Esther Lovejoy Votes for Herself 1920

Esther Lovejoy's 1920 candidacy for the Oregon Third District for the U.S. House of Representatives pitted her against Republican incumbent C.N. McArthur. McArthur and his supporters accused Lovejoy of being a "Bolshevik" and a "Radical."
Lovejoy worked to build a coalition of labor, progressive, and prohibition supporters. And the Oregon Journal, on election day, November 2, 1920, printed a page one photo of Lovejoy voting (presumably for herself). Note that the photo presents this vital civic practice of voting in the hands of women as first, an election judge, and then a woman as candidate and voter.

La Residence Sociale and Marie-Jeanne Bassot

Almost one hundred years since Esther Lovejoy first began her work with Marie-Jeanne Bassot at the Residence Sociale in the Levallois-Perret district northwest of Paris their work lives on and has shaped the community. Lovejoy, U.S. donors (including members of the Portland Woman's Club) and the American Women's Hospitals (which Lovejoy directed) provided funds for post-war expansion and renovation of the center.
Today La Residence Sociale hosts a day care center for children and other children's social services.

In her House of the Good Neighbor (New York: MacMillan, 1919) facing p. 19 Esther Lovejoy published an image of the playground behind La Residence (Marie-Jeanne Bassot is to the right of the tree):

Today, with upgrades, La Residence continues to provide play space:

To honor her work, Paris named the nearby square Place Marie-Jeanne Bassot and today it is a bustling center of shops, restaurants and offices.

On the map below Place Marie-Jean Bassot is at the bottom, just above Rue Baudin. L'Avenue de l-Europe leads to Place Georges Pompidou and to the Quai Michelet on the Seine River.

Esther Lovejoy's Paris Settlement House, La Residence Sociale, Still Going Strong, and Esther Lovejoy's Christmas Eve 1917

During her wartime service in France in 1917-1918 Esther Lovejoy lived and worked at a settlement house, La Residence Sociale, in a working-class factory district of Paris. Settlement houses were reformers' solution to early twentieth century urban problems -- an oasis of social services in the midst of inner city needs.
The best known U.S. settlement house was Chicago's Hull House, directed by Jane Addams joined by a host of reformers. Addams famously outlined two roles for social settlement houses -- the "objective value" providing services to urban residents in need, and the "subjective value" to settlement house workers themselves who were forging new careers in social service, often women who carved out new opportunities.
Esther Lovejoy worked with Marie-Jeanne Bassot, the Parisian Jane Addams, and experienced both the objective and subjective sides of its service. After her return to the States she continued to support and raise funds for the Residence Sociale and was a frequent visitor. Lovejoy and Bassot maintained a strong friendship and worked as colleagues in social reform.
In association with conference travel this month I had the incredible good fortune to visit the Residence Sociale.

La Residence Sociale is still in use today -- more in the next post about its work and the neighborhood honoring Marie Bassot.
For today, let me share part of what Esther Lovejoy wrote about her Christmas Eve of 1917 at La Residence Sociale, from her House of the Good Neighbor (MacMillan, 1919), a book about her experiences in France during the First World War.
Lovejoy had bronchitis and sciatica and came from a military camp to La Residence Sociale on Christmas Eve to recuperate. The only person there was the cook, Madam Fleuret.
"The room was lighted by a solitary candle supplemented by a reluctant fire in the grate and the feeble flames made wavering, fantastic shadows on the wall. My storm coat was hanging on the hat-rack in the corner. It was surmounted by a German helmet showing a bullet-hole, which the American boy who gave me the helmet said was made by an American bullet . . . [Madame Fleuret left] me alone with that German ghost . . . As the fire burned lower his features seemed dimly outlined. He did not look like a Hun. There was nothing about him to suggest Bismark or Von Hindenburg. I had seen so many boys in the War Zone that boys were on my mind and heart. Perhaps that is why he looked so young, so like an innocent boy protesting against a cruel fate that had marked him for this sacrifice. He was dead -- cut off in his youth when he had just tasted life and found it sweet, and somewhere, beyond the Rhine, this Noel night was bleak and blank to his mother. No he was not a Hun. He was just a boy, an average type of the uncounted millions of the boys of different nations that had died in that same zone during the succeeding ages of war. . . there in the corner stood War--not the martial figure of Mars as it is usually depicted, but a fair young boy cut off in his youth when life was very sweet." (Lovejoy, House of the Good Neighbor, 214-18).
Lovejoy worked for the next fifty years to provide medical humanitarian relief. This was a result of her belief, forged in the war, that social justice and international health -- not war, poverty and disfranchisement -- were the only possible paths to take.
May all of us take action along this same path to peace, social justice and health as we end 2010 and enter 2011.

