A4
THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, AuguST 1, 2020
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
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Circulation Manager
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Production Manager
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Systems Manager
GUEST COLUMN
The local fight for women’s suffrage
newspaper focused on socialism.
The Equal Suffrage Amendment,
which removed the word “male” from
the voting privileges outlined in the Ore-
gon Constitution, finally passed on Nov.
5, 1912, after receiving 52% of the male
vote.
While this amendment extended the
vote to the majority of Oregon women, it
did not guarantee the right to vote for all
Oregon women. People excluded from the
full rights of citizenship based upon their
race or country of origin were not allowed
to vote. This included women who had
migrated from Asia and Native American
women, except those who were married
to white men.
I
n celebration of the 100th anniversary
of the ratification of the 19th Amend-
ment to the U.S. Constitution, it is
important to look at the role of Clatsop
County in securing this right.
When Oregon ratified the 19th Amend-
ment granting women suffrage — or the
right to vote — on Jan. 12, 1920, Oregon
women had already been voting in local
and state elections for more than seven
years.
The efforts of Oregon women to
secure their right to vote spanned decades
and would include the issue being placed
on the ballot a record six times, more than
any other state — in 1884, 1900, 1906,
1908, 1910, and finally with the passage
of the Oregon Equal Suffrage Amend-
ment, in November 1912.
Locally, the Clatsop County Equal
Rights Association organized in May
1874. From the beginning, both men and
women would take prominent roles in
the organization. Early Astoria pioneer,
Col. James Taylor, was appointed as the
group’s first president, and proprietress of
a local millinery shop, Hannah M. Morri-
son, was elected vice president.
Early suffrage efforts in Clatsop
County were further boosted by the
friendship between Dewitt Clinton Ire-
land and Abigail Scott Duniway. Ireland
was editor of the local paper, The Weekly
Astorian. At the same time, Duniway was
a leading Oregon suffragist whose own
newspaper, the New Northwest, would
become the primary voice of the suf-
frage movement throughout the state. Ire-
land began reprinting Duniway’s articles
in his paper, while also providing a favor-
able forum for the Clatsop County Equal
Rights Association.
Inez Adams Parker, along with her
husband, Wilder W. Parker, was a found-
ing member of the Clatsop County Equal
Rights Association. In the early 1930s,
Inez wrote about her husband’s role
during the 1884 election that first put the
issue of women’s suffrage before Oregon
voters.
According to Inez, “When the first
measure for women’s suffrage was sub-
mitted to the voters in Oregon, (Wilder)
was one of the three judges of election
(as they were then called), and it took
them all night to count the votes. When
he came home next morning to his break-
fast, he casually remarked to me that there
were quite a few votes for woman suf-
frage and about the same against it, but
the majority did not vote on it at all, so I
said to the other two judges, ‘Those who
failed to vote on it surely could not have
been against it, or they would have said
so; suppose then that we count all of them
for it?’ ‘All right,’ they said and the result
was that Clatsop was the only county that
gave a majority for it ... the funny thing
was the way this county plumed itself
afterward on being the most advanced and
progressive county in the state — on the
strength of that vote.”
Whether or not this occurred is unclear.
The Daily Astorian’s unofficial results
published the day after the election had
the measure defeated in the county, with
336 people voting for women’s suffrage
and 362 voting against it. The same paper
reported less than three weeks later that,
“Clatsop is the only county that gave (the
vote on women’s suffrage) a majority.”
‘No fear’
Parker’s close friend, Dr. Bethenia
Owens-Adair, played a prominent role on
both the local and state level in the strug-
gle for women’s suffrage.
In 1896, Scott Duniway, in her capac-
ity as president of the Oregon State Equal
Suffrage Association, wrote to Dr. Owens-
Adair requesting Owens-Adair’s partic-
ipation in the First Oregon Congress of
Women, which would feature the national
suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony.
Owens-Adair had met Anthony previ-
ously when, as a single mother and suc-
cessful businesswomen, Owens-Adair
had been asked to arrange part of Antho-
ny’s 1871 speaking tour. This encounter
helped embolden Owens-Adair to pursue
her interest in medicine, becoming one of
the first women in the Pacific Northwest
to earn a medical degree.
