Kate Aplington

Kate Aplington
BornMarch 1, 1859 
DiedSeptember 26, 1928  (aged 69)
OccupationWriter 

Kate Adele Aplington (née Smith; March 1, 1859 – September 26, 1928) was an American novelist, photographer, painter, suffragist, and clubwoman.

She was born Kate Adele Smith, the daughter of Henry H. Smith, a school superintendent, and Elizabeth Melinda (Deming) Smith.[1] She graduated from Polo High School in Polo, Illinois.[2] She taught high school herself briefly at Ottawa High School in Ottawa, Illinois. In 1879, she married John Aplington, a lawyer, and they moved to Council Grove, Kansas the next year.[1]

In Council Grove, Kate Aplington operated a photography studio.[3] She was active in many civic causes. She served as recording secretary of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association.[4] She worked to preserve Hermit's Cave on Belfry Hill as a public park.[5] She established the Aplington Art Gallery or the Kansas State Art Collection, a collection of art prints that toured the state of Kansas.[1][2] In 1913, the Aplingtons moved to Florida, and Kate Aplington engaged in similar civic work in Miami, Florida.[2][3]

Her novel Pilgrim of the Plains: A Romance of the Santa Fe Trail (1913) is the diary of Delia Randall, a girl travelling in a prairie caravan in the 1830s.[6][7] At the time of her death, she had completed a book about Florida, The Strangler Tree.[3]

Kate Adele Aplington died on September 26, 1928, aged 69, in Miami, Florida, aged .[3]

Bibliography

  • Pilgrim of the Plains: A Romance of the Santa Fe Trail (1913)

References

  1. ^ a b c Frank Wilson Blackmar (1912). Kansas; a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. . Harvard University. Chicago, Standard Pub. Co.
  2. ^ a b c Craig, Susan V. (2006-08-11). Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945). ISBN 978-1-936153-00-8.
  3. ^ a b c d "Council Grove Republican 02 Oct 1928, page 1". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  4. ^ "Turning Point Suffragist Memorial » Suffragists in Kansas". Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  5. ^ Spencer, Brenda R.; Martin, Sarah (November 14, 2014). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Hermit's Cave on Belfry Hill" (PDF). Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  6. ^ Daims, Diva (1982). Toward a feminist tradition : an annotated bibliography of novels in English by women, 1891-1920. Internet Archive. New York : Garland Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-8240-9523-9.
  7. ^ Lewis, Tom (1991). Storied New Mexico : an annotated bibliography of novels with New Mexico settings. Internet Archive. Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-1223-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)