A pioneer woman living at Fort Winnebago in 1837 as the fort cook comes to life on Wednesday, September 2nd at 1pm at the Hatch Public Library in Mauston, Wisconsin. Sheila Berkes presents Anne Whitney welcoming newcomers to the fort. The presentation gives Anne a chance to tell you her journey to the fort and what life was like at the fort. She tells what they have endured during the Indian wars. She will then take questions about the fort. At the end of the presentation, Sheila will tell how she prepared Anne’s story.
You can be part of those newscomers on Wednesday, September 2, and there is no charge.
Born into a Midwestern Swedish family, Sheila received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and graduate degree in American Studies from the University of Wyoming. She has taught history, literature, and speech in Illinois, Texas, and Wyoming and is now exploring the history of Wisconsin.
For ten years, she traveled with Chautauqua programs presenting pioneering women of the nineteenth century including Josephine Hensley (Chicago Joe), an owner of a hurdy-gurdy hall in Montana; Narcissa Whitman, the first white woman across the Oregon Trail; Francis Carrington, an army wife in Wyoming; Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for the Presidency in New York; and Fanny Trollope, an Englishwoman whose travel in the west resulted in the book, Domestic Manners of the Americans.
Sheila also starred in Same Time Next Year, Our Town, Tiger at the Gates, Streetcar Named Desire, Night Mother, A Delicate Balance, and others as well as the talent on radio and television commercials. Sheila and her husband, Lee, live in Mauston.
Contributed