"Women Are Organizing: Many Men of Dallas Among Workers for Suffrage Cause," Oregonian, August 27, 1912, 6. 

Take 1 octagonal barn, 1 suffrage lecturer, 2 pioneer women political figures, 15 Suffrage Players, and 161 history enthusiasts and you get one packed, fun, sing-along educational evening at the Century of Action-Oregon Encyclopedia History night at McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse last Tuesday. In addition to learning about how Oregon women got the right to vote in Oregon in 1912, and the important contributions women have made to the state in the century since then, attendees donated over $2500 dollars to the Century of Action centennial project.

Thank you all for making this a great event!

For a glimpse at some of the festivities see below or go to our Century-of-Action-Oregon-Women-Vote Facebook Page.

 

President Lydia Hunt King, M.D., Secretary Abigail Scott Duniway, and members of the Oregon State Woman Suffrage Association announced their reinvigorated campaign for votes for women in an open letter to "Friends of Equal Suffrage in the Northwest" in the July 5, 1894 edition of the Oregonian.

In their long letter they cited "activity of the workers in other parts of the union" particularly at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the achievement of woman suffrage in Colorado that same year, and active ballot efforts in Kansas, California and New York as reasons for them to take up the Oregon campaign again in earnest. 

Oregon suffragists were in the middle of a long campaign to achieve the right to vote. Before the initiative and referendum were passed in 1902, a change to the Oregon constitution (such as removing the word "male" from voting requirements) required that such a bill pass both houses of the state legislature in two successive sessions and then it would be put before the voters. In 1872 and 1874 legislators debated a woman suffrage bill but the measure did not pass. In 1880, a bill passed the House and Senate, and one also passed in 1882, but voters defeated the measure in 1884 when it came before them on the ballot.

Now, in 1894, Oregon suffragists were ready to try again. At the close of their letter Hunt King and Duniway asserted: "As we believe the time has come for the revival of our work in the Pacific Northwest, we hereby invite the friends of the movement, both men and women, to meet our committee at the parlors of Mrs. A.S. Duniway, 294 Clay Street, on Saturday of each week at 2 p.m., beginning with July 7, where equal suffrage meetings will be held regularly until further notice."

OSWSA activists were successful in this campaign and the legislature passed a suffrage bill in 1895, but the Oregon House did not organize in 1897 due to factional disputes. The 1899 legislature did pass the measure for the necessary second time but voters defeated woman suffrage on the ballot in 1900. These challenges would be a major reason for suffrage supporters to support the new initiative and referendum system by which voters could obtain signatures for ballot measures.

Lydia Hunt King was an 1881 graduate of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania and after coming to Portland in 1883 married Samuel Willard King, a founder of the Olds, Wortman and King department store. She was one of five members of the original Portland Women's Medical Society, which she joined in the fall of 1891. Hunt King resigned the presidency of the state suffrage society later in 1894 due to ill health and she died in 1900. 

Additional Reading:

"The World's Columbian Exposition: Idea, Experience, Aftermath," American Studies Program, University of Virginia, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/wce/title.html

"Equal Suffragists," Oregonian, August 20, 1894, 5.

"Dr. Lydia Hunt King," Oregonian, March 11, 1900, 24.

In 2012, Oregonians will observe the 100th anniversary of the achievement of woman suffrage in our state.

Women in western states led the way in successful campaigns for the vote well before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in August 1920. Since 1912, Oregon women have been able to fully engage in the political process, holding office as well as their long-standing role as activists.

Oregon's suffrage history is a vibrant and vital part of the story of votes for women in our region, the nation, and around the globe.

The upcoming centennial is an opportunity for all Oregonians to reflect on important topics: the ongoing role women have played in our state's history, the lessons of the suffrage movement, the achievements of citizen-based political movements, and the importance of civic engagement -- among many other important historic and contemporary issues.

Using the anniversary as a broad, unifying theme, organizations across the state -- small and large, and with a wide range of goals and expertise -- can enhance the recognition and study of women in Oregon. Potential outcomes include (but are not limited to):

• exhibits and public programs
• enhanced archival collections and oral histories
• television, radio, and internet programming
• lesson plans and syllabi
• publications and research

We invite you to begin networking with others to observe this important occasion. One first step is to ask you to share what you think is most important to learn and do, as well as share any specific plans you may have by filling out a brief survey.

