Staking Her Claim: The Life of Belinda Mulrooney, Klondike and Alaska Entrepreneur - Softcover

Melanie J. Mayer; Robert N. DeArmond

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804010226 ISBN 13: 9780804010221

Publisher: Swallow Press, 2000

Synopsis

If Horatio Alger had imagined a female heroine in the same mold as one of the young male heroes in his rags-to-riches stories, she would have looked like Belinda Mulrooney. Smart, ambitious, competitive, and courageous, Belinda Mulrooney was destined through her legendary pioneering in the wilds of the Yukon basin to found towns and many businesses. She built two fortunes, supported her family, was an ally to other working women, and triumphed in what was considered a man's world.

In Staking Her Claim, Melanie Mayer and Robert N. DeArmond provide a faithful and comprehensive portrait of this unique character in North American frontier history. Their exhaustive research has resulted in a sweeping saga of determination and will, tempered by disaster and opportunity.

Like any good Horatio Alger hero, Belinda overcame the challenges that confronted her, including poverty, prejudice, a lack of schooling, and the early loss of parents. Her travels took her from her native Ireland as a young girl to a coal town in Pennsylvania to Chicago, San Francisco, and finally, in 1897, to the Yukon.

Staking Her Claim is a testament to the human spirit and to the idea of the frontier. It is a biography of a woman who made her own way in the world and in doing so left an indelible mark.

About this title

About the Author:

Mayer is professor emerita of the University of California.

From Booklist:

Mayer and DeArmond have chronicled the amazing exploits of Belinda Mulrooney, arguably the most successful female pioneer and entrepreneur in the Pacific Northwest. Boldly defying societal strictures regarding proper behavior and occupations for single women, Belinda traveled to Alaska in 1895, establishing a flourishing retail operation. When gold was discovered in the Yukon River basin, she set off for the Klondike to make her fortune. Over the next few decades, Mulrooney helped establish several thriving towns and became a successful restaurateur, real estate developer, general contractor, merchant, and banker. Overcoming gender, class, and ethnic discrimination, this ambitious, shrewd, and primarily self-educated Irish immigrant prospered in a man's world. A turn-of-the-century success story that will appeal to women's history buffs. Margaret Flanagan

About this edition

• Publisher: Swallow Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0804010226
• ISBN 13: 9780804010221
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 415