Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury Part VII: Portland Evening Telegram Coverage of the December 4, 1912 Trial and Mattie McArthur

Portland's three daily newspapers all covered the December 4, 1912 trial that featured an all-female "experimental" jury. The Portland Evening Telegram, a Republican daily, presented the police court as a dramatic stage on which gender relations and ideology played out.

"Defendant Flees From Woman Jury," Portland Evening Telegram, December 5, 1912, 1.

The Evening Telegram began its extensive coverage on the front page. "One glance at the courtroom, packed to suffocation with women who wanted to see and hear her, and Marcelle Bortell, of the underworld, exclaimed 'Not for me!' and fled. And then, in her absence, she was tried on a charge of keeping a disorderly house by the first woman jury in Oregon."

The "scene" was one of a kind, the paper noted. "So great was the crowd of women who wedged their way into the dingy, smelly courtroom of Municipal Judge Tazwell that the building threatened to collapse." The police "weeded out" men in the chairs but women stayed. "The lobby was thronged, the office downstairs was filled and a crowd assembled outside. Several times during the afternoon yesterday the floor quivered under the strain, but there was no accident."

Photo from "Woman Prisoner Flees Jury of Her Own Sex," Portland Evening Telegram, December 5, 1912, 12.

The Telegram reported on the dress and deportment of the mostly "middle-aged, matronly women" who remained in their seats after Judge Tazwell admonished that there would be frank language and information during the trial. "In court, a spade is called a spade," he said, "and things are called by their right names." The women on the jury (the Telegram referred to them as "juroresses") were sworn in and the trial began.

Defense attorney W. E. Farrell presented the defendant, Marcelle Bortell, as a woman with whom all the other women in the courtroom could relate. She was so disturbed by the assembled crowd that she could not appear. "Remember, she is a woman -- weak-kneed, perhaps -- but a woman and she faltered when she came to the door of the courtroom. She had the chagrin and fright any lady would have."

Deputy city attorney Ray Sullivan used gender differently and emphasized the differences between the defendant and the women in the jury and audience. "A woman of the underworld . . . it one of the boldest creatures in the world and would not be afraid of facing a jury. A woman can size up one of this character instinctively--that's why the defendant did not appear. The question now involved is whether a jury of women will convict a woman of the underground and you will have to put your sentiments aside and remember the facts."

Bortell was charged with keeping a house of prostitution. "It was one of those cases so common in the Municipal Court," the Telegram reported, "distinctly nasty in details, but the audience was game and remained. When the testimony became too-off colored for repetition in the presence of women Judge Tazwell tilted back in his swivel chair and looked out the window across the street. One juror riveted her eyes to the floor throughout the trial; another gazed unblinking out a window; another flushed to her brow, several gripped their nether lip with their teeth and the rest stared, without displaying the least trace of emotion, at the witness."

Attorney W M "Pike" Davis joined Farrell for the defense. Davis had been a strong suffragist and chair of the Men's Equal Suffrage League of Multnomah County in the recent 1912 campaign. The Telegram noted that Davis placed the women jurors "in the same class with the defendant" when he told them that "this woman is your sister," something the Telegram felt was insulting. The report was critical of Davis in other ways: "Davis inserted a bouquet for himself for his campaign for suffrage, and, seeing a window open near the jury, he gallantly climbed through the crowd and shut it with ostentation." Davis, the Telegram noted, spent his time "interjecting his suffrage record and panning the police." The Telegram concluded "women resent being called sisters of the denizens of the underworld and . . . have great confidence in the police."

The jury was out for an hour and 40 minutes. The jurors selected were Mrs. W.T. Pangle, Mary Cachot Therkelsen, Leone Cass Baer, May (Mrs. A.C.) Newill, Viola Coe, Mrs. Paul C. Bates, Mrs. O.C. Bortzmeyer, Mrs. A.E. Clark, Laura Vinson and Ida M. Kayser. The group elected Viola Coe as foreperson. As the Telegram told it, "the jury agreed that Marcelle was a woman of loose character, and there they stuck." The final vote was divided five to five "and the court discharged the first jury to women in Oregon because they could not agree." (Much more on this in subsequent reports . . .)

