Birth Locations – Page 115 – The Exasperated Historian

243) Ruth Becker Blanchard

243: Ruth Becker Blanchard

Survived the Sinking of the RMS Titanic When She was Twelve Years Old

Born: 28 October 1899, Guntur, India

Died: 6 July 1990, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America

Ruth was traveling in second-class with her mother and two siblings (her father stayed behind in India where he was working as a missionary).

During the night of the sinking her mother instructed Ruth to return to the cabin to get extra blankets—in that split second her younger siblings were thrown into a lifeboat and her mother panicked and jumped in with them telling Ruth to get in the next one. Luckily Ruth was able to board the next available lifeboat. Her family all survived and in 1913 her father joined them in Ohio.

Ruth became a teacher after attending college.
She married and had three children but was divorced after twenty years of marriage.

After retiring she began speaking up about Titanic and attended several historical society functions.

After Titanic’s rediscovery Ruth advocated for the ship to be left alone but was not upset at artifact retrieval for museums.

Her ashes were scattered over the wreck site.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

10 True Tales: Titanic Young Survivors by Allan Zullo

How It Happened: Titanic, The Epic Story From the People Who Were There by Geoff Tibballs (Mentioned on the Passenger List)

A Night to Remember by Walter Lord (Mentioned on the Passenger List)

Ohio Tales of the Titanic by Mary Whitley and Janet White

What was the Titanic? by Stephanie Sabol

Sources:

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/ruth-elizabeth-becker.html

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-09-mn-215-story.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8124050/ruth-elizabeth-blanchard

242) Edith Brown Haisman

242: Edith Brown Haisman

Survived the Sinking of the RMS TitanicWhen She was Fifteen Years Old

Born: 27 October 1896, Cape Town, South Africa

Died: 20 January 1997, Southampton, United Kingdom

Edith and her parents traveled second-class (which upset her mother as they had been living very well in South Africa before an economic slump encouraged them to move to the United States).

Edith’s father saw multiple bad omens on the ship including watching the near collision of Titanic and the New York in the harbor just after setting sail and hearing of the coal fire in one of the bunkers on board.

Edith later recounted her memory of that night and of the last time she saw her father (he would perish in the sinking).

After staying in the US for a while she and her mother eventually returned to South Africa.

Sadly, Edith did not get along with her stepfather after her mother remarried and she could no longer live with her mom.

Edith married her husband just six weeks after meeting him in 1917. They would eventually have ten children.

The couple moved to England and one of their sons died at the age of fourteen after surviving being inside a building bombed during the air raids—he suffered from shell shock and became morbidly obese before dying of a heart attack.

In her later years she attended numerous conventions in the US and UK for Titanic and became friends with Millvina Dean, a fellow survivor.

Edith said she completely disapproved of anyone going through the wreck but would accept any recovered family belongings—happily accepting her father’s pocket watch after it was recovered in 1993.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

10 True Tales: Titanic Young Survivors by Allan Zullo

How It Happened: Titanic, The Epic Story From the People Who Were There by Geoff Tibballs (Mentioned on the Passenger List)

A Night to Remember by Walter Lord (Mentioned on the Passenger List)

Sources:

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/edith-haisman.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/23/world/edith-haisman-100-dies-was-oldest-survivor-of-titanic.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10319671/edith-eileen-haisman

241) Madeleine Astor Dick

241: Madeleine Astor Dick

Survived the Sinking of the RMS Titanic at the Age of Eighteen, and She was Pregnant

Born: 19 June 1893, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America

Died: 27 March 1940, Palm Beach, Florida, United States of America

Madeleine was married to Colonel John Jacob Astor IV—one of the richest men in the world at the time (he would not survive the sinking) and was pregnant with his son.

They were coming back to America on the Titanic after an extended honeymoon in Egypt and Europe.

Madeleine inherited her husband’s five-million-dollar estate and two houses so long as she did not remarry.

However, during World War I she did end up remarrying and had two sons with her new husband (relinquishing her claim to the Astor fortune).

They divorced and she remarried before divorcing again.