First Absentee Ballots in 1920 Election in Oregon

The 1920 campaign was the first in Oregon to provide for absentee ballots.
Certainly this was a postwar measure to provide an opportunity for service personnel to vote. The 1919 statute also provided absentee status for students, "any officer or employee of the United States or of this state" and "commercial travelers."
This article from the Oregon Journal, October 25, 1920, 2, indicates that 42 people had applied for an absentee ballot; by election day this had swelled to over 100.
Portland city ordinances provided for voting machines in 1919 but it does not seem that they were a feature of this election.

Esther Lovejoy's 1920 Congressional Campaign and the Fred Lockley Bump

For her 1920 campaign for U.S. Congress from Oregon's Third District Esther Lovejoy drew on the vital lessons she and other woman suffrage activists had learned about the importance of the media and mass campaigning. That fall her campaign received an important publicity bump from journalist and author Fred Lockley.

Lockley's Oregon Journal column “Observations and Impressions of the Journal Man” was a combination of interviews with famous and not-so-famous Oregonians, book reviews, and visits to interesting Oregon places. Lockley featured Lovejoy in his column five times during the general election season. Across these columns Lockley reviewed the House of the Good Neighbor (using the review copy that a media-savvy Lovejoy had sent to him) and with the congressional campaign in mind emphasized her father’s populist politics against the lumber interests in Seabeck. Another installment recounted her struggles as a department store clerk to work her way through the University of Oregon Medical Department and to gain an education under challenging economic circumstances. Lockley also featured her public health activism in Alaska and with the Portland city health department, recounting the story of her son Freddie's death from what she considered tubercular milk and her pure milk crusade. He also wrote a final column on her recent wartime work in France. All contributed to a narrative of Lovejoy's strength, perseverance, experience and competence for office as a people's candidate who had risen from challenging circumstances and would not forget it.

Lockley was conscious of the power of his column and had good insights into Lovejoy's life and work. In the September 25, 1920 installment he wrote: "'Who's Who' doesn't ask how much money you have, but what you have done. It recognizes the aristocracy of intellect rather than of mere money. If you will look in the 1920 edition of 'Who's Who' you will find a brief record of the accomplishments of Dr. Esther Pohl Lovejoy of Portland. Dr. Lovejoy is anxious to have in the next edition an added paragraph to the effect that she is the first woman ever sent to Washington to represent Oregon in Congress. No one has ever accused Dr. Lovejoy of lack of ambition of or loafing on the job. . . ." Such characteristics would make her a good member of congress.

Susan Badger Doyle has a great entry on Lockley in the Oregon Encyclopedia with information on his life and publications, including posthumous collections from his column.

In our own day we are familiar with the Stephen Colbert bump for books, music, organizations and projects. Historians of Oregon medicine know and appreciate the Sara Piasecki bump. Fred Lockley's "Observations and Impressions of the Journal Man" functioned in the same way in early twentieth century Oregon.

Fred Lockley, “Observations and Impressions of the Journal Man,” Oregon Journal  August 8, 1920, 2:2; September 19, 1920, 4:4; September 22, 1920, 6; September 25, 1920, 6; September 27, 1920, 6.

Oregon Women Candidates for Statewide Office 1914-1920 (Including Esther Pohl Lovejoy)

Thanks to dedicated archivists and librarians at the Oregon State Library and Oregon State Archives, we can now use the lists of state office campaign expenditures to track women candidates.
This week I'm honored to be making a presentation to the Mary Leonard Law Society, the Marion County chapter of Oregon Women Lawyers on early women candidates and office holding before and after the achievement of suffrage.
So, from the campaign expenditure reports, here is the list of women candidates who ran for state offices from 1914-1920 -- from the first state election after the achievement of full voting rights in Oregon to 1920, when Esther Pohl Lovejoy made her bid for U.S. Congress from Oregon's Third District.
Two, Manche Langley and Celia Gavin, were lawyers and Marian Towne studied law for a term. Cora Talbot and Esther Lovejoy were both physicians. Socialist, Progressive Party and Prohibition candidates joined Republicans and Democrats in this Progressive Era election period.
Not many achieved victory. But locating them is an important step to understanding the full range of women's efforts to exercise the full range of citizenship rights through office holding.
This list does not include the many, many local races that will yield more important perspectives in this broad field of study.
But for now, here are the women who ran for state office in Oregon from 1914-1920:

