Category: Western History
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Breaking Trail: Carry A. Nation

I’m not going to lie to you… the story of Carry Nation is one of my favorites to tell. She was a hatchet-wielding temperance leader in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries who mainly operated in Kansas and Oklahoma. She would smash up saloons in Kansas with her hatchet in the…
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Breaking Trail: Jeanette Rankin

Did you know only one person voted against both World Wars in the United States Congress? That person was Jeanette Rankin – the first woman elected to Congress in 1916. She was a Republican from Montana who believed in national women’s suffrage in the United States, child welfare, tariff revisions,…
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Breaking Trail: Margaret Borland

Margaret Heffernan was the daughter of John and Julia Heffernan. She was born on April 3, 1824, in Ireland. The Heffernan family moved to United States and arrived in Texas in 1829. They settled in San Patricio, Texas. Margaret was married and widowed three times in her life. Her first…
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Breaking Trail: Vera McGinnis

Vera McGinnis was born in Missouri on November 2, 1892, to Sarah and Robert McGinnis. Tragically, her father passed away a year later and her mother married his brother, Harold. Vera began rodeoing in 1913 after a stint in Hollywood as a movie extra. Her most notable appearances were Nobody…