Wisconsin Historical Society, WHS 4096 Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906

KRISTIN MAPEL BLOOMBERG

“WHEN A MONARCH DIES, THE PEOPLE CRY ‘The king is dead! Long live the king.’ We say ‘The campaign is ended! The campaign is begun’.”1 Thus declared Gail Laughlin of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to the Oregon Equal Suffrage Association (OESA) on the evening of June 8, 1906, following the defeat of Oregon’s third attempt to provide women with voting rights. Had Oregon’s constitutional amendment been rati- fied, it would have been the fifth territory or state to grant woman suffrage, succeeding Wyoming (1869), Utah (1896), Colorado (1893), and Idaho (1896). The defeat was keenly felt. The death of Susan B. Anthony at the height of the campaign in March had prompted NAWSA President Anna Howard Shaw to declare: “Make Oregon’s freedom for women the cornerstone on her monument.”2 But that was not to be. Shaw’s farewell remarks to OESA reflected her bitter disappointment that the four-star suffrage flag would not be flown that June evening, with a fifth star now affixed.3 After Oregon’s 1905–1906 suffrage campaign, a series of engagements every two years ultimately resulted in victory in 1912.4 In many ways, the 1905–1906 effort was different from Oregon’s previous campaigns. Abigail Scott Duniway — who had principally controlled Oregon’s suffrage activities since the 1870s — was largely sidelined. The campaign was activists’ first use of the new initiative and referendum law, which allowed for a direct vote on suffrage. National suffragist intervention, a broadly public propaganda campaign, and high-profile conventions legitimized suffrage activities and increased press coverage, as did controversies. All these activities expanded CLARA BEWICK COLBY, pictured here in an undated photograph, was a key figure in the dialogue about suffrage and women’s rights in Oregon and around the region. campaign to gain suffrage for women in Oregon. As a primary fieldworker in Oregon, her A key figure in this campaign, Clara Bewick Colby 1846( –1916), a White detailed campaign record reveals the challenges suffragists experienced and the strategies woman, was among its primary fieldworkers and brought to Oregon her they used to build a centrally organized campaign during the volatile years of 1905 and 1906.

6 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 © 2020 Oregon Historical Society Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 7 OHS Research Library, The Woman’s Tribune, November 25, 1905 strengths as a life-long woman’s rights journalist, lecturer, and organizer.5 An analysis of Colby’s fieldwork in Oregon during the volatile years of the 1905–1906 campaign illuminates suffrage campaigners’ challenges. Her detailed record of campaign activities reveals how activists conducted their work, building on prior movement strategies by systematizing a professional class of suffrage workers into a centrally organized campaign.6 Suffrage activ- ists developed their campaign in the space between the “still hunt” strategy, anchored in Duniway’s singular vision of building personal relationships with legislative decision-makers, and the more expansive “hurrah” strategies supported by NAWSA, which relied on complex organizational structures and employed workers who presented the suffrage message to friends and strangers alike. IN 1883, Clara Bewick Colby established the The Woman’s Tribune, a woman’s rights journal, Activists encountered advantages and impediments in that space, and and served as its editor and publisher until it ceased publication in 1909. It was issued variously both are revealed through an examination of Colby’s campaign work — from Beatrice, Nebraska, or Washington, D.C., until 1904, when Colby and the Tribune relocated especially the on-the-ground, person-to-person activities such as securing to Portland, Oregon. Colby’s journal served as a forum for suffrage news, a historical record petition signatures and engaging voters and allies in rural Oregon. While this for the cause, and an educational and social journal designed to appeal to a wide readership. campaign ultimately failed, it demonstrated the promise of blending older tactics of connecting directly with the people with newer ones such as poll- watching and a statewide propaganda crusade designed to reach the largest number of potential supporters. It revealed positive outcomes resulting from amplifying statewide suffrage networks, educating and energizing a wider Wisconsin.7 She then moved with her husband to Beatrice, Nebraska, and population of potential supporters, and establishing campaign strategies became active in civic affairs, including suffrage, after meeting Susan B. that would be refined for use in future suffrage successes. National inter- Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the late 1870s.8 In 1880, she was an vention and the use of professional organizers, including Colby, elevated organizer of the Nebraska Woman Suffrage Association, and her newspaper the cause and exposed anti-suffragist tactics that could be anticipated and career flourished when she began writing for the Western Woman’s Journal addressed in later campaigns in Oregon and elsewhere. A direct popular during Nebraska’s 1881–1882 suffrage campaign. In 1883, she launched the vote on a constitutional amendment was a powerful new weapon in the Tribune, which the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) promoted fight for woman suffrage, and while imperfect, the campaign nevertheless as its official journal, until its merger with the American Woman Suffrage revealed new strategies for future success. Association (AWSA) in 1890.9 Colby continued publishing the Tribune as an independent source of women’s rights and suffrage news for many years, CLARA BEWICK COLBY, THE WOMAN’S TRIBUNE, AND operating from both Beatrice, Nebraska, and Washington, D.C. OREGON’S RENEWED EFFORTS FOR SUFFRAGE A confidant of both Stanton and Anthony, she was educated and profes- A recent resident of Oregon in 1905, Clara Bewick Colby was among the sional, but she often strayed from a single focus on suffrage. Her platform generation of women who were the footsoldiers of the movement. Most embraced a broad view of women’s rights and social reform that addressed worked tirelessly for the cause, yet were neither its initial revolutionaries issues relating to rural women, women of color and Indigenous women, nor present to stand in the winner’s circle when the Nineteenth Amendment childrearing, dress reform, women’s health, history and literature, spiritual- was ratified in1920 . Colby wielded her political acumen on the speaker’s ity and New Thought, American imperialism, and peace.10 She attracted platform and as publisher of the influential The Woman’s Tribune (1883–1909), controversy when she wrote for and serially published early versions of the second-longest-running woman’s rights journal in the United States. Stanton’s Woman’s Bible, and after adopting a Lakota girl, Zintkala Nuni, she Born in England and raised in Wisconsin, in 1869 Colby was among the advocated for the rights of American Indians and often brought her daughter first women to earn a Ph.B. (Bachelor of Philosophy) from the University of to suffrage events.11 A lengthy separation following her husband’s infidelity

8 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 9 old, self-supporting woman, she needed to earn a living — either by waged work or by generating content that would boost sales of the Tribune. Colby also wanted to continue to contribute meaningfully to the suffrage cause. Oregon did hold promise. Prior to 1902, the state constitution required a bill for a constitutional amendment to pass both houses of the legislature in two successive sessions, and then be ratified by voters. But that year, Oregon adopted a system that allowed electors to vote directly on consti-

OHS Research Library, OrHi 59438 Library, OHS Research tutional amendments.13 This renewed suffrage efforts, which were amplified by two national gatherings in Portland. The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, which opened on June 1, 1905, attracted more than a million and a half visitors.14 NAWSA’s thirty-seventh annual convention, held June 28 to July 5, 1905, was strategically timed to capitalize on both the exposition and Oregon’s new legislation. This was NAWSA’s first convention west of the Rocky Mountains and reflected its “faith in the progressive West” as the region most likely to achieve woman suffrage.15 As Sara A. Evans wrote in the History of Woman Suffrage, it “gave to the cause in Oregon a new birth.”16

FALL 1905 AMENDMENT PETITION DRIVE

Historian Kimberly Jensen explains that in 1905, “Oregon was in the vanguard of the votes for women movement.”17 Following Colorado’s success in 1893 through voter initiative, Oregon suffragists hoped to succeed by using a 18 DELEGATES to the thirty-seventh annual National American Woman Suffrage Association similar strategy. It was controversial and hotly argued at NAWSA’s Portland (NAWSA) Convention in 1905 pose in front of the Oregon building on the Lewis and Clark convention, where Carrie Chapman Catt introduced a resolution calling it “a Centennial Exposition grounds. While most of the convention sessions were held at the First needed reform” and “a potent factor in the progress of true democracy.”19 Congregational Church in Portland, Oregon, delegates were on the exposition grounds to attend To place the constitutional amendment before voters, Oregon suffragists a reception in honor of Susan B. Anthony. first had to file a legal petition request, then campaign for the amendment’s passage. This two-phase campaign would expose the suffrage message to a wide variety of constituents over a long period of time. Duniway chiefly supported the “still hunt” method, which meant privately lobbying powerful male leaders to avoid a public campaign that might arouse opposition. She ultimately resulted in their divorce, and she struggled to maintain an income vigorously opposed Catt’s resolution, fearing “its adoption would advise the when the Tribune faltered in its later years. opponents of equal suffrage that a campaign was to take place next year.”20 By 1904, when Colby took the Tribune to Oregon, she had ascended to Catt’s resolution was ultimately adopted against Duniway’s wishes. NAWSA and then fallen from the heights of suffrage influence. Separation from her directed the campaign at the invitation of OESA, and national organizers husband and her impending divorce, money problems, and her support of Laura Gregg and Laura Clay took charge, opening a headquarters office in issues unpopular with powerful suffragists who preferred a conservative and September.21 politically narrow scope had all but driven her out of active suffrage work in Preceding the convention, Oregon suffragists had conducted petition the East and Midwest. Unable to raise cash by selling subscriptions to the work throughout the late summer. Their goal was 12,000 voter signatures; Tribune during NAWSA’s thirty-sixth annual convention in 1904, Colby jour- they needed only 8,000 but expected certification difficulties. As Colby neyed west. She explained, “I can see no future for the TRIBUNE save to sell explained to the Tribune’s readers, this was a complex, time-consuming off its old type, and take it West where it belongs.”12 A single, fifty-eight-year- process.22 In addition to persuading voters to sign the petition, canvassers

