By 1906, Jennie B. Powers was known nationally as The Woman Who Dares for her work in preventing cruelty to animals. As the Keene (NH) Humane Society agent from 1903-1936, she also became one of the state’s first female deputy sheriffs. Powers investigated hundreds of abuse cases annually and often marched into worksites, chased carriages down the street, and climbed down into railroad cars. In 2019, Jennie Powers’s legacy was immortalized in a large mural painted along the south side of 120 Main Street in Keene. Designed by Ontario artists Elaine Wallis and Noella Cotman, the mural depicts animals as well as a mother and child. In an age when animal cruelty laws were more clearly defined than laws against family violence, much of Powers’ work led her to protect children and wives from abuse and neglect. She received death threats from prosecuted abusers, prompting her to carry a revolver at all times and sleep with one under her pillow. Powers died in 1936 at the age of 72.