HONEYMOON ON A DOGSLED?

By Caroline Clemmons

Women's History Month Honors Mardy Murie.

Grandmother of

the Conservation 

Movement

Margaret (Mardy) Murie is fondly called the Grandmother of the Conservation Movement, but her love of the land began at a young age. Margaret Thomas grew up in Fairbanks after arriving by sternwheeler with her family as a small child. Her stepfather, Louis Gillette, was an assistant U.S. attorney in Fairbanks.

She met Olaus Murie, a biologist, in Fairbanks. In 1924, Mandy was the first woman to graduate from the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, now the University of Alaska. She and Olaus married in 1924 in a 3 a.m. sunrise ceremony at Anvik on the Yukon River. Doesn’t that sound romantic? It does to me, but there’s a more practical explanation. After her graduation, Mandy traveled by steamwheeler to the village where she and Olaus had agreed to meet. Olaus had been studying birds in Hooper Bay. The couple left on a 550 mile honeymoon on dogsled and riverboat to study caribou migration.

Mardy and Olaus Murie

Another expedition a few years later involved boating from Fairbanks hundreds of miles to the Old Crow River in Canada to band geese. She continued to accompany her husband on his journeys even while nursing their three children. 

The couple left Alaska in 1927, but returned to visit many times in the following decades. Mardy's adventures growing up in Alaska and as a scientist's wife are chronicled in her book, "Two in the Far North," and in a documentary, "Arctic Dance." Published in 1962 and still in print, the book describes the winter night when she was 14 and Fairbanks caught fire. The men burned the town's bacon supply as fuel to keep the steam-powered water pump running. She also recounts her late-winter dogsled trips over thawing rivers, how she became the first woman to graduate from the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, her marriage to Olaus, the couple's honeymoon, as well as a later river journey taken with their infant son, Martin, strapped to their boat. She also authored "Island Between," published in 1977, and "Wapiti Wilderness," published in 1966 with her husband as co-author, even though he had died three years earlier.

Olaus and Mardy

I love the adoring way she

looks at her husband.

In 1927, the Muries moved to Jackson, Wyoming, where Olaus studied ecology, specifically the elk population. Mardy worked side-by-side with Olaus in the field, studying elk, sheep and numerous other animals in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. They would camp for weeks at a time in the wild, open valley of Jackson Hole. Olaus' primary goal was to identify pressures on the elk population, causing the startling decrease in the area. Over the course of nearly 40 years, The couple had numerous backcountry expeditions tracking the wildlife in the area. The couple even took expeditions when their three children were still nursing!

In 1945, they bought a former dude ranch after Mardy decided she no longer wanted to live in town. She wanted to walk out her back door and into the woods. The Murie Ranch became a hub for conversations and problem solving to protect the wild. Olaus and Mardy took on work as director and secretary of the Wilderness Society, helping draft recommendations for legislation and policy like the protection of Jackson Hole National Monument. 

In 1956, Mardy, Olaus and other field biologists traveled to the upper Sheenjek River on the south slope of the Brooks Range, inside what is now the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That trip began the campaign to protect the area as a wildlife refuge. The couple recruited former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas to help persuade President Eisenhower to set aside 8 million acres as the Arctic National Wildlife Range, which was expanded to 19 million acres and renamed in 1980.

Mardy and Olaus

 

The idea of preserving an entire ecological system became the intellectual and scientific foundation for the creation of a new generation of large natural parks, especially those established by the Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act. By the time of his death on October 21, 1963, Olaus had earned a prominent position in the historical ranks of eminent American preservationists. Although he did not live to see the Wilderness Act passed, its enactment was in part attributable to his work and convictions. Mardy, however, attended the signing of the Act, by President Lyndon Johnson, in the Rose Garden of the White House on September 3, 1964.

After her husband 's death in 1963, Mardy began writing and took over much of her husband's conservation work, writing letters and articles, traveling to hearings, and making speeches. Mardy returned to Alaska to survey potential wilderness areas for the National Park Service and worked on the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act that was signed by President Carter in 1980. That legislation set aside 104,000,000 acres of land in Alaska and doubled the size of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In addition to Alaska, Mardy traveled to Tanzania and New Zealand studying wild areas, assessing areas for wilderness qualities and working to protect nature from exploitation.^]

 

The Murie Residence in Moose, Wyoming was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. As part of the Murie Ranch Historic District Landmark in 2006, it now houses a conservation institute name for Mardy and Olaus.

 

During her life, Mandy Murie received numerous honors and awards. She died peacefully at home at age 101.

 

Sources:

https://uaf.edu/centennial/uaf100/murie.php

https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/208020

https://wilderness.net/learn-about-wilderness/olaus-mardy-murie.php 

https://wilderness.net/learn-about-wilderness/olaus-mardy-murie.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Murie

 

WOMEN DOCTORS & SUFFRAGE

Post by Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines

There is a lot in 2020 that reflects back in the history of this country and additionally, March is National Women's History Month. One hundred years ago, women across the country were given back the right to vote. Research from another source pointed out that when the country first started women were included in the voting process, but as time and development occurred, that inclusion was slowly eroded away.

