This trim and elegant robe, pieced in the crazy patchwork that was popular during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, was made by an unusual woman whose life was as irregular as the patches that she expertly stitched together and embellished. Emma Rebecca Cummins lived variously in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. She married four times, braved life on the frontiers, and became one of the first women telegraphers in the American West.

Cummins was the lively and comely daughter of Civil War colonel Robert P. Cummins, who fell in the Battle of Gettysburg. At the age of fourteen, she married a French Canadian named Blacklock, who treated his child bride so cruelly that his own family paid for her return from Canada to Pennsylvania. Her second husband was Dr. George Snively, with whom she had two daughters, one dying in early childhood. In the late 1860s, Snively was lured to the mining towns of Tooele County, west of the Salt Lake Valley of Utah. For a few years, Emma was one of the "waiting women" whose husbands journeyed west in search of precious minerals, fortune, land, and adventure, leaving their families behind to fend for themselves. By 1870, she and her daughter, Hattie, traveled to Utah to join Snively, and in December 1872, she was hired as a telegrapher by the Western Union Company, the first transcontinental telegraph line, because of her fluid handwriting and the speed with which she could write a message. By this time, telegraphers were stationed in depots all along the railroad lines, receiving orders from central dispatch that were critical in regulating railroad traffic and safety. A thorough knowledge of the telegraph code being used—usually the code introduced by Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1852), inventor of the telegraph—a legible hand, and the ability to write quickly and communicate essential messages within a limited number of words were all imperative qualities of the railroad telegraph operator.

A growing number of women recognized the potential in the new technology for earning power, continuing education, and advancement despite their gender. Such operators often worked in lonely outposts in unpopulated areas. The messages that they transcribed onto paper were manually handed to the crews of passing trains, often their only human contact during their shift. Sometimes, passengers might dash into the depot and leave money and a written message to be telegraphed. It was then up to the operator to ensure that the message did not exceed the standard number of words. Throughout the 1880s and early 1890s, Emma worked in Utah, maintaining a scrapbook filled with newspaper articles of interest, personal letters in her beautiful hand, and business communications.

In 1874, "Doc" Snively was killed in a bar brawl after making loud and uncomplimentary remarks about his wife. He was challenged by an acquaintance, Nicholas Lawless. In the ensuing struggle, Snively was fatally shot, but Lawless was found innocent on grounds of self-defense and married Emma’s sister a few years later. It is not known when Emma married her third husband, George Crosier, but in 1880, she was divorced and back in Somerset, Pennsylvania, living only with her young daughter. By 1884, she had returned to Utah, where she was appointed postmaster of Collinston, Box Elder County. In 1892, she is listed in the Salt Lake City directory as a cashier. The following year, Emma was married for the fourth and last time to George M. Pauling (1840–1898), a veteran who had served during the Civil War, first with Pennsylvania Company K, 126th Pennsylvania Volunteers and then with Company M, 21st Pennsylvania Calvary. In 1899, penurious and now residing with family in Somerset, she applied for a pension of $12 per month, which was granted in large part because of her father’s exemplary service during the war. After a life of adventure, lived largely on her own terms, Emma Cummins Blacklock Snively Crosier Pauling died at home with her family at the age of seventy-five.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Crazy Trousseau Robe," exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.