USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Official report of the centennial celebration of the founding of the city of Cleveland and the settlement of the Western Reserve > Part 17
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Let none of us forget that righteousness exalteth a nature, but sin is a reproach to any people. One man says, "Give us pure gold." Another says, Give us free silver. But we say, "Give us a nation of total abstainers, and our relief stations and our chari- ties would be far less than they are to-day." God grant that it may be better further on.
At 11 o'clock the subject of "Household Economics" was taken up, Miss Linda T. Guilford presiding. The Temple Quartette sang " The Parting Kiss," after which Mrs. Helen Campbell delivered an address on the topic, "A Stronger Home," the following being a brief report of the same:
Mrs. Campbell's paper was devoted to proving that the discontent which was bringing woman out of her old-time subservience was her natural and rightful revolt against old-time conditions-and conditions existing in many quarters even nowadays -which made the expression, "the good old times," a mere travesty. She said that the country graveyard and the insane asylum bore testimony to the truth of what she said, the former being filled with the first, second, and often third wives of farmers, and the second being crowded with farmers' wives. She drew a picture of the New England graveyard, with its tombstones of two or three wives of the same farmer, side by side with that of the farmer himself, who died at a " ripe old age," and she said that New England girls of former days, and, to a great extent, to-day, rushed into fourteen hours' labor in factories sooner than take the more arduous work of farm life. Mrs. Campbell pictured the ceaseless lack-luster routine of the life of the farmer's wife, with its constant cooking and mending, its tiresome sameness of diet, and its inevitable burying of the higher intelligence of the woman herself.
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She recounted a large picnic of agriculturists she had witnessed in Wisconsin, where three-fourths of the contents of the baskets were lemon pies, the only viand which seemed to be thought equal to the occasion. Six hours a day was devoted by the rural housewives to cooking the meals and clearing the tables. Salads were un- known to them, and soup an unheard of luxury. Fried meats, chiefly pork, and pie were the staples. The teeth and the hair of the women fell out, their backs bent, their cheeks hollowed, and they died young and went insane in large numbers. In common with their husbands, they had no thought save for the daily food and the mortgage. As the result of the object lesson afforded by all this, the boys and girls sought the city and its wider opportunities as fast as they could. The women had the right to reach out for a better condition of affairs. Otherwise they could not found the family, which physically, ethically, and psychologically should be the mas- terpiece of evolution. The good old times was a misnomer, and women of the present day were to be congratulated that they did not live fifty or one hundred years ago.
In connection with all this, Mrs. Campbell caused laughter by saying that the new order of things which had produced the new woman, though not the new woman as often pictured, was producing, without his knowledge and consent, the new man, and when the last-named product of the age was perfected, a condition of society would exist which would be a joy and a gladness.
A feature of the morning session was the introduction of Mrs. Claire Hoyt Burley, formerly of Massachusetts, past department commander of the Woman's Relief Corps and national superintendent of the Na- tional Women's Relief Corps Home at Madison, Ohio. Mrs. Ingham, at the close of the meeting, presented the following announcement:
The civic patriotism developed at our meetings the past year among the women of Cleveland creates a desire on the part of many that these delightful associations continue. Responding to such sentiment, we appoint a reunion of members to be held in the Assembly Room of Public Library Building, No. 190 Euclid avenue, Friday, September 11, at 2:30 P.M.
It is proposed to designate these attractive gatherings as pertaining to the Woman's New Century Club of Cleveland and the Western Reserve for the study of this city and surrounding country, our history, present needs, commercial achieve- ments, the wonderful waterways, and in time our geology, flora, fauna, etc., never forgetting the tender reminiscence of the pioneer and the survey of every branch of woman's work, especially that pertaining to the happiness of home. Such a club should be open to all women, irrespective of age, occupation, religion or nationality.
Please favor this broad venture with membership at St, even if you cannot attend in person, as through this instructive channel intellectual help may come to hundreds.
Yours for love of home and city, MRS. MARY B. INGHAM, President Woman's Department. MRS. MARY S. BRADFORD, First Vice president.
Remit to Miss Elizabeth Blair, No. 802 Prospect street.
