Lisa Y. Potocar's Blog

If you love cuddling up with a great cozy mystery (set in a small town) featuring an amateur woman sleuth, then L.A. Sartor’s newest novel, Tick Tock Dead, is just for you! BEWARE: Get “cozy” in your fav PJs and plushy chair cuz, once you start, you won’t be able to put down this highly entertaining page-turner. (Paperback available now, Kindle available tomorrow, October 25, 2023).

Tick Tock Dead

Mary Livermore (1820 – 1905) A Penchant for Journalism!

Let me now introduce to you this next Pioneering Woman of Civil War America. First, let me say that besides Mary Livermore’s “penchant for journalism,” she was a suffragist, organizer of aid, and speaker. Read on to see for yourself!

How Did Mary Livermore’s Penchant for Journalism and Various Other Achievements Get Started?

Certainly, Mary would be considered a child prodigy since she graduated from a Boston public school at 14 years old. Afterward, she continued her education at the Charlestown Female Seminary (Massachusetts). There, post-graduation in 1836, she taught French, Italian, and Latin.

Charlestown Female Seminar

Two years later, Mary accepted a position as a governess on a plantation in Virginia, where she witnessed first-hand the ills of slavery. In 1842, she returned to her native Massachusetts staunchly abolitionist. Around this same time, Mary also affiliated herself with the temperance movement, serving as the editor of a juvenile temperance paper.

Moreover, when she heard Reverend Daniel Parker Livermore speak on the merits of Universalism, Mary turned her cheek away from her Calvinistic upbringing.

Note: Both Calvinists and Universalists are Methodist denominations: the former believe that God has pre-ordained salvation to a select group of people; the latter believe that Jesus Christ (the son of God) died on the cross to give salvation to all people.

Mary turned her eyes both to her new religion and a preacher of it—Daniel Livermore, whom she married in 1845. They had three children before they moved to Chicago in 1857. Besides raising her girls, Mary devoted herself to temperance and charitable acts, such as founding the Home for Aged Women and the Hospital for Women and Children. Additionally, she sat on the board of the Home for the Friendless.

Mary also acted as an associate editor for her husband’s Universalist publication (New Covenant). She not only wrote articles for all facets of it, but she managed the paper when Daniel was away conducting church matters.

And so emerges Mary Livermore’s journalistic side!

Pre-Civil War:

Mary Livermore’s “penchant for journalism” allowed her to be the only female reporter amongst hundreds of male reporters present at the 1860 Republican National Convention! There Abraham Lincoln won the nomination for president of the United States, and Mary wound up campaigning for his election.

During the Civil War:

Mary Livermore, alongside Jane Hoge, ran the Northwest branch of the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC), headquartered in Chicago. Her activities associated with it included: on the home front, fundraising for food, clothing, equipment, and supplies for the relief of the Union soldiers and recruiting and coordinating volunteers to collect, organize, and ship or deliver the supplies; at the battlefront, delivering aid; tending to the sick, wounded, and dying; inspecting army posts and field hospitals for cleanliness, and accompanying those soldiers transferred from the field hospitals elsewhere for recovery and/or rehabilitation. Additionally, she wrote articles for the press and answered letters and other communications. 

As specifically regards her fundraising, in 1863, Mary and Jane organized the very first Sanitary Fair, which, of course, was held in Chicago. Amazingly, Mary secured President Lincoln’s original draft of his Emancipation Proclamation (pictured below) to auction off. Its sale yielded $10,000 to add to the other $86,000 Mary had helped impressively raise in two weeks! The major cities of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City mimicked Mary and Jane’s great success, holding their own Sanitary Fairs.

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation

Post-Civil War:

Mary Livermore:

In 1868, co-founded the Chicago Sorosis Club, which supported women’s suffrage and organized the first Woman’s Suffrage Convention of Chicago.

 In 1869, started a paper (The Agitator) dedicated to women’s suffrage, which merged with the Woman’s Journal in 1870 when she and Daniel moved to Boston. Although Mary only served two years as the associate editor of the Woman’s Journal, she continued to contribute articles to it.

Later, helped found the Massachusetts Women’s Suffrage Association and became president of the American Woman Suffrage Association and the first president of the Association for Advancement of Women.

Mary traveled the lecture circuit extensively, speaking about temperance and women’s suffrage.

What Set Mary Livermore on a Life-Long Course of Civic-Mindedness?

She hailed from a military family (her father fought in the War of 1812, and her mother descended from Captain Nathaniel Ashton of London). Thus, her predecessors and parents probably nurtured her sense of obligation to public service. From childhood until her death, she practiced undying compassion, charity, and intelligence.

Her work as a tutor (or governess) on a Virginia plantation (three years) exposed her to the horrors of slavery, which made her an ardent abolitionist.

Since her collection of essays was published while she was married, her husband & Universalist minister (Daniel Livermore) probably encouraged her to write about women’s rights, temperance, and other social reform of the day.

