Dime Novelist Laura Jean Libby ~ Julie Lence

Last month, I discussed the romance dime novel and gave three samples, to include what is considered the first romance dime novel, Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter. Laura Jean Libby penned a story for that work, and it wasn’t her last. During the course of her career, she sold over fifteen million copies of her books.

 

Born in Brooklyn, New York on March 22, 1862 to Thomas and Elizabeth Libbey, Laura lived most of her life in the city and began writing around age 20. Some of her earlier works appeared in The New York Family Story Paper, The Fireside Companion, and New York Ledger and were popular with readers, enabling her to negotiate exclusive contracts at higher salaries during the 1880’s. Her earlier works were later reprinted in dime novels by publishers George Munro, Arthur Westbrook, and John Lovell, with Laura striking it big in 1889 with The Pretty Young Girl, which sold over 60,000 copies in one month.  Though she had little formal education, Laura was a savvy businesswoman and went on to edit Munro’s Fashion Bazaar from 1891-1994, earning over $10,000 per year, according to her financial records.

 During her career, when fellow authors changed genres according to public likes and dislikes,  Laura stayed true to her genre and voice. Many believed she used a format for her stories since they had the same elements, but she denied the claims. As time progressed and interest in the dime romance dwindled, she moved away from penning stories to writing a love advice columnist for the New York Mail. Sadly, she met with little success in this endeavor.

Little is known about Laura’s private life, other than her mother forbid her to marry young. At age 36, (two years after her mother’s passing) she married Brooklyn lawyer Van Mater Stilwell. They had no children, as Laura’s writing career and being identified as an author were more important to her, so much that even after marrying Stilwell, she was still publicly known as Laura Jean Libbey. She passed in 1924 due to complications from cancer surgery and was laid to rest in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.     

 

Carrie Shelton - the first female governor

 

Since March is Women in History month, I thought I'd share a little info about a woman many don't know served as Oregon's governor before women had the right to vote.

Carrie Bertha Shelton is a woman all but forgotten by history.

 

Library of Congress

For a weekend in 1909, she was the first female governor in the United States.

Carrie Bertha Skiff was born October 3, 1876 in Union County, Oregon, the  fourth of Willis and Mary Skiff’s six children.

Accounts report her childhood as one of comfort. Her father was a Union County and Union city official before transitioning into the role of business man.

However, life changed for Carrie in 1886 when her father disappeared. He was on a business trip to North Powder, Oregon, and was last seen sitting outside the town's hotel, awaiting the midnight train to return home. When he failed to arrival, his disappearance sparked an investigation. The case was never solved.  Carrie's mother passed away a few years later, leaving the children orphaned. Carrie and two of her siblings went to live with their older brother, Orin, and his wife.  In 1889, Carrie, and her sister Mabel become wards of Union County Judge John W. Shelton, who was one of the leaders looking into the mystery if Willis Skiff's disappearance.

In 1892, with his wife away visiting family in California, John Shelton obtained a divorce before heading off to Weiser, Idaho with Carrie. They wed just two weeks after her 16th birthday and moved to the Portland area. Less than two years after their marriage, Carrie was a widow.

She started a career as a stenographer at the Portland law firm of Chamberlain and Thomas in 1895. There she began working with George Chamberlain, a powerful attorney.

A quick learner with a talent for the technical terms of the law, Chamberlain took her under his wing and gave her responsibilities not usually afforded to stenographers.

When Chamberlain was elected to the Multnomah County district attorney’s office in 1900, he took her with him. There, she enhanced her legal knowledge by helping draft indictments.

At the ripe old age of 25, Shelton joined Chamberlain in Salem when he was elected governor.  Chamberlain served two tenures in the governor’s office, and at some point Shelton was promoted from stenographer to his personal secretary.

In 1909, Chamberlain was elected to represent Oregon in the U.S. Senate. His term as governor would end March 1, but all freshmen senators were slated to be sown in March 4 in Washington D.C. If Chamberlin stayed through the end of February, he'd be sworn in late and all the other members of the freshman senate class would have seniority over him. That would never, ever do.

Ordinarily, the incoming governor would have assumed his post a few days early, but Frank W. Benson was too ill to step up to the plate. At that time, Oregon law stated in the event of the chief executive’s death the Secretary of State should become governor. In the absence of the governor— whether due to illness, travel out of state, etc.— his private secretary would become acting head of state.

And Chamberlin's private secretary was Carrie Shelton, who had started using the name Caralyn to sound more professional.

At 9:15 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 27, 1909, Shelton assumed the role of the acting governor — becoming the nation’s first female governor. For a weekend, a woman who couldn’t legally cast a ballot possessed the power to issue pardons, veto bills and sign executive orders.

