For Women's History Month, the Museum is highlighting the stories of a few unique women who lived in Louisville and contributed to making it the special place it is today. These women represent just a handful of the many stories of women who lived here and invested in the community, both in traditional ways and in ways that defied and broke gender stereotypes. The Louisville women we chose to highlight were strong, intelligent, entrepreneurial, and charitable. The hardest part about highlighting Louisville women is narrowing down the stories!

Louisville women lived through many changes.

A member of one of the earliest families to settle in Louisville, Jessie Niehoff was only seven years old when she came in 1877 to the community that would soon become Louisville. Coal had been discovered, and Charles C. Welch opened the Welch Mine that year. Welch hired her father, Charles Niehoff, first as a fireman, then as engineer at the Welch Mine a few months later. Jessie was present at the start of Louisville and saw many changes by the time she died in 1959 at the age of 89, living in the same house her father built at 717 Main in about 1878. This house is the oldest structure in Louisville, and can still be seen next to City Hall on Main.

Jessie was among the first students in Louisville’s first school, which was one room, and she experienced a time when wash water came in ditches from the Goodhue Ditch just west of Louisville to a water hole, where residents would get the water and store it in barrels. In 1889, at the age of nineteen, Jessie Niehoff married William Austin.

In 1951, she was reported as being in favor of approving a bond issue to fund Louisville’s first sewage system (Louisville residents still used outhouses at the time). According to the April 5, 1951 Louisville Times, she stated, “It may pinch some of us, but we have been pinched before and got through it.” Every time you flush a toilet in Louisville, you can think of Jessie!

A 1956 newspaper article about Jessie Niehoff Austin observed: “During her lifetime, Mrs. Austin has seen Superior and Lafayette started and built, as well as the development of Louisville from its beginning as a coal camp into a commuter’s town as it is today. She saw the coal mines start and [the mining] industry close down here. She has seen at least four generations of changes in the business section of Louisville.” You can read the rest of the 1956 Louisville Times article about Jessie here.

Photo 1: Jessie Niehoff and little brother Eddie, circa 1883

Photo 2: Austin Niehoff House at 717 Main Street in Louisville, circa 1889, with Amelia, Jessie, and Bert Niehoff, and Warren Giles 

Photo 3: Jessie Niehoff-Austin

Louisville women could be charitable business-owners.

Martha Baier Eberharter was another of Louisville’s earliest residents. Born in Austria in 1876, Martha came with her parents to live in Louisville by the time of the 1880 federal census, just two years after Louisville was established in 1878. Martha would grow up to become a successful business owner and local philanthropist.

According to the Louisville Times, “Mrs. Eberharter had one of the biggest grocery stores in Louisville which she ran for about 30 years … The store had everything except meat and at one time had all the flour from the community.” Martha was one of three women who owned stores on La Farge Avenue, along with Mrs. Kate Allera and Mrs. Ora Forte. Martha made sure that the families of local miners received credit at her store through the lean summer months when they were out of work because of mining having been seasonal in the Louisville area. Without this generosity, it is possible many people could not have stayed in Louisville over the summer months. 

In 1894, Martha married Ludwig Eberharter, one of the developers and owners of the Hi-Way Mine. When Ludwig died in 1935, Martha took over his business interests, which resulted in her serving as one of the directors of the Hi-Way Mine. Martha was the first female director of a Louisville coal mine!

The stories of Martha’s giving spirit are numerous. For example, she gave weekly baskets of fresh fruit to a girl suffering with rheumatic fever, and she paid all the medical expenses for her son and his three friends who were involved in a serious automobile accident. Martha handled the food and clothing drives at the St. Louis Catholic Church, and she was recognized as the first participant in the Adopt-A-Family program, although many residents felt that she adopted all of the families in Louisville. Martha’s take-charge attitude, compelling personality and giving spirit, reminiscent of the famous Molly Brown, was a blessing to many families and residents in Louisville.

The Louisville Historical Commission selected Martha Eberharter as the posthumous recipient of the 1990 Pioneer Award because she was one of Louisville’s greatest philanthropists, and was known for her sincerity, generosity, and kindness.

