Nellie Tayloe Ross--the country's first woman governor!

by Tanya Hanson

I’ve always been intrigued that Wyoming allowed women to vote far sooner than anyplace else--1869. So maybe it’s not a surprise that Wyoming elected the nation’s first woman governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977). However, she never set out to be a politician. She truly believed a woman’s calling was home and family. Then her husband’s unexpected death thrust her into the political arena.

Her husband William Bradford Ross, a Democratic governor in a Republican state, died from complications of an appendectomy in October 1924.

Wyoming law required his successor be chosen in the general election scheduled a month later. When Dem party leaders offered Nellie the nomination to fill the remainder of her husband’s term, she did not reply. Her silence was taken as agreement. She was nominated on October 14 despite having no political experience and having played no real support for women’s suffrage. Later, she claimed she accepted the nomination because she believed she understood her husband’s goals and aspirations better than anybody else.

Missouri-born Nellie Davis Tayloe had prominent southern connections and her mother claimed distant kinship with George Washington. After the family moved to Omaha, Nebraska, she obtained a teaching certificate and taught kindergarten before her marriage. On a visit to Tennessee relatives, she met and fell in love with William.

The young lawyer moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming before marrying Nellie in 1902. While devoted to her husband and three sons (one died at ten months of age), Nellie was active in intellectual self-enrichment programs for the Cheyenne’s Women’s Club.

Upon her nomination, Nellie did not campaign for office, other than two open letters. Many voted for her as a tribute to her late husband. However, other citizens wanted Wyoming to have the first woman governor, not only as respect for its longstanding voting rights for women, but as a last chance to have the distinction:  Miriam Ferguson, the wife of Texas’s impeached governor,  was running in his stead in the 1924 election.

Although Nellie handily won as Wyoming’s 14th governor, 1924 was a catastrophic election year for Democrats. She graciously accepted that the Republican-controlled legislature was unlikely to work with her. Still wearing her mourning garb, Nellie Tayloe Ross was inaugurated on January 5, 1925. (Miriam Ferguson was not inaugurated until January 25.) Ross’s brief speech promised a continuation of her husband’s role, rather than a new start.

Among her heartfelt causes, Nellie fought unsuccessfully for Wyoming to ratify the federal amendment prohibiting child labor, and sought state assistance for the faltering agricultural industry. She urged banking reform and bemoaned the difficulties of enforcing Prohibition. She stood her ground to the federal government on water rights. As an administrator, she received mixed reviews and did not win re-election in 1926.

Although she did not seek public office again, Nellie was not done. A prominent and popular lecturer, she forayed onto the national stage as a Wyoming committeewoman to the Democratic National Convention. In 1929, she seconded the presidential nomination for the governor of New York, Alfred E. Smith and traveled the country speaking on his behalf.

In 1933, Franklin D Roosevelt wanted to be the first president to appoint women to his cabinet, and considered Nellie Tayloe Ross for either Secretary of the Interior of Secretary of Labor. However, she was chosen Director of the Mint, the first woman so appointed. Upon discovering that gold and silver coins were still being struck by hand, she established automation. Her efficiency pared 3,000 employees from the roster of 4,000.

Until Dwight Eisenhower became president in 1952, Ross remained Director of the Mint. She lived in Washington D.C. when she died December 19, 1977. Another strong woman of the West!

http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/whm/bio/ross_n.htm

Coming Soon from The Wild Rose Press

www.tanyahanson.com

The First Poet in Oregon-Anna Marie Pittman Lee

Anna Maria Pittman Lee was born in 1803 and died at the age of thirty-five.  She was born in New York City, the thirteenth child of George W. and Mary (Spies) Pittman. The family was financially secure and deeply religious.

Anna was twenty-five when was “converted to God” and declared to remain celibate. At this time she became interested in the Indians and applied to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. When there were no openings in Canada, she applied for the Oregon mission and was accepted in 1836.

In 1833 the Methodist Missionary Society voted to carry their work to the Indians of America. This came about after a group of Flathead and Nez Perce traveled to St. Louis in 1831 and asked about conversion. Jason Lee an ordained deacon and elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church was selected to travel to the Oregon Country and set up a mission.

