Marion Kate Buick, Wells Fargo Agent from Oregon

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Wells Fargo has a good history of employing women. Between 1873 and 1918, Wells Fargo hired over 350 women as agents, whose duties included handling shipments of money, delivering mail, loading gold aboard trains and stagecoaches, selling money orders, and transferring funds by telegraph. Hundreds more women worked at Wells Fargo as auditors, clerks, copywriters, stenographers, and telephone operators.

'President Hayes In The West' article (click for larger image in a new window)One agent of note was Oregonian Kate Buick, employed by Wells Fargo & Co.'s Express in the Roseburg office from 1898 to 1912. Ms. Buick learned Morse code from her father, who was one of the first telegraph operators on the Southern Pacific Railroad line Click here to learn about third-party website links between Roseburg and San Francisco.

In 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes Click here to learn about third-party website links made a trip across the West Click here to learn about third-party website links and visited Oregon. A newspaper reporter covering the President’s visit came to the telegraph office to wire his report back East. Her father was overwhelmed with work at that moment, so Kate volunteered to send the telegram.

As Kate started to tap the message, the reporter said that he preferred an adult send the message—Kate was only thirteen years old at the time!

Immediately, the reporter penciled an addition to the story and announced to the nation that a young girl from Oregon sent the telegram. Kate's niece, Veva Buick Poorman, further recalled in a later interview that Kate Buick contributed to the war effort by using her knowledge of Morse code Click here to learn about third-party website links to instruct over fifty people during World War I.

2 Comments

what are tornado disasters ?

Thanks for your question about tornadoes, Yadira!
According to the Weather Channel, a tornado is "violently rotating column of air extending between, and in contact with, a cloud and the surface of the earth."

A tornado disaster would be a weather event in which a tornado destroys communities and disrupts life on a scale unimaginable.
To learn more about tornadoes, please visit your local library or just Google the "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."
-Steve

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