1914

Primary Election May 15, 1914

For Representative, Eighth Representative District

Marian B. Towne, Jackson County, Democratic

For Representative, Eighteenth Representative District

Cora C. Talbott, Multnomah County, Democratic

Mrs. L. (Lizzie) Gee, Multnomah County, Progressive

Maria L. T. Hidden, Multnomah County, Progressive

Lora Cornelia Little, Multnomah County, Progressive

General Election, November 3, 1914

                                                 

For Superintendent of Public Instruction

Flora I. Foreman, Columbia County, Socialist

For Representative, First Representative District

Mrs. Fannie M. Penn, Marion County, Independent

Mrs. Z. A. (Zanana) Rosebraugh, Marion County, Independent

For Representative, Eighth Representative District

Marian B. Towne, Jackson County, Democratic-Progressive -- Elected

For Representative, Eighteenth Representative District

Cora C. Talbott, Multnomah County, Democratic

Mrs. L. (Lizzie) Gee, Multnomah County, Progressive

Maria L. T. Hidden, Multnomah County, Progressive

Lora Cornelia Little, Multnomah County, Progressive

Lucia Faxton Addition, Multnomah County, Prohibition

Mrs. Mary L. Mallett, Multnomah County, Prohibition

Sadie Althouse, Multnomah County, Socialist

(Note: Kathryn Clarke, Douglas County, Republican won a special election in January 1915 for Senator, Fifth Senatorial District)

1916

Primary Election May 19, 1916

For Delegates to National Conventions – State at Large

Bertha Mason (Mrs. G.L.) Buland, Multnomah County, Republican

Helen I. Tomlinson, Multnomah County, Democratic

For Representative, First Representative District

Mrs. Alice H. Page, Marion County, Republican

Mrs. Hattie Cameron, Marion County, Democratic

Mrs. W. A. Chapman, Marion County, Democratic

For Representative, Eighth Representative District

Marian B. Towne, Jackson County, Democratic

For Representative, Eleventh Representative District

Mrs. Ella J. Metzger, Polk County, Republican

For Representative, Fifteenth Representative District

Manche Langley, Washington County, Democratic

For Representative, Eighteenth Representative District

Mrs. Maria L. T. Hidden, Democratic

Mrs. June Nissen, Multnomah County, Democratic

Mattie M. Sleeth, Multnomah County, Democratic

For Representative, Twenty-ninth Representative District

Sylvia McGuire (Mrs. Alexander) Thompson, Wasco County (party not listed here)

General Election, November 7, 1916

For Electors of President and Vice-President

M. Frances Swope, Multnomah County, Prohibition

Selma J. McCone, Multnomah County, Socialist

For Representative, First Representative District

Mrs. Hattie Cameron, Marion County, Democratic

Mrs. W. A. Chapman, Marion County, Democratic

For Representative, Eighth Representative District

Marian B. Towne, Jackson County, Democratic

For Representative, Fifteenth Representative District

Manche I. Langley, Washington County, Democratic

For Representative, Eighteenth Representative District

Mrs. Maria L. T. Hidden, Democratic

Mattie M. Sleeth, Multnomah County, Democratic-Prohibition

Mary L. Mallett, Multnomah County, Prohibition

Katherine Brandes, Multnomah County, Socialist

Ina Coleman, Multnomah County, Socialist

For Representative, Twenty-fourth Representative District

Bessie Baird, Wallowa County, Socialist

For Representative, Twenty-ninth Representative District

Mrs. Alexander Thompson, Wasco County, Democratic--Elected

1918

Primary Election, May 17, 1918

For Representative in Congress, Third District

Maria L.T. Hidden, Multnomah County, Democratic

For Representative, Eighteenth Representative District

Mrs. Alice McNaught, Multnomah County, Democratic

For Representative, Twenty-third Representative District

Ella Terpening, Umatilla County, Democratic

For Representative, Twenty-ninth Representative District

Mrs. Alexander Thompson, Wasco County, Democratic--Elected

General Election, November 5, 1918

For United States Senator in Congress, To fill vacancy in term ending March 4, 1919

