Women in History

Molly and the Hello Girls

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My latest release, a wholesome historical romance set in World War I, just released July 11.

Molly is the story of an American Expeditionary Forces Signal Corps switchboard operator (also known as a Hello Girl) and a soldier who is tough yet tender.

When I was researching information for Sadie’s story,  the first WWI book I wrote, I discovered a little information about the Hello Girls who served during World War I.

I thought it would be an incredible thing for Molly, Sadie’s sister, to become one of the Hello Girls. When I dove into the research for this book, I learned so much about these amazing women! They were intelligent, impressive, and inspiring. Although it took them sixty years to be recognized by the Army in which they served, they are credited with opening the door to women serving in the U.S. Army.

In April 1917, America declared war on Germany and joined World War I. Soon after,  General John J. Pershing was tasked with leading the American Expeditionary Forces (which would become the US Army) and went to France to begin the arduous task of preparing for the arrival of American soldiers. He had an overwhelming task ahead of him and soon realized a better telephone system was needed, as well as highly trained operators. In America at that time, most switchboard operators were women.

For the most part, men operating the switchboards lacked the patience, courteousness, and the dexterity to connect calls at a rapid pace. If someone called in yelling orders in their ear, they were just as inclined to hang up as transfer the call. The French operators didn’t always understand English and often lacked the sense of urgency for the call. Calls were delayed, or not placed at all. The need for American women to operate the switchboards for the Army became quite clear.

Advertisements were placed in newspapers across the country in late 1917 and early 1918 asking for women who were fluent in both French and English and could understand French spoken on a telephone line, since the switchboards were connected to the French government as well as the American military in France. The call to “serve your country” as telephone operators was answered by 7,600 women. Although there were age requirements, some of the girls fudged a bit, afraid they’d be turned down. More than 400 women were trained, and 223 were sent to France, becoming the first women to directly contribute to combat operations in American history.

 

Hello Girls

They were the first women in the Army.

When the first unit arrived in France in March 1918, under the leadership of Chief Operator Grace Banker (who was an amazing individual), it was taking an average of sixty seconds for a call to be placed.

Grace Banker

Under the leadership of Grace, the average call placement time dropped to ten seconds. By the end of the war, the Hello Girls had connected over twenty-six million calls.

The girls didn’t all go at once. There were seven units, but the Armistice was signed before the girls in the seventh group could leave New York. The sixth unit arrived in October. I chose to make Molly part of the fourth unit because of their arrival time in France in July. It worked so well with my story’s timeline.

The girls were required to purchase their own uniforms, which was an expensive endeavor. In today’s money, the uniforms would have cost around $5,000-$6,000. The uniforms made them a functioning unit, and helped in their integration.

The Hello Girls were given orders to wear their uniforms at all times, to not socialize with civilians or privates, and to not keep journals or diaries (thank goodness some of them, like Grace Banker, broke the rules and recorded details so important to history!).

Some of the girls served in cities where they had pleasant accommodations and a Y.W.C.A. hostess to keep an eye on them. Other girls were in quaint villages, several of them sharing a house or room. Then there were the girls who ended up in tar paper shacks lined with newspaper and discarded maps to keep out the weather.

Grace Banker and a handful of operators were on the front lines. At one point, their barracks caught fire, and the women went on with their duties while soldiers rescued their belongings. Grace later found her toothbrush in a shoe.

More than thirty of the women received individual commendations, and Grace Banker was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

The girls wrote about the importance of their duty. How one transferred call could save a life, or an entire battalion.

The AEF honored the Signal Corps girls with a special memento booklet for Christmas 1918. They also took up a collection to purchase gifts for them.

When the war ended, the work of the Signal Corps women was still needed. Slowly, over the months of 1919, they began to return home. The last girls left France in 1920.

Their return home was not what they expected. Despite serving under commissioned officers, wearing military discs of identification (the World War I equivalent of dog tags), wearing rank insignia on the sleeves of their uniforms with Army buttons, swearing the Army Oath, being subject to courts-martial—after all that, the Hello Girls were informed they were “civilian contractors” instead of soldiers. The Army attorneys argued the women recruited to the Signal Corps were civilian employees “engaged under contract,” although none of the girls signed a contract. They were treated, for all intents and purposes, like they were part of the Army while they served, then ignored by the military when they returned. Because the Army refused to acknowledge them as soldiers, they were not eligible for bonuses, insurance, medical care, military burials, or any of the things the military afforded the men who served in World War I.

