It was in the year 1854 that Amelia Bloomer and her husband, Dexter, came from New York to Mount Vernon to pursue their interests in the newspaper business. Mr. Bloomer had just purchased part interest in the Western Home Visitor, one of four Mount Vernon newspapers of the day.
At the same time, Amelia brought to town not only her well-established newspaper, The Lily, but also her considerable journalistic skills, her courage and her great enthusiasm for the temperance movement and related women's issues of the day.
While Ms. Bloomer did not invent the style of women's dress that came to bear her name, she had become the most notable advocate of the new shorter skirt over pantaloons, which she promoted in The Lily in the early 1850's. Its popularity lasted for only a decade, and the style was eventually abandoned by the early feminists when it became clear that the clothing was attracting far more attention than their message of women's rights and suffrage.
But before moving on to Iowa with her husband in 1855, Amelia Bloomer did a great deal here to encourage the temperance movement and to raise awareness of women's issues in Knox County.