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August 24, 2008

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Columnist Susan Snyder: Pioneers no=20 longer overlooked

Mon, Jan 31, 2005 (8:09 a.m.)

It's not every day you hear about the nuns who helped shape modern=20 Nevada.

We hear about the miners and the ranchers. We hear about the railroad = men and=20 the casino mavericks. We've even heard about the women who, um, kept = them all=20 entertained.

But most of us haven't heard much about the Daughters of Charity, = three=20 19th-century Catholic nuns who brought education, social services and = eventually=20 a hospital to Virginia City and the raucous environs created by = discovery of the=20 Comstock Lode.

"They were a group that didn't stay behind their cloistered walls. = They went=20 out and found people who needed help," said Jan Cleere, the Arizona = author of=20 "More than Petticoats: Remarkable Nevada Women."

The book, released this month by The Globe Pequot Press, costs $10.95 = and is=20 available at Borders Book Shop, Barnes & Noble Booksellers or from = Cleere's=20 Web site, www.jancleere.com.

It is one in the publishing company's "More than Petticoats" series, = which=20 seeks to profile historically significant women in each of the 50 = states.

Cleere's book profiles 12 Nevada women and the Daughters of Charity, = shedding=20 light on a population that struggled against the same rugged challenges = Nevada=20 presented to men, but with the added baggage of gender and racial = biases.

It was hard to choose which women to include, Cleere said.

"There are a lot of (women) still standing in the wings waiting for = me," she=20 said of the women whose names were not included. "I tried to cover = cultural and=20 ethnic diversity and also cover the state the best that I could."

Many of the women lived in or around the Reno-Carson city area, as = that was=20 the first settled. But there is a chapter about Helen Jane Wiser = Stewart, who=20 persevered on her sprawling Las Vegas-area ranch after her husband died. = And=20 there is one about Ah Cum Kee, a Chinese woman who raised six children = and=20 much-sought-after stringless white celery in the heart of the desert = near=20 Hawthorne.

The Daughters of Charity, Cleere writes, left San Francisco in 1864 = and=20 plunged themselves into Virginia City where: "Gunfights made the streets = perilous and unfit for respectable women and innocent children. Schools = were=20 almost nonexistent. Murder, illness, disease and abandonment left dozens = of=20 children destitute and homeless, begging for handouts at saloon doors, = gambling=20 halls and houses of ill repute."

Nevada's pioneering women were of different races, different = backgrounds and=20 followed vastly diverse paths. But all were independent, resourceful and = stayed=20 a course often obscured by adversity.

Cleere's favorite? Idah Meacham Strobridge, a Northern Nevada woman = who loved=20 Nevada despite the illness and winter that had stolen the lives of her = husband=20 and three children.

"Every time I wrote one, I had a (new) favorite," Cleere said. "But = here was=20 a woman who was left with a ranch she knew she couldn't run. So she set = up a=20 book-binding business in the middle of the desert."

Cleere is scheduled to talk about her book and sign copies March 20 = at the=20 Gardnerville Museum & Cultural Center. She also is making plans to = visit Las=20 Vegas before then, but details aren't set. Check her Web site for = updates.

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