Over the past year the work of planning for the centennial has made great strides. As a project of the Northwest History Network, the Oregon Woman Suffrage Centennial received a grant for $9,961 from the Oregon Heritage Commission to develop an official centennial website that will contain historical documents, essays, and current information about the 2012 centennial.  Grant funding requires matching funds, though, and we need your help raising our share of the matching funds.  So far we've raised $3,350 toward our goal of $7,490!
 
Beginning March 16, 2010 you can donate to the Oregon Woman Suffrage Centennial by clicking the "Donate" button to the right.

Not into online donations? You can still support the centennial by writing a check to the Northwest History Network and mailing it to 410 SE 12th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97214.
 
The Northwest History Network is a registered 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization. Your gift is fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Selling Suffrage and Sandwiches at the Portland Rose Festival

 

"Votes-for-Women Ballyho Wagon, Pike Davis Spieling, Will Furnish Sandwiches," Portland Evening Telegram, June 8, 1912, 2.

The Portland Rose Festival was in its fifth year in 1912 and members of the Portland Woman's Club Suffrage Campaign Committee capitalized on the event as an occasion to promote the votes for women campaign in full swing that summer. The suffrage lunch wagon was a popular hit and brought a great deal of publicity to the cause.

 

Campaign committee members, led by Esther Pohl, used the kitchen of the Women of Woodcraft Hall to prepare sandwiches, ice cream, doughnuts and soda to sell from noon until 2:00 each day of Rose Festival week. They decorated a Speedwell truck with votes for women banners and bunting in suffrage white and yellow and rode through the streets selling sandwiches and suffrage to the crowd.

 

W.M. "Pike Davis, head of the Multnomah County Men's Equal Suffrage League, was on board the suffrage lunch wagon to call out to the crowds. When it rained, as sometimes happens in Portland in June, workers unfurled a large votes-for-women umbrella.

 

The use of popular media and participation in parades was part of the new votes for women movement of the early twentieth century. The Oregon campaign benefitted from the successful popular promotion of the suffrage cause.

 

Additional Reading:

 

"Buns to Boost Suffrage," Oregonian, June 10, 1912, 10.

 

"Hot Cakes Not In It," Oregonian, June 12, 1912, 9.

 

"Suffrage Interest Keen: Speakers Engaged to Conduct Educational Campaign at Grants Pass," The Oregonian, May 20, 1912, 7.

 

Grants Pass suffragists invited Rosetta (Mrs. Jackson) Silbaugh* to speak on how woman suffrage could help to solve the problems of cities. Many supporters would have been interested in the specific ways that women's votes could make their community a better place, something with which many were involved in this progressive era. The topic no doubt appealed to many in the "large gathering."

 

The article also indicates that Josephine County suffragists were working to organize their group for effective action at the local level, another important ingredient for success.

 

And finally, the article showcases another vital feature of successful suffrage organizing - networking and support across states. Seattle's Rosetta Silbaugh had been involved in Washington state suffrage activities in 1910 and provided a voice of experience in this meeting. Cross-state cooperation was not confined to suffrage alone. Two years later Silbaugh would work with Oregon activist Caroline J. Gleason and other Industrial Welfare Commission members in Washington and Oregon to report on conditions for women wage-earners. Suffrage activism led the way to other modes of activism after the campaign was completed.

 

*(not Silsbaugh as The Oregonian had it)

 

Additional Reading:

 

Caroline J. Gleason (Sister Miriam Theresa), Report of the Industrial Welfare Commission of the State of Washington on the Wages, Conditions of Work, and Costs and Standards of Living of Women Wage Earners in Washington (Olympia: Washington State Industrial Welfare Commission, 1914)

"Conference on Suffrage: One Hundred Women Are Expected to Attend Sessions," Oregonian, April 3, 1906, 14.

Oregon suffragists prepared for the June 1906 election that would bring the question of votes for women to the ballot after the resounding send-off given to the campaign at the 1905 National American Woman Suffrage Association meeting at the Lewis and Clark Exposition in the summer of 1905.

On April 4, 1906, suffrage supporters from around the state gathered to network and gain momentum for the final months of the 1906 campaign and to greet national leaders, including National American Woman Suffrage Association president Anna Howard Shaw. The day-long conference, held in Portland, brought major players in Oregon woman suffrage, labor, and reform groups from a variety of professions and occupations.

The afternoon session included talks by Mary A. Thompson, M.D. on "The Qualifications of Voters," "Woman and the Municipality," by Grace Watt Ross, president of the Portland Woman's Club, and "The Welfare of the Child," by Millie Trumbull.

