One Woman's Voice continued

I published the book, and soon after found an account, of my own mother, that adds quite a bit to it.

The whole publishing thing is hard, and it involved fixing a few errors, including the front cover, which had the wrong date on it. So I have that fixed. There's the right date now. There are no blank pages or little typos.

But my mom's account really has to be chewed on for a while. There were apparently a few things that were passed down through the family; some are probably not true, but nevertheless they deserve full research. Why did I not have my own mom's account? It seemed to be in some papers that were not with the genealogy ones. So I really don't know why i hadn't seen it.

Mom says that, according to word passed down from her mother, Elizabeth 1) dropped out of school for lack of funds; 2) her request to make a speech at the college happened in her freshman year and there were actually two years, because she requested it again the next year; 3) her father at one point ran off with the Oneida Community and his name was not to be spoken in the house (this I would infer to be the house of Jessie and Elizabeth's mother, after she got old and ended up there in Indiana); and 4) John had an older son who had already grown up when she came into the picture.

I have already researched #4 a little and found nothing, but it's not really what I expect to find or not that matters. After mulling it over I've decided that I change a little of my understanding based on the family gossip and I really have to integrate it into the text somehow. Things like #4 are hard to prove wrong but it makes me wonder if I really even should say it. With #3, if he was with the Oneida Community it seems it would have to have been before they went to Michigan, maybe much more - but then did her mom split up with him or what? Or was that just not possible? I can see her ending up in Indiana bitter for any reason and maybe that got mixed up with any Oneida Community gossip. That gossip I had always assumed applied to one of many uncles, who all lived in the area at the time of the community, and any of them could have done it. Apparently mom checked and they had no record of Joseph, her dad, joining them.

So I will mull it over and decide when to rewrite. It may take a while, and will require a new index I'm sure.

One Woman's Voice

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One Woman's Voice:
Biography of Elizabeth Mansfield Irving (1852-1939), elocutionist, patriot, women's rights pioneer

Available on Amazon, Kindle and Kindle Unlimited
paperback %5.95 + shipping
Kindle $3.99
free on Kindle Unlimited
ACX version coming<
Non-zons (people who refuse to use Amazon), contact me & we'll work something out


This is a story of a woman who wanted to be an elocutionist, on the cusp of the nation's Centennial (1876), when women were not permitted to speak on important topics of the day. A gifted reader and orator, with a beautiful voice, she went into reading war poetry to reunions and encampments of Civil War veterans. She also inherited an insurance business when her husband got sick and died, becoming one of Toledo (Ohio)'s first women business owners. It's the story of using one's voice when one can, and getting one's voice when one is able. Her life corresponed with the rise of elocutionists as a united group, and the rise of the woman's suffrage movement, which ultimately gave women their voice in the political arena also.

book finished

My book, "One Woman's Voice: Biography of Elizabeth Mansfield Irving (1852-1939), elocutionist, patriot, women's rights pioneer, is done. Amazon has not processed it yet, but it will, and you'll be the first to know.

Her daughter married a Wallace, my Grandpa Jim (or one of them, anyway). He was a Wallace from New Castle, Pennsylvania, and he married a Toledo girl and went out to Iowa for most of their lives. Recently my sister was in New Castle visiting an old house on Wallace Avenue (or is it Wallace Street?) and she got some pretty good pictures. If I can get on the ball, I'll put them here.

So things are happening. Stay posted; you'll see it here.