician, she wore trousers and a man's coat. Their wedding vows did not include anything about "obeying." And, she kept her own last name. Mary and Albert began a joint medical practice in Rome, New York, but many people were not ready for a woman physician so the practice floundered. Albert was apparently unfaithful to her and so, four years later, they separated and Mary moved into a smaller room for living and working.

In the summer of 1860 she stayed with a family friend in Delhi, Owa, hoping to secure a divorce (Iowa had more lenient laws), but she returned to Rome without the divorce the next summer, most likely due to the outbreak of the Civil War. In July, 1861, just after the Battle of Bull Run she went to Washington, D.C, to join the Army as a medical officer. She was denied, so she volunteered, serving as acting assistant surgeon at the hospital setup in the U.S. Patient Office.

In September 1863, Mary was appointed assistant surgeon to the 52nd Ohio Infantry in Cumberland, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and wore a slightly modified version of an officer's unfiorm, carying two pistols at all times. On April 10, 1864, wearing her uniform she walked into a band of Confederate soldiers just south of the Georgia-Tennessee border and was taken hostage. For four months she was imprisoned at Castle Thunder, near Richmond, Virginia. She complained about the lack of grain and vegetables for prisoners and the Confederates added wheat bread and cabbage to the food rations. On August 12, 1864 she was exchanged, along with 24 other Union doctors, for 17 Confederate doctors. She was proud that her exchange was for a Confederate surgeon of the rank of major.

May returned to Ohio as a contract surgeon and after a long appeal to the government for a commission for her service in the War was finally granted her commission as acting assistant surgeon, with a $100 monthly salary. For her wartime service she was paid $766.16 and later received a monthly pension of $8.50 (later raised to $20.00).

Upon recommendation of Major Generals William T. Sherman and George H. Thomas, on November 11, 1865, President Andrew Johnson signed a bill to present Dr. Mary Edwards Walker with the Congressional Medical of Honor for Meritorious Service. She remains the only woman to receive the Congressional Medical of Honor - the highest military award of the US at the time.

After the war ended, Mary worked to get relief bills for war nurses, but the Congressional bills died in committee. She also began writing and lecturing throughout the United States and abroad on women's rights, dress reform, health and temperance issues. In 1868 she and Belva Lockwood testified before the Judiciary Committee of the District of Columbia House of Delegates, on a bill to allow women in the D.C. area to vote.

In 1869 Mary finally received her divorce from New York state. Two years later she wrote her first book, "hit," which was a combination autobiography and commentary on divorce. She called for more equitable laws so wives and children could excape unhappy homes; thus requiring the women's ability to vote. She went on to write another book in 1878 as well.

In 1880 her father passed away, leaving her the Bunker Hill farm. She lived there until she passed away. In 1917, while in Washington, she fell on the Capitol steps. She was 85 years old and never fully recovered. She died two years later on February 21, 1919 while staying at a neighbor's home in Oswego. Almost penniless, she was not so much remembered for her service to her country as she was for being "that shocking female surgeon in trousers!" In that same year, the 19th Amendment was ratified.

In 1982 the US Post Office issued a 20-cent stamp honoring Dr. Mary Walker as the first woman to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and as the second woman to graduate from a medical school in the U.S. In 2000, Mary Edwards Walker was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.

Copyright M. A. Webb, 2005. All Rights Reserved.

(Source: http://GutsyWomen.blogspot.com)

Victoria Woodhull

There were quite a number of women who made their mark on history in the 19th and early 20th century. Victoria Woodhull was one of those "gutsy" women.

Born in September, 1838 in Homer, Ohio and was one of nine children. At the age of ten she began believing that she experienced "visions" and she began believing that she possessed spirits. In 1853, at the age of 16 years, she married a Cincinnati patient medicine salesman, Dr. Canning Woodhull, who used her persuasive talents to sale the "Elixir of Life." In 1854 she gave birth to a son, Byron and in 1861 a daughter, Zula Maud.

Eleven years later and after building an immunity to the benefits of the "Elixir" she divorced Woodhull and married James Blood and moved back to New York City where her "talents" were discovered by financier Cornelius Vanderbilt. With his backing Vitoria and her sister founded the journal Woodhull and Chaflin's Weekly. The journal advocated a single morality, which Victoria boastfully practiced, and free love. In 1869 she used stock tips from Vanderbuilt and made a fortune during the Stock Market Crash. In that same year she attended the National Flemale Suffrage Convention.

