Volume III Part 116 (1/2)

[503] At the close of the convention a State society was organized, with the following officers: _President_, Mrs. A. A. Haskell of Petaluma; _Vice-Presidents_, Mrs. J. W. McComb of San Francisco, Mrs. Denio of Solano, Mrs. Kingsbury of San Diego, Mrs. E. J. Hall of Los Angeles, Mrs. Eddy of Nevada, Mrs. Lewis of Sacramento, Mrs.

Kirby of Santa Cruz, Mrs. Agnes Eager of Alameda, Mrs. Watkins of Santa Clara, Mrs. L. D. Latimer of Sonoma; _Secretary_, Mrs. Minnie McKee of Santa Clara. _Board of Control_, Mrs. C. H. Spear, Mrs. C.

G. Ames, Mrs. Minnie Edwards, Mrs. Celia Curtis, Miss Laura Fowler, Mr. John A. Collins, Miss Kate Atkinson, Mrs. Pitts Stevens.

[504] Mrs. Kingsbury of San Diego, Mrs. H. F. M. Brown, Addie L.

Ballou, Paulina Roberts, Mrs. C. H. Spear, Laura Cuppy Smith, Mrs.

F. A. Logan, M. D., Mrs. C. M. Churchill, John A. Collins, and a large number of local speakers, who aided in organizing societies, or in keeping up the interest in those already formed.

[505] Chief among its contributors were Eliza W. Farnham, Sarah M.

Clark, Amanda Simonton Page, Mrs. M. D. Strong, f.a.n.n.y Green, Annie K. Fader, Eliza A. Pittsinger, Mrs. James Neal, Mrs. Elizabeth Williams.

[506] Among the many who have been active and faithful in the movement for the political rights of women, whose names should be mentioned, are: Mrs. Eliza Taylor, Mrs. O. Fuller, Elizabeth McComb, Dr. Laura P. Williams, Mrs. Dr. White, Sallie Hart, Dr. R.

H. McDonald, Hon. Frank Pixley, and many others in _San Francisco_; f.a.n.n.y Green McDougal, _Oakland_; Mrs. Phebe Benedict, _Antioch_; Mrs. Isabella Irwin, _San Rafael_; Mrs. Cynthia Palmer, Mrs. Emily Rolfe, _Nevada City_; Mrs. Elizabeth Condy, _Stockton_; Miss E. S.

Sleeper, _Mountain View_; Mrs. Laura J. Watkins, Mrs. Damon, _Santa Clara_; Mrs. Dr. Kilpatrick, _San Mateo_; Mrs. S. G. Waterhouse, Drs. Kellogg and Bearby, Mrs. M. J. Young, Mrs. E. B. Crocker, and others, _Sacramento_; Mrs. Mary Jewett, Mr. and Mrs. Howell, _Healdsburgh_; Mrs. Lattimer, _Windsor_; Mr. and Mrs. Denio, Mrs.

E. L. Hale, _Vallejo_; Mrs. J. Lewellyn, Mrs. Potter, _St. Helena_; Mr. and Mrs. J. Egglesson, _Napa_; Henry and Abigail Bush, _Martinez_; Rowena Granice Steele, _Merced_; Mrs. Jennie Phelps Purvis, Mrs. Lapham and daughter, _Modesto_.

CHAPTER LIV.

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST.

The Long Marches Westward--Abigail Scott Duniway--Mary Olney Brown--The First Steps in Oregon--Col. C. A. Reed--Judge G. W.

Lawson--1870--The New Northwest, 1871--Campaign, Mrs. Duniway and Miss Anthony--They Address the Legislature in Was.h.i.+ngton Territory--Hon. Elwood Evans--Suffrage Society Organized at Olympia and at Portland--Before the Oregon Legislature--Donation Land Act--Hon. Samuel Corwin's Suffrage Bill--Married Woman's _Sole_ Traders' Bill--Temperance Alliance--Women Rejected--Major Williams Fights their Battles and Triumphs--Mrs. H. A.

Loughary--Progressive Legislation, 1874--Mob-Law in Jacksonville, 1879--Dr. Mary A. Thompson--Const.i.tutional Convention, 1878--Woman Suffrage Bill, 1880--Hon. W. C. Fulton--Women Enfranchised in Was.h.i.+ngton Territory, Nov. 15, 1883--Great Rejoicing, Bonfires, Ratification Meetings--Const.i.tutional Amendment Submitted in Oregon and Lost, June, 1884--Suffrage by Legislative Enactment Lost--Fourth of July Celebrated at Vancouvers--Benjamin and Mary Olney Brown--Was.h.i.+ngton Territory--Legislation in 1867-68 Favorable to Women--Mrs. Brown Attempts to Vote and is Refused--Charlotte Olney French--Women Vote at Grand Mound and Black River Precincts, 1870--Retrogressive Legislation, 1871--Abby H. Stuart in Land-Office--Hon. William H. White--Idaho and Montana.

