07-04 TABLE of CONTENTS:
Women who served in the U.S. Civil
War killed by historians
Madeleine Barot saved lives in WWII
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
QUOTES by
Jill Ruckelshaus and Irene Stuber.
Women who served in the
U.S. Civil War killed by historians
Authorities estimate up to
400 women disguised themselves as men to join the Union forces in the U.S.
Civil War. The number is necessarily vague because most were never discovered.
Most historians claim the women only went to war to
be close to the men they loved, but such a "romantic claim" fails
to separate those women who became cooks, housekeepers, etc. and those
women who were active soldiers.
It is recognized that many women went with their men
because staying home without a means of support meant they would starve
in the repressive society at the time. These are the women who usually
became the cooks, beasts of burden, launderers, etc.
Then there were the women who were gun-carrying, bullet
targets...
In true Southern tradition, the Confederate forces
denied any women (belles) fought in their war, but sightings noted
by writers of the day and revelations in diaries contradict that claim.
Kate W. Howe, aka Tom Smith, was wounded at
the battle of Lookout Mountain in the Civil War and drew a pension of $17
a month. She was the granddaughter of Gen. Winfield Scott.
Frances Hook, aka Frank Miller/Henderson, wounded
in battle with the 65th Illinois, was discharged but reenlisted in the
19th Illinois regiment. She also served in the 90th and the 3rd Illinois.
She was taken prisoner in Tennessee when she was wounded in the leg and
her sex revealed. After being exchanged with other prisoners, she refused
to "go home" and instead enlisted with the 90th Illinois, Company
G. She was captured and sent to the prison in Atlanta where she was shot
while attempting to escape. She recovered and was again exchanged.
Sarah Emma Edmonds Seeleye, aka Franklin Thompson
of the 2nd Michigan Company F, was the only woman officially recognized
as a woman and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. She is buried
in the GAR plot in Houston.
Sara Rosetta Wakeman, born 01-16-1843, aka
Lyons/Edwin Wakeman, died while with the 153rd NYSV, Co. G&H, serving
as a regular soldier in the Civil War. Her letters, a photo in uniform
identifying her, and some personal belongings were found in a trunk in
the family attic almost 100 years after her death. She is buried in grave
#4066, Section 52, of what is now the Chalmette National Cemetery, Chalmette,
Louisiana, outside New Orleans. Her letters contain references to other
women in the military.
But most of the women who soldiered in the Civil War
were like Pvt. Charles Johehouse who served as a man and was never unmasked
as a woman - during her lifetime. When bodies of the war dead were being
moved in 1886 from the battle area near Gesaca, Georgia, for reinternment
to a national cemetery, the body of Charles Johehouse, Private 6th Missouri,
was noticeable by its small feet. Examination revealed Johehouse to be
a woman in full uniform shot through the head. Her real name, birthplace,
and reason for risking her life for her country is unknown - as it was
for the unknown number of women who fought for their beliefs in the U.S.
Civil War.
Many women gave their all as did men soldiers but
they have been ignored or denied. Many women, double killed by their erasure
by historians of their own country.
-- (The above is
part of an article by Irene Stuber that appeared in The Rebel.)
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Madeleine Barot saved lives in WWII
Born 07-04-1909, Madeleine
Barot who risked her life to save hundreds - maybe thousands - of those
who were hunted during the totalitarian rule of Europe in the World War
II era.
Many she saved had already been chosen by the Nazis
for extermination in the death camps.
MB helped found the CIMADE organization (1940), an
ecumenical group that provided humanitarian aid to victims of the Nazis
and all refugees in general. Barot personally helped refugees fleeing Franco's
Spain.
A member of the French Resistance, she saved an unknown
number of Jews, Gypsies, and political activists from the Nazis by setting
up a network to smuggle them safely to Switzerland.
Following the war, Barot became an ardent defender
of women's rights. She served on the board of the Young Women's Christian
Association from 1945 to 1950 and worked for the World Council of Churches
from 1953 to 1973.
Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council
of Churches, a fellowship of 330 mainly Protestant and Orthodox churches
in more than 100 countries, said in his memorial of Barot:
"In the 1940s, her
courage, coupled with a strong sense of realism rooted in her Christian
faith, made Madeleine Barot a central figure in the efforts to help Jews
to escape from occupied France into safety."
Barot received many honors for her work, including
Israel's Yad Vashem Award and the French Legion of Honor.
-- From an Associated
Press release December, 1995 when this wonderful woman died at 86. Sent
to us by Varda Ullman Novick.
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07-04 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS
DIED 07-04-1336, Saint Elizabeth of Portugal. Known as "The
Peacemaker" or the "Holy Queen" was canonized by the Roman
Catholic Church in 1625. Married to a womanizing Portugal king, she is
said to have ridden between the armies of her husband and her rebelling
son to force them to make peace. She is also known for her good deeds to
the poor and sick. She was named for her great aunt Saint Elizabeth of
Hungary.
B. 07-04-1839, Helen Stuart Campbell - U.S. author and home economist.
B. 07-04-1845, Edmonia Lewis - Afro-American sculptor of Amerinds
and Afro-Americans. After initial success in the U.S., she resettled in
Rome for further training. Her works became world recognized and admired
for their realism. EL was raised among the Chippewas.
B. 07-04-1857, Mary Florence Denton, U.S. teacher in Japan.
B. 07-04-1866, Anita Eugenie McCormick, U.S. philanthropist,
an heir of the McCormick reaper fortune. She believed her inherited money
was merely a trust. Like her mother, Nettie Fowler McCormick, AEM gave
away more than $10 million plus earmarked another $20 million for eleemosynary
endeavors in her will. She endownd the Chicago Institute to train teachers
and became associated with Jane Addams at Hull House. With Addams, AEM
formed the Chicago Homes Association. AEM was a firm believer in the League
of Nations and the United Nations. She contributed more than a million
to various world government movements.