For 48 hours and 55 minutes, Carrie Shelton was the acting head of Oregon's government. Although she couldn't legally cast a ballot (it would be a few more years before women had the right to vote in Oregon) she held the power to issue pardons, veto bills and sign executive orders.

She did none of those things, but how sad she is never mentioned on lists of historical women in America.

She was quoted as saying, "I want to fill the governor's shoes, and he really has a small foot. I fear the principal trouble will be in trying to fill his hat." What a sense of humor!

The following Monday, at a few minutes past ten in the morning, her time in office was over. Benson was formally sworn in as governor.

Headlines across the state had a heyday with the news, though.

“Oregon Has Today a Woman Governor” read the headline of the Daily Capital Journal (Salem)  on February 27, 1909 with a subhead that stated, "Mrs. C. B. Shelton First Woman to Govern Any State."

"Has Three Governors In Three Days," the front page of The Daily Capital Journal stated on March 1, 1909. "Oregon Holds The World's Record For Changing Rulers. Secretary of State Benson is today the third governor that Oregon has had in the last three days."

Not long after being relieved of her duties as acting governor, Shelton boarded a train bound for Washington, D.C., joining now-Sen. Chamberlain once again as his personal secretary. She oversaw his staff of clerks. By 1914, she also served in the role of the clerk to the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, of which Chamberlain was the ranking member. Shelton remained with Chamberlain when he joined the United States Shipping Board in 1921, serving as his personal secretary until he resigned in 1923. He returned to private law in the D.C. area and Shelton continued working alongside Chamberlain through the death of his wife, Sallie, in 1925. When Chamberlain suffered from a paralytic stroke at age 72, Carrie remained with him.

Shelton and Chamberlain wed in Norfolk, Virginia on July 12, 1926. George Chamberlain died after a brief illness on July 9, 1928, three days shy of the couple’s second wedding anniversary.

Carrie returned home to Oregon. She lived out her remaining years between Union County and Salem. She died on Feb. 3, 1936, at age 59 and her memorable moments as the first female governor in America were all but forgotten.

USA Today Bestselling Author Shanna Hatfield grew up on a farm where her childhood brimmed with sunshine, hay fever, and an ongoing supply of learning experiences.

Shanna creates character-driven romances with realistic heroes and heroines. Her historical westerns have been described as “reminiscent of the era captured by Bonanza and The Virginian” while her contemporary works have been called “laugh-out-loud funny, and a little heart-pumping sexy without being explicit in any way.”

When this award-winning author isn’t writing or testing out new recipes (she loves to bake!), Shanna hangs out at home in the Pacific Northwest with her beloved husband, better known as Captain Cavedweller.

Connect with her on her website. 

The Otomi People

 

By Kristy McCaffrey

The Otomi people are believed to have inhabited central Mexico starting in the 5^th millennium B.C. and may have been the first to colonize the area, predating the Aztecs and the Toltecs. They were skilled farmers, domesticating maize, beans and other crops, and they developed complex societies.

They lived in prosperity but were poorly treated by their neighbors, making it difficult to disseminate their contributions to great cities such as the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan (near Mexico City). When the city was destroyed by fire in the 6th century AD, Otomi life began to change. 

With the disappearance of Teotihuacan and the people who built it, large numbers of Nahuatl-speaking people started to enter the region of the Otomi, among these the Nahua, ancestors of the Toltecs and through them, the Aztecs. Otomi independence came to an end, but they were absorbed rather than wiped out and became subjects of the mighty Aztec empire.

Pyramid of the Sun and
the road of death in
Teotihuacan, Mexico

Otomi life changed again when the Spaniards arrived. The Otomi initially treated the Spaniards as their saviors and sought alliances to help defeat the Aztecs, helping the Spaniards as they moved against other indigenous peoples. However, the Otomi soon found they had replaced one overlord with another. The Spaniards started to apply force against them and by the beginning of the 18th century had begun to subjugate and virtually enslave all indigenous people. Many of the Otomi community fled this system of servitude, and relocated to more desolate, desert areas.

Today the Otomi people primarily reside in the central Mexican plateau, with significant populations surrounding Mexico City.

* * * * *

In my upcoming book, The Falcon, the hero and heroine come in contact with an isolated Otomi settlement in the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains.

The Falcon by Kristy McCaffrey
Wings of the West: Book 12

Coming July 3, 2026

Mexico

December 1899 

Josie Ryan’s connection to Texas runs deep, from the land to an almost preternatural kinship with the animals in the wild. This bond has led her to the edge of life and death, from saving a boy caught in a fire when she was eleven years old to being struck by lightning to a mountain lion attack that almost ended her life. The discovery of an abandoned falcon chick leads to a fierce attachment, but with only intuition to guide her, Josie struggles to train the wildest creature she’s ever encountered. When she learns of a man who could help, she’s determined to gain an introduction. 

