USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume I > Part 34
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She did. No visiting grandmother could have been happier or, apparently, more normal. Even at the last when, tearful but courageous, she bid her hostess farewell.
"Eine Gluecklich' Weinachzeit" said the old lady who had recaptured Christmas and the happiness that had been Christmas in the land of her birth. "Es war eine glueckliche' Weinachzeit."
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Mrs. Ross is a member of the Cincinnati Woman's City Club, a board member of the Consumer's League, former board member of the Ohio Fed- eration of Mothers Clubs, is active in the Public Health Federation and in other organizations for betterment of child and adult welfare.
JULIETTE SESSIONS
JULIETTE SESSIONS (1867-1929) was active in the Ohio Suffrage As- sociation, one of the organizers of the State League of Women Voters and a president of that organization.
She was a member of the Board of the Franklin County League of Women Voters from its inception.
She was for some time a member of the Columbus Board of Education and president for several years.
BELLE SHERWIN
Soon after BELLE SHERWIN, of Cleveland and of Washington, D. C., was chosen president of the National League of Women Voters, in which capacity she served from 1924 to 1934, a long experienced Ohio State legis- lator volunteered a terse evaluation of her work. He said, "She is the capitol's wisest woman." During the final period of the fight for woman suffrage, Miss Sherwin was in the van of Ohio workers. More, she was counted as one of the most able and active national leaders. After adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment, she helped to organize and became the first chairman of the Cleveland League of Women Voters and soon thereafter became head of the National League.
Belle Sherwin was born in Cleveland, the daughter of Henry A. and Frances Mary Sherwin. She took her B.S. at Wellesley, studied history at Oxford, England, and became teacher of history at St. Margaret's School, Waterbury, Connecticut, and later at Miss Hersey's School for Girls, Boston, Massachusetts. She received the degree of LL.D. at Western Reserve Uni- versity in 1930, at Denison University in 1931 and at Oberlin in 1937.
During the World War Miss Sherwin served as chairman of the Women's Committee, Council of National Defense for Ohio. From 1900 to 1914 she was director of the Cleveland Welfare Federation which she helped to or- ganize. She directed the Public Health Nursing Association of Cleveland during the same period. She is a charter member of the Consumer's League of Ohio, served as a member of the Federal Advisory Council of the U. S. Employment Service, on the Consumers Advisory Board for the NRA and is a trustee of Wellesley College.
Miss Sherwin spends part of every year at her Washington home, 1671 Thirty-first Street, N. W., and summers at the family estate at Willoughby. Ohio.
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That "her life was crowded with good deeds" was the tribute paid by the Cleveland Press to PRUDENCE SHERWIN, sister of Belle Sherwin, at the time of her death in the spring of 1938. Her devotion to practical phil- anthropy was second to none. For thirty-two years she worked continuously in the Society for the blind of Cleveland. She was trustee of the Cleveland Welfare Federation, of which Belle Sherwin was for more than ten years director and was the first woman chosen to serve as chairman of the board of Trustees of the First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland. Her life was indeed not only crowded with "good deeds," but dedicated to them.
DARRAH DUNHAM WUNDER
DARRAH DUNHAM WUNDER, executive secretary of the Cincinnati League of Women Voters, was born at Georgetown, Ohio, the daughter of John Goodman and Alice Horner Dunham. Her father was descended from John Goodman, who came to America on the Mayflower and her mother is also of Colonial ancestry.
Mrs. Wunder's intense interest in good government motivated her elec- tion of special courses at the University of Cincinnati and later she devoted a summer to advanced study in governmental science at Williams College.
She was active in the Charter movement for good city government in Cincinnati from its beginning and began her executive responsibilities with the League of Women Voters as chairman of child welfare. Deeply concerned with unemployment, she has served on numerous city wide committees for stabilization of work and of relief. Mrs. Wunder is an active member of the Maternal Health Association, Regional Planning Council, Cincinnati Peace League, Foreign Policy Association, Consumer's League, Good Government League and other outstanding organizations.
Although she is herself of a later day and generation, nobody could realize more keenly than does Belle Sherwin, author of the introduction to this chapter, the grim struggle of those women who first battled for the right of franchise.
