Across The Fence: Ladies First or First Ladies

First woman to receive a medical degree: Elizabeth Blackwell, Jan. 23, 1849

First woman to file a Nebraska Homestead Claim: Mary Meyer (Meier), Jan. 1863

First American woman astronaut in space: Sally Kristen Ride, June 23, 1983

First ever – man or woman – to make the plunge over Niagara Falls: Annie Edson Taylor, Oct. 24, 1901.

Annie Edson was born in Auburn, N.Y., on Oct. 24, 1838. Her father, Merrick Edson, owned and operated a very successful flour mill in the area and the family might be said to have been "well-off."

Annie's father died when she was 12 years old, however, her mother and seven siblings continued to live a comfortable, if not extravagant, lifestyle due to the inheritance and wise investment of the father's fortune.

As a child, Annie was a good student, an avid reader and took great pleasure in outdoors activities, participating in sports more traditionally enjoyed by boys. After completing her courses in normal school, Annie attended the Conference Seminary and the Collegiate Institute at Charlottesville, N.Y. Annie's career choice was that of teacher.

While at the Institute, she met David Taylor and, after a whirlwind courtship, they were married in 1855. Annie was 17 years old.

Several years after the marriage, the Taylors had a son who lived just a few days after the birth. To add to her grief, her husband David enlisted in the Union Army and went off to join the fight between the Union and the Confederacy. In 1864, David was killed in battle and Annie never remarried.

A former classmate lived in San Antonio and Annie packed up her belongings, moved to Texas and assumed a teaching position there. Apparently, Texas did not provide the balm that Annie had hoped for and she soon after returned to the state of New York.

Back in New York, Annie enrolled in a dance school and became an instructor of music and dance. This new occupation would become her source of livelihood, to supplement her continued inheritance, for most of the next 30 years. It was during this time that Annie later boasted that she had crossed and re-crossed the North American continent eight times. Perhaps it was during this time that Annie's spirit of adventure became her compass.

In her attempt to maintain the amenities to which she had been accustomed, Annie soon depleted her share of the family fortune and sought some means of earning the money to support her lifestyle. Her search took her to many of the major cities across the continent from Chattanooga, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; San Francisco, Calif.; Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Ill.; Indianapolis, Ind., and Syracuse, N.Y. Her search for that elusive fortune even took her across the southern border to Mexico City and north into Canada.

Annie continued to live the somewhat affluent live style of which she had always enjoyed and could not imagine having to lower her standard of living to make financial ends meet. However, by 1898 her inheritance and savings were nearly gone and she moved to Bay City, N.Y. At that time many investors were making huge profits from investments in Bay City's lumbering ventures. Perhaps Annie thought that it was in Bay City that she could rebuild her savings.

Falling back on her vocation of dance instructor, Annie quickly discovered that there were no dance studios in Bay City and promptly opened her own business. The studio was quite popular and her clientele quickly grew. However, Annie's taste for elegance went beyond the handsome income of the dance studio and the venture failed.

By 1900, Annie was getting desperate and adventurous. She moved once more, this time to Sault Ste. Marie on the upper peninsula of Michigan on the Saint Mary's River that bordered Canada. Here she spent the summer teaching music that also proved to be another failed venture.

Returning to Bay City that fall, she gathered together her necessary belongings and traveled to Mexico City. Once more reality fell far short of her expectations and by May 1901 Annie was back in Bay City. It was here that her most outlandish scheme for fame and fortune was born.

David Whalen, who wrote "The Lady Who Conquered Niagara," quoted Annie's base motivation for her unprecedented undertaking: "For a woman who had money all her life and been used to refined surroundings and the society of cultured people, it is horrible to be poor ... I made up my mind I would have no more of it."

In July 1901 Annie read an article in the New York World about the upcoming Pan-American Exposition being held in Buffalo, N.Y. The article included information about the popularity of nearby Niagara Falls and the thousands of people who would be visiting the natural wonder during their attendance at the exposition.

This was inspiration for Annie. "I laid the paper down, sat thinking, when the thought came to me like a flash of light ... Go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. No one had ever accomplished this feat."

Annie quickly began making the necessary preparations. She contacted Frank M. Russell, a local promoter of carnivals and retained his services. Next she began the task of designing the barrel that would be her vessel on this historic "voyage."

The west Bay City Cooperage Company was a local supplier of kegs to the Kolb Brewery and they agreed to build a barrel to Annie's specifications. The barrel would be four and a half feet tall, about three feet wide at the middle and narrower at each end. The barrel was secured by seven steel bands and would be watertight, which meant it must also be airtight. Inside, the barrel would be padded with adequate mattresses and would include a leather harness and handholds. For ballast to keep the barrel upright, before and after it went over the Falls, a 200-pound anvil was secured to the bottom.

Because of Annie's dire financial situation, some speculated that her scheme was nothing more than an elaborate suicide. One reporter asked her if that was her intention to which she replied, "Not by any means. I am too good an Episcopalian to do such a thing as that."

Prior to Annie's attempted conquest of the Falls, the barrel was tested a few days prior with a pet cat as the passenger inside the barrel. Some accounts indicate that it was Annie's own pet cat that made the trip. After the test the Bay City Times Press of Oct. 20, 1901, carried the news:

"Niagara Falls, N. Y., Oct. 19. – The barrel was sent over the Canadian Horse Shoe Falls yesterday for a test trip.

It was towed out into the river about two miles above the falls and cut loose at 4:10 with a cat inside. It dropped down the ledges and through the rapids in great shape, reaching the brink of the falls and plunged downward feet foremost. It was one minute and a half from the brink till the barrel floated into view at the foot of the falls. It passed down the river to the eddy and was picked up by Captain Carter of the Maid of the Mist. The cat sprang out and was unhurt when the lid was lifted. The barrel was without a mark."

Annie's trip was delayed a few days, but on Oct. 24, 1901, Annie's 63rd birthday, she backed into the custom built barrel wearing her Sunday best skirt and blouse, handed her hat to the men who sealed the lid of the barrel, and began the mile long float trip to the precipice of the falls.

On Oct. 25t, 1901, the New York Times reported:

"WOMAN GOES OVER NIAGARA IN A BARREL.

She Is Alive, but Suffering Greatly from Shock.

Thousands View the Attempt.

She has a three-inch cut in her scalp back of the right ear, but how or when she got it she does not know. She complains of pain between the shoulders, but this is thought to be from the fact that her shoulders were thrown back during the plunge, as she had her arms in straps, and these undoubtedly saved her neck from breaking.

"In passing over the falls, she admits having lost consciousness. So severe was the shock that she wanders in her talk, but there is little doubt but that she will be in good condition within a day or two."

According to those who were there, Annie's first words after being removed from the barrel were, "Nobody ought ever to do that again."

Annie may have won the fame she sought but fortune did not follow. She spent her remaining years in poverty, selling brochures and autographed pictures at Niagara Falls and telling her story at a few speaking engagements. She died alone on April 29, 1921.

Only 15 people have braved the Niagara challenge, five perished in the attempt.

M. Timothy Nolting is an award-winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. Contact him via e-mail at: [email protected]