History

“She was brilliant, nurturing, and instrumental in upholding the Appalachian culture, which otherwise could have died out.”

Schrock also founded the Highland Association and community center, Head Start programs, and Meals on Wheels.

“She helped everybody in Appalachia and truly raised people out of poverty,” adds Greenberg. “No wonder they call her ‘Saint Schrock.’”

Legend has it that Schrock worked out daily on a trampoline. Perhaps that is what led to her longevity: She died at the age of 90.

Elizabeth Ann Seton

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, the granddaughter of an Episcopal priest, was born in 1774 into a prominent New York family. When Seton’s mother died, her father remarried a woman who alienated Elizabeth, says Alexandra Deutsch, chief curator at the Maryland Historical Society.

At 19, Seton married a prosperous importer and wrote of great happiness. Unfortunately, the bliss was short-lived.

Her husband's business lost several ships at sea, the venture went bankrupt, and he became ill. Seton and their eldest daughter accompanied him to Italy, hoping for his recovery. Instead, within three months, he was dead. (Tragically, two of her daughters would succumb to tuberculosis in early adolescence, notes Deutsch.)

Before returning to the U.S., Seton spent time with a wealthy family and was first exposed to Catholicism. Although strongly discouraged by friends and family, in 1805, Seton converted. 

With assistance from John Carroll, the first Catholic Bishop of Baltimore, Seton and two other women established the first free school for girls in 1808. This school, the forerunner of the Catholic school system, soon outgrew its original location on Paca Street and moved to Emmitsburg, in northern Frederick County, in 1809. That same year, Seton took her vows and became Mother Seton.

Seton began the first American religious order for women, the Sisters of Charity. By 1818, the sisters had founded two orphanages and a second school. Unfortunately, Seton was quite ill with tuberculosis at this point. She died in 1821 at 46.

“Given her struggles and tragedies, I find Mother Seton’s story and accomplishments even more remarkable,” says Deutsch. “Most early-19th-century women would have immediately sought the financial and social protection of another husband, but she forged her own path and provided for her family as a single woman.”

In 1975, Seton became the first American-born saint when she was canonized by Pope Paul VI. In 2009, Seton was added to the Episcopal Calendar of Saints.

Harriet Ross Tubman

Harriet Ross Tubman was born a slave in Bucktown, Maryland, in 1820. Raised in harsh conditions and regularly beaten, she worked the Dorchester County plantation fields for 29 years. At age 13, she suffered severe head trauma when she was struck for disobeying her overseer.

Tubman escaped in 1849, using a complicated system of clandestine trails, and then returned home—through the insect-infested Blackwater Refuge—19 more times, freeing over 300 slaves by leading them through the secret Underground Railroad along the Eastern Shore.

The Underground Railroad’s only female leader, Tubman continually risked her life to help others, although she had a $40,000 price on her head, notes Dr. Carolyn Stegman, author of Women of Achievement in Maryland History.

During the Civil War, Tubman served as a Union nurse and spy. During that time, she helped escaped slaves who were part of the Union Army.

In 1863, the diminutive African-American woman organized a network of scouts and spies to gather important information and to encourage slaves to join black regiments. Under Colonel James Montgomery’s command, she helped dismantle crucial bridges and railroads, disrupting Southern supply lines and freeing over 750 slaves.

Despite her dangerous missions for the Army, Tubman received little pay, notes Stegman. She spent her first paycheck constructing a “laundromat” where freed black women earned wages for washing soldiers’ clothes.

After the war, Tubman remained involved in social issues, working alongside Susan B. Anthony and other suffragettes for women’s rights, says Stegman.

When Tubman died at age 93, she was heralded as “Moses.”

Learn more about these and other remarkable women at the new Maryland Women’s Heritage Center at 39 W. Lexington Street in Baltimore. For information, visit  www.mdwomensheritagecenter.org.