Mary Washburn Shinn

Milicent Washburn Shinn was born April 15, 1858 in Niles, California.  She completed a A.B. degree at the University of California. It took her six years because she periodically had to take time off to earn enough money to continue. 

In 1880 Milicent began to contribute prose and poetry to The Californian.  In 1883 she acquired the periodical and changed it’s name to Overland Monthly and was it’s editor for the next eleven years. In 1894 she sold the successful paper and gave up her editorship.  She continued to submit her essays and poems though.

When her niece was born in 1890 she became very interested in child development. She kept precise records of the baby’s mental and physical progress which she published as Notes on the Development of a Child. As a result she was invited to speak at the world’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.  She was quite surprised at the attention her work received.  She had done the research for her own edification and enjoyment, not with any scientific aspirations.  She was astonished to learn that such records were not common. As a result of her presentation Shinn received several invitations for graduate study at prestigious institutions such as Stanford, John Hopkins and Clark University.   Milicent chose to return  to her alma mater, the University of California to earn her Ph.D.  She was the first woman and only the eleventh person to receive a Ph.D. from the school.

Her work in psychology was very well received and brought her attention in both the United States and abroad. Her second book, The Biography of a Baby, was published in 1900.  Shortly afterwards she retired to the family ranch in Niles where she lived quietly doing charity and church work.  She was also active in her college alumnae association.

March, Women's History Month

Highlighting the vital role played by women in history is the goal of HerStory.  Women have always been driven by their dreams which has resulted in amazing accomplishments. We draw inspiration and strength from those who came before us.  They are part of our own story .  Only through an inclusive and balanced “history”  can we know and celebrate how important women have always been in our country in society and in the world. We celebrate Women’s History Month each year in March which highlights the contributions of women to historical events as well as events in contemporary times. It is celebrated in the U.S. the U.K and Australia. 

In the U.S. wWomen’s History Month dates back to 1910/11  in remembrance of a strike of the international Ladies Garment Workers Union that took place in Chicago, known as the Hart, Scahffner and Marx strike. Women showed their capability to unify ethnic boundaries in response to an industry infamous for low wages, long hours -sometimes 75 hours a week- and poor conditions.  The strike began with sixteen women protesting, soon 2,100 others joined and eventually 41,000 women walked off the job and stayed out for 14 weeks until some of their demands for better conditions were met. 

Later, it commemorated the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 in Manhattan when 146 women perished. They were mostly young, some only teens who were immigrants and spoke little or no english, and were working 12 hours a day every day. They either died in the fire that broke out of the eighth floor of the wood frame building or died as a result of jumping out the windows to the sidewalks below. They couldn’t escape because the doors were locked to prevent them from stealing or taking unauthorized breaks.  An unauthorized break often meant taking time out to run down 8 flights of stairs to use the outhouse located in the back yard of the factory.

In the words of President Carter in 1980: "From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the First American Indian families who befriended them, men AND women have worked together to build this nation.  Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed.  But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know well." 

Mary Sewall Gardner

This is dedicated to all public health nurses, but especially those working in Montezuma County.  You are amazing and do fantastic work.  I honor you. 

Mary Sewall Gardner was born on February 5, 1871 in Newton, Mass.  When she was 4, her mother died.  Her father soon remarried and his new wife was a medical doctor.  Mary's early education was in private boarding schools but in 1890 she returned home in order to nurse her invalid stepmother. She also engaged in community work.


At the age of 30 she enrolled in the Newport Rhode Island Hospital Training School  Mary had been greatly inspired by her stepmother and wanted to become a physician herself.  When she completed the four year training there, she assumed the role of superintendent of nurses of the Providence District Nursing Association.  The organization blossomed under her direction and actually became a working model for other district nursing associations.

In 1912 mary and another nurse founded the National Organization of Public Health Nursing.  She served as president and was instrumental in creating the monthly periodical Public Health Nursing, where she contributed many articles and editorials.

When World War I broke out,  Mary took a leave of absence and went to Italy, where she took up the post of chief nurse with the American Red Cross Tuberculosis Commission.  She established a training school for Italian women who wished to become nurses.

In 1916 Mary published her book, Public Health Nursing, which was considered her greatest contribution to her profession.  The book was revised twice and published in several languages.  It is considered a classic.

In recognition of er pioneering efforts in public health nursing, she received an honorary master's degree from Brown University.  Shw also received the Walter Burns Saunders Medal for distinguished service to nursing.

Ann Preston

Ann Preston

Ann was born December 1, 1813 in the Quaker settlement of West Grove in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. She attended school but also helped care for her six younger siblings as her mother’s health was poor.  She was also active in the local anti-slavery society.

When her siblings grew to be more independent she began teaching.  At this time she also became interested in physiology and recognizing the need for more information on the subject, she initiated classes in female physiology and hygiene for women and girls.

In 1847 she embarked on a two year apprenticeship with Dr. Nathaniel Moseley in Philadelphia. Completing the apprenticeship she applied to four medical colleges in Pennsylvania but was rejected solely because she was female. In 1850 a group of Quakers founded the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania to meet the needs of the many women seeking a career in medicine.  Just shy of her thirty seventh birthday Ann enrolled in the first class with seven other women.