10 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 11 OHS Research Library, MSS 1534 needed to carefully record each voter’s precinct after his name, then send the petitions to OESA vice-president Annice Jeffreys Myers, who ensured they were in order before forwarding them for certification to the clerk of the county where the signatures had been gathered. The clerk compared names against the precinct’s registration books and certified only those he found “written exactly as they appear on the books.” Non-certified names were separated onto another list, and all were returned to Jeffreys Myers. Colby observed that a large percent of the names were often disqualified, informing her readers that such “lists may be returned to some friend in the county who will take them before a notary public, who may save such of the rejected names as he personally knows, and will attest the fact to be those of legal voters in that county.” Jeffreys Myers retained the completed and certified petitions for presentation to the Secretary of State.23 Anticipating the success of the petition drive, OESA held a one-day con- vention at Portland’s White Temple Baptist church in November to officially launch the larger campaign. Duniway, who had been convinced to retire from OESA’s leadership, avoided the meeting and was elected in absentia to the position of honorary president. Her approved successor, Viola M. Coe, was chosen as the organization’s head, and NAWSA managed the overall campaign.24 The petition drive was one aspect of a varied campaign designed to build support among the people. Suffragists also “solicited endorsements from organizations and individuals, and publicized their cause through con- versations with editors, ministers, businessmen, club women, and ordinary citizens.”25 This type of community building required a highly organized campaign carried out by a cadre of fieldworkers who could transmit the suffrage message to a variety of audiences. Gregg explained, “we expect to send speakers to every town in every county,” and initially named Laura Clay of Kentucky, Clara Bewick Colby of Oregon, Gail Laughlin of Maine, Harriet May Mills of New York, and Julia L. Woodworth of Oklahoma as staff speak- ers tasked with educating the public about the benefits of woman suffrage and persuading them to vote for it.26 Additional speakers and professional organizers, including Emma Smith DeVoe, were later added to this group, which drew attention when the ranks of workers were supplemented by NAWSA luminaries including Anna Howard Shaw, Alice Stone Blackwell, Kate M. Gordon, Mary and Lucy Anthony, Ida Porter Boyer of Pennsylvania, and Mary C. Bradford of Colorado.27 NAWSA organized and funded the campaign, and its staff oversaw a complex structure of local volunteers drawn from OESA and its affiliates, AS PART OF A TWO-PHASE CAMPAIGN for a constitutional amendment, Oregon suffragists supplemented by paid speakers and organizers from Oregon and elsewhere. first needed to secure 8,000 certified voter signatures on a petition requesting the amendment, Colby was among the paid fieldworkers. As she explained to her friend Clara thus ensuring it would appear on the 1906 general election ballot.

12 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 13 MacNaughton, activist work collecting petition signatures provided her with their precinct. This resulted in the loss of up to half the signatures when some income, but it was challenging and paid poorly. NAWSA compensated they were submitted for certification and negatively affected her income, workers a bounty of $5.00 per 100 certified signatures but did not reimburse which she hoped would supplement funds earned from Tribune subscrip- travel expenses for field canvassers.28 Colby’s work allowed her to gather tions and room rentals at her home. Instead, it left her with just enough to rich material for The Woman’s Tribune, where she detailed nearly every pay her expenses. As she explained to MacNaughton from the field, “with a aspect of her campaign activities. This was a long-standing campaign sup- board bill at hotel to pay car fare etc, I just about come out even to saying port practice engaged by suffrage journalists, and the The Woman’s Tribune nothing about the wear and tear on clothing.”32 She also admitted, “I am in served as an important source for those eager to follow Oregon’s progress. a very serious condition and after my hard day’s work I spend the evening Colby’s fieldwork focused on convincing individual voters to sign the peti- in my cold room (No second class hotel heats its bedrooms in this country) tion, and this represented a break in the quieter method of political influence and write dunning cards [to subscribers in arrears].”33 Yet, Colby remained that solely pressed lawmakers. Her effort employed the strategy of speaking motivated. In Oregon City, she secured more than 300 signatures, but at St. to individuals and groups in both private and public settings. She organized Johns, an hour’s car ride from Portland, she had less success, securing only local suffrage clubs; collected signatures in Clackamas, Marion, Multnomah, 80 names after two days’ canvassing of registered men in the mills.34 The and Polk counties; and focused on connecting with men — including labor- Statesman, however, reported she gained particular success in Marion and class men — where they were. She successfully canvassed workingmen at Polk counties, having secured nearly 500 signatures just in Marion county.35 shingle, lumber, and wool mills; found voters among the staff at the state OHS Research Library, OrHi 5248, ba012991 penitentiary and the state insane asylum; and engaged middle-class men around the warm fires of the blacksmith shop or the hardware store.29 Colby discovered that men gathered outside saloons — she did not enter those establishments — were the least likely to sign the petition. She was sanguine about these difficulties in the pages of the Tribune: It is not a pleasant task to think about — this going around to talk to all kinds and conditions of men, but none of them hurt me, not even by a coarse word, and I am sure I did not hurt them. . . . Above all I remembered that the least congenial of them all probably was associated with several women as husband, son or father. I thought if they could tolerate him all the time I might for their sake be willing to pass a civil word with him. And when I thought about this some more I even felt that I could stand it to go and vote with him once a year.30

But in a private letter to MacNaughton, Colby lamented, “My how I have walked and worked to get those names. I have taken [sic.] all sorts and conditions of men and gone into every place where a man might be save the saloons; it is sickening enough to talk with the loafers outside of the saloons. I came home quite heart sick yesterday morning.”31 Colby’s cam- paign-support journalism maintained a positive perspective, but her private opinions revealed the travails of canvassing and provide a rare glimpse into a fieldworker’s experiences. Both her low pay and the lack of subscriber remittances, despite the CLARA BEWICK COLBY traveled around Oregon to canvas for signatures from men working in locations including mills, penitentiaries, and stores. During her canvassing, she spoke with men Tribune’s amplified content, frustrated Colby. By mid November, she had outside saloons and found they were least likely to sign the petition. Colby chose not to enter personally secured more than a thousand signatures, but she observed those establishments. Joe Reses’s Saloon in Prairie City, a representative example, is pictured that, even with careful instruction, the men were likely to incorrectly state here in about 1900.

14 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 15 As Duniway feared, the initial, moderate success of the suffragists’ peti- securing pledges to vote “Yes” in June, distributing pro-suffrage propaganda, tion drive raised anti-suffrage forces, including the Oregon State Association using the press to promulgate a pro-suffrage message, and organizing local Opposed to the Extension of the Suffrage to Women (OSAOESW) — which suffrage societies to aid the work. The backbone of these strategies was the Colby critiqued as “far too cumbrous a name to use since ‘art is long, and speaker-organizer who worked to build grassroots support. The campaign time is fleeting’” and declared, “they must expect to be called the ‘Antis’ for educated voters about the importance of woman suffrage through programs short.”36 The Antis launched opposition tactics designed to disparage the that featured local women and men — pro-suffrage community leaders — campaign and stigmatize supporters who emphasized women as having and professional women speakers sponsored by NAWSA. Colby occupied high moral character, and thus deserved to participate in civic duties such an in-between position. She promoted herself as a resident of Oregon, yet as voting. The Antis claimed, for example, that suffragists created a petition NAWSA paid her to lecture and organize. that purposefully did not conform to legal requirements and was designed Colby immersed herself in Oregon’s suffrage work. In addition to lever- so that signatures could be gathered without voters understanding what aging her strengths as an organizer, lecturer, and journalist who amplified they were signing. And as the petition drive gained momentum and publicity, the campaign through a series of lengthy editor’s letters in The Woman’s the Antis accused suffragists of cheating by stuffing petitions with names of Tribune, Colby applied a deep knowledge of rural culture — learned famous men, men who signed the register at the Oregon building during the through years of organizing among rural populations in Kansas, Nebraska, Exposition, or men who did not know what they were signing.37 South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin — to tailor speeches and pro- Some Antis engaged in tactics suffragists did not anticipate, such as sign- grams for those audiences. She had no fear of campaigning among coarse ing petitions as someone other than themselves. One newspaper declared workingmen and was not bothered by travel to rural or mountainous areas 38 this “a lesson in practical politics” given to the women by “a practical joker.” in need of organization. Nevertheless, her remuneration remained low; for This also stigmatized suffragists by characterizing them as thoughtless and example, she received $49.21 from NAWSA for her first month’s work in irresponsible, because their message in support of women’s rights was January — much of which was expense reimbursement.42 Her net pay was anchored in the fact that women were equally intelligent to men. Incensed, well below the $1.00 per day she believed should be a minimum wage the suffragists denounced the accusations of cheating, name stuffing, and for working-class women. Unfortunately for Colby, NAWSA’s remunera- other mishandling of petitions through counter arguments published in vari- tion model was influenced by the social class structures of most White ous newspapers and penned by Jeffreys Myers, Laughlin, and Colby; Colby women’s organizations at that time. Activists were viewed as “volunteers” 39 also personally met with the Salem Statesman to deny the accusations. In who were presumably supported by husbands or other family members, or the end, increased press coverage of these controversies perhaps allowed less preferably, earned their main income through paid work as journalists, suffragists to further expand their reach and energize supporters, for they writers, or lecturers.43 triumphed when their petition was accepted by the state at the end of Decem- Colby’s goal was to campaign in every precinct in her assigned counties, 40 ber 1905, ensuring the amendment would be voted on the following June. which over the course of five months included at least fourteen of Oregon’s then thirty-four counties (Baker, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Grant, Lane, THE “MISSIONARY” CAMPAIGN Lincoln, Linn, Multnomah, Polk, Union, Wallowa, Wasco, and Washington), In January 1906, Oregon suffragists transitioned to the second phase of amounting to at least 40 percent of the state’s geography. The Mormon the campaign: a five-month effort focused on voter education and turnout. woman’s rights journal Woman’s Exponent was impressed with her effort. Colby described her activities as “missionary work,” aimed at securing suf- Of Colby’s eastern Oregon work during three weeks in May, it reported, frage converts.41 The high-profile effort Colby and others conducted sharply “She addressed twenty-two meetings, rode eight hundred miles by rail and contrasted with the “still hunt” strategy and provided visible structure to the two hundred by stage, visited mining towns, distributed literature and made movement by broadcasting women’s rights ideologies to widely dispersed friends and converts wherever she went.”44 supporters who could then connect with like-minded people. This visibility Colby and other campaigners fanned out across the state to educate the allowed activists to establish new clubs and groups, strengthen existing ones, uninformed and convert them to supporters who would vote. Their activities and then politicize them into larger organized networks primed to turn out built on Anthony and Duniway’s efforts in the1870 s.45 Colby’s suffrage message the vote. The campaign was comprehensive and public. Its goals included was offered to diverse groups in a variety of public, private, and civic spaces.