Merle Egan was a telephone operator from Helena, Montana, who arrived in France with the fifth unit. She returned home and immediately submitted a claim for the sixty-dollar bonus granted to members of the AEF, only to be denied and told she was a civilian, not part of the Army.

The next sixty years, Merle, and some of the other women, fought a battle for the Army to recognize their service as soldiers. More than fifty bills granting veteran status to the Hello Girls were introduced in Congress, but none passed. Finally, with help from different veterans’ groups and the National Organization for Women, along with a Seattle attorney who took an interest in Merle’s efforts, the Hello Girls received veteran status when Jimmy Carter signed the legislation on November 23, 1977.

It would take until 1979 before the official discharge papers were presented. By then, only eighteen of the women were still alive, but Merle was one of them. She died in 1986 as a veteran of the U.S. Army.

After researching these incredible women and reading their stories, I can’t begin to express how truly magnificent they were. They served with dignity, grace, determination, bravery, and professionalism, and they inspired the next generation of women who would serve in World War II.

 There was even a touching, beautiful poem written about them entitled “To the Telephone Girl” written by Frances A. Johnson. I hope you’ll take a moment to read it.

Right now, you can support a Congressional Gold Medal for the Hello Girls, America’s First Women Soldiers. You’ll find all the details at this website with links to each state. It doesn’t cost a penny to add your support, and only takes a few minutes.

 

Inspired by the Hello Girls, America’s first women soldiers who helped win World War I.

She longs to make a difference. He yearns to claim her heart.

After years of managing the Pendleton telephone office, Molly Thorsen answers the call for women to serve as telephone operators during World War I. Upon her arrival in France, she navigates the challenges of working near the front lines and battles the prejudices and skepticism of the men around her. Determined to prove her worth and skill, Molly faces adversity head-on while unexpectedly falling in love with a charming soldier.

Friday Fitzpatrick may not have been eager to engage in combat, but when he is drafted into the American Expeditionary Forces, he embraces the role of a soldier with unwavering determination. While fighting to survive the harrowing battlefield experiences, he clings to his sanity by dreaming about the captivating Hello Girl who has captured his heart. Though his opportunities to see her are limited, she serves as a beacon of hope in the midst of his darkest days.

Through their shared experiences and the trials they endure, Molly and Friday find comfort and encouragement in each other’s company, forging a connection that defies the chaos of a world in conflict. As the war draws to a close and they return home, will civilian life bring them together or pull them apart?

Find out in this sweet and wholesome historical romance filled with hope, faith, courage, and love.

To celebrate the release of the book, I’m giving away a fun prize pack that includes autographed copies of Sadie and Molly, swag, and this wonderful children’s book about Grace Banker and the Hello Girls.

To enter, pop over to THIS FORM.

I’m also going to give away a digital copy of Molly to one lucky winner today!

To enter, share the name of one woman in history you admire in the comments.

Donaldina Cameron – Chinese Women Crusader & Activist by Pam Crooks

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While writing my historical western romance, BROKEN BLOSSOMS, I relied heavily on my research with the U. S. Customs Service and their tireless fight against the never-ending smuggling of opium by the Chinese into our country. While immersed in my study, I learned that opium wasn’t the only vice smuggled in. Young, desperate Chinese women were, too, brought over to live the horrors of enslavement in San Francisco’s Chinatown brothels.

A brief mention of a woman who had dedicated her life to rescuing these women was a young missionary by the name of Donaldina Cameron. While grieving over a broken engagement, Donaldina quit her studies to be a teacher and found herself in a career of an entirely different sort, that of doing missionary work at the Mission House, a safe place for young Chinese women run by the Presbyterian Church.

Initially, she taught the girls sewing and helped run the House, but after the manager died, Donaldina took over. Supremely devoted to the protection and nurturing of the Asian women, she kept them on a strict schedule and taught them household skills, Christian prayers and beliefs, how to interact socially in society, and so on. A fierce guardian, she fought the courts against frivolous charges to keep them out of jail and free of prostitution and the physical abuse that came with it, even going so far as to physically rescue them from brothels herself.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the practice of allowing women to do missionary work was growing and deeply appreciated. Donaldina herself accepted the Chinese culture, allowing the women their accustomed foods and decorations, yet enforcing a balance of Anglo-American customs, too, such as wearing a white dress when marrying instead of the traditional red worn by the Chinese. A somewhat amazing accomplishment since wearing white was customary at Chinese funerals, not weddings!