The mission was established in the fall of 1834 sixty miles from the mouth of the Willamette River.  In less than a year the Society sent a farmer and his family, a married minister, and teachers to the mission. Anna Marie Pittman was chosen as one of the young women teachers. Thirteen people in all left by ship from New York in July of 1836 and arrived in May off 1837 at Fort Vancouver.

Anna arrived in Oregon a celibate missionary, but after meeting Jason Lee she was married within two months of her arrival. They honeymooned at the Pacific Ocean then returned to their duties at the mission. Anna, along with physician Elijah White's wife, dealt with the domestic affairs of cooking, baking, making butter, teaching a Sabbath School, and sewing clothes for the thirty Indian children who lived at the Mission House.

Eight months after their marriage, Jason traveled East to gain assistance from the Board of Managers of the Methodist Missionary Society. At his departure, Anna was six months pregnant.  Knowing he would be gone for eighteen months, she had to steel herself to bringing their child into the world without him.

Here is the first stanza of a poem she wrote for her husband before he left on his trip.

Must my dear Companion leave me,

Sad and lonely here to dwell?

If ‘tis duty thus that calls thee,

Shall I keep thee? No, farewell;

Though my heart aches

While I bid they thus farewell.

June 21, 1838 Anna became ill and Dr. Elijah White came to help her. After several days of difficult labor a baby boy was born with the help of instruments. The baby lived two days and Anna Marie Pittman Lee died the next day. They were buried together near the mission in a grove of fir trees.  She was thirty-five years old.

During the marriage Anna wrote many letters and poems to her husband. This collection of writing shows her belief in religious and marital bonds, her faith in God and the comfort and passion she found in her loving relationship with her husband, Jason Lee.   You can find her writings in Life and Letters of Mrs. Jason Lee by Theressa Gay. The letters are proof that contradicts the stereotype of missionary women. She wrote of romance, passion, and child birth with her husband.

Besides being one of Oregon’s first poets, Anna was also the first white woman to marry, die, and be buried in the Oregon Country.  

Source: Pacific Northwest Women 1815-1925

MUSTANG JANE AND HER LEGEND

Peggy L Henderson was scheduled to be a guest today, but her schedule prevented her from appearing. Instead, we're running a previous post about a famous woman in Southwest history.

Let me share the legend of a woman about whom I’ve recently learned. Sally Newman, the woman later called “Mustang Jane” by her vaqueros, was born in Illinois in 1817 to Rachel (nee Rabb) and Joseph Newman. Her parents followed her maternal grandparents through several states to eventually settle in southeastern Texas and become part of Stephen F. Austin’s “Old Three Hundred.” (Sorry if you’re not familiar with Texas history, but Stephen F. Austin’s 300 is a big deal here.) As a pioneer wife, Mrs. Newman was no stranger to conflict. On at least two occasions, she thwarted attacks from Comanche or Apache with quick and decisive action while young Sally watched.

When Sally was sixteen, she registered the brand for the cattle she had inherited from her father. Although she registered the brand in her maiden name, she noted on the application that she was the wife of Jesse Robinson, a man eighteen years her senior. The alliance lasted for ten years. Custody of their children, Nancy and Alfred, was ceded to Jesse when the couple divorced in 1843. Sally kidnapped Nancy, but was forced to return her to Jesse.

Sally’s luck with her second, third, fourth and fifth husbands was no better. She went by the last name of her second husband, Sally Scull. It was while she was married to George Scull (sometimes spelled Skull) that she developed her love for and interest in horsetrading.

While she was losing husbands (with some speculation that she might have assisted a couple of them in departing this life), Sally was gaining a reputation for marksmanship. Whether in skirts or pants, she always wore two pistols belted to her waist and usually wore a bonnet. She was a dead shot with both pistol and rifle, in either hand. A tiny woman with steel blue eyes, she weighed 125 pounds at most. Her rough language was notorious, and she spoke Tex-Mex as well as if it were her native tongue. When she wasn’t traveling alone, she rode in the company of several Mexican vaqueros. She roamed the wide territory between the Sabine River and the Rio Grande, making her headquarters at a small settlement called Banquette, about twenty miles west of Corpus Christi. The vaqueros who worked for her and other Mexicans who knew her called her “Juana Mestena,” Mustang Jane. She could out shoot any of her ranch hands, roped and rode with the best of them, and could drive a herd better than any of the wranglers in her employ.