They were the vanguard, the shock troops. They advanced slowly but surely in the face of a withering fire of public scorn and private ridicule. It took them nearly three quarters of a century from the first public announce- ment of their purpose at the first "Woman's Rights" convention called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott at Seneca Falls, N. Y. in 1848- until the vote was won, in 1920, by ratification of the suffrage amendment to the constitution of the United States.
What place did Ohio women have in this great movement? They had a place of honor, for on April 19 and 20, 1850, there was held at Salem, Ohio, the second suffrage convention in U. S. history. This historic meeting was called to order by Emily Robinson, who nominated Mariana W. Johnson as president pro tem and Sarah Coates as secretary pro tem.
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Betsy M. Cowles, Oberlin graduate, teacher, school principal and finally -- a wonder in that day-school superintendent, was elected president of the Salem convention. Vice presidents were LYDIA B. IRISH, HARRIET P. WEAVER and RENA DATA. There were three secretaries, CAROLINE STANTON, ANN ELIZA LEE and SALLIE B. GOVE and a business commit- tee of six members, EMILY ROBINSON, J. ELIZABETH JONES, JOSEPHINE GRIFFING, MARIANA JOHNSON, ESTHER LUKENS and MARY H. STANTON.
It is only right and proper to credit another Ohio woman, MRS. ELIZA- BETH WILSON, of Cadiz, Ohio with pioneer service in the suffrage cause a full year earlier than the Salem Convention.
As early as 1849, Elizabeth Wilson managed to get published a book urging the cause of women on the highest ground in the world, namely, that of Holy Writ.
The name of Elizabeth's book was "A Scriptural View of Woman's Rights and Duties" and it is said to have given self appointed opponents, especially those who denounced the "unwomanly" project from the protection of the pulpit, plenty to think about.
One of the reasons for holding the Salem convention was that in 1850 Ohio voters had decided to "alter and amend" the constitution of the state. The brain trust of the suffrage group promptly realized that here, at least, they would have a chance to present a memorial, praying for equal rights.
This memorial did not get to first base at the constitutional convention of 1850. But that was not the fault of its proponents. Certainly it was not through any lagging or laxity on the part of, for instance, FRANCES D. GAGE-"Aunt Fanny Gage".
This remarkable woman, already well known in her native state, Ohio, and presently to win celebrity throughout the country as poet, fiction writer and public speaker, was the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Dana Barker, born at Marietta and through her mother connected with the distinguished Dana and Bancroft families of Massachusetts.
Her father, a pioneer of Marietta, was an architect and designed many of the finest buildings of Ohio's first city. More than 200 members of the Barker family are said to have served in the Revolutionary War. Colonel Barker, Fanny's father, not only designed and built houses. He also built ships, among them the 15 boats ordered by the unfortunate Harmon Blenner- hassett as contribution to the equipment of the Burr conspiracy.
Frances was the ninth child of Col. Joseph Barker's large family. She had a fine body as well as a fine mind-it is said that she insisted on working in her father's shop.
Records on Fanny's schooling are scanty but it is said that "learning was nothing for her" and the fact that her writings, notably the novel "Elsie
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Magoon", is excellently written-as well as extremely interesting-certainly attests real scholastic achievement.
When Frances Dana Barker was 21 years old she became the wife of James Lampson Gage, an attorney of McConnelsville, Ohio and this town be- came the scene-at times the very spirited scene-of her subsequent activities.
For one thing, within a month of the Salem convention, Frances Gage called a county meeting at McConnelsville, to line up support for the suffrage "memorial".
There is still in existence, most fortunately, a long letter written in 1880 by "Aunt Fanny" to a kinswoman, in which she describes this meeting. It says in part :
"MRS. H. M. LITTLE, MRS. M. T. CORNER, MRS. H. BREWSTER, and myself, were all the women that I knew in that region, even favorable to a movement for the help of women. Two of these only asked for more just laws for married women. One hesitated about the right of suffrage. I, alone, in the beginning asked for the ballot (my notoriety as an Abolitionist made it very difficult for me to reach people at home, and, consequently, I had to work through the press and social circle; women dared not speak then. But the seed was sown far and wide, now bearing fruit), and equality before the law for all adult citizens of sound minds, without regard to sex or color. The Freemasons gave their hall for the meeting, but no men were admitted. I drew up a memorial for signatures, praying that the words "white" and "male" be omitted in the new constitution. I also drew up a paper copying the unequal laws on our statute books, with regard to women. We met, Mrs. Harriett Brewster presiding. Some 70 ladies of our place fell in through the day. I read my paper, and Mrs. M. T. Corner gave an historical account of noted women of the past. It was a new thing. At the close, 40 names were placed on the memorial. For years I had been talking and writing, and the people were used to my "craziness". But who expected Mrs. Corner and others to take such a stand. Of course, we were heartily abused".
