Agnes Addison entered a small community where mothers would be the customers for her future business venture. Within a year the Addison family had purchased a second cottage in Hamilton Street, in Hokitika’s government office district. Nearby Revell Street was infamous for its many hotels, saloons and miners’ gatherings, and against this environment Agnes Addison won a reputation as a teetotaller and a woman of high moral standards.
‘Send for Granny Harrold’ was the cry when basic first aid was not enough. Where boat transport was impracticable she walked, sometimes many miles, treated the patient, returned home to sleep and went back to the patient next day. She did not fuss, was efficient, and inspired confidence. Her hands were ‘strong as a man’s’, and she was comforting in times of trouble. ‘He just slipt awa’ like a knotless thread’, she would say when death at last came, often from tuberculosis; or ‘The poor bairn – he’s easy now’, when a baby died.
Elisabeth Dieudonné Vincent was a Haitian-born businesswoman and international traveller, born the illegitimate child of a former slave and a Frenchman.
Claudia Johnson, known as “Lady Bird,” was an environmentalist, businesswoman, political activist, and First Lady.
Lucille Ball was an American actress and pioneer in comedy. She was the star of the popular television series, I Love Lucy. As an entertainer and businesswoman, Ball continuously broke barriers for women in entertainment business.
Once called America’s only Coal Queen, Sarah B. Cochran was a coal industry leader and philanthropist in an era when American women couldn’t universally vote or serve on juries. By choosing to go out into the world and do the unexpected, she was able to support women’s suffrage and education, and was the first female trustee of Allegheny College.
At the turn of the century, Maggie Lena Walker was one of the foremost female business leaders in the United States. She gained national prominence when she became the first woman to own a bank in the United States. Walker’s entrepreneurial skills transformed black business practices while also inspiring other women to enter the field.
Muriel “Mickie” Siebert was a fearless Wall Street broker that was known as The First Woman of Finance. She was also the first woman to become a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and the first woman to become the superintendent of banking for New York State. Although she did not have a college degree, Siebert successfully became one of Wall Street’s most popular names.
Charlotta Spears Bass, longtime editor of the African American newspaper The California Eagle, was a journalist, activist, and politician who fought for the civil rights of African Americans in the early and mid-twentieth century. The first Black woman to run for vice president of the United States (1952), she worked to combat what she called, “The two-headed monster, Segregation and Discrimination.”
The daughter of former slaves, Mary Jane McLeod Bethune became one of the most important black educators, civil and women’s rights leaders and government officials of the twentieth century. The college she founded set educational standards for today’s black colleges, and her role as an advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave African Americans an advocate in government.