Jessie Belle Hardy Stubbs MacKaye

Jessie Belle Hardy Stubbs MacKaye (1876 – April 18, 1921) was president of the Milwaukee Women's Peace Society.

Jessie Belle Hardy Stubbs MacKaye
Born1876 (1876)
Chicago
DiedApril 18, 1921(1921-04-18) (aged 44–45)
New York City
NationalityAmerican
EducationColumbia University
OccupationSocial Activist
Known forWomen's Suffrage
Spouse(s)
F. Gurney Stubbs
​
​
(m. 1896; died 1910)​
;
Benton MacKaye
​
(m. 1915)​

Biography

Hardy Stubbs MacKaye was the daughter of Major A. L. Hardy of Pittsburgh, a notable newspaper reporter for the Chicago Times.

She was the head surgical nurse at St. Luke’s hospital in Chicago and met her first husband, Dr. F. Gurney Stubbs there. Dr. Stubbs passed away from pneumonia in 1910 and Hardy Stubbs moved to New York City afterward, attending Columbia University’s School of Philanthropy and becoming the legislative chair of the Women's Peace Society.[1]

She was noted for "urging all women to remain unmarried or to refuse to bear children" to express the seriousness of female suffrage.

In 1915, she married Benton MacKaye.[2] Jessie died by suicide in 1921 by drowning herself in the East River.[3][4] While grieving her death, husband Benton MacKaye began formulating the idea that became the Appalachian Trail, as his wife had loved long-distance walking and hiking.[5]

Mrs. J. Hardy Stubbs, Miss Ida Craft, Miss Rosalie Jones circa 1912–1913

References
  1. "Biographical Sketch of Jessie Belle Hardy Stubbs MacKaye | Alexander Street Documents". documents.alexanderstreet.com. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  2. Osterink, Carole (8 January 2013). "Following Up: Jessie Hardy Stubbs". The Gossips of Rivertown. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  3. "Mrs. MacKaye Gone. Threatened Suicide. Suffragist and Peace Advocate Eludes Husband and Nurse in Grand Central Throng. Was About To Board Train. Writer Believes His Wife, Suffering From Overwork, WillBe Found in Some Hospital" (PDF). New York Times. April 19, 1921. Retrieved 2009-07-29. Benton Mackaye, writer and forestry expert of 145 West Twelfth Street, asked the police at 1 o'clock yesterday to search for his wife, Mrs. Jessie Hardy Stubbs Mackaye, President of the Milwaukee Women's Peace Society and ...
  4. "Find Body Of Jessie Mackaye In East River". Chicago Tribune. April 20, 1921. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
  5. "The Path Taken". Preservation magazine. Archived from the original on 2010-02-22. Retrieved 2009-07-29. His marriage to leading suffragette Jessie Hardy Stubbs produced headlines in 1921, when she drowned herself in New York City’s East River. Charles Whitaker, a friend and editor of the Journal of the American Institute of Architects, invited the devastated MacKaye to stay at his farm in Mount Olive, NJ. There, as he healed, MacKaye nurtured his most famous idea—the Appalachian Trail.
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