Photo 1: Eberharter Grocery (R) and house (L) at 805 and 801 La Farge, circa 1900-1931

Photo 2: Martha Eberharter and friend

Photo 3: Martha Eberharter and lamb

Louisville women could be highly educated athletes.

What was it like to grow up in Louisville? What opportunities existed for girls in the early 1900s in this small coal mining community?

Several photos in the Museum’s collection give us clues about Mary Ethel’s experience growing up in Louisville. Much like kids today, kids in early Louisville certainly spent time goofing off. This picture of girls being goofy with a donkey shows a young Mary Ethel at the tail. Farm animals were common in downtown Louisville!

During her time in high school, Mary Ethel enjoyed sports, just like kids today, playing both softball and basketball. One thing that has certainly changed is better equipment and uniforms for female athletes!

After graduating from Louisville High School in 1910, Mary Ethel went on to the University of Colorado in Boulder to get a degree in Education. Mary Ethel seems to have maintained her high activity level while at University, serving as secretary for the CU Y.W.C.A, the chairman of the Big Sister Committee, and organizing plays and dances. The Boulder Daily Camera, comments on one such dance performance on July 30, 1914, “Miss Ethel Ball, a Boulder girl and student of the University, considered to be one of the most graceful dancers in the college, danced the Highland fling and the Irish [lilt] in a flawless manner.”

Mary Ethel received a BA in education in 1914 and went on to receive a certificate in Hygiene and Physical Education from Wellesley College and a master’s degree in education from New York University. As an elementary teacher, she was a strong supporter of athletics, and organized the first physical education program for Boulder elementary schools in 1921. Perhaps the importance of sports was instilled in her during her time at Louisville High. In 1924, she became an instructor of physical education at the University of Colorado and two years later taught the University’s first ever dance class.

Mary Ethel continued to support female athletics and academics. She was named Dean of Women at the University in 1947, and served in this office for 14 years. Upon her retirement in 1960, she received the Robert L. Stearns Award from the Alumni Association for outstanding service to the University. Mary Ethel Ball is an amazing example of academic achievement and involvement from Louisville’s earliest days!

Photo 1: Mary Ethel Ball at tail, with friends, Grace McNeil at head, and Nelle and Minnie Allert on donkey

Photo 2: Mary Ethel Ball playing basketball in Louisville around 1910

Louisville women could be strong and hard-working.

When you think about traditional “women’s work” in the late 1800s, blacksmithing is probably not one of the jobs you think of! But that is exactly the non-traditional profession of one of Louisville’s early residents, Mary Oldacre Thomas.

Mary Oldacre was born around 1850 in England. According to a family history, Mary Oldacre was “a blacksmith by trade in England, forging chain.” In 1871 she was listed on a census as living with her parents in Cradley Heath with the occupation of “chainmaker.” Cradley Heath was known for its concentration of shops making iron chain in today’s County of Staffordshire, as well as for coal mining.

Mary Oldacre married Nicholas Thomas, a Welsh coal miner, and the two came to the United States in 1881 with their 8 year old son, Nicholas Jr. They arrived in New York on the ship “Adriatic” from Liverpool. After stops in Pennsylvania and Nebraska, they came to Louisville in 1883 and built the house at 733 Pine not long after. According to a newspaper article about the family, they did not know anyone in Louisville when they came. Nonetheless, Mary became one of the founders of the Methodist Church in Louisville and her descendants went on to own coal mines in the area as well as businesses in Louisville such as the Grain Elevator on County Road, the Thomas Feed Store at Pine and Front, and the City Market grocery store located on Main Street and then at 637 Front Street.

In 1898, Mary and her son, then about 25 years, returned to Cradley Heath for three years. There she returned to her blacksmith work, alongside her son! Nicholas Jr. met a wife, Elizabeth Batchelor, and together the three returned to Louisville in 1901. Upon their return to Louisville, Mary continued to live with her son’s family and apparently did not again reside with her husband at 733 Pine. By the early 1900s, they were divorced. This photo of the Thomas house may include Mary. Although she only had one son, Nicholas Jr., she had 8 grandchildren, born and raised in Louisville, including a namesake, Mary Thomas, born in 1911. Mary is an example of the hard working immigrant women who defied gender stereotypes to be successful in Louisville.