Speaking before the First Oregon Con-
gress of Women, Owens-Adair asked
those in attendance, “Is there any differ-
ence between women’s work and men’s
work? Is there anything under the sun
that muscle or mind can do that the new
woman cannot accomplish? We have no
fear that the ‘new woman’ will not find a
place in the poet’s theme, as well as in his
heart.
“She will not cease to be the ‘minis-
tering angel,’ the very inspiration of life.
Like the fine gold that comes from the
furnace, she will come forth, clothed in
all the beauty and strength of pure wom-
anhood, for she will have been cleansed
of the dross of dependence, helplessness
A first in Warrenton
Photos by Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
ABOVE: Chelsea Vaughn, the curator for the Clatsop County Historical Society, sits in
her office in the Heritage Museum. BELOW: Vaughn points out an archived postcard
supporting women’s suffrage with ‘Do not do it’ handwritten on the front.
Flavel (no middle initial). A widow at the
and prejudice of past ages. Indeed, up to
time of the letter’s publication, however,
the present time, what has man done that
she was more commonly referred to as
woman could not do or has not done?”
Mrs. Mary C. Flavel or Mrs. M. C. Flavel.
Often those who supported wom-
en’s suffrage were also in favor of tem-
The Women’s Suffrage Society of
perance, or the prohibition of alcohol,
Astoria formed in June 1905 for the pur-
pose of collecting signatures to get the
creating a common perception that if
issue of equal suffrage again on the Ore-
women received the right to vote, they
gon ballot. Of the 8,000 signatures of
would use this power to outlaw alcohol
registered voters required statewide,
consumption.
the Astoria group was assigned 300.
Depending upon one’s ideas about
This effort was successful, as the ques-
alcohol consumption, then, women’s suf-
frage was either a good or bad idea.
tion of women’s right to vote was again
In Astoria, in the late 19th cen-
put before Oregon voters in 1906. They
tury, an estimated 1,000 regular drink-
would remain an active organization
ers frequented the local saloons, consum-
through the eventual passage of the Ore-
ing 22,000 gallons of beer per month.
gon equal suffrage bill in 1912.
In a town that clearly profited from the
Throughout the long battle for voting
sale and consumption of alcohol, many
equality, notable suffragists included Clat-
sop County as part
opposed women’s
of their broader
suffrage for this
national tours,
very reason. Yet
including Clara
this connection
Bewick Colby,
between temper-
ance and suffrage
publisher of the
was not always so
nationally distrib-
uted newspaper
strong.
the Women’s Tri-
Scott Duniway
bune, and Emma
— the leading suf-
fragist in Oregon
Smith DeVoe,
— for example,
who spearheaded
refused to connect
the successful
the two move-
1910 campaign
ments for fear of
to win the right
alienating support-
to vote in Wash-
ers. At the same
ington state. Both
time, Dr. Clarence
Colby and DeVoe
True Wilson — an
visited the area in
important member
1906 ahead of that
‘IS THERE ANyTHINg
of the temperance
year’s statewide
movement —
vote on women’s
uNdER THE SuN THAT
opposed granting
suffrage.
MuSCLE OR MINd CAN
women suffrage,
Another prom-
inent suffragist,
as it would extend
dO THAT THE NEW
Maria Raunio,
the vote to, “the
WOMAN CANNOT
would make Asto-
wives, daughters
ria her home.
and sweethearts of
ACCOMPLISH?’
Raunio advo-
gamblers, saloon-
keepers and the
cated for women’s
owners of prop-
rights in her native
erty used for immoral purposes.”
Finland, including the right to vote, access
to educational opportunities and universal
A Flavel protests
health care. Finland granted women suf-
frage in 1906, becoming the third coun-
Many women, themselves, were not
try to do so after New Zealand (1893) and
interested in securing the right to vote,
Australia (1902), and the first to allow
with some actively fighting against it.
women to hold national public office.
