Gloria G. Harris - Women Trailblazers of California: Pioneers to the Present

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2012 by Gloria G. Harris and Hannah S. Cohen

All rights reserved

Front Cover: Torrey Pines, courtesy of Dreamstime.

First published 2012

e-book edition 2012

ISBN 978.1.61423.621.4

print ISBN 978.1.60949.675.3

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

Womens history is omnipresent in every major social and political issue that has taken place in the development of the United States. As settlers, suffragists, activists, architects, entertainers, community leaders and educators, women have made their mark on Californias cultural, physical and social landscapes. In every walk of life, women have strengthened and contributed to the history of our nations most populous state. However, many have never been acknowledged or remembered. This book introduces these remarkable trailblazers to help us better understand the daily challenges and barriers women faced when making career choices.

We chose these women because they personified a trailblazer, leader or pioneer who paved the way for others. In a historical context, many were a first; many accomplished something that previously had been denied to women. Undaunted by discrimination and closed doors, the inspiring stories of forty multicultural women in ten fields of endeavor are told. We have tried to include a variety of women who lived in diverse places and time periods. The introduction to each chapter presents an overview of the broad range of womens contributions to California history from the early pioneers to the present.

The authors are board members of the Womens Museum of California, whose mission is to educate and inspire future generations about the experiences and contributions of women by preserving and interpreting the evidence of that experience. The value of sharing womens history is to fill a gap in our communities knowledge of female role models and womens achievements and to appreciate their willingness to take risks and break down barriers.

Many of the women, both past and present, represented in our book are responsible for shaping our current lives. Issues that concerned our foremothers continue today, and their determination to make a difference has benefited all of us. Women Trailblazers of California celebrates their tenacity and achievements and honors their contributions to our state.

PART I

Women of Early California

Chapter 1

PIONEERS

In the year 1510, Spanish author Garcia de Montalvo wrote Las Sergas de Esplandian (The Deeds of Esplandian), an epic novel about Spanish chivalry. One of the fictional characters in the popular story was Queen Calafia, the courageous leader of a race of black Amazons. In the book, she is described as the most beautiful of a long line of queens who ruled over California, a mythical island. Calafia and her women warriors were said to wear gold armor adorned with many precious stones.

At the right hand of the Indies very near the location of the Garden of Eden, there once was an island called California, which was inhabited by black women without any man being among them, so that their way of life was almost Amazon like, the popular tale began. They had strong bodies and valiant, fervent hearts and had great courage.

De Montalvos romantic tale captured the imagination of future explorers of the New World who hoped to discover a nation of women and riches. Twelve years after the novel was published, a party of Spanish explorers sent by Hernan Cortes anchored their ships on what appeared to be an island off western Mexico in the recently discovered Pacific Ocean. Elated that they had found the mythical island described in de Montalvos story, the place was named California. Given the exciting details of de Montalvos tale, it was an understandable mistake to believe that Baja California, a peninsula, was the fictional island ruled by the beautiful warrior queen Calafia.

The actual discoverer of California, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, arrived in the future harbor of San Diego in 1542. Despite the legend of black Amazon queens, the Spanish made no effort to colonize the area until the eighteenth century. In preparation for settlement, the mainland region of California was granted to Franciscan missionaries in order to convert the native population to Catholicism. Between 1769 and 1823, Spanish friars established twenty-one missions, each a days journey from the next, along the Pacific coastline. The first one was established by Father Serra in San Diego in 1769.

In Auburn Ravine. Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library.

At the end of the eighteenth century, Spain experienced a series of international difficulties, and in 1822, the tattered flag of Spain was lowered for the last time at Monterey and the new banner of Mexico was raised in its place. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and resulted in Mexico ceding California to the United States. It was not until the 1840s that American families began heading west.

The 1848 discovery of gold on the American River in Northern California forever changed the states history. When news of gold spread around the world, thousands of prospectors, dreaming they would strike it rich, traveled to the newly conquered territory. The sudden arrival of nationalities, races and ethnicities in one region was unprecedented in U.S. history. Until the mid-1850s, most women stayed behind, and the perilous overland journey to California was undertaken primarily by adventurous young men. The gold-mining camps were viewed as unsafe for women, and female pioneers were in scarce supply.

This chapter tells the remarkable stories of Nancy Kelsey, a young pioneer who was the first white woman to travel to California; Luzena Wilson, an entrepreneurial frontier woman; Mary Ellen Pleasant, a black civil rights crusader; and Charlotte Charley Parkhurst, a strong, independent woman who courageously defied her genders identity.

NANCY KELSEY (18231896)

FIRST WOMAN TO TRAVEL OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA

Nancy Kelsey was born in Kentucky in 1823, a few miles from the Missouri River that was the border of the settled United States. At the age of fifteen, she married a man twelve years her senior. During the 1840s, American families began heading for California to seek a better life, and her husband was a man with ambitious plans for their future. In 1841, the Kelseys and their infant daughter began a wagon train journey across the country that no white woman had ever made. Kelsey explained her reason for making the trip: Where my husband goes I can go. I can better stand the hardships of the journey than the anxieties for an absent husband.