Emily Arnold McCully - She Did It!: 21 Women Who Changed the Way We Think

Work on this book began with Jodi Lipson at AARP. My involvement is due to my agent,
Susan Cohen. Thanks to them, I have learned a great deal about remarkable women.
Jodi, along with Cindy Kane, read all the lives with impressive care. Thank you to our authenticity readers, to Karen O. Kupperman, as well as to the Mohegan tribe, for their insightful feedback.
I am grateful to Rotem Moscovich, her able assistant Heather Crowley,
and uncannily skillful copy editors David Jaffe and Guy Cunningham,
who were all committed to excellence.
Finally, the design was expertly overseen by Joann Hill.
Thank you, everyone, for a remarkable team effort.

AARP is a registered trademark. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2018 by Emily Arnold McCully
Cover illustration 2018 by Liz Casal
Designed by Liz Casal
Cover design by Liz Casal

All rights reserved. Published by Disney Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group. 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 written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney Hyperion, 125 West End Avenue, New York, New York 10023.

ISBN 978-1-368-02738-0

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to every girl who
intends to help make the
world a better one

Ida Minerva Tarbell pioneered investigative journalism. At a time when the press would print anything that sold papers or magazines, Tarbell had a passion for facts. With a talent for finding buried secrets and the people willing to share them, Ida took on one of the most powerful men in the United States: John D. Rockefeller. The articles she wrote about his Standard Oil Company showed that it had succeeded by using unfair and illegal methodsand led to new laws about what businesses can and cant do. Ida Tarbells career reminds us that a democracy must have fearless and accurate reporting for the people to be served.

ida tarbell was born on November 5, 1857, on her grandmothers little farm in western Pennsylvania. Two years later, the Drake well struck petroleum (oil) just a few miles away. For the first time, people had figured out how to extract it from the ground. Oil was an ideal fuel to light lamps, grease machine parts to work smoothly, and, later, to run automobiles.

Thousands of people hoping to get rich quick rushed to western Pennsylvania to dig their own wells. Idas father, Franklin Tarbell, went there, too. Idas new home was surrounded by tree stumps, filthy oil spills, ghastly oil fires, horses that got stuck in the mud and died, bad smells, and deafening noises.

Ida was a bright little girl, tall for her age, with a curiosity that got her in trouble at times. Once she tossed her baby brother into a creek to see if he would float. (He did.) Another time, she sneaked into a room to peer at the body of a woman who had burned up in a stove fire. That adventure brought on endless nightmares.

Ida read the Bible, but she was more interested in science. People who figured the Earths age based on what the Bible said believed it was six thousand years old, but the scientists Ida read said the Earth was much older. This was a shocking denial of Biblical teaching. So, too, was Charles Darwins book On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, which said animals and humans had a common ancestor: the ape. Ida was desperate for the truth. She wrestled with the differences between science and the Bible, and, on the topic of evolution, chose to believe science. It wasnt an easy decision to make. No one in the family agreed with her.

After truth, Idas second great passion was fairness, and that is why John D. Rockefeller made her angry. Rockefeller owned a company called Standard Oil which used underhanded methods to drive small oil producers like Idas father out of business. The unfairness of Rockefellers practices and his contempt for the truth disgusted Ida.

rockefeller and standard oil

John D. Rockefeller, born in 1839, showed a precocious gift for making money. By age twenty, he had formed his own wholesale grocery company in Cleveland, Ohio. When the Drake well succeeded, he saw a new opportunity: refining, or turning raw petroleum into the kerosene that lit lamps around America.

Starting in 1863, Rockefeller bought one refinery, then built another. He branched out, buying land to make barrels, warehouses, and boats to store and transport oil. In time, his company, Standard Oil, controlled nearly all the oil refineries and pipelines in the United States. But Standard didnt make its money honestly. Rockefeller crushed his competition by making secret deals with the railroads that carried oil to his refineries. He cut prices to force other companies out of business, then bought them up. After investigations like Tarbells turned the public against him, he gave away millions of dollars, becoming one of Americas most important philanthropists.

Fairness was an issue for Ida at home, too. Her father controlled the family finances, leaving her mother feeling powerless. Marriage itself seemed unfair. Ida began to realize that a career in any field would be difficult, if not impossible, if she were required to serve and obey a husband. She wanted to support herself and control her own life. When she was fourteen, she vowed never to marry.

Ida was a serious girl and believed her life must have a purpose. By the time she graduated from high school, she had decided to become a biologist. That meant going to college. But few colleges admitted women. Nearby Allegheny College was one that did.

Ida was the only girl in her freshman class at Allegheny. At the time, it was widely believed that academic studyespecially in the scienceswas harmful to womens brains and reproductive organs. Ida was aware that her male classmates thought that having a woman in their classes meant the material had to be simplified. She was shy to begin with, and their disapproval made her acutely uncomfortable. It wasnt long before she and the handful of intelligent girls who joined her won them over. And the lessons were not simplified.