Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West

Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West brings us the real women who homesteaded, worked the ranches, built the cities, ran the businesses, brought art to the frontier, founded the institutions, preserved human history and natural wonders, fought against racial and gender discrimination, and advanced the cause of equality for women. The women of this book exhibited “can-do, forthright frontier spunk;” some were quiet, others were strident. They were nonviolent but definitely militant. Their stories are powerful, exciting, and inspiring, all the more for being the unsung heroines who carved a life out of a vast region and forged a society where strong, intelligent, capable women stood up to forces of nature and political opposition and conquered most obstacles.

off th theRocky Mountain West

Regional History Series

Once you’ve read the stories of Virginia Donaghe McClurg, Dr. Caroline Spencer, Mother Superior Praxedes, Helen Hunt Jackson, Marie Guiraud, or Gretchen McRae, you’ll never have to stretch your memory to remember those namby-pamby Hollywood creations again. You’ll have new heroes that will always remain with you. —Lindy Conter Co-chair of the Board of Directors (2004-2009) Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame

Extraordinary Women

As a Chicago child of the first Television Generation, my heroes were from the Wild West. Precious few of them were women, however, because the screens were filled with men in chaps rather than the ladies who MUST have been there at their sides. Annie Oakley, Miss Kitty, Sky King’s niece, Penny, and Dale Evans— not the most powerful females to influence a youngster’s choice of role models.

ISBN 978-1-56735-255-9 90000 >

Regional History Series 9 781567 352559

Extraordinary Women of the

Rocky Mountain West

Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West

Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium Sponsored by Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District Pikes Peak Library District Foundation Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District Ent Federal Credit Union &

In Partnership With Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame McAllister House Museum Pikes Peak Community College Western Museum of Mining and Industry Zebulon Pike Chapter, NSDAR Project Director Chris Nicholl Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium Committee Chris Nicholl, Co-Chair Calvin P. Otto, Co-Chair Steve Antonuccio Tim Blevins David Carroll Dennis Daily Beverly Diehl Dolores Fowler Barbara Gately Lynn A. Gilfillan-Morton Dianne Hartshorn

Carol Kennis Ingrid McDonald Michael Olsen Judith Rice-Jones Mary Elizabeth Ruwell Kathy Sturdevant Nancy Thaler Dee Vazquez Amy Ziegler

Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West

Edited by Tim Blevins, Dennis Daily, Chris Nicholl, Calvin P. Otto & Katherine Scott Sturdevant Published by

with the

Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West © 2010 Pikes Peak Library District. All rights reserved. First edition. Printed in the United States. This publication was made possible by private funds. Interpretation of events and conclusions are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD), PPLD Board of Trustees, or PPLD employees.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data Extraordinary women of the Rocky Mountain West / edited by Tim Blevins, Dennis Daily, Chris Nicholl, Calvin P. Otto & Katherine Scott Sturdevant.1st ed. p. cm. (Regional history series) Includes bibliographical references and index. LCCN 2009938643 ISBN 978-1-56735-255-9 1. Women -- West (U.S.) -- Biography. 2. Women -- Rocky Mountains -- Biography. 3. Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History. 4. Women’s rights -- United States -- History. 5. Civil rights movements -- United States -- History -- 20th century. I. Blevins, Tim II. Daily, Dennis III. Nicholl, Chris IV. Series. F591 .E98 2009 920.720978 -dc22

Regional History Series Currently In Print The Colorado Labor Wars: Cripple Creek 1903–1904, A Centennial Commemoration “To Spare No Pains”: Zebulon Montgomery Pike & His 1806–1807 Southwest Expedition Doctor at Timberline: True Tales, Travails, & Triumphs of a Pioneer Colorado Physician Legends, Labors & Loves: William Jackson Palmer, 1836–1909

Forthcoming Lightning in His Hand: The Life Story of Nikola Tesla Doctors, Disease & Dying in the Pikes Peak Region Rush to the Rockies: The 1859 Pikes Peak or Bust Gold Rush El Paso County Inventors & Their 19th Century Patents

For purchasing information, contact: Clausen Books 2131 North Weber Street Colorado Springs, Colorado 80907 tel: (719) 471-5884, toll free: (888)-412-7717 http://www.clausenbooks.com

Acknowledgments Thank you to the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame (CWHF) for enthusiastically partnering with the Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) for this special publication. Recognizing that many of the women whose stories are told in these pages are also inductees into the Hall of Fame, it became clear that this was a natural partnership. Lindy Conter, co-chair of the CWHF Board, served as liaison, adviser, and reviewer for this publication. We are appreciative of her leadership in facilitating a great relationship with the CWHF, of her patient participation in our publishing process, and of her feedback resulting in a quality book. Colorado Humanities (CH) consistently provides support for our annual Regional History Symposia and the resulting books. We are grateful to the CH Board of Directors, Executive Director Margaret (Maggie) A. Coval, Director of Programs and Center for the Book Josephine Jones, and the entire CH staff for their collaboration and encouragement. Katherine Scott Sturdevant deserves double thanks for pulling duty as a contributor to the book and for providing professional expertise and editing. Kathy is included among the most admired regional historians and favorite college history professors—we are fortunate to have her assistance and appreciate her superior efforts. We offer our thanks to the authors of these chapters who spent months, and even years, in pursuing the research and writing about “their women.” Our appreciation to the Tutt family for allowing us to reprint the 1956 speech made by Vesta W. Tutt about Alice Bemis Taylor, and to Fran Kiester, Sandra Dowda, Paul Draper and Brad Draper, for authorizing the reprinting of their mothers’ work. Additionally, we are grateful to the Special Collections and PPLD staff members, who eagerly undertake a greater workload to accomplish the symposia and the publishing of these books. Regretfully, we must report that co-editor Calvin P. Otto passed away during November 2009, shortly before this book was ready for publication. Cal was the principle consultant for the Regional History Series books, a motivating force for the annual history symposia, and a good friend to the library district and staff. We recognize that Cal’s contributions to our library and the community were encouraged and supported by his wife Patricia Otto and that she, too, deserves abundant thanks for her contributions and her support of Cal, and of our efforts. The Editorial Committee

CONTENTS The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame • 6 Honorees by Year of Induction Lynn Gilfillan-Morton • 13 Introduction Linda Bjorklund • 33 Marie Guiraud: A Remarkable Character Jan MacKell • 45 Laura Bell McDaniel: Queen of the Colorado City Tenderloin Michael L. Olsen & Patricia B. Olsen • 59 From Breeding Persian Cats to Wrapping Candy: Working Women of Colorado Springs in the 1920s Judith R. Finley • 75 Virginia Donaghe McClurg: Mesa Verde Crusader Katie Davis Gardner & Katherine Scott Sturdevant • 89 Vida Ellison & The Manitou Cliff Dwellings Vesta W. Tutt • 101 Alice Bemis Taylor Edwin Bathke & Nancy Bathke • 111 Alice Stewart Hill, Colorado Springs’ First Wild Flower Artist: Her Family & Her Friends Susan Coolidge •124 In Her Garden Katherine Scott Sturdevant •127 “Helen of Colorado”: Helen Hunt Jackson, Colorado Springs, & the Making of an Indian Activist

Stephen Collins • 153 Helen Hunt Jackson & the Rhetoric of Humanization: Creating a Rhetorical Space Between Traditional Feminine & Masculine Spheres in the Late 19th Century Eugenia R. Ahrens • 167 They Came To Educate: The Sisters of Loretto in the Rocky Mountain West, 1852—Present Caroline E. Blackburn • 191 Gretchen McRae: Civil Rights & Political Activist of Colorado Springs & the United States, 1924—1966 Patsy Clark • 225 Maggie Smith Hathaway: Montana’s Unsung Progressive Era Reformist Chris Nicholl • 245 Dr. Caroline Spencer & Colorado Springs’ Radicals for Reform Chris Nicholl • 291 “Someday the women are going to run this government” Lillian Kerr, A Colorado Springs Legend Mildred Morris • 304 Alimony For Men New Cry How Colorado Laws Discriminate Against Women • 307 Inez Hunt & Wanetta W. Draper • 319 The Corset Conflagration, or Women’s Liberation, 1923 Selected Bibliography • 327 Archives Collections by or About Women •331 Index • 337

FOREWORD The tales of the American West are often told through the larger than life exploits of males: intrepid explorers, rugged trappers and miners, relentless rail and town developers, and the heroic cowboy. Likewise, females appear in stylized motifs, frequently in ancillary roles as men’s helpmates. There were cultivated, literary females who civilized the rough mining camps and prairie towns. There were stalwart pioneer wives, maintaining hearth and home in primitive conditions while toiling on the land and giving birth to a new generation of sturdy farmers and ranchers. Although working women plied their skills in manifold businesses, a prominent image is of the notorious females of the demimonde—simultaneously reviled for their occupational choice and revered for their hearts of gold. In this book, Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West, largely assembled from papers presented at the 2007 Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium, you will encounter women whose biographies, at first glance, suggest that they were the archetypical western females. Literary icon, Helen Hunt Jackson migrated west and fell in love with a man and his nascent city, then published sentimental essays extolling Colorado’s splendors. Marie Guiraud is the embodiment of the hardy pioneering wife and mother. The quintessential bad girl-businesswoman, Old Colorado City’s Laura Bell McDaniel, completes the trinity of stylized western women. We invite scholars and recreational readers to take up this book, believing you will find stories to challenge your assumptions and knowledge of historical women’s activities and be enticed to explore the rich primary sources and images documenting western women’s history that are housed at the Pikes Peak Library District’s Special Collections. Although neatly fitting simplistic stereotypes, the three women above were powerfully actualized ladies. Jackson turned her literary talent into a groundbreaking analysis of the U.S. government’s mistreatment of Native Americans; Guiraud, a young, widowed mother of ten, with a shrewd business and legal mind, built her ranch into one of the most prosperous in Colorado’s Park County; McDaniel was dutiful daughter, doting mother, and friend to many.

The stories of each woman whose life graces this book are equally complex and compelling. You will meet intrepid, industrious females, whose lives of unexpected achievement and, at times, exceptional adversity, ushered in feminist opportunities hardly recalled or comprehended in today’s world. They were teachers, writers, artists, a physician, ranchers, business and working women. Some wore many hats, like the widowed Maggie Smith Hathaway, an educator, rancher, child-welfare advocate, suffragist and legislator. Some, like poet and journalist, Virginia Donaghe McClurg, later dedicated their lives to preserving the region’s environmental, cultural and material heritage. You will meet civil rights activists, including Berthe Arnold and Gretchen McRae, 1917 graduates of the Colorado Springs High School. Both spent time in Washington, D.C., where radical suffragist Arnold was imprisoned for demanding women’s votes, and civil servant McRae challenged workplace racial injustice. The two were beautiful, bold females, but whereas Arnold’s yearbook portrait appears in alphabetical order, McRae’s, as you will learn in her story, appears on a separate page reserved for African Americans. Additionally, we are pleased to reprint several historical documents, including The Corset Conflagration, by local historians Inez Hunt and Wanetta Draper. It is a commentary on the Equal Rights Convention, staged in 1923 at the Garden of the Gods. Likely written near the end of the 1960s or early 1970s, an era in which women aggressively revived their push for legal and economic equality, the satirical essay stands in stark contrast to a second document, a 1924 treatise on How Colorado Laws Discriminate Against Women. The women’s unique biographies, composed by talented professional and avocational historians, illuminate the multifaceted lives that the women led and the numerous paths they blazed as they, no less than men, settled, civilized, and built the Rocky Mountain West. Paula J. Miller, Executive Director, PPLD Chris Nicholl, Regional History Symposium Committee Co-Chair

About Pikes Peak Library District Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) is a nationally recognized system of public libraries serving a population of more than 547,000 in El Paso County, Colorado. With twelve facilities, online resources, and mobile library service, PPLD responds to the unique needs of individual neighborhoods and the community at large. PPLD has an employee base of 432 full and part-time staff, and utilizes roughly 1,500 volunteers. It strives to reach all members of the community, providing free and equitable access to information and an avenue for personal and community enrichment. PPLD is recognized for its commitment to diversity and community collaboration, its quality programming, and its excellent customer service.

Board of Trustees 2010 Lynne Telford, President Jill Gaebler,Vice President John Wilson, Secretary/Treasurer Robert Hilbert Kathleen Owings Katherine Spicer Executive Director Paula J. Miller

Regional History Series Editorial Committee Tim Blevins Dennis Daily Chris Nicholl Calvin P. Otto

Principal Series Consultant Calvin P. Otto

Cover Design Katie Rudolph

Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West spotlights only a few of the mothers, daughters, sisters and wives whose courage and passion shaped and softened this region. Every one of us can list dozens or more women who are known to have made a better Rocky Mountain West—even more remain unknown and unrecognized, but not unappreciated. We are grateful to all of these women, to whom we dedicate this book.

The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame Mission To inspire by celebrating and sharing the lifetime contributions of Colorado’s extraordinary women. The Hall strives to educate the people of Colorado about the stories of the women who shaped our state and the nation’s history with courage, leadership, intelligence, compassion, and creativity. Their talents, skills, struggles, and contributions form a legacy that the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame is dedicated to protecting. Women of diverse backgrounds, from pioneers to politicians, educators to entrepreneurs, are inducted into the Hall of Fame during a gala event held in every even-numbered year. The women inducted into the Hall of Fame have made a major impact on the lives of others and helped to elevate the status of women in our state, our nation, and, some, around the world. Who We Are The daily operations of the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame are carried out by an all-volunteer Board of Directors. The organizational structure also includes an Honorary Board comprising notable citizens from across the state who support the mission and goals of the Hall. A Volunteer Cadre helps with the many projects, programs, and events planned by the Board of Directors. All share the same goal of educating society about the contributions of Colorado’s remarkable women and ensuring their legacy for future generations. Inducting New Members into the Hall of Fame The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame depends on members of the public to nominate extraordinary women for induction. Nominations are accepted from organizations or individuals throughout the state. A diverse group of Colorado citizens is recruited to act as a Selection Committee. The Selection Committee reviews all nominations, performs additional research if necessary, and selects nominees for induction into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. In even-numbered years, up to ten new inductees are admitted into the Hall of Fame at an event attended and sponsored by people and organizations from across Colorado.

The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame Celebrating 25 Years The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame is dedicated to recognizing and preserving the history of the accomplishments of past and present Colorado women. Both historical and contemporary women have shared foresight, vision, and the power of accomplishment but lacked a forum for recognition. The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame ensures that their splendid achievements will not be forgotten.

