November 14, 2024 • 10 mins
Thanks to some well-traveled ladies, our Cabinet has another pair of remarkable stories for you to enjoy.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Legendary individuals aren't usually born as legends. They work hard
and accomplish great things during their lifetime. In other words,
legends are made. But while some might spend their lives
earning their legendary status, others find loopholes workarounds to cement
their place in history. People. Sarah Emma Edmunds was born
(00:59):
Sarah Edmond in New Brunswick, Canada, in the winter of
eighteen forty one. She lived on a farm with her parents,
multiple sisters, and one brother. Apparently, her father had wanted
another boy to help with the farm, and so Sarah
often bore the brunt of his abuse simply for being
born a girl. She passed the time by reading stories
of fantasy and adventure, like those of Fanny Campbell, the
(01:21):
female pirate captain. Fanny was a fictional character who had
set sail during the American Revolution to save her fiancee
and wound up becoming the captain of a pirate ship.
These stories swirled around in Sarah's head as an escape
from her daily life, but they also got her thinking
there must be something better out there away from her father,
(01:43):
and so when she was fifteen years old, she left
home with her mother's help, partly to get as far
from her father as possible and also because she was
set to be married soon. She then changed her last
name to Edmunds and never looked back. Her dad eventually
trapped her down and she had to flee once more
to sky. Ing herself as a boy named Franklin Thompson,
she made her way straightside to Connecticut, where her alter
(02:06):
ego helped her land a job as a door to
door Bible salesman. But she never forgot about Fanny Campbell,
who defied the odds and took on men in male
dominated fields. Sarah already dressed like a man to make
a life for herself on her own, so when the
Civil War broke out in eighteen sixty one, Sarah saw
her chance to be more than what had been planned
(02:26):
for her. She had been traveling through Michigan selling bibles.
When she enlisted with the Union Army there as Franklin
Flint Thompson, she was eager to support her adopted country
against the South. Sarah, as Franklin, took on a number
of duties during the war as part of the Second
Michigan Infantry. She helped wounded soldiers, worked as a mail carrier,
(02:47):
and even fought at the siege of Yorktown in Virginia.
Her loyalty and grace under pressure soon earned her a
way to win the war from the inside. She was
made a spy for the Union. According to Sarah's memoirs,
she donned numerous disguises and identities to slip behind enemy
lines undetected. In one scenario, she dyed her skin black
(03:08):
using silver nitrate and wore a wig so that she
looked like a black man. On another occasion, while disguised
as a black laundress, she stole several papers that had
fallen out of an officer's jacket and smuggled them to
her superiors. She also pretended to be an Irish peddler
named bridget O'Shea who sold various soaps and other goods
to Confederate soldiers, hoping to learn more about their plans. Unfortunately,
(03:32):
her life as a spy was cut unceremoniously short. After
sustaining a fall from her mule while delivering mail, followed
by a bout of malaria, Sarah was told to visit
a Union hospital. There was just one problem with that.
Any doctor who examined her would realize she wasn't a
man named Frank Thompson, but she was in fact a woman.
(03:53):
So instead she checked herself into a private facility and recuperated.
But during that time, Frank Thompson was labor a deserter.
Posters were put up, and Sarah realized that her other
identity was now a wanted man. Rather than go back
and face military action for desertion from her post, she
traveled to Washington, d C. Where she enlisted as a
(04:13):
female nurse under the name Sarah Edmonds. She published an
account of her time with a second Michigan infantry, as
well as her brief stint as a spy in a
memoir titled The Female Spy of the Union Army. But
barely twenty years after its publication, people started to question
the book's veracity. A reporter once asked her if her
(04:33):
book could be considered authentic, to which Sarah replied not
strictly so. In fact, she admitted that much of what
she had written was fiction. Ever since then, historians have
picked apart her story, suggesting that even though she served
in the military, she probably was never a spy. There
were no records of Frank Thompson mentioned in any surviving
(04:55):
rosters or memos, and according to the men she served with,
her real identity was well known to them by the
end of the war. Then they said that she was
a great soldier. So was she really a spy? The
only people who know for sure are long gone by now.