This post will focus on Colorado and three of the women doctors who not only practiced medicine but also put time and effort into winning women the right to vote.

Alida Avery- Born 1833 in Sherburne, NewYork, began teaching school at sixteen. At the age of twenty-four, she began studying to become a physician. She was on the original staff at Vassar, where she taught physiology & hygiene along with being the resident physician. It was said in the nine years she was at the college she did not lose one student to illness. In 1874 at the age of forty, she moved to Denver where she set up a private practice. There is some indication she made around $10,000 a year. While in Denver, in addition to her medical duties, she also was active in working for women's suffrage. Newspaper articles of the time show her as president of the movement and in that capacity, she traveled. After retiring in 1887 at the age of fifty-four, she retired to California and increased her work on behalf of the movement.

Dr. Alida Avery
photo from Wikipedia

Mary Helen Barker Bates - Born 1845 in Hannibal, New York, the daughter of Dr. Ezra Barker. She graduated from medical school in 1873 and spent time in Utah, where family history says she was a physician to Brigham Young's family. In 1878 she and her husband, attorney George Bates moved to Leadville, Colorado where she was probably the only woman doctor in the town at that time. In 1881 the couple moved to Denver, Colorado where Dr. Bates in 1885 joined the staff of the Women's and Children's Hospital in that town. Her husband died in 1886 and she did not remarry. Her career was a stellar one, and in 1893 she along with Dr. Mary Elizabeth Bates worked for the passage of the amendment to the Colorado constitution giving women the right to vote in that state.

Dr. Mary Helen Barker Bates
photo from Wikipedia

Dr. Caroline Spencer - Born in 1861 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she taught history after graduation from the Philadelphia Normal School for girls in 1880. She received her medical degree in 1892 and returned to Colorado where she had visited in 1889 in the hopes of helping cure her bronchitis/asthma. She continued her practice of medicine while working for the national campaign for the passage of what became the 19th amendment. During her work on the national level, she was arrested on a least three different occasions. She was one of five women who stood silently during President Wilson's speech to congress in unfurling a banner from the balcony which read "Mr. President, what will you do for women's suffrage?".

Dr. Caroline Spencer
photo from Wikipedia

From the beginning of the suffrage movement in Colorado through the passage of the 19th amendment to the constitution of the United States, women doctors have been at the forefront of that fight. In this anniversary year let us not forget them. Two were unmarried, one was, yet they felt it important not only to heal the ill but also better the conditions of women and others.

The stories of these women and the focus of a lot of my non-fiction writing also inspire the women who inhabit my novels and short stories. My latest: "The Outlaw's Letter" and the story 'Duty' in the anthology "Hot Western Nights" from Prairie Rose Publications.

Purchase Here

Purchase Here

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

Books: Angela Raines Books

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

DOÑA PATRICIA DE LA GARZA DE LEÓN, PIONEER OF TEXAS, CO-FOUNDER OF VICTORIA TX

During Women’s History Month, posting about an influential woman seems appropriate. I enjoy finding women not universally known. Patricia de la Garza De Leon is such a woman, yet she was tremendously important in pioneering and founding the town of Victoria, Texas. Doña Patricia was the matriarch of one of the prominent founding families of early Texas. She raised ten children, some of whom helped change the course of history.

Patricia de la Garza was born in Mexico about 1775 in Soto la Marina, in what is now Tamaulipas, Mexico, to a wealthy family. Her father, Felipe de la Garza, served as commandant for the Spanish government. She married Don (Spanish for a titled man) Martín De León in 1795. Martín de León was born to a wealthy family from Spain, and although offered the chance to study in Europe, he chose to stay in Texas as a merchant and supplier to the miners of Real de San Nicolás.

Patricia and Martín settled at his ranch in Cruillas. Martín sold wild mustangs, mules and cattle in New Orleans. The couple's first child, Fernando, was born at the Cruillas ranch in 1798. The couple moved their base of ranching operations in 1799 to San Patricio County, Texas, where three more children were born.  Between 1798 and 1818 Doña De León gave birth to ten children. In 1805 the De Leóns moved to the east bank of the Aransas River, north of Corpus Christi. They moved several more times before 1824.

Ranching in Texas, De León had repeatedly petitioned the Spanish governor in San Antonio for permission to settle a colony in the area of his ranch. He was denied due to a combination of political problems in Mexico and some rumors that the De Leóns were not loyal to Spain (which, it turns out, they were not). Patricia and Martín didn’t understand why their petitions were denied when others, like those for Moses and Stephen F. Austin, were granted.

