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Women Behind Stained Glass: West Texas Pioneers
Heroes don’t just live in the pages of graphic novels. And author Dana Glossbrenner proves just that with her fascinating true story of good women who can’t be kept down.
While members of the First Christian Church in San Angelo, Texas, know that their stained glass windows are quite old, they don’t know the women to whom the windows are dedicated—Annie Tankersley, Mary Jane Metcalfe, and Ellen Osmer Farr.
Thanks to extensive research and a special knack for storytelling, Glossbrenner introduces readers to the tragedy and triumph these women experienced as they made their way through the early days of San Angelo’s founding in the late nineteenth century.
From Annie’s role as the first white woman to permanently settle a family in the Concho Valley of West Texas, to Mary Jane’s solo journey southward after leaving her husband in an asylum, to Ellen’s position as the first female postmaster in San Angelo, these three women bucked the conventions of their times to make their way through a world that didn’t quite know what to do with them.
Readers will be captivated by their exciting stories, as natural disasters, divorce, death, and mental illness wreak havoc on their lives—and fuel their determination to make a difference in their small Texas town.
While members of the First Christian Church in San Angelo, Texas, know that their stained glass windows are quite old, they don’t know the women to whom the windows are dedicated—Annie Tankersley, Mary Jane Metcalfe, and Ellen Osmer Farr.
Thanks to extensive research and a special knack for storytelling, Glossbrenner introduces readers to the tragedy and triumph these women experienced as they made their way through the early days of San Angelo’s founding in the late nineteenth century.
From Annie’s role as the first white woman to permanently settle a family in the Concho Valley of West Texas, to Mary Jane’s solo journey southward after leaving her husband in an asylum, to Ellen’s position as the first female postmaster in San Angelo, these three women bucked the conventions of their times to make their way through a world that didn’t quite know what to do with them.
Readers will be captivated by their exciting stories, as natural disasters, divorce, death, and mental illness wreak havoc on their lives—and fuel their determination to make a difference in their small Texas town.
178 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 15, 2014
About the author
Dana Glossbrenner
4 books30 followersDana Glossbrenner has spent most of her life in West Texas, with small towns of the region forming the inspiration for the fictional locale of Sulfur Gap. She's married with two children, two step-children, and six grandchildren. She currently resides in San Angelo, Texas.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 27, 2017
I love books about the real lives of pioneer women.
In the First Christian Church of San Angelo, Texas, there are 3 stained glass windows. These aren`t the typical class windows that face the outside but are placed in an alcove with lights behind them. The stained glass depicts typical church seasons however they are each dedicated to a women who pioneered living in West Texas: Mary Jane Taylor Metcalfe (1826 - 1882), Annie Ellender Allen Tankersley (1829 - 1902), and Ellen Elizabeth Farr (1862 - 1907).
These women aren´t pioneers like Annie Oakley but hard working, tough women who survived wars, Indian raids, good-for-nothing husbands, divorce, and children´s death.
I once lived in San Angelo but didn´t know the history of these four women. Nor did I know of the Ben Ficklin flood in 1882 during which Mary Jane Metcalfe, who managed the stage coach stop in Ben Ficklin, died along with one of her daughters.
Annie Tankersley was often left alone with her children at their frontier home because her husband was busy in the cattle business and traveled to the cattle markets. She often spent the night awake in a chair with a shotgun across her lap in case the Comanches raided their home. Although the Kickapoo Indians were friendly to the Tankersley. A group of the Indians stopped by their home to tell them they were camping nearby but would be traveling to Mexico. Unfortunately some Confederates and the Texas Militia, who were hunting for Comanches, were hungry for Indian blood and the Battle of Dove Creek was the result. It was an Indian victory and the Kickapoo left to go to Mexico.
Ellen Farr, also known as "Miss Nellie", was born in New York but grew up in New Mexico Territory. She returned to New York to go to Teachers College and then traveled to San Angelo to join her sister and uncle. She became a teacher and later the postmaster. She married a ne´er do well and divorced him 4 years later.
These are all strong women. In fact, Mary Jane Metcalfe´s son, Charles, was a Texas legislator who authored a bill so that women can vote in Texas primaries. This was a few years before the passage of the 19th amendment.
Good stories of the frontier west. This was not the best written book, though.
In the First Christian Church of San Angelo, Texas, there are 3 stained glass windows. These aren`t the typical class windows that face the outside but are placed in an alcove with lights behind them. The stained glass depicts typical church seasons however they are each dedicated to a women who pioneered living in West Texas: Mary Jane Taylor Metcalfe (1826 - 1882), Annie Ellender Allen Tankersley (1829 - 1902), and Ellen Elizabeth Farr (1862 - 1907).
These women aren´t pioneers like Annie Oakley but hard working, tough women who survived wars, Indian raids, good-for-nothing husbands, divorce, and children´s death.
I once lived in San Angelo but didn´t know the history of these four women. Nor did I know of the Ben Ficklin flood in 1882 during which Mary Jane Metcalfe, who managed the stage coach stop in Ben Ficklin, died along with one of her daughters.
Annie Tankersley was often left alone with her children at their frontier home because her husband was busy in the cattle business and traveled to the cattle markets. She often spent the night awake in a chair with a shotgun across her lap in case the Comanches raided their home. Although the Kickapoo Indians were friendly to the Tankersley. A group of the Indians stopped by their home to tell them they were camping nearby but would be traveling to Mexico. Unfortunately some Confederates and the Texas Militia, who were hunting for Comanches, were hungry for Indian blood and the Battle of Dove Creek was the result. It was an Indian victory and the Kickapoo left to go to Mexico.
Ellen Farr, also known as "Miss Nellie", was born in New York but grew up in New Mexico Territory. She returned to New York to go to Teachers College and then traveled to San Angelo to join her sister and uncle. She became a teacher and later the postmaster. She married a ne´er do well and divorced him 4 years later.
These are all strong women. In fact, Mary Jane Metcalfe´s son, Charles, was a Texas legislator who authored a bill so that women can vote in Texas primaries. This was a few years before the passage of the 19th amendment.
Good stories of the frontier west. This was not the best written book, though.
Displaying 1 of 1 review