The Oregon State Association
In 1907, Raunio was elected as a rep-
Opposed to the Extension of the Suffrage
resentative to the Finnish Parliament
to Women issued a statement of protest
as a member of the leftist Social Dem-
each time the question of women’s suf-
ocratic Party. Raunio, along with 18
frage came up for a vote.
other women, became part of the earli-
Among those signing the protest letter
est, democratically-elected national gov-
was a “Mrs. George T. Flavel, Astoria.”
erning body that allowed women full
This is most likely a reference to Win-
ona Flavel, wife of George Conrad Fla-
membership. Upon immigrating to Asto-
ria in 1911, Raunio continued her politi-
vel, as her legal name at the time would
cal activities, becoming the first editor for
have been Mrs. George C. Flavel. Wino-
na’s mother-in-law, Mary Christina Fla-
the Toveritar (The Woman Comrade) —
vel, would also have gone by Mrs. George
a nationally-distributed, Finnish-language
On Dec. 18, 1912, voters in Warrenton
chose Clara “Callie” Munson as their new
mayor over her male rival by a margin of
16 votes, making Munson the first woman
to hold elected office in Oregon following
the passage of the Equal Suffrage Amend-
ment the previous month.
The state newspaper noted that her
election, “establishes a precedent for
equal suffrage states, as it is but a little
more than a month that women have had
the ballot in Oregon.”
Of the 65 people who voted in this
election, approximately one-third were
women, though, importantly, not all of
the women who voted did so for Mun-
son. Some women actually voted against
her because of her gender, believing
it improper for women to hold elected
office. This was Warrenton’s second spe-
cial election since the passage of the
equal suffrage law. During the first special
election, Munson’s 71-year-old mother,
Sophia Munson, became the first woman
to vote legally in Clatsop County and one
of the first women to vote in the state.
In 1982, Astoria elected Edith Hen-
ningsgaard (later Henningsgaard-Miller)
as the city’s first female mayor.
Much of Henningsgaard’s appeal,
and actual efforts, centered on her inter-
est in revitalizing Astoria’s historic dis-
tricts and courting tourism as a new mon-
etary source for the town. This involved
creating a plan to reimagine the use of
Astoria’s riverfront properties, eventually
creating the riverwalk district, and begin-
ning efforts to restore the then-60-year-
old Astoria Column, with Henningsgaard
serving as a founding member of the
Friends of the Astoria Column.
Henningsgaard’s successes would aid
other women in their ventures into local
politics, culminating in the first-ever
female majority on Astoria’s City Council
in 2014 with the election of longtime city
councilor Arline LaMear as the city’s sec-
ond female mayor, alongside councilors
Zetty Nemlowill and Cindy Price.
In 1986, Janet Stevenson became the
last mayor of Hammond before the small
town at the mouth of the Columbia River
was absorbed into nearby Warrenton in
1991. Stevenson had a significant political
and literary career before taking on may-
oral duties.
In Clatsop County, she served as a
founding member of the North Coast
Women’s Political Caucus — the local
chapter of the National Women’s Polit-
ical Caucus that was formed by such
iconic women as Gloria Steinem, Shirley
Chisholm and Bella Abzug. Stevens was
also a noted playwright and novelist. Her
last novel, “The Slope,” offered a fiction-
alized accounting of Owens-Adair’s time
living and practicing medicine in Clatsop
Plains.
On the state level, local business-
woman Mary Strong Kinney became, in
1920, one of the first women elected to
serve in the Oregon State Legislature. Her
prior political experience included serving
as the president of the Women’s Suffrage
Society of Astoria during the lead-up to
the 1912 passage of the Equal Suffrage
Amendment.
Kinney proved so successful as a legis-
lator that voters in Clatsop County elected
her to represent them in the state Senate in
1922, where she served during the 1923
and 1925 sessions. After Kinney, it would
be 65 years before area residents selected
another woman to represent them on the
state level.
In 1990, voters sent Jackie Taylor —
an Astoria resident and member of the
Citizen Potawatomi Nation — to Salem,
where she would spend a decade serving
as a state representative.
Since Taylor’s election, Clatsop
County voters have overwhelmingly
voted for female candidates, including
Joan Dukes and Betsy Johnson to the
state Senate and Elaine Hopson, Deborah
Boone and Tiffiny Mitchell to the state
House.
Chelsea Vaughn is curator at the Clat-
sop County Historical Society. This article
originally appeared in Cumtux, the soci-
ety’s quarterly journal.