The Wild Woman Sculptor of European Elite & Texas Heroes

By Jacqui Nelson

Life can take us down many paths. How does a German stone carver's daughter go from sculpting the European elite to sculpting Texas heroes? First came tenacity, then talent, then tuberculosis. 

Around the turn of the 19th century, the tuberculosis death rate worldwide was estimated at 7 million people a year, so tuberculosis definitely could be a life-changer. Even though Elisabet Ney never had tuberculosis, it resulted in her leaving her birthplace of Germany and eventually living in Texas sculpting Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston. 

Franzisca Bernadina Wilhelmina Elisabeth Ney
( born 1833 in Münster, Germany ) 

Elisabet (the spelling without the "h" seems to be the name most often used when referring to her by one name) grew up assisting her father in his stone-carving business. When her parents later opposed her becoming a sculptor, she went on a hunger strike. That's tenacity. 

King Ludwig II

In 1852, Elisabet became the first female sculpture student at the Munich Academy of Art under professor Max von Widnmann. 

In 1857, she set up her own studio in Berlin and sculpted portraits of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, composer Richard Wagner, folklorist Jacob Grimm, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, General Giuseppe Garibaldi, King George V of Hanover, and King Ludwig II of Bavaria. That seems like a dual talent: getting the job done and pleasing those elite figures.  

In 1853, Elisabet met Edmund Montgomery, a Scottish medical student, scientist, and philosopher. They kept in touch and, although she viewed the institution of marriage as a state of bondage for women, she married Edmund in 1863. 

Marriage did not change Elisabet's views on the role of women. She refused to take her husband's name, chose to wear trousers and a black artist frock coat, and rode horses astride. 

What changed Elisabet—at least as far as where she went next—was tuberculosis. The same year that she was married, her husband was diagnosed with the deadly disease. 

In 1871, Elisabet and Edmund immigrated to the United States to join a colony in Georgia that was promoted as a healing resort for those afflicted with tuberculosis. When that didn't work out, they searched for a new home. Elisabet traveled alone to Texas to see the Liendo Plantation in Waller County. When her husband was finally able to join her, they purchased the plantation. 

For the next ten years, Elisabet concentrated on running the plantation and raising a son while her husband focused on his research. Only in the early 1880s, did Elisabet restart her artistic career—after being invited to Austin by Governor Oran M. Roberts.

In 1891, the Chicago World's Fair Association's Board of Lady Managers commissioned Elisabet to create life-size marble figures of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin for the Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition World's Fair. 

Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston

Despite the supplement of $32,000 from the Texas state legislature, Elisabet missed her deadline and the Houston and Austin sculptures couldn't be shown at the Exhibition. They can now be seen in the Texas State Capitol in Austin and in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

 

Elisabet kept sculpting and died in her Texas studio in 1907. 

Elisabet Ney in her Texas studio

 

Elisabet Ney traveled far and immersed herself in several careers, but she always came back to sculpting. Writing, I think, is like sculpting or painting or any creative endeavor. People start with a blank page or block of stone and shape something (after heading down a creative path) that other people will hopefully connect with. 

If you'd like to see where my creative endeavors have taken me, head to MY BOOK PAGE on my website where you'll find links to read excerpts from (and view picture inspiration boards for) all of my stories. 

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The Wild Woman Sculptor of President Lincoln

By Jacqui Nelson

Happy New Year...one week after the day! The start of a New Year (or even the start of a new month or week) is a great time to make resolutions or create lists of dreams/goals we want to achieve. I believe that planning how I will achieve my dreams/goals is essential. So is embracing (as much as I can without exhausting myself completely) the mindset of a go-getter. 

What or who is a go-getter? Well, I think Vinnie Ream definitely was one. Read on and be inspired (as I was) by the go-getter who was the daughter of a land surveyor but still found a way to sculpt Abraham Lincoln when she was only seventeen...

Lavinia Ellen "Vinnie" Ream
( born 1847 in Madison, Wisconsin ) 

As a child, Vinnie Ream moved frequently due to her father's job as a land surveyor. When she was seven, her family moved to Kansas, and she was sent to school in St. Joseph, Missouri. Three years later, she attended Christian College in Columbia, Missouri. In 1858, she rejoined her parents in Fort Smith, Arkansas. 

