Wethersfield Historical Society curator, Kristina Oschmann, shares short profiles of six of the notable women from Wethersfield’s history featured in the Wethersfield Museum’s upcoming exhibit “Women of Wethersfield”. Scheduled to open in mid October 2020, the exhibit is being offered in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States. Meet Sophia Woodhouse Welles, Emily Augusta Deming, Mary Goodrich Jenson, Sarah E. Wood, Ann Pimm,  and Betsy Johnson – six women with Wethersfield ties whose lives had a significant impact on the town and the wider world beyond.

This content was made possible in part by a grant from the Robert Allan Keeney Memorial  Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the generosity of our members.

Now that you have been introduced to these six luminaries in the video, try your hand at the Wethersfield Women Scavenger Hunt.

Directions: This Wethersfield woman conducted story research that would eventually be used to create the movie Frozen (2013). Search for clues in the following places in Wethersfield to decode her name. Click here for your own PDF copy of the hunt. You can download and print it or work from your mobile device. Good luck!

Learn more:  What follows are a series of links and recommendations to curated sources for additional detailed information about Women of Wethersfield.

Aviation:

• Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, “Mary Goodrich Jenson”
•  “Women in Aviation and Space History”

 

Books by Wethersfield Women:

• Anne Kuckro, James Francis Master Builder (1974)
• Anne Kuckro, Hartford Architecture, 3 vol. (1978-1980)
• Anne Kuckro, Wethersfield (1984)
• Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (1682)
• Elizabeth George Speare, The Bronze Bow (1961)
• Elizabeth George Speare, Calico Captive (1957)
• Elizabeth George Speare, Life in Colonial America (1963)
• Elizabeth George Speare, The Prospering (1966)
• Elizabeth George Speare, The Sign of the Beaver (1983)
• Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1958)
• Eleanor Buck Wolf, The Barns of Wethersfield (1994)
• Eleanor Buck Wolf, Creatures at My Doorstep (1990)
• Eleanor Buck Wolf, Wethersfield in Sketch and Story (1986)
• Eleanor Buck Wolf, Wethersfield Sketchbook (1984)

 

Economy:

•  Melissa Josefiak, “Sophia Woodhouse’s Grass Bonnets” (2003)
•  Melissa Josefiak, “The Woman Came To Do Laundry…”
•  John Willard, “A Whaling Family” (1972)

 

Education:

•  Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, “Maria C. Sanchez”
•  Francis Wells Fox, “Joseph Emerson: Pioneer in Women’s Education” (1934)
•  Raymond Lane, “Remembering the Girl who Inspired Gallaudet” (2011)
•  Diana Moraco, “Prudence Crandall Fights for Equal Access to Education” (2019)
•  Frances Shedd, “History of Wethersfield Library” (1946)
•  Elizabeth Sheff, “Oral History Interview on Sheff v. O’Neill (with video)” (2011)

 

Environment:

•  Barbara Austen, “A Woman Ahead of Her Time” (2020)
•  Leah Glaser, “A Public Responsibility” (2019)
•  Great Meadows Conservation Trust

 

Historic Preservation:

•  “Emily Holcombe Pioneered to Preserve Connecticut’s Colonial Past” (2015)
•  Walt Woodward, “November 22: The National Society of Colonial Dames” (2018)
•  Melissa Zobel, “The Story Trail of Voices” (2013)

 

Immigration (Late 19^th Century/Early 20^th Century):

•  Elizabeth Abbe, “Frank and Lou”
•  Marcia Chatelain, “The Forgotten Girls Who Left the South and Changed History” (2015)
•  “Early 20th-Century Immigration in Connecticut” (2014)
•  “Late 19th-Century Immigration in Connecticut” (2019)
•  Mission U.S., “City of Immigrants”
•  Jeffrey Scheuer, “Origins of the Settlement House Movement” (1985)

 

Miscellaneous:

•  Chris Pagliuco, “Connecticut’s Witch Trials” (2008)
•  Kristin Wolfe, “For Women’s History Month, Here Are 31 Homegrown Female Trailblazers” (2019)

 

Prohibition:

•  “Prohibition”
•  “Women’s Christian Temperance Union” (2018)

 

Reconstruction:

•  Carol Faulkner, “How Did White Women Aid Former Slaves during and after the Civil War and What Obstacles Did They Face?” (1999)
•  “Josephine (White) Griffing”

 

Women’s Suffrage:

•  “19th Amendment” (2017)
•  Elizabeth Normen, “The Long Road to Women’s Suffrage in Connecticut” (2016)
•  “Shall Not Be Denied”
•  Sally Wagner, “How Native American Women Inspired the Women’s Rights Movement”
•  “The Work Must Be Done”

 

World War II:

•  Ben Gammell, “Women and Defense” (2016)
•  Kristin Peterson Havill, “A Godmother to Ravensbrück Survivors” (2019)
•  David Vergun, “Rosie the Riveter Inspired Women to Serve in World War II” (2019)
•  “The War”
•  “Women”