Chris Enss

Annie Gayle was considered one of the prettiest, most ambitious girls in Akron, Ohio in 1883.  Her eyes were large, her features were well proportioned, and her desire to go West was her number one aspiration.  She was well on her way to achieving her goal when she accepted the proposal of a man living...

“I am fat, fair, and 48.  5 feet high.  Am a No. 1 lady, well fixed with no encumbrance:  am in business in city but want a partner who lives in the West.  Want an energetic man that has some means, not under 40 years of age and weight no less than 180.  Of good...

“Middle-aged bachelor sought.  Prosperous 130-pound rancher with full head of hair, keen eyes, and no false teeth desires life companion.  The lady enjoys indoor and outdoor activities and holds deeds to property valued at $10,000.  Dudes need not apply.” This no-nonsense cowgirl personal ad placed by Miss Ellen Callahan in 1887 edition of Hoof and...

In July 1927, Pearl Matlock, assistant manager of the Fred Harvey Company advertising department, helped organize train travel for more than 1,000 delegates of the Business and Professional Women’s Club.  The career women were making their way from New York to Oakland, California, for the national convention.  The train made stops along the way to...

Cowboy Bill Pickett is credited with introducing the sport of bulldogging to rodeos in 1907. In bulldogging, the rider dashes after a madly fleeing steer, leans out from the saddle, and throws himself onto its horns, bringing the beast to the ground in a swirling scramble of dust and a half ton of flying beef.  Often...

The creation of the railroad system in the United States is a stirring story of American initiative and enterprise.  Every conceivable obstacle stood in the way of the railroad’s success.  An apathetic public jeered at early efforts to provide rail transportation; it was difficult to convince them that it was safe or would make a...

While attending college in Pennsylvania, Mary Lawser was part of a group comprised of several accomplished female artists.  They were known as the Philadelphia Ten. Among the members was a talented painter and sculptor named Mary Louise Lawser.  Like Mary Colter, Mary Lawser was hired by a major rail line company to help promote westward...

The Harvey Car Courier Corps will take you away “into the beckoning, foot-loose distances of New Mexico,” reads the Santa Fe Railway brochure on Indian Detours.  The brochures were distributed to train travelers crossing the arid Southwest desert in the late 1920s, who were looking for adventure and romance.   Indian Detours were created by the...

Twenty-eight-year-old Elizabeth Cogley sat at a small desk in the Pennsylvania Railroad ticket office in Lewiston Junction, Pennsylvania, on April 16, 1861, frantically writing down the message coming through the telegraph.  The neatly dressed woman wore a serious expression; the message she was transcribing was vital and history making.  The day before, a similar wire...