Civil War Women

Mary Surratt

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Accused Conspirator in the Lincoln Assassination Mary Elizabeth Jenkins was born in May or June of 1823 near Waterloo, Maryland. She had two brothers. Her father died when she was two years old. Mary was then enrolled at a private girl’s boarding school, Academy for Young Ladies, in Alexandria Virginia. She married John Harrison Surratt in 1839, when she was sixteen and he was twenty-seven. The couple lived on lands that John had inherited from his foster parents, the Neales, in what is now a section of Washington DC known as Congress Heights. They had three children. In 1851, a fire destroyed their home. The couple bought a farm and established a tavern and later a post office. The tavern…

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Colonial Women

Mary Williams

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Wife of Roger Williams: Founder of Providence Plantation Image: Providence Plantation in Rhode Island in 1650 Little is known about Mary, so I will tell her story through her husband’s life. Roger Williams was born December 21, 1603 near London, England. He was a student of theology and languages, and was educated at Cambridge University. After suffering a painful rejection by the woman he had chosen to marry, the young clergyman became ill with fever and was nursed back to health by Mary Barnard, the daughter of the Reverend Richard Barnard of Nottinghamshire. Mary Barnard married Roger Williams on December 15, 1629, in Essex, England. The couple set sail on board the Lyon in December 1630, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts,…

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Feminists, Poets and Writers

Anne Bradstreet

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First American Poet Anne Bradstreet was the first American poet, and her first collection of poems was the first book written by a woman to be published in the United States. Her work serves as a testament to the struggles of a Puritan wife against the hardships of New England colonial life. Image: Anne Bradstreet Stained Glass Window St. Botolph’s Church in Boston, England Anne Dudley was born in Northampton, England, in the year 1612, daughter of Thomas Dudley, an earl’s estate manager. Anne was unusually well educated for her time – tutored in history, several languages, and literature.
Thirteen Colonies

Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Thirteen Colonies Image: Massachusetts Bay Colony This map shows the area known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 17th century. Settlers soon branched out and settled the areas that would be known as Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York. The Puritans were a religious group in England. They did not want to separate from the Anglican Church like the Pilgrims. They wanted to purify the church. In 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Company obtained a charter allowing it to trade and colonize in New England. Its Puritan stockholders envisioned the colony as a refuge from religious persecution.
Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Women Doctors

Mary Jane Safford

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Civil War Nurse and Female Physician Mary Jane Safford is best known for nursing wounded Union soldiers on battlefields and hospital ships on the Mississippi River during the Civil War, an experience that influenced her to pursue a career in medicine. After the war, she earned her medical degree, established a practice, and taught at the Boston University Medical School. Early Years Mary Jane Safford was born December 31, 1834 in Hyde Park, Vermont, but her family moved to Crete, Illinois when she was three years old. After her parents died, family members sent her to a female academy in Bakersfield, Vermont, then allowed her to travel in Canada to learn French and to act as governess to a German-speaking…

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Mary Anna Morrison Jackson
Authors, Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Mary Anna Morrison Jackson

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Wife of General ‘Stonewall’ Jackson Anna met her future husband while visiting her sister, Isabella Morrison Hill, wife of future Confederate General Dana Harvey Hill, in Lexington, Virginia, where Jackson was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. Image: Anna with daughter Julia Laura Jackson Mary Anna Morrison – called Anna by friends and family – was born on July 21, 1831, in Charlotte, North Carolina, at Cottage Home, the plantation home of Reverend Robert Hall Morrison and Mary Graham Morrison. Her father was the first President of Davidson College in Charlotte. Anna grew up very differently than her famous husband. Her parents had a large family, ten children who survived to adulthood. Life on the plantation was carefree for…

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Colonial Women, Thirteen Colonies

Bridget Fuller

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The Year: 1623 Bridget Fuller arrived at Plymouth Colony on the Anne in 1623. She was Dr. Samuel Fuller’s third wife, and they had two children together. Details of Bridget’s life aren’t readily available, but we can gain some insight into her life by following her husband’s history. Samuel Fuller was one of the original members of the Separatist church who fled England for Holland in 1609. He became a physician, making him an important member of the congregation. He later became a deacon of the church at Plymouth Colony. He sailed on the Mayflower in 1620. Upon arrival in the New World, Dr. Fuller signed the Mayflower Compact, along with the other adult males. He did what he could…

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Thirteen Colonies

Plymouth Colony Houses

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Home Sweet Home On January 1, 1621, the leaders of Plymouth Colony made land assignments by counting “how many families there were, willing all single men that had not wives to join with some family as they thought fit, that so we might build fewer houses; which was done and we reduced them to nineteen families,” wrote William Bradford. “We went to labor that day in the building of our town, in two rows of houses for more safety.” Image: English Style Thatched Cottages The thatched roofs of sun-dried reeds were thick so the water would drain off, but they must have leaked during heavy rainstorms, and they were likely to catch fire if a spark went up from the…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Katharine Prescott Wormeley

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Civil War Nurse At the beginning of the Civil War, the United States Government was not prepared to offer its soldiers adequate medical care. To fill that need, they created the United States Sanitary Commission on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. It operated across the North, raised its own funds, enlisted thousands of volunteers and was run by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Peninsula Campaign of 1862 lasted nine weeks, and inflicted a terrible cost in lives. During that campaign, Katharine Prescott Wormeley, Georgeanna Woolsey, and Eliza Woolsey Howland served as Union nurses. Working on board Sanitary Commission’s hospital transport ships, these three members of prominent Northern families…

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Civil War Women, Philanthropists, Women in Business

Margaret Haughery

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Women in Business in the Civil War Era Margaret Haughery was a business entrepreneur and philanthropist who became known as the Mother of the Orphans. She devoted her life to the care and feeding of the poor and hungry, and to funding and building orphanages throughout the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Born into poverty and orphaned at a young age, she began her adult life as a washwoman and a peddler – yet she died an epic business woman and philanthropist who received a state funeral. Image: Margaret Haughery with Two Orphans Painting by Jacques Amans, New Orleans, c. 1842 Out of the horror of civil war and a nation of diverse people bound by a shared tragedy, armies…

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