The Telegram reported a straw poll among women in the spectator seats "at 6:30 among the women who had not gone home to prepare supper" and it revealed 25 for aquital and 22 for conviction. The paper printed what it represented as a discussion among the remaining women that ranged from sympathy to a discussion of the "white slave trade" to criticism of the defendant.

The Telegram review of the day of the trial concludes with this sentence: "There was one colored suffragette in the courtroom, Mrs. Mattie McArthur, Tenth and Stark Streets." McArthur does not appear in the 1912 Portland City Directory but the 1920 Census lists her as 31 years of age living with her husband Joseph, a drill press operator. (thanks Ancestry.com!).

Stay tuned for the other newspaper reports, editorials, Leone Cass Baer's "eyewitness" narrative, and how this might have influenced the Oregon attorney general's decision about women and jury service a week later . .

Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury Part VI: Mary Cachot Therkelsen on Full Citizenship

The first all-female "experimental" jury in Portland convened for trial on Wednesday,  December 4, 1912 in the municipal court. The trial began in the late afternoon and so the morning newspaper, the Oregonian, and the two evening papers, the Oregon Journal and the Portland Evening Telegram, had one more day to print anticipatory information before having actual trial events. This coverage perpetuated the contradictory images and assessments of women jurors that we've seen in prior posts.

That morning the Oregonian reported that in anticipation of large crowds some suggested to Judge Tazwell that "the trial should be adjourned to some more roomy chamber, but this idea was abandoned, on the ground that the first woman jury in Oregon should have a stage-setting under ordinary working conditions such as the husbands and brothers of the new electors have had hitherto." So the proceedings would be held in the "second story room in the dingy old City Jail building" with room for only 100 people. These news accounts, we may suppose, also contributed to the swell of the crowds.

The paper also noted that "fearing that some embarrassment might be caused Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway through the serving upon her yesterday of an honorary summons to the jury" the court reassured her that her appearance was voluntary "but if her health permitted her to attend she would be the first to be called into the box." Husbands, the Oregonian noted, would attend. And the article quoted "a suffragist" as saying that women were not prepared for jury duty but rather "fitted for afternoon teas."

"First Woman Jury Tries Case Today," Oregonian, December 4, 1912, 17.

The evening Oregon Journal went to press as the courtroom was filling. The paper reported in detail the efforts some Portlanders made to get in -- "Judge Tazwell and Court Clerk Beutgen have been besieged for reserved seats the last 24 hours" -- and repeated the fears of a collapsing floor.

The Journal continued its supportive stance regarding the women jurors." The "women who have been subpoenaed on the jury panel are not curious," the Journal reported. "They are entering the case with too much seriousness for that, for they regard it as a sort of test for all women of their ability to exercise the requirements of citizenship." It noted also that the subpoena for Duniway was "made honorary" because of her health.

Mary Cachot Therkelsen, one of the jurors, noted that she was "glad to serve . . . I'm anxious to acquaint myself with all the duties of citizenship." And, she continued, "the sooner we begin the better, too, for it's necessary for us to know all the duties that go with citizenship before we can exercise it intelligently. Before very long, I expect the various women's clubs to resolve themselves into civic organizations, and we must know all about such things as jury duty in order that we may teach other women who do not."

Cachot Therkelsen's comments, captured by the Journal in the midst of the building spectacle of the trial, are vital clues to the way many Oregon women may have approached the question of jury service. Cachot Therkelsen, trained as a physician and active in the suffrage campaign, believed that full citizenship required understanding and experiencing all of the civic obligations it entailed.

"Ten women have been subpenaed [sic]," the Journal noted, "but the subpenas [sic] really are not necessary to insure their attendance, they made it clear today, because, like Mrs. Therkelsen, they desire to serve."

"Woman Jury is Biggest Attraction the Municipal Court Ever Has Had," Oregon Journal, December 4, 1912, 1.

The Portland Evening Telegram repeated some of this information and provided additional details. Officials had discovered a "large crack in the front wall" of the temporary building for the municipal court and jail and Police Chief Slover was limiting the spectators to 200 in number.

"Stylishly dressed women mingled with poorly dressed men in the scramble for seats" and some brought their lunches "and to pass the time poured over novels and magazines." This reinforced the idea that "society women" were interested and participating.

