Write it down

Anna U. Marrew, born in California in September 1842, was working in Virginia City in June 1900 as a lawyer. She was a 48-year-old widow living on the south side of Taylor Street with her two daughters, Clara,11, and Erica, 9.

Her name doesn't appear in Nevada in the 1880 census or the 1910 census. The 1890 census was burned in a fire and no longer exists.

I found what I know using the state's Web site www.nevadaculture.org. The site is a wealth of information -- but it's limited to those questions asked by the census enumerators and doesn't give us much of a picture about Anna's life.

How and why did she come to be a lawyer at a time when most professions for women included laundress, lace maker, servant, lodging house keeper, dressmaker, nurse and teacher?

How did she end up in Virginia City? What kind of cases did she handle? Did she ever try a murder case? Was she treated differently because she was a woman and how did that make her feel?

I'd love to travel back in time to ask her all these questions. I wouldn't want to wear a corset, though, or those button-shoes, especially in the summer.

Except for the memoirs and letters saved over the years from Anna, if any exist, her life and the lives of 19th century inhabitants of our state would be unknown to us today in the 21st century.

Though there was only one female lawyer listed and no blacksmiths, it is very likely the eight courtesans listed as living in Virginia City in 1900 are little remembered. Most are listed as widows and several have children, though it doesn't appear the children were living with them at the time, or if they were, they had a different last name.

In addition to the courtesans, 42 prostitutes were documented by the enumerators.

It may be that we never know more about 42-year-old Mary Brooks, a widow with two children, who lived on L Street. Also living on L Street were two other courtesans, 22-year-old Mary Germaine and 59-year-old Yo Kein.

The latter pair it seems were roommates as both are listed as being from household no. 193. Brooks is listed as being from household 194. It could very well have been all three were roommates. But we likely will never know.

The Nevada Women's History Project's "Letters from Nevada's Daughters" hopes to erase much of the vagueness by encouraging women in Nevada today to write letters to their families as a way to collect information about our lives for our children and grandchildren.

The Web site www.nevadawomen.org has a long list of topics and electronic forms to download and fill out to help make it easy. Some of the topics are:

-- Family Genealogy

-- Important Issues/Events/Causes in my Lifetime

-- Home/s

-- Life Work or Career/s

-- Daily Life and Activities

-- Foods

-- Religion

-- Fashions

-- Significant Medical History

-- Recreation and Travel

-- Impact of Technology

-- "Famous" People I Have Known

-- Music and the Arts in My Life

-- Retirement

-- Holiday Celebrations and Customs

-- My Treatment as a Woman

Those with questions or suggestions about this project can contact the Nevada Women's History Project at: 770 Smithridge Drive, Suite 300, Reno, NV 89502-0708, call at 786-2335 or e-mail nwhp@nevadawomen.org.

It's hard to imagine that the stories of our daily lives, the sorting of dirty socks, the baby albums, our lunch -- the home movies -- will one day be found fascinating by someone we never met. But they could be.

No one will ever get to know, though, if we don't take the chance and write it down.

Kelli Du Fresne is features editor for the Nevada Appeal.