The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame inducts women, both historical and contemporary, who have significant ties to Colorado and who: • • • •

Made significant and enduring contributions to their fields of endeavor Elevated the status of women Helped open new frontiers for women and for society Inspired others by their example

Honorees by Year of Induction 2010 • Madeleine Albright, First Female Secretary of State • Elinor Greenberg, Community Activist • Maria Guajardo, Educator • Philippa Marrack, Medical Researcher • Ramona Martinez, Politician • Hattie McDaniel, Actress • Susan O’Brien, Journalist • Bartley Marie Scott, Rancher • Alice Bemis Taylor, Philanthropist • Jill Tietjen, Engineer, Author • 7 •

8 • COLORADO WOMEN’S HALL OF FAME

2008 • Sue Anschutz-Rodgers, Rancher, Conservationist, Philanthropist • Sister Alicia Valladolid-Cuarón, Business & Civic Leader, Human Rights Activist • Evie Dennis, School Superintendent, U.S. Olympic Committee Member • Jean Dubofsky, Colorado Supreme Court Justice • Katherine Keating, U.S. Navy Captain, Pharmacist • Mary Lou Makepeace, Politician, Equal Rights Advocate • Lily Nie, Adoption Agency Founder • Anna C. Petteys, Education Advocate, U.N. Proponent • Eliza Routt, First First Lady of Colorado • Rhea Woltman, Mercury 13 Astronaut, Parliamentarian • Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, Sportswoman 2006 • Stephanie Allen, Business & Civic Leader • Judy Collins, Entertainer, Author, Social Activist • Marion Downs, Audiologist • Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Psychoanalyst, Author, Candatora • Arlene Hirschfeld, Philanthropist, Community Leader • Jean Jones, Community Leader • Fannie Lorber, Community Organizer & Leader • Susan Solomon, Research Scientist • Caroline Spencer, Physician, Women’s Suffrage Leader • Vivien Spitz, Official Reporter of Debates & Chief Reporter in the U.S. House of Representatives 2004 • Anna Lee Aldred, Jockey, Rodeo Rider • Louie Croft Boyd, Nurse • Merle Chambers, Business Leader, Philanthropist • Patricia Gabow, Medical Director, Physician, Healthcare Advocate • Carlotta LaNier, Activist • Portia Mansfield, Dancer

COLORADO WOMEN’S HALL OF FAME • 9

• • • •

Carol Mutter, U.S. Marine Corps General Charlotte Perry, Dancer Antoinette Perry-Frueauff, Actress Arie Parks Taylor, Politician, Activist

2002 • Linda Martinez Alvarado, Business Leader • Virginia Hart Fraser, Long-term Care Ombudsman • Gudrun Timmerhaus Gaskill, Trail Builder, Mountaineer • Jo Ann Cram Joselyn, Space Scientist • Mary Miller, Founder of Lafayette, Colorado • Sue Miller, Women’s Health Advocate • Gloria Travis Tanner, Politician • Emily Howell Warner, Aviation Pioneer 2000 • Polly Baca, Latina Trailblazer • Joy Burns, Philanthropist • Josie Heath, Community Leader • J. Virginia Lincoln, Physicist • Pauline Short Robinson, Librarian • Martha M. Urioste, Educator • Zita L. Weinshienk, Judge 1997 • Susan Anderson, Physician, Coroner • Eppie Archuleta, Master Weaver • Ceal Barry, College & Olympic Basketball Coach • Juana Bordas, Hispanic Women’s Leader • Swanee Hunt, Philanthropist, U.S. Ambassador • Reynelda Muse, Television Journalist • Sister Mary Luke Tobin, Peace Activist 1996 • Marilyn Van Derbur Atler, Children’s Rights Activist • Joan Birkland, Athlete • Elise Boulding, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee

10 • COLORADO WOMEN’S HALL OF FAME

• • • • • • • •

Dana Hudkins Crawford, Historic Preservationist Margaret Curry, First Woman Parole Officer Terri H. Finkel, Medical Researcher Elnora M. Gilfoyle, Occupational Physician & Therapist Mary Hauck Elitch Long, Co-creator of Elitch Gardens Frances McConnell-Mills, Forensic Medicine Pioneer Rachel Bassette Noel, Civil Rights Pioneer Mildred Pitts Walter, Author of Children’s Books

1991 • Helen Marie Black, Civic & Cultural Leader • Genevieve Fiore, Peace Activist • Augusta Pierce Tabor, Philanthropist • Wilma Webb, Politician 1990 • Caroline Bancroft, Author, Historian • Hendrika Cantwell, Pediatrician, Children’s Advocate • Sarah Platt Decker, Volunteer • Jane Silverstein Ries, Landscape Architect 1989 • Clara Brown, Pioneer • Edwina Hume Fallis, Teacher • Sumiko Hennessy, Social Worker • Cleo Parker Robinson, Dance Company Director 1988 • Caroline Churchill, Publisher • Oleta Crain, U.S. Government Official • LaRae Orullian, Bank President • Elizabeth Hickok Robbins Stone, Pioneer 1987 • Miriam Goldberg, Publisher • Frances Wisebart Jacobs, Charity Founder • Mary Florence Lathrop, Attorney • Lenore E. Walker, Psychologist

COLORADO WOMEN’S HALL OF FAME • 11

1986 • Antonia Brico, Conductor • Helen Louise White Peterson, Native American Advocate • Josephine Roche, Labor Advocate • Eudochia Bell Smith, Politician 1985 • Lena Archuleta, Educator, Community Activist • Isabella Bird, Author • Helen Bonfils, Philanthropist • Margaret “Molly” Brown, Titanic Heroine • Mary Coyle Chase, Playwright • Chipeta, Native American Negotiator • Mamie Eisenhower, Humanitarian • Justina Ford, Physician • Emily Griffith, Educator • Helen Hunt Jackson, Author • Dottie Lamm, Feminist, Author • Martha Maxwell, Taxidermist • Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel • Owl Woman, Native American Negotiator • Mary Rippon, Educator • Florence Sabin, Physician • Hazel Schmoll, Botanist • Pat Schroeder, Politician • May Bonfils Stanton, Philanthropist • Anne Steinbeck, National Women’s Leader • Ruth Stockton, Politician • Elizabeth Bonduel McCourt “Baby Doe” Tabor, Folk Heroine • Marie Wormington-Volk, Anthropologist, Archaeologist • Jean Yancey, Entrepreneur

http://www.cogreatwomen.org

Passengers riding the Mount Manitou Scenic Incline, prior to 1908. The ride on the Incline claimed to be the “longest and highest railway of its kind on the globe. . . . In sixteen minutes after leaving Manitou you are in the wilds and fastness of the great Rocky Mountains.” Like riding the Incline, women in the West took the front seat on the bumpy ride to equality—a ride that is not yet over. Today many women and men hike the “Incline” as a physical feat. From Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (001-305).

An Introduction to the Extraordinary Women Lynn A. Gilfillan-Morton What makes a woman “extraordinary?” We have all known extraordinary women during our lives. No single book could list them all, nor does this small volume attempt to identify more than a few. Although there are no chapters about some extraordinary women, like Chipeta, Lily Chin, or Teresita Sandoval, you will get to learn a bit about them in this introduction. Your favorite women of history may not be enumerated here, though their spirit and strength are common threads in the fabric of the Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West. Fictional stories about women of the West often are composite characters, possessing uncommon grit and independent fortitude. Yet others are portrayed as delicate and unburdened citizens of a new civilization. One thing they all have in common is their adventurous lives. Araminta’s Paint Box is a fictional account of a little girl’s hand-crafted and beautifully decorated paint box that fell out of the back of her family’s covered wagon as they traveled westward during the migration of the 1840s. The box was found and, through facility and futility, made its way across the continent, passing momentarily through the drama of a number of lives along the way. Finally, in a story with a happy ending, Araminta once again had the opportunity to have her cherished paint box in her new home in California. The little girl’s story was created through the imagination of contemporary author Karen Ackerman and illustrator Betsy Lewin, who together presented one small piece of one phase of one female’s life in the West. At the end of the little book, however, we are reminded that, even though Araminta’s story of loss ended happily, the box was a metaphor for the many successful gains and tragic losses that may have occurred in women’s stories of travel, home, career, beliefs and communities across the West. • 13 •

14 • INTRODUCTION

Tallgrass, by Denver-based author Sandra Dallas, is set in the 1940s. Also fiction, the book addresses the fateful events that were created between and within two diverse communities in the West, a post-Pearl Harbor, Japanese-American internment camp in Colorado (Camp Amache) and the small, rural town near the camp (Granada). Written by Dallas as a mystery surrounding the death of a young female, the story is told through the character of a teen-age girl who witnesses the gains and losses experienced by the two communities. The imaginative stories of the paint box and the Colorado communities are based on factual research. The Quilt That Walked to Golden is another of Sandra Dallas’s works based on journals, photographs, oral histories, and interviews. However, this book conveyed the actual nonfiction accounts of women’s lives in the West that were centered around quilts from the 1840s to the end of one prominent quilt maker’s life in 2003. Women have begun to research and write about women; however, there is still an all-too-sparse collection of women’s history in the West. Why have so many valuable and inspiring life stories of Western women gone untold? Elizabeth Jameson explained the dilemma that created much of the women’s anonymity. She wrote in the afterword for Andrea Kalinowski’s Untold Stories: Jewish Pioneer Women, 1850-1910, “Women’s daily labors were omitted from textbook histories, those national memories of battles, dates and elections. Their words rarely survived to preserve a common legacy.” Dallas found that the separate pieces of one woman’s or family’s life, when combined with the pieces of other lives, did tell of a common legacy. Shared between and among women, families, organizations and communities, those experiences, with quilts as the common thread, defined investments and influence in economic, cultural, political and social networks, from the mid-19th century to the early 21st century, a span of more than 160 years. Perhaps then, from a shared compilation of roles within women’s collective history, we can better understand and celebrate the heretofore understated roles and contributions of one sparkling star, of one extraordinary woman or one group of women, who have previously gone unrecognized.

GILFILLAN-MORTON • 15

Continuing in the afterword, Jameson honored Kalinowski’s thorough historical research and her hand-designed and computer-generated quilt art saying, “Patchwork becomes a precise metaphor for the scraps of documents, letters, memoirs, and artifacts from which historians now piece together the larger patterns of the women’s lives.”1 To bring the extraordinary women to life today, the contributors to this book have used the same patchwork methodology, to tell the story of each individual or group. This introduction will use a similar patchwork approach but will focus on some of the similarities that exist between and among the women, including a few of the gains made through their careers and work, as well as some of their notable, mutually-tragic losses, which also help to define them as extraordinary. Shared Acquaintances Because the featured women’s lives cover most of seventeen consecutive decades, it is not only a surprise that three of the women’s life spans overlapped, but it is also surprising that they lived in the same community and actually were acquainted with each other. Ed and Nancy Bathke have documented through their research that Helen Hunt Jackson, Virginia Donaghe McClurg, and Alice Stewart Hill, were acquaintances in Colorado Springs. In this volume, Vesta W. Tutt reminds us that Helen Hunt Jackson was a close neighbor of Alice Bemis’s family. Additional information may expand the Bathkes’ discovery. In “Helen Hunt Jackson, An Enigma,” a 1970 paper written by Lorene Englert, which can be found in the Pikes Peak Library District’s archives, in Special Collections, the author indicated that Virginia McClurg had at one time written about Helen Hunt Jackson’s initial place of residence in Colorado Springs. McClurg identified the “connected cottages between Cascade and Tejon Streets” where Helen lived and where she initially met and became an acquaintance of William S. Jackson. Englert wrote, too, that McClurg had at another time described Jackson as a “man’s woman,” perhaps an impression that McClurg drew from either a business or a social interaction with Jackson.

16 • INTRODUCTION

Businesswoman In addition to sharing the power of a personal presence, these three women, Hill, McClurg and Jackson, shared another similarity. Each was a businesswoman in her own right. Setting the bar, Helen Hunt Jackson told her publishers, “I shall be undisguisedly mercenary and write for the highest bidder.”2 Once the entrepreneurial productivity of each of these three is acknowledged, the same credit can be extended to more of the extraordinary women. In addition to her literary contributions, Virginia McClurg’s insightful development of “The Cliff Dwellings” in the canyon north of Manitou Springs introduced Vida Gregory Ellison as a “businesswoman” in the expanding tourism business in Colorado Springs shortly after the turn of the 20th century. Those are the same cliff dwellings that can be visited today. Josephine Aspinwall Roche and Ruth Banning Lewis conducted business in the coal and fuels industry. Lewis assumed the leadership of and expanded her father’s smaller coal and ice warehouse business in Colorado Springs after he died, and Roche relied in part on coal fields north of Denver to fuel the steel industry corporation that she inherited. The diversity of the women’s chosen fields of business continues with Alice Stewart Hill as an artist, teaching and also producing her hand-painted sketches and other artworks for sale. Maggie Smith Hathaway was not only a rancher but served as a county and as a state agency administrator in Montana. Helen Hunt Jackson was a federal agency administrator for a short time, and Marie Guiraud, as well as Banning Lewis, conducted business as a ranch owner. Laura Bell McDaniel operated as a stubborn Westside, Colorado City madame, and Teresita Sandoval was an Arkansas River Valley and a Mora, New Mexico, retailer. Lily Chin was recognized for her successful role in her family’s Chinese American business enterprises, especially after her father and husband died, as well as for her role in the community as an ambassador in Denver, Colorado, through regional business, education, and social communities.

GILFILLAN-MORTON • 17

At a time when male physicians did not wholly accept women physicians as their professional peers, Caroline Spencer earned her living as a medical doctor. As a practitioner, she not only had to maintain her license to practice through a maledominated state regulatory and professional membership system, but she also had to maintain a credible image within the local medical community. The Sisters of Loretto was a religious community that actively practiced its business model. While its community mission over time typically has been student and community education, it was one of several women religious communities in the Rocky Mountain West to demonstrate that its members were astute and accountable business leaders. Artist PPLD’s Special Collections contains one copy of Alice Stewart Hill’s original wildflower drawings for Helen Hunt Jackson’s The Procession of Flowers in Colorado. Also available for viewing are the sketches that Hill and Thomas Parrish produced for the poem, Her Garden: A Poem by Susan Coolidge. The identification of the Sisters of Loretto as “fine artists” is certainly supported by the breadth of classes that they offered and taught for young girls, as they opened their first academy in Colorado Springs in 1884. “The course of study will embrace all the branches of a thorough education, instrumental and vocal music, drawing, painting, and the various kinds of fancy work will be taught.”3 Chipeta, a tiny woman, less than five feet tall, wore traditional Native American clothing throughout her life. Certainly an artist, she produced the fine, tanned leather garments, including moccasins for herself and Chief Ouray, their adopted children and their extended Ute family. She took pride in her original decorated apparel with the traditional fringe and the intricate, colorful beadwork. Later in her life she made and gave away items as gifts and thank-yous, for kind deeds that had been extended to her and to other Utes. Many of these, returned to the Utes by the original recipients, can be seen in the Ute Museum on Chipeta Road in Montrose, Colorado.

18 • INTRODUCTION

Homesteader & Rancher Marie Guiraud, who originally came with her husband from France, moved with her growing family across the United States, finally to homestead in the Rocky Mountain “Mineral Belt” within South Park. They arrived 15 years before Colorado was granted statehood. As the matriarch of the family, she earned a living for her family as a rancher in the mid- to late 1880s. Marie shares that role with two other extraordinary women. Ruth Banning Lewis, born in the late 1890s, was recognized nationally and internationally for the award-winning cattle and horse breeding enterprises on her ranch. The other extraordinary woman rancher was Maggie Smith Hathaway in Montana. Author Within the literary field, the title of “author” appears to connect several of the extraordinary women across ethnic networks. The published work of one woman, Helen Hunt Jackson, set the stage for consciousness-raising and a deeper understanding of Native Americans. Jackson’s investigation of Native Americans, and her publications A Century of Dishonor and Ramona, have provided, from the late 19th into the early 21st centuries, insights that refresh our efforts to understand the needs of and to advocate for the lives of maligned and under-represented individuals and groups. It is interesting to speculate what the dialog might have been if Teresita Sandoval, Helen Hunt Jackson, Chipeta, Lily Chin and Gretchen McRae could have shared an afternoon together. The other identified author among the women in this introduction is Virginia Donaghe McClurg, whose initial assignment to write about Mesa Verde led to a passion that consumed many years of her life. During her active campaign for the creation of a national park, she wrote many speeches and articles. During those years she also penned a poem for a President, Theodore Roosevelt, to honor his visit to the Mesa Verde site as part of her campaign to have the area designated as a national park:

GILFILLAN-MORTON • 19

Long ere the Genoese traversed the sea, On arid plateaux dwelt a peaceful race Whose castled cliffs arose from the canon’s base To unscaled heights of sunrise mystery.4 After withdrawing from the park pursuit, McClurg continued to advocate for Mesa Verde, but she also continued to produce and publish articles and poems and to speak on other topics. As authors, these extraordinary women created their own business relationships and supported themselves, aggressively negotiating with editors and publishers for the publication of their regular, original articles and poetry. Gretchen McRae wore a number of hats as author-editor-publisher of A Free Republic. Town-founder Two of the women share the title of “town-founder.” Maria Teresa Sandoval was among a group of multiplefamily businesspersons who founded and lived within the trading post, El Pueblo, the early establishment of today’s city of Pueblo, Colorado. Located where Fountain Creek flows into the Arkansas River, El Pueblo was a significant location in the 1840s for traders, trappers and travelers who represented a diverse society in the West, including African, Spanish, Mexican, Indian, European and American visitors and residents. Recognized not only as an economic partner but also an interpreter and negotiator, Teresita was later to help establish Hardscrabble, west of El Pueblo, and even later she was a partner in the short-lived development of Fort Barclay in northeastern New Mexico. Marie Guiraud may not have known how to run a railroad but she certainly knew that it was important to establish a railroad town site near her family’s ranch in the “Mineral Belt.” The town was given the name “Garo,” a phonetic spelling

