Susan Shelby Magoffin

Pioneer Woman on the Santa Fe Trail Susan Shelby Magoffin was the young wife of a trader from the United States who traveled on the Santa Fe Trail in the late 1840s. She recorded her experiences in a diary – Down the Santa Fe Trail and Into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846-1847 (1926) – which has been used extensively as a source for that period in history. Image: 7-foot tall statue sculpted by Ethan Houser Keystone Heritage Park El Paso, Texas Early Years Susan Shelby was born into a wealthy family on July 30, 1827 on their plantation near Danville, Kentucky. She was the granddaughter of Isaac Shelby, a hero of the American Revolution and the first…

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Exile of the Roswell Mill Women

General Sherman Deported Women from the South In July 1864, approximately 400 mill workers in Georgia – nearly all women, were taken prisoner by the Union Army. They were then put on trains headed North, and few of them ever made their way back home. They would be referred to as Factory Hands or Roswell Women in the Official Records. Image: Roswell Mill Women Backstory During the summer of 1864, the Union Army under the leadership of General William Tecumseh Sherman advanced toward Atlanta, Georgia. The two armies faced off at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (June 27, 1864). Sherman discovered that the Confederate forces were too well entrenched so he cut his losses and continue toward Atlanta. The Chattahoochee…

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Grace Greenwood

First Woman Correspondent for the New York Times Sara Jane Lippincott (1823–1904) was an author, journalist and activist, better known by the pseudonym Grace Greenwood. One of the first women to gain access to the Congressional press galleries, she used the opportunity to advocate for social reform and women’s rights, while creating a path for future women correspondents. Throughout a career that lasted over half a century, Greenwood most often worked as a journalist. She and her writing were praised in many journals, including Female Prose Writers of America (1852), Female Poets of America (1859) and Eminent Women of the Age (1869), but she was often disliked for her strong opinions on women’s rights and the abolition of slavery.

Elizabeth Shaw Melville

Wife of Author Herman Melville Elizabeth Shaw Melville copied her husband’s works and edited his manuscripts when asked, before and after his death. She was devoted to the author, even when his behavior was erratic. Elizabeth Shaw was born June 13, 1822 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Knapp Shaw and Lemuel Shaw, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court and an old friend of the Melville family. It seems that everyone called her Lizzie. Her siblings were all boys, John Oakes, Lemuel and Samuel Savage Shaw. Herman Melville (1819-1891) was not only a novelist and a poet, he was also an adventurer. In 1841, he signed on the whaler Acushnet, on a three-year whaling voyage. He…

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Laura Keene

Performing at Ford’s Theatre When Lincoln Was Shot Laura Keene was a British-American stage actress who became known was the first powerful female theater manager and is credited with establishing New York City as the leading theatrical center in the United States. She was the featured actress in the production of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre, during which John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln. Early Years She was born Mary Frances Moss July 20, 1826 in Winchester, England to Jane Moss and Tomas King. In 1844, she married British Army officer John Taylor. They had two daughters, Emma (in 1846) and Clara Marie Stella (in 1849). After being discharged from the army, Taylor opened his own tavern. He…

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Rebecca Lukens

First and Most Prominent Woman CEO in the United States Rebecca Lukens was an American businesswoman, who ran a steel mill from 1825 until her retirement in 1847. In the mid-1990s, the mill – the Lukens Steel Company – was considered the oldest continuously operating steel mill in the U.S. In 1994, Fortune magazine named Lukens America’s first female CEO of an industrial company and inducted her into the National Business Hall of Fame. Image: Portrait of businesswoman Rebecca Lukens Early Years Rebecca Webb Pennock, the eldest daughter of Isaac Pennock, was born on January 6, 1794. She grew up in the business, often accompanying her father in the mill. She had a great desire to learn, and with the…

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Allegheny Arsenal Explosion

Civil War Women in the Arsenals On September 17, 1862, seventy-eight girls and young women were killed in an explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – the worst civilian disaster of the Civil War. The deaths of these young women were given little press coverage because the Battle of Antietam was fought the same day. This post is dedicated to their memory. Image: Allegheny Arsenal Laboratory Building (circa 1870) and the Stone Road Employment at the arsenal enticed young girls, widows, mothers and wives who were struggling to support their families while their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons were fighting in the Union Army. Most relied on community members such as physicians and clergyman…

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Clemence Sophia Harned Lozier

Doctor and Pioneer in Women’s Education Clemence Sophia Harned Lozier was one of the first women doctors in the United States. In 1863 she founded the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women, the first school where women of New York City could study medicine and the first hospital where women patients could receive medical care from doctors of their own gender. Image: Dr. Clemence Sophia Harned Lozier Early Years Dr. Clemence Sophia Harned was born December 11, 1813, in Plainfield, New Jersey, and educated in the Plainfield Academy. She was the youngest of 13 children born to David and Hannah Walker Harned, who had lived among the Native Americans in Virginia for several years before moving to New…

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Trostle Farm

Heroism and Sacrifice at Trostle Farm In July 1863, the Trostle Farm south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was owned by Peter Trostle, but it was occupied by his daughter-in-law Catherine and her nine children. Her husband Abraham was incarcerated in the lunatic asylum. The Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners stated that: “Abraham Trostle has been confined and chained to his room for five years.” Image: Dead horses at Trostle Farm This photo of the Catherine Trostle house was taken on July 6, four days after the fighting raged around her farm. The 134 acre farm was described as having: a newly built wood-frame house, a spring house, a large Pennsylvania style bank barn, a wagon shed addition, a corn…

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Women Slaves in Colonial Virginia

Women Slaves in the Colony of Virginia Slavery is a civil relationship in which one person has absolute power over the fortune, life and liberty of another. Chattel slavery further defines that relationship with the added dimension of ownership as personal property (chattel), in which the chattel can be bought and sold as if they were commodities. Chattel slavery was legal in the American colonies from the mid-17th century to the end of the Civil War in 1865. A slave is a human being who is forced to obey the commands of others, and to work for nothing. A chattel slave is an enslaved person who is owned forever and whose children and children’s children are automatically enslaved as well….

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