After graduating she remained at the college as a professor of physiology and hygiene.  In 1858 she initiated a fundraising campaign to build a woman’s hospital in connection with the college to provide hands on clinical instruction.

In 1866 Ann was appointed dean of the Woman’s Medical College, the first woman to hold that position. She applied for permission for her students to attend general clinics at the Philadelphia Hospital but was met with demonstrations by male medical students protesting the impropriety of educating men and women in medicine together.  She fought this narrow-mindedness saying women were patients and it was “in accordance with the instincts of the truest womanhood for women to appear as physicians and students.”  Philadelphia newspapers published her comments.

Carrie Adell Green Strahorn

Carrie Adell Green Strahorn was born on January 1, 1854 to a family of “old settlers” in Merengo, Illinois.  Her father had been a surgeon serving in the Civil War under Ulysses S. Grant.  He encouraged all three of his daughters to get as much education as they wished. Adell graduated from the University of Michigan and studied voice in both the United States and Europe. She enjoyed a comfortable life and listening to tales of her elders she vowed that she would “never be a pioneer.”  

However, for over thirty years she traveled thousands of miles by stage, saddle and rail into raw, wild and remote areas of the West with her husband, Robert A. “Pard” Strahorn who was a publicist for the new Union Pacific Railroad.  He had also written a guide book extolling the virtues of the Wyoming and Dakota territories. They married in 1877.  At the bride’s request, the word “obey” was left out of the wedding ceremony; they were going to Wyoming, where there was Women’s Suffrage. Railroad officials at first balked when Strahorn asked that his wife be allowed to accompany him on all his journeys, arguing that it was not a life suitable for a young lady. When he refused to take the job under any other condition, the railroad gave in.

 The first year alone they traveled over 6,000 miles with Adell assisting “Pard” in the writing of his informative travel guides. Together they established seven towns including Caldwell, Weiser, Payette, Shoshone, and Hailey Idaho as well as Ontario Oregon.  They often referred to these towns as  “our children of which we are justly proud.”

Adell was the first white woman to make a complete tour of Yellowstone Park and she described its breathtaking scenery.  In 1911 she published the popular Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage which was a witty and observant memoir that was illustrated by famed Western artist Charles M. Russell.  

“The multitude of friends thought it no less than a calamity in 1877 that a girl should choose as a life partner one who would carry her out into that mysterious and unsettled country,” Adell Strahorn wrote in the preface to her book.

Anne Hennis

Anne Hennis was born in Liverpool England sometime in 1742. She was formally educated and knew how to read and write.  By the time she was 18 both of her parents had died and she struggled to survive.  She sailed to America in 1761 probably as an indentured servant. She lived with relatives in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.  In 1765 she married Richard Trotter an experienced soldier and frontiersman. They had one son, William.

Richard was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 19l 1774.  When Anne learned of her husband’s death she left her young son with neighbors, and set out to avenge the loss of her husband.  She became known as “Mad Anne”. She was a strange site wearing buckskin leggings, petticoats, heavy leather boots, a man’s coat and hat, a hunting knife in a belt around her waist and a rifle slung over her shoulder.  She rode from one recruiting station to another, appealing to all she met to volunteer their services to the militia in order to keep women and children safe and fight for freedom from Indians and later, the British. 

Although Anne primarily rode up and down the western frontier, she also recruited for the Continental Army, and delivered messages between various Army detachments during the Revolutionary War. She often traveled as a courier on horseback between Forts Savannah and Randolph, a distance of almost 160 miles. She was well known and respected by the settlers along the route. 

On her rides Bailey often came across a group of Shawnee Indians. In one such encounter, Bailey was being chased by them and about to be caught when she jumped off her horse and hid in a log. Though they looked everywhere for her and even stopped to rest on the log, they could not find her. They gave up and stole her horse. After they left, Bailey came out of the log and during the night crept into their camp and retrieved her horse. 

After several years living on her own, Anne met John Bailey, a member of a legendary group of frontier scouts called the Rangers, who were defending the Roanoke and Catawba settlements from Indian attacks. He seemed to enjoy Mad Anne's rough ways, and they were married November 3, 1785. 

In 1791, Anne Bailey singlehandedly saved Fort Lee (now Charleston, West Virginia) from certain destruction by hostile Indians with a three-day, 200–mile round trip to replenish their supply of gunpowder. After hours of riding, she reached Fort Savannah at Lewisburg. There, gunpowder was quickly packed aboard her horse and one additional mount, before she reversed her direction and galloped back to Fort Lee.

With Anne's return, the siege was lifted, the attackers repulsed. For her bravery Anne was given the horse that had carried her away and brought her safely back. The animal was said to have been a beautiful black, sporting white feet and a blazed face. She dubbed him Liverpool, in honor of her birthplace. Anne Bailey was forty-nine years old when she made this famous ride. 

Again a widow, and in her late fifties, Anne went to live with her son but her love for riding and of the wilderness had not ceased. For many years afterwards she could be seen riding from Point Pleasant to Lewisburg and Staunton, carrying mail and as an express messenger.

