March is Women’s history month and it’s always exciting to find women from local history who challenged conventions, achieved something out-of-the-ordinary, or used whatever gifts and opportunities they had for the good of their community. Mrs. Julia Rule, became nationally famous for driving the golden spike in Bossier City, La. to mark the completion of the Shreveport and Arkansas Railroad on April 6, 1888 (later known as the Cotton Belt). She was well-known locally for her role working in the male domain of journalism, especially as the society columnist known as “Pansy” and was not afraid to use that platform to benefit both her own financial security as a widowed mother, but also the philanthropic endeavors of other women.
On the surface, Julia Rule’s life may have looked rather glamourous. Perhaps it was, but she was also fulfilling the never-ending demands on a working mother of very young children, and soon, as a widowed and bereaved mother of young children. She was doing so in the days before Social Security, life or disability insurance. Much of this behind-the-scenes story didn’t get widely told. Julia, of course, wrote mostly about other people’s lives.
Julia Sparke was born in Kentucky around 1852. The 1870 census shows her living in Shreveport at the age of 18 with her 27-year-old husband Charlie Rule, listed as a bookkeeper. Living right next door are her parents and younger siblings, ranging in age from 8 months to 15. She had just gotten married in 1869 in Louisville.
According the Census 10 years later, much in Julia’s life had changed. She is listed with the occupation of “Boarding,” apparently helping to run a boarding house, and has three children ages 1, 5 and 6, Ida, Louise and Glenn. Her husband is no longer employed, and has not been employed for the entire census year.
Not shown in the census records is that between 1870 and 1880 there was an older child born, named Lucy Stewart Rule who passed away in Shreveport on Oct. 11, 1877 at the age of 6 years and 9 months. Lucy Stewart’s life is evidenced only by a very brief notice in the Shreveport Times and a stone with her name on it near her parents’ headstones in Shreveport’s Oakland Cemetery. Then Charlie Rule passed away in 1881. That same year, Julia began teaching calisthenics (physical education – and later also penmanship) for head Kate Nelson at the Shreveport Seminary for Girls and Children not long after Charlie passed.
Mrs. Rule began a newspaper career within a decade, writing for several local papers. Venturing even further into unfamiliar territory for women, she became Secretary of the Louisiana State Press Association, and was always in attendance at their state conferences, sometimes as a featured speaker. She even attended the National Press Association conference in July, 1891.
Mrs. Rule also took a job as the secretary for the mayor of Shreveport, a position which set her up to be the first woman to drive the golden spike, in the mayor’s absence, along with R. N. McKellar who was the president of the Cotton Exchange. She gained national media attention for this honor, since she was considered to be the first woman to drive a golden spike to mark the completion of a railroad. The New York Evening Post even had a little fun at her expense, dubbing her “the Golden Rule.”
Perhaps most remarkably, Mrs. Rule was also an entrepreneur. By 1890 local and regional newspapers show that she decided to put her connections and fashion observations made while covering society to her financial benefit. She put a notice announcing her own “purchasing agency,” later called the Mrs. Julia Rule Millinery and Dressmaker supply:
“My extensive acquaintance with business houses in the city and experience gives me unrivaled facilities for filling orders that may be sent me…Parties residing out of the city who desire goods can save the expense of a trip and obtain better prices by ordering what they want through me than by purchasing themselves…”
In fact, Mrs. Rule put her column itself to use in advertising this business, interspersing her society notes in the “Shreveport Times” with entries about the latest goods available at “Mrs. Julia Rule’s millinery store.” She was perhaps, just ahead of her time, because by January 1895, her inventory was listed in a bankruptcy sale, then not advertised any further. She did end up going to work for the Louisiana State Fair in what was comparable to the more modern “public relations” position.
Julia Rule also wrote fondly of her friend Adah Vinson DeLay well-known Shreveport advocate for abused, abandoned or orphaned children. The daughter of a former mayor, Mrs. DeLay had been raised in comfort but died penniless while funding her work for children.
In addition to Mrs. DeLay’s philanthropy, Julia’s society column is credited with helping to promote Shreveport’s Home for the Homeless, later known officially as the Home for the Aged or unofficially as the “Old Ladies’ Home.” The home was started by women who organized themselves as the Ladies Charitable Association in 1897, and continued to be directed by women even after the addition of an “Old Men’s Home.” These homes became what is now known as the Glen Life Plan Community. They were much-needed institutions in a time well before the Social Security Act of 1935 provided for a system of Federal old-age benefits or enabled states to make more adequate provision for aged residents. By the early 1920’s the only other home like it in Louisiana, was the Little Sisters of the Poor in New Orleans.
Julia Rule herself lived well into old age, living with her daughter and family in the end. She passed away in April, 1931. To read more about the Home for the Aged, see The History of the Glen, 1898 to 1998 by Dr. Ann Mathison McLaurin, which is available in the reference collection of the History Center. If you would like to have our “Women Who Made a Difference in Bossier Parish” program, which includes Julia Rule (in Part 2) or any of our other programs presented to your group, please contact us, as well. We are located at 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City, LA and are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org
For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.
Images:
- Portrait of Pansy: Mrs. Julia Rule, Shreveport Daily Times, Illustrated Edition, October 24, 1894
- Pansy illustration that headed Julia Rule’s society column Shreveport Times, Dec 6, 1896
Article by: Pam Carlisle
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