20 • INTRODUCTION

of her family’s last name. The town site can still be identified on a Colorado map, as State Highway 9 passes through Park County, between Hartsel and Fairplay. In addition, Garo Street, named by the Pikes Peak Historical Society in honor of the town site and the family, goes north from East Pikes Peak Avenue to East Bijou Avenue, in Colorado Springs. Educator As their roles as businesswomen represented diversity within business fields, so do the extraordinary women’s roles as educators demonstrate versatility. Vida Ellison constructed a replica of one of the ancient Mesa Verde dwellings built of stone, bricks, and mortar, and created a realistic, hands-on cultural and education site for local residents and vacationers. Alice Stewart Hill was not only an art instructor but educated others about the intricacies of wildflowers through her drawings and paintings. The only thing missing in her delicate but realistic painting of a wild rose in the The Procession of Flowers is the wonderful aroma of the blossom! The Sisters of Loretto brought the first religious academy to Colorado Springs. The ad that was carried in the Colorado Springs Gazette on October 5, 1888, encouraged enrollment for pupils of all denominations. Though that educational effort was originally just for young girls, the Sisters’ reputation as thorough and respected educators resulted in the opening of a larger school for both young girls and boys on the campus in downtown Colorado Springs, the first building on what is now the campus of St. Mary’s Church. Chipeta was a leader among the women of her Ute tribe, and she was recognized, within as well as outside her tribe, as a partner with her husband, Chief Ouray. She, too, quietly advocated his intuitive position that peace was the surest means of survival against the many years of intruding white settlers, harsh government soldiers, unethical elected officials, and ineffective, appointed Indian agency administrators. For the nearly 50 years that Chipeta lived after Chief Ouray’s death, she remained a regional and national spokesperson for the Ute people. As they were pushed farther and farther

GILFILLAN-MORTON • 21

from their traditional land into the dry areas of eastern Utah, it was clear to Chipeta that the broken U.S. government treaties and unrealized promises of irrigation water would never be resolved. I was told by the representative of the government that if I came to this country [Utah] I would be given a home better than the home I was abandoning. My people were made the same promise that they would be given good lands and the water would be placed on their lands. None of these promises have been kept.5 In addition, the government had also Chipeta was known for her roles as a withdrawn assurances spokesperson of the Ute people and as an of the Ute’s right to hunt advocate for literacy among Ute children. the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs and to graze cattle and From Division Washington, D.C., (LC-DIG-cwpbh-04477). horses on “public” lands. Chipeta knew that these issues and the lack of water, singly or in combination, would destroy the Ute’s ability to support themselves through their traditional ways of living off the land. Though she chose not to read or write English or Spanish, Chipeta vigorously advocated that the youth must learn to read and write in order to become independent and self-sustaining. It was through her negotiations within her own community that the first Ute children were enrolled in organized, governmentsupported learning activities.

22 • INTRODUCTION

Lily Chin’s birth was in the Colorado mining community of Black Hawk in 1873. She is identified as the first Chinese American child to be born in Colorado. Lily served as an educator all through her life, by modeling the ability of a woman to bridge two very different cultures, as well as to skillfully navigate the business, social, and civic networks of three large cities. The March 28, 1894 Denver Republican and Rocky Mountain News articles of her wedding are a reflection of the bias and the confusion about the customs of the Chinese community in Denver at that time. In fact, there was still a debate going on within the state, as well as nationally, as to whether the Chinese should even be allowed to live in the United States. In her dayto-day presence, Lily educated others about the acceptance of Chinese American women, quietly and skillfully, until her death in 1933. Humanitarian One definition of humanitarian is “one who has concern for or who helps to improve the welfare and happiness of people.” As they educated, some of the extraordinary women also filled the role of humanitarian through their efforts to be sensitive to the needs and rights of others. The Sisters of Loretto, Chipeta, Maggie Smith Hathaway, Laura Bell McDaniel, Helen Hunt Jackson, Gretchen McRae, and Josephine Roche all had different human issues that they supported. Some, like Helen Hunt Jackson, even created a new set of rhetorical arguments and strategies to promote equal rights. The Sisters of Loretto certainly had as part of their overall mission the well-being of others in the community. For Chipeta, her concerns became expressed through the education of young children. Laura Bell, identified as “the good-hearted madam” asserted women’s rights to run a business of their choosing. Gretchen campaigned through her journal for the rights of blacks, as well as the rights of women and other racial and ethnic groups. Josephine Roche once served as a Denver police inspector, a position that took her into the community to interact face to face with local citizens. She carried to the corporate setting the ability to humanely address policing in the form of policy

GILFILLAN-MORTON • 23

development and law. As such she became one of few employers who advocated for reasonable wages and a safe and healthy daily work environment, a benefit not only to the workers but to their families, as well. Reformist & Suffragist Featured in this book are suffragists Caroline Spencer and Maggie Smith Hathaway. One of the first acknowledgements of Maggie’s advocacy for women’s rights was in 1905 when, as a county superintendent of schools in Montana, she commented in a report that the inequity Josephine Roche, Acting Secretary of the of salaries between men Treasury, December 1936. From the Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress Prints and and women employees Photographs Division Washington, D.C., (LC-DIG- should be addressed. hec-21897). Maggie was a recognized advocate for youth through her Methodist Church positions and activities, and through her role as the Montana Secretary of the Bureau of Child Protection. In that office, she wrote a manual of Montana laws that pertained to children and she educated other agency employees about those laws as she traveled the state to promote maternal and child health laws, work laws and women’s rights. She was elected as a representative to her state legislature, and the first woman elected as a minority leader in the Montana House of Representatives. Caroline Spencer participated in the suffragist movement, including the National Woman’s Party Colorado Branch conferences and the Colorado Springs “stop” of the coast-to-

24 • INTRODUCTION

coast campaign of the National Women’s Party. She took part in the party’s planned demonstrations in Washington, D.C., knowing that she faced the risk of being jailed for her suffragist activities. Twice jailed, for the remainder of her life she wore on her jacket lapel a pin that was made to look like a jail door. Though not recognized as a “suffragist” in a national campaign, Laura Bell McDaniel certainly advocated for her right to run a business within the city limits, once Colorado City was annexed into the City of Colorado Springs in 1917. While she was never jailed, she appeared in court a number of times on charges of running an unapproved business and selling her customers “stolen” liquor during Colorado’s prohibition era. The Business of the Art of Being a Woman The women featured as extraordinary women have, as was mentioned earlier, moved forward with documented decisions, deeds and dramas that, for a variety of reasons, have set them apart from their peers and caused them to be recognized, admired and featured in the early years of the 21st century. This is not to say, however, that each was not aware of the “art of being a woman.” Some accomplished this art while remaining within the racial, ethnic, cultural, spiritual, professional or social expectations of the time. Others demonstrated the art of being a woman as part of their effort to witness and to participate in change within their time and their environment. A visual example can be found at the website, “Women of Protest,” which has images of the National Woman’s Party and its campaign activities for the right to vote.6 Regardless of their politics and their chosen activities, the suffragists were stylish, attractive, well-dressed women. Their dresses, trousers, shoes, hairstyles and accessories, including their hats, were fashion statements of the day. No doubt the “Jail Birds” were forced to give up personal preference for dress while they were incarcerated, but most, it is assumed, returned to their personal fashion statements upon release. Other extraordinary women interpreted their women’s role through their attire in ways that brought them critical acclaim. Chipeta’s traditional dress educated the press and the

GILFILLAN-MORTON • 25

readers of Washington, D.C., and other eastern newspapers and periodicals during her two trips to the Capitol with Chief Ouray. While critiqued and mocked at first, as her clothing was contrasted to the corseted and bustled attire of European fashion of the day, Chipeta was soon recognized and admired for what she was, a Native American Ute woman, dressed in traditional clothing. She refused to dress any other way. An image that captured the simple daily chore of a woman returning from the river, carrying a bucket of water on her head, left an important record of not only that period in time but also an irreplaceable record of the woman. As Teresita Sandoval moved from the river back toward El Pueblo, her traditional attire, her statuesque figure and her strength and energy captivated George Barclay. From Deborah Mora-Espinosa, in La Gente, we learn about Barclay’s encounter: “She is clad in the customary off-the-shoulder camisa and mid-calf skirt, her long, fringed rebozo hanging around her neck. Her eyes are dark and large, her black hair braided and looped around her ears.”7 Ten years after he saw her, Barclay painted in color a love-at-first-sight image of Teresita. Though their eventual relationship was stormy and ended in separation, the drawing, a testament to the love and devotion that Barclay felt for her, is the only known image that exists of her. To Barclay we are indebted. Some Extraordinary Shared Gains & Losses For personal partnership, commitment and companionship in their lives, the extraordinary women chose ceremonies based on the tradition of their respective cultures.

Maria Teresa Barela Sandoval Sousa Kincead Barclay was an enterprising business woman and a co-founder of El Pueblo fort, which eventually bacame part of the city of Pueblo, Colorado. Courtesy, Colorado Historical Society, (10033075)..

26 • INTRODUCTION

For those among the Sisters of Loretto who did profess vows to the church, they committed themselves to their Christ, their Church and to their women’s religious community. Chipeta’s role as Ouray’s wife, after the death of his first wife, was acknowled-ed through the traditional preparation and sharing of a meal, according to custom within the Ute tribe. Lily Chin and her groom, Look Wing Yuen, planned two marriage cere- In 1873, Lily Chin was recognized as monies. One was held at the first Chinese-American child born the groom’s Denver home in Colorado. She found a balance with her American culture and Chinese in the Capitol Hill area, east traditions and worked to educate others of downtown Denver, and to overcome bias and racism. Courtesy, was specifically planned to Colorado Historical Society, (10040096). meet the expectations of Denver’s Victorian-Western frontier business, religious and social communities. The same day, their traditional Chinese ceremony was held in the temple in Denver’s Chinatown, now LoDo (Lower Downtown), and followed centuries’ old Chinese customs. Interestingly, a Denver justice of the peace, a friend of Lily’s father, presided at both the public and the private ceremonies. Helen Hunt Jackson, Teresita Sandoval, and Laura Bell McDaniel each had very different experiences as married women and mothers. Jackson’s first husband was killed in an accident and both of their sons died of disease. Shortly after the death of her husband, Helen Hunt asked a publisher to identify her as the widow of the late Major Edward B. Hunt, U.S. Engineer Corps.

GILFILLAN-MORTON • 27

Helen Hunt married William S. Jackson later in life, and there were no children in that marriage. However, Jackson identified that her role as a married woman was important to her, when mention of her marriage to William S. Jackson was omitted in an article by Alice Wellington Rollins. Jackson responded angrily: “The cruel idiotic hurt of this picture of me and my life there without any allusion to my husband, is something which passes my patience to bear, or my utmost thinking to understand!”8 Lily Chin accompanied her husband to China when their daughter was 3 years old. The purpose of the trip was business, but also to visit her husband’s extended family for an undetermined period of time and to participate in ceremonies to honor his family’s ancient ancestors. During their absence, letters from Lily communicated that not only was she homesick for her native Colorado but also that she knew that the living conditions and medical care where they were staying were not conducive to the good health of her family. Her daughter was sickened by a fever and did recover, but the first son that Lily bore while they were in China died before Lily could bring her children back to the United States. A second son born in China grew to adulthood as a resident of Denver. Maggie Smith Hathaway lost her husband tragically after they had been married for only six months. She had no children but spent a large portion of her career promoting the rights of women and children to have better lives. Chipeta lived as a widow far longer without her husband, Chief Ouray, than she had lived with him. She, too, was childless, but adopted a number of children and posed frequently in laterlife photos with young children in her arms or by her side. Sandoval, as one biographical author described, became Teresita Barela Sandoval Sousa Kincead Barclay, chronicling her family-of-origin and her partnerships that resulted in six children and a number of business ventures. After Teresita’s separation from her partner, George Barclay, she lived the remainder of her life near the confluence of the Purgatoire and Arkansas rivers. She resided with one of her daughters and her son-in-law, who welcomed her aggressive

28 • INTRODUCTION

business skills, and who supported her close relationships with her immediate and extended families through the last 40 years of Teresita’s life. Laura Bell McDaniel was probably soon dissatisfied as the wife of a man who was less ambitious than she. She later found the life-long companionship of a man who admired the combination of her business skills and her beauty. He, also a bit flamboyant, drove her down the streets of Colorado City in a white carriage, drawn by two elk. McDaniel’s chosen profession and lifestyle, it was speculated, may have exacerbated an apparent estrangement from her daughter, but Laura was close to her niece who lived in Denver. Other Women in the West Authors and scholars previously have used Elizabeth Jameson’s metaphorical quilt or patchwork methodology to give us insights into additional women whose names are familiar in the West. Photos, interviews, public and private educational institution records, documented quotes, newspapers, and corporate and social register archives are available to piece together five additional lives. The Pikes Peak Library District holds books about each of these women for further information. Twenty-eight of Georgia O’Keeffe’s early watercolors are featured in Georgia O’Keeffe, Canyon Suite. These were painted and given to a friend while Georgia was head of the art department and an instructor at West Texas State Normal College for a year and a half, beginning in September 1916. The paintings remained wrapped in paper and were found stored in the friend’s granddaughter’s garage, in 1988. Margaret Tobin Brown’s entrée into Denver Society, her work in Denver within the women’s club community, and her efforts to advocate for youth are often over-shadowed by the continuing intrigue of her “Unsinkable Molly Brown” survival of the Titanic tragedy. Her intended philanthropic gifts of two Roman marble statues to the Denver Museum of Natural History did not survive the disaster as she did, and they sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic with the Titanic. Martha Maxwell was a naturalist whose work to identify and educate scholars and the pubic about animals in their everyday

GILFILLAN-MORTON • 29

environment was a lifelong pursuit. It is possible that she was far more comfortable with her work, and those who supported her work, than she was in any other professional or social setting. Isabella Lucy Bird’s letters as a traveler through the Rocky Mountains are featured in A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains. Today called an “eco-adventure,” Isabella marveled at the natural surroundings as she rode horseback, climbed mountains, and experienced the fickle mountain and Margaret “Molly” Tobin Brown alpine seasons at altitude. advocated for women’s suffrage and Most of us who have tried enjoyed a raucous reputation with to describe the sound of the public. She was nicknamed “the the wind moving through unsinkable Molly Brown” for surviving the pines have faced the the sinking of the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage to the United States. reality that we lacked the From Representative Women of Colorado, The vocabulary to describe that Alexander Art Publishing Co., Denver, particular wonder of nature. Colorado, 1914. After reading Isabella’s description of the same phenomenon, this reader exclaimed, “I wish I’d said that!” One woman’s short-lived career as a participant in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show left the print and entertainment media with an icon that belied the majority of her actual life. Roberta Sollid’s scholarly work, Calamity Jane, even discusses that Martha Cannary’s given middle name was probably not “Jane.”

30 • INTRODUCTION

Conclusion Did the featured women in this book help to shape the Rocky Mountain Region’s politics, economics, culture and environment? Of course they did. Their influence can be measured through the quantity and quality of their contributions through many diverse aspects of the West. The names of these extraordinary women can be documented in the files of such diverse fields as agriculture, animal husbandry, conservation, public and private education, employment and labor practices, maternal and child welfare, medicine, mining, corporate occupational health and safety as well as salary and benefit policies, retail trade, tourism, preservation, water rights, open space and antiquities advocacy, political and social reform, public agency administration at the county, state and federal level, civil rights including voting and equal pay for equal work, banking (even if it meant burying money in glass jars), and the fine, performing and published arts, letters and humanities of the Rocky Mountain Region. This witness to history began at Teresita Sandoval’s birth 5 years after Lewis and Clark returned to the western edge of U.S. civilization in St. Louis. The 167-year span of time draws to a close in 1978 with the death of Gretchen McRae. The women featured in these pages lived the gains and losses of their own lives and were witness to the gains and losses of other individuals, groups and communities for nearly 17 decades. It is now time that these extraordinary women take their rightful place of recognition and honor in the Rocky Mountain West. Lynn Gilfillan-Morton has been involved with public school, university, and proprietary education, with the creation of innovative health promotion programs and is currently a health promotion consultant in the Colorado Springs area. She is the co-author of The History of Health Care in the Pikes Peak Region with Bob Hoff and a contributor to Legends, Labors & Loves: William Jackson Palmer, 1836—1909.