The journal gave Victoria a base of operations in which she could catapult herself into the national political arena. In 1872 she was nominated as a presidential candidate by the Equal Rights Party, making her the first woman in history to be nominated to the highest office in the land. Of course, in 1872, women could not vote for her, even if they had wanted to, and so her vote tally in the election was so pitiful that it wasn't even recorded.

Her defeat at the polls only served to whet her appetite for doing battle. She exposed Reverend Henry Ward Beecher and Luther Challis for practicing free love and was later arrested, jailed and then later acquitted of charges. In 1877 she divorced Blood and departed for England where she married an English Banker, John Biddulph Martin. In 1895 she started the Humanitarian Newspaper and was actively involved in the Continental and Isle liberal society. Up until her death in 1927 she occasionally returned to New York to continue her battle against male chauvinism and to inspire women's rights.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Florence Kling Harding

Florence Kling Harding, wife of President Warren Harding, was born August 15, 1860 in Marion, Ohio. She was the eldest child of three, with two younger brothers. Her father owned a hardware store, which led to owning other businesses and banks, making him the wealthiest man in Marion. Unfortunately, he was also tyrannical and her mother, depressed and submissive. If the Kling children did not make their curfew at night, her father would lock their mansion doors and expect them to care for themselves until morning.

At the age of 19 Florence became pregnant by her young boyfriend. Most likely to escape from her father, the two eloped in March of 1880 and moved to Galion, Ohio. On September 22, 1880 she gave birth to a son, Marshall. Henry turned out to be an alcoholic and heavy spender and left her on December 22, 1882. Florence returned to Marion with her son and refused to ask, or receive, any help from her father. Instead she rented a room and began giving piano lessons. After two years her father finally asked her to move back home with Marshall, suggesting that they both use the Kling family name. Florence refused and in September, 1884, she filed for separation. Her father, Amos, then proposed another offer. He would not support Florence raising Marshall, but he would take his grandson as his own, easing her financial burden. Florence agreed. She and Henry were divorced in 1886.

From this whole ordeal, Florence developed a lifelong empathy for people struggling against society's expectations and refused to judge the choices people made when attempting to survive. She wholeheartedly supported feminism and developed strong beliefs about the rights and abilities of women to determine their own futures without male interference. "No man, father, brother, lover or husband can ruin my life," she said. "I claim the right to live the life the good Lord gave me, myself."

Florence loved her business work (she had worked in her father's stores since she was a young girl) but the reality of women in society in that day prevented her from being independently wealthy or holding powerful positions. She was also a skilled horsewoman, was physically very strong and yet also skilled in the arts of needlepoint and hosuekeeping. She had great musical talent and attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music for one year before her father ordered her to return home.

She met Warren Harding (five years older than her) in the late 1880's through one of her piano students, Charity Harding (Warren's sister). Florence pursued Warren relentlessly, even though he had a girlfriend at the time and was known to be quite "an amiable rake." Florence's father, Amos, was adamently opposed to having Florence and Waren together but despite his disapproval, the two were married on July 8, 1891 in the house they had built together. They never had any children together.

Florence rallied behind Warren's political career and became the driving force bethind the growth and establishment of his newspaper business. In 1894, when Warren checked into the famous Battle Creek Sanitarium for health reasons she took over the newspaper and never left. It was the opportunity she had been waiting for all her life.

When Warren was nominated as a presidential candidate in 1920 Florence enthusiastically backed him. But she was secretly concerned that his extramarital affairs would be publicly exposed. He had had many affairs including a 15-year relationship with Florence's best friend Carrie Phillips (the only known mistress in US history to successfully blackmail a president) and his Senate aide Grace Cross.

Florence was also concerned about her age (60 years) and her health. She had a kidney removed in 1905 and was prone to debilitating kidney infections. However, she put all her concerns aside and campaigned vigorously, even fostering the first use of Hollywood movie stars in a presidential race. The American people were very weary after the war and responded to Warren's campaign slogan "Back to normalcy" and elected him in a landslide victory. Florence became the First Lady to vote for her husband becoming President.

Florence loved opening the White House grounds to the public and enjoyed a lively social calendar. Social events were frequent and she also visited injured veterans in the hospital. She always maintained her independence, proving to be on the greatest feminists of the day. She was her husband's key advisor, involved in many charities, and crusaded for women's right. She was the First Lady to fly in an airplane (with a woman pilot no less) and the First Lady to appear in newsreels without the president.