During this time, Martín continued ranching around Texas, and the family moved several times. The number of head of livestock they owned quickly grew, and De León began driving cattle to various markets. He was one of the first Texas trail drivers.

Brand of Martín De León stood
for "Espiritu de Jesús"

De León also bears the distinction of using the first cattle brand in the state, which he developed while living near Corpus Christi. The brand was an interconnected E and J, which stood for “Espíritu de Jesús.” He was well respected as a fighter of Native Americans, but he often avoided violence from raiding parties on his cattle drive by feeding them beef. To the Native Americans, he was known as Capitán Vacas Muchas (Captain Many Cows).

The De León family sided with the Mexican rebels in the Mexican War against Spain. On April 13, 1824, the provisional Mexican government granted Martín De León an empresario contract to settle forty-one Mexican families on the lower Guadalupe and Lavaca rivers. At age 49, with her four adult children and six minor children, Patricia de la Garza De León uprooted her life to become her husband's partner in the founding of De León's Colony.

Empressario Don Martín De León

The De Leóns paid for the colony themselves with profits from their cattle trade and with an inheritance from Patricia’s father of $9,800, plus another $300 valuation of cows, horses, and mules, in order to help get the colonization off the ground. The only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas, Martín named the settlement Guadalupe Victoria in honor of the first president of Mexico.

At Victoria, Doña Patricia transplanted cultural traditions of Mexico and Spain to the community. The De León family lived in a log home with a dirt floor. Nevertheless, the family had domestic servants and Doña Patricia filled the house with imported furniture provided from her family in Mexico. As the family's wealth increased she imported fine furniture and clothes. She and her daughters became known for their excellent embroidery skills and beautiful clothing. The De León home was described as among the most beautifully furnished in the area, and it became the center for community gatherings.

Their surviving children were Fernando (1798), Candelaria (1800), Silvestre(1802), Guadalupe (1804). Felix (1806), Agapito (1808), Maria (1810), Refugia (1812), Augustina (1814), Francisca (1818). She discouraged her children from using guns, for fear they would be perceived as bandits. At first she home schooled her children. Later, Doña Patricia sent her children and grandchildren to Spain and Mexico to be educated.

When José María Jesús Carbajal platted the town of Victoria, she made sure land was set aside for a school and a church. Her donation of $500 in gold helped to build and furnish the church, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe), the second oldest Catholic parish in Texas.

Empressario Martín De León died in a cholera outbreak in 1833 and left an estate worth $500,000. (Imagine what that would be in today’s currency.) Eldest son Fernando took over the colony responsibilities of his father. Doña Patricia, an excellent bookkeeper, managed the family assets and continued her civic work.

She and her family supported the idea of an independent Texas and smuggled arms and ammunition from New Orleans to the Texans. Despite their support of the Texans, however, the De Leóns were victims of the anti-Mexican sentiment that swept through Texas after the Texas Revolution. Her youngest son Agapito was murdered in 1836 by cattle thieves.

Many Mexicans fought with Anglos for Texas
Independence against General Santa Anna

Like many Mexicans, the De León extended family was opposed to the regime of Antonio López de Santa Anna. Texas independence was a separate issue. As the issue did with other Mexicans living in Texas, it divided the De León extended family, some of whom helped change the course of history in both Texas and Mexico. Divided loyalties among the Mexicans made them subject to suspicion and prejudice from the new Republic of Texas government and military establishment.

Candelaria's husband José Miguel Aldrete was 1835 state land commissioner of Coahuila y Tejas. Aldrete joined several Texas insurgent groups to resist Santa Anna.

Refugia married José María Jesús Carbajal in 1832. Initially, he teamed up with Fernando De León and Peter Kerr, to trade livestock for munitions to help his old friend and mentor Stephen F. Austin. Carbajal, however, felt his loyalties lay with the Mexican people, not the Texas cause. He moved across the Rio Grande and waged guerilla warfare in Mexico against Santa Anna's political machine. Doña Patricia loaned Carbajal $6,000 for his cause.

Fernando later became aide-de-camp to provisional Texas governor James W. Robinson.

Maria had one daughter with her husband, Mexican politician and military officer Rafael Manchola. He died in the cholera outbreak that killed Martín de León.

Augustina married Plácido Benavides, who opposed Santa Anna's dictatorship, but felt Texas should remain part of Mexico. Benavides led a unit of Tejano fighters at the Battle of Goliad. He was recruited by Stephen F. Austin for the 1835 Siege of Béxar to drive Martín Perfecto de Cos out of Texas. Silvestre fought beside his brother-in-law Plácido at the Siege of Béxar. Benavides earned himself the nickname of the "Texas Paul Revere" for his 1836 journey from San Patricio to Goliad to Victoria, warning residents of the approaching Mexican army.

