Women Who Shaped America

By Wright Writers of Dayton

American women have always had the grit and determination to influence others and make important things happen. From working for the young colonies to homesteading on the Great Plains and the Wild West to navigating the hardships and deprivations of Americas Civil War, two world wars, and the Great Depression to the Space Age, women led, followed, or blazed new paths for themselves, their families, and all women. No matter which period we examine, American women often have left an indelible mark on history and on those who came after them.

The members of Wright Writers of Dayton realized the importance of sharing the stories of women who helped to shape Americastories of both famous and unsung heroines. The stories in this anthology address the courageous actions of American women that shaped human lives and the course of history for our country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984517463

Wright Writers of Dayton

Wright Writers of Dayton was founded by Dr. Alice Swinger, professor of Childrens Literature, at Wright State University in 1977, and has been an active group ever since. From five members, Wright Writers has grown to fifteen women and men, meeting monthly since its founding. Over 31 years of writing and critiquing, with membership ebbing and growing, WW are pleased that ten current members are published, several with multiple books. The group has given free seminars, participated in numerous book signings, and has been featured in area book stores. Ruth Kibler Peck, chair Vickie L Weaver Greg Enslen Beverly Hughes Colleen Green Judi Fryman Frances McGee Cromartie Marla Cross Deborah Knight Jean Rossbach Don Hart Elizabeth Stokely Carol Carr London Bishop Randy McDavid

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by By Wright Writers of Dayton

Library of Congress Control Number:        2018903748

ISBN:        Hardcover        978-1-9845-1748-7

                  Softcover           978-1-9845-1747-0

                   eBook                978-1-9845-1746-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 04/10/2018

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

776836

Contents

For A Freedom Flag of Stars and Stripes

A Modest Shoshone Girl

Mystery Spy #355

Paths in the Night

The Woman Who Fought with a Pen

From the Big Woods to the Prairie and Beyond

Shooting Star

First Lady of the World

Mrs. Roosevelt Comes to Campobello Island

Memorial To Madame C.J. Walker

The Silent Partner

She Lived the American Dream

I touch the future. I teach.

A Day of Pumpkin Moonshine

Women Who Shaped America

Betsy Ross*

Sacagawea

Harriet Tubman*

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Annie Oakley*

Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt*

Madame C.J. Walker*

Katharine Wright*

Clara Weisenborn

Christa McAuliffe*

Tasha Tudor

* Historical Fiction

"Some people may have greatness thrust upon them. Very few have excellence thrust upon them. They achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly, by ‘doing what comes naturally’; and they don’t stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose."

John William Gardner

For A Freedom Flag of Stars and Stripes

By Vickie L. Weaver

The woman smiled while admiring groups of wildflowers on her walk through Philadelphia. Her smiles and furtive glances covered her concern to be sure of who might be in the area observing her, especially while she headed toward the wharf. I must seem to visit the same places and to do the same things as often as possible—as if ’tis another ordinary day, she told herself. Otherwise, in these dangerous times I could be discovered and branded a traitor to the Crown. She slowly inhaled and exhaled to control her nervousness and excitement.

Already on this lovely spring morning she had been busy. At the home of her lifelong friend Emily, she had finished administering another round of her homemade medications to ease her friend’s pain. Then, she had bartered her sewing skills for a large, soft deer hide, which she now carried, folded, along with her small bag of medicines hanging from her wrist. Now, she was on her way to meet the Congressional Committee at a certain time at the counting house belonging to one of their compatriots, a shipping merchant, on the wharf.

The Committee of Three consisted of longtime family friend General George Washington; her deceased husband’s uncle, Colonel George Ross, a Pennsylvania delegate to Congress; and one of the wealthiest Patriot Philadelphians, Mr. Robert Morris. When the woman, the merchant, and the Committee were gathered, the merchant produced two items that he would give to her, Mrs. Elizabeth Betsy Ross. First was the loan of an old ship’s color so that she could see how the sewing was done. Second was the Committee’s flag drawing that was painted recently, from which she would gauge the desired depth for the chosen colors.

As the materials were taken from a chest and shown to them, General Washington led the way in interpreting the intended parts for the first colonial flag. We will use the stars from the sky and set them on a field of blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice.

’Tis divine providence for our freedom, Mr. Morris suggested.

Washington continued. The red is from the British.

Aye, for the valor and hardiness of our enemy, Colonel Ross said.

And the white stripes represent the secession of our colonies from the home country, Washington finished.

White for purity and innocence as a newborn land, Betsy offered.

Washington and Colonel Ross smiled.

Betsy knew that two of the Committee’s other flag designs recently had been given to a few other area seamstresses to be sewn. I suppose it to be a measure of safety in case one of us is discovered by those loyal to the Crown, or becomes very ill or dies in the making, she reasoned to herself.

Excited to be one of the chosen, she carefully examined the odd stitch in the old ship’s color, nodding as her well-trained eye noted its strength, elasticity, and other key characteristics. Even when the fabric was out of her hands for a couple of minutes, spread across a crude table, her fingers twitched as though she were already sliding her needle gracefully through fabric at her shop. Studying it between Washington and Ross, she thought, Next to General Washington, I feel like a sapling beside a great oak, and often as insignificant. What have I done to deserve this honor?