Madeleine reportedly died of heart disease, but it could have possibly been from a prescription overdose.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World by Hugh Brewster

The Jews of the Titanic: A Reflection of the Jewish World on the Epic Disaster by Eli Moskowitz

LIFE Presents Titanic: The Tragedy That Shook the World by Kostya Kennedy

Titanic Love Stories: The True Stories of 13 Honeymoon Couples Who Sailed on the Titanic by Gill Paul

A Titanic Love Story by June Hall McCash

Titanic: True Stories of Her Passengers, Crew, and Legacy by Nicola Pierce

A Night to Remember by Walter Lord (Mentioned on the Passenger List)

How It Happened: Titanic, The Epic Story From the People Who Were There by Geoff Tibballs (Mentioned on the Passenger List)

What was the Titanic? by Stephanie Sabol

Sources:

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/madeleine-talmage-astor.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/197380581/madeleine-talmage-dick

240) Violet Jessop

240: Violet Jessop

Given the Nickname of Mrs. Unsinkable

Born: 2 October 1887, Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Died: 5 May 1971, Great Ashfield, Suffolk, United Kingdom

Violet survived the sinking of both Titanic and her sister ship Britannic and was also present on the third sister Olympic during Olympic’s famous collision with the HMS Hawke.

Surviving that as well, she was twenty-four years old at the time of Titanic’s sinking and was on board as a part of the stewardess crew.

Violet was raised in a loving but poor family in Argentina. As a child, she suffered for years from tuberculosis and nearly died several times. Her parents, desperate to cure their ailing daughter, eventually moved the family closer to the Andes Mountains--the clearer air helping eventually save Violet's life. Sadly, soon after the family moved, Violet's father passed away.

In order to earn money to help support herself and her family, Violet took a job as a stewardess with various ocean liner shipping companies, eventually landing with the White Star Line. She absolutely adored working on Olympic, but to say her experiences on Olympic's sister ships would be less-than-glamorous would be an understatement.

The night of the Titanic's sinking, Violet--like many other passengers and crew, did not at first realize the immediate danger they were in. Soon after, when the order to evacuate the ship came down, Violet put on her lifebelt and made her way to the ship's deck.

When Violet was placed into lifeboat sixteen an officer on board the ship placed a baby into her care—she kept the child alive for the eight hours they remained in the lifeboat until they were rescued.

Luckily the mother came and took her baby back once they were on board Carpathia.

When Britannic sank four years later, Violet made it onto another lifeboat, but nearly died after her lifeboat was sucked into the blades of the still-spinning propeller. Violet managed to jump out of the boat at the last second, but was heavily weighed down by the coat she was wearing under her lifebelt.

After surviving all that craziness, Violet was briefly married in her thirties, but the name of her husband eludes historians—they had no children and were later divorced.

In all she served forty-two years at sea.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down With the Titanic by Steve Turner

How It Happened: Titanic, The Epic Story From the People Who Were There by Geoff Tibballs (Mentioned on the Crew List Under the "Stewardesses" Heading)

Sources:

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/violet-constance-jessop.html

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/12/10/violet-jessop/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6826130/violet-constance-jessop

239) Margaret Tobin Brown

"Neptune was exceedingly kind to me and I am now high and dry."

239: Margaret Tobin Brown

Remembered Today by the Nickname She Acquired After the Sinking of the RMS Titanic—”Unsinkable Maggie Brown”

Born: 18 July 1867, Hannibal, Missouri, United States of America

Died: 26 October 1932, New York City, New York, United States of America

Yes, you’re reading that right. During her lifetime she was known as Maggie Tobin Brown, though she loathed that nickname and tried to spread Molly instead. Luckily for her, after her death, Molly took off (maybe because it has a better ring to it?)

Earlier in life she was involved in organizing her local chapter of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association.

Her husband helped create a new way to mine gold during a local depression and was awarded over 12,000 shares in the mine for his efforts making them comfortably wealthy.

Margaret continued her advocacy in women’s rights, literacy, and education—while also volunteering in soup kitchens for the miners. She even helped build a hospital and start the first juvenile court in the country—the basis for the United States juvenile court system today.

She ran for the US Senate eight years before women were given the vote.