But on July 20, 1836, disaster struck for the De León family, much of whose wealth was in land and cattle. Brigadier General Thomas Jefferson Rusk ordered Mexican families in the Victoria area to be evacuated in an attempt to stem any assistance being given to Santa Anna. The Carbajal, Benavides, and De León families left for New Orleans, forced to abandon their money and possessions. In Louisiana, they lived in poverty, and then moved back with Doña Patricia's family in Soto la Marina. From half a million dollars to poverty through no fault of hers, at least she was able to sell 25,000 acres of land near Garcitias Creek for $10,000 in 1837.

Silvestre De León

Silvestre De León returned to Victoria in 1842 to try and reclaim the family's property, and was murdered by persons unknown. Doña Patricia returned to Texas in 1844, only to find her assets had been redistributed among new settlers. In the new climate, she had lost her social standing in the community. She devoted the rest of her life to church service and until her death lived as an ordinary parishioner.

   

Doña Patricia died in 1849, and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Victoria, Texas. Before her death, she had donated the original De León homestead to the Catholic Church. She also donated altar vessels and a gold monstrance. In 1898, the church name was changed from Our Lady of Guadalupe to Saint Mary's Catholic Church, which currently occupies the site of the De León homestead.

Recorded Texas Historic Landmark number 6539 placed at Evergreen Cemetery in 1972 acknowledges Patricia de la Garza De León's contribution to Texas. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark number 6543 placed at Church and Bridge Streets in 1936 denotes the home of Doña Patricia de la Garza De León and Don Martin De León's home in Victoria.

Caroline Clemmons is the bestselling and award winning author of numerous contemporary and historical romances. Her latest release is GRANT ME THE MOON, which is included in the eight-author contemporary western anthology COME LOVE A COWBOY, available now for pre-order at Amazon http://amzn.com/B01D5876UK. The Sample booklet with recipes, blurbs, and excerpts is available FREE at http://digioh.com/em/21875/75252/rfwtugbtpk?demail=[email].

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_de_la_Garza_De_Le%C3%B3n

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fde66

TEXAS DAMES: Sassy and Savvy Women Throughout Lone Star History, Carmen Goldthwaite, The History Press, 2012

IMA HOGG, FIRST LADY OF TEXAS

This month--as you can see at the top of the sidebar--is Women's History Month. Our writers here at Sweethearts of the West have been featuring a famous women of the West. I'm choosing to repost an article I wrote about a Texas woman, Ima Hogg.

Ima Hogg, philanthropist and patron of the arts, was born to Sarah Ann (Stinson) and Governor James Stephen Hogg in Mineola, Texas, on July 10, 1882. When she arrived, her father said, “"Our cup of joy is now overflowing! We have a daughter of as fine proportions and of as angelic mien as ever gracious nature favor a man with, and her name is Ima!"  

Miss Ima as a toddler

Why, you may ask, would a man who loved his family and adored his daughter choose that name in combination with Hogg? Ima was named for the heroine of a Civil War poem written by her uncle Thomas Elisha and was affectionately known as Miss Ima for most of her long life.

Ima Hogg later recounted that "my grandfather Stinson lived fifteen miles from Mineola and news traveled slowly. When he learned of his granddaughter's name he came trotting to town as fast as he could to protest but it was too late. The christening had taken place, and Ima I was to remain."

During her childhood, Hogg's elder brother William often came home from school with a bloody nose, the result of defending, as she later recalled, "my good name". Throughout her adult years, Hogg signed her name in a scrawl that left her first name illegible. Her personal stationery was usually printed "Miss Hogg" or "I. Hogg", and she often had her stationery order placed in her secretary's name to avoid questions. Hogg did not use a nickname until several months before her death, when she began calling herself "Imogene". Her last passport was issued to "Ima Imogene Hogg". The story that she had a sister named Ura is untrue, although I heard it all my life.

Ima as a young woman

Ima had three brothers, William Clifford Hogg, born in 1875; Michael, born in 1885; and Thomas Elisha Hogg, born in 1887. Ima and her brothers were born into a family whose tradition of public service was an integral part of Texas history. Her grandfather, Joseph Lewis Hogg, took the oath of allegiance to the Republic of Texas in 1839, helped write the Texas Constitution, fought in the Mexican War, and served as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Her father was the first native born governor and was elected in 1890.

She was eight years old when her father was elected governor; she spent much of her early life in Austin. After her mother died of tuberculosis in 1895, Ima attended the Coronal Institute in San Marcos, and in 1899 she entered the University of Texas. In 1901 Ima, who had played the piano since the age of three, went to New York to study music. Her father died in 1906. From 1907 to 1909 she continued her music studies in Berlin and Vienna.

In 1910, Ima moved to Houston, where she helped found the Houston Symphony Orchestra, which played its first concert in June 1913. She served as the first vice president of the Houston Symphony Society and became president in 1917. She became ill in late 1918 and spent the next two years in Philadelphia under the care of a specialist in mental and nervous disorders. She did not return to Houston to live until 1923.