B. 07-04-1868, Henrietta Swan Leavitt - U.S. astronomer. HSL
established the period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars and
enabled others to formulate distance determinations of the furthest stars.
At the Harvard Observatory, she determined new method
of intensity so accurate that it could only be replaced by the development
of photoelectrical methods. She discovered four novas and 2,400 variable
stars. Her discoveries account for more than half of all those found before
the great telescopes were built in the 1930s.
HWL worked with photographic plates from all over
the world to define sections of the sky to be used in the Astrographic
Map of the Sky. She completing 108 sections in all.
Her work has been utilized for a dozen or more theories.
B. 07-04-1876, Sophie Loeb, Russian-born U.S. social worker and newspaper
columnist. Along with Hannah B. Einstein, Loeb probably contributed
more than any other Americans to a welfare-help system that advocated "Not
charity, but a chance for every child...."
The duo was instrumental for the passage of the pioneering
New York State child welfare system. They helped direct the State Commission
for Widowed Mothers that sought to keep families together rather than putting
children into orphanages if their parent couldn't support them. Her list
of accomplishments are awe-inspiring
Event 07-04-1876: For the Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia,
Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage wrote
a Declaration of Rights to be read at the official proceedings,
but their request to present it was denied.
Undaunted Anthony and four other women decided to
go ahead with their plan. when the Declaration of Independence had
been read, Anthony and the other women rose from their seats and marched
down the aisle to the speakers' rostrum.
Anthony presented the Declaration to Vice-President
Thomas W. Ferry. The women then proceeded back down the aisle while scattering
printed copies of the Declaration to the audience. The women's declaration
was shunned because it had as its principle statement: all men AND WOMEN
are created equal.
The statement was based on the Declaration of Sentiments
written by Stanton for the 1848 women's rights convention.
Event 07-04-1880: Mary H. Myers became the first women to ascend
in a balloon. For the next 40 years she was a star in the "air shows"
with her daring balloon flights and precision landings. Her breathtaking
accomplishments were made possible through the several design and steering
innovations she developed and patented.
B. 07-04-1893, Corinne Boyd Riley - U.S. Congressional Representative
from South Carolina. She was elected to serve out the term of her late
husband and served 04-10-1962 to 01- 03-1963. She was not a candidate for
reelection.
B. 07-04-1898, Gertrude Lawrence - British-American stage actor.
Gertie, as she was known, was noted for her dry sophistication and wit.
She introduced many of Noel Coward's plays in her remarkable career of
great popularity. The hero, in fact the whole plot of Coward's Private
Lives (1930) was patterned after Gertie's life.
B. 07-04-1902, Florence Price Dwyer - U.S. Congressional Representative,
New Jersey. According to her official biography, FPD concentrated on issues
of consumer protection, women's equality, and procedural reform in the
House of Representatives. She served in seven congresses 1957-73. She was
not a candidate for reelection. FPD was a mmember of the New Jersey State
House Assembly 1950-56. http://clerkweb.house.gov/womenbio/
B. 07-04-1906, Percy Maxim Lee - president League of Women Voters
(1950). Her mother Josephine Hamilton was a prominent suffragist and helped
set up the LWV in Connecticut. When she established the LWV in 1920, Carrie
Chapman Catt said, "Let us make the League of
Women Voters a living memorial dedicated to the memory of our departed
leaders and the sacrifices they made for our cause (of suffrage)."
The motto of the LWV: "We support principles,
but never a candidate; we take stands on issues, not on individuals."
B. 07-04-1913, Virginia Graham - U.S. radio and TV personality
in the 1950s and 1960s.
B. 07-04-1916, Iva Toguri D'Aquino - aka Tokyo Rose. During World
War II, ITD broadcast propaganda from Japan to U.S. troops that was aimed
at lowing the moral of American troops. After the war she was convicted
of treason and served six years in a U.S. prison.
B. 07-04-1918, Esther Pauline Friedman and Pauline Esther Friedman,
the twins who became U.S. traditions under the names of Ann Landers and
Abigail Van Buren, respectively.
B. 07-04-1924, Eva Marie Saint - German-American actor. She was
the 1954 Academy Award for her role in On The Waterfront. Her elder
sister was a research chemist and her mother was a teacher.
B. 07-04-1928 (?), Gina Lollobrigida - earthy Italian-American actor
who later became a sucessful photographer.
B. 07-04-1932, Kay Nolte Smith - U.S. actor, teacher, and novelist.
Event 07-04-1960: Liza Redfield became the first woman to ever
conduct a musical on Broadway. She had conducted regional theater productions
for years.
B. 07-04-1962, Pam Shriver - U.S. tennis champion.
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QUOTES DU JOUR
RUCKELSHAUS, JILL:
"It occurred to me
when I was thirteen and wearing white gloves and Mary Janes and going to
dancing school, that no one should have to dance backward all their lives."
-- Jill Ruckelshaus, 1973.
STUBER, IRENE:
"To those who think
women's rights are not under attack in the 21st century:
" http://fathers.ourfamily.com/ QUOTE:
" 'The primary cause of the 50 fold increase
in the US divorce rate in the last century was granting women legal rights.
" 'The primary cause of the fifty fold
increase in the rate of rape and the ten fold in the murder rate was the
fifty fold increase in the divorce rate.' "
This is precisely why NOW needs to address mother's issues against the
fatherhood movement. As goofy as they sound, they're dead serious.
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