What Were Mary’s Other Literary Accomplishments?

She authored numerous books of poetry, essays, and stories and was a recognized member of the literary guild. Her publications are listed below:

Thirty Years Too Late (published in 1847, reprinted in 1878)

Pen Pictures (A collection of essays published in 1863 and arising from her experience at the 1860 Republican National Convention)

Sketches from Domestic Life

What Shall We Do with Our Daughters? and Other Lectures

Superfluous Women

Other Lectures

My Story of the War. A Woman’s Narrative of Four Years’ Personal Experience as Nurse in the Union Army, and in Relief Work at Home, in Hospitals, Camps and at the Front during the War of the Rebellion.

For Women of the Day, she wrote about sculptress Miss Anne Whitney.

For the Centennial Celebration of the First Settlement of the Northwestern States, at Marietta, Ohio, July 15, 1788, she wrote and delivered the historical address.

Video on My Complimentary Civil War Women Website

Article Online at Women History Blog.com: Mary Livermore

Book on Amazon: My Story Of The War:: A Woman’s Narrative of Four Years Personal Experience As Nurse In the Union Army (Illustrated Edition) by Mary Ashton Rice Livermore

 Stay Tuned for the Next Installment of Pioneering Women of Civil War America , Which Promises to Feature a Woman Who. . .

Changed the Face of the Nation!

 

 

The post Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Twenty-Second Installment) appeared first on Lisa Potocar ~ Author.

Of the People and For the People!

 

In my previous post about “Stagecoach” Mary Fields, I promised my next pioneering woman would be as subtitled above. Let me now present to  you:

Lucy Stanton Day Sessions (1831 – 1910)

What Was Lucy’s First Claim to Fame?

 

In 1850, she became the first African-American woman to graduate from a college or university in the United States at *(Oberlin Collegiate Institute, Ohio! Amazingly, she achieved this when women weren’t allowed to attend most colleges and universities. Moreover, when slavery still existed in the nation. But Lucy only received a diploma versus a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts). That’s because her four-year “Ladies Literary Course” lacked studies in foreign languages and higher mathematics . *The institute changed its name to Oberlin College in 1864.

Either way, Lucy paved the way for other women and African Americans, but it took some time. On the one hand, Oberlin admitted people of color and women for studies from the day it opened in 1833; on the other, it took until 1835 and 1837 to begin admitting black students regularly and women into its baccalaureate program, respectively. Three of the first four women completed their studies, earning B.A.s in 1841. In 1862, Oberlin awarded the first bachelor’s degree in the United States to an African-American woman (Mary Jane Patterson).

 

Partial Image of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, Ohio (circa 1840s)

Lucy, the Student:

 

Lucy was far from shy. In 1849, she became the president of the Ladies’ Literary Society at Oberlin. Accordingly, she accepted an invitation to speak at her graduation. Her speech, “A Plea for the Oppressed,” called for her audience to band together and end slavery in the United States.

While at Oberlin, she met fellow classmate William Howard Day, and they married in 1852.

What Was Lucy’s Second Claim to Fame?

 

In 1853, she became the first African-American woman to publish a fictional work! She wrote a short story on slavery titled “Charles and Clara Hays” for The Aliened American, a weekly newspaper. It was the first in Cleveland, Ohio, to be operated and edited by African-American men, including her husband. (It’s also claimed to be the third of its kind in the United States).

Who or What Guided Lucy to Fame?

 

Lucy’s greatest motivator was probably her step-father, *John Brown. Lucy considered him her real father since she never knew her biological father, who had died before she reached two years of age. *To clarify, he was not the John Brown who was hung in 1859 for attempting to arm and help slaves fight for their freedom with guns he stole from the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

Why Was Lucy’s Step-Father a Man to Follow?

 

John Brown was a savvy black businessman and abolitionist. As a result of his anti-slavery beliefs, he was active on the Underground Railroad. He sheltered lots of runaway slaves. For instance, Lucy recalled there sometimes being up to thirteen all at once crowded into their home.

John Brown strongly supported education for African-American children. Since they weren’t allowed to attend schools in Cleveland, Ohio, he built one for them. Lucy was forced to attend her step-father’s free school too, even though she was born free. But I imagine she embraced it.

Above all, John Brown was a good parent. He raised Lucy to want a higher education and to battle injustices, especially slavery and unequal rights between the sexes and races.

Lucy Did Well by Her Step-Father with a Varied Career:

 

Firstly, as a principal of a free school for African-American children (Columbus, Ohio).

Secondly, as a teacher of freedmen in Buxton (Canada) after she followed her first husband there. And, later, in Georgia and Mississippi. (In Mississippi, she met Levi Sessions, and they married in 1878. This after she and her first husband had divorced in 1872).