16 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 17 were as varied as her audiences. She traveled by train, stage, and on foot, by river steamboat, motorcar, lumber wagon, general freight wagon, narrow- gauge logging and mining rail, and sleigh.49 To reach a lumber settlement in northwestern Oregon’s swamp logging area, she disembarked from a train at Blind Slough drawbridge, was ferried more than a mile along the slough to a rail terminus, walked a mile and a half along the railroad ties, and finished the five-mile trip on a hand car.50 Traveling alone, she relied OHS Research Library, Orhi 74931 Library, OHS Research on locals for transportation. Of her ride some fifteen miles to Buxton on a freight wagon, she humorously noted, “There were in the wagon three milk cans with loose handles and some tin sheeting so that we announced our approach well before-hand.”51 And while traveling to Delena — “six miles up in the hill country” — she was transported by the “meat man, who does the errands for the hill folk, and carries passengers, if he has any, twice in the week.”52 Once she literally rode to town on an apple cart, hitching a ride with a farmer bringing a load of apples to the market. Of that bumpy experience she said, “The first thing I want to vote for is larger road tax.”53 Travel in rugged logging and mining country of eastern Oregon depended on narrow-gauge rail, then stage. Her over-mountain journey to eastern Oregon’s Prairie City first took her sixty-five miles by narrow-gauge rail built by the Oregon Lumber Company, a Mormon business that also ran Columbia River sawmills at South Baker City and Inglis. After a stop at the rail terminus, she continued her journey up and over the mountain in an open stage pulled COLBY’S CANVASSING took her to both populous and rural places throughout Oregon, including by four horses. Explaining the journey’s difficulties, she noted, “At times we Elgin. Colby sometimes relied on local transportation to get to some destinations, including freight crunch through the snow on the road and again we sink in mud almost hub wagons such as the one parked in front of Elgin’s harness shop in about 1900. deep, and have difficulty in keeping our seats, and at length we all get out to lighten the pull for the horses, all but the woman whose baby is the especial concern for all of the passengers.”54 Travel from Elgin to Joseph found her on an “old-fashioned stage” crowded with eleven other passengers “on Churches and fraternal organizations offered both space and ready-made and in” the vehicle for a sixty-mile ride that required them to disembark in audiences, and her evening programs frequently followed scheduled services order to lighten the load on upward climbs and to change horses multiple or meetings. Colby addressed Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, Pres- times, ultimately using sixteen.55 Back at campaign headquarters in Portland, byterians, and Mormons; she also spoke to ethnic religious communities such Gregg explained to NAWSA’s journal Progress, “I do not believe those of us as the Norwegian Methodist Episcopal Church.46 Supportive organizations who have lived in the middle states have any comprehension of what it is to such as the Grange and the Maccabees (a foresters fraternal organization) campaign in a mountainous country in the winter season.”56 And in response provided their meeting halls. She lectured in the parlors of homes as well as to Colby’s field report, Shaw acknowledged “the numerous conveyances” commercial sites such as lumber camps, mining stores, and workmen’s halls.47 Colby used, declaring, “It sounded like old times when you told of this way She appropriated civic venues as well, delivering pro-suffrage programs in a of getting out, just as we used to have to go twenty years ago. The young courtroom, an opera house, and a city hall as well as at educational locations people of today have no realization of what the older days were, as even such as Pacific University and a variety of local schoolhouses.48 pioneer life now is so much better than it used to be.”57 Because the campaign took place during winter and spring, travel was Population was slim in Oregon’s extremely rural or mountainous loca- usually difficult and sometimes dangerous. Colby’s modes of conveyance tions; however, it was important to locate, evangelize, and organize every

18 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 19 actual and potential suffrage supporter — for every vote counted. Rural and cessful organizer and political strategist during the early years of her NAWSA mountain audiences clearly valued Colby’s programs, often walking miles presidency, thus directed fieldworkers to plan their own work with little assis- through rough country in the cold and dark, or through inclement weather, tance from the central campaign office. Writing to Colby, Shaw explained, to reach her lecture venue.58 Of this, Colby said she “could appreciate the “I am not unmindful of the difficulties and irritations you will be called upon zeal [for the cause] which led people to traverse such a distance at night.”59 to encounter, but we must all make up our minds to accept the situation as To support turnout, Colby connected with local hosts who arranged favor- it is and make the best of it.”63 able locations, yet there were sometimes barriers to participation. At a small Gregg’s departure exposed one of the weaknesses of a centralized, lumber settlement in northwest Oregon, Colby’s program had been moved public campaign’s attempt to coordinate fieldworkers traveling to Oregon’s to the area meeting hall to accommodate farmers and ranchers living on extreme locations. It also amplified the confusion already present in such a the other side of the camp, who would not walk up the timber flume to the complex operation. Staffing issues at campaign headquarters complicated mill area. She was forced to do what her audience would not, and as she Colby’s effort enormously, for even prior to Gregg’s withdrawal, Colby explained to Tribune readers, “With some misgivings I followed my hostess. sometimes found no arrangements made for her programs. After arriving at ‘Walking the flume’ is going along the board on the trestle work which sup- Gales Creek in northwest Oregon, for example, no plans had been made, ports the flume, down which the dashing mountain stream carries the logs or and her host swore “no place could be had for the lecture.” Colby found the lumber to the railroad below. . . . The board is sometimes a comfortable that “the Adventists and the Baptists were unwilling to have their churches width, sometimes narrow, and occasionally broken so that pedestrianism used, the schoolhouse could not be lit in the evening because of the insur- under these circumstances is not without its excitements, especially when ance; and the hall was undergoing repairs and unsafe.” After calling on a the trestle is built over or along a creek.”60 On arrival at the hall, she found suffrage supporter who was also an Adventist, Colby secured that church for only the few who also had traveled from the mill. So, everyone went back the evening and thought her program was all set. “After going around and up the flume, and some of the workers gathered an audience of men and putting in posters” to advertise her lecture, however, she found that “a lot women not yet in bed. Men met up in the store, ladies gathered in an adjoin- of people on the watch phoned to the central office [the central telephone ing parlor, and Colby stood between them “and talked for ever so long.” After exchange] to know if I had come. As I had not come in the hack, and had not several days’ sojourn among small mountain camps in rain and snow, she known of the office [the local switchboard operator] where I should have left concluded: “The next time I go up in a logging country to talk to lumbermen word, the operator said I had not arrived and this kept the country people it is going to be right at their boarding house door, right after their supper.”61 from coming in.”64 Clearly, the lack of organized communication from the Colby was typically the only woman’s rights organizer in a particular campaign’s headquarters office dampened the suffragists’ efforts. locale. She was therefore personally responsible for distributing handbills What was more, after making their own arrangements, fieldworkers like to promote her work, mounting publicity posters around town, and visiting Colby often found that the campaign headquarters had made conflicting with local leaders to encourage them to drum up an audience. This type ones.65 Following her arduous journey and late-night arrival at Prairie City, of public campaign created some risk, in that speakers like Colby opened Colby was dismayed to find her program was advertised to occur three days themselves to the possibility of encountering hostile community members. later, a date her schedule had given to a place fifteen miles away. At the urg- They needed to be prepared to deliver a persuasive message, respond ing of guests at the Prairie City hotel, she organized an impromptu lecture. meaningfully to questions, and offer rebuttals to anti-suffrage arguments. Together they cleared the hotel dining room so she could deliver her program Other difficulties for individual organizers in this complex campaign “at twenty minutes of nine” to “an audience of about twenty-five, many of resulted from NAWSA’s struggle to fund, staff, and maintain control over whom would have no other opportunity to hear anything on the question.”66 the sprawling effort.62 Paid speakers like Colby were to be scheduled by Of these episodes Colby said: “I was here and must do the best I could.”67 the Headquarters Campaign Office in Portland, but at the height of the Ever mindful of her missionary task and the persuasive possibilities of a campaign in early spring, the suffragists were in disarray. Anthony died on convert, she was always prepared to speak on suffrage — even if it was just March 13, 1906, and the following month, campaign manager Laura Gregg to one potential voter or ally. She described the benefits of an encounter fell ill — likely a result of exhaustion brought on by the strain of campaign at Svensen that might have been bypassed by someone focused solely on work. Shaw, who personally excelled at campaigning but was a less suc- supportive voters:

20 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 21 of adult men and women, families with children, and women with children. Her single-sex audiences were made up of lumbermen, miners, or women’s groups.69 She would do nearly anything to get in front of potential voters. At Kelley’s lumber camp in Clatsop County, Colby had the good fortune to present to a captive audience of men, but it required extra effort on her part. There, her host was Mrs. Kelley, who had recently been called to duty as the camp’s cook. Colby helped her host prepare the midday meal for sixty men,

