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A village was named after one; another was somewhat of a doctor; one opened the first school; one was an international journalist, and there were others of importance, too.
What they all have in common is that they were all women who lived somewhere in the Beaver County area during the late 1700's and 1800's.
Queen Aliquippa had the village of Aliquippa named after her. She at one time camped not far from the site.
She was a politician. The first mention of the Queen was in 1701 in Delaware, NJ, where she was saying goodbye to William Penn. She even helped warn the Pennsylvania government officials in 1747 that the French were trying to take over the area as they came from Ohio. She found this out apparently as she was making a trip across the state.
Queen Aliquippa was not a women's liberationist. She didn't like the French but, as the story goes, she liked the English because they gave her "better presents". In 1753 as George Washington traveled through Logstown, he stopped to see her and gave her gifts of a watch coat (a waterproof overcoat or cloak-like garment), and a bottle of rum. She was reported to have said that the rum was the better of the two presents.
She had pride, too, because when Washington passed her up the first time she expressed "grave concern that he passed her up". Washington, hearing of her distress, went back about three miles to the mouth of the Youghiogheny River where she was living at the time and talked to her.
Washington did not forget Queen Aliquippa. In 1764 he is reported to have written to the Governor of Virginia asking that her Indian son be given an English name. Since then, he was called Colonel Fairfax.
Mrs. Mary Adams, wife of Dr. Samuel Adams, one of the earliest physicians in Beaver County, was reported to take over her husband's duties when he was not at home, an apparent requirement of doctor's wives.
Mary Dungan was another woman with interest in medicine. She was a student of Dr. Benjamin Rush. When she came west, she brought her medical books with her. But because she was afraid someone would steal them, she hid the books in a spring and the dampness destroyed most of them.
Mary was said to have taken a bullet out of a man with a pair of knitting needles. The man lived to be over 95.
Electa Smith was just passing through "Beavertown" in 1799 with her father, Gen. Martin Smith, a Revolutionary War soldier. They were moving from Connecticut to Ohio. Residents convinced Electa to stay in the area.
In 1799 or 1800 she opened the first pay school on the northeast comer of Second Street and College Avenue, then Elk Street. Logs for the school were taken from the old barracks of Fort McIntosh, ordered to be demolished by the War Department in 1788.
After her marriage to John Lion in 1803, the school work was continued by Mrs. Dr. Catlett and her two daughters, Martha and Helen, who opened a boarding and pay school on Fourth Street, between Market and Elk Streets.
Mrs. Catlett and her daughters gave monthly parties for the scholars.
Helen is known as the first female teacher in the Beaver Academy from 1826-1827. Another of the early school mistresses was Mary Adams who taught a pay school in a remodeled tavern.
Margaret Hunter was one of the first teachers in the free public schools of the county which were established in 1834. She taught in the little schoolhouse at the western end of Beaver. Other historic women teachers were Mistress Foley, Phoebe Critchlow and Mistress Wishart.
Myra Townsend was founder of the Home of Good Shepherd, a place for unwed mothers, and, along with her sisters established the Greenwood Institute. Among her pupils at the institute were Anna Dickinson, a poetess, and Grace Greenwood.
Grace Greenwood (Sarah Jane Clark) came to New Brighton in 1843 where she attended the Leech Academy. She wasn't one to stay in one place, though. She traveled widely, which was unusual for a woman then.
Grace became a journalist on the international level at a time when no women were even considered for work as local journalists. She wrote and edited the "Little Pilgrim," a book filled with juvenile literature. It even contained Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Rope Walk" and John Greenleaf Whittier's "Barefoot Boy."
She wrote "Horseback Rider," a story about her trip from New Brighton to Knob, now New Sewickley Township area. She was best known for her pathos in her literature.
Even though Grace traveled far and wide, when she saw Fort McIntosh she said she had never seen anything as lovely as the site.
During the Civil War, she visited Army camps and hospitals where she read and talked with the soldiers. She was reported to be a spy for Abraham Lincoln while she lived in Washington, DC.
She is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery.
Gertrude Rapp, granddaughter of George Rapp of the Harmony Society, dedicated herself to Old Economy rather than marry. She was born in Harmony and was in charge of making designs for silk material, reportedly the finest that anyone produced.
The area now considered New Galilee was once owned by Betsy Mat(t)hews. Betsy, a slave of John Nicholson, was willed his farm house, along with two other slaves. The other slaves died, however, and the farm was hers.
She married Henry Jordon in 1840 and sold the farm, which later became New Galilee.
Elizabeth Whittiker was taken away from the area in 1786 by the Indians. She and her two brothers were taken west to Lower Sandusky and made a member of the tribe. She married her husband, James, in 1794, and land for their home was given to them by the Indians. It was the first American home in the area.
Beaver County Times 175th Anniversary Edition