GILFILLAN-MORTON • 31

Notes

1. Elizabeth Jameson quoted in Andrea Kalinowski, Stories Untold, Jewish Pioneer Women, 1850-1910: The Art of Andrea Kalinowski (Albuquerque, N.M.: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2002), 31. 2. Helen Hunt Jackson, Helen Hunt Jackson’s Colorado (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Hulbert Center for Southwestern Studies, Colorado College, 1989), xvii. 3. William Hubert Jones, The History of Catholic Education in the State of Colorado (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1955), 126. 4. Virginia McClurg poem quoted in Janet Robertson, The Magnificent Mountain Women: Adventures in the Colorado Rockies (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 67. 5. Chipeta quoted in Cynthia S. Becker, Chipeta, Queen of the Utes, a Biography (Montrose, Colo.: Western Reflections Pub. Co., 2003), 225. 6. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., “Women of Protest,” Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ collections/suffrage/nwp 7. Vincent C. de Baca, La Gente: Hispano History and Life in Colorado (Denver, Colo.: Colorado Historical Society, 1998), 12. 8. Helen Hunt Jackson quoted in Kate Phillips, Helen Hunt Jackson, A Literary Life (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2003), 307. Martha “Calamity Jane” Cannary took-on the Wild West in both fact and in fiction. She tested the traditional expectations of 19th century women and became famous for her expert shooting and hard drinking. Cannary was born in Mercer County, Missouri, about 1856, and died near Deadwood, South Dakota, in 1903. She was buried at Mt. Moriah Cemetery with her friend and co-performer Wild Bill Hickok, who was killed in 1876. From the Library of Congress Prints

and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., (LCUSZ62-50004).

Marie Antoinette Guiraud. Courtesy of Jacquelyn (Guiraud) Miller and Fred Guiraud.

Marie Guiraud: A Remarkable Character Linda Bjorklund They Came From France

When you hear the name “Marie Antoinette” you no doubt picture a regally dressed, highly-coiffured queen whose unfortunate remarks, “Then let them eat cake,” earned her a one-way trip to the guillotine in 1794. Less than a half century later, another Marie Antoinette was born, this time one of the working class. Marie Antoinette Chabreat came into the world on October 31, 1830, on a farm in the Department de Gard, located on the southern coast of France. Nothing could be discovered of her childhood or family prior to her marriage to Adolphe Guiraud in France on March 28, 1848. The Guirauds were wine merchants in the mid-19th century in Leon, a small town on the west coast of France, where Adolphe was born in 1822. A large winery in the Bordeaux Region of France named Chateau Guiraud now bottles and sells impressive Sauternes, but this may or may not be the same family. Although married in an extremely difficult time in France, the turmoil may not have been the reason that Adolphe Guiraud decided to bring his new wife to the United States for a fresh start. A wine tax imposed on the consumers as well as the growers and vintners caused all the French to groan under the burden of taxation.

The Guirauds Emigrate to America

Eager to start fresh in his own business, and encouraged by his brother who was now a prosperous merchant in New Orleans, Adolphe booked passage on the ship Adair in December 1849, and landed at that port in January 1850, after an 8-week voyage. A son was born to the Guirauds on March 28, 1850, so that might have been a difficult voyage for Marie. After only a 30-day stay in New Orleans, Adolphe took his family to • 33 •

34 • MARIE GUIRAUD

Cincinnati, Ohio, where he established himself as a dealer of imported wines. A fire at his business in 1853 forced Adolphe to consider other occupations. He unsuccessfully tried to farm for a short while, then operated a bakery in Cincinnati. Meanwhile, Adolphe’s brother had sold his business in New Orleans and had moved to Cincinnati where he became an importer of fine woolens and silks. Disagreements with his brother forced Adolphe to look elsewhere for a means to make a living. He left Cincinnati and moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he purchased a public scales. Marie, anxious to help the family fortunes, opened up a coffee house opposite the public market. She had borne two more sons by this time and had to give up the coffee house due to ill health. Meanwhile, Adolphe had become acquainted with Frank Mayhall, who, obviously inspired by Gold Rush news, proposed that the two of them form a partnership and open a mercantile business near Pikes Peak in Colorado. Adolphe left Kansas in 1860 and, with his partner, set up the mercantile business in the newly formed gold mining town of Hamilton. He had left Marie pregnant with a daughter born in Kansas during 1861. Adolphe returned in 1862 to bring his family to Colorado. Soon thereafter, Adolphe terminated his partnership in Hamilton and found land at the junction of the South Platte River and Trout Creek, a tributary in Park County. He bought a yoke of oxen, one cow and two horses and began life as a farmer-rancher on his newly acquired homestead of one hundred sixty acres. In 1863, the Guirauds tragically suffered the loss of their 10-year-old son, Henry Eugene, due to an accident. Needing change, they moved to Denver to open and run a meat market. Another daughter was born in 1865 while they were in Denver. The family returned to their homestead within a year. More children arrived—in 1869, 1871 and 1873. A total of ten children were born to the union of Adolphe and Marie Guiraud.

Acquaintances—Infamous & Famous

When Marie and Adolphe came to Colorado, the Civil War was in progress, and people had started to take sides. Most of Colorado was pro-Union, but a few Confederate sympathizers

BJORKLUND • 35

were in the area. Colorado’s involvement in the Civil War was minimal, but it touched the Guirauds. They became acquainted with Jim Reynolds, who, at first, was active in mining in the Fairplay area. Reynolds and his brother were Confederate sympathizers and, not very successful at mining, decided that robbing stagecoaches of the gold they carried was easier than digging it out of the ground. Reynolds swore that he and his gang were collecting money for the Confederate cause, but is not known to have actually given any of the loot to the cause. In July 1864, Reynolds spent a night at the Guiraud ranch. Captain Reynolds wrote several letters to friends in Fairplay and had a long discussion with Adolphe. The next morning he asked a number of questions about what time the stagecoach left Buckskin on its way to McLaughlin’s ranch, a stage stop near the site later known as the town of Como. Reynolds wanted to mail his letters by stage. Reynolds and his gang robbed that stage, the amount of gold taken fluctuating upward each time the story is told. The gold, however much there was, was supposedly buried in a spot near Grant, and the gang spent the next few weeks evading an angry posse. The Guirauds also became acquainted with another pioneer who was to become famous as “The Snowshoe Itinerant,” Father John Louis Dyer. Father Dyer had been appointed by the Methodist Episcopal Church to minister in Colorado among the miners. He made his rounds summer and winter alike and became proficient on what he called “snowshoes” which were actually barrel-stave type skis. One winter day during the early 1860s, Father Dyer was headed south from Hoosier Gulch, which was located near Montgomery, high in the mountains. He made it through Fairplay in deep snow, but it was getting dark and he still had about four miles to go. He had to stop every hundred feet or so to rest and scrape snow off his skis. He described the experience in his autobiography, “It seemed like being buried alive, the clods being shoveled in on the coffin.” At last he reached “Garro’s Ranch,” and held onto the doorknob for support as he knocked on the door. It was near eleven o’clock at night and the family had already gone to bed. But, hearing the knock, Adolphe jumped out of bed, his revolver in hand, and cried out, “Who’s there?” He was astounded to hear, “It

36 • MARIE GUIRAUD

is Dyer,” and hurried downstairs to let the miserable traveler in—without shooting, to the relief of the exhausted preacher. Father Dyer described his late-night meal as “hospitality so royal a king might envy it.” The next morning Adolphe saddled a pony and sent one of his sons with the good minister for a ways, to make sure he would be safe. Father Dyer continued south, following the Arkansas River, preaching at each place he stopped along the way.

No Strangers to the Court System

Adolphe farmed some of his land, reporting in 1868 that he had between forty and forty-five acres under cultivation, growing crops of wheat, oats, rye, potatoes and vegetables. Successful crops and cattle sales allowed him to increase his holdings to six hundred forty acres. Adolphe was no stranger to the courts as he brought complaints against at least two of his customers for non-payment of amounts owed to him. He was only 52 years old when he died in 1875, leaving Marie a widow with seven living children to rear and a ranch to run. He was buried in a family plot at the Fairplay Cemetery. Following her late husband’s example, Marie chose to go to the court system in 1879 when her neighbors diverted water from Trout Creek, the stream flowing through the Guiraud property, to irrigate their own lands. The attorneys for the defendants in the case swore that the water they took did not injure her property and questioned the Guirauds’ ownership of those water rights. This was a landmark case in Colorado water rights adjudication. Colorado water rights are based on the right of prior appropriation, meaning that the first one to use the water has the oldest and best right to it. Marie painstakingly went to other nearby neighbors and obtained written affidavits asserting that Adolphe had been the first settler to use the water and therefore, as his heirs, the water rights belonged to the Guirauds. The case dragged on for several years, but Marie finally won. The Guiraud Ditch is one of the oldest water rights in South Park, having an appropriation date of 1867. Also in 1879, Marie, who foresaw that the area would grow as a railroad junction point, had Fred Morse, a well-known engineer, plat the town that she would name after her late

BJORKLUND • 37

husband. She called it Garo, the English pronunciation of the family name. She sold and leased lots and began a carefully planned program of land acquisition. She was already successful with her hay crops and cattle business. As her sons grew up, they either helped on one of her ranches or worked ranches of their own. The Colorado Midland Railway Company established the Garo station, and a depot was built for shipping hay and cattle as well as for passenger service. A busy mercantile store was located nearby. The coming of the railroad was a watershed event, opening lucrative markets in Leadville and Denver. Families came and built several other houses and a school as Garo grew. A post office was established in the mercantile and the town in its busiest years had hotels, saloons, a livery and feed stable, a blacksmith and wagon maker, a sawmill operator, a stage stop and even an opera house. Marie was well-acquainted with the neighboring ranchers, among them Sam Hartsel, who had located his own ranch downstream and had similarly established a town which bore his name. She had often expressed the wish that one of her sons would marry Rose Mayol, Hartsel’s stepdaughter. But Rose later married Ralph Linscott and one of her children recorded memories of those days. Linscott remembered that Marie would take her sewing to a hill where she could watch her hay gang at work. She apparently did no banking until her neighbor ranchers talked her into depositing money into a bank in Colorado Springs, keeping only enough money on hand for operating expenses. In spite of her neighbors’ efforts to get her to use banks, the rumor was that, after her death, $80,000 in gold was found in the cellar of her home, all neatly placed in tin cans. Linscott also chuckled over Marie’s ability to breed superior cattle, mostly by appropriating the services of Hartsel’s prize bulls without his catching her. Linscott recalled Marie’s ongoing argument with the Colorado and Southern Railroad, which she finally solved in her own way. It seems that a number of her cattle had been killed by speeding trains, but the railroad refused to pay her claims for damages. The trains began to have trouble on steep grades near her property, the rails mysteriously becoming too slick for heavy engines to climb.

38 • MARIE GUIRAUD

Railroad detectives could prove nothing about the copious amounts of mutton tallow greasing the rails. When the railroad finally agreed to pay Marie’s bill, there was no more trouble with that section of track, according to Linscott. Marie went to court again in 1885 to sue John Harvey, a Leadville dealer who tried to avoid paying the total bill for hay he had purchased from Marie. Harvey’s attorneys claimed that part of the hay was bad, as it had been stored wet, then rotted, and was not of the highest quality in the first place. Marie testified, as did sons Louis and Jack, about the dry condition and first-class quality of the hay when they put it on the train car headed to Leadville. The courts found in Marie’s favor. In her testimony Marie revealed, “I can’t read English very well,” and “My little girl wrote for me what I told her to write,” referring to letters between Marie and Harvey. It is not known what level of education Marie had gained in France, but, in spite of her inability to read and write well in English, she still had the confidence to go after influential people who tried to cheat her. In August 1898, a new Episcopal Church was built at Garo. The report went on to say that, when not in use by members of the Episcopal Church, the building was available to any Christian denomination including the Roman Catholics. Mrs. Guiraud has, after all, donated the ground to the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado. In January 1906, Marie’s thirteen-room house burned to the ground. Everything in it was destroyed. The Colorado and Southern Railroad was blamed for throwing sparks that caused the disaster. Not to be daunted, Marie soon hired a contractor to build a replacement house. In February that year it was reported that, “Mrs. Marie Guiraud will have a substantial and roomy frame dwelling erected at her ranch home near Garo, to replace her home recently destroyed by fire.”

The Children

Marie’s endless labor provided a foundation for her children’s future lives. Each had a story of his or her own, some tragedies and some successes. Louis Charles Guiraud was born in Cincinnati in 1850, shortly after his parents arrived in the New World. He grew up ranching and operated a ranch his mother owned, the Prince Ranch. He married Corrine (Cora)

BJORKLUND • 39

Dudley in 1880. Louis was ambitious and ran a slaughter house as well as his ranch. He also invested in gold mines in the area, making profits as he bought and sold them. The local newspaper reported that he had suffered a painful accident in 1881. He was apparently leading a stallion, when the animal unexpectedly reared up and struck Louis’ arm with the flat of its hoof. Both major bones were broken and it took some time for his arm to heal. But the real tragedy occurred in August 1888. Louis had agreed to work his father-in-law’s hay crop that year and was in the field one afternoon when a thunderstorm rolled over the valley. A flash of lightning was followed by a loud roll of thunder and, as the newspaper reported, “in that instant Louis Guiraud’s earthly existence was ended.” The lightning struck the top of his head and passed through the bottom of his feet, tearing his boots to shreds. The same bolt of lightning knocked down a horse some fifty feet away and stunned the boy that was driving the horse, but neither of them were seriously injured. A mass was held at the home of his mother and Louis was laid to rest beside his father in the Fairplay Cemetery. Joseph Adolphe Guiraud was born in 1857, in Cincinnati. Known most of his life as “Jack,” he grew up to know ranching as did his brothers. Jack married Cynthia Rink in 1884 and they began to operate their ranch on land owned by his mother, part of the large estate she had accumulated. Jack and his mother raised hay and cattle, helping one another with their respective chores. Jack and Cynthia had five children together, three girls and two boys, the youngest of which died in infancy. All five were born at home with Jack’s mother assisting in each of the pregnancies and births. One of Jack and Cynthia’s daughters— Antoinette—became a schoolteacher and taught at both the Garo and Hartsel schools until she married. Jack and his family left the ranch around 1904 and moved to Fairplay, as he was then in the tie-cutting business. He also provided materials for the South Park Oil Company and the Colorado Telephone Company. Jack survived his mother by only a few months. He became ill in 1909, and soon learned that he had stomach cancer. Cynthia had been visiting her relatives in St. Louis, but returned home in time to be at his bedside when he passed away.

40 • MARIE GUIRAUD

Marie Mathilda Josephine was born in 1861 while her mother was living in Leavenworth, Kansas, and her father was operating a mercantile store in Hamilton, Colorado. When Adolphe returned to Kansas to collect his family and bring them to Colorado, “Tillie,” as she was known, came west with them by ox train. She lived at the Garo ranch until she married Peter Forney Reinhardt in 1881. The Reinhardts moved to Steamboat Springs in 1888. Tillie and Peter had five children. She died in 1917. Eugenia Louise was born during that interlude when Marie and Adolphe had moved to Denver. Shortly after her birth the Guiraud family returned to their ranch in South Park. In 1885, Eugenia married Obadiah Perry Spurlock, known to locals as O. P. or Obe Spurlock. Like the Guirauds, O. P. was a cattle rancher. He and Eugenia settled in Garo near the family homestead. They had three sons and a daughter. In 1903, it was reported that Eugenia received a light shock from lightning while tending a cow one Friday evening. She eventually recovered, but was never in very good health after that. In 1908, the year before her mother passed away, Eugenia became very ill and died. O. P. never remarried. Well-known to all in South Park, O. P. spent a number of years as county sheriff. Marie Antoinette, known as “Nettie,” was born in 1869 at the Garo ranch. She was the youngest daughter of Adolphe and Marie. Nettie married James Milligan in 1888, and they moved to his home in Victor, Colorado. They had one son, Fred. James passed away in 1917 from a protracted eye ailment. Nettie later married William Lindgren, also from Victor. Nettie survived her two younger brothers, Henry and Ernest. Henry Louis was born in 1871 at the Guiraud ranch. He married Emily Dixon in 1893 and moved onto the Prince Ranch that his older brother Louis had run until his untimely death in 1888. Henry and Emily had seven children, three of whom died in their early years. Henry did well. In 1902 he purchased the Dixon ranch in Buffalo Springs, previously owned by Emily’s family. A hired hand accused Henry of stealing and killing a 2-year-old steer belonging to a Fremont County rancher who had been running cattle on land near the Dixon ranch. Witnesses claimed Henry had not only stolen and killed the

BJORKLUND • 41

steer, but burned the part of the hide with the brand on it and buried the rest of it. The local newspaper reported that, “Mrs. Guiraud, the mother of the defendant, owns a fine ranch and a large number of cattle and is well to do, and the case will be fought with stubbornness.” The trial was delayed several times, once on account of the illness of the prosecutor and again when members of the Guiraud family contracted diphtheria. The case was finally dismissed. Henry died in 1935 at the age of 63 and was buried in the family plot at Fairplay. Ernest Charles, the youngest child, was born in 1873, just 2 years before his father died. He grew up on the Guiraud ranch and was an old hand at roping and riding. The story is told in the Harry A. Epperson book, Colorado as I Saw It, about “Nest” or “Ness” as he was sometimes called. Nest, on horseback, was trying to turn back a horse that had broken out and was running and dragging a rope. He seemed to be about to catch the errant horse, when his own horse stepped both front feet into a badger hole and dumped Ernest “end over end.” The horse got up and walked away, but Nest still lay on the ground. One of the men came over and discovered that he still had a heartbeat, so they thought he would survive. They carried him to a spot near the mess wagon, and he finally revived later that evening. Ernest married Mamie Nash in 1897. They had two daughters. He inherited and managed the Guiraud ranch after his mother died in 1909. After his death in 1936, his daughter Mildred and her husband Harry Johns inherited the Guiraud holdings. When Mildred died in 1942, Johns sold the ranch to J. T. McDowell, ending the Guiraud family ownership. Two other children of Adolphe and Marie Guiraud remain mysterious. The names “Marie” and “John” are cited. According to Park County census records neither name was listed in 1870 or 1880. One possible conclusion is that one or both may have been born and died prior to Louis’ birth in 1850—one account says that Adolphe brought his “family” aboard the ship headed for New Orleans. Another possibility is that one or both were born and died during the time that Adolphe and Marie spent in Cincinnati. Since Marie lost all of her personal records when her home burned down in 1906, that information was probably lost.