Thirdly, in Cleveland, Ohio, in and around the above times, as:

An assistant editor to her husband for his newspaper;

A librarian;

An author;

A member of the Freedmen’s Aid Society;

A seamstress (because Lucy had to feed, clothe, and shelter herself and her daughter, Florence, after William Howard Day abandoned his wife and child in 1858);

A member of several organizations in post-Civil War Tennessee. In one, for instance, she served as the president of a local Women’s Christian Temperance Union. In all, she continued to support equal rights for all; and

Finally, as a founder of a club in California that sheltered and helped develop freed African-American women.

In Conclusion of My Post About Lucy Stanton Day Sessions:

 

I hope that I’ve successfully portrayed her as a woman “Of the People and For the People.” She might’ve been born into freedom and a privileged home, but she certainly did her part in helping to better the lives of especially her fellow African-Americans.

Also, I hope that you’ve enjoyed my post and that I’ve whet your appetite to learn more about Lucy Stanton Day Sessions at the following places:

Video on My Complimentary Civil War Women Website

Article Online at Black Past.org: Lucy Stanton Day Sessions

Paperback/Digital/Audio Book:  Sorry, folks! Nothing turned up in my search for a book on this pioneering woman. Hmmm, maybe I should write Lucy Stanton Day Sessions’ story?

Anyway. . .

 Stay Tuned for the Next Installment of Pioneering Women of Civil War America , Which Promises to Feature a Pioneering Woman With a. . .

“Penchant for Journalism!”

The post Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Twenty-First Installment) appeared first on Lisa Potocar ~ Author.

Of the People and For the People!

 

In my previous post about “Stagecoach” Mary Fields, I promised my next pioneering woman would be as subtitled above. Let me now present to  you:

Lucy Stanton Day Sessions (1831 – 1910)

What Was Lucy’s First Claim to Fame?

 

In 1850, she became the first African-American woman to graduate from a college or university in the United States at *(Oberlin Collegiate Institute, Ohio! Amazingly, she achieved this when women weren’t allowed to attend most colleges and universities. Moreover, when slavery still existed in the nation. But Lucy only received a diploma versus a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts). That’s because her four-year “Ladies Literary Course” lacked studies in foreign languages and higher mathematics . *The institute changed its name to Oberlin College in 1864.

Either way, Lucy paved the way for other women and African Americans, but it took some time. On the one hand, Oberlin admitted people of color and women for studies from the day it opened in 1833; on the other, it took until 1835 and 1837 to begin admitting black students regularly and women into its baccalaureate program, respectively. Three of the first four women completed their studies, earning B.A.s in 1841. In 1862, Oberlin awarded the first bachelor’s degree in the United States to an African-American woman (Mary Jane Patterson).

 

Partial Image of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, Ohio (circa 1840s)

Lucy, the Student:

 

Lucy was far from shy. In 1849, she became the president of the Ladies’ Literary Society at Oberlin. Accordingly, she accepted an invitation to speak at her graduation. Her speech, “A Plea for the Oppressed,” called for her audience to band together and end slavery in the United States.

While at Oberlin, she met fellow classmate William Howard Day, and they married in 1852.

What Was Lucy’s Second Claim to Fame?

 

In 1853, she became the first African-American woman to publish a fictional work! She wrote a short story on slavery titled “Charles and Clara Hays” for The Aliened American, a weekly newspaper. It was the first in Cleveland, Ohio, to be operated and edited by African-American men, including her husband. (It’s also claimed to be the third of its kind in the United States).

Who or What Guided Lucy to Fame?

 

Lucy’s greatest motivator was probably her step-father, *John Brown. Lucy considered him her real father since she never knew her biological father, who had died before she reached two years of age. *To clarify, he was not the John Brown who was hung in 1859 for attempting to arm and help slaves fight for their freedom with guns he stole from the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

Why Was Lucy’s Step-Father a Man to Follow?

 

John Brown was a savvy black businessman and abolitionist. As a result of his anti-slavery beliefs, he was active on the Underground Railroad. He sheltered lots of runaway slaves. For instance, Lucy recalled there sometimes being up to thirteen all at once crowded into their home.

John Brown strongly supported education for African-American children. Since they weren’t allowed to attend schools in Cleveland, Ohio, he built one for them. Lucy was forced to attend her step-father’s free school too, even though she was born free. But I imagine she embraced it.

Above all, John Brown was a good parent. He raised Lucy to want a higher education and to battle injustices, especially slavery and unequal rights between the sexes and races.

Lucy Did Well by Her Step-Father with a Varied Career:

 

Firstly, as a principal of a free school for African-American children (Columbus, Ohio).

Secondly, as a teacher of freedmen in Buxton (Canada) after she followed her first husband there. And, later, in Georgia and Mississippi. (In Mississippi, she met Levi Sessions, and they married in 1878. This after she and her first husband had divorced in 1872).

Thirdly, in Cleveland, Ohio, in and around the above times, as:

An assistant editor to her husband for his newspaper;

A librarian;

An author;

A member of the Freedmen’s Aid Society;

A seamstress (because Lucy had to feed, clothe, and shelter herself and her daughter, Florence, after William Howard Day abandoned his wife and child in 1858);

A member of several organizations in post-Civil War Tennessee. In one, for instance, she served as the president of a local Women’s Christian Temperance Union. In all, she continued to support equal rights for all; and

Finally, as a founder of a club in California that sheltered and helped develop freed African-American women.