The Telegram also reported continuing interest on the part of Portland women to participate as jurors. "Telephone calls have kept Municipal Clerk Beutgen and Assistant Neil Crounse busy all morning informing women that the jury panel had been filled. Many applicants have expressed their desire to serve, one enthusiastic woman routing Judge Tazwell out of bed a 6 o'clock this morning with a request to be subpenaed [sic]."

"Crowd to Trial by Woman Jury," Portland Evening Telegram, December 4, 1912, 1

Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury Part V: 10 to 8 Odds for Conviction and Fears of Women in the Jury Box

Many thanks to Sara Piasecki for commenting on the last blog post -- men were not flocking to the court for jury duty either! A "scarcity" of male jurors was one of the factors prompting the call for this all-female experimental jury. One of the complicating and interesting issues concerning this aspect of civic participation and equality is that jury service was not, and as Sara points out still is not, one of the most favored ways to express citizenship. Many people in December of 1912, male and female, appeared to see it as an "obligation" that was onerous and unpleasant. And this would figure into the continuing debate about women's jury service in the state.


The newspaper coverage of the experimental jury continued to be full of ambiguity, too, with some praise for the women who served but also with sensational claims that placed the women in a negative light and hostility and jokes about such service and the status of women as citizens. This ambivalence had been part of the suffrage campaign and newspapers were now applying it to this next phase of the campaign for women's civic rights.


As we've seen, the Oregonian published the "results" of the telephone summons of a number of Portland women and as the trial approached newspapers named various women as potential jurors. The articles suggested that most women did not want to serve. Even the Oregon Journal, more supportive of the just-completed successful woman suffrage campaign in Oregon, headlined "Women Anxious to Dodge Jury Duty" even though the text of the article recognized that men were not lining up for service. "That women are as anxious to escape jury service as men is shown by the efforts of the municipal court clerk to secure a list for the women jury," the paper noted, but the headline focused on women only.

"Women Anxious to Dodge Jury Duty," Oregon Journal, December 3, 1912, 17.

Meanwhile, as the municipal court prepared for the trial, the Portland Evening Telegram reported "a lively movement in the betting line and probably a score of wagers have been put up on the result" with 10 to 8 odds that the women would return a guilty verdict. "If the defendant was a man the betting might be different," the Telegram noted, "but the prisoner at the bar is a woman." And "to make the affair as interesting as possible, extra chairs will be provided in the courtroom to accommodate women spectators who may attend with the desire of learning some of the duties of citizenship"(to say nothing of other interested parties).

"It's 10 to 8 That Woman Jury Convicts," Portland Evening Telegram, December 3, 1912, 1.

The Telegram's editorial cartoonist prepared this front page commentary on women jurors the day the trial began, Wednesday, December 4, 1912:

"Trial by Jury," Portland Evening Telegram, December 4, 1912, 1.

"Trial by Jury" portrays a jury box filled with fashionable young women in front of a young and nattily dressed male defendant arrested ("pinched") and on trial for burglary. Their thoughts are not on justice nor their obligations as citizens; rather they coo "Isn't he handsome" as the exasperated judge strikes his gavel to restore order. Women jurors, the cartoon suggests, would disrupt the order of a courtroom and its civic proceedings and the community cannot expect justice from women who only consider the appearance of a criminal and can be easily fooled. (Throughout the subsequent campaign for women's jury service supporters would work to counter this image with that of serious female citizens on the one hand and male jurors dazzled by a well-dressed, beautiful female defendant on the other).


Come back to find out if the floorboards of the Portland Municipal Courtroom could withstand the stress of the crowds . . . and more on the construction of the image of the woman juror for Oregonians in this "experimental" all-female jury.

Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury, Part IV: The Oregonian Prints the Results of the "Telephone Summons"

On December 1, 1912 in a very long article (part of which is reproduced here) the Oregonian presented the specific reactions of the women telephoned about service on the "experimental" all female jury in police court. The list was different from the one reported by the Oregon Journal, with some of the same names but many others.

Judge Tazwell "appointed a citizen to draw the special venire, and he spent most of the afternoon at the telephone with a list of addresses before him and a very puzzled woman at the other end of the wire," the Oregonian reported. "Just for curiosity he jotted down the substance of the answers he received, and here they are. . ." Just for curiosity?