Horses were Sally's primary business

Horsetrading was her primary business, a profitable one, and often under questionable circumstances. After a trip into Mexico, she always returned with a nice herd of stock, yet her money belt was still full. Sally knew all the ranches in the area. Ranch wives sometimes hinted that while Sally made eyes at the menfolk, her vaqueros were busy cutting the best horses from the herd. There were also rumors that she had assistance from the Comanche. If Sally admired particular horses and the owner refused to sell, Comanche raiders mysteriously visited the ranch shortly after Sally’s departure. No one ever caught Sally in possession of a horse for which she couldn’t show rightful ownership because she never let anyone inspect her herd.

Sally worked hard and played hard.  She was an avid poker player and her favorite haunts included Old St. Mary’s Saloon at Copano Bay, Pancho Grande’s in Corpus Christi, and several places in Refugio. She attended many a fandango due to her love of dancing. Can’t you imagine her dancing while wearing those two pistols belted around her waist?

During the Civil War, Sally’s knowledge of the southern Texas backcountry served the Confederacy. Union forces blockaded Texas ports, stopping all shipments from England. The United States could not block ports south of the border, so Mexico’s ports were open. Sally sold her stock of horses, bought wagons, and turned her vaqueros into cotton haulers. Her wagons became a common sight on the roads from San Antonio to Matamoros on what became known as the Cotton Road. Cotton was traded in Matamoros for guns, ammunition, medicines, coffee, shoes, clothing and other goods vital to the Confederacy and need by inland Texas settlements. When the war ended in 1865, Sally sold her wagons and resumed the horse business.

Sally had little to do with her son, Alfred, who lived with his father and stepmother and their eight children on Ramerania Creek, about fifty miles northwest of Corpus Christi. No one knows what happened to Alfred Robinson. Nancy and her mother were closer. Sally sent her to one of the best boarding schools in New Orleans. Nancy returned to Texas, married, and lived up to her mother’s dreams. They were close until one visit when one of Nancy’s family dogs growled at Sally and she shot the dog.

No one knows what happened to Sally Scull. Texas mothers used to cajole their children to behave or “Old Sally Skull will get you.” Not a nice remembrance, but Sally Scull had defied all expectations of womanhood for her era or any other. She walked tall in a world of strong men and made anyone in her path step aside. 

 Caroline Clemmons is the author of the Men of Stone Mountain series. Her third book in this series, BLUEBONNET BRIDE, is now available for sale in print or e-book from Amazon, and in e-book from other online stores.

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Catherine Sager and the Sager Orphans

By Celia Yeary

CATHERINE SAGER

When I began researching the Sager Orphans, the thought struck me that one could hardly imagine the hardships, the tragedies, and the sorrows of those pioneers who became part of the Great Westward Migration in the mid-nineteenth century. In today's world, we know of many large groups of people in Third World Countries who also suffer in this manner. However, there is one big difference between the groups--Hope. The American pioneers made the decision to trek across an entire country with the great desire to own land and be one's own person--they had Hope.

Catherine Sager was the third child of seven children, and the oldest girl. Her father had moved his growing family three times, from Virginia, to Ohio, to Indiana, and then Platte County, Missouri.

Henry Sager and his two oldest sons decided to head for Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. Naomi agreed to go so the family would stay together. In the autumn of 1843, they reached St. Joseph, Missouri, the starting point for the Oregon Trail. The family wintered there, and in 1844 they joined a group of 300 called The Independent Colony.

ROUTE OF THE
INDEPENDENT COLONY

The Oregon Trail

In April 1844, the 300 people in 72 covered wagons crossed the Missouri River and began their journey along the Oregon Trail. On July 6, 1844, the mother, Naomi Sager was severely injured as the Sager wagon overturned in the shallow waters along the river bank. But the pioneers moved on.