OHS Research Library, Scrapbook 88 Library, OHS Research thus making it possible for Kelley to also attend Colby’s lecture in the dining hall. Of this experience Colby said, “It was really refreshing to talk to a crowd of voters” instead of “the usual preponderance of women and children.”70 Colby was sympathetic to Mormon women — a stigmatized cultural community not always engaged by political activists — and she sought rural communities of Latter Day Saints to discover voters and deliver her educational woman’s rights message.71 Colby was delighted to present her programs to communities “where no previous suffrage lecture had been delivered,” and she contended “there are many young men of this faith who know nothing, as their elders do, of the value of woman suffrage in Utah, and so need to be reached.” At the mountain town of Union, her program for a large group of Mormons showcased her ability to tailor her message to specific audiences. The group sang Eliza R. Snow’s hymn “To Father and THIS POSTER featuring Clara Bewick Colby as a lecturer and organizer for the National American Mother,” which, Colby explained to her Tribune readers, was “one of the Woman Suffrage Association is one of several campaign advertisements held in the OHS Research Library scrapbook collections. earliest enunciations of the idea that there is motherhood in the Deity as well as fatherhood,” thus underscoring her pro-suffrage equality message.72 Colby’s campaign work among these varied communities demonstrated that every vote did count. It did not matter if voters were isolated by geography, On my return walk in the afternoon, I had seen a woman harrowing in the culture, or social status; she would make an effort to reach them. It was her field. . . . I stopped at the fence and waited till the woman drove up. I said you optimistic belief that, uplifted by pro–woman’s rights education, it was only must be a good suffrage woman. She said no, she had so many more rights a matter of time before all would be convinced that woman suffrage was than women had in her own country, Alsatia, that she had no thoughts about the right thing to do. the government only of how thankful she was. She liked to work out of doors As Colby’s experiences demonstrated, variations in local culture required better than in the house, she said; besides, her husband was unable to work. organizers to use diverse strategies tailored to meet the needs of those She promised to come to the meeting, and here she was well dressed, erect, communities. The most effective messages employed community-supporting and not looking her seventy-two years by at least a decade. I seized upon her activities attractive to locals as well as gender-appropriate rhetorical strate- for chairman of the meeting, and she took the position without demur, made gies. Colby excelled at creating suffrage presentations designed to draw a a pleasant introductory speech, a collection speech that brought me twice as much as the average, and consented to serve on the campaign committee. I wide variety of audiences. Her programs included more than political speech obtained nineteen names.68 and aimed to both educate and amuse audiences who did not have access to the types of speakers and entertainments available in more populated Colby’s anecdote demonstrates her commitment to the evangelical spirit of areas. She was an accomplished extemporaneous speaker, and while her her campaign for suffrage. centerpiece was the pro-suffrage lecture, her presentations frequently Thus Colby also directed her message to allies who might influence included music such as group singing of suffrage songs, guest vocal solo voters. As a result, her audiences were varied and included mixed groups performances, or piano or organ recitals by locals.73 She offered a more

22 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 23 moderate woman’s rights message than many speakers, and one newspaper change in individuals, who were then willing to join the movement to work concluded that she “makes her work effective by removing all signs of a for larger social change. political harangue from her discourse and instead making it a kind of ‘heart to heart’ talk . . . in the manner of an educational course.”74 THE ANTIS RALLY Appropriately, then, for a talk in Forest Grove to a modest audience of While Colby and other fieldworkers were hard at work to promote their cause, “about 20 voters and a goodly number of women,” Colby argued that in light of the Antis were as well, and the suffragist effort was ultimately outmaneu- the modern woman’s changing roles, equal suffrage was “not a revolutionary vered. Well-funded anti-suffragists, including prominent women and men as measure, but one in harmony with the evolution of civilization” that ensured well as liquor and business interests, organized a public counter-campaign 75 “woman’s opinion shall be counted.” She emphasized her belief that suffrage that also employed speakers, the press, and propaganda. The Oregon suf- for women reflected the “consent of the governed” and conservatively assured frage campaign emphasized public discourse, so as it got underway at the her audience that women would hold public office only if “her brother man beginning of 1906, the suffragists preemptively struck at the Antis and made thrusts that responsibility upon her.” In answering the objection that women political hay out of the wealthy women who had established the OSAOESW must participate in military service in order to earn the ballot, Colby insisted in the fall of 1905. Laughlin received particular attention for her provocative that “brute force was rapidly passing away,” and women “need not carry a gun comments at the People’s Forum in Portland, where she declared, “I am told 76 to know how to use the ballot.” Colby also presented a racially moderate there are 18 women in this state who are opposed to woman suffrage. . . . We message that contrasted with the explicitly racist ones given by suffrage lead- have heard of the dog in the manger who would not let the ox eat hay, but 77 ers such as Shaw. As one newspaper observed of Colby’s speech, “in her he has never been spoken of as a model dog.”81 opinion the race problem in the South would not have assumed such gigantic The Corvallis Times recognized an opportunity for content by highlighting 78 proportions had the negro women been enfranchised as well as the men.” the gendered nature of the battle when it declared, “The prettiest political Colby’s Oregon lectures used natural-rights and justice arguments, often fight that ever took place in Oregon is now on,” and used sexism to liken emphasized the theme of “harmony,” and promoted the idea that women’s the competing campaigns to a high-stakes prize fight. “The battle is straight civic status in the nation “marks the progress of its civilization,” thus mak- slugging with no sparring for wind, and no lying down to escape punishment,” ing suffrage “a human question and not merely a woman question.” She it reported, concluding, “the outcome of the struggle will be watched with reasoned that equal suffrage was a sympathetic indicator for humankind’s interest, for the battle is a hot one, as is always the case when Greek meets progress and was in alignment “with the development of our Republic” as Greek, or woman meets woman.”82 well as “in harmony with the evolution of woman herself.” Her concluding The political fight was definitely on, but it was not always pretty. A prime point: “Thus we have today four reasons why women should have the bal- anti-suffragist tactic was to attack the political machine organized by NAWSA, lot which belongs to the later development of women; they are educated, especially its use of paid organizers who were not Oregonians. In late March, they own property and pay taxes, they are personally free and they are an the Antis distributed a lengthy anti-suffrage circular denouncing “professional 79 important factor in the industrial world.” Her messages for the Oregon suffragists” and calling for an immediate parallel “campaign of enlighten- campaign focused on themes she had highlighted for years, including ment” to be brought “to the remotest hamlets to offset the effects of the an emphasis on modern women’s larger sphere of work. Women’s labor, oratory and organization of the Suffragists.”83 Signed “Veritas Vincit,” [‘Truth “spinning, weaving, and preparing all the clothing, the teaching, nursing, Conquers’] it was supposedly circulated widely, including to Gov. George E. preparing food. . . . [and] even the butter making,” that had once been done Chamberlain.84 In May, anti-suffragist women organized their own petition and in the home was now supplied to the home, thus freeing women for other published the names of businessmen who opposed the measure.85 OESA pursuits. She concluded, “woman can not sit down in idleness, so she has responded: “The Anti-Suffrage Association is officered and run by a little had to hunt new fields of work outside the home in order to gain her daily group of millionaires’ wives, who are opposed to anything that would give bread. This call to wider labor with man also requires greater rights in order to more power to the people” and countered with a circular that capitalized on compete on an equality with him.”80 By carefully considering her audiences, Oregon’s pioneer veneration by citing support from “hundreds” of “survivors Colby aligned the woman’s rights movement with ideas, beliefs, and values among the men and women who crossed the continent with teams of oxen important to a variety of local communities. This helped facilitate personal in the ‘forties’ and the ‘fifties’.”86

24 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 25 from her old friend Charles F. Soule, editor of Toledo, Oregon’s Lincoln County Leader.87 Colby also used her platform to investigate another anti- suffrage propaganda letter purportedly signed by a number of prominent women and circulated by the Antis in late May.88 After obtaining a copy while organizing in the western part of the state, she learned one of its signatories, Mrs. Percy A. Young (likely Florence Gibson Young), resided in nearby Albany. Assured by Young’s friends that the letter “did not represent her sentiments,”

OHS Research Library, Scrapbook 89 Library, OHS Research Colby sought Young at home. Finding her absent, Colby obtained answers from her husband, Percy Young, at his place of employment. She reported, “it was by a conversation carried on by phone that Mrs. Young’s name had been secured, and that while not wishing to vote herself she had no intention of having her name used in this way. Her desire had been to keep out of the controversy and avoid notoriety, and now the most unpleasant notoriety in the world had been forced upon her in thus placing her in seeming coalition with the liquor interests of the State. Doubtless others of the 16 were equally misrepresented by their names being added to this letter.”89 The most controversial action by the Antis took place just a week ahead of the vote — the circulation of an anti-suffrage card featuring an image of a woman’s underskirt that proclaimed, “Vote for [Petticoat] Government? No Petticoat Government in Mine.”90 This was a prime example of how the Antis effectively — albeit crassly — stigmatized women’s rights supporters by associating them with a vulgar image of women’s undergarments. It likely took the suffragists by surprise. The card’s figurative message branded women suffragists as loose women or prostitutes, by leaving home to act in the public sphere, thus threatening the existing social order. It was a powerful anti-suffrage message. Originally thought to be distributed by the Brewers and Wholesale Liquor Dealers’ Association, it later came to light that the card had been printed and distributed by businessman Wallace McCamant, an anti-suffragist whose wife was an officer of OSAOESW.91 Suffragists were enraged at its distribu- tion so close to the vote. On the defense, OESA and its members published several rejoinders denouncing the “scurrilous card bearing a picture of a woman’s undergarment” as “a sample of the lowest, political scheming that IN MARCH 1906, the Anti-Woman Suffrage League published a lengthy circular, of which a has disgraced the State of Oregon.”92 Clearly, the Antis’ strategy to target portion is shown above, denouncing organizers such as the National American Woman Suffrage suffragists by virtue of their subordinate gender status, amplified with an Association for its “professional suffragists,” and calling for the “spheres of men and women” to image loaded with social meaning, stirred the anti-suffrage pot well. remain separate. But there was more trouble afoot. The anti-suffragists now planned to work the polls not only to ensure the vote went their way, but also to As the campaign stretched into its final weeks, the Antis increased their counter the suffragists’ poll-watchers — a new tactic by Oregon suffrag- 93 activity by attempting to pay newspapers to publish anti-suffrage editorials, ists that had not been used in previous state campaigns. Colby assisted which Colby exposed in The Woman’s Tribune after learning of the practice with this effort after returning from the field. Days before the vote, how-