The ushers at the Woman's Day exercises were Mrs. Mary E. McOmber, marshal; assisted by Mrs. C. L. Moore, Miss Mattie D. Irwin, Miss Marie Schwab, Mrs. Alice Mace, Miss Cole, Miss Ella Woodard and Miss B. Donavan. Miss Rentz was in charge of the register, where the 216 township historians signed their names. Miss Jennie E. Dawson sold programmes, and Mrs. J. E. Bradley badges.
From 12 o'clock to 1:30 o'clock a reception and luncheon was given in the upper rooms of the Armory to the historians of the Western Re- serve, the hostess being Mrs. Gertrude V. R. Wickham, historian, assisted by Mrs. Charles G. Smith, her able colleague, and the following ladies: Mrs. Charles II. Weed, Mrs. A. B. Foster, Mrs. A. R. Timmins, Mrs. W. F. Robbins, Mrs. C. E. Tillinghast, Mrs. J. A. Bidwell, Mrs. H. A. Griffin, Mrs. Francis Widlar, Mrs. F. A. Arter, Mrs. C. E. Low- man, Mrs. J. W. Lewis, Mrs. C. E. Pennewell, Mrs. Robert Aikenhead, Mrs. Arthur Adams, Mrs. J. H. Collister, Mrs. F. W. Pelton, Mrs. J. M. Henderson, Mrs. Harry MeNutt, Mrs. J. F. Fisher, Mrs. A. C. Hord,
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Mrs. A. R. Teachout, Mrs. C. E. Lower, Mrs. Sigmund Joseph, Mrs. Sapp, Mrs. Werwage. The tables were set in the large rooms fac- ing the lake. Each accommodated ten guests.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
At the opening of the afternoon session a number of aged persons were introduced by Mrs. Ingham. The first was Mrs. Warner, a great granddaughter of Moses Cleaveland. Others presented were Mrs. J. A. Harris, the founder of the Dorcas Society; Mrs. Peter Thatcher, who did much in establishing hospitals in the city ; Mrs. Betsey Hulet Foster, daughter of a soldier in the American Revolution, whose daughter wrote the Centennial Ode; Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton, the author- ess, and Mrs. Mary S. Bradford, president of the Cleveland School of Art and first vice president of the Centennial. The first hour was des- ignated as "Club Hour." Mrs. Elroy M. Avery, president of the ex- ecutive board, the first woman in Cleveland to be elected to the School Council, presided. In taking charge of the meeting, Mrs. Avery said :
I am glad that the hour of my chairmanship is the civic hour. In our civic pride we recognize the fact that the building of such a city as this in a hundred years is con- clusive evidence of activity and energy. This active and energetic city needs, and has, an active and energetic head. Cleveland's mayor is only a third as old as the city, the youngest mayor of any great city in the land. When the enthusiasm of youth re- inforces wisdom, the combination constitutes the index of success.
It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you our great city's honored chief, Mayor Robert E. McKisson.
The mayor responded to this happy introduction as follows:
Mrs. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
It is a great privilege for me to say a few words to the women of the Western Re- serve on this patriotic occasion. We have assembled to pay a just and loving tribute to those who labored long and faithfully to build up the character of the " Reserve home," which blesses all our people to-day. We have come together to make our acknowledgment and pay our debt of gratitude to the pioneers now present, who have carried forward the illustrious achievements of their mothers and fathers from old New England; we have met to properly inaugurate and push forward in the new century those elements of the new Connecticut, whose younger homes are so beautiful, and by this magnificent meeting we show our appreciation of the blessing and pros- perity which we have so well enjoyed.
'The women of Cleveland and the Western Reserve have reason to rejoice in the completion of a hundred years of history for home and country as glorious and as grand as was ever written in the records of the world. It is therefore fitting and proper that we set aside this day for the commemoration of women's noble part, their progress, and their achievements in the declining century, and give to them our mutual congratulations on the successful past and express our loving faith in what their suc- cessors will receive at their hands. In this feeling and spirit, I believe, all true citi- zens heartily join. Who can estimate the power of devoted womanhood in these matchless counties of the Western Reserve? Her hand has rocked the cradle of presi- dents and kings; her home has been the paradise for generals and queens. To her, we owe our grateful thanks for the lustre this section of our State enjoys; to her, we give our hearty praise for the part her work has played in all the movements for the betterment of mankind. To the women of the Western Reserve and our distinguished guests our gates swing gladly inward and we bid you welcome, thrice welcome, to-day.
