Half a Century

Swisshelm, Jane Grey Cannon: - Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm was an American radical Republican journalist, publisher, abolitionist, and women's rights activist. She was one of America's first female journalists employed by Horace Greeley at the New York Tribune. She worked as a writer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a publisher and editor in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Swisshelm started her last journal, Reconstructionist, while working for the federal government in Washington, D.C., under President Andrew Johnson's administration. Her published criticism of Johnson led to her dismissal and the closure of the tabloid. She wrote her autobiography in 1881. Swisshelm was born Jane Grey Cannon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, as one of several children of Mary (Scott) and Thomas Cannon, both Presbyterians of Scotch-Irish origin. Her father was a trader and real estate speculator. When Jane was eight years old, her sister Mary and father died of consumption, leaving the family in dire financial straits. Jane labored in physical labor, creating lace and painting on velvet, while her mother colored leghorns and straw hats. She was sent to boarding school for several weeks when she was twelve years old because there were no public schools at that time.