Miss Ima's portrait

After their father’s death in 1906, Ima and her brothers tried to sell the Varner plantation, but a provision in his will specified that the land be kept for 15 years. On January 15, 1918, oil was found on the Varner plantation. A second strike the following year provided oil income amounting to $225,000 a month shared among the four siblings. That’s a lot of money now, but imagine what a sum that was in 1919! According to Ima’s biographer Gwendolyn Cone Neely, the Hoggs did not believe that the oil money was rightfully theirs, as it had come from the land and not hard work, and they were determined to use it for the good of Texas.

In spite of her personal health problems, or perhaps because of them, Ima Hogg founded the Houston Child Guidance Center in 1929 to provide counseling for disturbed children and their families. Ima was convinced that if children's emotional and mental problems were treated, more serious illness could be prevented in adults. Her interest in mental health came from her father, who had read widely on mental health issues; during his terms as governor, Ima had often accompanied him on visits to state institutions, including charity hospitals and asylums for the mentally ill. She furthered her knowledge of the field while she was a student at UT, taking several courses in psychology. Ima was convinced that her youngest brother, Tom, would have benefited from similar intervention, as he had reacted badly after their mother's death and as an adult was "restless, impulsive, and alarmingly careless with money". Although her ideas on mental health would be considered mainstream today, in 1929 they were pioneering. In 1972, she told a reporter for the Houston Chronicle that, of all her activities, she had derived most pleasure from her role in establishing the Houston Child Guidance Center.

She joined her elder brother William on a vacation in Germany in 1930. During their visit, he suffered a gallbladder attack and died on September 12, 1930 after emergency surgery. Ima brought her brother's body back to the United States. His will bequeathed $2.5 million to UT and his desire was that it be used alongside money donated by his sister for far-reaching benefit to the people of Texas. Legal challenges tied up the grant until 1939, when the University received $1.8 million. In 1940, after discussion with her brother Michael—the executor of the will—Ima used the money to establish the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1943, Ima Hogg decided to run for a seat on the Houston School Board so that the board would include two female members. During her term, she worked to remove gender and race as criteria for determining pay. She championed a visiting teacher program for children with emotional problems and began art education programs in the schools for black students.

Varner Plantation at Bayou Bend

Although Ima Hogg spent little time at the Varner Plantation after Bayou Bend was constructed, she continued to purchase art and antique furniture on its behalf. In the 1950s, she restored the plantation, and each room was given a different theme from Texas history: colonial times, the Confederacy, Napoleonic times (1818), and the Mexican–American War. One room was dedicated to her father, and contained his desk and chair as well as his collection of walking sticks. She donated the property to the state, and it was dedicated as the Varner–Hogg Plantation State Historical Site in 1958, the 107th anniversary of Jim Hogg's birth.

Ima Hogg donated works she inherited from her brothers to Houston's Museum of Fine Arts, including one of the limited editions of Bronco Buster by Frederic Remington. In the 1920s, Hogg's brothers began to develop a new elite neighborhood, which they called River Oaks, on the outskirts of Houston. For their home, the Hoggs chose the largest lot, 14.5 acres. Ima worked closely with architect John Staub to design a house that would show off the art the family had purchased. William and Ima moved into the house, which she christened Bayou Bend, in 1928. In 1939, when she restored her estate along American lines, she donated more than 100 works on paper to Houston's Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH), including works by Cézanne, Sargent, Picasso, and Klee. Following the death of her brother Michael in 1941, she donated his collection of Frederic Remington works to the museum. Consisting of 53 oil paintings, 10 watercolors, and one bronze, it is known as the Hogg Brothers Collection, and is called "one of the most important groupings of Western paintings on display in an American museum. " Ima donated her collection of Native American art to MFAH in 1944, including 168 pieces of pottery, 95 pieces of jewelry, and 81 paintings.

In 1960, she was appointed by President Eisenhower to serve on a committee to plan the National Cultural Center, now called the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C. In 1961, Jacqueline Kennedy named Hogg to the 18-member advisory committee to work with the Fine Arts Committee in seeking historical furniture for the White House.

One morning in 1914, Ima was awakened by a burglar in her bedroom. She confronted the man, who was attempting to steal her jewelry. Not only did she convince him to return the jewelry, but wrote down a name and address, handed it to him and told him to go there that very day to get a job. When asked why she did that, Ima responded, "He didn't look like a bad man."

Later that year, she sailed to Germany, alone. While she was en route, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, and the day before she arrived, Britain declared war on Germany. The United States was still neutral, however, so Hogg continued her tour of Europe, not leaving until several months later.

Though Ima Hogg has been described as a woman of "unfailing politeness", she was not without adversaries. For instance, at a concert arranged by the Houston Symphony for her 90th birthday featuring the elderly pianist Arthur Rubinstein, he characterized her as a "tiresome old woman". Hogg, in turn, regarded the musician as "a pompous old man". By contrast, Hogg said of Vladimir Horowitz, whom she met backstage at a 1975 concert in Houston, "Such a nice man. Not at all like that Mr. Rubinstein."