Grace Abbott

Grace Abbott was born on November 17, 1878 in Grand Island, Nebraska, into a family of activists. Her father was a leader in state politics, the first Lt. Governor of the State of Nebraska and her mother took part in the Underground Railroad and the woman's suffrage movement.  It is not surprising that Grace became an activist and social reformer herself. 

She earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy fin 1898 and her master’s degree  in Political Science in 1909.  She lived in Chicago from 1908 to 1917 at Hull House and began her career as a social worker.  She became immersed in immigrant rights, especially those from eastern Europe, and advancing child welfare, particularly  the regulation of child labor.  In 1917 she was invited to join the staff or the Federal Children’s Bureau where she served as the head of the Child Labor Division.  When the Supreme Court declared the child labor law unconstitutional, Grace resigned from her position but spent the rest of er life lobbying for a Constitutional amendment prohibiting child labor.

The next four years  were spent working with the Illinois State Immigrants’ Commission and the Immigrants’ Protective League.  She then returned to Washington D.C. where she began administering the Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921 which assisted states in combating infant and maternal disease and mortality.  She directed the opening of more than 1,000 prenatal and pediatric care centers. It was the merging of state and federal governments in the creation of these centers that ultimately laid the foundation for todays welfare programs. 

She was the first woman to be nominated for a Presidential cabinet position, but was not confirmed. Grace never married. In her later years she became a professor of public welfare at the University of Chicago.

Belva Lockwood

Belva Ann Bennett McNail Lockwood was born on October 24, 1830 in Royalton, NewYork. She attended local country schools and at the age of fifteen began teaching to help support the family.  At age eighteen she married Uriah H. McNail who died after only five years of marriage leaving Belva with a young daughter to support. 

She returned to teaching while pursuing her own studies and earning a B.S. with honors from Genesee College in 1857. Belva assumed the position of preceptress of the Lockport Union School in Lockport, New York where she introduced many innovations including nature walks, public speaking, gymnastics and ice skating. 

In 1866 Belva moved to Washington where she opened her own school, the first private coeducational school in the city.  At age thirty seven she married Ezekiel Lockwood, a sixty four year old dentist. He supported her in running the school until because of his poor health they closed it in 1877.  At the same time, beginning in 1871 Belva had begun preparing for a career in law. She was denied admission to several universities because of her sex, but was finally accepted at the newly established National University Law School.  She actually graduated in 1873 but only received her diploma after petitioning President Grant, the school’s ex-officio president. In 1876 she was denied permission to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme court due to “established custom”. Belva lobbied Congress and saw the passage of a bill in 1879 allowing female lawyers to pursue legal matters the rough the highest courts in the country.  On Marcy 5th , 1879, she was the first woman to appear before the United States Supreme Court. 

As an early feminist, she was instrumental in pushing through legislation in 1872 that guaranteed female government employees equal pay for equal work.  In the 1880’s believing that women had made great progress in eliminating the restrictions that inhibited them she turned to the peace movement.  She ran for president of the United States in 1884, nominated by the National Equal Rights Party, and received 4,149 votes. 

Belva spent her later years practicing law in Washington D.C. and in 1906 she argued a case in Supreme Court on behalf of the Eastern Cherokee Indians which resulted in a $5 million settlement. 

Maude Elizabeth Charlesworth

Maude Elizabeth Charlesworth was born on September 13, 1865, in Limpsfield, Surrey, England and grew up in London. She was the youngest daughter of Maria and Samuel Charlesworth.  From an early age she had an intense interest in social welfare and service. 

At 18 years of age she gave up her middle-class lifestyle in order to serve in The Salvation Army and minister to the poor in London's slum neighborhoods. She actually became a “slum sister” actually living in slums while trying to reform them.

At 21, Maud married Ballington Booth the second son of William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army. When the New York office of The Salvation Army was in need of fresh organizational and fund-raising skills, William Booth assigned this important post to the newlyweds. On April 18th, 1887, they arrived in New York. For eight years the young couple worked tirelessly to improve the finances and expand the services of The Salvation Army in the U.S.

In 1894, a family disagreement erupted.  General Booth ordered Ballington and Maud to return to England. They chose not to leave but did withdraw from the Salvation Army. March 8, 1896, they drew up a constitution for a new organization, the Volunteers of America. Thanks to a suggestion by Maud, the constitution included an article recognizing the equality of men and women in the volunteers of America. In six months the Volunteers established 140 posts with 400 commanding officers, 50 staff officers, 3 regiments, and 10 battalions.

Throughout her career, Maud acted as a catalyst for the betterment of the nation's prison system. She became a pioneer in the prison reform movement and was nicknamed the "Little Mother" of the prisoners because of her deep commitment to caring for and providing rights to prisoners. The group worked to train prisoners and to prepare them for civilian life.  Hope Houses were established; these were the first half way houses, a concept Maude developed. Sixty to seventy-five percent of the VPL prisoners made a successful transition to civilian life.

For 65 years Maud Ballington Booth was a tireless and courageous advocate for the poor, the abandoned, the elderly, the abused, prisoners and their families. She provided emergency assistance, social services, educational opportunities and leadership in helping individuals and families.