In 1861, her family moved to Washington, D.C. in search of new employment. As her father's health continued failing, Vinnie started working to support her family. 

She was one of the first women employed by the U.S. federal government. From 1862 to 1866, she processed undeliverable mail in the U.S. postal system's dead letter office. She also sang in church and in hospitals and spent the rest of her time studying statues at the U.S. Capitol and in public squares—while dreaming of becoming a sculptor.

Vinnie with her bust of Lincoln

In 1863, she used a contact from her Christian College days (who was now a U.S. Congressman) to gain an introduction to the sculptor Clark Mills. The following year, at the age of seventeen, she became an apprentice in Mills' studio.

That same year, President Lincoln agreed to model for her in the mornings for five months. During this time, she created a bust of Lincoln's figure and also (as a marketing strategy) sold photographs of herself and solicited newspaper attention.

A year later in 1865, she became the youngest artist and first woman to receive a commission from the U.S. government for a statue. She used her bust of Lincoln as her entry into the selection contest for a full-size statue of Lincoln. 

Significant debate ensued over her selection due to her inexperience and the slanderous accusations that she was a woman of questionable reputation—known for her beauty, conversational skills, and zest for public relations.

In 1871 when she was 23 years old, her Carrara marble statue of President Lincoln was unveiled in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. 

Vinnie and her Lincoln statue

In 1875, George Armstrong Custer sat with her for a portrait bust. In 1876, she exhibited at the Centennial Exposition. In 1877, she produced a model for a Lee statue in Richmond. And, after lobbying William Tecumseh Sherman and Mrs. Farragut, she won a competition to sculpt Admiral David G. Farragut. 

She designed the first free-standing statue of a Native American (Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet) to be placed in Statuary Hall at the Capitol. The town of Vinita, Oklahoma (established by the Cherokee attorney and politician, Elias Cornelius Boudinot) was named in her honor. 

Yup, Vinnie Reams definitely is my idea of a go-getter. Of course, going after (and getting) what you want helps if you have the gift of the gab, which it sounds like Vinnie definitely had as well. 

I'd love to hear your dreams/goals for this year. Hope you'll share ❤️

Three of my dreams/goals for 2021 are... 

1) take a walk at least every second day, so that (if the world allows) I can go on the Kenya/Tanzania safari camping trip (I had to postpone last year) and be fit enough to really enjoy it 

2) let go of what I can't control (just say no to negative thoughts) 

3) keep my mind focused on finishing writing my story-in-progress, A Bride for Griffin 🙂

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The Wild Woman Lawyer who made history in Tombstone

 

By Jacqui Nelson

Towns like Tombstone have histories full of gunfighters and gamblers, but what about lawyers? With all the lawbreaking going on, there must have been a few law practitioners. In fact, during its heyday, Tombstone had more attorneys than any other city in the Arizona Territory. 

One of them was Sarah Herring Sorin, a New York City native who traveled to Tombstone with the intention of becoming a teacher. She accomplished that swiftly and thoroughly. She taught in Tombstone for ten years. She also became the first woman admitted to the Arizona Territory Bar and the first woman to argue on her own before the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Sarah Herring Sorin  
( born 1861 in New York City, NY ) 

Sarah attended high school, earned her teaching credentials, and taught school in New York City. In 1882, she moved to Tombstone to join her family. 

Four years earlier, her father (who’d been a successful lawyer in New York) had traveled to Arizona to settle an estate but then stayed to try his hand at mining before finally settling on opening a law practice in Tombstone. 

Sarah’s father was Wyatt Earp's attorney during the trials for the 1881 shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. Earp was acquitted of murder, but due to the volatile and polarized atmosphere surrounding all of these events, Sarah's father had to be armed at all times (even in the courtroom) and was often under the protection of hired gunmen.

Sarah steered clear of the rowdy areas of Tombstone with saloons and entertainment businesses like the infamous Birdcage Theater (where Doc Holliday, Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp, and Morgan Earp could be found). Instead, she focused on being the first woman schoolteacher in Tombstone. She taught here for ten years while also sometimes serving as the school librarian and principal. 

Sarah’s sister and brother worked at their father's law firm as an assistant and attorney respectively. Tombstone had more attorneys than any other city in the Arizona Territory. 

