Mattie and John In light of all the racial tension boiling in Ferguson, I thought it would be uplifting to remind us that, even in the Wild West, peace among different races has not always been elusive. Mattie Bost Bell Castner is a wonderful example. Born a slave in Newton, NC in 1848, she and her family moved to St. Louis after the Emancipation Proclamation for a fresh start. Mattie worked as a nanny, domestic servant, and hotel maid. Eager to expand her horizons, though, s

John had Abigail. Romeo had Juliet. Chief Ouray had Chipeta. Chief Ouray and Chipeta Unless you live in Colorado or are a student of history, you’ve probably never heard of her. She was the second wife of the Ute chief, but she came to be so much more. Dubbed “Queen of the Utes” by a reporter contemptuous of Indians, a poet turned the slam into an homage. And well-deserved it was. When Chipeta was only an infant, a band of renegades attacked her Kiowa village. She was the sol

The past and the present I love the stories of women who, on the verge of losing everything, look defeat squarely in the eye and knock the snot out of it. When Sarah Cockrell’s husband Alexander died in 1858, he left her with three small children and a few struggling businesses. Oh, and a mountain of debt. At the time of his death, Alexander owned a sawmill, gristmill, office building, and a ferry business in Dallas. Recognizing Sarah’s business acumen, and since he couldn’t

Do you remember your first boyfriend? Was he, perhaps, a bit of a bad influence? Did you follow him into escapades that now leave you wondering in horror, what was I thinking? Cheer up. He probably never shot it out with US Marshals. Rose Dunn, youngest of ten, was born in Oklahoma and received a formal education from a convent. In the meantime, two of her brothers went astray of the law and started hanging around some pretty tough characters. Sometime in 1892, they brought G

By Heather Frey Blanton Copyright 2014 Heather Blanton Follow me on https://www.facebook.com/authorheatherblanton/?fref=ts and https://twitter.com/heatherfblanton Mollie Fly Not much is known about Mollie. You’ve probably never heard of her. But you know her husband. C.S. “Buck” Fly was THE photographer in Tombstone when the shoot-out at the OK Corral went down. Mary “Mollie” McKie moved with her family to San Francisco sometime in the 1850’s, when she was around 8 or 10. Th

One of the few pretty faces in the Klondike. By Heather Frey Blanton Copyright 2014 Heather Blanton Freedom. A true lady in Defiance cries out for it. Refuses to live without it. Pursues it at any cost. Society, propriety—even common sense—won’t stop her from wrapping her slender fingers around it. In the end, she may only have her memories of it, but at least she tasted it. For a time, Kate lived free. Kathleen Eloise Rockwell (1873-1957) came from an unstable home, growing

Harriet in front of her hotel with her new stagecoach. By Heather Frey Blanton Copyright 2013 Heather Blanton Follow me on https://www.facebook.com/heatherfreyblanton and https://twitter.com/heatherfblanton Feeling a little low today? Like the world is sucker-punching you? Well, you can mope…or you can fight. Learn a lesson from a true lady in defiance. “I only had seven dollars to my name. I didn’t know a soul in Alaska. I had no place to go. So I stood on the beach in the