Margaret was a first-class passenger and forty-four years old at the time of the sinking. Unlike most socialites aboard Titanic Margaret had been a hard worker most of her life—always employed and living near the mines (her husband himself was a miner).

Margaret was not supposed to be on board Titanic—she joined the ship at the last minute after hearing her grandson was ill and so very few people in her family knew she was on board.

By the time Carpathia (the ship that rescued Titanic’s survivors) reached New York—Margaret had already established the Survivor’s Committee, been elected chair, and raised $10,000 for destitute survivors. She waited onboard Carpathia until all the other survivors had found friends or family or had been given medical attention.

Margaret continued to work with survivors and was particularly incensed that she was not allowed to testify at the Senate Inquiry into the wreck (she was barred from testifying because she was a woman).

In 1932 she was awarded the French Legion of Honor for all the work she did helping rebuild France after World War I.

Margaret died from a brain tumor.

A film called Unsinkable Molly Brown was made and in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster Titanic she is played by Kathy Bates (and they look so much alike, its almost crazy). I've included clips for both to the left.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

The Complete Guide to the Titanic by Julia Garstecki

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World by Hugh Brewster

How It Happened: Titanic, The Epic Story From the People Who Were There by Geoff Tibballs (Mentioned on the Passenger List)

LIFE Presents Titanic: The Tragedy That Shook the World by Kostya Kennedy

Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women by Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Titanic: First Accounts by Tim Maltin and Nicholas Wade

Titanic: True Stories of Her Passengers, Crew, and Legacy by Nicola Pierce

Uppity Women Speak Their Minds by Vicki Leon

The Unsinkable Mrs. Brown by Caroline Bancroft

What was the Titanic? by Stephanie Sabol

A Night to Remember by Walter Lord (Mentioned on the Passenger List)

Sources:

https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/b/brownmt/

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/molly-brown.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1707/margaret-brown

238) Tituba

238: Tituba

The Only Enslaved Woman in Salem at the Time of the Witch Trials

Born: c.1674

Died: After 1693

Tituba was accused and confessed to being a witch but was not executed.

She belonged to Samuel Parris—and it was his daughter and niece who were the first to convulse and exhibit symptoms.

Tituba may have come from Barbados—possibly sailing to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1680 with her master.
She was most likely a South American Indigenous woman (maybe from Venezuela) but her exact origins are unknown.

When interrogated Tituba recounted several animals and witches who had come to her under Satan’s behest. It was her stunning testimony that propelled the hunt forward from three accused to around one hundred eighty.

The Crucible will have you believe she was an active practicer of Voodoo and African American—neither of which are true.

After fifteen months in prison she finally went on trial in May of 1693 and the jury declined to indict her. She was the last suspect in the trials to be released from prison.

Tituba disappears from history after her release and likely left Massachusetts Bay Colony with whoever paid her jail fees—not the Parris family. She might have left with the man who was her fellow slave in the Parris household whom she might have married, his name was John.

Badges Earned:

Located In My Personal Library:

America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins

"Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem Massachusetts," by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

Six Women of Salem by Marilynne K Roach

Magic and Witchcraft: An Illustrated History by Ruth Clydesdale

Sources:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/tituba

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unraveling-mysteries-tituba-salem-witch-trials-180956960/

237) Martha Corey

237: Martha Corey

Accused Salem Witch

Born: c.1620

Died: 22 September 1692, Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony (Present-day Salem, Massachusetts, United States of America)

Martha was the last woman to be hung in the trials.

She and her husband were simple farmers in Salem Village and never hurt anybody.

Unfortunately for them, Martha made the mistake of publicly questioning the sincerity of the girls’ accusations.

On the way to question Martha the judges asked one of the girls what Martha had been wearing when she appeared to them—the girl replied she’d been blinded and unable to see—when they got to Martha’s to question her, she asked if the girls had attempted to describe her clothes and was arrested.

Her husband was arrested soon after and refused to enter a plea one way or the other—simply standing mute.

Giles was crushed to death by stones (the only time this form of punishment was ever dealt out in the Massachusetts Bay Colony) and if you remember the scene in The Crucible where he asks for more weight—that was true—he was eighty years old at the time. I’ve linked the scene from the movie to the right in case you have no idea what I’m talking about.

