From Cochran’s Mills To Nellie Bly
Elizabeth Cochran was the daughter of prominent Armstrong County businessman and community leader Michael Cochran and the widowed, former Mary Jane Kennedy. Born on May 5, 1864, she was Michael Cochran’s 13th daughter out of 15 children from two wives. Always ambitious, he was a laborer and mill worker who eventually purchased a local mill and the land along Cherry Run and built his farmhouse. Through hard work and drive, the Irish American became a merchant, postmaster and associate justice and Cochran’s Mills was named for the Judge all before his untimely death in 1871 at the age of 60.
While other women at the time dressed their daughters in oftentimes drab hues, Mary Jane dressed Elizabeth in pink. The color became so associated with the young lady — people didn’t call her Elizabeth, but “Pink.” Pink was devastated by her father’s death, but his influence, as well as that of her doting mother, with her the rest of her remarkable life.
But first: tragedy. The family had moved from Burrell Township, where Cochran’s Mills is located, to a mansion on three acres in Apollo, before Judge Cochran passed. Since neither Cochran, nor the family, was prepared for his sudden passing, property and other assets were sold off. By 1870, the family was in financial ruin, expect for a small trust that was distributed by family friend and future husband to one of Pink’s sisters, Col. Samuel M. Jackson.
In 1873, Mary Jane Cochran married John Jackson Ford, a “mean spirited” Civil War veteran who reportedly once during a drunken rampage attempted to shoot her during a church service, but was subdued by one of the Cochran sons and townsfolk. A divorce was granted in 1879, thanks in part to Pink’s testimony.
Around this time, 15-year-old Elizabeth added an “E” to her last name to appear more sophisticated (the rest of the family would eventually follow). At 15, she went to Indiana Normal School, one of the most well-respected schools in Indiana County. She couldn’t stay long, due to finances.
Elizabeth Jane Cochrane’s formal schooling was over.
Two of the older Cochrane sons moved to Allegheny City — now Manchester on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Once staying in Apollo was no longer a fiscal option, the rest of the family relocated to Pittsburgh, also. To make ends meet, Mary Jane took in boarders and Elizabeth, then 16, helped in any way she could. While most of her siblings were starting families of their own, Elizabeth read many of Pittsburgh’s then seven newspapers and continued to study any and everything she could.
One of her favorites, the Pittsburg Dispatch, published a column "What Girls Are Good For" from “Anxious Father,” a man who was terrified that his five daughters—aged 18 to 26—were on their way to becoming old maids. Cochrane, under the guise “Lonely Orphan Girl” responded with 1885’s “The Girl Puzzle,” a statement of girl power that would make sense to modern readers.
Madden was impressed and ran an ad asking “Lonely Orphan Girl” to come to one of Pittsburgh’s seven newspapers for a visit. Cochrane arrived at the newspaper the next day. She impressed Madden and he commissioned another piece. After that, he chose to hire her for $5 a week, or $165 in today’s money.
At the time, pen names were generally used for female journalists. Madden asked around the newspaper and “Nelly Bly,” the title of a popular Stephen Collins Foster song was bandied about. There was even a racehorse featured in newspapers for winning races in Bradford in McKean County, a few years earlier. Despite a small change in spelling, Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, without proper training or experience, would make an impact as Nellie Bly.
Among her first assignments were trips to factories to check out the conditions of working women. She wrote about what she knew…the plight of the working poor. Some subjects of her writing came while talking to boarders at her mother’s house.
Toward the end of 1885, Bly was frustrated with what she was writing, and in January 1886, what appeared to be her final column ran. Now 2, intended to leave Pittsburgh, with her mother as chaperone. She was back at the Dispatch month later, with a bigger byline, albeit as a freelancer, more flare and a trip to Mexico.
She explained the intricacies of bullfighting and encouraged readers in Pittsburgh to hire Mexican workers, all to the endearment of her new friends south of the border.
By 1887, Bly moved from Pittsburgh to New York, where she joined “Newspaper Row” and the New York World, which was owned by Joseph Pullitzer.
She famously feigned insanity and became “Nellie Brown” to get inside the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York for “Ten Days in a Mad-House” (which later became a book) and in 1889-1890, bested by eight days the record of Phileas Fog to complete a trip around the world in 72 days. Hers was described as “New Journalism” and she was crowned a “Daredevil.”
In 1888, her only published novel, “The Mystery of Central Park” was published. She had taken the journalistic world by storm.
Bly became one of the most popular and influential journalists of her time. She translated her talents to business when she married a wealthy and much older industrialist named Robert Seaman. Nellie was 31, Seaman 73 when they wed. Bly helmed Iron Clad Manufacturing Company, which made oil drums (that Nellie might have designed herself) and was “the only woman in the world personally managing industries of such a magnitude." She held her own patents, but after her husband’s death and due to her own negligence of the business and embezzlement of others, the company went bankrupt.
After that, she returned to journalism and was one of the most prominent women to cover fighting in World War I.
Nellie Bly died of pneumonia at the age of 57. She was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.
Bly’s impact lives on. There have been countless comic books and tomes telling her tales, including the epic 631-page “Nellie Bly, Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist” by Brooke Kroeger. Nelli’s own “Around the World in 72 Days” and “Ten Days In A Mad-House” are easily available. There are children’s books and fan faction with her as the main character.
There was a “Nellie Bly” Amusement Park in Brooklyn, board games, and at least three feature films have featured the Pennsylvania native as the primary lead; most recently and prominently, the 2019 Lifetime movie “Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story” with Christina Ricci playing Bly.
Bly has inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, has been honored with a U.S. postage stamp, and is the focus of the Nellie Bly Memorial art installation on Roosevelt Island in New York. The New York Press Club honors her memory with the “Nellie Bly Cub Reporter” journalism award for writers with less than three years of professional experience.
“Pink” Elizabeth Jane Cochran had no direct heirs but left a lifetime of influence.