The paper did not identify this "citizen" but the Oregonian made much of the list, and of course mined the "substance" of the answers for press value. We can't know how accurate these "responses" were, but the report seems designed to highlight the idea that most women did not want to participate. The "experimental" all female jury came about, in part, because of a scarcity of men who would serve. But the humor that slid into ridicule at times in this report was loaded with negative views about the women who would not serve and shadowed even some of the women who agreed to serve with sarcasm.

"First Women Jury Has Woman's Case," Oregonian, December 1, 1912, 1, 13.

Mrs. A.E. Clark would "serve if needed, but I would not be tried by a jury of women myself." She also told the caller she would like to consult her husband (a lawyer). The caller noted that with emancipation women "don't have to consult the mister," to which Clark replied that women were not yet "accustomed to our new liberty."

Mrs. J.A. Dougherty thought it was a joke and "refused."

Esther Goodman, an opponent of woman suffrage, said she was not ready for jury service and declined.

Mrs. H. L. Chapin asked "who will the other women be?" and would serve "if my husband doesn't object."

Mrs. A.J. Capron said it "would be a great trial to me to go" and declined.

Mrs. Peter Borgan was at a loss for words and didn't think she could do it. She also wanted to consult with her husband and was dismissed.

Mrs. O.C Bortzmeyer accepted, as did teacher and suffragist May Newill (though she first said she "always understood that teachers were exempt.") Oregonian columnist Leone Cass Baer also agreed. "I always want to go where I can learn something new," she said, "even if it is to Police Court." (She would write about her experience as we'll soon see.)

Mrs. Jessie G. Bennett said no, and Mrs. George E. Bingham expressed only "frank personal distaste." Mrs. H. H. Herdman did not feel competent to serve.

Mrs. E. N. Blythe said that she had to care for her children, and Mrs. Harrison Allen also claimed "home cares." Mrs. William Beck declined due to illness in the family. Mrs. Byron Miller said she was no politician and would have to ask her husband.

Mrs. Lansing Stout declined, but noted that "I should think that you could get any number of the women who advocated suffrage." Mrs. T.L. Perkins said she needed more time to study and prepare.

Paul Bates had joked with his wife that she was now liable for jury service after reading about the experimental jury in the paper and she thought that the call was his joke. After finding it was real she agreed to serve. Mrs. O.K. Jeffrey also thought it was a prank, but she agreed when she found the call was legitimate. Mrs. W.T. Pangle agreed, stating that "if they are all women, I have no objection." She wanted, the Oregonian reported, to know who else was serving.

Suffragist Mary Cachot Therkelsen agreed, noting "I have the privilege of voting, and I will take all the responsibilities. And the Oregonian gave a paragraph to Viola Coe's response with different details that the Oregon Journal's version.

"'Yes, certainly, I shall be very pleased,' was the hearty response of Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe . . . Later the new 'juroress' burst in upon the assemblage at a room in her house where Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, Governor West, and a delegation of prominent suffragists had assembled to proclaim the adoption of the suffrage amendment, with the news of her selection. She and her announcement were received with hearty applause by those present, Governor West joining the acclaim."

The report concluded: "Wherefore, tomorrow morning, the blue-coated policeman on the beat will ring the bell at the doors of mansions, apartment houses and cottages, and will hand to ten delighted women their credentials as members of the first body of its kind to be brought together in the state. And two days later, the grimy Municipal Court will witness what it never saw before, six well-dressed and reputable women sitting upon the question of the guilt or innocence of one of their less fortunate sisters. It is predicted that there will be standing room only, and little of that, when the case is called."

Under the editorial watch of Harvey Scott, brother of suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway, the Oregonian had opposed woman suffrage until his death in 1910 and had given lukewarm attention to the 1912 campaign. The paper's coverage of the all-female jury contributed to the spectacle, and this particular report questioned most women's commitment to jury service as a civic duty and opportunity to exercise citizenship.

More on the build-up to the "standing room only" trial in the next post.

Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury, Part III: Abigail Scott Duniway Subpoenaed . . . for Jury Duty . . . and it's Optional . . . and Dangerous?

On December 2, 1912 the Portland Evening Telegram reported a new development in the building drama about the all-female "experimental" jury being formed: Judge George Tazwell decided to subpoena aging and controversial suffrage activist Abigail Scott Duniway for the jury panel.

