Sharon Tate Moody says, in her Tempa Tribune article: "the marriage contract was the last contract a woman could make. Marriage made her a "feme covert"--literally a "covered woman." She lost control over her property and lost her ability to enter a contract. "This comes from a concept called "unity of the husband and wife'. Once united the couple was legally one person, with the husband the ruling party. A husband generally could do as he pleased with his wife's property and earnings. In return he was bound to support her as long as she did not run off with another man....Gradually things improved for women, especially regarding inheritance and land ownership. 1809 Conn. allowed married women to make a wil;l 1829 Ill. women over 18 could dispose of real and personal property; 1839 Miss. guaranteed married women the right to receive income from the couple's property and protected it from being used to cover her husband's debts. 1844 Maine exempted a married woman's real and personal property from being possessed by her husband. New York and PA soon followed; NY in 1848 passed the "Married Woman's Property Act," which was used as a model for all other states between 1848 and 1895." As I said earlier-- a woman in business used her name initials when she advertised, never her full name. There were women conducting their own businesses or investing in businesses. A boarding house advertisd in a local paper might be shown as "Mrs. J. A. Monroe's Board. " Katy