But Sarah Edmunds did contribute quite a lot to the
Union effort during the war. She might not have been
a legend, but she certainly was a hero, just one
(05:18):
who might have embellished a bit on her resume. May
could hear the children long before she could see them.
(05:38):
As her mule climbed the last hill on the Appalachian
Mountain trail. Shrieks and laughter could be heard from the
little one room schoolhouse just beyond the trees. As she
rounded the corner, the children rushed to greet May and
her mule, shouting to the others to hurry up. If
they didn't come soon, they would miss the book woman.
The nineteen twenty nine stock market crash plunged the whole
(06:00):
of America into a deep depression, with widespread poverty becoming
a fact of daily life. One of the hardest hit
areas was the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky. To fight
back against the depression and provide work for Americans, President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced a series of federal work programs
in nineteen thirty three, called the New Deal. And already
(06:22):
lacking the modern highways, electricity, and telephones of the rest
of the nation, Eastern Kentucky became a prime target for
Roosevelt's ambitious new project. FDR's Works Progress Administration, or WPA,
soon descended on Eastern Kentucky, putting men to work building
roads and bridges. But the folks of Appalachia weren't just
(06:43):
hungry for infrastructure. They craved knowledge. You see, nearly a
third of Eastern Kentuckians could not read at this time,
and with many of them out of work, they saw
education as a way out of poverty. Their only problem
living in rural Appalachia, access to books wasn't exactly easy,
it sounded like the perfect job for the book women.
(07:03):
Back in nineteen thirteen, a woman named May Stafford had
tried to start a program bringing books to far off
hills and haulers on horseback, but had to stop after
she ran out of funding. Now in nineteen thirty five,
with the backing of FDR's new deal, she was back
in the saddle. The pack horse library program was ready
to ride again. The idea was simple. Each county in
(07:25):
eastern Kentucky would establish a library with donated books. Twice
a month, an army of women riding mules and horses
would fill their saddle bags with texts and take them
out to the mountains, circulating books and magazines to the
furthest rural communities. This was easier said than done. Of course,
the government would pay for the writers, but nothing else.
(07:46):
This meant communities had to find way to buy or
rent mules, horses, and books. With no roads in many
parts of the mountains, pack horse librarians were forced to
ride through mountain trails and creek beds. They had to
travel nearly one hundred minth miles a week through rain
and snow, sometimes arriving home with their feet frozen to
the stirrups. When one woman's mule died mid ride, she
(08:08):
had to hike the rest of her routes herself. Not
to mention, these writers faced constant threats from copperhead snakes, bears,
mountain lions, and suspicious neighbors. Despite the early challenges, the
Packhorse Library Program was an instant hit. People loved the books,
whether they were practical guides to quilting or canning, beautiful
(08:29):
books of poetry, or fanciful adventure novels set in far
off lands. By nineteen thirty seven, the program served over
fifty thousand families and nearly two hundred public schools. The
most popular books in circulation were novels by Mark Twain
and Daniel Dafoe, with beautifully drawn illustrations. It wasn't uncommon
for families to read them together, with the children helping
(08:51):
their parents learn to read. By the early nineteen forties,
as the war breaking out in Europe led to an
industrial boom in America, Franklin Rose brought many new deal
projects to an end. The Packhorse Library Program officially ended
in nineteen forty three. After serving most of eastern Kentucky
for the better part of a decade, While the book
(09:12):
women no longer rode through the mountain trails, books found
a new way to travel around Kentucky. During the decade
the WPA was modernizing the state. Many new roads had
been built through the mountains, which gave some of the
out of work bookwomen an idea. In nineteen forty six,
Kentucky's first motorized bookmobile began driving through the mountains, bringing
(09:33):
books to the people. Nearly seventy years later, their legacy
still has a lasting impact. Today, Kentucky's Libraries operates seventy
five bookmobiles across the state. It truly is a miracle,
an evidence of the enduring power of books. Over one
hundred years after its story first began, the pack Horse
(09:53):
Library is still delivering Hope Hope. If you've enjoyed today's
guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities, subscribe for free
on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
(10:16):
make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the worldoflore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Legendary individuals aren't usually born as legends. They work hard
and accomplish great things during their lifetime. In other words,
legends are made. But while some might spend their lives
earning their legendary status, others find loopholes workarounds to cement
their place in history. People. Sarah Emma Edmunds was born
(00:59):
Sarah Edmond in New Brunswick, Canada, in the winter of
eighteen forty one. She lived on a farm with her parents,
multiple sisters, and one brother. Apparently, her father had wanted
another boy to help with the farm, and so Sarah
often bore the brunt of his abuse simply for being
born a girl. She passed the time by reading stories
of fantasy and adventure, like those of Fanny Campbell, the
(01:21):
female pirate captain. Fanny was a fictional character who had
set sail during the American Revolution to save her fiancee
and wound up becoming the captain of a pirate ship.