26 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 27 ever, OESA learned from a “reliable source,” that “three hundred men are wanted by the anti-suffrage people to work for them on Monday. They are to be paid $4 if they win, and $3 if they lose.” This led OESA to ask, “Is this bribery?”94 It appeared that Shaw’s memo outlining the suffragist strategy for election day had fallen into the hands of the Antis.95 On May 31, the Oregonian exposed the plan to stage pro-suffrage women at the polls and reported the anti-suffragists’ counter strategy. Ferdinand E. Reed, manager of the Anti-Suffrage League, had announced: “Ordinarily we do not believe in having women at the polls, but in this fight we may have to. It is a case of woman against woman, and I think we are justified in taking such measures to defeat the amendment.”96 Speaking on behalf of the central campaign office, Kate Gordon initially denied the plan, then clarified the suffragists’ position: If we do decide to have workers, they will probably be instructed to avoid talking to the men and confine their work to the distribution of printed matter....We are still undecided as to the advisability of adopting such tactics, and it all depends upon the emergency of the situation. I will admit that we have done something along the line of organizing the workers, because it would not do to let it go until the last minute. But it may be that we shall not have the workers at all. It is rather a disagreeable task to ask ladies to perform, but there are plenty of them willing to do it.97

Gordon clearly downplayed the situation. The suffragists’ poll-watching plan was well underway, for the Oregonian confirmed that suffragist Esther C. Pohl had identified “at least500 women in Portland who were willing to volunteer their services.”98 This included Colby.

ELECTION DAY

“Go to bed early tomorrow night, get a good night’s rest and get up sweet- tempered the next morning.”99 This was Shaw’s advice to suffragists on the afternoon preceding the election. The following morning, women volunteers headed to the polls to distribute literature and engage voters a final time.100 OESA ensured pro-suffrage volunteers arrived well before the polls opened and organized more than 650 women in shifts throughout the day. The Antis had poll activists as well; however, suffragists generally found one anti- suffrage man assigned to each precinct. Reed’s promise to dispatch a cadre THIS ANTI-WOMAN SUFFRAGE advertisement proclaiming “Vote for [Petticoat] Government? of anti-suffrage women appears not to have materialized.101 Nonetheless, the No Petticoat Government in Mine,” was published in the Oregonian on May 30, 1906, a week Evening Telegram reported that the voter “found himself between the horns before election day. The undergarment imagery was a crass but effective message to voters that of a serious dilemma, for as he reached the polling place an equal-suffragist likened woman suffragists to loose women or prostitutes. worker shoved a little white card in one hand with the request that he vote for the cause, while a man thrust a big blue card into his other hand urging him

28 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 29 not to ‘handicap Greater Oregon ing that the workmen of the longer hours who had come home latest were with woman suffrage’.”102 largely with us.” Votes in the next layer, cast at midday by businessmen, Returned to Portland at cam- were “against us more than two to one.” At noon, suffrage was only sixteen paign’s end, Colby arrived at her votes behind. By mid afternoon, when the early morning voters’ ballots local precinct around 7 p.m., taking were counted, suffrage gained again. The dramatic conclusion was a tie.104 over for those who had worked Across the state, it appeared that votes cast early and late were in favor of earlier. She distributed the suffrage suffrage, but those cast midday were greatly against it, indicating that suf- 105

OHS Research Library, Scrapbook 89 Library, OHS Research appeal to voters returning home frage outreach to the laboring classes had borne fruit. What was more, from their workplaces and noted a Colby’s analysis of the votes she observed revealed that while Socialists and growing anti-suffrage effort focused Prohibitionists were overwhelmingly in favor of suffrage, neither Republicans on the distribution of the blue anti- nor Democrats could be counted on as sure supporters. Her observation suffrage cards. Colby found the was later underscored by Shaw, who concluded, “we watched the ballot card ironic, in that “its color [was] very closely to see who our friends really were, and we found in proportion not true blue, but electric blue to the ballots cast we could depend on no one party more than another.”106 that fades quickly.” She confirmed Historian Rebecca J. Mead concluded that, “as a result of this experience, that the young men handing out suffragists everywhere became vigilant poll watchers and vote counters, blue cards were paid three dollars regardless of concerns about appropriate female behavior.”107 for the day — with an extra dollar After all the votes were counted, the statewide measure received 44 guaranteed should the amendment percent support and was defeated by more than 10,000 votes: 47,075 for be defeated. She recognized “the no, 36,902 for yes — “MAJORITY AGAINST SUFFRAGE Thirty-Five Hundred other dollar was a marginal bribe,” Plurality Snows It Under in Multnomah County,” proclaimed one headline.108 and said to them: “It ought not to The suffragists’ valiant effort was ultimately outmaneuvered by liquor and be surprising that women will work business interests who joined a strong counter-campaign run by the Antis. at the polls for the freedom of their This public campaign might have worked; however, in hindsight, it was clear sex, but that a young man can be that there had been too few workers and not enough funds. As historian ON ELECTION DAY, suffragist women distributed hired to work against it is astonish- G. Thomas Edwards explained, execution of NAWSA’s preferred strategy literature and lobbied voters one final time in 103 “required lecturers to appear in remote hamlets, deliver many addresses an effort to ensure the amendment would pass. ing; you must be hard up!” in major cities, cultivate local leaders, organize clubs, and track community The women also encountered anti-suffragist After working the polls, Colby 109 men engaging voters in an effort to ensure the departed for Lents precinct to mon- responses through newspaper clippings.” Despite doing all of this, the amendment would fail. itor the count, remaining until 4:00 suffragists fell short. p.m. the next day. Frustrated with the election men who attempted to THE AFTERMATH stymie her observations, she complained, “The majority of the night shift of The defeat left Oregon suffragists in chaos. NAWSA organizers departed to judges plainly showed their sympathies were against us by arranging the focus on other work, and key members of OESA stepped down. Colby and barrier which fenced us off from them so as to make it as difficult as possible a few others remained, hoping to build on their moderate successes for a to see where the X was placed.” Never one to back down, she “sweetly and second attempt in 1908. Duniway reemerged, claimed the campaign’s failure firmly said I was there to see the vote, with the legal authority to do it and I as a vindication of her methods, and aimed her wrath squarely at Colby as a did see every one.” As the evening wore into morning, the count revealed representative interloper she believed needed to be excised from future work that the campaign strategy to target a variety of constituencies including in Oregon — along with everyone else associated with NAWSA or in favor working men had been successful, for Colby reported that votes “from the of a public campaign. She named Colby “the greatest menace” to Oregon top of the box were nearly two to one in favor of woman suffrage, show- suffrage and fanned the flames of her vendetta throughout the summer.110

30 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 31 This built to an inferno on September 9, 1906, when Duniway re- majority of those who have done the work for suffrage in Oregon.” Her con- published in the Oregonian her address given to the National Woman cluding assessment was that Oregon needed a well-organized machine, not Suffrage Association (NWSA) convention in Washington, D.C., on January a singular leadership: “The reason suffrage has been defeated three times 23, 1889, that had effectively cemented her break with many Eastern suf- in Oregon is because we lack such a representative body which could rally frage leaders. In that speech, she had singled out the “untimely invasion” the splendid sentiment throughout the State and focus it in united action. of Colby and other “self-imported Eastern Suffragists” who “created a Our great departed leader, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, used to say we could ‘hurrah’ campaign” as being responsible for the defeat of woman suffrage never cope with our enemy on their own ‘still hunt’ plan, but education must around the time of the Washington State Constitutional Convention.111 be our watchword.”117 Duniway believed the 1906 Oregon campaign repeated that history and extended her attack by forwarding to Shaw clippings of her speech from CONCLUSION Oregonian the , accompanied by a letter that leveled a number of personal Finances forced Colby to close The Woman’s Tribune in 1909 and find other invectives at both Shaw and Colby. After insulting Shaw by describing her paid work in the suffrage, peace, and New Thought movements, and although previous letter as “an incoherent reply (as from one intoxicated),” Duniway she traveled extensively in her later years, she continued her association singled out Colby as a “fool” with a history of “butting in” to campaigns with Oregon until her death in 1916.118 Colby’s account of her activities in the where she was not wanted: “Haven’t you some place on earth to put the 1905 to 1906 campaign demonstrates the Herculean effort given by individual 112 old tramp where there is no campaign pending?” campaign activists who worked to educate voters and turn out supporters Believing their missionary campaign tactics had borne fruit, Colby and through a direct appeal to the people. Importantly, this campaign established other Oregon suffragists hoped to continue this style of suffrage work in a different political culture in support of woman suffrage. Woman suffrage the state, but Duniway successfully blocked them when she secured her received increased serious attention from mainstream newspapers such as power at OESA’s acrimonious November annual meeting. She packed the the Oregonian, which historian Lauren Kessler showed had routinely ignored house with her supporters and regained the presidency by a large margin suffrage prior to these events. NAWSA’s 1905 Portland convention marked a over Ada Wallace Unruh. The resentment rose to a crescendo when anti- positive turn by increasing suffrage reportage, and as Kessler demonstrated, Duniway factions nominated Colby for vice-president; in response, Duniway “it took outsiders to make the woman suffrage movement worthy of substan- 113 declared, “I positively cannot work with Mrs. Colby.” This set off a volatile tial coverage by the press. . . . the activities of insiders — Oregon women exchange among the assembly, but Colby restored the peace by moving to suffragists — were perceived by the press as less newsworthy.”119 What is 114 have Duniway’s friend Elizabeth Lord unanimously elected vice president. more, Kessler found that “the support of outsiders was both the cause and Others were ousted and replaced with Duniway allies, and Duniway the effect of legitimation.”120 Kessler’s findings repudiate Duniway’s protest doubled down on her effort to purge Colby and any remaining women she against outside intervention into the campaign, as well as her assessment believed were antithetical to her cause. She insulted Colby as a “hoo-doo” that she had “made a serious mistake by authorizing our delegates to the and characterized Mary A. Thompson — a physician and suffragist who often National Woman Suffrage Association in Washington in1904 to invite the tangled with Duniway — as an obstructionist in the pages of the Oregon Daily National Convention to meet in Oregon in 1905.” 121 Journal.115 Ousted suffragists believed Duniway’s leadership and strategy The Oregon campaign likely contributed to what historian Sara Hunter would only lead to failure, and their grievances were also aired in the press. Graham described as the national “suffrage renaissance” in the years follow- Unruh asserted in the Oregon Daily Journal that “I have been connected ing 1906.122 Colby and other organizers normalized the suffrage message, with the suffrage movement in Oregon for16 years and have studied the developed political community, and made supporters feel less isolated. suffrage situation in every state and not only know the situation in Portland They revealed the need for statewide organizational tactics and rekindled but in every portion of the state, and I am convinced that the much vaunted enthusiasm among those who had stopped suffrage work in frustration with ‘still hunt’ of Mrs. Duniway is mischievous in practice, wholly illogical and Duniway’s “still hunt.”123 While it did raise the ire of the Antis, the public nature can only result in defeat.”116 In the pages of The Woman’s Tribune, Colby of the campaign and national suffragist intervention legitimized suffrage activ- explained, “the election of Mrs. Duniway, while it was an endorsement by ities and also exposed how far the Antis would go to oppose suffrage, thus the majority of those present, by no means represents the sentiments of the allowing suffragists to create counter-strategies for use in later campaigns.