Rumors of Scandals (Tea Pot Dome, events that transpired with Charles Forbes and the extramarital affairs) prompted the Hardings to begin a public relations tour in 1923. They visited Alaska and Canada and were heading east from the west coast when Warren became ill and died on August 2, 1923 in San Francisco. Opinions on what caused his death were varied (stroke, heart attack, food poisonining or deliberate poisoning by Florence) ran rampant. The fact that Florence refused an autopsy only contributed to the people's suspicions about her. The official cause of Warren's death is listed as a stroke.

Florence returned to Washington by train with her husband's body. The public, still unaware of the depth of the scandals greeted the funeral possession in droves. After Warren's death she tried to preserve their reputations by burning all the personal papers she could find. She then returned to Marion, Ohio where she died, on November 21, 1924, of kidney disease 15 months later.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Freda McDonald (aka Josephine Baker)

Josephine Baker was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1906 to parents Carrie McDonald and Eddie Carson. At the age of 12 she dropped out of school although we can see by her accomplishments that this did not stop her from being a "gutsy" woman.

Overcoming the limitations society put upon her because of the color of her skin, she became one of the world's most versatile entertainers, performing on stage, screen and recordings. She was decorated for her undercover work for the French Resistance during World War II. She was also a civil rights activist and she refused to perform for segregated audiences and helped to integrate the Las Vegas nightclubs. Amazingly, she adopted two children from around the world whom she called her "Rainbow Tribe."

In 1975, after a large party given in her honor, Josephine died in her sleep in Paris, France. She was buried in Monaco and became the first American woman to receive French military honors at her funeral.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Margaret Bourke-White

Margaret Bourke-White is a woman of many "firsts." She was a forerunner in the newly emerging field of photojournalism, and was the first female to be hired as such. She was the first photographer for Fortune magazine, in 1929. In 1930, she was the first Western photographer allowed into the Soviet Union.

She was born on June 14, 1904 in The Bronx, NY. She attended several universities throughout the United States while pursuing a degree in Herpetology (the study of reptiles) and she received her degree in 1927 from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

Margaret began to study photography as a hobby while a very young woman. She developed the styles and techniques that she needed for various formats on her own. Her father was also somewhat of a camera enthusiast and he exposed her to photography as a young child.

Her father, Joseph White, was of Polish-Jewish background. He was an inventor and an engineer. He believed in equality in education and opportunity for all his children. Margaret's mother, Minnie Bourke, was of Irish-English ancestry and was a loving and nurturing mother. Minnie was completing her college degree at the time of her death. Margaret was married twice; once to Everett Chapman, when she was but 18 years old; and to Erskine Caldwell, the writer, in 1939, after they had worked together. They divorced in 1942.

Henry Luce hired her as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine, soon after its creation in 1935, and one of her photographs adorned its first cover. She was the first female war correspondent and the first to be allowed to work in combat zones during World War II, and one of the first photographers to enter and document the death camps. She made history with the publication of her haunting photos of the Depression in the book You Have Seen Their Faces, a collaboration with husband-to-be Erskine Caldwell. She wrote six books about her international travels. She was the premiere female industrial photographer, getting her start in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Otis Steel Company about 1927.

At the time of her death on August 27, 1971 she lived in Connecticut. Here's another GUTSY WOMAN!

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Jennie Hodgers (aka "Cashier")

(excerpt taken from http://www.amcivilwarbiography.homestead.com/hodgers.html)

"Jennie Hodgers was one of the several women who served in the Civil War. She is noted as holding the record for documented service for female soldiers in the war, having completed a three-year term in the 95th Illinois Infantry Regiment. Other women may have served for a longer period of time, perhaps having moved from regiment to regiment to avoid having their disguise discovered, but recorded information on this is lacking. Annie Etheridge served with three different regiments over a period of three years but she served more as a first-aid worker or nurse, not as a soldier.

Jennie Hodgers was born in Belfast in Ireland in 1844. In September 1862, when she was eighteen, she joined the recently formed 95th Illinois Regiment under the name "Albert Cashier", giving the occupation of farmer. The regiment then made its way to Mississippi to join General Grant. "Cashier" became noted for "his" fearlessness and good health.

"Cashier" took part at the Siege of Vicksburg when General Grant's troops forced the Confederate garrison to surrender. The Vicksburg monument to Illinois soldiers who fought there includes "his" name among more than 30,000.

"Cashier" took part in around forty battles and was never wounded, which was why Jennie Hodgers escaped discovery. "He" fought in such major battles as Brice Crioss Roads and was at the Siege of Mobile.

After the war "Cashier" worked as a farmhand and handyman in various small towns in Illinois. In February 1890 "he" applied for a governemnt pension but refused to take a medical examination an was refused.

