July 30, 1912: "Suffragists Get Married" -- Esther Pohl Marries George A. Lovejoy

In the midst of the 1912 suffrage campaign and without the knowledge of their friends, Esther Pohl and George Lovejoy went to Victoria, British Columbia to get married. Esther Pohl's first husband Emil Pohl had died in May 1911. George A. Lovejoy was a business and community leader who was also a woman suffrage supporter.

The two, the Oregonian noted, "will henceforth work for the suffrage cause in double harness."

"Suffragists Get Married," Oregonian, August 9, 1912, 16.

Their marriage lasted for eight years but did not weather the storms of the First World War, differences in outlook, and political rivalries. But for the rest of the 1912 campaign it appears that the two did work in "double harness" for victory.

July 25, 1912: Dr. Esther Pohl gives a suffrage presciption to the members of the Portland Transportation Club

Esther Pohl was a very effective public speaker. By all accounts she used humor, strong preparation of material and evidence, and a confident delivery to put her points across. The Portland Evening Telegram for July 25, 1912, provides evidence of her skill in a report on her speech to members of the Portland Transportation Club at a luncheon at the Hotel Imperial.

"Asks Transportation Club to Aid Suffrage," Portland Evening Telegram, July 25, 1912, 8.

 

Pohl worked her audience even before she began to speak. "Unique invitations in the form of a prescription signed by Dr. Pohl warned them that they would be expected to take a 'dose' of 'Woman's Scope and Responsibility' on this occasion, and the members came in a willing mood, having been assured that the dose would be of homeopathic dimensions" -- a small one, in other words.

She touched on the staples of her suffrage philosophy in her speech. Votes for women was equitable and just, she noted, quoting Abraham Lincoln to emphasize that women bore the burdens of the state and should share in its privileges. Wage earning women needed the vote, because corporate, male interests had driven the "industries of the home" into the factory. She recounted the accomplishments of notable women, including Eve, "who gave us our right to knowledge and our right to travel. If it had not been for her we should still be sitting in the Garden of Eden at a perennial picnic," and Sacajawea, "path-finder of the Northwest."

And she focused on an enlarged vision of the home and women's responsibilities therein: "nowadays the home touched every phase of life from the garbage collection up and that the changed conditions demand" that woman should vote to "meet her responsibilities to her home and children."

The Telegram reporter noted that Pohl held the attention of the audience, brought laughter, and was eloquent in her points. She closed with a plea "that the members as sovereign men of Oregon prove their trust in Oregon womanhood by granting them equal rights with the men next November."

July 1912: Suffrage Organizing and the Professional Woman's League

Esther Pohl and her colleagues, part of a second generation of votes for women activists, participated in broad coalition building and organizing to achieve victory in the 1912 campaign. Suffrage organizations appear to have engendered other leagues and associations, including a Portland Professional Woman's League.

The Oregonian reported in June 1912 that the new club had its first organizing meeting at the home of Portland librarian Mary Frances Isom. "The club is strictly non-political and has for its object the creation of good fellowship between professional women and ultimately the establishment of a downtown club." Members "represent many different professions, including medicine, music, journalism, library and craft work." Members elected Mary Frances Isom to be the group's president. Esther Pohl was there and her colleagues asked her to be a member of the committee working to create the league's constitution. ("Professional Woman's League," Oregonian, June 2, 1912, 3:3)

Whether by design or by serendipity, July brought Pohl and league members together with another kind of constitution. The Portland Spectator reported that the Professional Woman's League "gave a delightful launching party on the 'Constitution,' which steamed up the Willamette River at 5 c'clock Wednesday evening."

"News for Clubwomen -- The Professional Woman's League," Portland Spectator, July 20, 1912, 14.

The establishment of the Portland Professional Woman's League in the midst of the 1912 suffrage campaign suggests that activists were thinking about ways that they could build women's rights beyond the vote, including in their professions. Perhaps the successful proliferation of suffrage leagues and societies became a model for other organization building. And this report reminds us that even though Esther Pohl was hard at work advocating for votes for women and building her medical practice, she still took the time to socialize and to celebrate friendship and good fortune with a launching party and voyage on the Willamette in the summer of 1912.

Esther Pohl in 1912: Women Physicians and Suffrage

Esther Pohl was one of many women doctors in Portland active in the suffrage cause. Much of her suffrage rhetoric and organizing involved using the vote to achieve public health; her experiences in medical school, being denied an internship, and her struggle to gain a place in the male medical establishment all contributed to her support for votes for women. 

The Portland City Directory for 1912 lists 449 physicians, 38 (eight percent) were women. Many were suffrage activists. Here's the list:

Bixby (Griff)	Alys A		Mrs	6 Lafayette Bldg
Breuer	Berthe			761 Broadway
Brown	Flora A		Mrs	517 Dekum Bldg
Cardwell	Mae H			601 Dekum Bldg
Coe	V M		Mrs	606 Marquam Bldg
Darr	Clara			412 Swetland Bldg
Dearborn	E K		Mrs	800 Union Ave N
Ellis	L A		Mrs	230 ½ Russell
Equi	Marie D			326 Medical Bldg
Erickson	Nellie		Mrs	845 Thompson
French	C Gertrude			525 Medical Bldg
Graves	Luzana E			E 13 Holbrook Block St. Johns
Gray	Kittie P			417 Medical Bldg
Hampton	L Victoria			475 W Park
Johnson		E D			315 Mohawk Bldg
Johnson	L A		Mrs	427 Mohawk Bldg
Kramer	Mary		Mrs	861 Mississippi Bldg
Little	Eugenia G			583 Spokane Ave
McGavin	Jessie M			511 Medical Bldg
MacLachlan	Mary			525 Medical Bldg
Madigan	Mary V			503 Oregonian Bldg
Manion	F S		Mrs	517 Medical Bldg
Manion	K C		Mrs	917 Corbett Bldg
Marquam	L M		Mrs	788 E Yamhill
Norton	Selina			10 E 15th
Patton	Elsie D			300 Marquam Bldg
Pohl	E C		Mrs	216 Failing Bldg
Quigley	Margaret N			412 Swetland Bldg
Schnauffer	E H		Mrs	424 Williams Ave
Spurrier	Ravena T			645 E 21st
Stratton	Margaret			211 23rd N
Talbott	C E C		Mrs	1384 Rodney Ave
Van Alstine	E E		Mrs	512 Marquam Bldg
Warren	A L F		Mrs	301 Dekum Bldg
Welty	Emma J			321 Montgomery
Whiteside	Sarah			216 Failing Bldg
Wood	Nina E			18  Selling-Hirsch Bldg
Ziegler	Amelia			520 Medical Bldg