At the end of July 1844 the wagon train passed Chimney Rock in Nebraska, making the spot where the Great Plains were almost crossed, and the Rocky Mountains lay ahead.

A few hours before reaching Fort Laramie, Wyoming, 9-year-old Catherine caught her dress on an axe handle when she jumped out of the moving wagon. Her leg got beneath one of the heavy wheels and was broken in several places, an event that could have easily been fatal under the poor sanitary conditions. Her father picked her up.
In a broken voice he exclaimed: "My dear child, your leg is broken all to pieces!"
But Henry and a German doctor treated the leg and Catherine was spared. The doctor stayed the family in order to care for Catherine. However, she was confined to the wagon for the remainder of the journey.

The Sager Orphans

On August 23, 1844, during the descent into the Green River Valley which lay just over the Continental Divide, some of the group fell ill to an outbreak of camp fever. Among those was Henry Sager. Soon, knowing he would not survive, Henry asked Captain Shaw to take care of his family.

Naomi, who had given birth to their seventh child, also contracted the fever. She finally asked Dr. Dagon and Captain Shaw to escort the children to Dr. Marcus Whitman, a Presbyterian missionary in the Walla Walla Valley of what is now the southeastern part of Washington.

She died soon after.

The children, the youngest four months and the oldest thirteen,

were orphaned for the first time.

THE WHITMAN MISSION

The Whitman Massacre
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman adopted the children and kept them at the mission house in present day Washington. There, the Whitmans opened their arms and their hearts to the children. In a written first-hand account of their journey across the plains and their life with the Whitmans, Catherine 's work is regarded as one of the most authentic accounts of the American westward migration. When writing her story, she says of meeting the Whitmans:

"Thus Mrs. Whitman found us. She was a large, well-formed woman, fair complexioned, with beautiful auburn hair, nose rather large, and large gray eyes. She had on a dark calico dress and gingham sunbonnet. We thought as we shyly looked at her that she was the prettiest woman we had ever seen. She spoke kindly to us as she came up, but like frightened things we ran behind the cart, peeping shyly around at her. She then addressed the boys, asking why they wept, adding: "Poor boys. no wonder you weep!" She then began to arrange things as we threw them out, at the same time conversing with an Indian woman sitting on the ground nearby."
From: "Across the Plains."

Marcus farmed and provided medical care, while Narcissa set up a school the for Native American children. In the early days, life was peaceful at the Whitman Mission. But the peaceful coexistence between the white missionaries and the local Cayuse was in a delicate balance.
Three years after the arrival of the Sager Orphans, the Cayuse attacked the mission.

The Whitman massacre ended with fourteen people dead, including Narcissa and Marcus, and two Sager children, John and Francis. Fifty-four women and children were captured and held for ransom, including all the Sager girls. Louisa Sager, age 6, died during captivity.

One month after the massacre, on December 29, 1847, the remaining forty-nine prisoners were ransomed for blankets, shirts, rifles, ammunition, tobacco, and flint.

"All of us wept as we drove away from that scene of suffering; wept for joy at our escape and for sorrow for those who had been slain and could not go with us. As we left an Indian woman came from a lodge nearby and told us to hasten for our lives, that her people had repented and were coming to kill us. We made all speed we could, and as darkness came on the welcome walls of the fort loomed dimly before us and we were soon inside, but did not feel safe until a week afterwards, we reached the settlements. Thus ended our captivity among the Indians."
From: "Across the Plains."

Four Sager children remained, all girls.
They were split up and all married young. Henrietta, the youngest, died at age 26, mistakenly shot by an outlaw.

Catherine, Elizabeth, and Matilda lived into old age.

In 1897, more than 3,000 visitors attended the 50th anniversary commemoration of the massacre on the mission grounds.

Invited as guests of honor were some of the survivors of the events of 1847, including Catherine Sager Pringle, Elizabeth Sager Helm and Matilda Sager Delaney, the last survivors of the Sager orphans.

About ten years after her arrival in Oregon, Catherine Sager  wrote an account of the Sager family's journey west. She hoped to earn enough money to set up an orphanage in the memory of Narcissa Whitman. She never found a publisher.
She died on August 10, 1910, at the age of 75.