Ima Hogg was a generous benefactor, and believed that "inherited money was a public trust". She was described by the University of Houston as "compassionate by nature", "progressive in outlook", "concerned with the welfare of all Texans", a "zealous proponent of mental health care" and "committed to public education".

A lifelong Democrat, Ima Hogg died on August 19, 1975, at the age of 93, from a heart attack resulting from atheroma. She had been vacationing in London at the time, but fell as she was getting into a taxi, and died a few days later in a London hospital. An autopsy report revealed that her death was not related to the earlier fall. On receiving news of her death, the University of Texas declared two days of mourning and flew the flag at half-staff.

Miss Ima in later years

She received too many awards and honors to list. In 1963, former Governor of Texas Allan Shivers—when presenting Hogg with the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the University of Texas Ex-Students Association (the first woman so honored)—said of "Miss Ima":

Some persons create history.

Some record it.

Others restore and conserve it.

She has done all three.

Lottie Deno – The Lady Was a Gambler

By Anna Kathryn Lanier

First, I want to thank Tanya Hanson for switching days with me.  My usual monthly post date, the 14th, snuck up on me this month and I was not prepared. I do appreciate your kindness!

Now, to talk about one of the more fascinating women in gambling history....

Carlotta “Lottie” Thompkins was born in Warsaw, Kentucky on April 21, 1844 into a substantially wealthy tobacco family.   Lottie and her younger sister were blessed with every advantage possible.  During her education at an Episcopal convent, Lottie would also accompany her father on business trips to Detroit, New Orleans and Europe. An avid gambler, her father took Lottie with him to horse races and gambling dens.  He also taught her everything he knew about cards. By the time she was sixteen, Lottie was an expert card player in her own right.

Lottie’s life, like that of most of America, changed drastically with the outbreak of the Civil War.  Her father, a Southerner at heart, joined the Confederate army and was killed in his very first battle.  The news devastated her mother, whose health began to fail.  Lottie took over the role as head of household and ran the farm. However, distant family members felt it inappropriate for a woman to run a business and they persuaded her mother to send Lottie to Detroit to live with family friends.  Her mother sent her, also, in the hopes of finding a suitable husband, but Lottie’s meager funds did not last long during the height of the social season.  Lottie’s mother and sister were struggling financially as well since the war was taking its toll on the farm. A lack of workers prevented crops from being planted and harvested. Lottie decided to get a job.

Jeopardizing her social standing, she took up gambling.  Her talent for winning, however, earned her enough money to not only send home for her sister and mother’s care, but for her own support in style.  At this time, she also met Johnny Golden, a gambler and Jew. Her mother disapproved of him immensely for both reasons.

The couple gambled up and down the Mississippi, but Johnny was not as lucky at cards as Lottie and the couple finally went their separate ways.  Lottie had just settled into a New Orleans hotel, when she learned of her mother’s death.  The care and education of her younger sister became her prime concern.  Lottie took up riverboat gambling and earned enough money to send her sister to private school.  After graduation, Lottie and her sister moved to San Antonio. (I’ve not be able to discover what happened to Lottie’s sister after this move).

San Antonio was the perfect city for a gambler.  The establishments were open twenty-four hours a day and Lottie played poker at the Cosmopolitan Club.  After seeing her play, the owner of the University Club offered Lottie a job as a house gambler, someone who would use saloon-provided money to gamble with. The professional card player would receive a percentage of the winners.

The novelty of not just a woman, but a beautiful, dignified woman dealing cards drew droves of men to the club who challenged Lottie to five-card  draw and her favorite game, faro. 

The owner, Frank Thurmond, had another reason for asking Lottie to join his club. He was smitten with her.  Lottie soon fell in love with Frank, too.  Johnny showed up in San Antonio and stated that Lottie was his wife, a claim she denied. Frank, meanwhile, was in an argument with a fellow gambler and a fight ensued.  Frank drew his bowie knife and stabbed the man. The dead man’s family put a bounty on Frank, forcing him to leave San Antonio.

Lottie also left, bouncing around the west Texas towns of Fort Concho, Jacksonboro, San Angelo, Dennison and Fort Worth. She was so good at winning many accused her of cheating.  One saloon-keeper told a newspaper reporter, “The likelihood of a woman being able to win enough pots to make a living playing cards is far fetched. That could only happen if she were crooked.” If Lottie cheated however, she was never caught.

It was a winning hand that earned her a new name. A drunken cowboy yelled out to her “Honey, with winnings like that, you ought to call yourself Lotta Denero.” She didn’t take his full advice, but she did change her name to Lottie Deno.

