By Davy Crockett 

Both a podcast episode and a full article

On May 10, 2019, America will celebrated the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad. This is the third article in a series to recognize some historic accomplishments walking or running across the American continent. In the previous articles, the history was given of the 1855 walk across South America by Nathaniel Holmes Bishop, and the story of Dakota Bob was shared as an a example of the many fraudulent characters who would claim to walk across America.

Women got into the game too! The most famous of the transcontinental woman walkers of the late 1800s, and perhaps the first, was a Spanish-American world-famous actress, Zoe Gayton. The may have also been the first person to walk the history transcontinental railroad end-to-end. Here is her amazing story of her walk in 1890-91.

Zorika Gaytoni Lopez Ares “Zoe Gayton,” was born in about 1854, in Madrid, Spain. When she was about four years old, her father became a political exiled immigrant and they came to New York City. Zoe Gayton started performing in the theater at the early age of 14 in Tennessee and then joined a company in New York City.

Zoe Gayton married at about 18 years old, to famous rich man, John H. Church, who was the owner of the Golden Gate Theater in Oakland, California. He had many wives, some at the same time. Zoe toured with him to South America. They lived in Utah for a time, building the first hotel in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah (location now of Alta and Snowbird ski resorts). They divorced in 1873 and Zoe then went through a series of other marriages as she continued to perform. She later joined companies in the west, performed in many places, and took a company to perform in Hawaii.

Mazeppa

Zoe Gayton became a world-known “equestrian actress impersonator” who traveled performing a four-act play based on a legendary poem, “Mazeppa” by Lord Byron. In the plot, Zoe played the male character Mazeppa, a horseman and page for a Polish Count. When Mazeppa is caught in an affair with the Countess, he is tied naked to a steed and set loose. The terrifying scene is the play is when Zoe is bound to a horse in scant clothing and rides on planks to the theater’s ceiling. It was much like a circus act.

One newspaper described it this way, Zoe “is strapped to the side of her ‘barbed steed' and ascends the precipitous ‘runs’ to the ‘flies’ in the roof of the theater. It is a very exciting scene, and never fails to elicit tumultuous applause from the audience.” Another paper wrote, “Besides possessing a clear and pleasing voice, she has a splendid physique and graceful movement.”

In 1882 Zoe Gayton performed “Mazeppa” in England at Queen Victoria’s New Royal Theatre. As she was touring, Zoe was arrested for stealing things at a boarding house where she was staying with her manager William J. Marshall. She took ten table clothes, a silk-velvet cape, a shawl, an umbrella, a lace scarf, and other items. They were found in her possession, she was convicted and sentenced to four months in prison.

In 1883 she was back touring in the United States in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, New Orleans, and Alabama. In 1884 in deep financial trouble, after performing in Alabama, she raffled off her famous performing white Arabian steed, “Gypsy” to raise money to pay off debts when her theater company “went to pieces.” In 1885 she was performing with a new steed, “Fearless.”

Zoe had performed all over the world including England, Scotland, France, Spain, Germany, Australia, India, Peru and all over America. But her years of success playing Mazeppa finally came crashing down. In 1885 her company was bankrupted performing in Kansas and her personal luggage was sold off to pay debts.

In 1886 Zoe was traveling and performing again but in a new roles as Leah in Jewish play, "Leah, the Forsaken," and in another play, a military drama, “The French Spy.