Tombstone around 1881

In 1886, the water levels in Tombstone's mines rose (due to seepage) and ruined their potential for mining. Many people left town, but Sarah's family stayed. She enjoyed teaching, and her father's law firm still thrived. 

In 1891, Sarah's brother died during a dental procedure at the age of 27. Sarah decided to take her brother’s place in her father’s law firm. Two years earlier, a census listed only 208 women in the U.S. as attorneys.

She applied for a license to practice law and unanimously passed her oral examination in open court. After being admitted to the Bar, she went to New York University's School of Law. NYU was one of the first law schools in the U.S. to actively recruit women. 

In 1894, Sarah graduated with an L.L.B. and a rank of fourth in her class of eighty-six graduates. She returned to Tombstone to practice law in her father's firm. 

In 1896, she represented a mining company in her first case before the Arizona Supreme Court and won. Ten years later, she became the 24th woman to be admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

In 1913 during her fourth case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Sarah became the first woman to argue a case unassisted and unaccompanied by a male attorney. The written brief presented to the court was solely in her name. The final arguments were hers.

Sarah was admitted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame in 1985. And in 1999, the Arizona Women Lawyers Association created an annual award in her name. 

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Sarah Herring Sorin was an inspiration both during her lifetime and afterward. She left an intriguing legacy for us to discover today. Stories like hers are one of the many reasons why I love history.

How about you? Got a favorite historical profession or person? Hope you’ll share with us because if we all share what inspires us, then we can inspire each other. 

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Don't forget to download my FREE story Rescuing Raven (Raven & Charlie's story in Deadwood 1876) 

Who Was the First Woman to Write a Western Romance?

by Heather Blanton

A simple question on the surface, I thought a quick Google would give me the answer. Turns out, a few females claim the honor. So after a little more serious digging, I came up with Mary Hallock Foote and her first novel, Led-Horse Claim: A Romance of a Mining Camp published in 1883.

Turns out, Mary was quite an interesting gal. Born in 1847 in New York to Quaker parents, she attended school at the very proper Female Collegiate Seminary in Poughkeepsie. Her gift for the creative arts convinced her father (clearly a forward-thinking man) to invest more in his daughter’s education. He sent her to Cooper School of Design for Women, and by her early twenties, Mary was a sought-after illustrator and designer for some of the most notable publishers in New York City. She loved her job. She loved the city. But she loved a man more.

In 1876, she married Arthur De Wint Foote, a young mining engineer whose career would take her deep into the wild-and-wooly Western frontier. Mary saw it all. From Deadwood to Leadville, from Idaho to Mexico.

Impressed, sometimes astonished, at the characters populating these rowdy mining towns, Mary wrote and illustrated dozens of articles for readers “back East.” She quickly gained the reputation for being one of the sharpest observers of, and most civilizing influences on, the bawdy mining, and ditch (irrigation) towns out west. According to an article in the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, “The Victorian gentlewoman traveled the American West dressed in hoop skirt and petticoats, insisting that her children be educated by an English nanny and fed by a Chinese cook, so that she could work on her illustrations and stories, without interruption.”

What this quote doesn’t tell you is that Mary didn’t have time to raise the children because she had to help put bread on the table. Her husband’s career as a surveyor and civil engineer was difficult, at best, due to his unswerving honesty. Apparently, fudging numbers was expected in the mining industry, but Arthur didn’t play along. Hence, the continual moves from one town to the next. But Mary wrote about it all and her short stories and serials gained in popularity. They were published alongside the likes of Rudyard Kipling. Her articles and observations of life in the Wild West were met with lavish reviews, especially by those who could recognize the ring of authenticity—because they lived it.

Mary’s stories leaned more toward Western romance, though, as opposed to Owen Wister-style shoot-outs and brawls. She wrote fifteen novels in all. However, her husband eventually landed a job managing a mine in California and as his salary increased, Mary’s hectic writing pace decreased. Her last book was published in 1919. She didn’t seem to miss writing.

Mary and Arthur were married nearly sixty years. She, ever hardy and determined, lived until the ripe old age of 90. Unfortunately, while her life was long, her fame was not. It is nearly impossible to find the complete collection of Mary’s works now, even on Amazon. What a loss for the Western Romance genre.