In Conclusion of My Post About Lucy Stanton Day Sessions:

 

I hope that I’ve successfully portrayed her as a woman “Of the People and For the People.” She might’ve been born into freedom and a privileged home, but she certainly did her part in helping to better the lives of especially her fellow African-Americans.

Also, I hope that you’ve enjoyed my post and that I’ve whet your appetite to learn more about Lucy Stanton Day Sessions at the following places:

Video on My Complimentary Civil War Women Website

Article Online at Black Past.org: Lucy Stanton Day Sessions

Paperback/Digital/Audio Book:  Sorry, folks! Nothing turned up in my search for a book on this pioneering woman. Hmmm, maybe I should write Lucy Stanton Day Sessions’ story?

Anyway. . .

 Stay Tuned for the Next Installment of Pioneering Women of Civil War America , Which Promises to Feature a Pioneering Woman With a. . .

“Penchant for Journalism!”

The post Pioneering Women of Civil War America appeared first on Lisa Potocar ~ Author.

A Pistol-Packing Powerhouse!

 

In my previous post of Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Nineteenth Installment) about Victoria Claflin Woodhull, I promised my next feature would be of “A Pistol-Packing Powerhouse!”

Allow me to introduce our next Pioneering Woman of Civil War America through famous Hollywood actor and Montana native Gary Cooper who met this Pistol-Packing Powerhouse as a boy and, in 1959, had this to say about her:

“Born a slave somewhere in Tennessee, Mary lived to be one of the freest souls ever to draw a breath or .38.”

Gary Cooper was referring to:

Mary Fields (circa 1832 – 1914)

Most sources concur that Mary Fields was born into slavery around 1832 in Hickman County, Tennessee. As I’m sure you know, slaves were treated as chattel, with their birth and death dates (if known) recorded next to a number assigned to them upon birth versus their birth name. This posed problems later in matching numbers versus names to birth and death dates, especially if a slave was sold one or more times and their personal data not transferred with them.

So, What Made Mary A Pistol-Packing Powerhouse?

Complementary of Gary Cooper’s quote, Mary kept that Smith and Wesson under her apron and a rifle and jug of whiskey by her side. Not to mention, she could curse up a storm, loved to smoke cigars, and didn’t shy away from a good fistfight!

Mary’s mighty size of 6 feet, 200 lbs. also made her a formidable figure, and her former life as a slave toiling in the cotton fields gave her the strength and stamina that in 1895, at the age of 63, would make her:

The First African-American Woman (Second Woman Overall) to Serve as a Star-Route Mail Carrier of the United States Postal Service!

As a Star-Route Mail Carrier, Mary was not a direct employee, but an independent contractor who delivered the mail for the United States Postal Service along an approved route to a person or household. Unlike Mary, who secured one route and drove her own stagecoach, some contractors built a “chain-like” business out of several routes, while others sublet their routes or hired a driver to fulfill their deliveries.

Most interestingly, Mary was granted her route after she proved herself to be the fastest applicant to hitch a team of six horses.

Mary never missed a day on the job throughout her eight years of service (awarded in two contracts for the years 1895-1899 and 1899-1903). If the snow encumbered her stagecoach and horses, she’d strap on snowshoes and shoulder the mail sacks along her 10.5-mile route, west-northwest through the wild frontier of Montana, between Cascade and St. Peter’s Mission (pictured below). And neither bears, bandits, wolves, nor inclement weather could keep Mary from protecting and delivering her mail.

St. Peters Mission near Cascade Montana 1884

Okay. . .so nothing like “putting the cart before the horse” in terms of the sequence of information within my typical blogs and, at this point, you must be wondering:

How on earth did Mary go from enslavement in Tennessee to being her own businesswoman in Montana?

There are a couple of versions out there, but the common denominator as to how Mary found her way is linked to the Dunne family. Either Josephine Cecelia Warner Dunne of Mississippi knew Mary’s master and mistress or she and her husband, Judge Edmund Francis Dunne, met Mary while Mary was working on a Mississippi steamboat. Whichever the case, after the Civil War ended and Mary was free, she appears to have been working for the Dunnes. Around 1870, Josephine died, and Judge Dunne entrusted Mary to escort his five children to his sister, Mother Mary Amadeus Dunne (pictured below) of an *Ursuline convent in Toledo, Ohio.

[image error]

Mother Amadeus Dunne 1884

The Mother Superior befriended Mary, overseeing work she assigned to her until, in 1881, Mother Amadeus was sent to Montana Territory (which achieved statehood in 1889) to open parochial schools for Native American girls of the Blackfeet tribe. Around 1884, when the Mother Superior fell ill with pneumonia, Mary rushed to her bedside and helped nurse her back to health. Mother Amadeus appreciated Mary’s loyalty and gave her room and board at the convent in St. Peter’s Mission in exchange for her cooking, gardening, maintaining the grounds, constructing and repairing buildings, raising chickens, doing carpentry, and hauling freight. Mary found paid work from the town, operating a stagecoach in the transfer of passengers to and from the train station.