Martha E. Bean, Malheur County, Socialist

For State Treasurer

Pauline Sears, Malheur County, Socialist

For Superintendent of Public Instruction

Inez Augusta Lusk, Coos County, Socialist

For Representative, Eighteenth Representative District

Alice M. McNaught, Multnomah County, Democratic

Maria L.T. Hidden, Multnomah County, Prohibition

Ada Wallace Unruh, Multnomah County, Prohibition-National

Emma Wold, Multnomah County, National

Alvina Hagen, Multnomah County, Socialist

Julia Jackson, Multnomah County, Socialist

For Representative, Twenty-third Representative District

Ella Terpening, Umatilla County, Democratic

For Representative, Twenty-ninth Representative District

Mrs. Alexander Thompson, Wasco County, Democratic -- Elected

1920

Primary Election, May 21, 1920

For Delegate to the National Convention – State at Large:

Maria L.T. Hidden, Multnomah County, Democratic -- Elected

For Delegate to the National Convention, Third Congressional District

Ethel (Mrs. F.O.) Northrup, Multnomah County, Republican -- Elected

Alice M. McNaught, Multnomah County, Democratic

Bessie M. Richards, Multnomah County, Democratic -- Elected

For Electors of President and Vice-President of the United States

Harriet C. Hendee, Multnomah County, Republican

Celia Gavin, Wasco County, Democratic

For Representative in Congress, Third District

Esther Lovejoy, Multnomah County, Democrat

Mrs. Alexander Thompson, Multnomah County, Democrat

For Commissioner of the Public Service Commission of Oregon, District Composed of the Counties Lying East of the Cascade Mountains

Rhea Luper, Morrow County, Republican

For Representative, Nineteenth Representative District

Mary Strong (Mrs. William S.) Kinney, Clatsop County, Republican

For Representative, Twenty-sixth Representative District

Kathleen W. Kivett, Baker County, Republican

General Election November 2, 1920

For Presidential Electors

Mary H. Jewitt, Lane County, Prohibition

For Representative in Congress, Third District

Esther Pohl Lovejoy, Multnomah County, Democratic-Prohibition

For State Senator, Twelfth Senatorial District

Emma Rayner, Clackamas County, Socialist

For Representative, Nineteenth Representative District

Mary Strong (Mrs. William S.) Kinney, Clatsop County, Republican -- Elected

Oregon Secretary of State, Biennial Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Oregon to the Twenty-Eighth Legislative Assembly, Regular Session, 1915, for the Biennial Period Beginning October 1, 1912, Ending September 30, 1914 (Salem: State Printer, 1915), 89-102; Oregon Secretary of State, Biennial Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Oregon to the Twenty-Ninth Legislative Assembly, Regular Session, 1917, for the Biennial Period Beginning October 1, 1914, Ending September 30, 1916 (Salem: State Printer, 1917), 107-126; Oregon Secretary of State, Biennial Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Oregon to the Thirtieth Legislative Assembly, Regular Session, 1919, For the Biennial Period Beginning October 1, 1916, Ending September 30, 1918 (Salem: State Printer, 1919), 68-79; Oregon Secretary of State, Biennial Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Oregon to the Thirty-first Legislative Assembly, Regular Session, 1921, For the Biennial Period Beginning October 1, 1918, Ending September 30, 1920 (Salem: State Printer, 1921), 82-98.

Oregon Woman Suffrage Centennial (1912-2012) Gets the Baton

Just back from a successful and consequential conference in Spokane, Game Changers and History Makers: Women in Pacific Northwest History, with thanks to organizer Shanna Stevenson.
Today, more history is being made. Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown will accept the "baton" (actually a banner, it seems) from the Washington Women's History Consortium as they conclude their official suffrage centennial commemoration (1910-2010) in Olympia on what they are calling the "Day of Jubilation."

I'm not able to join them today, but I'm cheering on Jan Dilg, Project Director of Century of Action: Oregon Women Vote 1912-2012, Eliza Canty-Jones, Editor of the Oregon Historical Quarterly, Mary Beth Herkert, Oregon State Archivist, Secretary of State Brown, and Andrea Cantu-Schomus, Secretary of State Director of Communications. They represent Oregon on this historic day of action.
Follow and join Oregon's planning at the Century of Action website.