"OUT
OF WISCONSIN - A FIERY RED HEADED GIRL - CHILD OF MYSTERY
AN INCREDIBLE WOMAN"
ELIZABETH BANKS!
(1865-1938)
Her poodle was named "Judge" Selecting between newspapers on request,
Judge also possessed exceptional intelligence. Hmmm. Why did she pick that
unusual name for a dog???
Elizabeth L. Banks was destined to become a most influential journalist and
author. Equipped with strong personal drive (real
grit!) and exceptional intelligence,
plus ever steady personal ethics, she led the way for women in a tough male
dominated profession. As an investigative journalist she was careful to protect
her sources, even in death. When she felt it necessary to lie, which she did
on occasion, she would freely admit it, always giving exact intellectual reasons.
Even her autobiographies demonstrate her care in keeping people and places
secret. She tirelessly worked for multiple causes including the Allies in
World War I. British Intelligence used her information to distract attacks
on London. Most of her personal notes were burned upon her death.
There
is much we know, yet much to be learned. You are invited to help unravel this
real life mystery. Elizabeth's entire life, from a rich American heritage,
to investigative journalism, to her later years in London, are filled with
secrets, questions and delights.
This is intended to be a collaborative web site. Enjoy and share your thoughts
on this wonderful woman. Help us dig for the truth! Any tidbit or thought
is most welcome.
Her early years:
(Her very earliest years remain, a story untold ??? Can you help?)
Raised on "the experiment farm" in Wisconsin, Elizabeth earned her way, entering Milwaukee–Downer Female Seminary when it was still located at Fox Lake, Wisconsin. The school later moved near Milwaukee. Her graduation gown was purchased with butter and eggs. First she worked as a Typewriter Girl in a grocery store window, then as a society reporter both in Baltimore and St. Paul. A wonderful break allowed her to work at the consulate as secretary to the American ambassador in Peru.
Elizabeth returned to continue her fighting breakthrough, working then as a stunt journalism girl and a yellow journalist. Imagine a yellow journalist with strong personal ethics! When assigned, she resolutely refused to undertake any salacious behavior for her editor.
She worked throughout the United States before taking up residence in London, England. This 1916 picture taken at her Adelphi London flat was signed and sent by Elizabeth to her first cousin, Gladys Middleton Porter, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Despite a rich heritage, Elizabeth did not study genealogy. She dealt with
living people, including friends Like George Bernard Shaw, Henrietta (Harriet)Marston,
even Queen Victoria, Queen of England. When she needed ancestors, she purchased
old paintings, cleaned them up, put them in frames, gave the people names,
and subsequently offered to use them in a story about others breaking into
British society.
The royal court took notice, subsequently changing the way that Americans
were presented.
Elizabeth
often went undercover for her stories. Many thought she was British writing
under the name of "Enid", when she was not. She lived in London
for forty years. Often comparing and contrasting the two countries and Canada.
Elizabeth never gave up her United States Citizenship, eventually writing
one of her autobiographies called "The Remaking of an American."
Another of her autobiographies was properly titled "Campaigns of Curiosity."
Here are the facts as we have them recorded:
Elizabeth's mother was Sarah
Ann Brister(1824-after 1872). Her mother's New Jersey parents were Jesse Brister
(1790-1854) and Sarah Hough (1791-1859). Sarah Ann's family included nine
children:
William (1813-1814)
Rebecca (1815-1882)
George (1818-1824)
William Henry (1819-1892)
Hannah (1820-1823)
Charles (1822-1825)
Elizabeth H (1823-1889)
Sarah Ann (1824-1870++)
Johanna Hough (1827-1907)
One mystery here is, what happened to Elizabeth's parents Sarah & John??? According to the 1860 census, Sarah Ann was living with her mother in New Jersey. The question is, when did she marry? Who was Elizabeth's Father, John Banks of England? He is listed as a house painter. Where did the family live or go? Several Brister children traveled west to settle in Illinois and Wisconsin. In 1870 her father John Banks is found at a boarding home in Chicago. Elizabeth shows up next in Wisconsin.
Tragedy struck. Was it an accident? Was it illness? Could it even have been murder??? (There was an intriguing Brister murder in Creston Iowa about this time). We find Elizabeth Banks adopted by her aunt, her mother's next older sister, Elizabeth H. "Libby" married to her Uncle Joseph Peck. A Middleton nephew with his son was also living there. Elizabeth was living with them on "The Experiment Farm" in Wisconsin. A tombstone for Joseph Peck's wife, Elizabeth H. is located northwest of Madison Wisconsin in the Deansville Cemetery, just west of Marshall and east of Sun Prairie in Dane County.