In 1894, after ten years at the mission, Mary was dismissed from her job around the convent by Bishop John Baptist Brondel for drawing her gun back at a co-worker, who complained about her—a black woman—making more money than him. Who could blame the bishop, who was well aware of Mary’s habits, including her carousing in the saloons? He could no longer turn a blind eye to her as a bad influence to the mission’s children. Although Mother Amadeus and the other nuns, who adored Mary and had come to rely heavily upon her labor, failed in their arguments to spare Mary’s job, they would later give Mary a stagecoach for her mail route.

Until Mary obtained her contract as a Star-Route Mail Carrier, she moved to Cascade, where she ran a laundry service and opened a couple of diners, which failed owing to Mary’s big heart in feeding most of her customers, especially the children, free of charge. Where Mary failed in business, she succeeded in endearing herself to the locals and in managing her mail route, the latter from which her reliability earned her the nickname:

“Stagecoach Mary!”

The children of the Blackfeet Nation, with whom Mary would come in contact after she arrived in the rugged country around St. Peter’s Mission, called Mary “White Crow” because as one wrote: She acted like a white woman but had black skin. Most, if not all, of these children had never seen a black-skinned person before, and Mary was the only one around for miles. How could she not pose an enigma?

Stagecoach Mary (aka Black Mary) would come to be so respected by the folk in and around Cascade, Montana, that:

When her birthday rolled around each year, the town closed its schools to celebrate.

When Montana passed a law forbidding women to enter saloons, the mayor of Cascade granted her an exemption.

When, in her retirement as a star-route mail carrier her house (also a laundry) burned, the townsfolk re-built it.

When she died (1914), her funeral was funded by the locals of this wild-west frontier, and it was the largest ever attended. Many pallbearers carried Mary to her final resting place beneath a simple stone marker (below) in a small cemetery along her mail route.

Head Stone for Mary Fields

What Was the Motivation behind Stagecoach Mary’s Work?

I would venture to guess it was the same as for most former slaves who welcomed their freedom and desired to do something with it, including supporting themselves—and in “Stagecoach Mary’s” case, her habits.

I’ll end here with the hopes that you’ve enjoyed this post and that I’ve whet your appetite to learn more about Stagecoach Mary Fields at the following places:

Video on My Complimentary Civil War Women Website

Article Online at History.com: “Stagecoach” Mary Fields

Book on Amazon:  Mary Fields AKA ‘Stagecoach Mary’ by Erich Martin Hicks

Stay Tuned for the Next Installment of Pioneering Women of Civil War America , Which Promises to Feature a Woman. . .

“Of the People and For the People!”

The post Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Twentieth Installment) appeared first on Lisa Potocar ~ Author.

Oh, Happy Day!

A short but sweet post to say. . .

. . .Finally, today, my long-awaited release of Gold, Guts and Glory (Book 3 of Glory: A Civil War Series), now in both eBook and print formats!

And to say. . .

. . .I’ve popped the cork, poured some bubbly, and am raising my champagne flute to toast all of you who have kindly and generously encouraged and supported me throughout the writing and publication of Sweet Glory (Book 1 of Glory: A Civil War Series). . .

. . .and Train to Glory (Book 2 of Glory: A Civil War Series). . .

. . .and, now, Gold, Guts and Glory (Book 3 of Glory: A Civil War Series)!

Cheers,

Lisa Y. Potocar

 

The post Release of Gold, Guts and Glory (Book 3 of Glory: A Civil War Series) appeared first on Lisa Potocar ~ Author.

Calling all Enthusiasts of Historical Fiction!

Gold, Guts and Glory (Book 3 of Glory: A Civil War Series) is Here! Want a Free Copy?

If you’re interested in a free digital copy of Gold, Guts and Glory in exchange for an honest review of it on the day of its release (November 30, 2021), please email me your request at lisapotocar@gmail.com so I can email your freebie to you. If you’d like to read it without having to review it, no worries. . .it’s available now for order in print  and pre-order in eBook.

Anyway, if you’ve read Sweet Glory (Book 1 of Glory: A Civil War Series) and Train to Glory (Book 2 of Glory: A Civil War Series), then you already know that Gold, Guts and Glory chronicles the continuing  saga of Jana Brady (alias Cavalryman Johnnie Brodie of the real Tenth New York Volunteer Cavalry Regiment) and her soldier-sweetheart Keeley Cassidy. Rather than my droning on about their latest escapades, I’ll let Jana’s contemporary fill in some of those details in the following video:

                               

Continuing where Jana’s avatar leaves off. . .

