I recently googled Mary P. Lowe. She is still hard to find. Mostly there are notations of genealogy references, a lot of which are for another Mary Lowe. I have a lot of empathy for her as she seemed to get slighted in life and now even in death.

A mother who lost a child.
A husband who died young.
Her home was in a commercial building above her business.
A business which was eventually probably run out of her apartment.
Death at a young age by todays standards.

I am still amazed at how sentimental I am about the persons that were involved with NEQUA.

The Kansas Agitator published in Garnett, Kansas carried a news item on June 18, 1897, which stated that “The New Woman” was the name of a new paper published in Topeka by Mrs. M. P. Lowe and Mrs. Matilda C. Gillmore. “It is published in the interest of woman’s advancement in all lines, and it should be in the hands of every woman in the country. It is one of the best papers in its class. Send a dollar and get it a year.”

I wonder if Mary and Matilda were also friends.

Mrs. M.C. Gillmore was born in Sweden and grew up in Lawrence in her parents Hotel on Vermont Street. She had a son named Jessie R. A. Gilmore who became a printer. During her time in Topeka she is listed as a journalist, residing at 110 West E. Street.  In 1896-1897 she is listed as a widow residing at the Union Pacific Hotel and later at 1224 Jackson with Jessie R. A. Gillmore, a printer. She was the leader of the womans section of the “Patrons of Equity”

She moved with her son and parents to Virginia Beach, Virginia in1900. I never found any notations of her working as a journalist in Florida.

Sure would be nice to know a little more of the story.