Famous Wives

Ruth Cunningham

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Wife of Founding Father James Otis, Jr. Image: James Otis, Jr. Ruth Cunningham, the shy but beautiful daughter of a wealthy Boston merchant, married James Otis, Jr. in 1755. The marriage enhanced Otis’ social standing and improved his financial situation. But his new bride did not share his political and social idealism. They had two daughters. James Otis Jr. was Boston’s most brilliant young lawyer. James had attended Harvard College, graduating in 1743, but continued his education in law under Jeremiah Gridley, a member of the General Court of Massachusetts. After Otis was admitted to the bar, he launched his law practice in Plymouth, Massachusetts, but relocated to Boston in 1750. His younger sister Mercy Otis Warren and his brother…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Mary Dabney

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Civil War Nurse in Mississippi Of all the families in Raymond, Mississippi, during the Civil War, one of the most affected was that of Augustine and Elizabeth Dabney. Augustine was a probate judge and worked hard to support his family of ten children. His wife and daughters helped to nurse the wounded soldiers following the Battle of Raymond on May 12, 1863. Image: Mary Dabney and Big Black River Station Photo superimposed by James Drake In August 1863, Mary Dabney went to Vicksburg to apply for a share of the livestock and supplies that had been confiscated by the Union army on their march to Vicksburg, which was being given away by General Ulysses S. Grant. The following is Mary’s…

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Molly Brant Plaque, Kingston Ontario
Native American Women, Women in the American Revolution

Molly Brant

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American Revolution Loyalist Molly Brant Plaque Kingston Ontario Molly Brant was an important Mohawk woman in upstate New York and Canada in the era of the American Revolution, particularly in the Mohawk Valley, the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains. Her younger brother, Joseph Brant, grew into a celebrated Mohawk statesman in his own right and rubbed shoulders with the likes of U.S. General George Washington and King George III of England. Molly Deganwadonti was born in 1736, the daughter of Peter Tehonwaghkwangeraghkwa and his wife Margaret, both Mohawks of the Wolf clan from Canajoharie – the site of a barricaded long house village of the Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois Nation in New…

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Native American History, Native American Women

Queen Aliquippa

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Native American Leader Image: Young Major George Washington Visits Queen Aliquippa Queen Aliquippa was a leader of the Seneca tribe of Native Americans during the early part of the 18th century. Little is known about her early life. Her date of birth has been estimated anywhere from the early 1670s to the early 1700s, but historians have indicated that she was born in the 1680s, probably in upstate New York. The story of Queen Aliquippa begins long before white trappers had ventured into western Pennsylvania, so no accurate record of her early life exists. The information that can be found is extremely fragmented, so sorting through the fact and fiction of her life will be left to the reader.
Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Loreta Janeta Velazquez

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Female Soldier Disguised as a Man Loreta Janeta Velazquez was born into an aristocratic Cuban family in Havana in 1842. Her father was a Spanish government official who owned plantations in Mexico and Cuba. As a young girl, Loreta developed an admiration for Joan of Arc, and expressed a desire to emulate her deeds and to make a name for herself as a woman of courage who would fight for a great cause. In her early teens, Loreta was sent to New Orleans, where she attended Catholic schools and was educated in English, Spanish, and French. She met a dashing young officer in the United States Army named William. Since her family disapproved of the relationship, she eloped with him…

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Women in Leadership, Women in the American Revolution

Penelope Pagett Barker

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Inspired by the Boston Tea Party, Barker organized a protest of her own in Edenton, North Carolina. Tired of taxation without representation by the British, she went door to door, inciting women of the town to support a boycott of English tea and other products. At the Edenton Tea Party on October 25, 1774, Barker and fifty other women signed a protest statement. Penelope Pagett was born on June 17, 1728, in Edenton, North Carolina, to Elizabeth Blount and Dr. Samuel Pagett. Her father’s death, quickly followed by her sister’s death, thrust adult responsibilities on the girl. While still a teen, Penelope became a mother to Elizabeth’s two children and took over management of the family plantation.
Women in the American Revolution

Mary Philipse

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George Washington’s First Love Daughter of Frederick Philipse III, Mary Philipse was born at the Manor Hall, on July 3, 1730. Her father, whose family emigrated to Manhattan in the mid-17th Century from Holland, was lord of the manor of Philipsburgh, and owned an immense landed estate on the Hudson River at present-day Yonkers. He also served as Speaker of the New York Colonial Assembly. George Washington was a Virginia Colonel, 24 years of age, who had just won his first laurels on the field of battle. On his way to Boston to meet General Shirley, he stopped in New York and called at the house of Colonel Beverly Robinson, one of Washington’s friends from Virginia.
Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Mary Randolph Custis Lee

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Wife of Confederate General Robert E. Lee Mary Anna Randolph Custis, great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, was born on October 1, 1808, the only surviving child of George Washington Wash Custis and Mary Fitzhugh. Wash was raised by George and Martha Washington after the death of his father (Martha’s son from a previous marriage). In 1802 he had settled his family in a quaint four-room brick home he named Arlington. As Mary grew, so did Arlington, as Wash invested time and money in its expansion. Mary usually found willing playmates among the children of the Arlington slaves. It’s interesting to note that neither Wash nor Molly supported or believed in slavery. Molly, like many abolitionists, set out to change things, and…

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Colonial Women

Rebecca Bryan Boone

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Frontierswoman and Wife of Daniel Boone Rebecca Bryan was born in Virginia on January 9, 1738, to Joseph Bryan, Sr. and Alee Linville. When she was 10, Rebecca moved with her Quaker family to the Yadkin River valley in the western Piedmont region of North Carolina. Daniel Boone was born in Pennsylvania in 1734, and his family settled near the Bryans in 1750, when Daniel was 15. Rebecca and Daniel began their courtship in 1753, and married three years later on August 14, 1756. Their marriage lasted fifty-six years, and they had ten children – six sons and four daughters. The new Mr. and Mrs. Boone didn’t have their own cabin, so they stayed with his folks until they built…

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Famous Wives

Catherine Schuyler

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Dutch Woman of New York Wife of General Philip Schuyler Catharine Van Rensselaer was born in 1734, the only daughter of John Van Rensselaer, who was called Patroon (landholder) of Greenbush, and was noted for his hospitality, and for his kindness toward the tenants of his vast estates. Catherine was the great-great-granddaughter of Killian Van Rensselaer, the original founder of the Dutch colony, named Rensselaerswyck, in the Albany region of eastern New York. Philip Schuyler was born in Albany on November 11, 1733, into an old aristocratic Dutch family, one of the colony’s largest landholders. He received an excellent education. After commanding a company of New York militia in the French and Indian War, he managed the large estate left…

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