32 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 33 Ultimately, the 1905–1906 campaign demonstrated that while high-profile Oregon Historical Quarterly, 98:2 (Summer ing Wounded Knee American Indian child was leaders were certainly important, the significance of individual campaign 1997): 134–63; and Jean M. Ward, “ ‘The Noble adopted; however, as a result of sensational Representative Woman from Oregon’: Dr. Mary newspaper coverage of the massacre and workers could not be underestimated. If a better-organized headquarters Anna Cooke Thompson,” Oregon Historical Zintka’s subsequent adoption, she is among had employed a larger number of fieldworkers, the campaign might have Quarterly 113:3 (Fall 2012): 408–429. the earliest documented American Indian child succeeded through its use of a variety of messaging channels to publicly 7. Catalogue of the Officers and Students adoptees by a White family. A full treatment of evangelize for woman suffrage. These valuable learning experiences were of the University of Wisconsin, For the Year Zintka’s life and relationship with her mother 1872–73 and the First Term of 73–74 (Madi- as well as a response to the sometimes er- refined and applied in Oregon and other states as suffragists continued son: University of Wisconsin, November 1873), roneous history that has emerged regarding their quest for equal voting rights, and Oregon ultimately achieved its star 76–77. Zintka is outside the scope of this article. Clara on the suffrage flag in 1912. 8. Kristin Mapel Bloomberg, “ ‘Striving Colby’s position as a late-nineteenth-century for Equal Rights for All’: Woman Suffrage in White reformer raising an Indigenous child in Nebraska, 1855–1882,” Nebraska History White culture, however, represents problematic 90:2 (Summer 2009): 90–91; Kristin Mapel progressive efforts to assimilate Native children Bloomberg, “ ‘How Shall We Make Beatrice into dominant White culture. See A.C. Towner Grow!’: Clara Bewick Colby and the Beatrice to John R. Brennan, August 7, 1901, and John Public Library Association in the 1870s,” Ne- R. Brennan to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, braska History 92:4 (Winter 2011): 180; Tiffany June 14, 1902, both John R. Brennan Papers, NOTES K. Wayne, ed., Women’s Rights in the United H72-002, Scrapbook Box 28, South Dakota States: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of State Historical Society, Pierre, South Dakota, 1. “Meetings in Congregational Church,” History 28:3 (Fall 2002): 102–111. Issues, Events, and People (Santa Barbara: relating to more than one infant adopted from The Woman’s Tribune [hereafter Woman’s 6. This analysis of Colby’s activities supple- ABC-CLIO, 2015), 54. the Wounded Knee site and Clara Colby’s re- Tribune], June 9, 1906, p. 46. ments the larger history of Oregon suffrage 9. Olympia Brown, Democratic Ideals: A quest for Zintka’s enrollment at the Cheyenne 2. “Susan B. Anthony,” clipping from the represented in growing body of literature on Memorial Sketch of Clara B. Colby (Federal River Agency (South Dakota) and to be given Brownsville Times, March 23, 1906, Suffrage that subject. See G. Thomas Edwards, Sowing Suffrage Association, 1917), 35. Brown misdates full tribal rights, including a land allotment. It Scrapbook 86, Oregon Historical Society Good Seeds: The Northwest Suffrage Cam- the year of the merger as 1889. does not appear Zintka was successfully en- Research Library, Portland, [hereafter OHS paigns of Susan B. Anthony (Portland: Oregon 10. See Brown, Democratic Ideals; Bloom- rolled. Also see William S.E. Coleman, Voices Research Library]. Historical Society Press, 1990); Kimberly Jen- berg, “Cultural Critique and Consciousness of Wounded Knee (Lincoln: University of Ne- 3. “Meetings in Congregational Church,” sen, “ ‘Neither Head nor Tail to the Campaign’: Raising”; E. Claire Jerry, “Clara Bewick Colby braska Press, 2000), 352; and David W. Grua, Woman’s Tribune, June 9, 1906, p. 47. Esther Pohl Lovejoy and the Oregon Woman and the Woman’s Tribune, 1883–1909: The Surviving Wounded Knee: The Lakotas and the 4. A state constitutional amendment in Suffrage Victory of 1912,” Oregon Historical Free Lance Editor as Movement Leader,” in Politics of Memory (New York: Oxford University favor of woman suffrage appeared on Oregon’s Quarterly 108:3 (Fall 2007): 350–83; Kimberly A Voice Of Their Own: The Woman Suffrage Press, 2016), 89. For additional reading on the ballot in 1884, 1900, 1906, 1908, 1910, and 1912. Jensen, “Revolutions in the Machinery: Oregon Press, 1840–1910, ed. Martha M. Solomon history of American Indian child separation , The 1910 suffrage initiative was for taxpaying Women and Citizenship in Sesquicentennial (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991). see Margaret D. Jacobs, White Mother to a women only. Perspective,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 110:3 11. See Kathi Kern, Mrs. Stanton’s Bible Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, 5. See Kristin Mapel Bloomberg, “Cultural (Fall 2009): 336–61; Lauren Kessler, “The (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001); Bloom- and the Removal of Indigenous Children in Critique and Consciousness Raising: Clara Be- Ideas of Woman Suffragists and the Portland berg, “Cultural Critique and Consciousness the American West and Australia, 1880–1940 wick Colby’s Woman’s Tribune and Late-Nine- Oregonian,” Journalism Quarterly 57:4 (1980): Raising.” Clara Colby and her husband Leonard (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009). teenth-Century Radical Feminism” in Women in 597–605; Lauren Kessler, “The Ideas of Woman Colby adopted two children, Clarence and 12. Clara Bewick Colby to Leonard Colby, Print: Essays on the Print Culture of American Suffrage and the Mainstream Press,” Oregon Zintkala Nuni. Clarence was likely adopted February 16, 1904, Clara Bewick Colby Papers, Women from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Historical Quarterly, 84:3 (Fall 1983): 257–75; from an orphan train, and Zintkala — known as MSS 379 [hereafter Colby Papers], box 2, folder Centuries, James Danky and Wayne A. Wie- Lauren Kessler, “A Siege of the Citadels: Search Zintka or “Lost Bird” — was a surviving Lakota 3. Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wis- gand, eds., (Madison: University of Wisconsin for a Public Forum for the Ideas of Oregon infant in the aftermath of Wounded Knee (1890). consin [WHS]. Press, 2006), 27–63; Kristin Mapel Bloomberg, Woman Suffrage,” Oregon Historical Quarterly, Zintka’s history is complex. Leonard, a member 13. “Forging the Oregon Constitutional “Women and Rural Social Reform in the 1870s 84:2 (Summer 1983): 117–50; Rebecca J. Mead, of the Nebraska National Guard, removed Amendment Process,” Oregon Secretary of and 1880s: Clara Bewick Colby’s ‘Farmers’ How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in Zintka from South Dakota and brought her back State, https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhibits/ Wives’,” Agricultural History 89:3 (Summer the Western United States, 1868–1914 (New to Nebraska while Clara was away working constitution/pages/after-amendment.aspx (ac- 2015): 402–425; and Carol S. Lomicky, “Fron- York: New York University Press, 2004); Lee on a suffrage business. The Colbys adopted cessed February 19, 2020). tier feminism and the Woman’s Tribune: The Nash, “Abigail versus Harvey: Sibling Rivalry Zintka and named her Marguerite Elizabeth. 14. Carl Abbott, “Lewis and Clark Exposi- Journalism of Clara Bewick Colby,” Journalism in the Oregon Campaign for Woman Suffrage,” Scholars acknowledge more than one surviv- tion,” Oregon Encyclopedia, https://oregonen-