In the spring of 1852, when the great _furor_ for going West was at its height, in the long trails of miners, merchants and farmers wending their way in ox-carts and canvas-covered wagons over the vast plains, mountains and rivers, two remarkable women, then in the flush of youth, might have been seen; one, Abigail Scott Duniway, destined to leave an indelible mark on the civilization of Oregon, and the other, Mary Olney Brown, on that of Was.h.i.+ngton territory. What ideas were revolving in these young minds in that long journey of 3,000 miles, six months in duration, it would be difficult to imagine, but the love of liberty had been infused in their dreams somewhere, either in their eastern homes from the tragic scenes of the anti-slavery conflict, or on that perilous march amidst those eternal solitudes by day and the solemn stillness of the far-off stars in the gathering darkness. That this long communion with great nature left its impress on their young hearts and sanctified their lives to the best interests of humanity at large, is clearly seen in the deeply interesting accounts they give of their endeavors to mould the governments of their respective territories on republican principles. Writing of herself and her labors, Mrs. Duniway says:

I was born in Pleasant Grove, Tazewell county, Illinois, October 22, 1834, of the traditional ”poor but respectable parentage”

which has honored the advent of many a more ill.u.s.trious worker than myself. Brought up on a farm and familiar from my earliest years with the avocations of rural life, spending the early spring-times in the maple-sugar camp, the later weeks in gardening and gathering stove-wood, the summers in picking and spinning wool, and the autumns in drying apples, I found little opportunity, and that only in winter, for books or play. My father was a generous-hearted, impulsive, talented, but uneducated man; my mother was a conscientious, self-sacrificing, intelligent, but uneducated woman. Both were devotedly religious, and both believed implicitly that self-abnegation was the crowing glory of womanhood. Before I was seventeen I was employed as a district school teacher, received a first-cla.s.s certificate and taught with success, though how I became possessed of the necessary qualifications I to this day know not. I never did, could, or would study when at school.

In the spring of 1852 my father decided to emigrate to Oregon. My invalid mother expostulated in vain; she and nine of us children were stowed away in ox-wagons, where for six months we made our home, cooking food and was.h.i.+ng dishes around camp-fires, sleeping at night in the wagons, and crossing many streams upon wagon-beds, rigged as ferryboats. When our weary line of march had reached the Black Hills of Wyoming my mother became a victim to the dreadful epidemic, cholera, that devastated the emigrant trains in that never-to-be-forgotten year, and after a few hours'

illness her weary spirit was called to the skies. We made her a grave in the solitudes of the eternal hills, and again took up our line of march, ”too sad to talk, too dumb to pray.” But ten weeks after, our Willie, the baby, was buried in the sands of the Burnt River mountains. Reaching Oregon in the fall with our broken household, consisting of my father and eight motherless children, I engaged in school-teaching till the following August, when I allowed the name of ”Scott” to become ”Duniway.” Then for twenty years I devoted myself, soul and body, to the cares, toils, loves and hopes of a conscientious wife and mother. Five sons and one daughter have been born to us, all of whom are living and at home, engaged with their parents in harmonious efforts for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women.

The first woman suffrage society ever formed in Oregon, was organized in Salem, the capital of the State, in the autumn of 1870, and consisted of about a dozen members. Col. C. A. Reed was chosen president and G. W. Lawson, secretary. This little society which maintained a quiescent existence for a year or more and then disbanded without ceremony, was, in part, the basis of all subsequent work of its character in Oregon. In the winter of 1871 this society honored me with credentials to a seat in the woman suffrage convention which was to meet in San Francisco the following May. My business called me to the Golden City before the time for the convention, and a telegraphic summons compelled me to return to Oregon without meeting with the California a.s.sociation in an official way, as I had hoped. But my credentials introduced me to the San Francisco leaders, among whom Emily Pitts Stevens occupied a prominent position as editor and publisher of the _The Pioneer_, the first woman suffrage paper that appeared on the Pacific coast. Before returning to Oregon I resolved to purchase an outfit and begin the publication of a newspaper myself, as I felt that the time had come for vigorous work in my own State, and we had no journal in which the demands of women for added rights were treated with respectful consideration.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Yours for Liberty, Abigail Scott Duniway”]

Soon after reaching my home in Albany I sold my millinery store and removed to Portland, where, on May 5, 1871, the _New Northwest_ made its appearance, and a siege of the citadels of a one-s.e.xed government began, which at this writing is going on with unabated persistency. The first issue of this journal was greeted by storms of ridicule. Everybody prophesied its early death, and my personal friends regarded the enterprise with sincere pity, believing it would speedily end in financial disaster. But the paper, in spite of opposition and burlesque, has grown and prospered.

In August, 1871, Susan B. Anthony favored Oregon and Was.h.i.+ngton territory with a visit. The fame of this veteran leader had preceded her, and she commanded a wide hearing. We traveled together over the country, visiting inland villages as well as larger towns, holding woman suffrage meetings and getting many subscribers for the _New Northwest_. During these journeyings I became quite thoroughly initiated into the movement and made my first efforts at public speaking. After a six weeks' campaign in Oregon, we went to Olympia, the capital of Was.h.i.+ngton territory, where the legislature was in session, and where, through a motion of Hon. Elwood Evans, we were invited to address the a.s.sembly in advocacy of equal rights for all the people. From Olympia we proceeded to Victoria, a border city belonging to a woman's government, where we found that the idea of the ballot for woman was even more unpopular than in the United States, though all, by strange inconsistency, were intensely loyal to their queen. After an interesting and profitable experience in the British possessions we returned to Puget Sound, stopping over on our route at the different milling towns that teem with busy life upon the evergreen sh.o.r.es of this Mediterranean of the Pacific.

At Seattle we organized an a.s.sociation[507] in which many of the leading ladies and gentlemen took a prominent part; after which we returned to Olympia, where a territorial organization was effected.[508]

Returning to Portland, we called a convention, and organized the Oregon State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, with Harriet W.

Williams, a venerated octogenarian, president. This estimable woman had been one of the earliest leaders of the woman suffrage movement in the State of New York, and her presence at the head of our meetings in Oregon was a source of genuine satisfaction to the friends of the cause in the new State of her adoption.

Subsequently, Mrs. Williams was compelled to resign on account of increasing infirmities, but her wise counsels are still cherished by her successors, whom she regards with motherly solicitude as she serenely awaits the final summons of the unseen messenger.

Many of those who early distinguished themselves in this connection deserve special mention because of their long-continued zeal in the work.[509] If others failed us, these were always ready to work the hardest when the fight was hottest.