. . .Jana and Keeley discover that the train wreck reveals a more sinister plot behind the stolen payroll than mere petty thievery. They race against two Rebel train-wreck survivors, a bankrupt politician and his goons, and members of a powerful organization who aim to amass wealth to incite a second rebellion and perpetuate slavery. With help from Jana and Keeley’s coonhound, Tracker, and cavalry comrades, Leanne and Charlie Watson, they sniff out the trail of the federal treasury and confront the thieves in a final showdown. Can Jana, Keeley, and friends outwit their foes to recoup the money?

The Sapling Idea that Bloomed into Gold, Guts and Glory Happened Eighty-Percent of the Way Into the Writing of Train to Glory, as With This Moment:

Jana didn’t confide in Mr. Tanner that her only appeal in working for the Pinkerton Agency would be if she and Keeley didn’t rekindle their love. Then, she’d need something exhilaratingly adventurous to get her through her grief. If, however, they did rekindle their love, and he found farming unappealing, maybe he’d consider becoming a detective. She smiled at the thought of them becoming the Pinkerton Agency’s first husband-wife team.

And the Rest is History!

I hope you find Gold, Guts and Glory (Book 3 of Glory: A Civil War Series) an entertaining story filled with adventure, romance, and suspense interwoven with a sweeping portrayal of post-Civil War times and women’s expanding roles within it.

Happy Reading & Warm Regards,

Lisa Y. Potocar

P.S. I will resume my regular blog, Pioneering Women of Civil War America about a Pistol-Packing Powerhouse, next week on November 22, 2021.

The post Release of Gold, Guts and Glory (Book 3 of Glory: A Civil War Series) appeared first on Lisa Potocar ~ Author.

A Financial Wizard!

 

In my previous post of Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Eighteenth Installment) about Kate Warne, I promised I’d feature another woman of Civil War times who was “A Financial Wizard!” Let me now present to you:

Victoria Claflin Woodhull (1838 – 1927)

So, What Made Victoria a Financial Wizard?

She and her sister. . .

Tennessee “Tennie” Celeste Claflin (1844 – 1923)
(Later, Lady Tennessee Celeste Claflin, Viscountess of Montserrat)

. . .were the first women to become stockbrokers in the operation of their own brokerage firm on Wall Street (1870).

With their firm, they made:

A fortune for themselves on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as for other clients, such as the famous American business magnate and philanthropist, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built his wealth in steamboats, railroads, and shipping. 

Thus. . .

New York newspapers, most prominently the New York Herald, saluted the sisters as. . .

The Queens of Finance and the Bewitching Brokers!

Men’s journals, especially The Days’ Doings, unfairly vilified these two publicly minded and unchaperoned sisters as amorally sexual miscreants and prostitutes.

In 1870, Victoria and Tennie founded their own newspaper, Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly (pictured below). Its primary purpose was to promote Victoria’s political aspirations. At its peak, it relished a nationwide circulation of 20,000 subscribers.

So. . .

What Were Victoria’s Political Accomplishments?

In 1871, she staked a claim as the first woman ever to stand before the United States Congress to address the oversight of the federal government in preventing women the right to vote as no amendment to the Constitution disqualified their sex.

First Side Bar: As luck would have it, the third annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) was meeting in Washington and due to begin while Victoria was addressing the House Judiciary Committee. Keen to be in attendance, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other suffragists postponed their opening to attend Victoria’s petition.

Interestingly. . .

Victoria’s appearance before Congress is depicted in the bottom image on the cover for Train to Glory (Book 1 of my Glory: A Civil War Series)!

When the federal and state governments continued to shun a woman’s right to vote, Victoria profoundly and publicly declared:

“If Congress refuses to listen to and grant what women ask, there is but one course left then to pursue. What is there left for women to do but to become the mothers of the future government?”

On to Victoria’s Other Accomplishments!

How about her being the first woman to run for president of the United States against incumbent Ulysses S. Grant for his second term in 1872? Her ticket, the “Equal Rights Party,” nominated Frederick Douglass (former slave, abolitionist, social reformer, and eloquent orator and writer) for vice-president, but he neither appeared at the convention nor acknowledged the nomination. Unfortunately, Victoria scored zero electoral votes and an unknown but trifling number of popular votes.

Second Side Bar: After Victoria’s congressional appeal for women to exorcise their right to vote, Susan B. Anthony, alongside other women, followed up in 1871 with casting a vote for Victoria and the Equal Rights Party. They were arrested and, at Susan’s trial in 1873, the judge prevented the jury from deliberating and charged it to find Susan guilty.

So much for a trial by jury guaranteed in the United States Constitution of its citizens!

Further adding insult to injury, the judge fined Susan $100.00 and other courtroom fees. Although he didn’t jail Susan when she refused to pay any of it, he denied her a chance to appeal. The judge’s actions cemented women’s servitude to men and lack of their existence under the eyes of the law. It incited suffragists deeper into action against such hypocrisy.

But back to Victoria. . .