These stories swirled around in Sarah's head as an escape
from her daily life, but they also got her thinking
there must be something better out there away from her father,
(01:43):
and so when she was fifteen years old, she left
home with her mother's help, partly to get as far
from her father as possible and also because she was
set to be married soon. She then changed her last
name to Edmunds and never looked back. Her dad eventually
trapped her down and she had to flee once more
to sky. Ing herself as a boy named Franklin Thompson,
she made her way straightside to Connecticut, where her alter
(02:06):
ego helped her land a job as a door to
door Bible salesman. But she never forgot about Fanny Campbell,
who defied the odds and took on men in male
dominated fields. Sarah already dressed like a man to make
a life for herself on her own, so when the
Civil War broke out in eighteen sixty one, Sarah saw
her chance to be more than what had been planned
(02:26):
for her. She had been traveling through Michigan selling bibles.
When she enlisted with the Union Army there as Franklin
Flint Thompson, she was eager to support her adopted country
against the South. Sarah, as Franklin, took on a number
of duties during the war as part of the Second
Michigan Infantry. She helped wounded soldiers, worked as a mail carrier,
(02:47):
and even fought at the siege of Yorktown in Virginia.
Her loyalty and grace under pressure soon earned her a
way to win the war from the inside. She was
made a spy for the Union. According to Sarah's memoirs,
she donned numerous disguises and identities to slip behind enemy
lines undetected. In one scenario, she dyed her skin black
(03:08):
using silver nitrate and wore a wig so that she
looked like a black man. On another occasion, while disguised
as a black laundress, she stole several papers that had
fallen out of an officer's jacket and smuggled them to
her superiors. She also pretended to be an Irish peddler
named bridget O'Shea who sold various soaps and other goods
to Confederate soldiers, hoping to learn more about their plans. Unfortunately,
(03:32):
her life as a spy was cut unceremoniously short. After
sustaining a fall from her mule while delivering mail, followed
by a bout of malaria, Sarah was told to visit
a Union hospital. There was just one problem with that.
Any doctor who examined her would realize she wasn't a
man named Frank Thompson, but she was in fact a woman.
(03:53):
So instead she checked herself into a private facility and recuperated.
But during that time, Frank Thompson was labor a deserter.
Posters were put up, and Sarah realized that her other
identity was now a wanted man. Rather than go back
and face military action for desertion from her post, she
traveled to Washington, d C. Where she enlisted as a
(04:13):
female nurse under the name Sarah Edmonds. She published an
account of her time with a second Michigan infantry, as
well as her brief stint as a spy in a
memoir titled The Female Spy of the Union Army. But
barely twenty years after its publication, people started to question
the book's veracity. A reporter once asked her if her
(04:33):
book could be considered authentic, to which Sarah replied not
strictly so. In fact, she admitted that much of what
she had written was fiction. Ever since then, historians have
picked apart her story, suggesting that even though she served
in the military, she probably was never a spy. There
were no records of Frank Thompson mentioned in any surviving
(04:55):
rosters or memos, and according to the men she served with,
her real identity was well known to them by the
end of the war. Then they said that she was
a great soldier. So was she really a spy? The
only people who know for sure are long gone by now.