Finally, Lottie ended up in Fort Griffith, a rowdy town full mostly of rough cowboys and soiled doves. But Lottie thrived and had great success as a gambler there.  She set up a regular game at the Bee Hive Saloon and was treated as royalty by the men who frequented the bar.  Mike Fogarty, the bar tender, treated her especially well.  Mike, was in fact, Frank Thurmond.  Afraid that someone would make a connection between Mike and the man Lottie used to be romantically involved with, the pair would sneak away to a nearby town for romance.

Johnny followed Lottie to Fort Griffith, but he was killed just days after finding her.  Lottie paid for his funeral and coffin, but she did not attend his funeral. Instead, she stayed inside her home with the curtains drawn.

Johnny’s death was not the only violence Lottie witnessed during her gambling career.  Fights broke out constantly. In one instant, two cowboys accused each other of cheating and fists started to fly.  The sheriff rushed in to calm things, but both men drew on him and Sheriff Cruger ended up killing them both.  Everyone in the saloon had scattered. Everyone that is except Lottie. She sat calmly at her table stacking her chips.  The sheriff commented that he couldn’t believe Lottie had stayed at the grisly scene.  “You’ve never been a desperate woman, Sheriff,” she replied.  She may not have feared for her life, but she did fear being poor.

Lottie soon became a legend of the West.  Artists painted pictures of the lady gambler.  Authors and songwriters wrote about her.  One such author was Dan Quin, cowhand turned writer.  He wrote a series of Old West adventures, including one with a female gambler fitting Lottie’s descriptions and named Faro Nell.  Lottie, however was not happy with the book, published in 1913.  She said it was an “unfair representation” of her, portraying her as an “unsophisticated lady without proper breeding.”

It was at the Bee Hive that Lottie often played cards with Doc Holliday, of the OK Corral fame.  It’s also alleged that she got into an argument with Holliday’s girlfriend, Big Nose Kate, because Kate thought Holliday was cheating on her with Lottie.  “Why you low down slinkin’ slut!” Lottie shouted. “If I should step in soft cow manure, I would not even clean my boot on that bastard!  I’ll show you a thing or two.”  Lottie is alleged to have pulled a gun then, and Kate drew a weapon as well.  Doc Holliday placed himself between the women and stopped a shoot out then and there. Knowing of Lottie’s reputation for being an elegant lady, it’s questionable if the conversation went as now retold, since things tend to be embellished as they are repeated over time. 

After five years in Fort Griffith, Lottie moved to Kingston, New Mexico, where she met up with Frank Thurmond again.  The two went into business together in 1878, opening a small gambling room in the Victorio Hotel and a saloon in nearby Silver City.  The couple also acquired several silver mines.  They were soon very wealthy and loaned out money to mining operations in exchange for a stake of the claims.

It was there that Frank and Lottie finally married on December 2, 1880. Lottie continued to deal cards and Frank managed the saloons, restaurant and hotel they owned.  The couple also purchased a liquor distribution business in Deming, New Mexico, property in the heart of town and a ranch at the foothills of the mountains.

If not for the brutal murder of Dan Baxter, Lottie may have stayed in the gambling business for a while longer. Baxter and Frank got into a fight and Baxter threw a billiard ball at Frank, who pulled out his bowie knife and stabbed Baxter in the abdomen.  Baxter died and the authorities called the death self-defense. But it was enough violence for Lottie and she decided to retire.

Frank and Lottie settled in Deming to live quiet, orderly lives. He concentrated on the mines, cattle ranching and land. Lottie became involved in civic organizations and helped build St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. It’s said that the $40,000 for the original structure of the church was financed with winnings in a poker game with Doc Holliday.  Lottie made the altar cloths used by St. Luke’s.  Lottie was a respected community leader, forming a social club Golden Gossip Club. The women gathered to swap recipes, play cards and sew quilts.

After 40 years together, Frank died in 1908 of cancer. Lottie lived another twenty-nine years, dying at the age of eighty-nine on February 9, 1934.  However, Lottie has lived long past her death.  The character of Laura Denbo in the movie Gunfight at the OK Corral and that of Miss Kitty in the television show Gunsmoke are based on Lottie Deno.

Works cited and for more reading:

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-lottiedeno.html

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fde59

THE LADY WAS A GAMBLER by Chris Enss; ISBN 978-0-7627-4371-1

Anna Kathryn Lanier
www.aklanier.com annakathrynlanier.blogspot.com

Never let your memories be greater than your dreams. ~Doug Ivester 

Nancy Ward, Cherokee Woman, Advocate & Patriot

by Amber Leigh Williams

Since it’s Women’s History Month, I thought I would write about an influential woman of the American West who undoubtedly changed the way of life for her fellow Native Americans and who was a pioneer of women of her time. No one in the Cherokee Nation was more of an advocate for women’s rights, peace, and a better quality of life for her people than the Cherokee woman Nanyehi, also known as Nancy Ward. Nanyehi was born in 1738 as a member of the Wolf Clan in Chota, a historic Cherokee site in Monroe County, Tennessee. Perhaps her desire for peace between the Cherokee and their European-Americans neighbors was passed down from her parents. Her mother was a Native American woman and her father a white man who had ingratiated himself into the Cherokee Nation and lived among her mother’s people. Nanyehi eventually married a Cherokee man named Kingfisher. By the time she was seventeen, they had two children, a girl – Catherine – and a boy – Littlefellow Fivekiller.