Mateo Almirón, El Halconero—The Falconer—and Argentine gaucho, is tasked with delivering two prized purebred Criollo mares to Matt Ryan, a man whose reputation casts a long shadow. Years ago, Ryan saved the life of Mateo’s father, and the horses will settle the longstanding debt, but when the exchange goes wrong, Mateo is entrusted with protecting Ryan’s daughter, Josie. Now Mateo and Josie must hide in the mountains of Northern Mexico where stories abound of Josie’s mother, a woman who lived among the Comanche and rose from the dead. 

But in a place alive with superstition, Josie and her untamed falcon will give rise to a new legend …

Josie is the youngest child of Matt and Molly from THE WREN.

* * * * *

Available for pre-order from Amazon, Nook, and Apple Books.

(It will also be available at Kobo, Google Play Books, and in paperback on release day.)

Connect with Kristy

Website | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Newsletter

The "Old Blue Front" and World's First Women Jury Members by Zina Abbott

 

While researching the businesses that existed in 1874 Laramie City, Wyoming Territory, I came across some interesting information about one of the buildings that played an interesting role in both Laramie City and Wyoming Territory history.  

One of the most prominent trading and freighting businesses in Wyoming Territory in the 1860s and 1870s were the Trabing Brothers, Charles and August. I have written other blog posts featuring these brothers and their business enterprises, which you may find by clicking HERE and HERE 

August, Ulrika—August’s first wife—and Charles arrived in Laramie on June 18, 1868, five weeks after the arrival of the transcontinental railroad. At the end of July, they bought vacant property and buildings on First Street from W. B. Bent, who was a land agent for the Union Pacific Railroad. Part of this purchase was The National Theater, which stood on parts of two lots.

The couple refurbished the building—which they painted blue—and opened a saloon and theater for traveling vaudeville acts which would come through on the railroad. Since August was a singer, he might have performed occasionally. This building became known as “the Old Blue Front.”

As August grew busy with his part of the Trabing Brothers business filling a tie and wood contract, Ulrika tried to run the business. It did not succeed. Then, after coal was discovered at Carbon, Wyoming Territory, and the demand of cordwood, one of the major commodities they sold to the railroad diminished, the Trabing brothers moved the center of their freighting business elsewhere. Although they moved on, their connection to this building continued for at least thirty-seven year.

In December of 1869, the Trabings leased their “Old Blue Front” building to an employee, George Weiske. In March 1870, the building was sub-leased to Albany County as a temporary courthouse.

This building that started as a theater ended up being the courthouse in which served the first jury in the world to impanel both men and women.

At the time Wyoming Territory was organized, the 1869 Territorial Legislature passed a constitution that included a suffrage act granted women the right to vote. One Laramie City woman, Louisa Swain, became the first Wyoming Territory woman of a total of ninety-three women (some of them Black women) to vote in a general election.

1880s reenactment of first women jurors

The suffrage act also included provisions for women to serve on juries. For the first time in the world, in March of 1870, six women were selected and served on a formal jury in spite of being subjected to considerable public ridicule for doing so. The women selected came from several backgrounds.

Among those who objected was the country prosecuting attorney, Col. Downey, who wrote to Judge Howe for advice and direction as to the eligibility of women as jurors. After Judge Howe ruled they were eligible, he again objected and was overruled. Later in life, his daughter claimed his reasoning was that women should not be exposed to the “grim and unpleasant” duty of serving on a jury. (Like women who traveled through or lived on the American frontier were not exposed to “grim and unpleasant.”)

Another source of opposition came in the form of Nathan Baker, editor of the influential Cheyenne Leader, who railed against women serving when their names were announced on March 1, 1870. One of his arguments included the claim that “the feminine mind is too susceptible to the influence of emotions to allow the supreme control of the reason.” In spite of arguments to the contrary, the women were empaneled.

This first jury was a grand jury presided over by Judge John Howe. A grand jury has the power to investigate potentially criminal conduct and decides whether criminal charges should be brought against a defendant or group of defendants.

The first chosen was Eliza Stewart. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1835 and graduated from Washington Female Seminary in Washington, Pa. as a class valedictorian. For eight years, she taught school in her native Crawford County, Pa. At the age of thirty-five and single, she arrived in Laramie City to teach school. Not long after she completed her jury duty, she married Stephen Boyd. She served again on a jury in 1871.

Elizabeth Hatcher ran a millinery shop in downtown Laramie in 1870. Another Laramie City milliner, Amelia Hatcher (later Heath) was born in England in 1842 of Scottish parents. After the death of her first husband, she and her eight-year-old son Robert lived in the house of her father, Robert Galbraith.

Mary Jane Mackle was born in New York City in 1847 became the wife of a clerk at Fort Sanders near Laramie City, Joseph Mackle, whom she married in 1862 at Leavenworth, Kan. When she was about age fifteen.