42 • MARIE GUIRAUD

During the final year of her life, Marie was reported to be ill or recovering a number of times. Her last 2 months were spent largely confined to her bed and her death was finally caused by “paralysis,” which might have meant a stroke. When she died on June 15, 1909, at the age of 79, she had lived a life of great successes in spite of the tragedies that she had endured. The tragic loss of several children, early widowhood, two devastating house fires, more than forty high-country winters, the pressures of running a business—any one of these factors could crush the spirit of a person, man or woman. But not the indomitable Marie Guiraud, who in a man’s world, persevered through all that and more. She was, indeed, a remarkable character. Linda Bjorklund is an accountant who built a retirement home with her husband in the mountains of Park County, but still does some tax returns to keep her practice going. She became interested in the history of the area and involved in the several historical organizations, including the Park County Archives. She has written Hartsel: History of a Town, Gold in the Gravel, Doin’ Time in Fairplay, and Over Boreas Pass. Her most recent book, Burros!, was written on behalf of the archives as a fund raiser.

BJORKLUND • 43

The Guiraud family and friends, probably near the Guiraud ranch or Fairplay. Cynthia Caroline Rink Guiraud (far left), her daughter, Antoinette Guiraud (near the horse), Fred Otto Guiraud (standing far right, with hat), and his sister Emma Guiraud Moore (seated looking beyond the right of the photograph). Courtesy of Jacquelyn (Guiraud) Miller and Fred Guiraud.

For years historians believed this to be a portrait of Laura Bell McDaniel. In reality the portrait is of actress Maxine Elliott as the character of Portia in The Merchant of Venice. The woman does, however, resemble Ms. McDaniel’s descendants. Courtesy of the Old Colorado City Historical Society.

Laura Bell McDaniel: Queen of the Colorado City Tenderloin Jan MacKell Of all of the wicked women who clandestinely ran the West, Laura Bell McDaniel rates as a most outstanding figure. As a prominent madam in the lowest of trades—prostitution—Laura Bell’s strength, courage and acute business sense is notable. She also proves to be an exception to so many thousands of such women who were ostracized from their families, suffered at the hands of authorities, forced to give up their children, and failed to win respect among their peers. To the contrary, Laura Bell achieved success that most women in her line of work only dreamt of having. Laura Bell actually came from extremely humble beginnings. She was born on November 27, 1860, in Buffalo Lick, Missouri, to James and Anna Horton of Kentucky. James was a farmer by trade.1 The Hortons had a son, James Jr., who was born in August 1858.2 By 1870, James Sr. had died, possibly during the Civil War. The widow Anna continued farming and was raising 12-year-old James Jr. and 10-year-old Laura. Also living in the house was 18-year-old David Hasbly, who was probably a farm hand. The number of other Hortons living nearby indicates that although she was a struggling widow with children to raise, Anna likely received at least some help from her family.3 Between 1870 and 1878, Anna married another farmer, John Warmoth. The couple had another daughter, Birdie Mae, in 1878. By 1880, the Warmoth household consisted of John and Anna, Birdie Warmoth, James Horton Jr., and Laura Bell Horton. Although she called herself Laura in the 1870 census, Laura Bell had begun going by Bell by 1880. Also living in the home were two nephews, Frederick Horton and Wiley Short.4 In November 1880, Laura Bell married Samuel Dale, the son of a local wagon maker.5 In 1882, the couple moved to Colorado. It is believed that Laura Bell spent time, alone, in El Paso, Texas or Las Cruces, New Mexico, upon leaving Missouri. At either • 45 •

46 • LAURA BELL MCDANIEL

place, she was said to have met Henry McCarty, alias Billy the Kid. Laura Bell also met Henry‘s cousin, Dusty McCarty, and the two were destined to be lifelong friends.6 Laura Bell next surfaced in Salida, Colorado. Her stepfather had died, and Laura Bell’s mother and sister also came to Salida. Anna went to work as a laundress.7 Within a year of her arrival, Laura Bell gave birth to her only daughter, Eva Pearl.8 Some time after that, if he was still present at all, Samuel Dale seems to have disappeared. By 1885, Laura Bell was living next door to her mother in Salida. With her was her daughter and she had also brought one of her nephews, 9-year-old Wiley Short, along. She was working as a clerk.9 The first time Laura Bell appeared in the Salida newspapers was during the winter of 1886—1887. At the time she was living next to Mulvaney‘s Store, across the railroad tracks and far away from the red light district. She was also seeing a man named John Thomas McDaniel, a local liquor dealer.10 While the couple was on a trip to Leadville, Laura Bell‘s house burned to the ground. As it happened, she was highly insured and arson was immediately suspected. A man named Morgan Dunn was thought to have set the fire. Dunn, a man of questionable character, was boarding at the home of Laura Bell‘s mother.11 An investigation failed to prove anything, however, and Laura Bell relocated to a new home near the heart of Salida‘s red light district.12 Despite her proximity to the red light district, Laura Bell did not appear to have taken up prostitution as a career just yet. She married Tom McDaniel on April 7, 1887.13 It is entirely possible that McDaniel was responsible for getting Laura Bell interested not just in insurance scams, but also being a prostitute. Things did not work out like he planned; Laura Bell no sooner got her insurance money a month into the marriage when she reported to her new husband that Morgan Dunn had tried to kiss her earlier that day. Tom retorted, “Why didn‘t you kill the son of a bitch?” It was Friday the 13th. Tom and his bride walked over to Anna‘s house to confront Dunn. The argument got heated enough that Tom, Laura, and her mother Anna, left and went back to Tom and Laura

MACKELL • 47

Bell‘s. When Tom came back from buying some candles later that evening, he found Morgan Dunn there and another fight ensued. This time, McDaniel drew a gun and fired five shots, killing Morgan Dunn. Employees from a nearby hotel heard the shots and ran over to find Tom standing in front of the door with Laura Bell and her mother clinging to him and screaming. Tom only said “He had no business in my house.”14

Laura Bell Dale’s marriage to John Thomas McDaniel in April 1887 was less than happy. Tom killed Morgan Dunn after Laura Bell said that Dunn tried to kiss her. Tom was found innocent, but he and Laura Bell soon left Salida, Colorado, apparently parting ways. Courtesy of Jan MacKell.

Tom McDaniel was found innocent by self-defense, but the general public had other notions. When the newspaper began speculating over McDaniel‘s innocence, the couple left town. They apparently also parted ways. Laura Bell was alone when she next surfaced in Colorado City in 1888 under the name Bell McDaniel.15 Although she first lived on Colorado Avenue, Laura Bell soon moved to the red light district one block south on

48 • LAURA BELL MCDANIEL

Washington Avenue, known today as Cucharras Street. The city jail was located right around the corner, but it was not long before Laura Bell was running one of the fanciest brothels in town and having rumored affairs with the rich men of Colorado Springs. Laura Bell’s Faro dealer in 1889 was Bob Ford, the infamous killer of Jessie James.16 In time, Anna moved to a house around the corner and continued raising Birdie Mae, as well as Laura Bell’s daughter Pearl. This situation was actually quite unusual in the prostitution industry. Equally unusual was Laura Bell‘s open friendship with a respectable and well-known known hack driver. His name was John “Prairie Dog” O’Byrne, and his occupation was driving visitors between Colorado Springs and Colorado City. Prairie Dog was well known for several reasons. His wagon was pulled by elk, and on the back he kept a cage with a pet prairie dog in it. He was also known for the speed at which he could convey his passengers from Colorado Springs to the bars and brothels of Colorado City. His friendship with Laura Bell was a perfect match, since she appreciated O‘Byrne‘s respectable status as much as O‘Byrne appreciated her notorious reputation.17 By 1890, Anna had married John Kistler and continued living nearby. Laura Bell was also taking regular trips to Denver with her sister Birdie, who from all appearances never entered prostitution. Their friendship is interesting and uncommon, but Laura Bell was extremely loyal to her family and contributed heavily to the family bank account. Her bordello during this time came complete with a ballroom, costly furniture and even livery servants. It is highly unusual that her family not only accepted her for what she was, but was also willing to live in close proximity to her place of business.18 In 1893, Laura Bell filed for divorce from Tom McDaniel on grounds of failure to support.19 Anna‘s husband died in 1898, but she continued living close by with Birdie. Also at the house was Birdie’s husband, Ed Moats, the Moats’s son Cecil, who was born in 1900, and Laura Bell‘s daughter, Pearl. Around the corner, Laura Bell employed at least two working girls who lived on the premises, as well as two black servants. There were also two other men living there who were probably employees of the house.20

MACKELL • 49

Between 1901 and 1907, Laura Bell purchased two new brothels, as well as a home on Grand Avenue (now Vermijo Street).21 In 1902, she suffered through another fire, but whether this was intentional is unknown.22 She also tried doing business in Cripple Creek in 1904.23 In all plausibility, Laura Bell chose to move to Cripple Creek because her sister Birdie, divorced from Ed Moats, had married Harry Hooyer and relocated there. Laura Bell‘s mother died in 1905.24 The following year Laura Bell’s niece, Laura Horton, moved to Colorado City and took a job as a telephone operator. Born to Laura Bell’s brother James in 1889, Little Laura, as she was called, could only have been about 17 when she left home.25 Little Laura took up lodging in her grandmother Anna’s former house on Grand Avenue.26 Laura Bell returned to Colorado City in 1908 and it is assumed that soon after that, Little Laura moved in with her.27 By then the red light district had grown considerably and included such competing madams as Mamie Majors, whose bordello was next to Laura Bell‘s. It is interesting to note that both houses were very similar in design with a long hallway on each floor opening into various rooms.28

Mamie Majors, also known as Mamie Rogers, owned this Colorado City bordello located at 617 Washington Avenue. Mamie’s place was next door to Laura Bell’s, which was located at 615. Photo by Jan MacKell.

50 • LAURA BELL MCDANIEL

Colorado City Mayor Ira Foote issued a warning in January 1909 that all prostitutes had 10 days to get out of town. The point was emphasized by two mysterious fires that burned down most of the red-light district.29 The Trilby, Laura Bell‘s house of ill fame, was one of the casualties. As always, however, she was heavily insured and immediately rebuilt a $10,000 parlor house of brick with fancy red lamps out front.30 By 1910, 21-year-old Laura Horton may have been working as a prostitute for her aunt; old-timers later recalled that Little Laura was in training to take over Laura Bell‘s bordello. There is no record of what Little Laura’s father, James, thought about the situation. At the time, James Horton was living in Oklahoma with his son Grover.31 There is little doubt, however, that he knew of the whereabouts of his daughter. His other daughter, Beulah, was living in Denver. Interestingly, by this time Pearl was not living with her mother and cousin, but was living under the name Pearl Langdon in Denver and working as a respectable bookkeeper.32 Whether Pearl was using a new married name is unknown. The same can be said for her cousin Little Laura who, under her possible given name of Anna Laurie Horton, married a Robert W. Pearson of Colorado City in late 1910.33 Although Little Laura worked in her aunt’s bordello, it is possible that Pearl moved to Denver because the authorities were incensed by her mother’s actions. But they were not much of a match for Laura Bell. When her fines and arrests increased, she hired William D. Lombard, a prominent Colorado Springs attorney, and married Herbert Berg, financial editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, in 1911.34 The next year, Laura Bell and Birdie made another trip to Denver to witness Pearl‘s marriage to Charles Kitto.35 When Colorado City authorities tried to shut down the red light district in 1913, some of the citizens moved a few blocks north and established a new town called Ramona. Laura Bell invested in the Ramona Athletic Club, a fancy name for a boxing ring, but she refused to move out of her old digs in Colorado City. She did, however, list herself as the “keeper of furnished rooms“ in city directories. Inside, however, the business was the same.36

MACKELL • 51

Laura Bell’s last house, located at 2612 West Cucharras Street, now functions as the Mountain View Care Center. Photo by Jan MacKell.

Laura Bell also refused to budge when Colorado City was annexed to Colorado Springs in 1917. Herbert Berg had died the year before, and his death likely cost Laura Bell some of her power over authorities.37 In November 1917, Laura Bell was ultimately accused of possessing thirty-four bottles of high grade liquor, reported to have been stolen from the mansion of Charles Baldwin in the Broadmoor.38 Today, Baldwin’s home is known as the Trianon and is home to the elite Colorado Springs School. Laura Bell’s bail was set at $1,500, and her court date to answer charges for “Receiving Stolen Goods“ was set for January 18, 1918. Witnesses during the trial included such prominent men as city detective John Rowan and several policemen. The interesting exception was Charles Baldwin, whose paperwork indicated he was “out of town. Won‘t be back soon.”39 Fortunately it was none other than Dusty McCarty who was able to prove that two men had stolen the liquor from Baldwin‘s and planted it at Laura Bell‘s. The case was dismissed.40 The day after her acquittal Laura Bell, along with Little Laura and Dusty, who was now blind, set out for Denver. By

52 • LAURA BELL MCDANIEL

The Criminal Information document lists the charge, bail and witnesses for Laura Bell’s court case in 1918. She had been known so long as just “Laura Bell” that perhaps it is not surprising that authorities neglected to type in her last name. Courtesy of El Paso County Clerk & Recorder’s Office, Colorado Springs,

Colorado.

this time, Little Laura and all of her cousins were actually living in Denver within close proximity of each other.41 Little Laura was driving her aunt‘s Mitchell Touring Car. Laura Bell was very proud of her car and had just had it serviced.42 Between Colorado Springs and Castle Rock, however, the car left the road at forty miles per hour—an amazing speed for 1918—and rolled three times. Twenty-seven-year-old Little Laura was killed instantly and Dusty was knocked unconscious. Laura

