WOMEN IN HISTORY

 

Ada Adams

A Moscow divorcee supported herself.  Her elder mother taught piano and violin in Moscow and Elmhurst.

 

Addie Cobb

Was a teacher in Jefferson.

 

Ann Wardell (1767 – 1859)

She came in 1819 with her husband Edward and they were the first settlers in Covington.  They built a frame house in 1826.

 

Edna Malone

Taught in Moscow.

 

Elizabeth Edwards

Was left as a widow in 1850, when her husband on his way to California was killed by Indians.  She was left with three children: a 5 year old, a three year old and a newborn.

 

Emeline Griffiths

Was the first teacher in the new Spring Brook School in 1835.

 

Esther Holgate

2nd wife of Henry Drinker; married 1847.  They had eight children.

 

Gertrude McLain

From Madisonville and lived to be 100.

 

Lena Krupinski

In the 1920-30’s, she lived in Aston Mountain in a life of service.  She was a midwife in the days when babies were born at home.

 

Maria Wragg

Wife of Henry Drinker; married November 23, 1819.  She died March 30, 1841, leaving eleven children. 

 

Margaret (Musgrave) Malsom

She and her husband had seven young children die.  They died as a result of whooping cough and diphtheria.

 

Mary Depew

Taught in Moscow and was gifted with a beautiful voice and was founder/director of a children’s choir in the Moscow Methodist Church.

 

Mrs. John Cobb

In the winter of 1835, it was cold with deep snow and wild animals were dying of starvation.  Wolves came out of the forests to the backyards to kill the stock.  It was here Mrs. Cobb was home alone and she heard a wolf after one of her sheep.  She grabbed a pitch fork and ran to save the livestock.  The wolf was weak and Mrs. Cobb killed it.  She received a $10 bounty from the state for its head.

 

Mrs. Lucretia Finn

Allowed Mrs. Adams to give lessons in her home on Main Street in Elmhurst.

 

Nancy Dayton

Was a teacher in the new school in Nobletown (Sterling) in 1838.

 

Sally (Hamlin) Bonham

Young women usually taught school, they didn’t receive as much money as the male teachers.  In 1804, at the age of 14, she taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Hamlin.  She received a $2 bill for 3 months of work.  She placed the money in an open book as she sat reading and dreaming in front of the fireplace.  A gust of wind swept the bill up the chimney!

 

Sarah (Matthews) Benjamin

She hailed from Pleasant Mount, born in Orange County, New York on November 17, 1745 and moved to Pleasant Mount with her parents when she was young.  Her first husband was a Revolutionary War soldier who died during the war from wounds.  Another soldier by the name of Aaron Osborne became her second husband and she accompanied him during the latter part of the war.  She cooked and sewed for the soldiers and carried a rifle and did sentry work.  Her third husband was John Benjamin.  She lived to be 110.