Nevada's Remarkable Women: Daughters, Wives, Sisters, and Mothers Who Shaped History

by Jan Cleere

Overview

This book presents the compelling histories of fifteen pioneer women, all born before 1900, who traveled Nevada Territory in unstable wagons, on temperamental mules, and in early Motel Ts to leave a legacy of courage and celebration as they broke records, hearts, and rules while conquering uncharted ground.

Meet Ferminia Sarras, a Nicaraguan immigrant with four young daughters who arrived in Nevada in the early 1800s determined to seek her fortune as a miner. .. and succeeded; Dat so la lee, a Washoe Indian renowned for her basket-weaving artistry whose work is today preserved in museums; and Anne Henrietta Martin, a lifelong suffragette who fought for women's rights and was instrumental in securing the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493015832
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/01/2015
Series:	Remarkable American Women
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Jan Cleere is an award-winning author of five historical nonfiction books, four of them published by TwoDot/Globe Pequot Press. When the first edition of More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Nevada Women came out in 2005 (the precursor to this edition), it became a Finalist for the Women Writing the West WILLA award. The Nevada Women’s History Project elected Cleere to its Roll of Honor for her work on Nevada women’s history. Outlaw Tales of Arizona (TwoDot) was recognized nationally as the winner of the 2007 National Federation of Press Women's literary competition for historical nonfiction. Amazing Girls of Arizona: True Stories of Young Pioneers (TwoDot) was named one of the best books of 2009 by the Arizona Book Publishers Association, and awarded best young adult nonfiction by the same organization. Levi’s & Lace: Arizona Women Who Made History received recognition from the 2012 Arizona/New Mexico Book Publishers Association. Her latest book, Never Don’t Pay Attention: The Life of Rodeo Photographer Louise L. Serpa (TwoDot), was just released this fall (2015). Cleere also writes a monthly column for Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star newspaper, “Western Women,” detailing the lives of early Arizona pioneers. She lives in Oro Valley, Arizona.

Read an Excerpt

From the Introduction When reporter Mark Twain entered the desert town of Carson, Nevada, in the mid 1800s, he described his destination as "a desert, walled in by barren, snow-clad mountains. There was not a tree in sight. There was no vegetation but the endless sagebrush and greasewood. All nature was gray with it. We were plowing through great depths of powdery alkali dust that rose in thick clouds and floated across the plain like smoke from a burning house.. .. we and the sagebrush and the other scenery were all one monotonous color." Several years later, author Idah Meacham Strobridge viewed the Nevada terrain as resplendent with "golden sunlight and purple shadows." "If you love the Desert, and live in it, and lie awake at night under its low-hanging stars, you know you are a part of the pulse-beat of the universe, and you feel the swing of the spheres through space. And you hear through the silence the voice of God speaking." How differently we view our surroundings. One individual sees a bleak and desolate wasteland while another describes her home as resplendent in color, an almost religious experience. The women who first trekked across Nevada Territory's rough terrain most certainly envisioned the land from diverse viewpoints. But something held them there. Few of the women in this book left Nevada once they smelled the sweet mountain air or tasted the gritty sand between their teeth.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

Alison Oram Bowers: Eilley's Millions 1

Ferminia Sarras: Hard-Rock Miner 13

Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins: A Sparrow among Eagles 25

Lucy Ellen "Nellie" Verrill Mighels Davis: Ink-Stained Hands 38

Dat So La Lee: Washoe Basket Weaver 48

Helen Jane Wiser Stewart: Las Vegas Legend 58

Idah Meacham Strobridge: Sagebrush Scribe 70

Eliza Cook: Pills and Politics 82

Daughters of Charity: Angels on the Comstock 93

Josephine Reed Pearl: Last of the Calico Prospectors 105

Mayme Virginia Clifton Stocker: Ante Up! 117

Anne Henrietta Martin: Storming Political (and Police) Barriers 128

Ah Cum Kee: Lady of the Land 140

Maude Frazier: Education Reformer 151

Felice Cohn: An Independent Spirit 162

Bibliography 172

Index 181

About the Author 187