Mabel Washbourne Anderson (April 11, 1863 – September 6, 1949) was an American writer and educator based in Oklahoma. She wrote biographies, poetry, and fiction, mostly focused on

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

history and culture.

Early life and education

Washbourne was born in

Russellville, Arkansas Russellville is the county seat of and the largest city in Pope County, Arkansas, United States, with a 2022 estimated population of 29,133. It is home to Arkansas Tech University. Arkansas Nuclear One, Arkansas' only nuclear power plant is nea ...

, and raised in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), the daughter of Josiah Woodward Washbourne and Susan Catherine Ridge Washbourne. Her father was white; her paternal grandfather, Cephas Washburn, was a white missionary from Vermont who worked in Cherokee communities in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Her maternal grandfather, John Ridge, was a Cherokee leader, as was his father, Major Ridge. Both of Washbourne's parents died in 1871. She graduated from the

Cherokee Female Seminary The Cherokee Female Seminary was built by the Cherokee Nation in 1889 near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Tahlequah, Indian Territory. It replaced their original girls' seminary, the First Cherokee Female Seminary Site, first Cherokee Female Seminary, that ...

Tahlequah Tahlequah ( ; , ) is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of the Green Country region of Oklahoma and was established as a capital of the 19th-century Cherokee Nation in 1839, as par ...

in 1883.

Career and publications

Anderson taught school in Oklahoma for many years, and wrote stories and poems for magazines and newspapers. She was a member of the Sequoyah Literary Society and the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, a ...

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...

mentioned visiting with Anderson in a 1937 '' My Day'' column, saying "I enjoyed talking to her about Cherokee history and am looking forward to reading the little book she left with me." * "From Eureka Springs" (1887, ''Indian Chieftain'') * "An Osage Niobe" (1900, ''Tahlequah Arrow'') * "Nowita, the Sweet Singer" (1900, poem) * "Difficulties of the Five Tribes" (1901, ''The Republic'') * "Echo of a Sermon" (1901, ''Indian Chieftain'') * "Some of the Children of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

' Fancy" (1901, ''Twin Territories'') * "Love of the Beautiful" (1901, ''Twin Territories'') * "Edward Pason Washbourne" (1903, ''Vinita Daily Chieftain'') * "United Daughters of the Confederacy" (1903, ''Vinita Weekly Chieftain'') * "Father of his Country" (1905, ''Vinita Chieftain'') * "Old

Fort Gibson Fort Gibson is a historic military site next to the modern city of Fort Gibson, in Muskogee County Oklahoma. It guarded the American frontier in Indian Territory from 1824 to 1888. When it was constructed, the fort was farther west than any ot ...

on the Grand" (1906, ''Indian Advocate'') * "The Southern Artist" (1907, ''Sturm's Oklahoma Magazine'') * "Joe Jamison's Sacrifice" (1908, ''Sturm's'') * "The Cherokee Poet and 'Mount Shasta' (1908, ''Sturm's'') * "The Story of Nowita" (1911, ''The Pryor Creek Clipper'') * "Easter and Nature in Happy Harmony" (1911, ''Sturm's'') * ''The life of General Stand Watie'' (1915, 1931) * "General Stand Watie" (1932, '' Chronicles of Oklahoma'') * "Old Fort Gibson" (1932, ''Chronicles of Oklahoma'')

Personal life and legacy

Washbourne married John Carlton Anderson in 1891. They had two daughters, Gladys and Helen. She died in 1949, at the age of 86, in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

. Writing by Anderson was included in the collection ''Native American Writing in the Southeast: An Anthology !875–1935'' (UBC Press 1995), in ''Changing is not Vanishing: A Collection of American Indian Poetry to 1930'' (University of Pennsylvania Press 2011), and in Nina Baym's ''Women Writers of the American West, 1833–1927'' (2012).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Mabel Washbourne 1863 births 1949 deaths People from Russellville, Arkansas American educators American women writers Cherokee women