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Abigail Scott Duniway is recognized as the “mother of equal suffrage in Oregon.” She was born in Illinois on October 22, 1834. The Scott family moved to Oregon in 1852 and Abigail taught school at Polk County Village.  It was there she met her husband, Ben C. Duniway, a young farmer and stockman in Clackamas...

Lawman Bill Tilghman opened his eyes to flickering candle-light.  He was in a bunk, covered with blankets. His shoulder was aching and stiff with bandages.  He was thirstier than he could ever remember. He turned his head slowly and the movement brought a woman’s figure out of the shadows.  “How are you feeling?” said a...

Dancer Loie Fuller stepped onto the Olympic Theater stage in Chicago and slowly walked toward Buffalo Bill Cody.  He was an imposing figure dressed in buckskin. His personality so filled the auditorium that the nineteen-year-old Loie was somewhat intimidated to approach him.  Cody turned his handsome face to her, flashed a pleasant smile, and introduced...

On February 3, 1843, well-known and well-respected frontiersman and scout Christopher Houston Carson (better known as Kit Carson) escorted his bride, Maria Josefa Jaramillo, from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Taos, where they were married, to their new home not far away.  Maria was Carson’s third wife. He was thirty-three years old and she...

Luzena Stanley Wilson stood in the center of her empty, one-room, log home in Andrew County, Missouri, studying the opened trunk in front of her.  All of her worldly possessions were tucked inside it: family Bibles, two quilts, one dress, a bonnet, a pair of shoes, and a few pieces of china. Mason Wilson, Luzena’s...

Mary Jane Wadams, with her husband Wilson and their young family, came to Bannack, Montana, during the gold rush days of the 1860s.  She was the first white woman to settle in the little mining town and she made it her home when Montana was a very raw country. Pioneer life did something to its...

Eighteen-year-old Nellie Mattie MacKnight stepped confidently into the spacious dissecting room at San Francisco’s Toland Hall Medical School.  Thirty-five male students stationed around cadavers spread out on rough board tables turned to watch the bold young women enter.  The smell of decomposing corpses mixed with tobacco smoke wafting out of the pipes some of the...

Business for matrimonial publications increased substantially whenever stories of successful mail-order connections were made.  Editors for periodicals such as Matrimonial News and the New Plan Company shared happy ever after tales with daily newspapers in hopes they would print the romantic adventures of correspondence couples.   Several such stories appeared in newspapers like the Waterloo Daily...

“Middle-aged bachelor sought.  Prosperous 130-pound rancher with full head of hair, keen eyes, and no false teeth desires life companion.  The lady enjoys indoor and outdoor activities and holds deeds to property valued at $10,000.  Dudes need not apply.” This no-nonsense cowgirl personal ad placed by Miss Ellen Callahan in 1887 edition of Hoof and...

While attending college in Pennsylvania, Mary Lawser was part of a group comprised of several accomplished female artists.  They were known as the Philadelphia Ten. Among the members was a talented painter and sculptor named Mary Louise Lawser.  Like Mary Colter, Mary Lawser was hired by a major rail line company to help promote westward...