Donaldina never married or had children of her own. Ironically, after living in San Francisco’s Chinatown for forty years, she never learned the Chinese language. She died in 1968 at the age of 98 years. Before her death, her beloved Mission House’s name was changed to the Donaldina Cameron House, and she is credited with saving more 3,000 Chinese women from horrific enslavement.

Here’s an excerpt in BROKEN BLOSSOMS taken from my research with the U. S. Customs Service and the realistic depiction of the arrival of the Chinese into the San Francisco harbor at the time.

A horde of Chinese men, mostly in their twenties, trod next down the gangway. All of them were dressed in clean blue cotton blouses and baggy trousers. Their foreheads were shaved, and their glossy black hair was braided with silk into long queues. Carleigh recognized them as coolies, or laborers, who would work in any one of a variety of low-paying industries. They carried long bamboo poles across their shoulders. Baskets attached at each end contained their meager possessions.

A dozen or so Chinese girls followed. Though they wore tunics and trousers like other Chinese women, theirs were obviously of poorer quality; their cheeks and lips were painted a gaudy red. On their heads, they wore checked cotton handkerchiefs, the chevron of prostitution.

Ignorant of morals and the contracts they signed in China, they would service their masters in a slavery more horrible than any human being should endure. After an indelicate search by the officers, their purchasers delivered them into the charge of sallow old hags, dressed in black and carrying rings of keys at their waists.

Carleigh’s heart ached for how these girls would live. Would they ever know the warm intimacy a man’s love could give them? Would their lives always be so hopeless?

99¢ for this blog only! (Returning to full price this weekend!)

AMAZON

 

If you could dedicate your life in service to one thing, what would it be?

 

The Women Who Ran the Range and a Giveaway!

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Howdy, y’all! Heather Blanton here. I’ve got a new box set out this week from my Burning Dress Ranch series. The Burning Dress is a ranch run by women for women. Some would think that’s a tall tale. A woman can’t run a ranch.

If you think that, you’ve never met Kittie Wilkins, Margaret Borland, or Ellen Watson, to name a few ranching pioneers.

From the late 1880s and into the 20th Century, Kittie Wilkins was quite literally the Horse Queen of Idaho. At one point she had a herd of over 10,000 fine animals. And fine was the name of her game. Kittie’s horses were spectacular.

 

Her father was a horse trader. She picked up the skill from him and ran with it. She had an uncanny eye for horse flesh, a strong work ethic, a quick mind, and–probably most importantly–the respect of her ranch hands. Kittie is credited with negotiating the largest horse trade in US history. In one deal, she sold 8000 horses to England for use in the Boer War. She was also a darling of the press because of her business acumen and feminine ways.

 

In 1873, Margaret Borland owned a good-sized spread in Texas, but cattle in Texas weren’t worth much. About $8 a head. Up the road in Kansas, though, beef was bringing $23 a head! Margaret, not being a dummy, defied convention and organized her own cattle drive. What’s more, she also served as the trail boss! But she arrived at this situation more out of necessity than desire.

Widowed three times, she had to step up repeatedly if she wanted to keep her ranch running and her children fed. Each tragic death solidified in her the fortitude to fight on, as well as offered the opportunity for her to learn the cattle business. Surviving these trials by fire, Margaret became the only female rancher to run a cattle drive up the Chisholm trail.

And then there’s Ellen Watson, a young woman who took advantage of the Wyoming Homestead Act and procured 160 acres for herself in 1887. With Jim Averell, most likely her secret husband, she filed for squatter’s rights on land adjacent to his and continued expanding her herd. Jim ran a restaurant and general store, but Ellen tended to the ranch with the help of a few reliable hands.

Ellen was becoming a successful rancher when she ran afoul of neighboring cattle baron Albert Bothwell. Bothwell coveted Ellen’s land and eventually, his greed led to her death. Ellen and Jim were lynched by Bothwell in July of 1889. To protect the wealthy cattlemen involved in the murders, the press dubbed Ellen “Cattle Kate” and declared her a cattle thief and prostitute.