Jane Hilton was born in 1829 in New York. In 1870 she was living with her husband George F. Hilton and daughter Nellie Hilton in Laramie City. They arrived in 1868 and her husband was a physician and a minister who organized the Methodist church in Laramie. She served again on a grand jury in Laramie in February 1871.

Mrs. Annie Monaghan was born in Ireland in 1845. Although not listed in all reports of the first women on the grand jury, in her very detailed 1889 personal remembrance of the jury, Mrs. Sarah Pease stated that she looked up the court record of the jury proceeding and found Mrs. Monaghan as one of those who served.

Some accounts of the grand jury list Agnes Baker as one of the jurors. She was called but released upon her request and replaced by Sarah Pease.

In her later years, Sarah Pease served as superintendent of the Albany County schools. She wrote a detailed account of her jury service. She claimed that the women were called because the judges were tired of men not paying attention to the proceedings in the prior session of court and were unwilling to convict their acquaintances. Women did not suffer the same shortcomings.

Because the judge for the 1870 grand jury considered it proper for a woman to guard the women jurors' hotel rooms overnight, Martha Boies was selected to serve as bailiff.

Trabing Brothers Blue Front Store 1877

After the Old Blue Front building was no longer needed as a courtroom, the Trabing Brothers once again used it for storage for their growing freighting business. In 1877, this building was remodeled and enlarged to be used as a wholesale and retail store.

The “Old Blue Front” building was still around in 1919 when this photograph of nationally prominent suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, third from right, was in Wyoming to lobby for ratification of the 19th Amendment and found a chapter of the new League of Women Voters. Also present was local professor and suffragist Grace Raymond Hebard, center.

 

My heroine and her brother in my upcoming release, The Bride Who Step Dances, would have loved for that theater to have still been open. Unfortunately, it was used for other purposes by 1874. The best way to be notified of the release is by following me by newsletter HERE

Sources:

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/women-jury-wyoming-makes-history-again

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/territorial-empire-trabings-and-their-freight

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/brief-history-laramie-wyoming

The 1870s photo of the Trabing store in Laramie is from the collection of Nancy Trabing Mickelson. All other photos are from the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming

The Compass Rose, not just a pretty image

 Did your historical or contemporary hero ever use a compass in his travels? The idea of the modern compass started a long time ago. 

     The Chinese measured direction based on the 12 signs of the zodiac; the Arabs used the stars and constellations. The Europeans relied on the winds blowing in the Mediterranean so the precursors to the compass rose, was the stella maris (star of the sea) and the wind rose.

    This device indicated the directions of the eight major winds, the eight half-winds and the sixteen quarter-winds making the 32 points corresponding to the thirty-two headings of the mariner's compass. 

   

   In the1300's, portolan charts first made their appearance. These were charts frequently drawn on vellum (generally calfskin) which showed coastal features and ports. The availability of ports and harbors was especially important as ships were smaller often needing refuge or a place to beach for maintenance.

     As far as navigation went, the early renderings on the portolan maps did not take into account the curvature of the Earth, and so were not useful in crossing open ocean. But they were a great help for dentification of landmarks and harbors, in the Mediterranean, Black, or Red Seas. 

                                        

     The term "rose" in compass rose is derived from the figure's compass points resembling the flower.                                      

       For western apprentice seamen, one of the first things they had to know were the names of the points. Using the original Mediterranean words for the eight winds, naming them all off perfectly was known as "boxing the compass".

     There is no absolute standard for drafting a compass rose, and each school of cartographers seems to have developed their own style. 

           On the east side of the rose there was often a cross, indicating the direction to Paradise long thought to be in the east.

Today, wind roses are used by meteorologists to depict wind frequencies from different directions at a location. The compass rose is used in global-positioning systems (GPS) and similar equipment and devices.

                    The sign can be found in rugs, tiles, and inlays
                      

     Also flower arranging, embroidery, and woodworking.

                    

                     

                The symbol is a favorite in the tattoo world.  

   

 The next time you see a map, look for a compass rose!  

Blog www.ginirifkin.blogspot.com

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/people/Gini-Rifkin-Author/100001680213365

Amazon author  https://amzn.to/2R53KA9

Pinterest             https://www.pinterest.com/ginirifkin/pins/

Goodreads                     http://bit.ly/2OnHbrK

Barnes and Noble          http://bit.ly/2xPs9S4

AudioBooks                  https://adbl.co/2OlWbGJ

LinkedIn                        https://www.linkedin.com/in/gini-rifkin-15950489/

Universal link                https://books2read.com/u/3JLGMv

The wild rose press     https://wildrosepress.com/?s=rifkin&post_type=product&type_aws=true

  

  

                                Thanks to Bill Thoen for his helpful article.