Obituaries VI – Notable Women
| Name | Death | Age | Cause of death | Birth State | Main Achievements |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phyllis Wheatley | Dec 5, 1784 | 31 | Pneumonia | Africa slave | Poetry |
| Sacagawea | Dec 20, 1812 | 24 | Putrid fever | Idaho | Shoshoni, guides and travels with Lewis & Clark expedition from North Dakota to the Pacific, interpreter |
| Mercy Otis Warren | Oct 19, 1814 | 86 | ? | British Massachusetts | Influential Poet who attacked British abuses prior to the Revolutionary War, also published plays and 3 volume history. |
| Abigail Adams | Oct 28, 1818 | 73 | Typhoid fever | British Massachusetts | Wise advisor to President John Adams and mother of JQ |
| Elizabeth Ann Seton | Jan 4, 1821 | 46 | Tuberculous | British New York City | Widowed Catholic convert, she founds first parochial school system in U.S. and Sisters of Charity,\ncanonized in 1975 |
| Betsy Ross | Jan 30, 1836 | 84 | Old age | British New Jersey | Quaker who learns to sew as a child, folk lore has her creating the first US flag for Washington’s army |
| Mary Lyon | Mar 5, 1849 | 52 | Erysipelas | Massachusetts | Women’s education pioneer, founds Mt. Holyoke in 1837. |
| Dolley Madison | July 12, 1849 | 81 | Cerebral hemorrhage | British North Carolina | As wife of President Madison she hosts political party leaders to support consensus |
| Margaret Fuller | July 19, 1850 | 40 | Lost at sea | Massachusetts | Intellectual, journalist, transcendentalist editor The Dial, war correspondence, reformer, suffragette |
| Fanny Wright | Dec 13, 1852 | 57 | Complications after broke hip in fall on ice | Scotland | Founds Nashoba Utopian Community to educate freed slaves, early public speaker, edits New Harmony, feminist |
| Alice Bradley Neal | Aug 23, 1863 | 35 | After childbirth | New York | Poems and short stories |
| Rose Greenhow | Oct 1, 1864 | 51 | Drowned at sea on way from England | Maryland | DC socialite and spy for the Confederacy, impacts 1st Bull Run, jailed and deported |
| Emma Willard | April 15, 1870 | 83 | ? | Connecticut | Founder of Troy Female Seminary, first higher-ed for women |
| Alice Cary | Feb 12, 1871 | 50 | Tuberculosis | Ohio | Poet and essayist |
| Phoebe Cary | July 31, 1871 | 46 | Hepatitis | Ohio | Co-published poems with sister Alice |
| Fannie Fern | Oct 10, 1872 | 61 | Cancer | Maine | Newspaper columnist, novelist |
| Laura Keene | Nov 4, 1873 | 47 | Tuberculous | England | Famous actress, on stage when Lincoln shot, cradles his head, manager of Laura Keene’s Theater |
| Sarah Grimke | Dec 23, 1873 | 81 | ? | New Hampshire | Weaver in Lowell Mill factory, 1842 protest, founds Lowell Female Labor Reform Assoc, demands workday cut to 10 hour, edits Voice of Labor, other causes |
| Catharine Beecher | May 12, 1878 | 77 | Apoplexy | New York | Sister of Harriet B. Stowe, homemaker, co-founds Hartford Female Seminary, teacher, tribal rights |
| Angelina Grimke Weld | Oct 26, 1879 | 74 | Strokes | South Carolina | More famous than southern sister Sarah she calls for abolition |
| Lydia Marie Child | Oct 20, 1880 | 78 | Heart attack | Massachusetts | Poet (Over the River..),abolitionist, anti-expansionist, tribal rights, editor |
| Lucretia Mott | Nov 11, 1880 | 87 | Pneumonia | Massachusetts | Quaker abolitionist and women’s rights leader, supports Garrison and Stanton, AASS, Underground RR station, female higher-ed schools, “inner light,” pacifist |