They might have taken her ranch, her life, and her reputation, but they didn’t take away her accomplishments as a fine rancher.

Women like these inspired Burning Dress Ranch. Everything the women do in my stories, from wrangling cattle to shoeing horses to bending iron on an anvil is real, true history. Just like my historical heroes, my fictional heroines come away with a new vocation, a bright future, and their happily ever after!

So, what do you think? Are women every bit the rancher a man can be? Maybe with different expectations and parameters? Is the idea believable?

 

The Burning Dress Ranch Box Set of all five books is available now, but for your chance to win it, leave a comment and tell me what you think about these feisty, determined women.

I’m giving my box set away to 5 lucky commenters!

You can find the box set on Amazon

Laura Bullion ~ The Rose of the Wild Bunch

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Laura Bullion mug shot

The year of Laura Bullion’s birth in Knickerbocker, Texas is unknown. She gave several dates ranging from 1873 to 1887 during her lifetime, and researchers have been unable to pin down the exact date.

Knickerbocker, Texas was a haven for outlaws at the time, and her parents, Henry Bullion and Freda Byler, were known criminals. Laura was raised by her maternal grandparents, possibly is an attempt to keep her out of trouble, but that didn’t work out. She met many outlaws through her parents, including train robber Will Carver, who was married to her aunt, and her future lover Ben Kilpatrick, both of whom became members of the Wild Bunch.

Laura eventually ran away to San Antonio, where she found work in a saloon and used the name Della Rose. It was while working at this establishment, frequented by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, that she reestablished relationships with William Carver, who was now a widower, and the Ben Kilpatrick.

Ben Kilpatrick

When Kilpatrick joined the Wild Bunch in 1898, Laura went with him, becoming a working member of the gang. Laura helped in several train robberies, dressed as a man or boy. After the robberies, she helped fence the stolen items and help resupply the camp. No one suspected that the “young man” who’d taken part in the robbery was also the woman purchasing supplies and horses. Eventually the members of the Wild Bunch gave her a new moniker–the Thorny Rose of the Wild Bunch. She was truly one of the gang.

After a train robbery in Montana in 1901 (in which Laura was possibly disguised as a boy), she and Kilpatrick fled east. In November of that year, Pinkerton agents caught up to them. They arrested Kilpatrick, who refused to talk, so they went to his hotel room, where they found Laura heading out the door with a suitcase full of banknotes easily traceable to the train robbery. She and Kilpatrick were arrested and tried separately. Kilpatrick got 15 years in prison; Laura got 5. She was released after serving 3 1/2 years in 1905. Kilpatrick kept in contact with Laura by letter, and was released from prison in 1911. He was arrested shortly thereafter and extradited to Texas to face murder charges. The charges were dropped, but he was killed in a train robbery a year later.

The Wild Bunch. Front row, left to right: Harry Longabaugh, the Sundance Kid; Ben Kilpatrick, the Tall Texan; Robert Leroy Parker, Butch Cassidy. Back row: Will Carver and Harvey Logan, Kid Curry.

Laura disappeared after her release from prison, but resurfaced in Memphis, Tennessee in 1918. She worked as a seamstress and drapery maker. In the 1940s she became an interior designer. Laura Bullion died in 1961 of heart disease. She was the last surviving member of the Wild Bunch–and just think of how many people she sewed for who had no idea that she once robbed trains for a living!

 

Anne Bronte: A Writer Ahead of Her Time

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Early women writers had to fight for their place in the literary world and that’s how it was for Anne Brontë who published under a male pseudonym.

No one can dispute that Anne Brontë (1820-1849) was a writer ahead of her time, even though she wasn’t as well-known as her sisters – Charlotte and Emily. She was born the last of seven children of Patrick and Maria Brontë. Her mother, Maria, died of tuberculosis when Anne was only one year old. Their first two children also died at age eleven with the same disease. Patrick encouraged his children’s imaginations and urged them to stretch their minds so it was no surprise that they all became poets, writers, and Branwell, his only son, a painter. Creativity ran high in all the children due to the early exposure to a multitude of literature pieces.

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne all attended Miss Wooler’s school in Roe Head, England then worked as governesses once they graduated. But all of them wrote poetry as a regular escape from work.

Anne Bronte sketched by her sister Charlotte in pencil. Permission granted by Wikipedia.