"Mrs. Duniway Called to Serve Upon Jury," Portland Evening Telegram, December 2, 1912, 1

The Telegram reported Tazwell announced "that it would be no more than fitting to have her a member of the first woman jury." But the ill and aging activist was in "feeble health" and "if Mrs. Duniway feels equal to the occasion she will have to attend but if her health is such as to prohibit her appearance reply to the subpoena will not be insisted upon." As we'll see, this would later become an "honorary subpoena."

Given Duniway's contentious role in the suffrage campaign just completed in November 1912 and her desire for the limelight, it's interesting to note that Viola Coe, not Duniway, was the first woman to be called for this experiment. Duniway is not mentioned in the first list of women drawn. It would appear that Duniway or her supporters contacted the court or made a request that she be included to honor her work in suffrage and to signal the links between suffrage and jury service.

The Telegram article is also interesting because it reflects the growing interest in the trial among women who volunteered to serve. "Numerous applications have been received by Clerk Beutgen from women in all parts of the city who have volunteered their services, and several were quite insistent that they should be selected." Perhaps Duniway was among them?

"Much interest is being displayed in the case," the Telegram reported, "and a packed courtroom is expected. Special precautions will be taken by the police to check any demonstration, and several patrolmen will be assigned to special baliff duty." It's not clear whether the reporter believed that the women were going to demonstrate and be a dangerous threat or whether the danger came from others who felt threatened by women jurors.

More on the continuing developments in this "experiment" that was creating such a stir -- and causing anxious officials to take "special precautions."

Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury, Part II, Oregon Journal December 1 and 2, 1912

On Sunday, December 1, the Oregon Journal linked suffrage and jury service for women solidly in readers' minds by reporting on Viola Coe's response to the call to jury duty in Portland's "experimental" all-female jury.

"Suffrage Leader on Jury," Oregon Journal, December 1, 1912, 4.

 Coe was acting president of the Oregon Equal Suffrage Association, one of the groups that had worked to achieve the votes for women victory several weeks before. "Mrs. Coe was hostess at the gathering in her home . . . at which Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway signed Governor West's suffrage proclamation" when she received the telephone call asking her to serve on this jury. "'I accepted,' Mrs. Coe went on, 'because I think it is a woman's duty to perform jury duty when she is called now that she has all the rights of a citizen. I'd like to set a good example for future women jurors. I don't want to see women shirk jury duty as some of the men do. I don't believe they will.'"

The Journal also noted that the case would be "a little experiment by Municipal Judge Tazwell in the psychology of woman jurors." And further, that "Mrs. Coe and her five fellow juroresses" would try a case involving "a woman of the underworld, who is charged with maintaining a disorderly house."

The next day, Monday, December 2, the Oregon Journal provided the names of sixteen women who would receive a summons. The assistant city attorney Raymond Sullivan "called for a list as representative as possible, suggesting that the 16 names be drawn, thus giving each side a chance to object to any one considered prejudiced or not a fair juror for the respective sides."

"Panel of Sixteen Women is Called to do Jury Duty," Oregon Journal, December 2, 1912, 2.

The Journal listed those on the list with their addresses. With help from the 1912 Portland City Directory and other resources we can see who comprised this group and if they were indeed representative.

"Mrs. Levy Young, of Meier & Frank's department store"
(listed in the Directory as Levi and as a department manager at Meier and Frank)

"Mrs. Gee, employed with Neustadter Bros."
(Lizzie Gee was the president of United Garment Workers Local 228 in Portland ["Garment Workers' Officers, Portland Labor Press, January 11, 1912, 8] and listed in the Directory as the widow of David H Gee. Gee would be a candidate for Oregon State representative, 18th district, with the progressive party and was part of the Esther Pohl Lovejoy for Congress Committee in 1920 -- you'll have to wait for the Lovejoy biography to learn more!)

"Miss Mamie Gaffney, 93 East Fifteenth Street"
(listed in the Directory as Mary F Gaffney, a bookkeeper at C R Winslow Company, press agents. Gaffney worked on the 1912 suffrage campaign with Esther Lovejoy and others. See "Suffragists Hold Initial Banquet," Oregon Journal, February 11, 1912, 4.)

