Famous Kentucky Women
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HE1-323 C O O P E R A T I V E E X T E N S I O N S E R V I C E U N I V E R S I T Y O F K E N T U C K Y • C O L L E G E O F A G R I C U L T U R E FAMOUS KENTUCKY WOMEN he accomplish- However, women T ments of Ken- interested in medi- tucky women and cine, government, the many contribu- or the arts faced tions they have more difficulties as made to the growth they tried to enter and development of these traditionally the commonwealth male-dominated are significant. fields. During the Kentucky’s past 200 years, early social re- Laura Clay Lucy Harth Smith most women’s suc- formers and edu- cesses came only cators were prima- after hard fights. rily female. As a This publica- result of their hard tion provides some work and determi- highlights in the nation, the legal lives of a select position of all group of Kentucky women improved women achievers. and educational Hopefully, it will opportunities ex- whet an interest to panded for chil- search out the sto- dren and adults. Martha Layne Collins Mary Todd Lincoln ries of others. AGRICULTURE • HOME ECONOMICS • 4-H • DEVELOPMENT FAMOUS KENTUCKY WOMEN 2 IONEERS JANE COOMES JENNY SELLARDS WILEY P (c. 1750-1816) (1760-1831) ven though few were recorded in Ehistory books, stories of pioneer ane Coomes moved to enny Sellards Wiley, the well- women were handed down through JFort Harrod with her husband, Jknown captive of Indians, was diaries, letters, and word of mouth William, in 1775 as a member of a born on the border between Virginia from one generation to the next. group of Catholics from Maryland. and Kentucky. She, too, was well Every family could name a female Two years later she became prepared for the rough life on the member who was a keystone to the Kentucky’s first schoolteacher. frontier, having learned from her family structure. These hardy, Jane used the primitive version of father to do almost any kind of resourceful, persistent women helped the old English Horn Book. The work. She was a strong wilderness make permanent settlement of the “book” was made of clapboard and woman—she knew the woodlands area that became Kentucky. was paddle-shaped with the handle and was an expert with the rifle. whittled to fit little fingers. The In October of 1789, Indians alphabet and the Lord’s Prayer were attacked the cabin in which she, her REBECCA BRYAN BOONE written crudely with berry juices and husband, her four children, and her (1739-1813) charcoal. Jane taught school at Fort brother lived. Three of the children magine what it must have been like Harrod about 10 years until she and her brother were scalped. Jenny, Ito settle Kentucky during the resettled in Nelson County. who was pregnant, and her 15- 1700s. It wasn’t easy, especially for month-old baby were taken captive Rebecca Bryan Boone and her ANN MCGINTY by the Shawnee. Later, after seeing daughter, Jemima, who are said to (? -1815) both babies killed, she was sold to a have been the first white women to Cherokee who planned to take her become residents of Kentucky (others ioneer women needed imagina- away with him to his home on the followed soon after). Ption and skills to create clothing Little Tennessee River. Hardships and tragedies accom- for their families. Sewing began One night she was left alone, panied their arrival at Boonesborough only after the yarns were spun and bound with strips of buffalo skins. on September 8, 1775. While en route woven into fabric. Ann McGinty, During a dream, a white man she from North Carolina, Rebecca’s son Kentucky’s first clothing manufac- had watched burn at the stake James was killed by Indians. Within turer, arrived at Fort Harrod in 1775 appeared, told her it was time to three years, Rebecca’s husband, prepared to cope with the hardships escape, and gave her directions to a Daniel Boone, was captured by of the new land. She came with her frontier settlement. That night it Indians. Thinking him to be dead, she precious spinning wheel tied to her rained and the wet thongs stretched returned to North Carolina with her horse and plans for a loom folded in enough for her to escape. She took children. After his escape from her pocket. with her a tomahawk and a knife. captivity in 1780, he brought his Ann wasted no time before she After 18 hours of wading creeks, family back to Kentucky. They lost a experimented with the many weeds being pursued by Indians, and son and another was seriously and grasses that grew around the coping with many obstacles, she wounded in the massacre at Blue Lick fort, searching