After much struggle of finding a publisher, Anne released her first book, Agnes Grey in 1847, the same year Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Emily’s Wuthering Heights made an appearance. But they were all published under male pseudonyms until 1850 after the deaths of Anne and Emily. Finally, Charlotte revealed their true identities.

Anne’s second book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was published a year before her death and the subject matter of it as well as her first book made people uncomfortable. She shined a light on martial abuse, alcoholism, opium addiction, infidelity, class inequality, and the right of a woman to choose her own life. No one spoke of these things, they simply endured them. Her sisters Charlotte and Emily glossed over these subjects and tended to romanticize such issues of the day.

Anne died at twenty-nine years of age with two published books to her name and a body of poetry. Charlotte lived to age thirty-nine, the longest of all seven children. They all died of tuberculosis and it’s sad that their father outlived them all.

Of the sisters, Anne wanted to write the truth no matter how painful or that no one wanted to hear it. She felt she owed it to herself to expose the problems of the times and be truthful. That simply wasn’t done in her day. Literary scholars proclaimed her far ahead of her time and celebrate her books.

Here is what she wrote just days before her death: I have no horror of death: if I thought it inevitable I think I could quietly resign myself to the prospect … But I wish it would please God to spare me not only for Papa’s and Charlotte’s sakes, but because I long to do some good in the world before I leave it. I have many schemes in my head for future practise—humble and limited indeed—but still I should not like them all to come to nothing, and myself to have lived to so little purpose. But God’s will be done.

If you had lived back then, do you think you’d have read her books? I think I would’ve been curious. I loved Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights by her sisters.

Regina Scott Talks The Legend of the Mercer Belles

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Blue Sky Brides

By Regina Scott

“The bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle.”

If you remember when that song was first introduced, you likely remember the late 1960s television show, Here Come the Brides. In it, timber baron Jason Bolt and his two brothers bring one hundred brides from the East Coast to marry lonely loggers in frontier Seattle. It’s based on the true story of Asa Mercer, who traveled East in two trips to bring back Civil War widows and single ladies to “civilize” the frontier. The total of the two trips was far less than one hundred, but all except one ended up married. Go figure!

The legend of the Mercer Belles had intrigued me since I was a child, so I was delighted to pen a series of books for the Love Inspired Historical line with some of the heroines who had come with Mercer to Seattle. And now I’m continuing the series with The Perfect Mail-Order Bride, Her Frontier Sweethearts, and, most recently, Frontier Cinderella.

But I kept wondering. What did Asa Mercer say to convince women he’d never met to journey with him and start new lives in the wilderness? The barriers to acceptance were many.

These ladies were from the Boston area (most from Lowell, Massachusetts), and they’d had some education. Many had been trained as teachers. In contrast, many of the loggers, miners, and farmers in Seattle had little to no education, and they’d been living among men long enough that they sometimes forgot the social niceties.

Then there was the distance. In the 1860s, there were no trains and only a few trails linked the East Coast and the West Coast. The Mercer Belles had to sail for months. The first group went by way of crossing the isthmus in Panama; the second sailed down the coast of North and South America, through the Strait of Magellan, and up the other coasts. Chances were, if these women left for Seattle, they were never going to see family or friends again.

Finally, there was Mr. Mercer. He claimed to have been appointed Commissioner of Immigration  by the governor of Washington Territory and to have been made the first president of the Territorial University (both true), but he was only 25 at the time of his first trip, and a bachelor at that. Could he be trusted? The papers in the area thought not. They labeled him a swindler and predicted any lady who traveled with him would end up in a brothel.

So, what did he say? I found part of one of his speeches, courtesy of Lynn Bragg’s More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Washington Women:

“The climate of Washington Territory is marked by two seasons only, winter and summer. From the first day of April until the middle of November no other spot on this green earth boasts such a mild, equitable and delightful climate as does the valley of Puget Sound.”

It seems the bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle! Here’s to the women brave enough to take him at his word. Many a Northwest family owes them a debt of gratitude!

In honor of the Mercer Belles, I’m giving away two print copies of The Perfect Mail-Order Bride, U.S. only. Answer this question in the comments to be entered in the drawing: Would you have agreed to go with Asa Mercer and settle the frontier?

