Museum Portrayal of Mary Elizabeth Lease
As part of Women’s History Month, on March 23 the Powers Museum in Carthage Missouri is presenting Glenna Wallace of Seneca in a costumed portrayal of famous Irish-American Mary Elizabeth Lease, who first gained recognition for a series of lectures (1885–87) on Ireland and the Irish.
Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1853–1933, was born in Ridgeway, Pa. the daughter of Irish parents who emigrated from County Monaghan during the Famine. At the age of twenty she came to Kansas to teach school in Osage Mission, and married a local pharmacist.
She and her husband spent 10 years trying to make a living farming, but lost everything in the financial panic of 1873. She later became the voice of the Farmers’ Alliance, making more than 160 speeches in the Populist Party’s 1890 campaign in which she claimed credit for the defeat of Kansas senator John Ingalls.
Achieving world-wide fame and attracting national attention, Lease has been described by her enemies as using “radical utterances.” The most famous quotation attributed to her by a newspaper staff member, which she denies having ever said, supposedly encouraged farmers of Kansas to raise less corn and more hell. Lease didn’t make a big issue of the misquoted comment because she believed it to be a right good piece of advice.
You can hear this Populist Reformer known as Mary Yellin as she “revisits” Carthage at 7 p.m., March 23, 2006, at Grace Episcopal Church Fellowship Hall, 820 S Howard, in Carthage. Admission is free, and if you’re on your way to the Ozarks anyway?
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
[…] In fact read all the archives; it is riddled with celebrations of song, and other gems. When some people - including me here but not < a href=”"http://irishkc.com/index.php/black-shamrock-and-w.htm”>here (and not Langerland - were pontificating about the first Irish Government military celebration of the 1916 Rising, Christy said this: Great to see the prime minister of Eire opening a beauty salon in Limerick. He’s fond of the bit of make-up and its good to see him doing something useful. The Minister for Defence played a stormer in the Easter Commemorations. Getting the Labour Party to dress up as an active service unit was a masterstroke. They’d want to be careful though - Private McDowell (FCA) will have them all up in Green St for offences agin the state. Deputy McManus looked a right slapper in her Cumann na mBan outfit while Senator Costello will need to do a bit of a square bashing before going to war. Min.O’Dea should also be complimented for the steady flow of Marines through his constituency and for all the red diesel he is flogging to the USAF. Minister Cullen nearly has the electronic voting machines swept under the carpet. I believe a plan is afoot to use them for dry filling foundations for the new bridge he has promised Waterford. A masterstroke from a master of strokes. The Tánaiste is having an awful time with the health. Poor woman must off her trolley with the whole bloody business. I often think of her. Met her briefly at a prostate cancer shindig recently, I never heard the likes of it for sincerity. We get what we vote for. […]
[…] See Also: • Langerland’s Rising • Black Shamrock and W • 90th Anniversary of 1916 Rising […]