Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Monuments Erected to Women

Margaret Haugherty 1814 ~ 1882

Margaret Haugherty Monument, New Orleans

The first of these was Margaret Haugherty, the baker-philanthropist, who left a fortune for the orphans of New Orleans; the next was erected to the memory of a Chippewa Indian woman in Chicago; the third was to the great temperance leader, Frances E. Willard, which is in the capitol at Washington. The next to be thus honored was a heroine of the Confederate army during the war, Emma Sanson, of Gadsden, Alabama, and the last was placed in the Capital Park, at Birmingham, in honor of the memory of Mary A. Calahan, a school teacher.

Emma Sanson 1847 ~ 1900

Emma Sanson Monument, Gadsden, Alabama

Emma Sanson was the daughter of a poor white farmer, living a few miles from Gadsden, in the northern part of Alabama. When General Forrest was in pursuit of General Straight, of the Union Army, in 1864, she piloted him through a pass in the mountains so that he was able to over-take, surprise and capture Straight. The legislature of Alabama voted her a pension for life, and the legislature of Texas gave her a grant of land, while the people of Gadsden and the survivors of Forrest's command erected a monument in her honor. It is a marble figure of a country girl pointing into the distance, and the inscription tells the story. "I will show you the way."

Mary A. Calahan

Mary A. Calahan, Monument, Birmingham, Alabama

Mary A. Calahan was the principal of a public school, the Powell school, at Birmingham, when a mere village. Many of the prominent citizens of Birmingham were taught by this woman, and she was the best known and most popular and influential woman in that section of the state. She gave her life to education, and had more to do with the molding of the character of the prominent men of today in that part of Alabama than any other agency; hence, when she died, a subscription was started and a monument erected to her memory. It is a marble figure, seated with a book in her hand, and it has been suggested that a memorial library shall also be built to the memory of this splendid woman who was so revered by her students.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.