Series link to The Perfect Mail Order Bride

 

Regina Scott started writing novels in the third grade. Thankfully for literature as we know it, she didn’t sell her first novel until she learned a bit more about writing. Since her first book was published, her stories have traveled the globe, with translations in many languages including Dutch, German, Italian, and Portuguese. She now has more than sixty-five published works of warm, witty romance, and more than 1 million copies of her books are in reader hands. She currently lives forty-five minutes from the gates of Mount Rainier with her husband of thirty years. Regina Scott has dressed as a Regency dandy, driven four-in-hand, learned to fence, and sailed on a tall ship, all in the name of research, of course. Learn more about her at her website at http://www.reginascott.com

Two Astounding Women and their Sidesaddle Jumping Records

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When I first started riding as a youngster in Arizona, like so many, I began with a good old Western saddle. But that didn’t last long. I had a fascination with the English style of hunter/jumper. My mom was surprised hut decided to indulge this temporary fad of mine — which wound up lasting a decade before I switched back to Western because, well, my boyfriend at the time was a cowboy. No judging, okay 🙂

While people probably think of jumping horses as eloquent and graceful, like dressage, and not as rough and tumble and difficult as Western, jumping tall fences and walls is, in fact, quite hard and requires a lot of skill from both the rider and the horse. So, when I recently stumbled upon this story about Esther Stace, an Australian woman who set the sidesaddle jumping record of 6’6” in 1915, I was naturally intrigued. Especially when I learned her record stood for an impressive 98 years until October 24, 2013.

Susan Oakes, the woman who eventually broke the record, is an Irish equestrian who trained extensively for her event. Susan not only broke the record, she beat it by two inches, clearing a wall 6’8” high. Wow! I mean, how does an animal weighing 1200 pounds get that much air?

It wasn’t until months later that The Guinness World Records contacted her to say they wanted to verify and recognize her record. Fortunately, Susan had her jump videoed and photographed and several officials presents. She is now and still the proud holder of the record these past five years. Let’s see how long she can go.

Myself, I can’t imagine jumping a 6’8” wall, much less in a sidesaddle. My hat off to these incredible women — and their horses. What an amazing accomplishment.

Women and the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition

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Today we welcome Linda Shenton Matchett to the Petticoats and Pistols Corral.

In December 1866, the American Civil War had been only been over for a little more than eighteen months. Tensions still ran high in many areas of the country. But one man was already looking toward the future. In ten years, the country would celebrate its centennial, and he had visions of a grand event, one that included nations from around the globe.

John L. Campbell, a professor at Wabash College in Indiana contacted Philadelphia Mayor Morton McMichael and suggested that his town would be the perfect place to hold the centennial. It would take four years of discussions, studies, and committee meetings, but the Philadelphia City Council finally agreed in January 1870. Another year was needed for the federal government to pass a bill to create a Centennial Commission. Oh, and by the way, the US government would not be liable for any expenses.

Douglas Shenton

A force to be reckoned with Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, great-great-granddaughter of founding father Benjamin Franklin, chaired the Women’s Centennial Exposition Committee. Tasked with selling subscriptions to raise $1 million, she “led an army of women through the neighborhoods.” They secured the pledges in a mere two days. In addition, she collected 82,000 signatures and obtained letters from all over the country that convinced Congress to lend $1.5 million to the exposition.

Building commenced, and eventually there would be 200 hundred buildings spread over the 450 acres of Fairmont Park. However, eleven months prior to the exhibition, Elizabeth was informed that the Main Hall no longer had room for women. Incensed, she once again turned to her committee who raised more $31,000 in four months to build a one-acre women’s pavilion that would eventually house seventy-four inventions patented by women, including a steam engine.

Douglas Shenton

Another woman saw the country’s one-hundred anniversary as the perfect place to present her “Declaration of the Rights of Women.” Wyoming had granted women the right to vote and hold office in 1869, followed by many other states and territories, but those rights did not carry to the federal level, and Susan B. Anthony had been criss-crossing the country for more than twenty-five years campaigning for a constitutional amendment.

Pixabay/David Mark

Prohibited from speaking at the July 4th celebration, she simply walked down the aisle of Independence Hall in the middle of Richard Henry Lee’s speech. Grandson and namesake of one of the Declaration of Independence signers, he watched as she handed the scroll tied in a navy-blue ribbon to the host, then turned and made her way out of the building, distributing copies to the clamoring crowd as she went. Outside in front of hundreds of people, she read the document in its entirety as the remaining copies were handed out. Newspapers covered the event and printed portions of the document. Word spread, and newspapers outside of Philadelphia picked up the story. Miss Anthony’s plan worked. She’d escalated visibility to the cause.