| Lydia Pinkham | May 17, 1883 | 64 | stroke | Massachusetts | Successful business and marketer with her Vegetable Compound for “medical relief” especially for women |
| Sojourner Truth | Nov 26, 1883 | 86 | Old age | New York | Ain’t I A Woman speech, abolitionist |
| Myra Gaines | Jan 9, 1885 | 79 | Pneumonia | Louisiana | Socialite and daughter of businessman Daniel Clark, plaintiff in 47 year lawsuit to inherit his estate, SCOTUS rules for her, Wife of War hero General Edmund Gaines. |
| Maria Weston Chapman | July 12, 1885 | 78 | Heart disease | Massachusetts | Unitarian, Garrisonian abolitionist, editor of The Liberty Bell and Liberator, author, AASS, Republican |
| Abby Kelley Foster | Jan 14, 1887 | 75 | Asthenia | Massachusetts | Garrison abolitions, helps found American Anti-Slavery Society |
| Mary Peabody Mann | Feb 11, 1887 | 80 | ? | Massachusetts | Sister of Elizabeth P, Transcendentalist,\nAbolitionist, educator, kindergarten focus, author and wife of Horace Mann |
| Dorothea Dix | July 17, 1887 | 85 | ? | Maine | Mental health reform champion and Supt. of all Union Army Nurses during the war. |
| Jennie Lind | Nov 2, 1887 | 67 | Cancer | Sweden | Begins singing at 10, crowned “ Swedish Nightengale,” wealthy via U.S. tours with PT Barnum ’50, teacher in London |
| Louisa Mae Alcott | Mar 6, 1888 | 55 | Stroke, mercury poisoning | Pennsylvania | Little Women, other novels, abolitionist, CW nurse |
| Sarah Bagley | Jan 15, 1889 | 82 | ? | New Hampshire | Weaver in Lowell Mill factory, 1842 protest, founds Lowell Female Labor Reform Assoc, demands workday cut to 10 hour, edits Voice of Labor, other causes |
| Fanny Kemble | Jan 15, 1893 | 83 | ? | London | Actress, marries slave owner Pierce Butler, decries treatment, divorced |
| Lucy Stone | Oct 18, 1893 | 75 | Stomach cancer | Massachusetts | Oberlin grad, equal pay strike, leads women’s rights along with Stanton and Anthony, Seneca falls, editor Women’s Journal,” abolitionist |
| Pauline Cushman | Dec 2, 1893 | 60 | Suicidal overdose of morphine | Louisiana | Actress who befriends southern leaders and spies for the Union. Escapes hanging, dons uniform and later named Bvt Major |
| Elizabeth Peabody | Jan 3, 1894 | 89 | Old age | Massachusetts | One of two Peabody sisters, inner circle Transcendentalist,\nBoston bookshop, opens 1st U.S. English language kindergarten |
| Sarah Parker Remond | Dec 13, 1894 | 68 | ? | Massachusetts | Spokesperson for abolition and gender equality |
| Amelia Bloomer | Dec 30, 1894 | 76 | Heart attack | New York | Activist for gender equality, promotes “bloomers,” editor |
| Dr. Rebecca Crumpler | Mar 9, 1895 | 64 | Fibroid tumors | Delaware – enslaved | First Black MD, author of medical books |
| Harriet B. Stowe | July 1, 1896 | 85 | Dementia | Connecticut | Uncle Tom’s Cabin, abolitionist |
| Adele Cutts Douglas | Jan 26, 1899 | 63 | Heart failure | Washington DC | Protégé of grand niece Dolley Madison, marries Stephen Douglas ’61, she owns plantation with 100 slaves in Mississippi |
| Belle Boyd | June 11, 1900 | 56 | Heart attack | Virginia | Her spying helps the South win 1st Bull Run, arrested 6 times and jailed until prisoner exchange in 1862, publishes memoirs |