A rare find! - We have rare original Quaker letters from the late 1700's. They were written to and from the Houghs (pronounced "Huff") living predominantly in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Kentucky. Travel was difficult, illness and hardships were prevalent, mail via personal couriers frequently took extended times to reach its destination. There are Quaker debates, travels, and daily hardships. A note is included from her Uncle Joseph Peck where he is thinking of tossing the letters all into the fire. Thank goodness he didn't.
The letters traveled with Elizabeth to London. When Elizabeth passed away on July 18, 1938, the letters traveled back to Gladys Middleton Porter, a cousin in the United States. Elizabeth died at age 66 years, 198 days, with considerable arthritic pain, in her flat located at 26 Wolverton Avenue, Kingston, Surrey, England. According to her wishes, she was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, London, the bulk of her personal notes, also by her wishes, were destroyed. The old Quaker letters from the 1700's are a rare exception.
CAUTION: BOOKMARK THIS PAGE BEFORE YOU GO ANY FARTHER!
Her most revealing publications:
"The Autobiography of a Newspaper Girl"
Thanks to the University of California at Los Angeles, Open Library,
a digital copy is available on line,
click here!
Campaigns
of Curiosity
reissued 2003, U of Wisconsin
"The Mystery of Frances Farrington"
"The Luck of the Black Cat"
"Dik: A Dog of Belgium"
pamphlet: Dik's fund for the Allies
also Captain Jinks, Sergeant Major of Canada,
Dogs of the Allies greeting cards, Dik's own post card
"School for John and Mary"
pamphlet: Anglo-Canadian story of a fight against the caste system
A number of major universities including: Illinois, Wisconsin and California
have excellent Women's Study programs where material on Elizabeth Banks may
be found. If you teach one of these programs, are aware of others, or have
attended these programs and would like to make comments, please let us know.
Click here to leave your thoughts! tsb@twinwolf.net
The following are listed to help us understand surrounding tumult during Elizabeth's life:
| 1803 - Louisiana Purchase | 1804 - Lewis and Clark |
1811-1814 War of 1812 |
| 1820 - Missouri Compromise |
1823 - Monroe Doctrine |
1825 - Erie Canal |
| 1829 - Amistad |
1836 - Battle of the Alamo Texas Independence |
1838 - Trail of Tears |
| 1840's - Emigrant Trails |
Oregon, Santa Fe. California, Mormons | Queen Victoria of England married |
| 1846 - Mexican War |
1850 - Fugitive Slave Act | 1854 - Kansas-Nebraska Act |
| 1859 - John Brown's Rebellion | 1850-1860 Pre Civil War |
Pony Express started |
| 1861-1865 Civil War | 1862 - Battle of Ironclads | 1863 - Emancipation |
| 1863 - Gettysburg | 1865 - 1870's -Reconstruction | Abraham Lincoln Shot |
| 1865-1900's Jim Crow Laws |
1865 - 1900's Carpetbaggers and Scalawags |
1865 - Elizabeth Banks is born in New Jersey |
| 1867 - Alaska purchase | 1868 Klu Klux Clan | 1871 Great Chicago Fire |
| 1876 - The Telephone | 1877 - Indian Wars Custer's Last Stand |
1878 - The Light Bulb |
1898 - Spanish American War |
600 U.S. Marines land Guantanamo Bay, Cuba | 1901 Queen Victoria Dies |
| 1903 First Flight at Kitty Hawk | 1906 Finland gives Women Right to Vote | San Francisco Earthquake |
| 1908 Ford makes the Model T | 1910 Boy Scouts Established |
1913 Personal Income Tax Adopted |
| 1914 World War I Starts |
1916 First Self-service Grocery Store | 1917 US Enters the War |
| 1919 World War I Ends |
1920 Women Granted the Right to Vote in the US | 1924 J. Edgar Hoover Appointed FBI Director |
| 1925 Hitler PublishesMein Kampf | 1926 A.A. Milne Publishes Winnie-the-Pooh | A Woman Swims the English Channel |
| 1927 Lindbergh Flies Solo Across the Atlantic | 1928 First Mickey Mouse Cartoon | 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre |
| 1931 US Officially Gets National Anthem | 1932 Scientists Split the Atom | 1933 FDR Launches New Deal |
| Prohibition Ends | 1934 The Dust Bowl | 1935 Social Security Enacted in US |
| 1937 Japan Invades China |
|
July 15th, 1938 Elizabeth Banks dies in London |
| 1939 World War II Begins |
Elizabeth Bank's newspaper obituary:
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