Unfortunately, she would not live to see the ratification of the 19th amendment forty-four years later.

Maeve’s Pledge

Pledges can’t be broken, can they?

Finally out from under her father’s tyrannical thumb, Maeve Wycliffe can live life on her terms. So what if everyone sees her as a spinster to be pitied. She’ll funnel her energies into what matters most: helping the less fortunate and getting women the right to vote. When she’s forced to team up with the local newspaper editor to further the cause, will her pledge to remain single get cropped?

Widower Gus Deighton sees no reason to tempt fate that he can find happiness a second time around. Well past his prime, who would want him anyway? He’ll continue to run his newspaper and cover Philadelphia’s upcoming centennial celebration. But when the local women’s suffrage group agrees that the wealthy, attractive, and very single Maeve Wycliffe act as their liaison, he finds it difficult to remain objective.

Maeve’s Pledge is part of the multi-author series Suffrage Spinsters but can be read as a standalone story. Grab your copy today and curl up with some history, hope, and happily ever after.

GIVEAWAY:  Linda attended the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee and was astonished at the displays, including technology that at the time seemed only possible in science fiction, but is now part of our everyday lives. To be entered in the random drawing fore-book copy of Maeve’s Pledge, leave a comment about a time when you attended an event (large or small) that impacted you in some way.

Linda Shenton Matchett writes about ordinary people who did extraordinary things in days gone by. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a former trustee for her local public library. She now lives in central New Hampshire where she explores the history of this great state and immerses herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors.

To sign up for Linda’s Website/Blog/Newsletter  click here

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One Good Ride…

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What would you do if the doctor gave you two years to live?

Ponder that question a moment and then meet Mesannie Wilkins. The Maine native is famous for a 7000-mile journey on horseback.

Seven. Thousand. Miles.

Mesannie was born in the 1890s and grew up on a small farm without electricity or running water. Of necessity, she rode a mule to her job at a shoe factory. A few snickering neighbors named her Jackass Annie due to the mode of transportation.

By all accounts, Mesannie was a kind woman but it seems the town looked down on her because she was poor, poorly educated, and very independent. She was not a woman to bow to cultural norms, either, as evidenced by the fact that she preferred wearing dungarees to dresses. Maybe this independent streak contributed to two failed marriages–more fodder for the rumor mill.

In 1954, Mesannie saw the passing of her last living relative–her uncle. On the heels of this tragedy, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and given two years to live. In a dark place emotionally, she sat down and prayed about her future because her past sure hadn’t delivered much to crow about.

No family. Two ex-husbands. No children. A dead-end job. A ramshackle home. And death waiting in the wings.

The more she thought about dying, the more she wanted to make what life she had left count. Her mother had always wanted to see the Pacific Ocean and the seed of an idea sprouted in Mesannie’s head. After much wrestling in prayer, she decided to take a journey.

She mortgaged her home, bought two horses–Tarzan and Rex, gathered up her dog, Depeche Toi, and purchased as many supplies as she and the animals could carry. On November 6, 1954, Mesannie stepped into the saddle and rode South, leaving her hometown of Minot. She had no map. She’d never been outside of Maine. She did have, however, an unswerving belief in the kindness of strangers.

They didn’t let her down.

As word spread of Mesannie’s journey, newspapers picked up the story, spreading her fame. Towns turned out to greet her and celebrities reached out to her. A gas station in Kentucky offered her a job to supplement her meager cash. A horse stable in New Jersey offered her a permanent home. Several municipalities let her spend the night in their jails. Some businesses comped her free stays in hotels.

Mesannie trudged into Wyoming just in time for Cheyenne Frontier Days where she received a marriage proposal from a lonely rancher. Given her past successes in that arena, however, she thanked him and moved on.

She arrived in California in December 1955. Inadvertently, Mesannie’s journey across America had shown the best of the nation. In an era when auto ownership had tripled, television had begun invading our homes, and life was moving faster than ever, kindness and generosity still ran in our veins.

