wild women wednesday

The sound of children singing hymns filled the early morning sky above Natchez Winnemucca’s ranch just outside Lovelock, Nevada.  The sun overhead was already a scorching ball of fire, and more than two dozen students took shelter from the ever-rising orb under a well-built, brush arbor.  A steady breeze, like a hearth from a furnace,...

The dark clouds that hovered over a crude trail in Yosemite Valley in May 1899 broke loose with a torrent of rain that nearly knocked Paiute Indian Maggie “Ta-bu-ce” Howard and her fourteen-year-old niece, May Tom, off the rocky path where they walked. Mighty claps of thunder echoed around the majestic granite walls of Yosemite...

Among Geronimo’s band of thirty-six loyal warriors was an unassuming medicine woman named Lozen.  The petite, plain woman dressed like the braves she fought with and the courageous renegade who led the group would not make a move without her wise council.  It was her divine power that kept Geronimo and his followers out of...

On the afternoon of August 18, 1895, United States Marshal Bill Tilghman and Deputy Marshal Steve Burke led their horses toward a small farm outside Pawnee, Oklahoma.  The lawmen had tracked a pair of outlaws to the location and were proceeding cautiously when several gunshots were fired.   Marshall Tilghman caught sight of a Winchester rifle...

When Victoria Claflin Woodhull died on June 9, 1927, news of her passing was announced on two continents. The press referred to the controversial writer, stockbroker, and politician as a “most immoral woman.”  Not only was Victoria the first woman to be officially nominated for president of the United States, but she was also one...

Wild Bill Hickok had many female admirers in his lifetime, but Agnes Lake Thatcher was the only woman who completely captured his heart.  The man known as the “deadliest pistolero in the Old West” often declared to his friends that he preferred being a bachelor.  It was a surprise to many when he married a...

Pocahontas, a nickname meaning “little spoiled one,” was born Amonute, daughter of Chief Powhatan in 1595. She was an extrovert from a young age, inquisitive and naturally good-natured. At eleven years old she played a minor role in securing John Smith’s survival. Later she was the go-between for trade among the settlers and Indians bartering...

When Amelia Earhart was hailed as the first woman to fly the Atlantic in 1928, one British newspaper sniffed, “Her presence added no more to the achievement than if the passenger had been a sheep.” Technically that was correct since she sat in back while a male pilot and navigator guided the airplane a year...