But Sarah Edmunds did contribute quite a lot to the
Union effort during the war. She might not have been
a legend, but she certainly was a hero, just one
(05:18):
who might have embellished a bit on her resume. May
could hear the children long before she could see them.
(05:38):
As her mule climbed the last hill on the Appalachian
Mountain trail. Shrieks and laughter could be heard from the
little one room schoolhouse just beyond the trees. As she
rounded the corner, the children rushed to greet May and
her mule, shouting to the others to hurry up. If
they didn't come soon, they would miss the book woman.
The nineteen twenty nine stock market crash plunged the whole
(06:00):
of America into a deep depression, with widespread poverty becoming
a fact of daily life. One of the hardest hit
areas was the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky. To fight
back against the depression and provide work for Americans, President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced a series of federal work programs
in nineteen thirty three, called the New Deal. And already
(06:22):
lacking the modern highways, electricity, and telephones of the rest
of the nation, Eastern Kentucky became a prime target for
Roosevelt's ambitious new project. FDR's Works Progress Administration, or WPA,
soon descended on Eastern Kentucky, putting men to work building
roads and bridges. But the folks of Appalachia weren't just
(06:43):
hungry for infrastructure. They craved knowledge. You see, nearly a
third of Eastern Kentuckians could not read at this time,
and with many of them out of work, they saw
education as a way out of poverty. Their only problem
living in rural Appalachia, access to books wasn't exactly easy,
it sounded like the perfect job for the book women.
(07:03):
Back in nineteen thirteen, a woman named May Stafford had
tried to start a program bringing books to far off
hills and haulers on horseback, but had to stop after
she ran out of funding. Now in nineteen thirty five,
with the backing of FDR's new deal, she was back
in the saddle. The pack horse library program was ready
to ride again. The idea was simple. Each county in
(07:25):
eastern Kentucky would establish a library with donated books. Twice
a month, an army of women riding mules and horses
would fill their saddle bags with texts and take them
out to the mountains, circulating books and magazines to the
furthest rural communities. This was easier said than done. Of course,
the government would pay for the writers, but nothing else.
(07:46):
This meant communities had to find way to buy or
rent mules, horses, and books. With no roads in many
parts of the mountains, pack horse librarians were forced to
ride through mountain trails and creek beds. They had to
travel nearly one hundred minth miles a week through rain
and snow, sometimes arriving home with their feet frozen to
the stirrups. When one woman's mule died mid ride, she
(08:08):
had to hike the rest of her routes herself. Not
to mention, these writers faced constant threats from copperhead snakes, bears,
mountain lions, and suspicious neighbors. Despite the early challenges, the
Packhorse Library Program was an instant hit. People loved the books,
whether they were practical guides to quilting or canning, beautiful
(08:29):
books of poetry, or fanciful adventure novels set in far
off lands. By nineteen thirty seven, the program served over
fifty thousand families and nearly two hundred public schools. The
most popular books in circulation were novels by Mark Twain
and Daniel Dafoe, with beautifully drawn illustrations. It wasn't uncommon
for families to read them together, with the children helping
(08:51):
their parents learn to read. By the early nineteen forties,
as the war breaking out in Europe led to an
industrial boom in America, Franklin Rose brought many new deal
projects to an end. The Packhorse Library Program officially ended
in nineteen forty three. After serving most of eastern Kentucky
for the better part of a decade, While the book
(09:12):
women no longer rode through the mountain trails, books found
a new way to travel around Kentucky. During the decade
the WPA was modernizing the state. Many new roads had
been built through the mountains, which gave some of the
out of work bookwomen an idea. In nineteen forty six,
Kentucky's first motorized bookmobile began driving through the mountains, bringing
(09:33):
books to the people. Nearly seventy years later, their legacy
still has a lasting impact. Today, Kentucky's Libraries operates seventy
five bookmobiles across the state. It truly is a miracle,
an evidence of the enduring power of books. Over one
hundred years after its story first began, the pack Horse
(09:53):
Library is still delivering Hope Hope. If you've enjoyed today's
guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities, subscribe for free
on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
(10:16):
make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the worldoflore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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