At the evening session Abigail Scott Duniway addressed the group on "Marching on to Victory," and Sarah A. Evans, president of the Oregon State Federation of Women's Clubs, spoke on the "Advantage of the Ballot to the Clubwoman," Eva Emery Dye on "Oregon's Debt to Women," and Luema G. Johnson of the Union Label League and the State Federation of Labor on "The Wage-Earner." This session also included remarks by Clara Waldo of the Oregon Grange on "The Influence of the Woman on the Farm," and Esther Pohl, M.D. on "The Debt of the Professional Woman to the Pioneer Suffragists."

Organizers hoped to bring together suffrage supporters from many parts of the state and representing different organizations and groups of women to enhance their appeal for votes for women that June. 

What's new?

Dear Friend of Oregon Women's History:

Thank you so much for taking our survey, answering our phone call or email, meeting with us to give advice, or just being enthusiastic about our work to plan for the Oregon woman suffrage centennial in 2012. We have been busy over the past several months, and we want to share with you some of our accomplishments.

We have:

• Developed a blog that raises awareness and provides information about Oregon woman suffrage history and the upcoming centennial including the feature, This Month in Oregon Woman Suffrage History. Read the March entry on 1912 campaign literature at www.oregonsuffrage.org
• Received the support of Secretary of State Kate Brown, who hosted a November 2009 reception at the state archives in Salem and who is highlighting the women's suffrage centennial in the 2011-2012 Oregon Blue Book
• Recruited the Honorable Barbara Roberts and the Honorable Norma Paulus as our Advisory Board Co-chairs
• Received an Oregon Heritage Commission grant to develop an official 2012 Centennial website as a project of the Northwest History Network. www.northwesthistory.org
• Received a Declaration of Statewide Celebration from the Oregon Heritage Commission to mark the 2012 Oregon Woman Suffrage Centennial.
• And spent many hours networking with scholars, archivists, heritage professionals, educators, women's organizations, and members of the cultural community to learn their plans for the upcoming centennial and to develop ways we can collaborate on this historic Oregon achievement.

This project has the potential to significantly advance the documentation and analysis of women's lives in Oregon, work that sorely needs doing. As the central group leading the preparations for this important celebration, our goal is to provide the resources necessary for educators, institutions, and organizations across the state to meaningfully celebrate women's citizenship in 2012. We have made great progress, and we look forward to working with you as planning continues.

Please consider making a donation today!
You can help provide the matching funds for our Oregon Heritage Commission grant.  To date we have raised $3,350 toward our goal of $7,490. Please donate online at www.oregonsuffrage.org or mail a check to the Northwest History Network, 410 SE 12th Avenue, Portland Oregon 97214.

Please keep in touch with ideas for potential events or programs, and keep us updated about your plans for this important anniversary. Forward this email or phone your associates and friends who would be interested in the 2012 women's suffrage centennial. Ask them to visit www.oregonsuffrage.org to share their ideas and contact information.

Failure is Impossible!

Oregon Woman Suffrage Centennial Committee

The Oregon woman suffrage campaign of 1912 exemplifies the "new" movement for woman suffrage in many ways, including the strategic use of mass advertising for the cause. The Woman Suffrage Campaign Committee of the Portland Woman's Club, led by Sara Evans, Grace Watt Ross and Esther Pohl Lovejoy, secured the talents of journalist Nan Strandborg to assist with publicity.

 

This article from the Portland Evening Telegram indicates that by March 1912 the campaign committee was contacting publishers of newspapers across the state for their stance on suffrage. Strandborg created "leaflets and 'boiled-down' arguments of readable character" for editors to publish - press releases for the mass media.

 

Oregon suffragists utilized campaign literature from the National American Woman Suffrage Association and "all of the successful literature used in the campaigns in Washington and California." Adapting materials that had helped Washington suffragists gain victory in 1910 and those California in 1911 to local needs around Oregon, Strandborg and the committee used "the yellowest of suffrage yellow paper" to draw the attention of readers.

 

Suffrage campaign literature was not only eye-catching; it offered specific suggestions for action for both male and female supporters. "'Organize, advertise, give something - time, service, money, yourself. Everything counts.'"

 

Additional reading

 

Margaret Finnegan, Selling Suffrage: Consumer Culture and Votes for Women (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999)

 

Gayle Gullett, Becoming Citizens: The Emergence and Development of the California Women's Movement, 1880-1911 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000)

 

Kimberly Jensen, "'Neither Head nor Tail to the Campaign': Esther Pohl Lovejoy and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Victory of 1912," Oregon Historical Quarterly 108:3 (Fall 2007): 350-383.

 

Rebecca Mead, How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914 (New York: New York University Press, 2004)