Her children and grandchildren saved her manuscript without modification, and today it is regarded as one of the most authentic accounts of the American westward migration.

Celia Yeary

Resources
Text from Across the Plains: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/two/sager1.htm

Wikipedia-The Sager Orphans

Lecture Notes provided by Anna Kathryn Lanier-"A Journey Fraught With Danger"

Cattle Kate

Ella Watson, dubbed “Cattle Kate,” by newspapers of the day, was described as a prostitute, outlaw and cattle thief. On July 20, 1889, near the Sweetwater River in Wyoming, she and James Averell were hanged by vigilantes for the crime of cattle rustling. Newspapers carrying the story claimed Ella was a holy terror the equal of any man on the range, and the cattlemen who lynched her acted in self defense to preserve land rightfully theirs. 

Who was the infamous Ella Watson?

 

Ellen Liddy Watson was born on July 2, 1861 to parents Thomas Lewis Watson and Frances Close Watson. Known as Ella, she was the oldest of ten children.  In 1877 Thomas moved his family from Ontario, Canada to Lebanon in Smith County, Kansas, where the family homesteaded the land. 

When Ella was eighteen she married William A. Pickell, a young man who lived on a neighboring farm.  Ella soon discovered that her new husband was not only a heavy drinker, but a violent, abusive man. When she could no longer endure, she escaped to her parent’s home. To put even more distance between herself and her husband, Ella moved to Red Cloud, Nebraska, and filed for divorce.

Looking for better opportunities, she moved to Denver and stayed with her brother for a short time before moving to Cheyenne and then to Rawlins in 1885.

There she worked as a cook at the Rawlins House for two years.

In February 1886 Ella met James Averell, a widower ten years older than Ella. He was in town to file a claim on his homestead sixty miles east of Rawlins near the Sweetwater River.  Because his land was so close to the Oregon and Mormon trails James started a general store and a tavern. He was later appointed postmaster and Justice of the Peace.

James convinced Ella to move to his homestead. She worked in his general store and cooked for his customers at the tavern.  He also thought she should buy the land next to his and homestead her own place.

In March of 1886, Ella’s divorce was final and a few months later, she and James applied for a marriage license, though it isn’t clear if they married or not.

She  settled on her land, built a cabin, and purchased cattle with the money she’d saved. She tried to register for a brand, but the Maverick Law, which was passed in 1884 denied her that right.

Basically Maverick Law said that no one could brand calves unless they received a registered brand from the state. Unbranded calves found on open range had to be branded with an M, making them the property of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA). These young calves were auctioned off to the highest bidder, but the only people allowed to bid were those who were appointed by representatives of the WSGA, and no small rancher or homesteader was allowed to bid on one of these mavericks unless they had a registered brand.

So not only did the WSGA block smaller ranchers from bidding, if one of these ranchers had a calf wander off, the WSGA would round it up, brand it and sell it to one of its many powerful rancher members.

At the same time these big cattle owners filed illegal claim on much of the land. Outraged, Jim Averell as Justice of the Peace started writing letters to the newspaper.

About a mile away from Ella and Jim’s homestead lived Albert John Bothwell, a wealthy cattleman and prominent member of the WSGA. Before Ella and Jim purchased their land Bothwell grazed his cattle all over their land and through the Sweetwater valley. He didn’t own the land, but he acted as if he did and wanted homesteaders and small ranchers off his land. Furious when Ella and Jim bought their land he tried many times to buy it, but was refused.

After Jim wrote his letters to the paper, Bothwell had his hands ride over to watch the couple. Sometimes they put a skull and cross bones on the doors or put up fences where they weren’t allowed.

In 1888, after pressure from the smaller ranchers and homesteaders, the Maverick Law was repealed. Ella bought 28 head of cattle from a man driving them up from Nebraska. In March 1889, she bought a brand from a neighbor that had already been registered.