for one strong reached the settlement. Springs. enough to be woven into cloth. Jenny returned to her husband Rebecca died in 1813 in Mis- Until flax could be grown, she made and home in Virginia where they souri. Later, her remains and those of a thread from nettle. She and her lived for 12 years. They then resettled her husband were returned to Ken- husband built a loom so she could in Kentucky near the area where she tucky to be buried in Frankfort. weave fabric much like linen or was held captive. A state park bearing The historical notice Rebecca linsey cloth. The cloth was dull in her name is now located nearby. Boone has received has been through color so she used bark, berries, and Jenny, who gave birth to five her husband, but she was a represen- nuts to give it brighter hues. more children, died in 1831 at the age tative of the wives and mothers who Ann shared her skills with other of 71, a remarkable age for a frontier lived lonely and heroic lives, endur- women at Fort Harrod. She taught woman. ing heart-rending bereavements in the them to spin, weave, and sew; to settlement of the commonwealth of make household items from corn Kentucky. husks; and to make baskets from willow twigs. 3 FAMOUS KENTUCKY WOMEN in Garrard County and lived for loudly for the abolition of slavery, REFORMERS short periods in Boyle and he had no such concerns for the lways extremely conservative, Woodford counties. rights of women. During Clay’s A Kentucky approached social Carry’s dislike for alcohol was long absences abroad (he was reforms very cautiously. Suffrage, the probably influenced by her obser- ambassador to Russia), the family right for women to vote, was largely vance of the effects of heavy drinking estate, White Hall in Madison an upper-class issue, and the Ken- on her neighbors and family. Her first County, became a profitable tucky women who were leaders for husband was an alcoholic who died enterprise due to Mrs. Clay’s reform were wealthy, influential, and young. Her daughter also had a shrewd management of her time and educated. Most of them had graduated problem with alcoholism. money. from Eastern colleges. (The temper- Carry Nation became famous for When Clay decided to divorce ance movement—the fight to eradi- her “hatchetations,” her name for his wife after a 45-year marriage, cate alcohol—was closely allied with smashing saloons as she carried her she had no legal rights and was left the early suffrage movement.) hatchet and sang hymns. She some- with nothing to show for her years As early as 1800, women pushed times was accompanied by a hand of work. This had a strong effect on for a better legal position, but organ playing an entirely different Laura and her sisters and prompted Kentucky was backward in regard to song. Her opinion of the law was them to become fervent workers for women’s rights. Since Kentucky had reflected in her practice of addressing women’s rights. Laura became a not seceded from the Union, after the judges as “your dishonor.” leader of the Kentucky Equal Rights Civil War it did not have the favor- Carry was a journalist as well, Association and served as its able constitutional revisions that publishing The Hatchet and The president for 24 years. She also was women in the Confederate states had. Smasher’s Mail. She also wrote her a supporter of the temperance In Kentucky, a married woman autobiography, The Use and Need of movement. had no property rights. She couldn’t Carry A. Nation. make a will. If she did own prop- SOPHONISBA PRESTON erty, all of it became her husband’s. LAURA CLAY BRECKINRIDGE She could not make contracts, sue, (1849-1941) (1866-1948) or be sued. If she took a job, her husband had the right to collect her ophonisba Preston Breckinridge wages. He had sole guardianship Swas a sister to Madeline over their children, even if she left Breckinridge’s husband, Desha. A him and even over an unborn child. brilliant woman, she was a lawyer The husband could separate the and a pioneer in social work. She children from their mother if he was the first woman admitted to the wished and, in case of his death, Kentucky bar. After practicing law could will their guardianship to in Lexington, she went to Chicago, some other male. where she earned a Ph.D. in politi- In 1894, decades behind most cal science. She was the first woman other states, Kentucky passed a in her field to receive that degree. married women’s property law, as She served as dean and director of well as laws that allowed women to research at the Chicago School of make wills, serve on the board of Social Work.