- Jan Cook
- Posted On
Lake County 150: Lake County suffragists fight for the vote
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – California’s political landscape changed significantly on Oct. 10, 1911, but many Californians may not be familiar with that momentous event.
One hundred years ago the number of eligible voters in California roughly doubled overnight when an amendment to the state constitution passed, enfranchising California women nine years before the 19th Amendment granted equal suffrage nationwide.
Official election returns show that this measure barely passed, but it was enough to secure new rights for California women.
Statewide the “yes” vote was 125,037 (50.73 percent), while the “no” votes totaled 121,450 (49.27 percent). Voters in Lake County approved the woman suffrage amendment 471 to 341.
The dry statistics don’t show how long and rocky the path to equal suffrage in California was.
The women and men who supported the cause worked many years to bring it about as powerful interests opposed to women voting campaigned against the measure.
In 1896 liquor interests feared that women would vote for prohibition if they had the vote. The brewing and liquor groups succeeded in defeating California’s suffrage measure on its first outing.
Before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on Aug. 20, 1920, California and several other states had granted suffrage to women. Some suffragists favored the state-by-state avenue to suffrage, while others pursued the federal amendment directly.
As the 19th century closed, American women were interested in participating in civic life, and Lake County women were no exception.
Women developed their political skills in the years before equal suffrage, participating in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, labor unions, civic clubs and improvement clubs to benefit their communities.
They learned to speak in public and to petition government officials about their causes. Some were active suffragists who pursued the vote and some followed other paths to civic engagement.
California granted women the right to run for school-related offices in 1874 and in 1890 Lake County women began to win offices for which they couldn’t vote.
Women served on local school boards and women held the office of superintendent of Lake County schools for 44 of the years from 1890 to 1942.
Etta Kise Harrington was sworn in 1890, with Hettie Irwin, Minerva Ferguson and Mary Mason Harrow following her. Only Charles Haycock managed to break the gender line and to serve two terms during that period.
After Mary Mason Harrow left office in 1942, men held the office until Judith Luchsinger was elected in 1979.
As the 1896 presidential election fired national debate about Free Silver and the presidential contest between William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley, another political campaign stirred passions in California.
Pro-suffrage supporters had succeeded in placing an amendment to grant women’s suffrage on the ballot and suffragists mounted a determined effort against strong opposition.
Part of the plan was to involve high-level suffragists in the California campaign.
Susan B. Anthony, the septuagenarian pioneer suffragist, came to California to direct the state’s equal suffrage campaign, bringing other well-known suffrage speakers to canvass towns and cities throughout the state.
California women formed suffrage clubs, held conventions and demonstrated for equal suffrage. Lake County’s equal suffrage advocates, both female and male, joined the movement. Women in Upper Lake and Kelseyville formed suffrage clubs in their towns.
Not everyone in Lake County viewed female suffrage as a good thing.
The Clear Lake Press commented on Sept. 24 that “Will Clendenin and O.T. Boardman expect to prove that the government will go where the Rev. Yorke said – to 'tarnashion smash' if the affirmative [suffrage] win.”
Despite the their husbands’ attitudes, Ada Clendenin and Viola Boardman were among those attending Lake County’s biggest suffrage event, the Lake County Women’s Congress, which opened on Sept. 22, 1896. Congress president Emma Ransdell welcomed the guests (female and male) to the two-day program.
Local speakers Marcia Mayfield, W.L. Rideout, Hannah Millard Coffin, the Rev. H.W. Chapman, Ida League, Viola Boardman, Col. Herman Winchester and Lorenzo Scranton presented papers on such topics as “Women in art,” “Women as inventors” and “Mothers of great men.”
The featured speaker, nationally-known suffrage orator Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, spoke both days, where her eloquence, demeanor and intelligence won over the Lake County press corps and an appreciative audience.
Shaw spoke about how the qualifications for voting had changed over the centuries, becoming more liberal at each change, leaving sex as the only qualification.
She raised the question, “Why not eliminate the word “male” as a qualification?” Shaw disposed of all arguments against women’s suffrage to the satisfaction of her audience.
Since her birth in England, Shaw had traveled a long way, both geographically and intellectually.
The Shaw family migrated to the United States when Anna was a child, settling in rural Michigan. In an era when higher education for women was uncommon, Shaw earned both a divinity degree and an M.D., but found her true calling as a pro-suffrage speaker. Her oratorical skills made her a national star of the suffrage movement around the turn of the 20th century. In 1896, Lakeport was just one of many California towns on her itinerary.
The Lake County Bee on Sept. 23, 1896, approved Shaw’s manner and described her as “a pleasant, agreeable lady, and far, very far, from being the vinegar visaged, long, lank masculine creature, such as the caricaturist generally represents the woman suffragist to be. She is refined and intelligent, kind and gentle, and withal, possessed of an intellect such as few of her opponents possess.” Other local writers were similarly impressed.
A few days before the election the Lake County Bee urged its readers to vote for suffrage because “[e]veryone who believes in justice cannot be true to themselves and do otherwise.”
Despite the efforts of pro-suffrage activists, the equal suffrage amendment lost on Nov. 3, 1896. Lake County voters voted against it 718 to 603 and statewide it lost 110,355 to 137,099.
Next week, the effort for suffrage continues.
Author's note: In researching this article, the writer was not able to find photographs of any Lake County suffrage events in the collection of the Lake County Museum. If any reader knows of photos of any suffrage events, please contact Jan Cook at Lakeport Library, 707-263-8817.
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