Emma May Alexander Reinertsen
"A Woman of the Century"
"A Woman of the Century"
BornEmma May Alexander
January 6, 1853
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
DiedMarch 22, 1920(1920-03-22) (aged 67)
Pen nameGale Forest
Occupation
  • writer
  • social reformer
LanguageEnglish
Alma materMilwaukee-Downer College
Genre
  • prose sketches
  • opinion pieces
Notable worksFive Cousins in California
Spouse
Robert C. Keinertsen
​
​
(m. 1871)​
Children2 sons
RelativesWilliam Tecumseh Sherman

Emma May Alexander Reinertsen (née, Alexander; pen name, Gale Forest; also known as, Mrs. R. C. Reinertsen; January 6, 1853 – March 22, 1920) was a pseudonymous American writer of prose sketches,[1] and articles on social reform issues. As "Gale Forest", she was the author of Five Cousins in California. She also wrote about temperance and various customs such as wearing hats in theaters, and spitting in street cars and on sidewalks.

Early life and education

Emma May Alexander was born in Buffalo, New York, January 6, 1853. Her father was Capt. Squire Alexander and her mother was Henrietta E. Sherman.[1] Her great-grandfather, Peter Belknap, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Her grandfather, Jacob Alexander, was a soldier in the War of 1812. Her father was master of some of the largest transports in government service during the Civil War; at a bombardment of Fort Sumter by the ironclads, he was captain of the dispatch boat, Governor, which, because of her high speed, was of great service to the navy. Reinertsen's mother, a relative of General William Tecumseh Sherman, was orphaned in infancy and was adopted by Col. Samuel French, who traced his ancestry to the Mayflower.[2]

Reinertsen came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when four years of age, her father having made that decision after receiving a shipbuilding patent and a portion of Jones Island. After some financial disappointments, he returned to his life on the sea, where he died and was buried.[2]

Reinertsen was educated in public and private schools in Milwaukee. She was for some time a student at the Milwaukee Female College, later known as Milwaukee-Downer College. She dropped out of the College in what would have been her final year, in order to get married.[2]

Career

Using the pen name "Gale Forest", Reinertsen built a reputation beyond her local region. Her sketches were characterized as "bright with wit and condensed wisdom". Called the Fanny Fern of the West as an indication of her literary style, her writing, though not voluminous, had merit.[1]

Her early writing efforts appeared in The Cincinnati Times. She was also a contributor to the Chicago Tribune , Christian Union (renamed, The Outlook) Good Cheer, as well as the Milwaukee Wisconsin, Sentinel, Telegraph, and the Milwaukee Monthly Magazine. One of her best sketches, "A Forbidden Topic", was incorporated in Osgood Eaton Fuller's 1884 book entitled Brave Men and Women: Their Struggles, Failures and Triumphs.[1][3]

Published in 1909, Five Cousins in California was a chldren's book set in Pasadena, California.[4][5]

Reinertsen also wrote on social reform issues. In 1873, she began addressing the topic of temperance, particularly the custom of children being allowed to carry beer from saloons to homes and shops. One of her later articles on the subject was forwarded to Mark Twain, who highly commended it and was strongly in favor of the reform.[2] Reinertsen was the first in the "West" to protest against the wearing of hats in theaters. From that reform came a movement to remove hats in all churches. Two other reforms were credited to her, that of the custom of spitting in street cars and spitting on the sidewalk.[6] Eventually, an ordinance was secured in Milwaukee, and thereafter, hundreds of cities and villages passed laws against the custom of spitting on sidewalks.[2]

She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution,[7] National Society United States Daughters of 1812, College Endowment Association, and the Milwaukee Outdoor Art Association.[2]

Personal life

On October 18, 1871, she married Robert C. Reinertsen (1846–1923), a civil engineer of Milwaukee. The couple had two sons, Rex and Don.[1][2][8] Her son Rex was killed in September 1907 when he suffered a fractured skull after being thrown from an automobile, aged 30.[9]

Emma May Alexander Reinertsen died on March 22, 1920, in Wisconsin, aged 67.[10]

Selected works

Five Cousins in California (1909)

Books

  • Five Cousins in California (1909)

Sketches

  • "A Girl's Soliloquy in Church" (1874)[11]
  • "How to Keep Your Husband's Love" (1876)[12]
  • "How To Keep Your Wife's Love" (1876)[13]
  • "For Whom the Boot Fits" (1878)[14]
  • "My Neighbors" (1881)[15]
  • "How They Meet and Part" (1881)[16]
  • "A Forbidden Topic" (1884)
  • "The Model Husband" (1886)[17]
  • "The Model Authoress" (1887)[18]
  • "My Experience With Christian Science" (1887)[19]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). "REINERTSEN, Mrs. Emma May Alexander". A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Charles Wells Moulton. pp. 603–04. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Watrous, Jerome Anthony (1909). Memoirs of Milwaukee County: From the Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present, Including a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families in Milwaukee County. Western Historical Association. pp. 769–72. Retrieved 1 July 2022. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ↑ Fuller, Osgood Eaton (1884). ""A Forbidden Topic", Gale Forest, in The Christian Union". Brave Men and Women: Their Struggles, Failures and Triumphs. H. J. Smith. pp. 442–46. Retrieved 1 July 2022. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ↑ ""Five Cousins in California"". Boston Evening Transcript. 21 December 1909. p. 14. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ↑ Reinertsen, Emma May Alexander (1909). Five Cousins in California: A Sunny Picture of a Sunny Land. C.M. Clark. Retrieved 1 July 2022. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. ↑ Rounds, Charles Ralph (1918). Wisconsin Authors and Their Works. Parker Educational Company. p. 352. Retrieved 1 July 2022. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. ↑ Daughters of the American Revolution (1924). "MRS. EMMA M. ALEXANDER REINERTSEN. 74643". Lineage Book – National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Daughters of the American Revolution. p. 237. Retrieved 1 July 2022. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  8. ↑ "Emma May Alexander 1853 – 1920 • KL59-Y2N". ident.familysearch.org. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  9. ↑ "Rex Reinertsen death certificate". Retrieved July 19, 2022 – via Ancestry.com.
  10. ↑ "Emma May Reinertsen in the Wisconsin, U.S., Death Records". U.S. Death Records. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  11. ↑ "A Girl's Soliloquy in Church". Harrisburg Telegraph. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 10 March 1874. p. 1. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  12. ↑ "How to Keep Your Husband's Love". The Fairbury Gazette. Fairbury, Nebraska. 5 August 1876. p. 1. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  13. ↑ "How To Keep Your Wife's Love". St. Landry Democrat. Opelousas, Louisiana. 8 September 1876. p. 4. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  14. ↑ "For Whom the Boot Fits". The Western Spirit. Paola, Kansas. 13 December 1878. p. 1. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  15. ↑ ""My Neighbors"". Chicago Tribune. 29 January 1881. p. 12. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  16. ↑ "How They Meet and Part". Weekly Interior Herald. Hutchinson, Kansas. 29 December 1881. p. 1. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  17. ↑ "The Model Husband". The Baldwin Ledger. Baldwin City, Kansas. 20 November 1886. p. 3. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  18. ↑ "The Model Authoress". The Atchison County Mail. Rock Port, Missouri. 7 October 1887. p. 1. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  19. ↑ "My Experience With Christian Science". The Weekly Wisconsin. Milwaukee. 31 December 1887. p. 5. Retrieved 1 July 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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