MACKELL • 53

Bell died later that night in Colorado Springs from massive injuries to her ribs, chest and lungs. She was 56 years old. Harry Hooyer, Birdie‘s husband, signed the death certificate.43 What caused Little Laura to drive at such a dangerous speed along a curvy and icy dirt road on a wintry day? Was it because prostitutes like to have fun and she was just joy-riding? Or was it because Colorado Springs Deputy District Attorney Jack Caruthers and two other men were chasing her? Caruthers and his friends claimed they were two-hundred yards ahead of the car when the accident happened, and they were the only witnesses.44 Is it possible they had just passed the McDaniel car and ran it off the road? We’ll probably never know. There are no records regarding the incident and the courthouse at Castle Rock burned some years ago. If blind Dusty McCarty was able to tell authorities anything, his words are lost to history. Despite her untimely death, Laura Bell did not fade into obscurity. Following an elaborate $1,800 funeral for her cousin and mother, Pearl inherited Laura Bell’s estate. It was valued at over $22,000, which included $11,000 in cash, five diamond rings and property in Colorado City, Manitou Springs and Washington state.45 In 1921, Laura Bell‘s family had her body moved to the front entrance of Fairview Cemetery, possibly so authorities could be constantly reminded of what they had done.46 Even today, Laura Bell’s admirers still occasionally leave flowers on her grave. Laura Bell‘s last house, the Trilby, is still largely intact as a nursing home on Cucharras Street. How was Laura Bell an extraordinary woman in the Rocky Mountain West? She defied authorities for 30 years and ran a successful—if illegal—business as a single mother. She maintained close family ties while working in the prostitution industry. She was a friend and associate to people from the lowest of working girls to the millionaires who built Colorado Springs. Laura Bell‘s family in Colorado—Anna Kistler, Birdie Mae Hooyer, Beulah Horton, Laura Pearson, Harry Hooyer Jr., and Cecil Moats—all benefited from her wealth. When she died at an elite apartment house in 1963,47 Pearl left an estate of over $200,000 with stock in such prominent companies as Fox Pictures, Kodak and Holly Sugar.48 Unfortunately Pearl had no children to carry on Laura Bell’s

54 • LAURA BELL MCDANIEL

inheritance, but Laura Bell also left behind a rich and endearing legacy as a most unique character. Even as late as the 1980s, there were still old-timers who remembered Laura Bell and how regal and graceful she was.49 It is said that the only known photograph of Laura Bell was stolen from the Old Colorado City Historical Society many years ago. If photographs of the descendants of her brother James are any indication, however, Laura Bell likely had black wavy hair, fair skin and the pink cheeks of the Black Irish. For that reason a portrait of actress Maxine Elliott, portraying Portia in Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice, was for many years believed to be that of Laura Bell.50 The painting is owned by the Old Colorado City Historical Society. The Queen of the Colorado City Tenderloin was also remembered by Prairie Dog O‘Byrne, who memorialized her in a poem he wrote about his life in Colorado City. It is a fitting tribute to one of the West‘s favorite madams: In Old Town I cut quite a dash. I took many pains to spend all my cash, and I drove through the street with Laura Bell by my side— A span of elk, how fine we did ride. We drove down to Byron Hames‘ old place, And says I, ‘Let‘s go in and see what‘s the muss, For I feel just at present like having a fuss. . . And there stood Soapy Smith with three cards in his hand, And each word he uttered he spoke with command: ‘Now gents,’ he would say, ‘there is the ace and it is plain to be seen.‘ And that‘s where I lost all my money on the Ace and the Queen.51

MACKELL • 55

Jan MacKell is the author of several articles about Colorado history. Her first book, Cripple Creek District: Last of Colorado’s Gold Booms was published in 2003 (Arcadia Publishing). In 2004, the University of New Mexico Press published her second book, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls: Prostitution in Colorado 1860—1930, which is now in its second printing. She also wrote chapters for The Colorado Labor Wars: Cripple Creek 1903—1904, and for a UNM textbook titled Preserving Western History. MacKell’s third book, Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountains, was published by UNM Press in 2009. MacKell has served as an Historic Preservation Commissioner for the city of Cripple Creek and currently is the director of the Cripple Creek District Museum.

Notes

1. Jan MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls: Prostitution in Colorado 1860-1930 (Albuquerque, N.Mex.: University of New Mexico Press, 2004), 125. 2. U.S. Federal Census, 1860. Buffaloe [sic] Lick, Chariton, Missouri, 17. Anna is listed as Eliza in the 1860, 1870 and 1880 census records. 3. U.S. Federal Census, 1870. Buffalo Lick, Chariton, Missouri, 9. 4. U.S. Federal Census, 1880. Missouri, Chariton, Missouri, Enumeration District 165, 23. 5. Ancestry.com. Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002 [database on-line]. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. 6. Jim Easterbrook, The Time Traveler in Old Colorado (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Great Western Press, 1985), 28. 7. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 126. Correspondence with Donna Nevins, Salida, Colorado, 1996. 8. Letter from Denise Oldach, City of Colorado Springs Park & Recreation, February 1, 1995. 9. Colorado State Census, 1885. Chaffee, Enumeration District 2, 16. 10. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 127. 11. Ibid. 12. Salida Semi-Weekly Mail, May 20, 1887. 13. Chaffee County Marriage Records, Clerk & Recorder, Chaffee County Courthouse, Buena Vista, Colorado. 14. Salida Semi-Weekly Mail, May 27, 1887. 15. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 129.

56 • LAURA BELL MCDANIEL 16. Marshall Sprague, Newport in the Rockies: The Life and Good Times of Colorado Springs (Denver, Colo.: Sage Books, 1961), 114. 17. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 129. 18. Ibid, 186. 19. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, June 24, 1893. 20. Fairview Cemetery, Colorado Springs (Old Colorado City), Colorado; U.S. Federal Census, 1900. Colorado City, El Paso, Colorado, Enumeration District 22, 22B. 21. Colorado Springs city directories, 1901-1907. 22. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 132. 23. Colorado Springs city directories, 1901-1907, Cripple Creek city directory, 1905. 24. Colorado Springs Gazette, October 26, 1905. 25. Debbie Gordon, “It Must Be My Side of The Tree,” http:// familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/o/r/Debbie-L-Gordon/ index.html. 26. Colorado Springs city directory, 1906. 27. Ibid, 1908. 28. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 141. 29. Ibid., 204. 30. Jan MacKell, “Demise of a Madam or, Why Laura Bell Should Have Stayed in Cripple Creek“ Colorado Gambler Magazine, January 19-25, 1999, 8. 31. U.S. Federal Census, 1910. North Fox, Lincoln, Oklahoma, District 102, 5A. 32. Denver city directory, 1910. 33. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, July 31, 1910. 34. Marriage records of El Paso County, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 35. Colorado Department of Health, Marriage Records, Denver. 36. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 236. 37. Ibid. 38. Easterbrook, 23. 39. Case #6599 State of Colorado vs. Laura Bell, January 1918, El Paso County Courthouse, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 40. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 238. 41. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, January 26, 1918. 42. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 238. 43. Colorado Springs Independent, January, 31, 1918. 44. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 239. 45. Estate of Laura Bell McDaniel, Probate File #M311, El Paso County Courthouse, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 46. Fairview Cemetery Records, Death Register, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

MACKELL • 57 47. Denver city directory, 1963. 48. Last Will & Testimony of Eva Pearl Kitto, Denver, Colorado. 49. Interview with Richard “Red” Buss, 1989, Colorado City, Colorado. 50. Correspondence with Debbie Gordon via Ancestry.com, 2006. 51. MacKell, Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls, 242.

Laura Bell McDaniel was interred at Fairview Cemetery, Colorado Springs. Also buried at the gravesite are John Kistler, Laura’s stepfather; Anna Kistler, Laura’s mother; Birdie Mae Hooyer, Laura’s sister; and “Little” Laura Pearson, Laura’s niece. Photo by Jan MacKell.

Clearly distinct roles of working women began to evolve in Colorado Springs and Manitou during the 1920s. Advertisements appearing in the city directories prominently listed women as owners and managers of numerous businesses. From the 1921 and 1923 R. L. Polk & Co.’s Colorado Springs, Colorado City and Manitou City Directory.

From Breeding Persian Cats to Wrapping Candy: Working Women of Colorado Springs In the 1920s Michael L. Olsen & Patricia B. Olsen The headline in the Colorado Springs Gazette was relatively pedestrian. It read, “Mrs. Georgia Easley Wins Master of Arts Degree from College.” But the lead sentence was provocative, both then and for us today. It read, “Can a woman keep house, attend college, and educate a daughter at the same time?” In answer to this question Mrs. Easley, who was getting her M.A. degree from Colorado College in history and sociology, felt compelled to defend herself. She said, “I have not done any less housework for going to college. I merely systematized it. Most of my college work I did mornings, leaving the afternoons free for home duties.” She added, with an oblique reference to the changing role of women in the 1920s, “I have done college work instead of the club and other activities in which many women engage.” Until the 1920s, men indisputably dominated the American economy. Not until World War I and after did women truly begin to enter the business world in ever-increasing numbers. In part, the impact of that war and changing social attitudes concerning women, as witnessed by their gaining the right to vote in 1920, made the 1920s the first decade of the modern economic emancipation of American women. This study will investigate the role of women working outside the home in the economic life of Colorado Springs in the 1920s. Relying on information from the 1920 U.S. Census and the Colorado Springs City Directory for 1924, questions asked include: How many women worked outside the home? In what occupations were women most numerous? Among these women, who owned and operated their own businesses? Were there any especially remarkable businesswomen? And, did • 59 •

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Colorado Springs offer any unique economic opportunities for women at that time? Colorado Springs had a population of just over thirty thousand in 1920. Of this number, 54 percent—or about sixteen thousand—were female. Of these females, around thirteen thousand were over the age of 15, the age at which many women and men might begin working full time in those days. These women constitute the pool of available female workers. Unfortunately, the census report does not distinguish how many of these women had gainful employment.1 There is a second valuable guide to the changing role of women during this decade. In 1929, the Census Bureau published a detailed study entitled—as perhaps only a federal government document could be—Women in Gainful Occupations 1870 to 1920, a Study of the Trend of Recent Changes in the Numbers, Occupational Distribution, and Family Relationship of Women Reported in the Census as Following a Gainful Occupation. From this document we learn that the percentage of working women in American cities with populations comparable to that of Colorado Springs was 20.8 percent of all women over the age of 14, which would give a total of approximately two thousand seven hundred working women in the city. This study most interestingly emphasized the changing nature of employment among women. For instance, the number of working women in the state Marie Tate Fowler and Erma Fowler of Colorado increased from cleaning the porch at 516 East Columbia 11.6 percent of the eligible Street, ca. 1920. From Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, gift of Mrs. Ralph female population in 1880, to Fowler, (001-715). 20.6 percent in 1920. Between

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1910 and 1920 the report noted that the number of women in “five important occupations for their sex” had actually declined. These occupations included servant, dressmaker, laundress, milliner, and boarding house or lodge keeper. The author of the report speculated that the decrease in this latter occupation was due to the growth of large hotels and the demise of “small hotels—many of which were little more than boarding houses with ambitious names.” This change, as will be shown, did not affect Colorado Springs, largely because it was a tourist destination. Conversely, occupations with increasing numbers of women employees between 1910 to 1920 included clerks, factory operatives, stenographers, typists, cashiers, bookkeepers, accountants, saleswomen, and school teachers. The number of telephone operators more than doubled during the same decade, and the number of “religious, charity, welfare workers, and college presidents and professors” increased by more than 200 percent.2 How did Colorado Springs specifically fit into this picture? For an answer we can turn to published city directories, which tied individual names with specific occupations. Hence we know that Elizabeth M. Miller owned the “Persian Cattery” and advertised “Stud Cats at Service.” Her cattery was at 1015 South Nevada. Nine women identified themselves as candy wrappers, four as candy packers, one as a chocolate dipper, and two as candy manufacturers. Evidently local confectionary firms had not yet been driven out of business by national Hershey or Nestlé. The Colorado Springs and Manitou City Directory, 1924, compiled by the R. L. Polk Directory Company, lists the occupations of approximately 2,415 women, which is very close to the estimate of 2,700 working women in Colorado Springs mentioned above. Most numerous were the 361 teachers and principals. Other jobs with more than 100 women represented include clerks—316, maids—291, nurses—215, stenographers—183, and bookkeepers—138. These categories reflect that Colorado Springs (and Manitou) comfortably fit into the national averages. Further down the range, between ten and one hundred women were employed as cashiers, Christian Science practitioners, cooks, domestics, dressmakers, elevator operators, hairdressers, housekeepers, laundry workers,

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librarians, matrons, milliners, music teachers, physicians’ assistants, saleswomen, seamstresses, secretaries, telephone operators, and waitresses.3 There were ninety-three women who kept furnished rooms, ran boarding houses, or owned “small hotels” mentioned above. This number included five women who owned “tourist camps,” reflecting the changing nature of travel affected by the increasing number of private automobiles and the Pikes Peak region as a tourist destination. Typical of these women were Mrs. Florenda Chapin, proprietress of “Mountain Side Camp,” with “Cabins for Campers, Automobile Sheds, All Conveniences,” and Mrs. Mabel Johnson of “Stone Wall Park,” who advertised it as “On Main Road to Manitou, Central Point for all Main Attractions, 1, 2, and 4 Room Cottages, Cafeteria, Store, Rooms and Bath, Free Camp Ground, Sight-Seeing Autos,” located at 3700 West Colorado Avenue.

The Linen Room at the Antlers Hotel, 1911. Pictured are Alice Sturgess, Matilda Kramer (the Head Housekeeper), and Mary E. Leach. The forth woman is not identified. From Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, gift of

Mrs. Willis (Betty) Magee, (001-4207).

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The list of jobs with fewer than ten gainfully employed women encompasses an additional fifty-eight occupations, though in some instances exactly what type of work was involved can only be conjectured: Apiary Artist Attendant Bookbinder Buyers, Giddings & Kirk Candy Manufacturer Caretaker Carrier Chocolate Dipper Corsetiere Dancing Teacher Dental Assistant Designer Doll Hospital Dry Goods Employee Financial Secretary Furrier Hemstitching Inst., School for the Deaf & Blind Manicurist Musician Office Worker Photographer Poultry Press Feeder Supervisor Wrapper

Art Goods Assistant—Hospital Baker Butter Wrapper Café Manager, High School Candy Packer Carpet Weaver Checker, Y.W.C.A. Confectioner Creamery Worker Demonstrator Deputy County Clerk Dietitian Driver Electrolysist Employment Agency Owner Florist Grocer Instructor, Colorado College Janitor Music Director, City Schools News Agency Owner Packer Pottery Worker Preserves Presser Technician

It is interesting to note here that the 1920 Census Report listed a total of five hundred seventy-two occupations nationwide and that women were represented in all but thirtyfive. Nationally 2,198 women were identified as laborers in blast furnaces and steel rolling mills—an occupation Colorado Springs did not have.4

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The majority of business and professional women in the city in 1924 can be grouped into four categories: owners of businesses; women in occupations connected with clothing, beauty, and the home; women in management positions; and women in the health care professions. Businesses owned independently by women included everything from restaurants, stores and shops, grocery stores, and real estate and insurance agencies to business colleges, professional stenography offices, curio companies, “schools of expression,” dog kennels and china decorating studios. The list includes Mrs. Lotty A. Joslyn, publisher of the Manitou Springs Journal, and Gertrude Decker, of “Decker and Sons, Embalmers and Funeral Directors.” Overall there are at least fifty women in this category and, while all of them cannot be named, consider: Pansy Barstow of Pansy’s Lunch Room, who advertised “Meals and Short Orders, Sandwiches of All Kinds, Lunches Put Up, Home Cooking, Come and See.” Or, Louise McPherson of The China Jim Store, which carried, “Chinese Fancy Goods, High Class Chinese Incense, Ginger, Kumquats, Embroideries, Etc.” Or, Jennie Korsmeyer, president of Korsmeyer Drug Company, whose Secretary-Treasurer was Helen Korsemeyer. Or, Mrs. A. [Rosie] McColl, representative of the New York Life Insurance Company, “The Largest Life Insurance Company in the World,” a company which pioneered life insurance for single women in the United States beginning as early as the 1890s; one of the company’s first clients was Susan B. Anthony.5 And, Mrs. Elsie Weimer, president of the Seven Falls Curio Company, who also served as vice-president-secretary of the Seven Falls Company, owners of the famous local falls and their gift shop. Women in businesses connected with clothing, beauty, and the home, might own shops selling hats or women’s fashions, beauty parlors, or be employed as interior decorators, as was Mrs. Kingsley Ballou, of Ballou Studios, which sold “Interior Decorations, Draperies, Upholstery, and Artistic Furniture.” Perhaps the leading beauty salon was Floyd’s Marcelle Shop, owned and operated by Daisy Floyd. She advertised heavily in the Gazette, offering a wide range of services. Besides the latest

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hair styles, patrons could have “warts, moles and superfluous hair removed” by electrolysis and could get a new wig, “in stock or made to order.” Ms. Floyd also ran a “night school for beauty shop operators,” though it seems odd she would have trained her own competition. She assured students that “the courses offered will be very thorough and you will receive detailed instruction by competent artists.” Floyd’s Marcelle Shop was located at 222 North Tejon.6

China Jim’s store, 7 East Pikes Peak Avenue, ca. 1900. Leo James “China Jim” Bofonda (Bo Fon Da) advertised that his “Choice art goods from the Orient” were “personally selected by me during my stay of two years in the art centers of China and Japan.” His store carried “the best and rarest . . . curios, relics, cabinet pieces and household decorative ware in China and bronze.” From Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (001-2031).