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton | Oct 26, 1902 | 86 | Heart failure | New York | Feminist, Seneca Falls, writes Declaration of Sentiments, end to coverture, suffrage, abolition, lecturer, The Women’s Bible |
| Jesse Benton Fremont | Dec 27, 1902 | 78 | Invalid after accident | Virginia | Daughter of Thomas Hart Benton, marries John Fremont in ’41, leads strategy and campaign for his presidential run in 1856, Soldiers Relief Society, authored books after financial loss in 1873 Panic |
| Mary Ellen Pleasant | Jan 11, 1904 | 89 | Heart failure | Virginia enslaved | Very wealthy banker during SF gold rush |
| Sarah Lippencott aka Grace Greenwood | April 20, 1904 | 80 | Bronchitis | New York | Prolific author of books for children and adults, assistant editor Godey’s Lady’s Book, abolition, gender |
| Mary Livermore | May 23, 1905 | 84 | Old age | Massachusetts | Speaker for abolition, temperance and gender equality, nurse during war, poetry and edits the Agitator |
| Susan B. Anthony | Mar 19, 1906 | 86 | Pneumonia | Massachusetts | Quaker Feminist and Stanton partner at Seneca Falls, suffrage, abolition, AASS, Underground RR |
| Varina Davis | Oct 16, 1906 | 80 | Pneumonia | Mississippi | “Winnie,” educated in Philly, marries Jeff Davis in 1845, First Lady of CSA but opposed slavery and the war, finishes his autobiography. befriends Julia Grant |
| Adelia Johnston | July 22, 1910 | 73 | ? | Ohio | Oberlin College grad then 1st female faculty member and Dean of Women 1870-1900 |
| Julia Ward Howe | Oct 17, 1910 | 91 | Pneumonia | New York City | Battle Hymn of the Republic, abolitionist |
| Frances Harper | Feb 22, 1911 | 85 | Heart failure | Maryland -free | Poet, abolitionist, suffragette |
| Arabella Mansfield | Aug 2, 1911 | 65 | Cancer | Iowa | Valedictorian at Iowa Wesleyan ’62, passes bar, 1st woman lawyer in US, never practices, academia as Dean of Art and then Music, active suffragette |
| Clara Barton | April 12, 1912 | 90 | Pneumonia | Massachusetts | After teaching, begins nursing in 1861 after Baltimore Riot, front lines in’62, “Angel of the Battlefield,” brings Swiss Red Cross to US in ’81, Unitarian, suffrage |
| Harriet Tubman | Mar 10, 1913 | 91 | Pneumonia | Maryland enslaved | Underground RR conductor, saves 77 in 13 operations |
| Maggie Mitchell | Mar 22, 1918 | 85 | Cerebral hemorrhage | New York City | Actress, southern sympathies, girlfriend of Wilkes Booth but Lincoln also a fan |
| Dr. Mary Walker | Feb 21, 1919 | 86 | Illness | New York | Freethinker, feminist, abolitionist, 1st female surgeon in US Army, Medal of Honor, POW, pioneers trousers |
| Antoinette Blackwell | Nov 5, 1921 | 96 | Old age | New York | Oberlin College, writes for Frederick Douglass North Star, 1st woman ordained as preacher, Congregationalist ’51, author, Women’s Rights Convention |
| Mary Cassatt | June 14, 1926 | 82 | Advanced diabetes | Pennsylvania | World renowned Impressionist painter studied in America and Paris with Degas |
| Victoria Woodhull | June 9, 1927 | 88 | Heart disease | Ohio | Spiritualist, brokerage firm link to Vanderbilt, newspaper, first female president run, suffragist, 2 divorces |
| Susanna Evans | Jan 11, 1932 | 83 | ? | Wales | Teenage Temperance lecturer: “muzzle the dog” |
| Anna Dickinson | Oct 22, 1932 | 89 | Cerebral apoplexy | Pennsylvania | 1st woman to address US Congress, speaker on abolition, women’s rights, temperance, authors books, plays |