"Aunt Fanny"-the homey name was probably acquired later in life but its use finally became widespread-seems to have presided at a later suff- rage convention, held at Akron, Ohio, in which other leading participants included HANNAH TRACY CUTLER, JANE G. SWISSHELM, CAROLINE D. SEVERANCE, EMMA R. COE, MARIA GIDDINGS, CELIA C. BURR and MARTHA J. TILDEN.
Frances Dana Gage was undoubtedly a natural orator. She seems to have been special spellbinder of a convention held at Cincinnati and presided over by Martha C. Wright, of Mt. Auburn, then a suburb of the city. J. ELIZA- BETH JONES was made "general agent" of the great cause. Leaders and workers got right down to brass tacks. They held conventions annually for several years and out of every convention came a longer and longer list of
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signatures to a new petition, memorializing the Ohio Legislature for "redress of legal and political wrongs".
MRS. ADELINE SWIFT toured portions of the state for more signatures, as did OLYMPHIA BROWN, graduate of Antioch College, whose efforts seem to have been highly successful.
Nothing seemed to come of it.
Aside from its educational value, all this effort and enthusiasm got the early suffragists exactly nowhere-or so it seemed, at the time.
But, of course, the educational value cannot be put aside-there is no measuring its importance. By the time the later group of suffragists got to work, virtually everybody knew, at least, what it was all about. Very often- usually in fact,-casual opponents put forth no arguments whatever. They conceded the justice of the cause. "Of course it's only fair" they said. "But even so-"
There were, however, plenty of opponents who were anything but casual. The same women who led the suffrage fight had led the temperance fight and entrenched interests were by no means oblivious of this fact.
In his "History of Ohio" Charles G. Galbreath, of the American Histori- cal Association, says "It was largely the liquor interests that kept Ohio women from being granted suffrage".
From 1884 to 1920, six outstanding women served the Ohio Suffrage Association as president. They were MRS. FRANCES M. CASEMONT, of Painesville, MRS. MARTHA ELWELL, of Willoughby, MRS. CAROLINE EVERHARD, of Massilon, MRS HARRIET BROWN STANTON, of Cincinnati, MRS. PAULINE STEINEM of Toledo and MRS. HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, of Warren, who headed the organization from 1898 to 1899 and again from 1911 to 1920.
Mrs. Upton led the "last nine miles" of the suffrage fight, when the con- flict had become terribly arduous. She had long been outstanding in the movement and it was largely due to her efforts that Ohio was the fifth state to ratify the suffrage amendment in 1920.
HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON
HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON of Portage County, O., political leader and undoubtedly one of the best known women in Ohio public life, is at the time of this writing living in California. She became prominent first in her own state, then, in common with many other Ohioans, took a major part in national political affairs when Warren G. Harding was elected president in 1920.
At that time she was made vice chairman of the Republican National Executive Committee, being the first woman in the United States to hold such a position with any political party. In that capacity she had a big share in the shaping of policies of the party respecting women voters, fol-
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lowing their enfranchisement. She held the office of vice chairman for four years. She was the first national Republican committee woman from Ohio, being appointed by the state chairman in 1918. She was assistant state campaign manager in 1928.
Mrs. Upton received her initiation into public affairs early in life. She was born at Ravenna, Portage County, Ohio. Her father was Ezra B. Taylor, born at Nelson in Portage County and her mother, Harriet M. Frazer of Ravenna. Her maternal grandmother was the first white child born in Portage County.
Mrs. Upton's father was a lawyer and maintained offices in Warren from the time she was a small child. He lived to be 89. He served as prosecuting attorney from 1854 to 1862, was elected to Congress in 1880 to succeed James A. Garfield and in 1881 he was re-elected to the office and served until 1893.
