The article claims that Meiza was born during the battle and later adopted by a soldier's family and sent to Cuba, returning to the United States in her late teens, met Jackson Stuart of Louisiana and married.

The article states that Stuart left to join the Civil War effort, leaving Meiza and three children in Georgia, and when news broke of Sherman's March to the Sea, the family fled.

In 1871, the Salt Lake Daily Review reviewed Dare's trapeze performance and her first publicized brush with death, stating: "This beautiful young lady lost her balance, while at a hight [sic] of thirty-two feet from the floor, and was soon revolving in the air ... in danger of instant death ... a young man jumped from his seat and caught her in his arms, and saved her life.

Despite the story of an impulsive marriage, later coverage in London stated that Hall knew Dare prior to the night of her accident and was her teacher,[8] an indication that their alleged meeting may have been a publicity stunt.

In August 1872, she performed in Indianapolis[12] for the first time suspended under a hot-air balloon approximately three hundred feet in the air, an act called ballon ascensions, lifting her husband and partner off the ground, holding him by his waistband only with her teeth.

[16] The New Orleans Republican reported in 1875 that Dare "fell at a variety theatre in St. Louis...where she was executing her flying trapeze act, and severely injured her back and side.

[18] After the false death notice, press coverage announced that Dare was closing her North American tour and preparing to travel to Europe after she recovered, as evidenced in her passport application filed in October 1876.

Billed as the Queen of the Antilles, the coverage described her act in great detail, stating: "Taking the strap, which her companion has fastened to his waist, between her teeth, she holds him first in a horizontal position, and then sets his body in rotatory motion.

The 'page' presented becomes absolutely terrific, and we are by no means surprised when at the end the victim of this whirligig movement exhibits signs of giddiness...All who see Leona Dare will envy her teeth, and must marvel at her strength of jaw.

[6] In 1879, London news reported a substantial lawsuit brought against Mr. Jennings, then manager of The Oxford, by Thomas Hall, seeking to "recover possession of the apparatus" Dare used for performances, including her iron jaw mouthpiece.

[22] In early 1880, Dare fell from her trapeze at the Imperial Court Theatre in Vienna and was seriously injured, with newspaper coverage announcing she would never perform again.

M. George fell to the floor and was fatally injured...Miss dare clung to the roof, screaming hysterically, and was rescued with difficulty after the panic was ended.

'This,' Miss Dare proceeds, 'I take into my mouth; the balloon is started, and I ascend, hanging below it with my arms and legs, and in fact, my whole body perfectly free except that I hold the mouthpiece between by teeth.

[1] Her many obituaries detailed the balloon ascensions and iron jaw acts, including the New York Times, which celebrated her worldwide success for "hanging by her teeth from a pendant on the trapeze.