34 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 35 cyclopedia.org/articles/lewis_clark_exposition See also Edwards, Sowing Good Seeds, 258. 43. See Trisha Franzen’s discussion of 60. “The Editor in Columbia County,” (accessed June 11, 2019. 25. Edwards, Sowing Good Seeds, 246. NAWSA and paid work in Anna Howard Shaw: Woman’s Tribune, March 17, 1906, p. 24. 15. Mead, How the Vote Was Won, 98; 26. “Equal Suffrage Campaign Is On,” The Work of Woman Suffrage(Urbana: Univer- 61. Ibid. Kimberly Jensen, “ ‘Neither Head nor Tail to Oregonian, November 9, 1905, p. 10; “Oregon sity of Illinois Press, 2014), p. 101–102. 62. Edwards, Sowing Good Seeds, 250. the Campaign’,” n21. Equal Suffrage Convention,” Woman’s Tribune, 44. Woman’s Exponent, June 1, 1906, p. 6. 63. Anna H. Shaw to Dear Friend, April 16, 16. Sarah A. Evans, “Oregon,” in Ida Husted November 11, 1905, p. 1. 45. See Edwards, Sowing Good Seeds. 1906, Colby Papers, box 3, folder 4, WHS. For Harper, ed., The History of Woman Suffrage, 27. Edwards, Sowing Good Seeds, 248; 46. “In Eastern Oregon,” Woman’s Tribune, an assessment of Shaw’s leadership of NAWSA, Volume VI (New York: National American Evans, “Oregon,” 542. May 12, 1906, p. 1, 38; “Suffrage Meeting,” Suf- see Franzen, Anna Howard Shaw; and Wil A. Woman Suffrage Association, 1922), 541. Evans 28. Clara Bewick Colby to Clara Mac- frage Scrapbook 86, OHS Research Library. Linkugel and Martha Solomon, Anna Howard (1854–1940) was a prominent Portland club- Naughton, November 19, 1905. Woman Suf- 47. “The Editor in Washington County,” Shaw: Suffrage Orator and Social Reformer woman and an active suffragist. frage Collection, box 1, folder 21, University of Woman’s Tribune, March 31, 1906, p. 28; “In (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1991). 17. Kimberly Jensen, Oregon’s Doctor to San Francisco Special Collections, San Fran- Eastern Oregon,” Woman’s Tribune, May 26, 64. “The Editor in Washington County,” the World: Esther Pohl Lovejoy and a Life in cisco, California [hereafter USF]. 1906, p. 43; “The Editor in Clatsop County,” Woman’s Tribune, March 31, 1906, p. 28. Activism, (Seattle: University of Washington 29. “Jaunts in Oregon,” Woman’s Tribune, Woman’s Tribune, April 28, 1906, p. 1; “The Edi- 65. Anna H. Shaw to Clara Bewick Colby, Press, 2012), 98, 100. November 11, 1905, p. 80; “Canvassing Salem,” tor in Columbia County,” Woman’s Tribune, Mar. May 1, 1906, Colby Papers, box 3, folder 4, WHS. 18. Colorado was the first state to achieve Woman’s Tribune, November 20, 1905, p. 84; 17, 1906, p. 24; “In Eastern Oregon,” Woman’s 66. “In Eastern Oregon,” Woman’s Tribune, suffrage in 1893 using the referendum pro- “In Polk County,” Woman’s Tribune, December Tribune, May 12, 1906, p. 1. May 12, 1906, p. 1. cess, but NAWSA was largely absent from 9, 1905, p. 88. 48. “The Editor in Clatsop County,” Wom- 67. “Last Days In The Field,” Woman’s that campaign and it was executed by local 30. “In Polk County,” Woman’s Tribune, an’s Tribune, April 28, 1906, p. 1; “In Eastern Or- Tribune, June 9, 1906, p. 1. suffragists. December 9, 1905, p. 88. egon,” Woman’s Tribune, May 26, 1906, p. 42; 68. “The Editor in Clatsop County,” Wom- 19. National American Woman Suffrage 31. Clara Bewick Colby to Clara Mac- “The Editor in Washington County,” Woman’s an’s Tribune, April 28, 1906, p. 1. Association [hereafter NAWSA], Proceedings Naughton, December. 1, 1905, Woman Suffrage Tribune, February 3, 1906, p. 12; “The Editor 69. “The Editor In Clatsop County,” Wom- of the Thirty-seventh Annual Convention of Collection, box 1, folder 21, USF. in Washington County,” Woman’s Tribune, an’s Tribune, April 28, 1906, p. 1; “In Eastern the National American Woman Suffrage As- 32. Clara Bewick Colby to Clara Mac- February 17, 1906, p. 16; “In Eastern Oregon,” Oregon,” Woman’s Tribune, May 12, 1906, p. 38. sociation, Held at Portland, Oregon (Warren, Naughton, November 19, 1905, Woman Suf- Woman’s Tribune, May 12, 1906, p. 1, 38. 70. “The Editor in Clatsop County,” Wom- Ohio: The Tribune Company, 1905), 58. Mead frage Collection, box 1, folder 21, USF. 49. “The Editor in Columbia County,” an’s Tribune, April 28, 1906, p. 1. (p. 103) erroneously attributes the introduction 33. Ibid. Woman’s Tribune, March 17, 1906, p. 24; 71. “Imbler Items of Interest,” Evening of this resolution to Colby. 34. “Jaunts in Oregon,” 80. “The Editor in Washington County,” Woman’s Observer (La Grande, Ore.), May 12, 1906, p. 7. 20. “The National Convention,” Woman’s 35. “All Now Serene,” Oregon Statesman, Tribune, March 31, 1906, p. 28; “In Eastern 72. “In Eastern Oregon,” Woman’s Tribune, Tribune, July 8, 1905, p. 46. November 18, 1905, p. 8, Suffrage Scrapbook Oregon,” Woman’s Tribune, May 12, 1906, p. 1. May 12, 1906, p. 38. “To Father and Mother” was 21. NAWSA, Proceedings of the Thirty- 88, OHS Research Library. 50. “The Editor in Clatsop County,” Wom- an earlier title for the hymn “O My Father.” See seventh Annual Convention, 11, 124; “Suffrage 36. “Oregon State A.O.E.S.W.,” Woman’s an’s Tribune, April 28, 1906, p. 1. James David Gillilan, Trail Tales (New York: Work in Oregon,” Woman’s Tribune, September Tribune, December 9, 1905, p. 88. 51. “The Editor in Washington County,” Abingdon Press, 1915), 135–36. 23, 1905, p. 68. Colby noted the headquarters 37. “All Now Serene,” “Helped To Fill Peti- Woman’s Tribune, March 31, 1906, p. 28. 73. “The Editor In Clatsop County,” Wom- were “at their residence, 375 Yamhill street.” tions,” “Suffragist’s Petitions Manufactured,” 52. “The Editor in Columbia County,” an’s Tribune, April 28, 1906, p. 1. 22. The Woman’s Tribune had a national “Call It Foolish And Malicious,” “Trouble Woman’s Tribune, March 17, 1906, p. 24. 74. “Lectured in Behalf of Woman Suf- subscriber list. Rowell’s American Newspaper Likely,” “In Suffrage Cause,” [November 1905], 53. “The Editor in Washington County,” frage,” [May 5, 1906], Suffrage Scrapbook 86, Directory (New York: Printer’s Ink Publishing Suffrage Scrapbook 88, OHS Research Library. Woman’s Tribune, February 3, 1906, p. 12. OHS Research Library. Company) for 1905 lists newspaper’s circula- 38. “Helped to Fill Petitions,” [November 54. “In Eastern Oregon,” Woman’s Tribune, 75. “Prominent Suffragist Speaks,” Wash- tion at approximately 2,000 (p. 1338), and 1905], Suffrage Scrapbook 88, OHS Research May 12, 1906, p. 1. ington County News, January 25, 1906, p. 8, about 1,000 for 1906 (p. 1340). These self- Library. 55. “In Eastern Oregon,” Woman’s Tribune, and clipping from The Independent (Hillsboro, reported figures, however, are likely inflated, 39. “All Now Serene,” “Call It Foolish And May 26, 1906, p. 42. Ore.), February 2, 1906, Suffrage Scrapbook 88, for Rowell’s notes in 1907 that the Woman’s Malicious,” “In Suffrage Cause,” Suffrage Scrap- 56. “Notes From Oregon,” Progress 5:2 OHS Research Library. Tribune “has not furnished a definite and sat- book 88, OHS Research Library. (March 1906): 3. 76. “Prominent Suffragist Speaks,” Suffrage isfactory report” since 1904 (p. 970). 40. “Woman Suffrage Proclamation,” 57. Anna H. Shaw to Clara Bewick Colby, Scrapbook 88, OHS Research Library. 23. “Suffrage Work in Oregon,” Woman’s Woman’s Tribune, January 6, 1906, p. 4. April 14, 1906, Colby Papers, box 3, folder 4, 77. See for example, coverage of Shaw’s Tribune, September 9, 1905, p. 64. 41. “The Editor in Clatsop County,” Wom- WHS. March 30, 1906 Portland address scapegoat- 24. Abigail Scott Duniway, Path Breaking an’s Tribune, April 28, 1906, p. 1. 58. “The Editor in Washington County,” ing African-Americans as a barrier to woman (Portland, Ore.: James, Kerns & Abbott, 1914), 42. Harriet Taylor Upton to Clara Bewick Woman’s Tribune, February 3, 1906, p. 12. suffrage. “Will Submit Cause With Argument 225; “Oregon Equal Suffrage Convention,” Colby, February 21, 1906. Colby Papers, box 59. “The Editor in Columbia County,” and Testimony, Says Miss Shaw,” Oregon Daily Woman’s Tribune, November 11, 1905, p. 1. 3, folder 4, WHS. Woman’s Tribune, March 3, 1906, p. 20. Journal, March 30, 1906, p. 5.