On July 20, 1889, a stock detective and member of the association rode through Ella’s pasture and saw her now forty-one cattle, recently branded. He told Bothwell that he suspected Ella of illegal branding. Though Bothwell knew that the cattle had been on her property for a year, he saw it as a way to finally get rid of Jim Averell and Ella Watson. He called a meeting and encouraged other cattlemen to ride over to Ella’s and see the evidence for themselves.  One of the men, John Durbin, tore down Ella’s fence and drove away her cattle.

Gene Crowder, the eleven year-old boy Ella had adopted, watched as the men kept her from going into her house and forced her into a wagon.  When she asked where they were taking her, they told her, Rawlins. Gene tried to go with her, but Bothwell forced him to stay behind with Durbin.

Next they went to Jim Averell’s place just as he was getting ready to go to Casper. They told him they had a warrant for his arrest and when Jim asked to see it, they pulled their guns and made him get in the wagon with Ella.

B. Frank Buchanan, a friend and neighbor learned from Gene what had happened and followed the vigilantes on horseback for two miles to a gulch on the south side of the Sweetwater River near Independence Rock. When Frank saw them try to put ropes around Jim and Ella’s neck he opened fire on the men. The vigilantes returned fire and Frank fled for his life.

Jim and Ella put up a desperate struggle, but in the end they were hung. Since ordinary cowboy ropes were used instead of a clean neck break, they were slowly strangled to death.

Though an investigation was begun, the bodies were left hanging in the hot sun for 2 ½ days. They were buried together on Jim’s ranch. He was thirty-eight and Ella twenty-seven.

Bothwell and the rest of his vigilantes were arrested by Deputy Philip Watson. They were taken to the sheriff of Carbon County. They were all arraigned the following day and bail was set at five thousand dollars, and each man was allowed to post bail for the other.

The Grand Jury was set to convene August 25, 1889, but before that could happen, Gene Crowder disappeared. John DeCory, the fourteen year old boy who worked for Ella allegedly went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, but he was never called to testify.  Frank Buchanan also disappeared while in protective custody in Cheyenne. Ralph Cole, Jim’s twenty-year old nephew, who was visiting at the time of the lynching died from possible poisoning on the day of the hearing.

Without witnesses, the charges were dropped and Bothwell and the other men went free. No investigations were made into Ralph Cole’s death or into the disappearance of Frank Buchanan and the two young boys.

Rumors circulated that Bothwell’s men rode to the small ranches and threatened to burn them out or do to them what they did to Ella and Jim if anyone testified against him or the other cattlemen.

Newspapers began to circulate stories about Ella being a whore and a cattle rustler. Jim was portrayed as an outlaw, a murderer and Ella’s pimp, but most of the newspapers  were,  at that time, strongly linked to the WSGA.

In 1891 Jim and Ella’s land was sold for back taxes to Albert Bothwell.

http://www.kathyottenauthor.com http://www.amazon.com/Kathy-Otten/e/B00351X1VG/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1349909141&sr=1-2-ent

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He made her fall in love with him, then he took it all away

Stagecoach Mary - A True Pioneer

Mary Fields was born a slave in 1832 in Tennessee. She was owned by Judge Dunn and grew up with his family. She and the judge's daughter Dolly became close. Oddly enough she was taught to read and write. After the Civil War, Mary stayed on the farm with the Dunn family for awhile. Dolly became a nun named Sister Amadeus. The sister asked Mary to join her at the convent but shortly after her arrival Sister Amadeus moved to Montana to become head mistress of a school for Native American girls.

Mary worked as a hired hand at the convent and her duties included chopping wood and picking up supplies. She'd worked hard as a slave and was prepared for the physical labor expected of her. Mary was a six foot tall "gritty, cigar smoking, whiskey drinking, fist fighting, six foot tall black woman."

When she heard Sister Amadeus was sick with pneumonia, Mary traveled to Cascade County in Montana and nursed her back to health. While working at the convent, one of the men found out she made more money than he did. He didn't like it. Their argument turned into a gun fight. Shots flew but no one was hurt. Because of the altercation, Mary was fired and the man got a raise.

Next Mary owned and operated a restaurant, but since she could only cook plain food with little variety, it wasn't successful. When she was around 60 years old, she heard the U.S. Postal Service needed someone to deliver mail from Cascade to the surrounding areas. She proved to be the fastest at hitching a team of six horses and got the job.