Nearly forty women listed themselves as professional managers of one sort or another. The roster included being a “matron” at the Detention Home, Glockner Sanitorium, the

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Union Printers Home, the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, and, intriguingly, the YMCA. There also was a woman in charge at the Postal-Telegraph Cable Company, the Monument Park Pavilion, and the Magnecoil Electric Health Blanket Company. Others with similar responsibilities were the Chief Operator at the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company, the supervisor of Beth-El Hospital, the local director of the Girl Scouts of America, Sister Mary—superioress of the Glockner Training School for Nurses, the director of the Broadmoor Art Academy, and a deaconess at St. Stephens Episcopal Church. Health care provided women with a variety of opportunities. There were at least three women physicians in town—Fannie C. Cooper, Letty White, and Almy S. Smith. Dr. White advertised frequently in the newspaper, advising in the “Personals” column of the classified ads section that she specialized “in diseases of women and children.” She had an office in the First National Bank Building. There were six women osteopaths, all presumably trained at the famous Still’s School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri, the only such school in the country. Only Lona E. Pauly, B.S., D.O., however, identified herself as such in her city directory entry. A further five women made their living as chiropractors, but again only one, Edith Forster Smith of Smith and Smith—her husband also was a chiropractor—noted that she was a graduate of The Palmer School of Chiropractic. People with aching feet could visit Mary J. Prendergast, a chiropodist, consult with Elizabeth W. Forster, R.N., of the Visiting Nurses Association, or get a massage from Anna Obelhart, “Swedish Massage Expert,” who also offered “Vapor Baths and Physical Culture.” As is apparent, the columns of the Gazette offer a glimpse of the world of working women in addition to that provided by the city directory. Only through the newspaper would we know of the working life of various dress shop owners, or “parlour milliners,” for example. We read on February 26 that Miss Osborne of “The Dress Shop in the Bungalow” at 612 North Tejon, “has returned from the wholesale millinery market with a complete line of pattern and sports hats,” and on February 8 that “MME. Florine has just returned from the Palm

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Beaches and wishes to announce the sale of French and New York dresses.” On February 24, readers learned that Miss Carol Truax and Mrs. Ruth Silliman will open a book shop at No. 5 East Pikes Peak Avenue in April. They planned to carry fiction, biography, and travel as well as old and rare books in elaborate bindings, along with prints, handmade writing paper, pottery, glass and leather. The “Help Wanted” and “Personals” columns of the newspaper provide another and somewhat different snapshot of Colorado Springs’ working women. First, there were four categories of help wanted: “Male Help Wanted,” “Female Help Wanted,” “Situations Wanted,” and “Agents Wanted.” Positions listed in both the male and female help wanted ads often distinguished, as might be expected, desirable candidates by race and age, as in “Middle-aged white woman for general housework,” or “Elderly lady as housekeeper on ranch near town,” or “Girls experienced in selling cigars and cashier work—references required.” Similarly we read in the “Situations Wanted” column, “Colored woman desires half-day housework or laundry work.” On September 15, Mrs. J. Fred Thomas of Manitou needed a “Maid for general housework in delightful home. Splendid place for the right person. Must be clean and good cook.” And precursors to today’s television “infomercials” could be found under “Agents Wanted,” where one ad called for “Men and women of integrity to distribute spices, toilet requisites, pharmaceutical remedies, etc. Big money for full or part time. Free samples.”7 Women from all walks of life who were interested in advancing themselves economically could join various women’s business clubs or groups in town. Blair’s Business College had “Business Girls Club” which met regularly “in the club rooms at the Y.W.C.A.” Club notices added that “All business girls of the city are invited.” On February 23, W. G. Easton addressed this club on the subject, “The Ideal Business Girl.” The following week the club hosted a Valentine’s Party when “boys in the college will be the guests.” The city also boasted a Business and Professional Women’s Club which had elected officers, committees, and a program chairperson. This organization usually met at The Elizabeth Inn, a restaurant which was owned

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and operated by two women, Lena and Maud Barrett. There was also talk in town at this time of organizing a “women’s luncheon club” along the lines of Rotary or Kiwanis. It would include, according to articles in the Gazette, “not only business and professional women, but those who are interested in the fine arts as well.” It is not clear from the newspaper whether this club materialized. If it did not perhaps it was because, as one commentator observed, “most of the employed women [are] in minor positions, few of them being executives, thus making it difficult to arrange a luncheon hour which would be possible for all.”8 The names of many prominent women are featured in the Gazette or can be discerned in the pages of the city directory. In 1924, three in particular are of interest. One, Ruth Banning, is still recognized today as the owner, with her husband, of the Banning-Lewis Ranch, now being developed for housing on the east side of Colorado Springs. The second, Miss Elizabeth Belschner, is apparently unknown in the city’s history though she held a prominent post in the Chamber of Commerce. The third, Inez Lewis, is remembered especially in the educational field since she served for many years as Colorado’s Superintendent of Public Education. The vital statistics of Mrs. Banning Lewis’s life are well known. She was born in Colorado Springs in 1892. Her father was a successful entrepreneur. She graduated from Colorado Springs High School in 1910 and went east to Wellesley College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1915. Her father had died the year previously, leaving his son William in charge of the family’s businesses, the Union Ice and Coal Company and the Banning Ranch. Then William died in 1916, and Ruth stepped in, managing both enterprises. In 1921, she married Raymond W. Lewis, a rancher from Fowler, Colorado. He joined her at the Banning Ranch, where together they raised prize-winning Hereford cattle. From the 1920s on she also was engaged in many civic functions and duties, including service on the Colorado Springs City Council from 1943-1947. She died in 1962.9 In 1924, Mrs. Banning Lewis was featured in the Gazette as the “ice lady.” At the annual meeting of the Mountain States

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Ice Manufacturers Association in Denver that year she was the first woman elected to the association’s board of directors. In an article trumpeting her achievement, the newspaper noted, Everybody from the kindergarten up has heard of the “iceman.” Ever hear of an “ice woman?” There is but one in Colorado, and so far as is known, only one in the United States. She is Miss Ruth Banning [her maiden name being used in this instance] of Colorado Springs.

Ruth Banning Lewis and Domino. Cattle from the breeding line, known as Colorado Domino Type Herefords, were purchased for breeding programs by ranch owners from as far away as Hawaii and Mexico. Hollard photograph, from

Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (098-9117).

Later on in the same article, “Miss Banning” herself reflects on being a woman in what was still perceived of as a man’s occupation, stating, “There is no reason why a woman should not conduct any manufacturing business successfully. It is merely a question of applying one’s self to the work at hand.” Mrs. Banning Lewis demonstrated her grasp of the ice business at the Ice Manufacturers convention, where she gave

70 • WORKING WOMEN IN THE 1920s

an address entitled, “The Problem Presented to the Ice Dealer by the Small Refrigerating Machine for Domestic Use.” Perhaps because she could “see the handwriting on the wall” as far as the ice for ice boxes business was concerned, she sold the Union Ice and Coal Company a month later for a reported $200,000. Officially however, a newspaper article detailing the sale specifically mentioned that, “Mrs. Lewis gave as her reason for retiring from the business as a desire ‘to enter the ranch and cattle business with my husband.’”10 In contrast to Ruth Banning, little is as yet known of the life of Elizabeth Belschner, though her professional career in the early 1920s speaks eloquently of the opportunities available to women in Colorado Springs. She is listed in the 1920 city directory as a student, then in 1921 as a stenographer at the Chamber of Commerce offices. Possibly she was a graduate of one of the secretarial schools in town. By 1922 she was “Convention Secretary,” of the Chamber, a post she held for eight years. In this capacity she presumably worked to “sell” Colorado Springs as a site for conventions and meetings. In 1930 she became the secretary to the city manager. Her name disappears from the city directory after 1934, though she may have married and continued in her chosen profession under her married name. On becoming “Convention Secretary,” Miss Belschner entered what up to then was an all male domain. She had already represented Colorado Springs at a meeting of the Denver Advertising Club and now learned she would represent that club at a regional level. According to the Gazette, One of the comparatively few women to attend the district convention of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World in Colorado Springs will be Miss Elizabeth Belschner, convention secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, it was learned yesterday. Miss Belschner, who recently attended a meeting of advertising men in Denver, has received word of her election as an honorary member of the Denver Advertising Club, together with the request that she serve as one of the club’s delegates.

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Later that year a short announcement in the newspaper mentioned that Miss Belschner would “leave next Thursday on an eastern business trip which will continue until the end of October.” Further research might reveal the details of this trip, and of her subsequent life.11 Inez Johnson Lewis, the third woman in this 1920s trio, was clearly a force to be reckoned with, serving—as mentioned above—as Colorado State Superintendent of Public Education, an elected position, from 1930 to 1946. Born in Missouri in 1875, she came to Colorado Springs with her family at the age of 18 in 1893. Interestingly, her father was a retired military officer, having attended West Point. He served as an army captain in the Civil War and then became an attorney. Inez matriculated at Colorado College in 1914 and graduated in 1928. In the interim she taught at Steele and Lowell elementary schools in the city and in 1915 was elected El Paso County Superintendent of Schools. She served in that post until 1928, a run of seven consecutive terms. In 1924 she defeated another woman, Hinda M. Wright, for the superintendency by a vote of 11,179 to 6,739.12 In a short autobiography, Mrs. Lewis chose to quote an article from the Gazette (date unknown), which said in part, Mrs. Lewis is the most efficient Superintendent who ever has held the office in El Paso County, and one of the most efficient in the country. She is a visionary and at the same time possesses the qualification of practicability which makes it possible for her to carry out her plans which have such a far-reaching effect upon the educational resources. The accomplishments she selected to emphasize in this same autobiography included annotating the school laws of Colorado, providing a high school education for all rural El Paso County children for the first time, writing a law for the “bedside” instruction of invalid children, organizing a school lunch program, and developing a program for handicapped children who were unable to attend school in regular classrooms. Referring to her years at the state level, she added, “During my administration, I helped to sustain education throughout

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the state and held the line in a noble manner, so that there was no retrogression.” Mrs. Lewis died in 1964 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs.13 Through the careers of Ruth Banning-Lewis, Elizabeth Belschner, and Inez Johnson Lewis, and the working lives of the other women mentioned above, it is evident that the 1920s in Colorado Springs did offer women employment opportunities and choices. Looking back from eight decades later we can see the beginnings of our contemporary business and professional climate. And just to emphasize once more that the role of women was changing, this news item appeared in the Gazette on February 3, 1924, Mrs. Bada Olson, wife of C. H. Olson, convicted bootlegger, was released from the county jail yesterday, where she had been confined since October 12, when she was arrested with her husband near Palmer Lake. Obviously, “equal opportunity” can mean different things to different women. Michael L. Olsen & Patricia B. Olsen. Professor Michael Olsen has taught history for over 30 years and is a professor emeritus in New Mexico Highlands University. He also retired from a second teaching position at Pikes Peak Community College. His major research interests are in the history of the American West, the American Southwest, and the Santa Fe Trail. He has published widely especially on the cultural and ethnic aspects of Southwestern and Santa Fe Trail History. Patricia Olsen has taught Language Arts at the sixth grade level for many years. She has long been active in the Santa Fe Trail Association, has served as chair of the SFTA Education Committee, and she is a member of the Pikes Peak Posse of Westerners International in Colorado Springs. The Olsens now frequently conduct historical research and presentations together.

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Notes

1. Fourteenth Census of the United States taken in the year 1920; I: Number and Distribution of Inhabitants, 428; IV: Occupations, 882, 889890. 2. Joseph A. Hill, Women in Gainful Occupations, 1870–1890 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1929), 9, 11, 27-28, 30, 32-34. 3. Unless otherwise indicated, all the information below is from the 1924 city directory, published in Colorado Springs by The Joslyn Quick Printery. 4. Hill, 46. 5. http://www.newyorklife.com/cda/0,3254,15181,00.html (accessed May 1, 2007). 6. Colorado Springs Gazette, January 15, January 18, January 20, September 15, 1924. 7. Colorado Springs Gazette, February 28, January 8, February 23, September 15, January 20, 1924. 8. Blair’s Business Club—January 20, January 22, February 3, 1924; Business and Professional Women’s Club—January 11, January 15, January 27, 1924; Luncheon club—January 12, January 31, 1924. 9. The archives of the Pikes Peak Library District contain both the Ruth Banning–Lewis papers and the extensive records of the Banning–Lewis Ranches. See also Marshall Sprague, Newport in the Rockies, The Life and Good Times of Colorado Springs, Fourth Revised Edition (Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press, 1987), 348, n. 5. 10. Colorado Springs Gazette, January 22, January 26, February 24, 1924. 11. Colorado Springs Gazette, March 6, September 19, 1924. 12. Colorado Springs Gazette, November 5, 6, 1924. 13. Mrs. Lewis’s autobiographical statement is in the Inez Johnson Lewis Paper, 1899-1959, Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs. See also, Nawana Britenriker, “Sail On, Sail On,” a short manuscript biography of Inez Johnson Lewis, Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs.

Mary Virginia Donaghe McClurg. Rose & Hopkins photograph, Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, (H-122).

Virginia Donaghe McClurg: Mesa Verde Crusader Judith R. Finley This is the story of one woman’s long fight to protect the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde, Colorado, from the desecration of pot hunters and tourists. Her name was Virginia Donaghe McClurg, and she lived in Colorado Springs. She was a true mover and shaker of the late 19th century and a noted conservationist of her era. Without her persistent dedication to the cause of preserving the relics of ancient Anasazi culture, Mesa Verde might never have become a national park. The prehistoric cliff dwellings of southwestern Colorado were practically unknown to the American public at that time. Early Spanish explorers, Ute Indians, and a few pioneer ranchers and miners had stumbled upon some of the Indian ruins in the Four Corners area. But it was not until Hayden expedition photographer William Henry Jackson took the first photographs of the Two Story House in September 1874 that news began to circulate of amazing archaeological treasures in Colorado. In 1881, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad extended its tracks to the young town of Durango, thirty miles north of the ruins. Presumably it was by train that Virginia Donaghe traveled to the area during 1882. She identified herself as a correspondent for the New York Daily Graphic and the Valley Virginian, who had come from her Colorado Springs home to write reports about Mesa Verde. She was probably the first white woman to visit the cliff dwellings. Donaghe bargained with a freight hauler to take her from Durango to Mancos, paying him according to her weight, just like a piece of freight. She rode in his wagon on top of a vinegar barrel, feeling weary and uncomfortable as she was pelted with rain. The German storekeeper in the rough settlement of Mancos warned her that nearby Ute Indians were “on the warpath” and • 75 •

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that there were no roads into the area anyway. Undaunted, she finally managed to obtain a cavalry escort of Fort Lewis soldiers to lead her up Mancos Canyon for her first view of Mesa Verde. Digging around in the ancient dust, she found some charred corn, two sandals, and several stone implements. In awe, she commented: Everywhere in these ruins was the print in the mortar of the hand that plastered it on. The busy fingers have been dust for many centuries. Such a shapely, little hand! For many summers and winters the cold, dull mortar has retained its gentle pressure till the soft curves and clinging finger tips well-nigh seem to vivify the insensate clay, as we gaze.1 From then on her interest in the Anasazi cliff dwellings never flagged, and she worked tirelessly for a quarter of a century to preserve and protect them. As she had vowed to do after that first trip, Donaghe returned again to Mesa Verde. In the fall of 1886, she organized the first real non-governmental expedition to explore the cliff dwellings, consisting of herself, a guide, a photographer, a housekeeper and several pack and saddle horses. Unable to stay along the Mancos River due to problems with the Utes, they camped for three weeks in Cliff Canyon, enduring a regime of insufficient food and alkaline water. On October 4, she and her party discovered the Balcony House, which she called the Brownstone Front because its rosy stuccoed walls reminded them of New York. They climbed along the ancient niches carved into the cliff, then drew themselves up by rope over a perpendicular wall into the mysterious dwelling. On the first floor in a room approached by a flight of three stone steps they found a loom. She later described it thus: The beams of dark red cedar, with loops and bands of yucca fibre, extended across the room and were secured in niches in the walls. On the floor below lay all the spindles, bobbins and loom-sticks of hard wood. I was ten years less wise than now. I did not realize that this was a unique treasure, the like of which will

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probably never be seen again. The two priceless beams we brought with us, and forgive us, O Science! We were so enfeebled by insufficient food and bad water that we were forced to leave them half way down the cliff. In this dwelling we also unearthed two magnificent jars, one of coiled ware, dark gray, holding four gallons, and one of decorated pottery with withes (willow twigs) inserted for handles, adorned with a perfect Grecian pattern.2

Balcony House, Mesa Verde National Park. January 16, 1918. Virginia McClurg was possibly the first white woman to visit the cliff dwellings. Haines

Photo Co. photograph, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., (pan 6a02823).