Like several Native American women, Nanyehi was a warrior who fought alongside the men of her tribe. During the Battle of Taliwa, she and Kingfisher fought together against the Creeks in 1755. Unfortunately, both he and her father were killed. To avenge their deaths, she famously took up her husband’s rifle and led her tribe to victory. This act brought her much respect from her fellow Cherokee. It was then that she became a Ghigau at the age of eighteen. For those who don’t know, Ghigau was a title meaning “Beloved Woman” in the Cherokee Nation. It gave Nanyehi the power to sit in councils and extend pardons to captives.

At this time, Nanyehi chose to become more widely known as Nancy Ward when she married for a second time to Bryant Ward of South Carolina. Bryant was a colonist and Indian trader with whom she had a daughter, her third child, named Elizabeth (who later became the wife of General Joseph Martin). Around this time, the Revolutionary War was in full swing. Nancy gained praise again, this time from the white colonists, by warning them of her Cherokee cousin’s plan to attack their settlement. The colonists rewarded her by naming her a Patriot for the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

 In 1776, Nancy chose to use her powers as a Ghigau to give a captive by the name of Lydia Bean pardon. Lydia became a captive of Nancy’s tribe after suffering injuries during the Cherokee attack on Fort Watauga. After taking Lydia into her home and treating her battle injuries, the two became close friends. It was under the influence of Lydia Bean that Nancy began to improve the everyday life of Cherokee woman. By first teaching Nancy a different loom-weaving technique, the garments the Cherokees wore saw improvement and no longer had to be bought from traders but made from their own homes. Not to mention, this new technique kept Cherokee women out of the fields. Before they began weaving, a woman’s job was traditionally to do the planting. In this way, both Lydia and Nancy revolutionized the role of Cherokee women. In addition, Lydia and Nancy began to shift the Cherokee way of life toward the better. Lydia gave to Nancy two dairy cows and taught her to raise cattle. By eating dairy products, the Cherokee could sustain themselves during a poor hunting season. Through these new ways of life both for Cherokee men and women, their society as a whole began to mirror that of the European-American settlements. This new way of life called for more labor, however, and many of them began to use chattel slaves. In fact, Nancy was one of the first Cherokee people to purchase slaves.

When the Cherokee territory began to shrink, Nancy decided to use her established position as a Ghigau and Patriot for the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution to fight against the sale of her tribe’s lands. By doing so, she became known as a de facto ambassador for her people. She led the Women’s Council against the sale of Cherokee land in 1808 and 1817. Despite their best efforts, the land was lost to the whites’ growing demand for new settlements.

In 1781, she traveled with the Cherokee to use her position as an ambassador when they met an American delegation led by a man named John Sevier. While Sevier scorned the fact that the Cherokee had brought a woman along to act as an important diplomat, Nancy argued that the American delegation should have invited at least one woman to act as their negotiator, making a moving speech that impressed the delegation and lives on in history:

"You know that women are always looked upon as nothing; but we are your mothers; you are our sons. Our cry is all for peace; let it continue. This peace must last forever. Let your women's sons be ours; our sons be yours. Let your women hear our words."

Not until modern times was a Native American woman’s speech more noteworthy for its advocacy of women’s rights. Nancy’s is most touching because it shows that she believed in the rights of women of both races.

As Nancy Ward grew older, she settled down in southeastern Tennessee. On what was then called the Ocowee River, she opened an inn, which she ran alongside her son until she passed away in 1822 or 1824. It’s probably a good thing she did not live to see the Trail of Tears, which removed the Cherokee people from the lands she fought so hard to preserve for them. Her son, Fivekiller, was later buried with her on a hilltop site just south of what is now known as Benton, Tennessee. A statue of Nancy stood for seventy years in a Grainger County cemetery until it was stolen in the 1980’s. In 1923, the Daughter of the American Revolution posthumously awarded Nancy Ward with her own chapter based in Chattanooga. The chapter decided to place a memorial marker at Nancy’s gravesite and is now raising money for a Nancy Ward Museum. Until the time that the museum is built, the Polk County Historical and Genealogical Society will maintain a Nancy Ward Room in their genealogy library. Nancy Ward was also the last woman to be bestowed with the title of Beloved Woman of the Cherokee Nation until the 1980’s. The city of Vonore, Tennessee celebrates her life achievements each year with Nancy Ward Cherokee Heritage Days.