This woman was born in 1860. Starting at 12 years old, she worked as a live-in housekeeper for 15 years.
This woman only attended school in the summer because she didn’t have warm clothing for the winter.
When she got married, she and her husband worked on farms in Virginia.
They spent two decades living and working on four separate farms.
The couple had 10 children but only five lived past infancy.
To supplement the family income, she made potato chips and churned butter from a cow she bought with her savings.
In 1905, they moved to Eagle Bridge, New York.
She and her husband eventually bought a farm.
Her husband died of a heart attack at the age of 67.
She then retired and went to live with her daughter. She never got married again.
This woman was always creative. For years she would craft embroidered pictures of yarn for family and friends. She also made stunning quilted objects.
In her seventies, she developed arthritis. She couldn’t embroider anymore, so she began painting.
When she had too much pain in her right hand, she would switch to her left.
She would paint rural scenes.
She created over 1,500 paintings in three decades.
Louis J. Caldor, an art collector, spotted her paintings in a country drugstore window. He bought up all of her paintings from the store and ten more from her Eagle Bridge house.
The following year three of her paintings were displayed in the New York Museum of Art.
When she first began, she would sell her paintings for $3-$5. At the height of her fame, her paintings sold for $8000-$10,000.
In 1949, President Harry Truman presented her with the Women’s National Press Club trophy.
During the 1950’s, Grandma Moses’ art exhibitions often broke records all around the world.
She has been quoted as saying, “I had always wanted to paint, I just didn’t have time until I was 78.
Don’t believe it is too late to make your dreams come true. Never give up.
Idelle Kursman is the author of the thriller True Mercy.