An interesting story up here in Seattle. Apparently it was a very wealthy and famous Madam who salvaged and saved Seattle after the Seattle Fires. Proper working girls up here tend not to be stigmatized. Who knew. Actually was a news story.

Lou Graham (February 9, 1857 – March 11, 1903), born Dorothea Georgine Emile Ohben, was a German-born woman who became famous as the madam of a brothel in what is now the Pioneer Square district of Seattle, Washington, United States. She was referred to as the “Queen of the Lava Beds”, with “lava beds” referring to the area of tide flats that were filled in with sawdust from the sawmill. She became one of the city’s wealthiest citizens before dying in her forties.

left her estate to relatives in Germany, but according to Bill Speidel she died intestate, and her supposed relatives from Hamburg turned out to be frauds. Her estate went to support the common schools in King County, the county in which Seattle is located.

Graham may also have been ahead of her time regarding LGBTQ rights. According to Libbie Hawker, the author of the historical fiction novel Madam about Lou Graham, she may have been in a same-sex partnership, and may, based on Hawker’s interpretation of a photograph, have employed trans women.

Speidel wrote in his last book that traditional forms of documentation consistently underrate the contribution of women in general, and particularly of less respectable women such as Graham. He credits Henry Broderick and Joshua Green with corroborating Graham’s importance and her business relationship with Jacob Furth, but he notes that both insisted that their names could not be cited in this connection until after their deaths.

It is important we remember and know ALL of true American History, and World History as a whole. For things aren’t always as they seem.

To me, history is the most amazing stories ever told when told in truth. As a writer that likes to write as I speak, I prefer a good story teller format. So reading these stories are always inspirational no matter if a feel good story or a horrific one. All can be learned from.