It is also fitting for me to publicly thank the women of the Reserve who have taken so lively and important an interest in the success of this Centennial Celebration. Their untiring efforts, even amid early discouragements, have resulted in the happy consummation of not only their own hopes and desires, but those of every citizen having the interests of the celebration at heart. If any of our sister cities are con- templating similar celebrations within the next few years, I can heartily commend to
10
MRS. T. K.
DISSETTE
MRS CHAS.H.WEED
MRS JOHN
HUNTINGTON
MRS.W.B.NEFF
MRS. F. A. KENDALL
MRS.W.G. ROSE
N
FF
MAS. H.A. GRIF
REPRESENTATIVE MEMBERS OF THE WOMAN'S DEPARTMENT
GROUP II.
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them for examples of energy, enlightenment and effort the women of our own West- ern Reserve. Of course we are all aware that this day belongs to the ladies; the gen- tlemen are in the background; the ladies are in the front. I might say the men have had something to do with this celebration, but perhaps such remarks can be better re- tained for some future occasion. When Cleveland was born into the family of strug- gling western villages a hundred years ago, it occupied a small plat of land on the south shore of Lake Erie, but in four generations of man and woman, through their in- cessant labors, it has widened and grown, until to-day its fame, its greatness, its glory, its citizenship, its homes and its prosperity place it with the brightest stars that shine among America's greatest municipalities.
In the city of Cleveland woman is engaged in almost every calling open to man. We have women doctors, women lawyers, women preachers, but it remains for an outside and smaller town to furnish us a woman's brass band. To the White House, the Reserve has given her Lucy Webb Hayes and her Lucretia Garfield; to letters she has given her Lydia Hoyt Farmer and her Sarah K. Bolton; while to art, science and teaching, she has dedicated a long and worthy list of her distinguished daughters. In the crusades she gave a little band whose lives will always be tenderly remembered and whose memories will ever be revered. In the war she sent forth her messengers of love and mercy, whose sympathy and prayers meant hfe and hope for the soldiers on the fields of battle. Who can read the story of women's work in the Reserve during that great struggle; who can look upon that sacred group in our soldiers' monument on the Public Square without a deeper feeling of consecration for the stars and stripes and the country over which the flag now grandly waves?
The history of the Reserve, properly written, is in a large measure the history of its women. From the very first they wielded a scepter of influence which has done much to shape its destiny. They have been quick to perceive its needs, and ever ready to assist in every noble cause. As the retiring century bows itself out there is nothing but gratitude for their loyal service; as the new century courtesies and beck- ons us on, there is nothing but promise of greater things in the broadening fields for woman's endeavor. On this grander course it is privileged for the women of to-day to start. Others will take up the silver threads where they are dropped and complete the cham. When our next centennial anniversary rolls around, may those who celebrate it be as healthy and vigorous as those who celebrate it to-day, and may the glories they have won be as lasting and bright.
At the conclusion of the Mayor's speech, Mrs. Avery said :
Cleveland's greatness is largely due to a wise use of her commercial and indus- trial advantages. The men who have created some of those advantages and have made wise use of them and of others have organized for more efficient action along such lines. They are public benefactors and, as such, are held in honor. To hold the chief office among such men is to be clothed with a power and dignity second only to those that hedge about the mayor. I have the honor of presenting to you the presi- dent of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. J. G. W. Cowles.
The address of President Cowles was as follows:
Mrs. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
I am sure there is small place or need for either Director Day, or Mayor MeKisson, or myself to speak in presence of the twenty women whose names are on your pro- gramme for this "woman's day." The men have done all the speaking on the other days, which is not right, for every day of this Centenmal celebration is a woman's day. There were women founders, at least one, Tabitha Stiles, and women pioneers, too many to name; and New England women, our mothers of Connecticut; and women bicyclists on parade, the " new woman " of to-day, who hke her grandmother has a spinning wheel, but rides it instead of making homespun by it.