In 1884, Harriet Taylor married George W. Upton just after Mr. Upton had completed four years at West Point. She remained in Washington for a time. Mrs. Upton, who later in life was noted as a champion of woman's rights, at first wrote and worked against women's suffrage. She was con- verted to the suffrage cause in 1890, joining the National Woman Suffrage Association. She was a national officer of the association for 15 years, part of the time being president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association.
For many years Mrs. Upton was acting chairman of the congressional committee of the Suffrage Association and at one time the national head- quarters were under her jurisdiction at Warren, Ohio.
Mrs. Upton often declared that her real desire was to write and she contributed articles and stories to various children's magazines, some short stories to other periodicals, did a great deal of newspaper work and also wrote several books. One was, "The Early Presidents, Their Wives and Children." The others were a two-volume history of Trumbull County and a three-volume history of the Western Reserve.
During the term of Myers Y. Cooper as governor of Ohio, Mrs. Upton was a special representative in the State Public Welfare Department, acting as a liaison officer between state institutions and the office of the governor and state welfare director. She was largely instrumental in introducing new and better administration at the Madison, O., Home for Soldiers' and Sailors' Widows, and at the Girls' Industrial School in Delaware. Many needed re- forms accompanied these changes.
During her tenure of office, which commenced in 1928 and ended Feb. 1, 1931, Mrs. Upton became deeply interested in certain prisoners in the Ohio Penitentiary she believed should be released. She was instrumental in helping several of these boys to employment and rehabilitation after they were discharged from prison.
After her official connection with the Ohio Welfare Department Mrs. Upton went to Pasadena, Calif., for a visit and has remained there since,
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making it her permanent home. She has been East just once since that time, to assist in the Hoover for president campaign. She has withdrawn from most public activities, but still continues to speak occasionally for women's clubs, chiefly on historical subjects. As in her early days she punctuates her addresses with original humor, highly popular with her audiences. She often tells of residing in the old Austin House of Warren, where Stephen Foster wrote some of his famous songs.
All who participated in the state movement, as well as leaders in the National Woman's Suffrage Association, realized also how much had been accomplished through the ability, effort and energy of ELIZABETH J. HAUSER, editor of "The Bulletin", official organ of the suffrage organiza- tion. Later Elizabeth Hauser was to become the first president of the Ohio League of Women Voters.
ELIZABETH J. HAUSER
ELIZABETH J. HAUSER of Warren, Ohio, was for years associated with the organized work for woman suffrage in both Ohio and in the National American Woman Suffrage Associations. She was a member of the first official Board of the National League of Women Voters, as a regional director, was the chairman of the first committee of that organization for "International Co-operation to Prevent War" and was later vice president in charge of the department of Efficiency in Government.
For the past 11 years employed as a social writer for the Warren Tribune Chronicle, Miss Hauser did her first newspaper work as a girl, for a brief period, on the Warren Daily Chronicle. Before she was 20, she was for two or three years with the Girard (Ohio) Grit, a weekly newspaper, first as assistant editor and later as editor.
Throughout her connection with the suffrage association and the League of Women Voters, Miss Hauser had editorial and publishing experience. In 1910-11 she served as secretary for Tom L. Johnson, Cleveland Mayor, in the preparation of his biography, "My Story" which was published after Mr. Johnson's death.
HARRIETT COLLINS ALLEN
HARRIETT COLLINS ALLEN (Mrs. Samuel E. Allen) of Cincinnati, gave to the suffrage cause aid and comfort of a kind the movement needed badly, at a time it was needed most. Remember that the movement for "equal rights" was unpopular with most women of wealth or social distinction. equally so with-with the exception of labor and liberal groups-most women of the under-privileged-because they knew little of what it was all about and cared less. So virtually the whole burden of the movement rested on the shoulders of the middle class woman. Nor, to be honest, was even the average
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woman of this category in real sympathy. Most wives and mothers, especially those wives and mothers whose sons and daughters had won for them generous opportunity for self expression in terms of bridge clubs, teas and travel, wouldn't be bothered with anything so silly or if pressed for an opinion, dis- missed the whole matter with expression of their womanly conviction that woman's place was in the home.
