Annette Blackburn Ehler

Annette Blackburn Ehler
Ehler, from a 1925 publication
Born
Annette Belle Blackburn

(1864-08-10)August 10, 1864
Lawrenceville, Illinois, U.S.
DiedMay 9, 1947(1947-05-09) (aged 82)
Hennessey, Oklahoma, U.S.
Other nameAnnette Haskett
OccupationsCivic leader, educator, writer, newspaper publisher

Annette Belle Blackburn Ehler (August 10, 1864 – May 9, 1947)[1][2] was an American civic leader. She wrote, taught, published a newspaper, and was the first woman to serve as mayor of Hennessey, Oklahoma. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1936.

Early life and education

Blackburn was born in Lawrenceville, Illinois, the daughter of William Blackburn and Amanda Ellen Rawlings Blackburn.[3][4] She graduated from Ohio State Normal College and Kingfisher College.[5][6]

Career

Ehler taught school in Illinois, Montana,[2] and Oklahoma. She wrote, lectured, and published the Hennessey Press-Democrat for three years.[3][7] She served two terms as mayor of Hennessey, Oklahoma, and president of the town's school board. She was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1924. She was an "ardent believer in a qualification vote for all sexes and races."[8] She also believed that she met assassin John Wilkes Booth, living incognito in Oklahoma, long after his apparent death in 1865.[9]

Ehler was a leader of the Order of the Eastern Star and the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls in Oklahoma. She was Eastern Star editor of The Oklahoma Mason. She was active in the Daughters of the American Revolution, the National League of American Pen Women, and the Oklahoma Historical Society.[6] She was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1936.[5] She created the Pat Hennessey Memorial Garden,[10][11] and gifted it to the city of Hennessey in 1941.[5][6]

Publications

Ehler wrote songs, poems, study materials, local history, and a novel.

Poetry

  • "Only a Tramp" (1899)[12]
  • "Our Last Farewell" (1900)[13]
  • The Firefly (1911, collection of poetry)[4][14]
  • "Your Book of Life" (1921)[15]
  • "My Garden" (1924)[16]
  • "Silence" (1938)[17]

Books and articles

  • Study Outline of Greek Mythology[6]
  • Rhetorical and Literature Outline[6]
  • A Text on Grammar[6]
  • "Along the Chisholm Trail" (1922 article)[18]
  • "The Need for Rainbow" (1925 article)[19]
  • Back to the Old Ambraw (novel)[6]
  • Echoes of the Chisholm Trail (local history booklet)[6]
  • Blue Book of the Eastern Star (19 editions between 1917 and 1945)[4]

Personal life

Blackburn married Marion Allen Haskett in 1892; they had a daughter. Haskett died in 1900, and their daughter died in 1901. In her bereavement she moved to Oklahoma, where her brothers and sister lived. She married Frederick Ehler in 1907.[6] Her second husband died in 1937, and she died after a stroke in 1947, at age 82, at her home in Hennessey.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Death Summons Mrs. Annette B. Ehler, Widely Known Pioneer Resident". Hennessey Clipper. 1947-05-15. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-07-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 "Mrs. Ehler Dead". The Great Falls Leader. 1947-05-09. p. 5. Retrieved 2026-07-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 Thoburn, Joseph Bradfield; Wright, Muriel Hazel (1929). Oklahoma: A History of the State and Its People. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 215.
  4. 1 2 3 Who's who among North American authors. Los Angeles Golden Syndicate Pub. Co. 1921. p. 68.
  5. 1 2 3 "Annette Blackburn Ehler, Class of 1936". Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2026-07-06.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Davis, Athie Sale (1953). "Annette Blackburn Ehler and the Pat Hennessey Memorial Garden". Chronicles of Oklahoma. 31 (3). Archived from the original on 2025-05-18.
  7. ↑ Haskett, Annette B. (1906-02-16). "To the Public". The Press-Democrat. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-07-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ Woman's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-l9l5. American Commonwealth Company. 1914. p. 271.
  9. ↑ Campbell, William Parker (1922). John Wilkes Booth; escape and wanderings until final ending of the trail by suicide at Enid, Oklahoma, January 12, 1903. The Library of Congress. [Oklahoma City]. p. 124 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ↑ "Pioneer Woman to See Roses Bloom on Pat Hennessey's Grave". The Daily Oklahoman. 1941-05-25. p. 24. Retrieved 2026-07-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Mrs. Ehler to Present Hennessey Memorial to City Memorial Day May 30". Hennessey Clipper. 1941-05-08. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-07-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Haskett, Annette Blackburn (1899). "Only a Tramp". American Verse. 2: 54.
  13. ↑ American Verse: Third Year. Internet Archive. The Scroll Publishing Company. 1900. p. 32.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. ↑ "Local and Personal". Kingfisher Free Press. 1911-12-28. p. 5. Retrieved 2026-07-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ Ehler, Annette Blackburn (April 1921). "Your Book of Life". University of Oklahoma Magazine. 9 (6): 12.
  16. ↑ Ehler, Annette Blackburn (1925). Davis, Franklyn Pierre (ed.). "My Garden". Anthology of Newspaper Verse for 1924. 6: 109.
  17. ↑ Conner, Aletha Caldwell (1938). Anthology of Poetry by Oklahoma Writers: For the Purpose of Exploiting Oklahoma's Talent, this Anthology of Poetry was Assembled and Offered to the Public. Times-Journal Publishing Company. pp. 103–104.
  18. ↑ Ehler, Annette Blackburn (October 1922). "Along the Chisholm Trail". Rock Island Magazine. 17 (10): 80.
  19. ↑ Ehler, Annette B. (July 1925). "The Need for Rainbow". Eastern Star World. 2: 40–41.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.