JANUARY 1, 1868

MUSCOGEE NOVELIST SOPHIA ALICE CALLAHAN BORN

Born in Sulphur Springs, Texas, Callahan’s paternal grandfather died during the Trail of Tears. Her father represented the Creek & Seminole Nations to the Confederate Congress during the Civil War. Attending Wesleyan Female Institute in Staunton, Virginia, she earned certification as a teacher. In 1891, Alice wrote the novel, Wynema: A Child of the Forest—about a young Creek girl who becomes a teacher and sets up a school in her village. The book addressed the wrongs done to American Indians and advocated woman suffrage. It is considered by many as the first novel written by a Native American woman. Callahan taught at Wealaka Mission boarding school in 1892–93 and at Harrell International Institute, a secondary school, in Muskogee, Oklahoma, later in 1893. She returned to Staunton to obtain a college degree, but was called back to Muskogee after several teachers at Harrell Institute had become ill. She herself soon contracted pleurisy died two weeks later, on January 7, 1894, in Muskogee.

Sources: 
Carolyn Stull, “S. Alice Callahan,” Britannica.  Retrieved 7/21/2022, S. Alice Callahan | Native American teacher and author | Britannica 
Wikipedia

Photo: Author unknown, pre-1894. Fair Use