"Mrs. Julia Kirk Sayer, Yeon Building"
(listed in the Directory as Julia Sayre-Kirker, Public Stenographer, with her office at 1404 Yeon Building -- she took out the following ad in the business section under "Stenographers" suggesting a good measure of success in her field. Many stenographers were members of the Stenographers Equal Suffrage League -- see Karin Traweek's article on the Century of Action website.)

"Mrs. Julia Kirker Sayre, Stenographer," Portland City Directory, (Portland, Polks, 1912), 1926.

"Mrs. Fowler, with the Pacific Telephone Company"
(not identifiable in Directory listings)

"Mrs. John F. Logan, wife of attorney Logan"
(Mrs. Logan worked on the 1912 suffrage campaign with Esther Lovejoy and others. See "Suffragists Hold Initial Banquet," Oregon Journal, February 11, 1912, 4.)

"Mrs. O. C. Bortzmeyer, 704 East Ankeny street"
(The Directory lists O.C. Bortzmeyer as a cashier for Merchants Savings and Trust with no listing for her.)

"Mrs. I. M. Bohansen, 405 Jefferson street"
(not listed in Directory)

"Mrs. J. H. Ray, East Thirty-second and Flanders streets)
(Joseph H Ray at this residence listed in the Directory a part of the real estate firm of Wyatt, Estabrook & Ray)

"Laura Vinson, 1024 Holgate Street"
(Laura Vinson is not listed in the Directory but Burr Vinson, a carpenter, Iliff J. Vinson, a clerk at the U.S. News Company, and Truman Vinson, a blacksmith, are listed at 1024 Holgate Street. The 1910 Census lists Laura as Burr's wife and the mother of Truman and Iliff. Thanks Ancestry.com!)

"Mrs. W. T. Pangle, Oregon hotel"
(W.T. Pangle, according to the Directory, was the manager of the Helig Theater)

"Mrs. L.W. Therkelsen, 329 Eleventh Street"
Mary Cachot Therkelsen had trained as a physician in San Francisco and was a strong suffragist in the 1912 campaign and a member of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage through 1920. She was the widow of Portland business leader and former manager of the Portland Pacific Lumber Company Lauritz Therkelsen. You'll be able to find more information about her in my upcoming biography of Esther Lovejoy.)

"Mrs. A.C. Newell, 744 Hoyt Street"
(May E. Newill (sometimes spelled Newell in the press reports) was a teacher and an active suffragist with the Portland Woman's Club Campaign Committee and other organizations. See, for example, "Suffragists Name Central Committee," Oregon Journal, March 9, 1912, 2)

"Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe, 841 Lovejoy street"
(As we've seen, Viola Coe was acting president of the Oregon Equal Suffrage Association. Trained as a physician she was apparently not practicing; she was the wife of prominent Portland doctor Henry Waldo Coe. See Jennifer Newby's essay on Coe on the Century of Action website for more information.)

"Mrs. Paul Bates, 493 Hassalo"
(Directory lists Paul Bates as an agent with McCargar, Bates & Lively, Insurance Agents)

"Mrs. A. E. Clark , 319 Johnson street"
(Mrs. Clark was a prominent and active suffragist with many local organizations including the Portland Equal Suffrage League, the College Equal Suffrage League, and the Oregon State Equal Suffrage Association. See, for example, "Cartoon Theories on Suffrage are Generally Supplanted Now, Oregonian, September 22, 1912, 2:18. Her husband A. E. Clark was a prominent attorney.)

Representative? Well, this initial list included stenographers, a labor leader, working and professional women and wives of prominent businessmen. Many had been suffrage supporters.

The Journal reported that two women had called "volunteering their services as jurors." We will see more women doing this in the next several days of reporting about this story -- they wanted a chance to show their support and to participate.

At this point the two women who volunteered were:

"Mrs. Ida B. Kayser, 491 East Thirty-third street"
(Listed in the Directory as the widow of Clement E Kayser)

"Mrs. L. G. Carpenter, 972 East Stark Street"
(As you'll see from the entry in the Directory below, her husband L.G. Carpenter was the Superintendent of the Coast Detective Bureau.)

"L.G. Carpenter, Superintendent, Coast Detective Bureau, Portland City Directory (Portland: R.K. Polk, 1912), 1784.

