Kate Mason Rowland

Kate Mason Rowland
Born Kate Mason Rowland
June 22, 1840
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Died June 28, 1916 (aged 76)
Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Residence Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Nationality American
Ethnicity European American
Citizenship United States of America
Confederate States of America
Occupation author, genealogist, historian, biographer, editor, historic preservationist
Religion Episcopalian
Parent(s) Isaac S. Rowland
Catherine Armistead Mason
Relatives great-great-grandniece of George Mason

Kate Mason Rowland (22 June 1840–28 June 1916)[1][2] was an American author, historian, genealogist, biographer, editor and historic preservationist. Rowland is best known for authoring what is widely considered the definitive biography of her great-great-granduncle, George Mason, a Founding Father of the United States. Rowland was also a charter member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.[3] She later went by the name of "Kate Mason."[1]

Early life

Kate Mason Rowland and her twin sister, Elizabeth Moir Mason Rowland (died 1905), were born on 22 June 1840 to Major Isaac S. Rowland and his wife, Catherine Armistead Mason.[1][2] Rowland was a granddaughter of John Thomson Mason and a niece of Stevens Thomson Mason.[1][2]

American Civil War

Rowland volunteered for the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.[4] She served as a nurse at Camp Winder Hospital in Richmond, Virginia.[4] On 4 April 1865, after the Confederate government abandoned Richmond, Rowland, then a matron at the Marine Hospital (also known as the Naval Hospital), sang “patriotic songs” to hospitalized soldiers.[5] She described the scene in her diary as "overflowing with merriment," in which a casual observer would “hardly realize we were all prisoners” of the Union.[5] Both of Rowland's brothers, Thomas Rowland (1842–1874) and John Thomson Mason (1844–1901), served in the Confederate States Army.[4]

Civic and organizational involvement

Rowland was a charter member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.[3][6] Rowland found the moniker "War of the Rebellion" for the American Civil War unacceptable.[7] She introduced a resolution at a United Daughters of the Confederacy meeting in November 1899 requiring members to "use every influence, as a body and individually, to expel from the literature of the country and from the daily press, the phrase, 'war of the rebellion,' and to have substituted for it the phrase, 'War Between the States.'"[7] Rowland's resolution went further, instructing members to induce the Federal government to use the preferred term.[7]

In addition to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Rowland was also an active member of the Virginia Historical Society, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society.[6] She was an honorary member of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore.[6]

List of works

Articles

Books

Essays and letters

Edited books

Honors and awards

In 2010 the Library of Virginia posthumously honored Rowland as one of their "Virginia Women in History" for her contributions to writing.[8]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Gunston Hall. "Kate Mason Rowland". Gunston Hall. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 arlisherring.com (9 Feb 2008). "Kate Mason Rowland". arlisherring.com. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 United Confederate Veterans, Sons of Confederate Veterans (Organization, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Confederated Southern Memorial Association) (1895). The Confederate Veteran Magazine. Blue and Grey Press.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 William and Mary College (April 1893). "The Ohio Company; William and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 4". William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Papers. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Tim Sheehan (1 January 2009). ""Economy Rules the Day:" The Civil War Sacrifices of Judith Walker McGuire". historynut.info. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Leonard, John William; Albert Nelson Marquis (1903). Who's who in America. Marquis.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 The Washington Post. "A War Of Words About The Civil War". George Mason University's History News Network. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
  8. ↑ "Virginia Women in History: Kate Mason Rowland". Library of Virginia. Retrieved 4 March 2015.

External links