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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2015)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015 Meet strong pioneer women of the West W hat do Jason Lee, John McLoughlin, Marcus Whitman, Mother Joseph, Esther Hobart Morris and Chief Washakie have in common? The three states where I’ve spent my life commemorate these six in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. Few of us in Oregon, Washington and Wyoming will have any idea who they were. The very concept of designating of- ¿FLDO KHURHV DQG KRQRULQJ WKHP ZLWK bronze and marble statues in an over- decorated East Coast room is obsolete in our age of rap stars and money wor- ship. But who would 3DFL¿F 1RUWKZHVW residents select to- day? Matt Groening and Phil Knight? Bill Matt Gates and Gypsy Winters Rose Lee? Dick Cheney and Harrison Ford? It’d be in- triguing to put a slate of possibilities up for a vote. (Each state gets to supply two statues, and they do trade them out from time to time.) Controversial as it would be to pick fresh winners of the Hero Sweepstakes, new ones might be at least marginally relevant to nonhistorians. When was Jason Lee — an early 19th century Canadian missionary who settled for a time near Salem — last mentioned out- side the four Oregon and Washington elementary and middle schools named for him? Only nine women are honored in Statuary Hall, so Washington and Wyoming can be proud to buck gender bias — along with Montana, Nevada, Colorado and North Dakota. Outside the West, only Minnesota and Alabama honor women. It’s tempting to speculate why the West places a premium on female role models. (Public Television newswom- an Charlayne Hunter-Gault used to in- vite groans at her high-minded sincerity by calling such women “sheroes.”) Is it because in thinly populated pioneer times we needed women and men to both be active participants in all mat- ters? Did the harsh conditions of that era call forth heroism of one kind or an- other from everyone? Or did the thrill of Western settlement simply attract women who were tough and in charge of themselves? D espite its reputation today as the mountain stronghold of relent- OHVVO\ ULJKWZLQJ ¿UHEUDQGV:\RPLQJ once was a semi-progressive place. Its motto is “Equal Rights.” It was the ¿UVWJRYHUQPHQWHQWLW\LQWKHZRUOGWR recognize women’s right to vote. Esther +REDUW0RUULVZDVWKH¿UVWIHPDOHMXV- tice of the peace in the U.S. in 1870, serving in South Pass City, where my family owned one of our several pictur- esque but no-account gold mines. Matt Winters collection LEFT: This is the only known photo of Mary Elswick, the first white woman to run a shell- fish business in Olympia, Wash. ABOVE: A shellfish-processing crew — possibly Chi- nese-American — pauses for a photo in about 1895 in front of the Elswick oyster plant on the Olympia, Wash., waterfront. This structure can also be glimpsed behind the Elswick residence in the accompanying photo on this page. Matt Winters collection The Olympia Oyster House on West 4th Street in Olympia, Wash., was operated in the 1890s and early 20th century by Mary and Joseph Elswick. The photo is by early female Western photographer Ida B. Smith. ,Q IRXUWK RU ¿IWK JUDGH ZH VSHQW D few classroom weeks on state history, learning the probably apocryphal story of how Hobart Morris hosted an 1869 tea party to politely strong-arm candi- GDWHV IRU WKH ¿UVW WHUULWRULDO OHJLVODWXUH into supporting women’s suffrage. ,Q UHDOLW\ WKH GHFLVLRQ ÀRZHG IURP a complex set of motives. (See tinyurl. com/mqkcc7b.) maker purportedly said, “if you are going to let the n----rs and the pigtails [the Chinese] vote, we will ring in the women, too.” W ashington Territory was unsuc- cessful in an 1854 effort to give women the vote, but females neverthe- OHVVZHQWRQWRSOD\PDMRUUROHVLQWHU- ritorial enterprises. Two more recently came to my attention. Did the thrill of Western settlement simply attract women who were tough? For one thing, Wyoming had six adult white men for every white wom- an and wanted to attract more. For an- other, in the anxious post-Civil War era, Wyoming Territory’s governor was a Republican appointed by U.S. Grant, while legislators were southern-sym- pathizing Democrats. The two sides were intent on embarrassing one an- other and winning political advantages. Democratic legislators thought grateful women would vote Democrat, coun- terbalancing African- and Chinese- Americans who were being encouraged to vote by the Republicans. “Damn it,” an unnamed Democratic law- 35 to 40 cents a gallon,” according to the March 1906 edition of PDFL¿F FLVKHUPDQ magazine. “She has been interested in the oyster business for ten or twelve years ... During the year of 1902 Mrs. Elswick shipped as far east as Illinois and some- times even to New York.” A photograph of the Elswicks recent- ly turned up — in an Arkansas auction of all places — along with the oyster house, residence and a separate image RIWKHLUVKHOO¿VKSURFHVVLQJEXLOGLQJRQ the waterfront behind the house. Both were taken by pioneer photographer Ida B. Smith, whose 1890s studio must KDYHEHHQDPRQJWKH:HVW¶V¿UVWRSHU- ated by a woman. Perhaps because she felt herself to be something of an outsider, Smith seems to have made