How the times change and we change with them! I have changed in forty years ; I confess it and am glad of it. I was a hot conservative at twenty, but am a cold- blooded radical at sixty. I can regard now with complacency innovations which shocked and almost angered me then. "Woman's Rights" was then the cry of a new reform, when Lucy Stone, Susan B. Athony, Elizabeth Stanton, and the girl orator, Anna Dickinson, who blazed like a meteor upon the lecture platform, were preaching the enfranchisement of women as well as emancipation for the slaves. But there was need; there was a cause. Women were subject to disabilities, mjustices, legal and social wrongs, most of which have been by this time, and partly as the result of those agitations, corrected ; although woman suffrage, their panacea for all ills, has not
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
yet prevailed to any great extent. The men lawmakers have done it, without the help of women voters. So that the motive and appeal for woman suffrage is less urgent than it was forty years ago.
Then the common law rule governed the legal status and property rights of women. That rule was barbaric. Marriage merged the woman's legal personality into that of the husband. The wife not only gave herself, but all she had. Her personal proper- ty became at once her husband's, beyond control, subject to his debts and dissipations. And in case of her death passed to him and his relatives, instead of reverting ever to her own. All products of their joint labor and of her sole industry and skill belonged to him. She had no right of action, no redress for any wrong, no standing in court alone, but only as joined with him.
I cannot pause to depict the wrongs suffered by married women under this code. But the changes enacted in Ohio laws from 1861 to 1887 are a revolution, reversing the traditions of centuries and transforming medieval feudalism into modern liberty and equality. Out from the shadow and oppression of coverture the married woman has emerged through those statutes into an independent legal personality, owning or owing, keeping or giving, earning and spending, buying and selling, acquiring or con- veying, suing or being sued, contracting freely with her husband even, or with any other person in proper business relations; the wife stands before the law the equal of her husband, with all the rights, privileges, and powers of a femme sole. And almost all trades, employments, occupations and professions are open to women in so far as they have the wit and will to enter them. There is no legal bar and hardly any social obstacles.
But each new right brings its corresponding obligations; each privilege its corol- lary liability. She may make contracts, but she must also perform them. She may create a debt, but she is bound to pay it. She has power to sue, but is liable to be sued. Release from coverture means not only freedom, but exposure. Her protection has disappeared with her bondage.
So that it is needful that the new woman in assuming her new prerogatives shall gain an education and experience in the affairs of life. Business success can only be had through business training. Women have been shielded from competition; for ages habituated to courtesy. But business is strife. And it is a question what real and permanent advantage will be gained by women in the world's broad field of battle.
Certain I am that there is not and can never be a better social relation for women than that of marriage; or a purer, sweeter service than that of mother; or a nobler sphere than in the home. In all your ambitions, do not forget that there is your true crown and royalty. Here cluster affections, the most tender and delicate, joys the most pure, cares the most sacred, and duties the most binding of any in our lives. No "mission" can be more noble than that fulfilled within the home. The real great- ness of womanhood is here expressed more than in filling high posts of honor and oc- cupying wide fields of usefulness in the world without.
But while woman's sphere is in debate, as perhaps it always will be in the chang- ing opinions of mankind, the final rule of judgment will be the laws of nature, which are the wisdom of God. Always the divine thought is the true ideal, if we can dis- cover it and think for ourselves and make it our own; alike in science and in art, in society and in life, and in the separate characters and mutual relations of men and women. Physical limitations cannot be disregarded without permanent damage to the race. Mental and spiritual characteristics in each sex should be preserved and developed rather than be uprooted in either, while interchangeable traits and virtues common to human nature may increase the resemblance and make more perfect the harmony of relations between the sexes. The true harmony and best adjustment is not in shaping the spheres of action, but in cultivating corresponding characters, so that women also may be strong and men gentle; so that women also may be brave and men be pure. Not new rights, new franchises, new prerogatives, but womanly characters ever rising in moral elevation towards spiritual greatness, is the condition of happiness and honor; ever inviting and promoting domestic virtues in men recip- rocal and complemental to their own. Guided by what model? There is but one in human history so strong, so true, so pure, so good, so wise, and so unselfish, so unit- ing all perfections as to have become the ideal of humanity and the proper model of all men and women, who "blended in His nature the virtues of the noblest manliness. with those of the purest womanhood, and who was also, in this respect, the most com- plete model of a perfect human being; so that, although his destiny required him to belong to one sex, he yet is a pattern for the purest virtues of the other.
And in Him, as St. Paul tells us, "there is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither
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bond nor free; there is neither male nor female," but one new creature-the unity of humanity in the Son of Man.
Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton being next introduced, spoke on the topic, "Cleveland Women." Her address was as follows:
This is an eventful day of an eventful year. I cannot realize that I have lived here much of the time during the past thirty years, and have seen Cleveland grow from 60,000 to 360,000 in population. I see before me women who have long worked to- gether in the Woman's Christian Association, the temperance work, and other lines of benevolence. I was proud of Cleveland as a center of benevolence, when it was made such by the gifts of such noble men as Joseph Perkins, Stillman Witt and others. Our recent munificent gift of $600,000 by Mr. Rockefeller for a park for the people shows that we are not losing our prestige along that line. In these later years I have been proud of Cleveland for another reason other than benevolency; it has become an in- tellectual center. I am proud of what our women are doing in their clubs, in their study of the great questions of the day, for who should be interested if not women, in the health and moral progress of a great city? We have musicians, artists, lawyers, doctors, ministers and writers among our women. We have a fine college, and we need another thing to make Cleveland still further a center for scholars and intellectual work. We need a great library. Chicago has her two and a half millions from John Crerar; her two millions from Walter Newberry for a reference library, and her public library has had over a million dollars bestowed upon it. Baltimore has her million from Enoch Pratt; Pittsburgh her millions from Andrew Carnegie; New York her million and a half from the Astors; Boston her three million dollar library, with a half million books. We hope to have a great library before another Centennial, though we shall not be here to see it. This is a day for congratulations, when we think of what the century has done for woman. Since Oberlin was the first college in the country to open its doors to our sex a little more than half a century ago, colleges west and east have followed its example. One hundred years ago (1790) cultured Boston did not permit girls to attend the public schools, except in the sum- mer months when the boys did not wish to attend. In 1820, in Waterford, N. Y., when a girl was examined in geometry it called forth a storm of ridicule. Her teacher was Mrs. Emma Willard. Since Dr. Emily Blackwell found a welcome to study medicine in Cleveland after being refused all over the country, half a hundred or more medical schools now admit women. Not till 1870, it is said, was a degree in law given to a woman, and that in Chicago. We have two women who preach most ac- ceptably in this city, and many more elsewhere. We need more Catharine Booths to lead Salvation Armies.
Laws have changed. Lucy Stowe tells how the Common Law which gave all the property of the wife to her husband at marriage gave the $25 which her mother re- ceived from the paternal estate to Mr. Stowe. He, with great gallantry, refused to keep it as his own, and bought his wife some spoons and a side-saddle with her own twenty-five dollars.
Cleveland is progressive. Here was born the American Woman Suffrage Associa- tion, as a result of the convention of 1860 held here. The first convention of temper- ance women was held here, resulting from the suggestion of Mrs. W. A. Ingham at Chautauqua. Let me say here how much I owe our efficient president, Mrs. W. A. Ingham, for her encouragement to me in the early years of my Cleveland life in my benevolent work. I am glad to thank her thus publicly. Our city now has two able women on the School Board, Mrs. Elroy M. Avery and Mrs. Benjamin F. Taylor. We are even helping men a little in politics. I must not forget my old home in Con- necticut, from which so many of us came. I am glad to-day to be one of the connect- ing links between the old home and the new. We owe much to Catharine Beecher, who founded the school where some of us in Cleveland were taught and graduated. She and Mary Lyon were pioneers. We are proud of a Hartford woman who gave honor to her sex and her country by writing "Uncle Tom's Cabin," of which two mill- ion copies have been sold in nineteen languages. We are glad that Moses Cleave- land laid out this goodly city. We are proud of the energy, the puritan principles, the heroism and self-sacrifice which founded this Western Reserve. We are glad, too, that on the entrance upon our second Centennial we see before us a noble com- pany of younger women who will help the men of the country to do noble deeds.
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