1888 article describes Holyoke’s beginnings

The following article, printed in the Omaha Daily Bee March 14, 1888, tells the story of Lizzie Gordon, a 25-year-old woman credited with founding Holyoke.

ONE WOMAN'S ACHIEVEMENT.

The Struggles and Triumphs of Miss Lizzie Gordon.
THE FOUNDER OF HOLYOKE.

An Eastern Girl Who Came West, Located a Claim, Founded a Town, and is Now a Prosperous Financier.

    Many of the commercial travelers who have “made” the western states and territories for the past five years, will remember a young lady who for a period of two years, carried a grip over a territory in Missouri and Kansas. Miss Lizzie Gordon, who is now a resident of Holyoke, Col., left her home in Greene county, Pa., five years ago to seek her fortune on the western plains.
    A relative of Miss Gordon lived at Wahoo, Saunders county, Neb., and that town was her objective point.
    She was there but a short time when she accepted a position as teacher in the graded schools at a salary of $50 a month. Her services in this capacity were highly appreciated, but after her term of school expired she sought for an avocation less monotonous. Eager to make a record for herself outside the usual lines of woman's duties, she scanned closely the advertising columns of the daily papers, hoping to find something that would please her fancy and at the same time be a lucrative and honorable business. Her eye caught the advertisement of a publishing house wanting agents for a work entitled, “What Can a Woman Do?” and offering liberal inducements to active agents. She soon secured a position as traveling saleswoman. The states of Missouri and Kansas were thoroughly and successfully canvassed by the active little lady, and many a commercial traveler in that territory has been delighted and honored with her acquaintance. After following this occupation for two consecutive years she became imbued with its teachings, and with the spirit of independence characteristic of herself, she resigned her position on the road to demonstrate to a certainty the extent of the title “What can a woman do?" She determined on a plan of action, that of taking up a homestead in the boundless prairies of the far west, and making herself the “architect of her own fortune.”

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