Marie A. Riedeselle (''née'' Landry, died April 26, 1915) was a Canadian-born American bicyclist, dress designer, osteopath, hiker and hermit.

Early life and education

Riedeselle was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

and raised in New York state. She had a farm in Connecticut, and studied

osteopathy Osteopathy () is a type of alternative medicine that emphasizes physical manipulation of the body's muscle tissue and bones. Practitioners of osteopathy are referred to as osteopaths. Osteopathic manipulation is the core set of techniques in ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

.Thomas I. Baker
"Seven Years in the Klondike: Marie Riedeselle's Search in the Frozen North"
''The Mineral Collector'' (April 1905): 21-24.

Career

In 1893, Riedeselle won $50 in a ''New York Herald'' contest for designing the best practical bicycling dress. Her design included billowy trousers gathered below the knee, flat boots, and a bodice with gathers and smocking, to hold the fabric close to the torso while riding. She used dark navy fabric, with "dashes of red Chinese silk" and long tassels fastened at the waist. In 1897, after some months of physical training and study, and sewing her own wardrobe for the cold,"Mrs. Riedeselle's Outfit"
''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (December 26, 1897): 8. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

she went to Alaska. She stayed in the mining camps of the Klondike, practicing as a healer for humans and sled dogs. She opened a sanatarium at

Dawson City Dawson City, officially the City of Dawson, is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–99). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest town in Yuko ...

in 1900,Otto Carque
"Female Explorer in Alaska"
''Los Angeles Herald Sunday Magazine'' (June 19, 1910): 16. via

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offering massages, baths, haircare, rest, and healthful meals to exhausted or injured miners. After making a reported fortune in Alaska, she moved to Southern California, where she lived alone as a "hermitress" in a cabin in

Santa Anita Canyon Santa Anita Canyon is a canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains, within the City of Arcadia, CA in Los Angeles County, California. Geography Above Irwindale its main stem is known as Santa Anita Creek, which extends another 10 miles (16 km) nort ...

. "It is the life of a free woman," she assured a visiting reporter, "unchecked and freed from the trammels of a sordid civilization which binds its devotees to the petty conventionalities of life." In spring 1909, she was the only woman participating in the

Los Angeles Athletic Club Los Angeles Athletic Club (LAAC) is a privately owned athletic club and social club in Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1880, the club is today best known for its John R. Wooden Award presented to the outstanding men's and ...

's annual hiking race up Mount Wilson; she completed the hike in 2 hours and 30 minutes. She returned to Alaska from California in summer 1909, and described her plans to move to Minnesota next.

Personal life

Riedeselle was a vegetarian from 1889, and was described as a widow. She died in 1915, from dysentery, while on a pilgrimage at an

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

, India: "In her struggle against cooked food, which she always disliked, she swallowed nothing but water of the holy Ganges," explained an acquaintance who was with her in the end."The End of an Ascetic"
''Brain and Brawn'' (July 1915): 52.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riedeselle, Marie 1915 deaths American osteopaths