30 of 31| Laura Redden Searing|Santa Cruz, California |Deaf Women Herstory Month 2020

Image Description: A white woman with her face showing sideway with in a black and white photo took in 1865. 

Bio:

Laura Redden Searing (born February 9, 1839 in Somerset County, Maryland) was a deaf poet and journalist. Her first book of poetry published was Idyls of Battle, and Poems of the Rebellion (1864). From 1857-58, Redden submitted poems to Harper’s Magazine. In 1858, Redden’s first published essay appeared in the American Annals of the Deaf. The topics of the essay were deafness, sign language, and writing. In 1858, Redden graduated from the Missouri School for the Deaf. Upon graduation, she was offered a teaching position at MSD which she declined.She did not enroll in college. Her literary skills and unmarried status made it acceptable at the time for her to enroll at certain colleges. However, there were no colleges that accepted deaf women. The National Deaf-Mute College (now Gallaudet University) was established in 1864 and did not admit female students until 1881. To supplement her education, she toured Europe from 1865-69. While there, she studied German, French, Spanish, and Italian. In 1859, the St. Louis Presbyterian hired her as a columnist and assistant editor. In 1860, she became an editorialist for the St. Louis Republican. At this time, Laura Catherine Redden officially adopted the pseudonym Howard Glyndon. In 1861, she was sent by the St. Louis Republican to Washington D.C. to cover and document the American Civil War. She was a pro-Union loyalist and wrote poems about the experiences and human interests of the battle field. She also wrote to Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant during the war. After the war, 1865–69, she traveled to Europe to become a correspondent for The New York Times. By 1870, she returned to New York and Boston and was a staff writer for the New York Evening Mail and contributed to Galaxy, Harper’s Magazine, and the Tribune.

Laura Catherine Redden married Edward Whelan Searing, a lawyer, in 1876, to become Laura Catherine Redden Searing. They had one child, Elsa Waller Searing, on May 4, 1880. In 1887, Laura Redden Searing and her daughter settled near Santa Cruz, California. Edward Searing stayed in New York and they divorced in 1894. Redden Searing died in 1923 and was buried in Colma, California.Her pseudonym is Howard Glyndon. Significantly, the town of Glyndon, Minnesota was founded in 1872 and named in honor of the writer.