Jean Wilson Murray's Blog, page 2
June 16, 2019
Helga Estby – Walked Across America To Save Her Family
SPOKANE. Wash., May 4.(1896) -Mrs. H. Estby and her daughter, aged 18, leave tomorrow morning to walk to New York City. They are respectable, but will “rough it” as regular tramps and carry no baggage. Their object is to wear a new style garment, which they will exhibit when they reach New York. Mrs. Estby […]
May 9, 2019
Clara Brown – Determined Pioneer Who Held On to Hope
Clara Brown was a slave. No property, no expectations of life. But she happened to find a kind master who freed her when he died, and she started on two long journeys: one to find a place to live free, and the other to find her daughter. This is the inspiring story of a determined […]
April 27, 2019
Weetamoo – An Amazing Warrior In a Clash of Cultures
Weetamoo was an amazing woman, warrior and chief of a native American tribe who lived in a time of cultural change. She was an influential leader, but because she was a native American and not English, her story has been mostly ignored. I had to do some digging and find a new book about her […]
April 18, 2019
Ani Pachen – Brave Tibetan Buddhist nun and warrior
Ani Pachen wanted to spend her life in simplicity and quiet contemplation in a Buddhist monastery in Tibet. Instead, she became a resistance fighter against the Chinese invaders in the 1950s, was captured and spent over 20 years in prison. But she was finally able to fulfill her lifelong dream. Her story is one of great […]
April 5, 2019
Annie Edson Taylor – Daredevil Who Went Over Niagara Falls – At 63!
Not all women adventurers did it just for the adventure. Some, like Ada Blackjack and Annie Edson Taylor, did it for money. And maybe fame. Annie was the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. And she survived! She also wins the “shortest adventure” award in the Women Adventurers Club with her […]
March 27, 2019
Anne Spoerry – A Life of Atonement for a Dark Secret
Anne Spoerry, humanitarian and doctor to many in Kenya for over 40 years, died in 1999. Many thousands of people walked, drove, and flew in to attend her funeral. But her obituary in the Independent (U.K.) didn’t mention the central event of her life, the one she refused to talk about and that would haunt her […]
March 25, 2019
Marthe McKenna: Codename Laura – A Brave World War I Spy
Are spies adventurers? I’d say yes. Case in point: Marthe McKenna, a brave young woman who spied against the Germans in World War I. Life in Belgium in the first part of the 20th century must have been idyllic. In 1892, when Marthe Mathilde Cnockaert was born in the village of Westrozebeke in the Belgian province of West Flanders, […]
March 23, 2019
Hester Stanhope – The First Great Queen of the Desert
Three women have been given the title “Queen of the Desert” for their adventurous travels in the Middle East.* The first one, Hester Stanhope, began her travels in the early 1800s when she left England. She was the first person to run a modern archeological dig in the Holy Land. She never returned from her […]
March 15, 2019
Kate Rice, Prospector, Pioneer, and Extraordinary Woman of the Wilds
Looking at this lovely young lady, you wouldn’t picture her living in the wilds of northern Manitoba province, Canada, in a cabin, wearing men’s clothing and carrying a rifle. Kate Rice was a prospector, probably the first woman prospector in Canada. Her life wasn’t easy, but it was the life she wanted. Kate’s Early Life […]
March 8, 2019
Grace O’Malley – Fearless Sea Captain – and Pirate!
“There came to me also a most feminine sea captain called Granny Imallye.” This quote is from Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland. “Granny Imallye” is really Grace (Grainne) O’Malley (Mhaille), also called Granuaile (meaning “bald” for her short hair). The occasion was Grace’s visit to Queen Elizabeth I in 1593. The etching here doesn’t seem […]
