Remember When: Alle-Kiski Valley's Elizabeth Cochran becomes Nellie Bly, world-renowned journalist

March is Women’s History Month, a celebration of women’s contributions to history and culture.

Years ago, I was in Squirrel Hill at a used bookstore, where I found a Victorian autograph book among the bargain books. I always examine these books because they contain beautiful engravings, and I admire the penmanship of many of the writers.

This book originally belonged to a young woman named Gertrude Rudolf from Apollo.

One of the autographs was on a page adjacent to an engraving of a stylish young woman wearing a straw hat and sitting in a kayak-like canoe. It reads:

Apollo, March 3rd 1886

Gertrude

As you are sailing down the stream of life,

In your little Bark-Canoe,

May you have a jolly time,

And room enough for two.

The sincere wish of

Lizzie Cochran.

One of the most famous women born in the Alle-­Kiski Valley was Elizabeth Jane Cochran, who was better known by her pen name, Nellie Bly. She was born May 5, 1864, at Coch­ran’s Mills in Armstrong County. When she was 5, her family moved to Apollo.

Following the death of her father, the family experienced financial hardships, and Cochran and her mother moved to Pittsburgh’s North Side, where they ran a boarding house.

Cochran’s career as a reporter began in 1885 when she was hired by the Pittsburgh Dispatch. She wrote an angry letter to the editor after reading an article titled “What Girls Are Good For” by Erasmus Wilson. She signed her letter “Lonely Orphan Girl.”

The article called a working woman a “monstrosity,” implying that a woman’s place was in the home raising children and cooking, cleaning and looking after the needs of her husband.

George Madden, the Dispatch’s managing editor, was so impressed by her letter that he placed an advertisement in the paper for “Lonely Orphan Girl” to come forward. When Cochran did, he offered her a job as a full-time columnist.

It was during this period that Cochran chose her pseudonym, Nellie Bly, after a popular Steven Foster song.

Bly’s early articles were on the rights of women in the workforce and undergoing divorce. She wrote of the long hours, poor wages and unsafe working conditions experienced by women factory workers.

Her articles angered many of Pittsburgh’s factory owners and the newspaper’s advertisers — causing her to be reassigned to reporting on events for the society pages.

She found this work unsatisfying and eventually lobbied to be reassigned as a foreign correspondent. She spent half a year in Mexico. Her reports were highly critical of the conditions under the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. Under the threat of arrest, she was forced to flee. Upon returning to Pittsburgh, Bly again was assigned to the society pages.

She decided to move to New York City, hoping to find work for a newspaper that was more liberal and open-minded toward female journalists. After being turned down by several papers, she found employment in Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World.

Bly became a pioneering investigative reporter.

One of her first major stories involved pretending to be mentally ill and arranging to be committed to Blackwell’s Island, an asylum for the poor. She spent 10 days there reporting the poor living conditions and abuses experienced by the patients. She later published her articles in a book titled “10 Days in a Mad House.”

This resulted in additional money for the care of the mentally ill.

Bly’s most famous exploit was her record-setting 72-day trip around the world in 1889.

She wanted to beat the fictional record established in Jules Verne’s novel “Around the World in Eighty Days.”

She also wanted to prove that a woman was just as capable of traveling as a man. Millions of readers followed her journey, and she returned to New York to a hero’s welcome. Following this trip, Bly become one of the most famous journalists in the United States.

During her lifetime, she wrote four nonfiction books and 12 novels.

In 1895, Bly married Robert Seaman. She was 31 and he was 73 when they married. He was the head of Iron Clad Manufacturing, which produced steel containers.

After her husband’s death, she became head of the company and has several patents to her name. For a period of time, she was considered one of the leading woman industrialists in the United States.

Bly died in New York City at just 57, but her legacy as an investigative reporter and as a reformer can still be felt today.

In 1998, Bly was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She also was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 2002 for her work in journalism. Her life has been subject of numerous plays, films and TV shows.

And her statue, with large bag in hand, greets travelers coming to Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh International Airport, alongside Steelers great Franco Harris and George Washington.