Talk about her tenacity: In 1884 and 1892, she ran again—though obviously unsuccessfully—for U.S. president.

What in Victoria’s Background Inspired Her Calls to Action?

The explosive combination of an abusive home life (including a father who starved, beat, and sexually abused his daughters and an illiterate, illegitimate mother who resorted to blackmailing for the family’s survival), plus an adulterous first husband likely embittered Victoria to a patriarchal society and set her on her ardent path in support of women’s rights and reform.

She fought for:

Monogamous relationships and free love.

Huh? Sounds like an oxymoron!

Not so, though, by Victoria’s definition of free love: A woman’s choice to marry, divorce, and bear children without governmental interference.

And she fought against:

Prostitution even as she battled to legalize it. (So there you spiteful men’s journals of Victoria’s day which called her a prostitute)!

Per Victoria’s regard of women’s rights, how can you not love the ensuing quote by her?

“Let women issue a declaration of independence sexually, and absolutely refuse to cohabit with men until they are acknowledged as equals in everything, and the victory would be won in a single week.”

I’ll end here with the hopes that you’ve enjoyed this post and that I’ve whet your appetite to learn more about Victoria Claflin Woodhull at the following places:

Video on My Complimentary Civil War Women Website

Article Online at the National Park Service.gov: Victoria Woodhull

Book on Amazon:  A Woman for President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull by Kathleen Krull

Stay Tuned for the Next Installment of Pioneering Women of Civil War America, Which Promises to Feature. . .

. . .A Pistol-Packing Powerhouse!

The post Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Nineteenth Installment) appeared first on Lisa Potocar ~ Author.

A Savvy Sleuth!

In my previous post of Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Seventeenth Installment) about Sarah and Angelina Grimké, I promised I’d feature another woman of Civil War times who was “A Savvy Sleuth!” Let me now present to you:

Kate Warne (1833 – 1868)

What of Kate’s accomplishments made her a savvy sleuth?

In 1856, at the age of twenty-three, she became the very first female detective for the Pinkerton Agency and for the United States when, in July 1861, Allan Pinkerton took her along to help command Union General George B. McClellan’s newly created military intelligence unit.

Besides other high-profile cases which Kate successfully foiled before, during, and after the Civil War, she is most notable for:

Unearthing the particulars of a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln on his way to his first inaugural as president of the United States. Then, Kate thwarted the traitorous deed by disguising Lincoln as her invalid brother and personally escorting him safely to Washington City (as Washington, D.C., was then called). Thus. . .

Kate became the first female presidential guard in the United States and a prototype for the future Secret Service!

First Side Bar: Kate stayed awake all night on the train ride, keeping a vigilant eye over Abraham Lincoln, and it is said that this gave Allan Pinkerton (pictured below) the impetus to use the all-seeing eye and motto “We Never Sleep” on his detective-agency’s badge.

Allen Pinkerton (1819 – 1884)

Afterward, Allan Pinkerton created a branch of his agency, which he called the Female Detective Bureau, and he rewarded Kate’s efforts by promoting her to “Supervisor of Women Detectives.” In fact, Allan Pinkerton would give the following speech to the new female recruits:

“In my service you will serve your country better than on the field. I have several female operatives. If you agree to come aboard you will go in training with the head of my female detectives, Kate Warne. She has never let me down.”

And, later, Allan Pinkerton called Kate one of his five, all-time, best detectives—male or female.

As much as Kate worked hard to unravel mysteries, her life prior to her work as a detective is a mystery. Besides her widowhood, we seem to only know that she was born in south-central New York State (Chemung County), and she coveted a career in acting. She certainly got the chance to do the latter with the many disguises she donned as an undercover agent.

Second Side Bar: My fictional primary character in my Glory: A Civil War Series was born and raised in Chemung County too! Additionally, in Train to Glory (Book 2 of Glory: A Civil War Series), Kate “Kitty” Warne helps Jana hunt down her kidnappers before they assassinate Jana.

Anyway, back to Kate Warne. . .

What in Kate’s background motivated her to seek work as a detective?

Her sole motivation was out of her desperation to make a living after the death of her husband.

She was actually lured to Pinkerton headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, by a Want Ad. There are conflicting reports as to whether this newspaper advertisement was for a detective or a clerical position that was filled by the time Kate arrived at the agency to stake a claim for it.

Either way, Allan Pinkerton was taken aback when she asked him for a job as a detective, and he said to her:

“It is not the custom to employ women detectives.”

But. . .he succumbed to her convincing argument that women make better spies than men because they are apt to goad things out of male braggarts and cozy up to their wives and sweethearts, out of whom they can worm more secrets. And maybe Allan Pinkerton recognized in her honest face an invaluable resource for Kate’s making friends with felons.

Legend has it that Kate and Allan Pinkerton were lovers. A good case for it could be made in Allan Pinkerton’s having buried her amongst his family’s plots at Graceland Cemetery (Chicago, Illinois) and beside where he would eventually lay in eternal peace (pictured below).

