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Jane Swisshelm
Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm (December 6, 1815 – July 22, 1884) was an American Radical Republican journalist, publisher, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate. She was one of America's first female journalists hired by Horace Greeley at his New York Tribune. She was active as a writer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and as a publisher and editor in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
While working for the federal government in Washington, D.C., during the administration of President Andrew Johnson, Swisshelm founded her last newspaper, Reconstructionist. Her published criticism of Johnson led to her losing her job and the closing of the paper. She published her autobiography in 1881.
Swisshelm was born Jane Grey Cannon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., one of several children of Mary (Scott) and Thomas Cannon, both of whom were Presbyterians of Scotch-Irish descent. Her father was a merchant and real estate speculator.
In 1823, when Jane was eight years of age, both her sister Mary and her father died of consumption, leaving the family in straitened circumstances. Jane worked at manual labor, doing lace making and painting on velvet, and her mother colored leghorn and straw hats. At twelve, she was sent to boarding school for several weeks, as there were no public schools at the time. When she returned home, she learned that the doctor thought she was in the first stage of consumption. Her mother had already lost four of her children to illnesses. She moved with her children to Wilkinsburg, a village outside Pittsburgh, and started a store. After more formal study, Jane started teaching classes for village children in 1830. That year, her family learned that her older brother, William, much loved by all, had died of yellow fever in New Orleans, where he had gone for work.
On November 18, 1836, at age 20, Cannon married James Swisshelm, from a nearby town. They moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1838, where James intended to go into business with his brother, Samuel. This is where Jane first encountered slavery, which made a strong impression on her. Nearby was a man who had sold away his own mixed-race children. She wrote in her autobiography of some of the sights she saw and stories she heard.
In 1839, against her husband's wishes, she moved to Philadelphia to care for her ailing mother. After her mother's death, she headed a girls' seminary in Butler, Pennsylvania. Two years later, she rejoined her husband on his farm, which she called Swissvale, east of Pittsburgh. (Today the area is Edgewood).
During this time, Swisshelm began writing articles against capital punishment, and stories, poems, and articles for an anti-slavery newspaper, the Spirit of Liberty, and others in Pittsburgh. Prompted by the demise of the Spirit of Liberty and the similarly themed Albatross, Swisshelm founded the newspaper Saturday Visiter [sic] in 1847. It eventually reached a national circulation of 6,000, and in 1854 was merged with the weekly edition of the Pittsburgh Commercial Journal. She wrote many editorials advocating women's property rights.
On April 17, 1850, while working for the New York Tribune, she became the first female reporter admitted to the reporters gallery of the U. S. Senate. Both her presence and her account of that day's fracas, in which Mississippi Senator Henry Foote drew a pistol when Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton charged at him, were widely noted. According to a Wisconsin newspaper, "nobody but a regular woman could make a description of such a scene so interesting. That jerking, nervous, half breathless excitement which would embarrass the narrative of a man only adds piquancy and grace to that of a woman."
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Jane Swisshelm
Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm (December 6, 1815 – July 22, 1884) was an American Radical Republican journalist, publisher, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate. She was one of America's first female journalists hired by Horace Greeley at his New York Tribune. She was active as a writer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and as a publisher and editor in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
While working for the federal government in Washington, D.C., during the administration of President Andrew Johnson, Swisshelm founded her last newspaper, Reconstructionist. Her published criticism of Johnson led to her losing her job and the closing of the paper. She published her autobiography in 1881.
Swisshelm was born Jane Grey Cannon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., one of several children of Mary (Scott) and Thomas Cannon, both of whom were Presbyterians of Scotch-Irish descent. Her father was a merchant and real estate speculator.
In 1823, when Jane was eight years of age, both her sister Mary and her father died of consumption, leaving the family in straitened circumstances. Jane worked at manual labor, doing lace making and painting on velvet, and her mother colored leghorn and straw hats. At twelve, she was sent to boarding school for several weeks, as there were no public schools at the time. When she returned home, she learned that the doctor thought she was in the first stage of consumption. Her mother had already lost four of her children to illnesses. She moved with her children to Wilkinsburg, a village outside Pittsburgh, and started a store. After more formal study, Jane started teaching classes for village children in 1830. That year, her family learned that her older brother, William, much loved by all, had died of yellow fever in New Orleans, where he had gone for work.
On November 18, 1836, at age 20, Cannon married James Swisshelm, from a nearby town. They moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1838, where James intended to go into business with his brother, Samuel. This is where Jane first encountered slavery, which made a strong impression on her. Nearby was a man who had sold away his own mixed-race children. She wrote in her autobiography of some of the sights she saw and stories she heard.
In 1839, against her husband's wishes, she moved to Philadelphia to care for her ailing mother. After her mother's death, she headed a girls' seminary in Butler, Pennsylvania. Two years later, she rejoined her husband on his farm, which she called Swissvale, east of Pittsburgh. (Today the area is Edgewood).
During this time, Swisshelm began writing articles against capital punishment, and stories, poems, and articles for an anti-slavery newspaper, the Spirit of Liberty, and others in Pittsburgh. Prompted by the demise of the Spirit of Liberty and the similarly themed Albatross, Swisshelm founded the newspaper Saturday Visiter [sic] in 1847. It eventually reached a national circulation of 6,000, and in 1854 was merged with the weekly edition of the Pittsburgh Commercial Journal. She wrote many editorials advocating women's property rights.
On April 17, 1850, while working for the New York Tribune, she became the first female reporter admitted to the reporters gallery of the U. S. Senate. Both her presence and her account of that day's fracas, in which Mississippi Senator Henry Foote drew a pistol when Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton charged at him, were widely noted. According to a Wisconsin newspaper, "nobody but a regular woman could make a description of such a scene so interesting. That jerking, nervous, half breathless excitement which would embarrass the narrative of a man only adds piquancy and grace to that of a woman."