Now there still exists in this confessedly imperfect world of ours no more potent force than snobbishness. Let those who feel justified in so doing quarrel with the world-if so, let them supply a better one to designate that instinct, inherent, to greater or lesser degree, in every human being which impels the average individual-man or woman equally-to identify himself or herself with other individuals, groups or organizations that have attained what we call, in our loose-termed way, success.
And "Success", unfortunately but factually, has come to mean, nine times out of ten and probably much oftener, one thing and one thing only- money.
Perhaps this was always true, if for the term money we substitute as we are quite willing to do, the practically synonymous terms power or posses- sion. Traced either forward or backward they mean practically the same thing, as does, of course, another term, social standing. Obviously, the social standing-in this connection the word "social" is used in a special and limited sense, which is quite the opposite of its connotation in, for instance, the phrase "social welfare"-still enjoyed by a family or an individual of the present generation, even though wealth has taken wings-is due to the wealth acquiring talent of some otherwise quite humble ancestor.
It must be admitted that there are great thinkers among us even today and the accolade of success is still granted to those who have distinguished themselves in other ways than money-making. But on the authority of one of the best informed thinkers and writers of the day, this conception of suc- cess is far from general.
For instance, Dorothy Thompson, whose acceptance, some years ago, of honorary membership in the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association, sponsor of this book, thrilled us all with pride, has this to say in her "political guide":
"The idea of self-realization, of self-development-an athletic and robust idea, worthy of humanity,-became perverted into the idea of self-interest. And for nearly three generations that perversion has dominated America." It is a mechanical conception that the unbridled competition of egotistic self interests will work out automatically, in the long run, into the greatest good for the greatest number. A profoundly ethical conception gave way to a totally moral one. The ideal of a society of individuals trying to BE some- thing, degenerated into the ideal of all individuals trying to GET something. The love of fame-the ambition to be of good repute-degenerated into the love of money, of "success".
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So-it is with this highly unethical but widely pervading conception of "success" that the average individual seeks, through the not less reprehens- ible and not less general "instincts of snobbishness" seeks to be identified.
A cause which can begin "at the top" again in the sadly unethical but highly realistic meaning of the term, is more than half won because more than half of those whose interest and cooperation are desired, themselves desire nothing better than this type of identification.
Of such pale and watery human substance we, alas, are made. So this is why the interest and the active aid of socially privileged women meant so much to the suffrage cause in the comparatively few instances that it was forth-coming.
It means even more in Ohio, for instance, than in New York, where for instance, the suffrage organizations had such names-few but potent-as that of Mrs. August Belmont to begin with.
As for Cincinnati suffragists, to find a socialite not only interested but anxious to join their ranks was accepted as nothing less than an act of provi- dence. It is also only fair to state that in quite a number of cases, providence thus indicated a vague but beneficient intention that woman should ultimately be permitted to cast her vote as well as to pay her taxes.
MRS. JOHN M. WITHROW, MRS. ELLIOTT PENDLETON, MRS. GUY MALLON, MISS MARY C. GALLAGHER, MRS. CHARLES J. HUNT, MISS EMILIE McVEA, MRS. CHARLES R. FOX and MRS. GEORGE HOADLY and other women listed in the social register were also listed-and were earnest and enthusiastic workers-in the suffrage clubs. But for the most part these Cincinnati clubs-The Susan B. Anthony of which DR. SARAH SIE- WERS was a staunch and stalwart leader for many years, the Twentieth Century, the Harriet Taylor Upton Club-were without Blue Book glamour. They met in the dull little parlors for which hotels happened to have no more profitable use and if by chance a meeting conflicted with that of even a bour- geoish bridge club, the home loving women of the bridge group made no secret of their bored if amused contempt.
But if by chance the snooty ones should recognize among the suffrage sisterhood some one whose nod of recognition alone aroused the pleasant sensation of a sharing in social prestige, it changed matters a bit-and some- times quite a bit.
In plain words, it was the honest conviction and definite expression of such women as Mrs. Samuel Allen, and the others here mentioned and indicated, that the suffrage movement lost much of its original taboo and that membership increased in quantity if not in quality.
Harriet Herron Collins traces back to old Cincinnati stock on both sides of her family. Her mother was a Herron and incidentally the aunt of that Nellie Herron who later became Mrs. William Howard Taft, wife of the
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