Writer, Candidate, Farmer, Mom: An Amazing Woman
By Rebecca Hein
Cecilia Hennel Hendricks was adventurous, hardy and industrious.
She displayed the first trait when she traveled from Bloomington, Indiana, to Garland, Wyoming, to marry John Hendricks—the fourth time she’d seen him. But even prior to her marriage, she suffered from “terrible homesickness” when she was away at university, and the homesickness continued after she was married. She wrote to her family daily until their first child was born. After that, she still wrote often.
The latter two traits showed in everything she found time to do: canning fruit, vegetables and meat; churning butter (canning is, and churning was, a huge amount of work); and helping John with his beekeeping business. She also did all the family cooking and participated in many regional clubs: social, housekeeping and intellectual. She served as officers and speakers for these and, when they met at the Hendricks home, prepared extensive refreshments.
Sometimes she had to pinch-hit for John, milking the cow, feeding the calf and young chicks and tending their large garden. She also sewed for herself and their three children; helped other nearby honey producers find the best prices for clover seed and coal; wrote articles for sale to magazines; helped neighbors; during World War I served in the Red Cross.
She also found time to campaign for William B. Ross and Nellie Tayloe Ross on their runs for governor, and ran herself for state superintendent of public instruction—twice.
But her hardiness and industry really showed themselves when, in labor with their first child, she typed “30 coal letters,” possibly to coal producers about prices.
It all adds up to an impressive portrait that left me amazed one person could do so much.
[Rebecca Hein is an assistant editor at WyoHistory.org]