Lazenby, Mary Elinor, 1875-

Mary Elinor Lazenby was originally from Iredell County, North Carolina, and spent many years in Washington, D.C. In 1940, Lazenby published her three part work, Herman Husband: A Story of His Life, on the Revolutionary War era Quaker. Lazenby was not an academic historian, and her work was not well received by professional historians. However, Lazenby's book garnered some attention at the time of its publication because of the controversy surrounding Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, one of Husband's descendants. Admiral Kimmel was one of the naval officers criticized by the American press for the military's unreadiness for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Herman Husband is a significant and controversial figure in early American politics. Sometimes referred to as Hermon and Haemon, Husband was born in Maryland into an Anglican family in 1724. Husband came of age during the first Great Awakening, a period of Protestant religious revival typified by English preacher George Whitfield. In the 1760s, Husband practiced Presbyterianism, but later became a Quaker. Husband became a spokesman for farmers in the Piedmont region, known as the Regulators, in the state legislature of North Carolina. The Regulators opposed excessive taxes levied on them by corrupt officials. William Tryon, the royal governor of North Carolina, failed to remedy the situation because he wanted to maintain the loyalty of local officials who directly profited from excessive taxes. A declared pacifist, Husband did not participate or approve of the armed skirmishes between Regulators and local officials in the western counties in the late 1760s and early 1770s. Husband published a number of tracts related to the conflict, and was arrested for libel against Governor Tryon. After his release from prison, Husband fled North Carolina, moving to Maryland. Soon after, two thousand disorganized Regulators gathered at Alamance to demonstrate their superior numbers to the governor. The Regulators had poor battlefield leadership and weak supply lines, and were soundly defeated by one thousand government troops. Husband later moved to Bedford, Pennsylvania, and became entrenched in frontier politics. In western Pennsylvania, Husband was involved in the Whiskey Rebellion; he acted as a delegate to the meetings at Parkinson's Ferry and Redstone and encouraged peaceful resolution of the conflict. Although moderate Hugh Henry Brackenridge managed to narrowly avoid criminal charges, Husband was arrested. Husband was marched to Philadelphia and incarcerated by federal troops after the rebellion was quashed. Less than a month after his release from prison, Husband died of pneumonia near Philadelphia in June 1795.

From the description of Papers of Mary Elinor Lazenby, 1933-1955. (University of Pittsburgh). WorldCat record id: 31467611

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