36 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 37 78. “Prominent Suffragist Speaks,” Suffrage Telegram, [May, 1906], Suffrage Scrapbook Of Ballot,” Evening Telegram, June 4, 1906, way Papers, Women’s Lives, Series 3, Part 2, Scrapbook 88, OHS Research Library 86, OHS Research Library; “An Open Letter” Suffrage Scrapbook 90, OHS Research Library. Reel 81, SCARC. 79. “Lectured in Behalf of Woman Suf- [May, 1906], Suffrage Scrapbook 90, p. 45, OHS 102. “For Third Time They Appeal for Right 113. “Mrs. Duniway is Chosen to Lead,” frage,” [May 5, 1906], Suffrage Scrapbook 86, Research Library. Of Ballot,” Evening Telegram, June 4, 1906, Sunday Oregonian, November 4, 1906, p. 33. OHS Research Library. Colby was known for 87. “Last Days In The Field,” Woman’s Suffrage Scrapbook 90, OHS Research Library. 114. “Suffragists Talk Secession,” [Oregon speaking extemporaneously and few texts of Tribune, June 9, 1906, p. 1. Soule (1862–1922) 103. “Last Days In The Field,” Woman’s Sunday Journal, November 4, 1906], Suffrage her speeches are extant. For an analysis of had previously worked on the Omaha Bee. Tribune, June 9, 1906, p. 1. Scrapbook 89, OHS Research Library; “An- Colby’s suffrage rhetoric, see E. Claire Jerry, Charles and his wife Ada owned the Leader 104. Ibid. nual Meeting of the Oregon Equal Suffrage “Clara Bewick Colby,” in Women Public Speak- from 1899–1907. See Oregon Exchanges 5:3 105. “Women Talk Over Their Defeat,” Or- Association,” Woman’s Tribune, November ers in the United States, 1800–1925, ed. Karlyn (April 1922): 28. egon Daily Journal, June 9, 1906, p. 5, Suffrage 19, 1906, p. 1; “Mrs. Duniway is Chosen to Kohrs Campbell (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood 88. “Ten-Point Protest: Oregon Women Scrapbook 89, p. 36, OHS Research Library; Lead,” Sunday Oregonian, November 4, Press, 1993), p. 49–62. For analyses of suffrage Opposed to Female Suffrage, and Why!”Morn - Mead, How the Vote was Won, p. 104–106. 1906, p. 33. arguments, see Holly J. McCammon, Lyndi ing Astorian (Astoria, Ore.), May 28, 1906, p. 2. 106. Anna Howard Shaw to Chairman of 115. “Trouble Reigns in Local Ranks of Hewitt, and Sandy Smith, “‘No Weapon Save 89. “Last Days In The Field,” Woman’s the Campaign Committee, June 7, 1906, Dye Suffragists,”Oregon Daily Journal, November Argument’: Strategic Frame Amplification in the Tribune, June 9, 1906, p. 1. papers, box 4, folder 10, OHS Research Library. 5, 1906, p. 3. U.S. Woman Suffrage Movements,” Sociologi- 90. “Novel Card Against Equal Suffrage Is 107. Mead, How the Vote Was Won, 106. 116. Ibid. cal Quarterly 45:3 (Summer 2004): 529–56; Distributed,” Oregonian, May 30, 1906, p. 10. 108. “Oregon Suffrage for Women, Mea- 117. “Annual Meeting of the Oregon Equal and Aileen S. Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman 91. “Novel Card Against Equal Suffrage Is sure 2 (June 1906),” Ballotpedia, www.ballotpe- Suffrage Association,” Woman’s Tribune, No- Suffrage Movement, 1890–1920 (New York: Distributed,” Oregonian, May 30, 1906, p. 10; dia.org/Oregon_ Suffrage_for_Women,_Mea- vember 10, 1906, p. 1. Columbia University Press, 1965). “Dr. Wise on Mr. McCamant,” Oregonian, May sure_2_(June_1906) (accessed February 19, 118. On Colby’s later life, see “Gover- 80. “Equal Suffrage Meeting,” [Jan. 25, June 1, 1906, p. 8. 2020); “Majority Against Suffrage,” Oregon nor Appoints Delegate,” Madras Pioneer 1906], Suffrage Scrapbook 88, OHS Research 92. “Insult To Oregon Womanhood,” and Daily Journal, June 6, 1906, p. 8, Suffrage (Madras, Ore.), September 17, 1908, p. 6; Library. “Progress of Equal Suffrage,” Sunday Orego- Scrapbook 89, p. 25,OHS Research Library. “Invasion Now at Hand,” Sunday Oregonian, 81. “Opposition on the Grill,” Morning nian, June 3, 1906, Suffrage Scrapbook 90, p. 109. Edwards, Sowing Good Seeds, 250. August 1, 1909, p. 4; Clara Bewick Colby, Oregonian, January 29, 1906, p. 13; “Dog in 100, p. 113, OHS Research Library; Abigail Scott 110. Abigail Scott Duniway to Miss Black- “’Votes for Women’ Club Is Next,” Sunday the Manger Not a Model Dog,” Oregon Daily Duniway, “Women And Votes,” Oregonian, May well, July 28, 1906. Abigail Scott Duniway Oregonian, August 8, 1909, p. 2; “Campaign Journal, January 29, 1906, p. 5; “Minority of 31, 1906, p. 9; “Petticoat Government,” Daily Papers, Women’s Lives, Series 3: American Staff Grows,” Oregonian, May 20, 1912, p. Eighteen,” Oregon Daily Journal, January Capital Journal, June 1, 1906, p. 5; Untitled Women Missionaries and Pioneers, Part 2: 9; “Governor West Honors Woman,” Orego- 30, 1906, p.7, all in Suffrage Scrapbook 88, article, Oregonian, June 1, 1906, p. 8. Pioneers: Reel 81, Special Collections and Uni- nian, May 6, 1911, p. 14; “World Alliance Told OHS Research Library. Also, “Women Banded 93. Jensen, Oregon’s Doctor to the World, versity Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, of Oregon, Oregon Delegate Addresses In- Against Suffrage,” Morning Oregonian, No- 102. Eugene, Oregon [hereafter SCARC]. ternational Gathering of Suffragists,” Orego- vember 25, 1905, p. 16; “Suffragists on the 94. “Is This Bribery?” Sunday Oregonian, 111. “Mrs. Duniway, Equal Suffrage and nian, June 17, 1913, p. 8; Clara Bewick Colby, Opposition,” Sunday Oregonian, November June 3, 1906, Suffrage Scrapbook 90, p. 113, W.C.T.U.,” Sunday Oregonian, September 9, “Peace Through Justice Is Motto Adopted by 26, 1905, p. 8. OHS Research Library. 1906, p. 33; “She Flies with Her Own Wings: Prosperous Holland,” Sunday Oregonian, 82. “Where Fighting is Thickest, There 95. Anna Howard Shaw to Dear Chair- The Collected Speeches of Abigail Scott Du- September 28, 1913, p. 6; “Women Argue Woman is — Floods of Literature in Equal man Committee, May 11, 1906, MSS 1089, Eva niway,” asduniway.org/“ballots-and-bullets”- Vote Question,” Los Angeles Times, March Suffrage Battle,” Corvallis Times, January. 23, Emery Dye Papers [hereafter Dye papers], circa-january-21-23-1889 (accessed February 25, 1914, p. 5 ; and Clara Bewick Colby to 1906, p. 2. box 4, folder 10 “Woman Suffrage—Incoming 19, 2020). The Oregonian mis-dated Duni- Clarence Colby, July 14, 1916, Colby Collec- 83. Veritas Vincent Circular Letter, [Mar., 1905–1909,” OHS Research Library. way’s speech as being from February 1880. tion, box 2, folder 6, WHS. 1906], Suffrage Scrapbook 90, p. 91, OHS 96. “Will Picket Polls,” Oregonian, May Following the Supreme Court decision that 119. Lauren Kessler, “The Ideas of Woman Research Library. 31, 1906, p. 9. disfranchised women voters in Washington Suffrage and the Mainstream Press,” Oregon 84. “Veritas Vincent Asks Oregon to 97.Ibid. Territory, in late summer 1888 Colby toured Historical Quarterly 84:3 (Fall 1983): 271. Oppose Suffrage,” [Mar. 20, 1906], Suffrage 98. Ibid. Washington Territory in support of suffrage 120. Lauren Kessler, “The Ideas of Woman Scrapbook 90, p. 45, OHS Research Library. 99. “Suffragists Are Prepared,” Oregon with Elizabeth Lyle (Lisle) Saxon (1832–1915), Suffragists and the Portland Oregonian,” Jour- 85. “Woman Suffrage Is Not Wanted,” Sunday Journal, June 3, 1906, p. 13, Suffrage an active suffragist and progressive reformer nalism Quarterly 57:4 (1980): 602, 605. Morning Oregonian, [May 17, 1906], Suffrage Scrapbook 89, p. 52, OHS Research Library. in Tennessee and Louisiana. Saxon also 121. Duniway, Path Breaking, 218. Scrapbook 86,OHS Research Library. 100. “Women Work At The Polls,” “Police worked as a national speaker and organizer 122. Sara Hunter Graham, Woman Suffrage 86. “Spirited Answer To Businessmen: Protect The Women,” [June 4, 1906], Suffrage for NWSA and WCTU. and the New Democracy (New Haven: Yale Leaders of the Equal Suffrage Movement Scrapbook 89, p. 21, 22, OHS Research Library. 112. Abigail Scott Duniway to Anna Howard University Press, 1996), 33. Make Reply to Published Protest,” Evening 101. “For Third Time They Appeal For Right Shaw, September 18, 1906, Abigail Scott Duni- 123. See Evans, “Oregon,” 538–49.

38 OHQ vol. 121, no. 1 Bloomberg, Clara Bewick Colby and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Campaign of 1905–1906 39