Martha was hung three days later.

In 1954 Martha’s name was officially cleared of any wrongdoing and she was officially absolved of her supposed crimes.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem Massachusetts, by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

Magic and Witchcraft: An Illustrated History by Ruth Clydesdale

Sources:

http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2008/06/martha-and-giles-corey.html

https://historyofmassachusetts.org/martha-corey/

https://www.shmoop.com/crucible/martha-corey.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Corey

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8300/martha-corey

236) Mary Fairfax Somerville

236: Mary Somerville

Astronomer and Mathematician

Born: 26 December 1780, Jedburgh, Scotland (Present-day United Kingdom)

Died: 29 November 1872, Naples, Italy

Mary grew up with a minimal education in which she was taught how to read but not write. She spent one year in boarding school but then had to read from her family’s library for further schooling.

Mary’s first husband didn’t encourage her to study and was pretty much apathetic, but he died after three years. In 1812, she married again (both husbands were her cousins). Her second husband was proud of her accomplishments and she began to study botany and geology.

Mary published her first scientific paper in 1826. She spent four years translating what was then the best book on the sum of astronomical knowledge available and after haggling between two publishers Mechanism of the Heaven’s was released in 1831.

The Royal Society commissioned a bust of her and together she and Caroline Herschel became the first female honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society.

She would go on to publish many other works including the first book on physical geography to be written in English.

Mary would receive the Patron’s Medal from the Royal Society later in life and her autobiography was edited and published posthumously by her daughter.

Badges Earned:
Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Somerville

https://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/somer.htm

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/199961531/mary-somerville

235) Bonnie Parker

235: Bonnie Parker

American Outlaw Better Known With Her Boyfriend as Bonnie and Clyde

Born: 1 October 1910, Rowena, Texas, United States of America

Died: 23 May 1934, Gibsland, Louisiana, United States of America

She, Clyde, and several other accomplices spent months traveling around Texas and other Southern states robbing and shooting places up, killing several people in the process.

They were referred to in the press at the time as the Barrow Gang.

The famous image of Bonnie with gun on her hip and cigar in her mouth was actually seized when Joplin, Missouri police raided the apartment the Barrow Gang had been hiding in.

After several months of pillaging and becoming folk figures, the people of Texas got fed up with it all and former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer was hired to do away with them.

Bonnie was twenty-three and Clyde twenty-four when Hamer and several others gunned them down as they drove along a rode in Louisiana.

Its estimated ten thousand turned out for Clyde’s funeral and twenty thousand for Bonnie’s, and yes, it is true that their bullet ridden car with bodies still inside was parked in the middle of town for a time, so the public was able to see the damage front and center.

In 2019 Netflix released The Highwaymen—the story of Frank Hamer (played by Kevin Costner) and Maney Gault (played by Woody Harrelson) and their manhunt for Bonnie and Clyde. The trailer is linked to the left.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

Outlaw Women: America's Most Notorious Daughters, Wives, and Mothers by Robert Barr Smith

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? by Tod Benoit

Sources:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-irresistible-bonnie-parker-59411903/

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/bonnie-and-clyde

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/791/bonnie-elizabeth-parker

234) Cleopatra I Syra

234: Cleopatra I Syra

Queen and Vizier to Ptolemy V Epiphanes

Born: c.204 BC

Died: 176 BC, Ancient Egypt

Mother to Cleopatra II, Ptolemy VI, and Ptolemy VIII and daughter of King Antiochus III The Great and Queen Leodice.

Cleopatra would also rule as regent for her son Ptolemy VI.

She married Ptolemy V as part of the Peace of Lysimacheia agreement which settled hostilities between Egypt and Syria.

Cleopatra’s dowry included the revenues raised in Coele-Syria although her family would retain ownership of the land.

After her husband’s death and while she ruled as regent, she was able to keep peace with Syria while also not alienating Rome and is therefore remembered for being able to stop Egypt from being invaded by any foreign powers, an increasingly amazing feat seeing as she lived during the waning years of the Ptolemaic Dynasty.

Badges Earned:

Located In My Personal Library:

The Pharaohs by Dr. Joyce Tyldesley

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cleopatra-I-Syra