Reliability was Mary's motto. When the snow was too deep for the stagecoach to pass, she put on snowshoes and delivered the mail by foot, once by walking ten miles to do so. Driving a stagecoach could be dangerous work due to robbers and Indians. Loaded with a rifle and several hand guns, she was able to hold her own. Thus she earned the name 'Stagecoach Mary.'

Mary was the second woman and the first black woman to ever work for the postal service. She retired when she was 70 and when her garden wasn't enough to keep her busy, she opened a laundry.

Mary was a pioneer and an inspiration to not only African-American women but also to anyone wanting to begin a new venture later in their life. She was unwilling to allow the prejudices of being black and a woman hold her back.

Mary lived a fruitful life and passed away in 1914 in Cascade, Montana. She was so well loved by the citizens of Cascade that every year on her birthday they let school out.

References:
http://www.cascademontana.com/mary.htm

About.comEducationAmerican HistoryStates and TerritoriesAmerican WestStagecoach Mary Fields - A Look at Stagecoach Mary Fields

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Fields

Thanks for stopping by!

Linda

Sierra Nevada Phillips

A Woman Called 'Vade'

By Paisley Kirkpatrick

Sierra Nevada Phillips was an energetic woman called Vade. She was a lady with a warm natural personality who did not know the meaning of the word 'impossible.' During her lifetime, Vade owned and operated many popular resorts in the Sierra. She was one of the best cooks in the area and had a large clientele who followed her wherever she went.

Vade and her parents left their home in Vermont in 1851 and traveled to the gold fields of California via the Panama route. The couple tried mining and then moved to El Dorado County, where they purchased 160 acres of beautiful meadowland near the American River. There was a heavy flow of traffic along the Great Bonanza Road to the Comstock, and in 1863, they built a two-and-one-half-story resort on their property. It was called Phillips Station and became one of the busiest stations along the dirt thoroughfare.

Vade learned to cook from her mother who had the reputation of preparing fine meals. She was determined to be the best cook in the Sierra, which proved to be true after she cooked her first meal one night when her mother wasn't available.

In 1884, she bought the primitive Rubicon Resort and Springs from the Hunsucker brothers, who were unable to cope with the heavy flow of guests. It was located in a wild, remote area with views, and a road that was little more than a mountainous trail. All her supplies had to be brought in by pack mule from barges on Lake Tahoe. Rebuilding the dilapidated resort was a difficult task. Vade, however, was a determined woman, and within three years she managed to erect a new and comfortable two-and-one-half-story hotel in the wilderness.

The establishment had 16 rooms, with curtains at the windows and an elegant parlor with fine furnishings. She renamed the resort, Rubicon Mineral Springs Hotel and Resort, and advertised the mineral water which was said to be 'better than whiskey.' Health seekers flocked in over the hazardous trail, and Vade added cabins and tents. The Rubicon spa was very popular with the wealthy Comstockers, and as the traffic increased, Vade realized the need for a better route to the springs. She went to El Dorado County and persuaded them to build a road to Rubicon. She sold the resort and moved back to her roots.

It took her a year to rebuild Phillips Station into a full-fledged resort with cabins, general store, cocktail lounge and campground. Phillips flourished and became known from coast to coast. The resort catered to families, and many returned every summer. In fact, some came so often that the cabins were named for various families. Among the notable guests listed in the register are former Secretary of State Frank Jordon and former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who was 12 years old at the time.

Vade had also been a postmistress all of her life. Wherever she went she opened a post office. When Phillips reopened, she went to the postmaster in Placerville requesting a post office for the old station. The name Phillips was taken by another location, so he told her to just call it 'Vade.'

Sierra Nevada Phillips died at 67, in 1921. She was one of the most dynamic women the Sierra had known. During her active lifetime, she went through the horse and buggy era into the mechanical age of today. And, although Phillips Station has been gone for years, a woman called Vade, who was respected throughout the Sierra, as Mrs. Hospitality, is fondly remembered.

Women of the Sierra by Anne Seagraves