The real identity of "Albert Cashier" was not discovered until 1911 when "he" was involved in a car accident. "He" had been employed to help with household chores and "his" employer accidently hit "him" with his car and broke "his" leg. The doctor who was called discovered a deception that had succeeded for over 50 years.

The doctor and employer dealt sensitively with the issue and did not make Jennie Hodger's secret public. Instead they helped her get a place in the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Quincy, Illinois, by telling the commandant of the home about the problem."

Friday, November 04, 2005

Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D.

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate from medical school (M.D.); pioneer in educating women in medicine

Born in England, Elizabeth Blackwell's early education was by private tutor. Samuel Blackwell, her father, moved the family to the United States in 1832. He became involved, as he had been in England, in social reform. His involvement with abolitionism led to a friendship with William Lloyd Garrison.

Samuel Blackwell's business ventures did not do well. He moved the family from New York to Jersey City and then to Cincinnati. Samuel died in Cincinnati, leaving the family without financial resources.

Elizabeth Blackwell, her two older sisters Anna and Marian, and their mother opened a private school in Cincinnati to support the family. Elizabeth became interested, after initial repulsion, in the topic of medicine and particularly in the idea of becoming a woman physician, to meet the needs of women who would prefer to consult with a woman about health problems. Her family religious and social radicalism was probably also an influence on her decision. Elizabeth Blackwell said much later that she was also seeking a "barrier" to matrimony.

Elizabeth Blackwell went to Henderson, Kentucky, as a teacher, and then to North and South Carolina, where she taught school while reading medicine privately. She said later, "The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me." And so in 1847 she began searching for a medical school that would admit her for a full course of study.

Elizabeth Blackwell was rejected by all the leading schools to which she applied, and almost all the other schools as well. When her application arrived at Geneva Medical College at Geneva, New York, the administration asked the students to decide whether to admit her or not. The students, reportedly believing it to be only a practical joke, endorsed her admission.

When they discovered that she was serious, both students and townspeople were horrified. She had few allies and was an outcast in Geneva. At first, she was even kept from classroom medical demonstrations, as inappropriate for a woman. Most students, however, became friendly, impressed by her ability and persistence.

Elizabeth Blackwell graduated first in her class in January, 1849, becoming thereby the first woman to graduate from medical school, the first woman doctor of medicine in the modern era. She decided to pursue further study, and, after becoming a naturalized United States citizen, she left for England.

After a brief stay in England, Elizabeth Blackwell entered training at the midwives course at La Maternité in Paris. While there, she suffered a serious eye infection which left her blind in one eye, and she abandoned her plan to become a surgeon.

From Paris she returned to England, and worked at St. Bartholomew's Hospital with Dr. James Paget. It was on this trip that she met and became friends with Florence Nightingale.

In 1851 Elizabeth Blackwell returned to New York, where hospitals and dispensaries uniformly refused her association. She was even refused lodging and office space by landlords when she sought to set up a private practice, and she had to purchase a house in which to begin her practice.

She began to see women and children in her home. As she developed her practice, she also wrote lectures on health, which she published in 1852 as The Laws of Life; with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls.

In 1853, Elizabeth Blackwell opened a dispensary in the slums of New York City. Later, she was joined at the dispensary by her sister Emily Blackwell, newly graduated with a medical degree, and by Dr. Marie E. Zakrzewska, an immigrant from Poland whom Elizabeth had encouraged in her medical education. A number of leading male physicians supported their clinic by acting as consulting physicians.

Having decided to avoid marriage, Elizabeth Blackwell nevertheless sought a family, and in 1854 adopted an orphan, Katharine Barry, known as Kitty. They remained companions into Elizabeth's old age.

In 1857, the Blackwell sisters and Dr. Zakrzewska incorporated the dispensary as the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. Zakrzewska left after two years for Boston, but not before Elizabeth Blackwell went on a year-long lecture tour of Great Britain. While there, she became the first woman to have her name on the British medical register (January 1859). These lectures, and personal example, inspired several women to take up medicine as a profession.

When Elizabeth Blackwell returned to the United States in 1859, she resumed work with the Infirmary. During the Civil War, the Blackwell sisters helped to organize the Women's Central Association of Relief, selecting and training nurses for service in the war. This venture helped to inspire the creation of the United States Sanitary Commission, and the Blackwells worked with this organization as well.

A few years after the end of the war, in November 1868, Elizabeth Blackwell carried out a plan that she'd developed in conjunction with Florence Nightingale in England: with her sister, Emily Blackwell, she opened the Women's Medical College at the infirmary. She took the chair of hygiene herself.

