Nineteenth-Century Women - Examples
Alice Williams Brotherton was born in Cambridge, IN on April 4, 1848. Her A Woman of the Century profile notes the important roles that being raised in a home with books and a mother who encouraged writing played in setting Alice on the road to a writing career. In addition to being a prolific writer, Alice also devoted much time to being a mother and wife.
One of her passions was her work with women's clubs. In 1910, The Guthrie Daily Leader commented on Alice's club work, noted her husband's reaction to hearing about it, and praised her writing:
"HAS A THOUGHTFUL HUSBAND. Mrs. Alice Williams Brotherton, who is prominent as a club woman in Cincinnati, says that her husband declared he was willing to hear clubs talked three times a day at meals, but that he drew the line at certain lectures on the subject. Mrs. Brotherton is a successful writer and has made quite a reputation as a poet."
Alice's work was published in periodicals such as Aldine, Atlantic Monthly, Century, Independent, Magazine of Poetry, New England Magazine, Scribner's Monthly, and St. Nicholas.
Alice S. Deletombe, born in Gallipolis, OH on April 2, 1854, was a poet. Humble by nature, young Alice did not publicize her work and often wrote under a pseudonym.
In 1891, The Magazine of Poetry published her image, some of her poems, and a biographical sketch of Alice by W. Farrand Fetch, quitely likely the same person who later wrote her sketch for A Woman of the Century.
Commenting on Alice's work, Fetch added:
"Miss Deletombe's poems are inspirations emotion more than reason, of heart not art, which well out of a warm, passionate, beauty-loving heart. As such, they are true poems of the soul, and in spite of some metrical defects, are too good to be lost to the world."
Two years later, the same periodical published her poem "At His Gate."
By 1903, Alice was writing for The Rosary, a periodical tied to her Catholic faith.
Prolific poet and author, wife, mother, inspirational community member, and leader, Julia Caroline Ripley Dorr, was born February 15, 1825, in Charleston, SC. She was the daughter of William Young Ripley and Zulma DeLacy Thomas. When Julia was a young girl, her father moved his family to his native Vermont, where he devoted himself to the Rutland marble quarries. He built the Rutland Opera House where Miss Dorr assisted in helping develop women’s appreciation for the arts.
In 1847, Julia married lawyer and legislator Hon. Seneca M. Dorr from New York. They had five children. Her husband encouraged her writing, evidence being her first published poem sent to Union Magazine by him without her knowledge. Her first published short story, “Isabel Leslie,” won her $100 in prize money. Her novel Farmingdale was published under her pseudonym, Caroline Thomas, again with assistance and support from her husband.
After Hon. Seneca M. Dorr passed away in 1884, Julia devoted some of her time to another cause. She led a group of women who founded the Rutland Free Library. Surely, her works were in that library, as Julia’s poetry, stories, essays and letters won respect from her townspeople and famous male writers of her era (Longfellow, Emerson, Whittier, and Holmes). She rightfully earned her place to be recognized in American literary history. Julia was honored as Vermont’s “unofficial poet laureate,” and she was bestowed with the honor of Doctor of Letters from Middlebury College in 1910. Julia Caroline Riley Dorr died on January 18, 1913.
Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald, born in Rockwood, Ontario, Canada on April 26, 1857, was a poet, novelist, and journalist. A Quaker, she came to the United States to attend the Friends' Boarding School in Union Springs NY. Later, she graduated from Pickering College in Ontario, Canada.
In addition to using her own name, Wetherald was known as "Bel Thistlewaite." Her publications included The House of Trees, and Other Poems and a collaboration with Graeme Mercer Adam, An Algonquin Maiden: A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada.
She contributed to both Canadian and American periodicals, including Canadian Monthly, Magazine of Poetry, Wide Awake, and Youth's Companion. Agnes and Elizabeth Cameron collaborated as publishers of Our Wives and Daughters, a Canadian periodical.