Ross and Washington winked at one another, sure of her eagerness to work diligently on the flag. When no further questions remained, Colonel Ross helped her to conceal the old ship’s color deep within the folds of the animal hide, and the group went their separate ways.

When Betsy reached her shop, she found two customers waiting for her.

One lady said, Good day, Mrs. Ross. What will be your use for that large animal hide?

Betsy clutched it just a little tighter and smiled. Good day to you ladies. I have much work for many, she said. Turning to her close neighbor, she asked, Has your eldest son split his breeches again? If he keeps growing so quickly, he soon will be as tall and broad as his father.

Aye, Mrs. Ross. We need two pairs as quickly as you can. I have confined him to the house today for the lack of proper breeches. Before we know it he will need new shirts, too. With five smaller boys to care for also, I have not often the time for careful sewing.

Betsy chuckled and patted the hand of her neighbor, whom she knew to be a staunch Patriot. Indeed! I will add three inches to the measurement I already had for him. Can you return for them at this time tomorrow morning? We can keep our usual arrangement.

Agreeing, the friend thanked her and left. Excusing herself for a moment, Betsy entered the room at the back of the shop, also known as her parlor. She closed the door, put the animal skin in the bottom of the trunk, and closed the door again upon leaving. When she returned to the heart of her shop, the other lady, of whose loyalties she was not certain, ordered three pairs of new stockings and a petticoat to be sewn soon at Betsy’s convenience; she paid a fifty-percent deposit for the work and purchased a bottle of Betsy’s homemade liniment.

Betsy said, I am thankful that you are not hurried for the work. I have many orders, and I will have yours ready in June. To cover for the question she had not answered earlier, she added, Late this summer, I will make that new winter cloak that you need, and I will fashion my animal hide into a warm cover for my bed. Next winter, you and I will have no complaints.

She devoted the remainder of her business day to sewing the breeches, cutting linen fabric for four shifts, examining the material for Mrs. Wentworth’s curtains, and discussing other sewing projects and her homemade medications with neighbors who visited.

While she was locked in her parlor that evening laboring on the flag, a range of emotions crossed her pretty face as she remembered the events that had led to this project.

A fortnight earlier, the Committee had called upon her at her shop when no customers were present. Mrs. Ross, we need to meet privately with you, Colonel Ross began. May we use your parlor?

She locked the front door, pocketed the skeleton key, then showed them into the back room.

Washington explained, We are to have a flag prepared for the Colonies. Can you make one?

She replied, If the pattern is shown to me, I do not doubt my ability to do it.

They presented a roughly-prepared drawing of their vision for the flag and requested her comments.

I like the design, and I am honored to participate, she began brightly. The proportions and the stars are not exactly correct, but we can fix them easily enough. One thing is that whereas this flag is square, it should be one third longer than its width so that it will wave properly.

Ah, the men said, nodding.

Betsy continued. Also, I see two problems with the stars. First, they should not be scattered across the field. I recommend that instead they should be in lines or shaped together into a circle or a star. Second, the stars should not have six points—they should have five.

A star with only five points is difficult to make. Is that not true? Colonel Ross asked.

Nothing easier, she replied, cheerfully grabbing her scissors.

She quickly folded a piece of paper and with one snip made a five-pointed star.

The men approved her recommendations. Washington incorporated them into a modified design at the table. Beaming, he said, Let the 13 stars in a circle stand as a new constellation in the heavens so that no one colony will be viewed above another. He added, The new drawing will be given to artist William Barrett to paint. Colonel Ross will alert you when we are ready to meet again.

Now, Betsy gently pulled on a row of stitching to test its strength and compared her flag’s colors to the old ship’s colors. Satisfied with both, she bent closer to the lantern and continued to sew for another hour before preparing for bed.

Each evening, she labored on the flag—measuring, basting, and then inserting the finest stitches to keep it sturdy in the Colonies’ blustery, frigid winters.

Each day, Betsy visited and administered her prescriptions and her favorite soup to Emily; now and then she also took items of attire that she had sewn for her. Then she sometimes locked herself in the shop’s back room for an hour or two for work on the flag.

One afternoon she fell asleep with the partial flag draped across her lap; she did not hear a customer calling as he walked through the shop, until he neared the door to the parlor.

Mrs. Ross… Mrs. Ross… Are you here? came in the gentleman’s commanding voice.

Betsy awoke to also hearing herself mutter, John… John, I need you, as her heart moaned for her husband, who had died during the winter of 1776 while serving in a Philadelphia unit of the Pennsylvania Provincial Militia. She startled and took a few heartbeats to compose herself. As she hurriedly wrapped and restored the flag to the trunk, she called out, Yes. I am checking inventory and putting things away. Please be seated. I will join you in a moment. She dried her few tears with her apron while listening as the man stepped away and walked toward the front of the shop. Then she scooted the trunk from the door, rearranged her cap, and smoothed her gown and apron before closing the door behind her.

The gentleman paid for three pairs of breeches and a shirt that he would need in a fortnight. He also ordered two neckerchiefs, a waistcoat, a cloak, and a great coat that he would need