This college was to operate for thirty-one years, but not under Elizabeth Blackwell's direct guidance. She moved the next year to England. There, she helped to organize the National Health Society and she founded the London School of Medicine for Women.

An Episcopalian, then a Dissenter, then a Unitarian, Elizabeth Blackwell returned to the Episcopal church and became associated with Christian socialism.

In 1875, Elizabeth Blackwell was appointed professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Children, founded by Elizabeth Garrett. She remained there until 1907 when she retired after a serious fall downstairs. She died in Sussex in 1910.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Lou Henry Hoover

Lou Henry Hoover, wife to President Herbert Hoover, was another gutsy woman. This information was found at: http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/Hooverstory/gallery08/gallery08.html

"Born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1874, the future Lou Henry Hoover learned to love the outdoors from her banker father. Speaking of her parents she wrote, "They would not want me to stay meekly at home." The day after her marriage in February 1899, the bride left for China, the first of an unending series of global journeys that would carry her to the furthest corners of civilization.

Throughout her life, Lou was very much her husband's partner in everything he did, whether pursuing the history of mining, caring for Americans stranded in Europe by World War I, feeding desperate Belgium, or convincing her countrymen to voluntarily reduce their food consumption during the war in order to aid the Allies. When Prohibition became law, the man of the house emptied his cellar of the finest port in California. "I don't have to live with the American people," he told a friend. "But I do have to live with Lou."

Not until Jacqueline Kennedy restored the White House in the 1960s would a First Lady lavish so much time and energy on the old house. Lou turned the second-floor West hall into a gracious room filled with bookcases and palms and transformed the shabby first floor into a showcase for American art and antiques.

When the Great Depression cast a shadow over her husband's presidency, Lou hired secretaries to channel assistance to victims of hard time, after first concealing her own involvement. She also accompanied the president on his unsuccessful 1932 reelection campaign. At the end she still managed a smile for reporters. "See, we are carrying on," she said. And so she was."

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Rachel Cormany

Rachel Cormany was originally born in Canada but moved to Chambersburg with her husband, Samuel, during the war. She began writing in her diary well before the war. Her diary entries for the war years vividly describe her life as a woman on the home front. Alone while her husband served in the Union Army, Rachel often complained of depression and boredom. After the war, the Cormanys moved to Missouri to live on a farm.

Here's an excerpt from her diary dated June 23, 1863:

"I packed my trunk last evening ready to start to Phil'dia not knowing whether I could get away or not--went to bed at midnight & slept well till after six this morning. I expected to find the town full of rebels but not a rebel could I see--none had come--So after breakfast I took Cora on my arms & started out for a walk. met Mrs Clippinger at her door, asked her to go along for a walk, so we walked on until we saw where our men threw up breastworks but did not go near enough to examine them. Met quite a number of people (men & boys) going out as we came in9--we sat down by the roadside & rested a little while then started on. just as we got to the edge of town or near it--two men came riding in fast as their horses could go--one said "The d--d buggers fired on us. the other looked as pale as death his mouth wide open--his hat lost--he was too badly frightened to speak. They me a few of our Cavalry at the edge of town--they whirled & put off. I got a little frightened when those two men made so ugly & the cavalry men warned us to go into the houses, looking so fierce with their hands on the gun triggers ready to shoot--all at once I got so weak I could scarcely walk, but that was over in a few minutes & I could walk faster than before. The people were wonderfully frightened again, such a running. The streets were full--It was not long until the reb's really made their appearance--I do not think that they are Cav. but mounted infantry--they most of them have nothing but a musket to fight with. They rode in as leisurely as you please each one having his hand on the trigger though, to fire any minute--now I judge we are shut out again for awhile--I just wonder what they want this time. They are part of those that were here last week. P.M. just ate a piece & fed my baby--both of us took a good nap after our walk. Evening--The Reb's have been cutting up high. Sawed down telegraph poles, destroyed the scotland bridge10 again took possession of the warehouses & were dealing out flour by the barrel & mollasses by the bucket ful--They made people take them bread--meat--&c to eat--Some dumb fools carried them jellies & the like--Not a thing went from this place.11 Three canno went through when they came--but just now they took them back. wonder what that means again. from 7 to 15 thousand infantry are expected on tonight. they are reported to be at Greencastle by a man just from there. Well whatever betides us the good Lord is able to protect us. And He will protect us. Old Plough wanted Annie to go with him to the country but she would not go & leave me here alone. That was mean in Plough. Annie told me herself--It shows what a great heart he has."

Now, here was a gutsy woman!!!

Copyright M. A. Webb, 2005. All Rights Reserved.

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