Category: Civil War Women

Civil War Women
Civil War Women, Educators, Famous Firsts

Ann Preston

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First Woman Medical School Dean Ann Preston (December 1, 1813–April 18, 1872) was a doctor and educator of women in Pennsylvania. One of the most notable achievements of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in the 19th century was the role it played in the entrance of women into medicine. Ann Preston was one of those pioneer Quaker women doctors. Through her leadership and her persuasive influence, Dr. Preston promoted educational, professional and social changes that eventually established the right of women to study medicine and removed the barriers which blocked the path of those women who aspired to become competent and successful physicians. Early Years Ann Preston was born on December 1, 1813 in West Grove, Pennsylvania, Quaker community…

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Civil War Women

Belle Starr

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Bandit Queen of the American West? Belle Starr was a Confederate sympathizer and supposedly a notorious outlaw of the American West. She has been credited with a long list of spectacular crimes, but it appears that she might have done little more than traffic in stolen horses, bribe law enforcement officers and provide a haven for her outlaw friends. Image: Belle Starr Monument At the Woolaroc Museum Woolaroc, Oklahoma Early Years Belle Starr was born Myra Maybelle Shirley on February 5, 1848 on a farm near Carthage, Missouri. Her parents, John and Eliza Shirley, called their daughter Belle. The Shirleys had moved to Missouri in 1839, and had become wealthy raising wheat, corn, horses and livestock. In 1856, they sold…

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Dorothea Dix
Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Humanitarians, Poets and Writers, Social Reformers, Women in Education

Dorothea Dix

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Educator, Social Reformer and Humanitarian Dorothea Dix (1802–1887) was a social reformer, primarily for the treatment of the mentally ill, and the most visible humanitarian of the 19th century. Through a long and vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the U.S. Congress, Dix created the first generation of American mental hospitals. During the Civil War, she served as Superintendent of Army Nurses for the Union Army. Dorothea Lynde Dix was born on April 4, 1802 in Hampden, Maine. She was the first child of three born to Mary Bigelow Dix and Joseph Dix, an itinerant Methodist preacher. Her mother suffered from depression and was bedridden during most of Dorothea’s childhood. Her father was an abusive alcoholic. After her mother…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Women in Religion

Mary Baker Eddy

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First Woman to Found a Major Religion in the United States Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) was an influential American author, teacher and religious leader, noted for her groundbreaking ideas about spirituality and health, which she named Christian Science. She articulated those ideas in her major work, Science and Health (1875). Four years later she founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, which today has branch churches and societies around the world. Early Years Mary Morse Baker was born on July 16, 1821 in Bow, New Hampshire, the youngest of six children of Abigail and Mark Baker. Mary’s formal education was interrupted by periods of sickness. When not in school, she read and studied extensively at home, writing prose…

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African Americans, Civil War Women, Famous Firsts

Harriet Wilson

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First African American Woman Novelist Image: Harriet Wilson Memorial Statue Bicentennial Park, Milford, New Hampshire Harriet Wilson is considered the first African American of any gender to publish a novel on the North American continent as well as the author of the first novel by an African American woman. Her novel Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black was published anonymously in 1859 in Boston, Massachusetts, and was not widely known. It was re-discovered in 1982 by Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., which led to the publication of a facsimile edition in 1983. Image: Harriet Wilson Memorial Statue Bicentennial Park, Milford, New Hampshire Early Years Born a mixed race free person of color in Milford, New…

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Authors, Civil War Women

Martha Finley

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Author of the Elsie Dinsmore Novels Martha Finley (1828-1909) was a teacher and author of the well known the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series of novels which were published over a span of 38 years. Her Presbyterian upbringing was the source of inspiration for her life’s work, especially in the Elsie books. For over forty years she sold more books than any other juvenile author, besides Louisa May Alcott. Martha Finley was born in Chillicothe, Ohio on April 26, 1828, the daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and Maria Theresa Brown Finley. The Finleys were of Scotch-Irish heritage, with deep roots in the Presbyterian Church. Martha’s grandfather, Samuel Finley, served in the Revolutionary War and the War of…

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Authors, Civil War Women

Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Anglo American Novelist and Playwright Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) was an British American playwright and author. She is best known for her children’s stories, in particular Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), A Little Princess (1905) and The Secret Garden (1911). Her status as a divorced woman writer supporting her family with her earnings pushed the boundaries of what was considered ‘a woman’s place’ in 19th century society. Early Years Frances Eliza Hodgson was born on November 24, 1849 in Cheetham, near Manchester, England, the third of five children of Eliza Boond Hodgson and Edwin Hodgson, who owned a business selling quality ironmongery and brass goods. Frances was the middle of the five Hodgson children, with two older brothers and two younger…

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Authors, Civil War Women, Feminists

Abigail Scott Duniway

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Champion for Women’s Right to Vote Abigail Scott Duniway (1834–1915) was a true pioneer who rose from simple beginnings as an Illinois farm girl to become a nationally known champion of women’s suffrage in the Pacific Northwest, as well as a significant author, and editor and publisher of a pro-women’s rights newspaper. Well-read, well-informed, and interested in public issues, Duniway was particularly concerned about women’s economic plight. She fought for a woman’s right to own property in her own name and to secure that property from her husband and his creditors. She objected to the moral double standard, early marriages of young girls, and debilitating ‘excessive maternity.’ Early Years Abigail Jane Scott was born in a log cabin on October…

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Civil War Women, Educators, Famous Firsts

Laura Haviland

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Founded First School for Children of All Races Laura Haviland (1808-1898) was an American abolitionist, suffragist and pioneer social reformer who operated a station on the Underground Railroad in southeastern Michigan. Haviland also established Michigan’s first school for children of all races. This post includes direct quotes from her autobiography, A Woman’s Life-Work. Early Years Laura Smith was born on December 20, 1808, in Kitley Township in what is now eastern Ontario, Canada to American parents, Daniel and Sene Blancher Smith, farmers of modest means. The Smiths, were devout members of the Society of Friends, better known as Quakers – her father was a Quaker minister and her mother was an elder in that church, which favored gender equality. Though…

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Authors, Civil War Women

E.D.E.N. Southworth

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Most Popular Novelist of the Late 19th Century E.D.E.N. Southworth (1819-1899) was the author of more than 60 novels and was the most widely read American novelist of last half of the 19th century. She invariably signed herself Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth, though she began writing in 1844 to support herself and her children after Mr. Southworth deserted her four years into their marriage. Born in Washington, DC in 1819, she was christened Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte. Supposedly on his deathbed, her father, Captain Charles LeCompte Nevitte, persuaded a local priest to re-christen little Emma with two additional names so that her initials would spell out E.D.E.N. The acronym was well-suited to the novelist-to-be and she used it throughout her career….

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