Karla Wright is a retired Human Resource Management Consultant with a passion for family history and genealogy. Karla is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Honorary Order of the Society of the Bush Maryland Signers of 1775 Declaration of Independence, Ankeny Iowa Genealogy Chapter, Iowa Genealogical Society, Des Moines Historical Society and State Historical Society of Iowa. Iowa's Devoted Daughter is Karla's first book. The research for the book uncovered the story of Mary Bonnet Ankeny Hunter, an early Iowa suffragist and historian, which resulted in Karla's second book. The year 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and to honor Mary Hunter, Karla wrote Mary's biography and published the correspondence between Hunter and Carrie Chapman Catt and others. Those books can be found on Amazon.com. To further celebrate the 19th Amendment anniversary and to educate the next generation, Karla created her third book -- an illustrated story book about the history of women's right to vote, entitled Harriet Wants To Vote, which can be purchased on Amazon.com. It is written for grade school girls.
About the Illustrator:
Nathan T Wright is a digital marketing professional by day and an artist - illustrator by night. His work can be viewed at NathanTWright.com. Nathan captured so well the personalities of the Ankeny family members in their eyes. You can see sadness and happiness, pride and determination, and kindness and love in their eyes. Nathan's illustrations in Harriet Wants To Vote totally capture the stories, emotions and history of the little girl who wanted to vote.
Message From The Author:
My genealogy research revealed an Ankeny ancestor from Somerset County, Pennsylvania. I always wondered if there was a connection to Ankeny, Iowa. And YES there was! And so my journey began. As I learned more and more about the Ankeny family and their remarkable lives, I began to imagine what their lives must have been like. As I documented facts about the family — dates, names, places, awards — I knew I had to share the information with the Ankeny descendants. This idea of writing a story about them came to me suddenly and out of the blue. I started in the middle — the Civil War years. Almost every day for almost a year I researched facts and wrote fiction based on facts. My research took me to the Research Center and the Archives of the Iowa Historical Museum. There I found hundreds of artifacts donated to the museum by the Ankeny family, including portraits, civil war items, family bibles, and much more. The orange parasol and green shoes shown on the front cover of Iowa’s Devoted Daughter are examples of the items maintained in storage at the Iowa Historical Museum in downtown Des Moines. The writings of Mr. Johnson Brigham of the early 19th century were crucial to my understanding of the Ankeny family and their place in Iowa history. The book “Kiss Josey For Me” — a compilation of letters from Henry G Ankeny from three years of Civil War experiences — brought me up close and personal to the Ankeny family members and their devotion to one another and their country. Getting my book published would be next to impossible without an agent. I was in no way going to pay an agent. So I used the self-publishing route. I used CreateSpace (now KDP.amazon.com) They print my book on demand and coordinate the selling on Amazon. Buy it at: Iowa’s Devoted Daughter .
Since publishing the book I have had the extreme pleasure of meeting many of the Ankeny descendants via facebook and in person. They have heaped on me hundreds of photographs, original letters and documents and even family china! I love my newly found Ankeny family. My presentation about the Ankeny family has been well received at museums and organization meetings. I love telling their story.