In California, her pack horse Rex died. Art Linkletter bought her a replacement. She rode around the state for several months, enjoying the weather and the attention of stars like Groucho Marx. Feeling great for a woman with a terminal diagnosis, she absorbed the sunshine and smiles, and then made her way back to Maine.

Mesannie lived to be 88.

The thing I take away from this amazing woman’s story is you are never too old for an adventure. You’re never too old to do something amazing. Do you agree? Would you ever take on something like this alone? Where would you go?

It is women like Mesannie who inspired my heroine Priscilla in A Scout for Skyler. Comment and you could win one of two paperbacks I’m giving away. Thank you for reading

AMAZON

Heather Frey Blanton Finds Adventure in Cripple Creek!

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Serendipity Never Ceases to Amaze Me

One thing about history: looking back, it’s easy and almost scary to see how the tiniest change could have derailed entire destinies.

One of my favorite stories of serendipity is that of Mary Catherine “Mollie” Gortner. In 1890, she and her family moved to Colorado Springs from the gentle, rolling hills of Iowa. Her husband was on the scout for new opportunities and challenges. Mollie was always up for an adventure. She and her children, who were older, were eager to see some new sights.

After the Gortners were settled, the announcement of a massive gold discovery in Cripple Creek beckoned to her oldest son, Perry. He took a job there in the spring of 1891 as a surveyor. The burgeoning boom town turned wild and wooly almost overnight and Mollie worried about her young, innocent son. She arranged a visit for the fall, packed up some care packages for him and headed up the mountain. A 4-day wagon trip.

Mollie Gortner

During one of Perry’s surveying jaunts over the summer, he had spotted a huge herd of elk and knew his mother would want to see the magnificent animals. They often hung about only three hundred or so yards beyond the first gold strike in Cripple Creek—the Gold King Mine. Perry and his mother packed a lunch and struck out for a warm, September hike up to what had become known, ironically, as Poverty Gulch.

A worse name no one could have imagined.

A bit winded after the high-elevation walking, Mollie sat down on a rock to wait for the herd to pass by. Nothing in particular drew her to that spot. In fact, she gave it very little thought.

Then, glancing around, she noticed a rock that “winked” at her. Curious, she took another rock and struck off a piece.

A chunk of pure gold cut through with bits of quartz fell into her hand.

Has any discovery of gold ever been easier or more serendipitous?

Hearts pounding, hands sweating, she and Perry hammered free a few more chunks, hid them in her skirt, and raced to the assayer’s office to file the claim. The clerk balked at handing the paperwork to a woman. Perry was a little befuddled on how to respond to this objection. Mollie solved the problem for both men. Without a second’s hesitation, she snatched up the forms, signed her name on the dotted line and raised her chin defiantly.

In Colorado in 1901 a woman had the legal right to own land and file a claim. The clerk didn’t have a leg to stand on, other than his chauvinism. He had a choice at that moment. He saw the fire in Mollie’s eyes and filed the claim in her name. Henry, her husband, didn’t give a wit about whose name the mine was in. He was supportive of her ownership and, to say the least, delirious about the lucky discovery.

The Mollie Kathleen mine is still in operation to this day. Perry ran it for Mollie from 1901 until his death in 1949.

Mollie died in 1917 but she will forever be known as the first woman to discover gold in Colorado, and the first woman to own a mine in the state.

Just think, what if she had sat on a different rock?

Have you ever had a moment like Mollie’s? The kind in which the slightest hitch could have redirected your life from where it is now? What do you think about her serendipitous discovery?

Comment for your chance to win one of two copies of my book, A Lady in Defiance, which was recently optioned for a television series. One of the characters in the book is named Mollie. It’s a bit foreshadowing.

Thanks for reading!

 

A LADY IN DEFIANCE

Charles McIntyre owns everything and everyone in the lawless, godless mining town of Defiance.

When three good, Christian sisters show up, stranded and alone, he decides to let them stay. The decision may cost him everything, from his brothel…to his heart.

Naomi Miller, angry with God for widowing her, wants no part of Defiance or the saloon-owning, prostitute-keeping Mr. McIntyre. It would seem, however, that God has gone to elaborate lengths to bring them together. The question is, “Why?” Does God really have a plan for each and every life?

A romance based on true events, A Lady in Defiance deftly weaves together the relationships of the three sisters and the rowdy residents of Defiance.

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