Kate Warne Cemetery Plot

NOTE: I had difficulty finding a better picture to show the inscriptions on the headstones. On Kate’s, her surname is misspelled “Warn.” Although, in disguise, she sometimes used this spelling.

Sadly, Kate died of pneumonia (congestion of the lungs, as it states on her headstone) at the youthful age of thirty-four or thirty-five (her birth month is unknown). But she left behind an eminent legacy:

She was a law enforcement agent well ahead of her time since women of the United States would have to wait until 1891 to be accepted on any police force and until 1910 to become officers.

I’ll end here with the hopes that you’ve enjoyed this post and that I’ve whet your appetite to learn more about Kate Warne at the following places:

Video on My Complimentary Civil War Women Website

Article Online at Wikipedia:
Kate Warne

Book on Amazon:
Pinkerton’s Belle – America’s First Female Detective by Eve Stephenson

Stay Tuned for the Next Installment of Pioneering Women of Civil War America, Which Promises to Feature. . .

. . .A Financial Wizard!

The post Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Eighteenth Installment) appeared first on Lisa Potocar ~ Author.

In my previous post of Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Sixteenth Installment) about Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke, I promised I’d feature two women of Civil War times who were “Subversive Sisters from the South!” How’s that for some good alliteration? Back to business. . .let me now present to you:

Sarah Moore Grimké (1792 – 1873)

Angelina Emily Grimké Weld (1805 – 1879)

I believe I can guess what you’re thinking: The above portrayals of the Grimké sisters give them a mighty grim appearance, but I assure you there is nothing in their very natures that could condemn them to such. In fact, they were animated in their fierce activism against the very grim social, political, religious, and moral ideals that shaped the United States of America during their time—as you shall soon see.

What made the Grimkés “Subversive Sisters from the South?”

They were:

The first Southern-American women to advocate for the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage and equal rights, first from below and then above the Mason and Dixon line while they lived in South Carolina and after they moved to the North.

Deemed the most fanatical of both men and women of their day in terms of their openness against slavery and in favor of women’s suffrage and equal rights, especially when public speaking was reserved for men only.

The first female representatives for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Sarah was:

The first woman write and publish an article in the United States (New England newspaper) regarding women’s equal rights. And a compilation of her letters to others of concern was published in book format in 1838 as shown below:

Letter on the Equality Of The Sexes and the Condition Of Woman

Today, her book is still considered an important social, political, and religious work reflective of her times. One of her quotes within shows a parallel between slavery and women’s suppression:

“Here now, the very being of woman, like that of a slave, is absorbed in her master. All contracts made with her, like those made with slaves by their owners, are a mere nullity. Our kind defenders have legislated away almost all of our legal rights, and in the true spirit of such injustice and oppression, have kept us in ignorance of those very laws by which we are governed. They have persuaded us, that we have no right to investigate the laws, and that, if we did, we could not comprehend them. . . .”

But Angelina was the more extroverted of the two sisters. As such, she was:

The first women (circa 1837) to be recognized as the most powerful public speaker for the abolition of slavery—UNRIVALED by most male orators of her time and incredibly not ostracized for speaking in public, especially before mixed-gender audiences.

The first woman (circa 1837) to successfully debate two men before a public congregation (Massachusetts) over a woman’s right to a public voice.

The first woman to appear before a legislative body in the United States when she argued against the evils of slavery before the state of Massachusetts.

The first woman to write and have published (1836) a pamphlet pleading Southern women to rise up and take a stance against slavery as pictured below:

Appeal to the Christian Women of the South

In her appeal, she raised the teachings of Christ to “do unto others as you would have done unto you.” As you can imagine, her work was popular in the North and burned in the South. Also, as a devout Christian, she attacked the churches for their misinterpretations of biblical passages in support of slavery and challenged them to spearhead the crusade to eradicate the evil institution.

What in these two sisters’ background incited their work?

Very simply, they were born and raised on a wealthy South Carolinian plantation where they came to abhor the institution of slavery after they witnessed its cruelties. Two examples: The sight of a young slave boy whose gait was permanently marred from the scars of whippings on his back and legs. And incessant screams exploding from the workhouse as slaves were dragged across a treadmill strung by their arms as punishment for even minor infractions. Also, they saw the injustice and absurdity in the standard societal practice of allowing sons, but not daughters, to attain a higher education outside of the home.

I’ll end here with the hopes that you’ve enjoyed this post and that I’ve whet your appetite to learn more about Sarah and Angelina Grimké at the following places:

Video on My Complimentary Civil War Women Website.

Articles Online at Women’s History.org:

Sarah Moore Grimké

Angelina Emily Grimké Weld

Book on Amazon:
Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman by Sarah Moore Grimké

Stay Tuned for the Next Installment of Pioneering Women of Civil War America, Which Promises to Feature. . .

. . .A Savvy Sleuth!

The post Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Seventeenth Installment) appeared first on Lisa Potocar ~ Author.