Next -- the Oregonian weighs in -- and gives transcriptions of the telephone conversations with prospective women jurors -- both those who wanted to serve and those who declined.

Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury, Part I, November 30, 1912

Jury service embodies many aspects of the rights and obligations of equal citizenship. Citizens who serve on juries participate in the exercise of the laws and the democratic process beyond the act of voting. Many women and their supporters in Oregon in 1912, as elsewhere, saw this as both a right (the ability to serve had been limited to men and they wanted to exercise this right) and an obligation (taking the time to serve) of citizenship. They also believed that having a "jury of one's peers" was an important right for female defendants.

Chapters in two thoughtful monographs explore the general U.S. story of jury service for women: Linda Kerber's No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998) and Gretchen Ritter's The Constitution as Social Design: Gender and Civic Membership in the American Constitutional Order (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006). Kerber (p. 131) notes that in the U.S. the "founding generations understood juries as the place where the people continued their participation in lawmaking." But questions about whether women and men were "peers" and if women should participate as full citizens continued to the twentieth century and remain today. Ritter (p. 103) notes that "the concept of jurors as peers suggests very different ways of thinking about  . . . the ways that women bring their lived experiences to the exercise of their civic duties. Further, jury service is a more substantial commitment, in terms of time and effort, to civic participation -- a commitment that brings people more fully into the workings of the state and more intimately into contact with other citizens." 

These questions came front and center in the Oregon jury service debate, a story that has not been studied deeply by other scholars.


As we've seen, Oregon attorneys were divided over whether the achievement of woman suffrage meant that women could serve on juries and that November Attorney General Andrew Crawford had not yet announced a definite opinion on the matter. And Bend suffragist Hattie Corkett had served as "forewoman" of a jury there during the week of November 25, 1912, likely the first in Oregon to do so.


On Saturday, November 30, judges and attorneys in a Portland police court decided to have an "experimental" all-female jury. Oregonians were debating the question of women's jury service, Bend had been first to seat a woman juror and just that day, November 30, Governor Oswald West signed the suffrage proclamation written by the aging icon Abigail Scott Duniway at the Portland home of Viola Coe. 

Portland's two evening papers reported the news of the all-female jury on their front pages and introduced a variety of themes that would continue to be part of the story. The Evening Telegram situated the case in the middle of the debate about women and jury service. Municipal Court Judge George Tazwell, Deputy City Attorney John Cahalin and defense attorney Will Farrell met and agreed to "waive any legal bar to the use of women as jurors" in the case of Marcelle Bortelle "charged with vagrancy." It would be the first all-female jury, a point not lost on the participants. The question was a disputed one "among attorneys," the Telegram story noted, "as some assert that the enfranchisement of women at the recent general election modifies the state constitution, and consequently the code which is based on the constitution, while others assert that an amendment to the code must be made before women can be eligible to serve." This report also indicated that the court suffered from a "scarcity of male jurors in recent trials" (a theme that will continue in this story as well).

"First Oregon Jury of Women to Try Woman," Portland Evening Telegram, November 30, 1912, 1.

The Oregon Journal report echoed the news that the case would feature the first "complete jury" of women in the state but added important new details. Marcelle Bartell (or, as the Journal noted, "a woman giving the name of Marcelle Bartell") was charged with "conducting a house of ill repute at Fourth and Burnside streets." Police had her "place under surveillance for several days" and then raided it, arresting the "Bartell woman" that Thursday evening.


These new details suggested that "good" women of Portland, performing their civic duty, would be called to judge a "bad" woman who ran a house of prostitution. Were all of these women "peers" because of their gender? Could women better judge other women? Might they be more harsh than male jurors in judging a madame? Would "good" women be sullied by the details of illicit sex that would come up in the trial-- something that opponents of women's civic equality charged would be the downfall of womanhood, morality, and civilization? Participants and reporters would magnify these themes in the coming days.


The Journal story also noted that "speculation around the municipal court circles as to the outcome is now made; even men are offering to bet on the outcome."

"Woman Jury Will be Used in Trying Case in Municipal Court," Oregon Journal, November 30, 1912, 1.

Who would be subpoenaed? How would the trial evolve? Come back for the next installment.