an effort to document Chinese-Americans in a time when the KKK and labor groups were exhibiting tremendous antagonism toward them. The Elswick processing-plant photo includes what appears to be a Chinese crew, while the Washington State Historical Society has in its collection a wonderful formal portrait taken by her of the Jim Ah Toone and Nettie Chiang James family. We ought to do more to recognize early Western female leaders like Mary Elswick and Ida Smith. Thinking of all the strong, fantastic women in my life — the products of natural selection — I’m sure their great-great-grandmothers also were individuals I would absolute- ly love to have known. Mary Elswick was the state’s ¿UVW ZKLWH ZRPDQ WR OHDG D VKHOO¿VK business. Initially with her husband -RH VKH VHW XS WKH ¿UVW RI WKH FLW\ RI Olympia’s still-thriving oyster oper- ations, probably by 1894. Joe is de- scribed as a brakeman, age 46, in the 1892 Thurston County Census and Mary, 36, is listed without occupa- tion in that year. But in the 1902-03 Olympia city directory, Joe is iden- WL¿HG DV SURSULHWRU RI WKH 2O\PSLD Oyster House at 420 West 4th, living — M.S.W. next door at 416 West 4th. &KLQRRN OEVHUYHU DQG &RDVW RLYHU %XVL- “Mrs. Mary Elswick makes a special- QHVV -RXUQDO HGLWRU MDWW WLQWHUV OLYHV LQ ty of the open clams, which sell at from IOZDFR, WDVK., ZLWK KLV ZLIH DQG GDXJKWHU. Open forum Taking over docks I t has come to not only my atten- tion, but also Astoria residents, that the sea lions have completely taken over the nearby docks and drastically put an decrease on our ¿VK %LRORJLVWV VD\ WKH\¶OO VWD\ JRUJLQJ RQ WKH ¿VK DQG ZLOO OLNHO\ continue to feast when the chinook salmon arrive in the spring. This is a huge problem that has been going on for four years and is only getting worse. I feel that we QHHG WR ¿JXUH RXW D VROXWLRQ WR GH- crease the sea lion problem — may- be not completely, but at least to where the docks are safe to properly XVH DJDLQ DQG RXU ¿VK SRSXODWLRQ starts to increase. The section of the docks the sea lions have taken over used to be able to hold a lot of boats, but now no- body can get down there to use it. PXQH*02RUJHQHWLFDOO\PRGL¿HG offspring. By submitting to the pro- cedure, couples are soon to be capa- ble of having babies that will grow up totally defended from disease. Mansatan retains propriety over the GMOs by virtue of their patents; and couples may not propagate (sow the seed, as it were) without permis- sion from the company. Of course, if you want to have babies you may have to agree (and be held legally ac- countable) to raise your children by company directives; those children will not be able to cross town and GMO concerns FRQFHLYHNLGVRIWKHLURZQZLWKMXVW KDGWRZULWHDQGWHOO\RX²,MXVW anyone, because their “seed” (sperm returned from an amazing trip into and/or egg) is the company’s prop- the future. The world had conquered erty. But no one gets sick. Such a god- diseases we now think may never be curable. That was (will be) thanks to send as this has totally won over an amazing company called Man- the population of Earth, and no one satan, which develops a totally im- FRQWLQXHV WR REMHFW VDYH IRU D IHZ Not only have the sea lions overpop- ulated the docks, but they have been destroying them. They have already destroyed one nearby dock that is QRZMXVWSLOLQJVLQWKHZDWHU Port operations managers have said sea lions cost them $35,000 dol- lars a year. This problem needs to be stopped now, before people start los- LQJ WKHLU ¿VKLQJ MREV DQG DOO RI RXU GRFNVDUHMXVWSLOLQJVLQWKHZDWHU AMBER JONES Astoria I T HE D AILY A STORIAN Founded in 1873 humans who are ignorant of, or in denial of, the science and history of sickness and the medicine. OK, I made it up, I never went to the future. But the story can stand on its own in the context of the recent editorial about Monsan- to (“Monsanto is sorry, but decades late,” TKH DDLO\ AVWRULDQ, April 2). I will add that writer has said that JHQHWLFDOO\PRGL¿HGRUJDQLVPFULW- LFV KDYH QR VFLHQWL¿F HYLGHQFH RI GMO health complications, as if the concerns about restructuring the ZD\KXPDQLW\JURZVIRRGZDVMXVW a triviality. The writer also says these remark- able GMOs may be the only way to grow enough food for the earth’s population. Yet, on these very pages, an editorial told me that the cause of starvation on our planet is not due to our inability to grow enough food, but because of poverty. Millions of people cannot afford, or don’t have access to food because of econom- ics, infrastructure, politics, etc. I, for one, don’t believe that Monsanto’s “solution” to food pro- duction has earned them the right to encroach upon the whole eco- system of farming, and even eating. 6R0RQVDQWRGLG³DQH[FHOOHQWMRE in marketing”, and “applied equally impressive innovation to its business practices”; and their “critics ... wield powerful emotional arguments that aren’t backed by science.” But there are other concerns here WKDQMXVWZKDWJRHVRQLQP\VWRP- ach. From someone still trying to be- lieve in feeding humanity without turning it over to Monsanto ... MIKE TUELL Long Beach, Wash. STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager • CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager • DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager