The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-05-03
from the Stafford (Eag) Weekly Nsws.l
tsHarry" Stokes, the Man-WO.

The most remarkable woman of this cen
tury was "Harry" Stokes, the bricksetter,
who committed suicide in the suice of the
River Irwell at Mode Wheel, last night week.
For about thirty years this extraordinary
person had lived in Manchester and Stafford
as a iourneymen and master bricksetter; had
been twice married; had kept beer
houses and served customers at the tap as a
.'jolly landlord - had worked at her trade
as br;cksetter, and erected many impor-
tant buildings in boat towns and had OBJ
tained the the reputation of being the most
skillful fire. CRATE setter and "chimney doc
tori in the neighborhood. She always dress
ed as man, in the clothing peculiar to her
trade; invariably superintended the men in
her employment; and could lift weight,
spread the mortar and set brick with the
best of them. Her habits were those Of a
man. She attended daily ordinary in the
town along with other brickset-
ters, drank, smoked, and iokei with the
hardest, and joined in the evening carousals.
Yet. with with all this constant and close
intimacy with the opposite sex, this strong
minded woman contrivel to keep her own
great secret; and there is every reason to
believe that she has gone down into the
grave at the advanced age Of sixty, or there
abouts, having Throughout maintained an I'M
broken check upon those passions which
crowd the streets Of every large town with
the unfortunate her sex. Her great en-
deavor was on all occasions to keep up the
manly character she had assumed. From a
child she had been accustomed to the severe
work of one of the most laborous occupations
in which man is engaged, and the skill she
had attained in trade reveals an amount of
persevering energy which made her worthy
of better fate than that of the wetched sui
eide.
Tt is curious to know what first induced
her to assume the garb and occupation of a
man, and what powerful agency it was that
enabled her to remain faithful to the line of
duty she had thus marked out for herself.
There are instances innumerable where the
influence of love, or romantic disposition,
has clothed the form Of woman with male at
tire, and sustained her amid the pers of the
battle field, in the dangers of the deep, or in
wild adventure in foreign lands; but we
know of no other case in history or tradition
where woman has wonderfully repressed,
her own feelings and natural disposition, so
completely assumed the habits Of mar
and been so successful in evading the prying
curiosity of the world. "Harry" Stokes has
indeed played her part so cleverly that it is
with the greatest difficulty wehave been able
to CLEAN the following facts. which, meagre
as they are, throw some little light on her
past history
She was the daughter Of bricklayer in q
village in the ncighborhood Of Doncaster-
Before she could well balance her own little
body she was made 'useful' in the house
and ere many years ha passed over her head
she was brought into acquaintance with some
of the roughest and toughest work Of those
hardwrought days. Little Harriet Stoke 5
lines had not been laid in pleasant places
She was so ground down by the iron hand
at home that, when she was about eight
years DID, she put on tattered suit of boys
clothing and walked forth into the ''wide
wide world" Arrived at the village o.
Whitby, she looked about for work She
had not run away from her fathers house
because snc did not like TO work and prefer
red to eat the bread of Idleness. The hare
treatment ofparents ignorant of their respon
sibility had driven her from the protectio o
home and from the association which should
cnchain the young mind to home. That she
was not afraid of hard work was apparent
when she offered her services to bricksettel
in Whitby. Though somewhat undersized
she appeared broadset, active, useful lad
and was speedily set to work. her first ef
forts to please We're attended with success
and she was soor taken as ian appren
tice.
From this point we must drop the femin
inc arpella.ive, and speak jof Harry Stokes
as boy who has workoJy ray to the dig
nifty Of a ion-,s,.retors for -.ome