Some Forgotten Pennsylvania Heroines An Address By Henry W. Shoemaker At meeting of Bellefonte Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution Bellefonte, Pa., May 6, 1922 [Illustration: Woman’s face] Altoona [Illustration: Union label] Published by Times Tribune Co., 1922 Some Forgotten Pennsylvania Heroines Mrs. Richard, and Ladies of Bellefonte Chapter, D. A. R. Some months ago, in the daily newspapers, a dispatch dated Washington, D. C., propounded this question: “Who were the greatest women in the past history of Pennsylvania?” Without waiting for the readers of the article to offer suggestions, the following names were mentioned: Betsey Ross, Rebecca Biddle, Lydia Darrah, and Lucretia Mott. It would seem a pity if this quartet should be regarded as the final estimate of greatness in Pennsylvania womanhood, despite the years of persistent propaganda at work in favor of some of them. In the first place the genuineness of Betsey Ross’s connection other than professional with the first American Flag has been frequently questioned, and were it not for her social connections her claims would probably be entirely outlawed; the same is the case with Rebecca Biddle and Lydia Darrah. In this present age we are too prone to estimate a person’s greatness on the basis of wealth and social position. If a wealthy woman delivers a speech, writes a few paragraphs, makes a donation to charity, she is accorded an exalted place in a sycophantic world. A woman’s social position cannot be judged by her occupation; a servant girl may come of an aristocratic family, and a millionaire’s wife, a common vulgarian. It is women like Lucretia Mott, who have triumphed over life’s obstacles, or broken the bonds of caste, and done something uplifting and permanently worth while who will ultimately be classed as the greatest of Pennsylvania women. Lucretia Mott, preacher, teacher and reformer, is too widely known to need further mention here, but there are many other Pennsylvania women, some scarcely mentioned in history’s pages, who should be re-discovered. It may some day be a part of the unselfish labors of the D. A. R. to establish them in their proper places among Pennsylvania heroines. In point of fame which transcends the borders of the State, like in the case of Lucretia Mott, we must not fail to mention Mary Jemison, known as the “White Woman of the Genessee.” In beautiful Letchworth Park, near Rochester, New York, a handsome bronze statue, on a granite pedestal, testifies the high regard in which this remarkable Pennsylvania woman is held by the people of the Empire State. As a child, in 1755, Mary Jemison was captured by Indians at her parents’ home on Marsh Creek, Franklin County, and taken to Ohio. Later after the fall of Fort Duquesne, she was given the chance to return to her family, but refused, preferring the society of the Indians. She first married a warrior named