Modern archaeologists would cringe at another of her romanticized descriptions of that visit, in which she confessed: “Not being able to buy relics, we decided to achieve them,” admitting that she dug up and carried that jar away.3 What was the background of this intrepid young female writer that made her so dedicated to rugged exploration? Virginia Donaghe was a self-confident and “liberated” woman, a Daughter of the American Revolution and descendant of the Mayflower and colonial governors. She was born in 1858 to a blue-blooded Bostonian mother, Susan Boylston Richardson, and a distinguished father, New York surgeon William Rice Donaghe, graduate of Yale and the University of Virginia. He went nobly off to attend the wounded on a Civil War battlefield near Shiloh and met an untimely death from sunstroke at the

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age of 36.4 Left without a father from early childhood, Virginia grew up under the strong influence of her mother, who loved literature, philosophy, poetry and the Presbyterian Church. Worried about her daughter’s pallor and persistent cough, her mother moved the diminished family to Morristown, New Jersey, after the death of Dr. Donaghe. When Virginia continued to have health problems Mrs. Donaghe made the difficult decision in 1877 to take her to Colorado Springs, for the reputed salutary effects of its dry climate. Like many who came to Colorado Springs for health reasons, Virginia recovered miraculously. She then began a long career as a writer of both prose and poetry for eastern magazines and newspapers. In the early 1880s she was society editor of the Colorado Springs Republic, the forerunner of the Evening Telegraph. She also began to publish her poetry in national journals as early as 1882.5 A good description of her can be found in an 1889 article by an astute observer: Although a blue blood of blue bloods and a social favorite, Miss Donaghe is a girl of sense and takes an honest pride in enrolling her name among the toilers, rather than among the lilies that sew not, nor spin. She may fairly be said to belong to our gang, ‘the newspaper gang.’ . . . She is a clever and competent journalist . . . In addition to all her other accomplishments, she is an incomparable cook and housekeeper and can make a pot-pie as well as a poem. Her energy is tireless.6

Virginia Donaghe McClurg led the cause to preserve the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings and establish Mesa Verde National Park. Courtesy of

Starsmore Center for Local History at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

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For a decade, from 1879, she also played the acceptable role of teacher to the children of wealthy Colorado Springs residents, first in their homes and then in a little schoolhouse on Nevada Avenue, just south of Platte Avenue.7 But plans to enlarge her little school were given up when she fell in love with publicist– promoter Gilbert McClurg and married him in 1889. They lived at 619 North Cascade Avenue and had one son, Dudley, who did not seem to affect in any way the momentum of her later professional activities. For example, she was active in the campaign to bring women’s suffrage to Colorado in 1893. She attended the Denver Jubilee meeting to celebrate its passage, where she read her triumphant poem titled “The Woman’s First Fourth of July.”8 The concluding lines of this long poem exhorted: Ring out clear all ye bells, And the cannon Will thunder the news unto men– That the women, Long weary with waiting, Are free, strong and radiant again! Our flag is unrolled far above us– The blue star-sown spaces of sky– Firm and pure As our own snowy summits, We welcome our Fourth of July. Virginia McClurg’s visits to Mesa Verde revealed her real strengths as a political activist, and she began to publicize the urgent need to preserve the ancient relics of Anasazi culture. In the summer of 1893, she gave lectures twice a week in the Anthropological Hall of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which featured a Colorado exhibit about Mesa Verde. In March 1894, she gave four lectures on the prehistoric Southwest at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, illustrated with stereopticon slides. At the dedication of Colorado College’s Coburn Library in 1894 she circulated a petition drawn up by Laura P. Bancroft of Denver asking that Mesa Verde be made a national park, persuading President Harper of Chicago University, Thomas Nelson Haskell, General William J. Palmer and assorted other

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dignitaries to sign it.9 Colorado Senator Edward D. Wolcott carried the petition to an apathetic Congress—to no avail. About this time, woman’s clubs were beginning to flourish in the West. In Colorado they banded together into a state organization called the Colorado Federation of Women’s Clubs. In 1897, Ada Thatcher of Pueblo, president of this group, appointed a standing committee to undertake the preservation of Mesa Verde after Virginia Donaghe McClurg brought the matter to their attention. McClurg was immediately appointed chair of the new committee. A natural and forceful leader, she continued and expanded her efforts, with emotional speeches, passionate articles, and pleading letters to the Colorado statehouse and Washington.10 A major obstacle to creating a park stood in the way of this determined woman, for most of the important cliff dwellings stood on lands belonging to the Southern Ute Indian tribe. In 1899, McClurg and her committee attempted to secure a 30year lease on these lands at $300 annual rent, with the Utes retaining grazing rights. Old Chief Ignacio, ill and feverish, was brought from thirty miles away to meet with McClurg at the Ute headquarters in Mancos Canyon. She put a mustard plaster on the ailing Indian and fed him a concoction of potent “cherry bounce” to persuade him. A lawyer interested in Indian affairs began to draw up the lease.11 McClurg realized that it would take an incorporated body to hold property and transact business. To that end, on April 18, 1900, she issued a call to action by the “new woman of the West” in an eloquent article in the Colorado Springs Gazette. As one of the early supporters of women’s suffrage in Colorado, she reminded her readers that Colorado women now cast 52 percent of the vote. She goaded them to think beyond their ballot victories and their efforts to “take the flowing bowl from every man” in the burgeoning temperance movement. The new woman she described would carry out the spirit of a noble rallying cry: For the wrong that needs resistance, For the cause that lacks assistance, For the future in the distance For the good that we may do.

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The ensuing article was designed to make readers aware of their ancient heritage at Mesa Verde, its destruction by pot hunters, and the efforts of the committee of the Colorado Federation of Women’s Clubs to protect the ruins. She outlined the problems of securing Mesa Verde and the need to form a legal entity to do so.12 In May 1900, the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association was incorporated out of the existing committee, with McClurg named as the regent from its inception until her death.13 The Latin motto of the association, “Dux femina facti” (“Women led the way”) reflected her unceasing efforts on behalf of Mesa Verde, which she envisioned as being protected by these women. The Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association soon formed chapters in several states. Locally, Sarah F. Stewart was auditor for a while, and Anna L. van Diest was corresponding secretary. The association wrote over four thousand letters pleading their cause and raised money nationwide to draw up a practical map of the area, to develop an old spring at Spruce Tree House, to repair the Balcony House, and to build a wagon road onto the mesa.14 Among her many lecture tours, Virginia McClurg became the American delegate to the Ethnological Congress of the 1900 Paris Exposition. Using lantern slides, she told the story of the cliff dwellings in French, for which she was awarded the Gold Palm of the French Academy. She was quite proud of her title: “Officier de l’Instruction Publique.” Vice-president Theodore Roosevelt came to Colorado Springs for its Quarto-Centennial celebration in 1901, shortly before President William McKinley’s assassination. On this occasion she presented him with an ancient bowl and one of her poems, “The Stars and Stripes of the Cliff Dwellers.” From then on, Roosevelt received McClurg in Washington and helped her lobby for congressional action on Mesa Verde.15 In September 1901, the perceptive women of the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association took a group of noted archaeologists, including Dr. Jesse Fewkes, over the new wagon road on their first trip to Mesa Verde. The resultant publicity led to a wider national awareness of the Anasazi ruins.

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The problem of securing a valid lease with the Ute Indians persisted. The Secretary of the Interior refused to accept the “treaty” that the women of the Cliff Dwellings Association had finally negotiated in 1900, saying that the majority of the tribe membership had not authorized the lease. A redrafted treaty submitted the next year met further roadblocks in the Washington bureaucracy before it was accepted. It became apparent that the association would have to pay more attention to promoting the cause of Mesa Verde to members of Congress. Denverite Lucy Peabody, who had connections in the U.S. Capitol, became the legislative leader of the effort. Congressman John F. Schafroth from Colorado was helpful, as were senators Henry Teller and Thomas Patterson. Nevertheless, assorted bills to create Mesa Verde National Park died in Congress in 1904 and 1905. Moreover, a philosophical difference between Peabody and McClurg began to surface and reached a boiling point in 1906. Peabody had no qualms about placing the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings under national jurisdiction, but McClurg at first favored either a state park or one administered by the women of the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association. She was suspicious that the Smithsonian Institution and Department of the Interior would be too bureaucratic in the control of a national park from faraway Washington. Her differences with Lucy Peabody ultimately led to bad publicity and a split in the allegiances of the association membership, from which it never fully recovered.16 But with Teddy Roosevelt in the White House, the conservationist movement had an ardent champion, and the mood throughout the country was beginning to swing in favor of federal protection of America’s natural resources. Supporters of a national antiquities act to preserve historic and prehistoric structures also got on the bandwagon to name Mesa Verde a national park. A last minute amendment to the 1906 bill in Congress added Indian lands within five miles of the proposed park boundaries to the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior. Finally, in June 1906, the persistent efforts of Virginia McClurg and her lieutenants over a quarter of a century paid off. Mesa Verde officially became a national park.17 Her husband, Gilbert McClurg, longtime secretary of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, was an unrelenting

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promoter of the Pikes Peak region. She ghost wrote many articles for him, penned numerous poems about Colorado’s natural beauties, and accompanied him on highly-touted nationwide lecture tours for many years. Virginia wanted him to be named first superintendent of Mesa Verde National Park, but Lucy Peabody’s candidate Hans Randolph got the job. Perhaps it was Virginia’s disgruntlement over this, or perhaps it was Gilbert McClurg’s strong entrepreneurial influence, that led her to endorse the efforts of Harold Ashenhurst and William S. Crosby to reconstruct an Anasazi ruin on a hill above Manitou Springs between 1904 and 1907.18 This Manitou Cliff Dwellings tourist attraction seemed tacky to some and soiled her reputation with archaeologists and newspaper pundits, though she disclaimed any financial involvement with the venture.19 Unphased, Virginia McClurg later wrote and directed a filmed pageant of twenty-four actors titled “The Marriage of the Dawn and the Moon,” presented at the Spruce Tree House at Mesa Verde in 1917. In 1919, the ladies of the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association gave her an engraved silver bowl in recognition of her leadership.20 She continued to write articles throughout the 1920s for assorted newspapers and for the magazine of the Colorado Historical Society.21 Virginia McClurg’s contributions to Mesa Verde are almost forgotten today, though they are well documented in the archives of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and Tutt Library. She actually gained more of a Virginia McClurg with a member reputation as a poet and lecturer of the Cliff Dwellings Association than she did as a political at the Mesa Verde Pageant, “The activist. Throughout the years, Marriage of the Dawn and the she published sonnets in Century Moon,”on September 7, 1917. George L. Beam photograph, Denver Magazine, The Dial, Cosmopolitan Public Library, Western History and Review of Reviews. At the Collection, (GB-7643).

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Eleventh National Irrigation Congress, she won a prize for her “Ode to Irrigation.” In book form she published Picturesque Colorado, illustrated poems on Colorado flowers, an Ode to Pikes Peak and Seven Sonnets to Sculpture. By contemporary standards her numerous poems, lectures and newspaper “Retrospective Rambles” seem flowery and stilted in the worst Victorian manner. But her own generation considered McClurg’s poetry second only to that of Helen Hunt Jackson.22 In 1928, Colorado College awarded her an honorary degree and later published her collected poems, the only time in its history it had done so for the work of a single author. She died in April 1931 in Stonington, Connecticut, of an untimely heart attack—and the remnants of the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association disbanded shortly thereafter.23 24 But their legacy lives on. As Senator Thomas Patterson said after first viewing the ancient Anasazi ruins: “I consider that Colorado’s greatest treasure will one day be considered, not her store of mines, nor her agricultural wealth, but her matchless Mesa Verde Park.”25 Judith R. Finley is a second generation Colorado Springs native with a special interest in local history and government, particularly parks and city planning. Finley is a graduate of Colorado College and was the coordinator of Oral History and Photographs in the Special Collections Department of Tutt Library. She has authored several articles and two books of historical vignettes of daily life in the Pikes Peak region: Time Capsule 1900: Colorado Springs a Century Ago and Coming of Age in Colorado Springs, 1945-1955. She also edited The Century Chest Letters of 1901: A Colorado Springs Legacy.

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Notes

1. “Mrs. Gilbert McClurg: Her Studies and Explorations in the Pre-Historic Southwest,” Books, April 1894, 54-56. 2. Ibid., 57. 3. Virginia Donaghe, “Cliff Climbing in Colorado,” The Great Divide, March 1889, 4-5; June 1889, 44. McClurg made at least a halfdozen visits to Mesa Verde: 1882, 1886, 1899, 1901, 1904, 1917. 4. Papers of Virginia and Gilbert McClurg, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, Box III. 5. Gilbert McClurg, “Preface to the Poems of Virginia Donaghe McClurg,” Colorado College Studies, (Colorado Springs, Colo.), No. 191 (1933), V.-VI. Her 1882 published poems included Colorado Favorites, illustrated by Alice Stewart [Hill]. 6. Fitz-Mac, “Mary Virginia Donaghe,” The Great Divide, March 1889, 10. 7. Virginia McClurg, “Retrospective Rambles,” Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, May 10 and 17, 1925. She was first hired by mining entrepreneur James M. Sigafus to teach his daughter Marion at their home on the southwest corner of Cache la Poudre and Nevada. She also tutored the three children of Louis Ehrich for 7 years and opened her own school at Platte and Nevada avenue. Other pupils were Varina Howell Davis-Hayes, May Howbert, Nina Lunt, and the children of Professor James Kerr and Captain M. L. de Coursey. 8. Quoted in Colorado College Studies, no. 191 (1933): 12. 9. Irving Howbert, “The Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association,” in Irving Howbert Papers 1846-1934, MS 0019, Box II, Fd. 40, (Tutt Library: Colorado College), 4-5. 10. Virginia Donaghe McClurg, Report to the Members of the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association, Pueblo, Colorado, 1903. See Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association Scrapbook, Pioneers Museum. (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Box V. 11. Virginia Donaghe McClurg, ‘The Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings and the Women’s Park,” Colorado Springs Weekly Gazette, April 18, 1900, 5. 12. Ibid. 13. The Constitution of the Association stated that its “object shall be the restoration and preservation of the cliff and Pueblo ruins in the State of Colorado, the dissemination of knowledge concerning these prehistoric people, the collection of relics, and the acquiring of such

86 • VIRGINIA DONAGHE MCCLURG property as is necessary to attain such objects.” It is interesting to note that Virginia McClurg had an “Indian Room” in her home, where she kept her own large collection of Southwestern relics. See Books, Summer 1894, 109. 14. Howbert, 7. 15. Virginia McClurg, “Theodore Roosevelt Appreciated Mesa Verde Cliff-Dwellings and Associations,” undated newspaper clipping in McClurg folder, Tutt Library Special Collections (Colorado College). 16. Duane A. Smith, Mesa Verde National Park: Shadows of the Centuries (Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 1988), 44-47, 59. 17. Ibid., 58. 18. “Indian Cliff Dwellings Rebuilt at Manitou,” Colorado Springs Gazette, May 19, 1985. It cost over $100,000 to move stones from McElmo Canyon to the Manitou site. At least McClurg’s motives were commendable: she wanted to educate people about the valuable heritage of the ancient southwestern Indian culture even if they could not make the rugged trip to Mesa Verde. 19. Duane A. Smith, Women to the Rescue (Durango, Colo.: Durango Herald Small Press, 2005), 83. 20. Clipping in Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association scrapbook, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, Box IV, C:28. 21. Her “Retrospective Rambles,” published in several issues of the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph in 1925, covered a wide range of topics about early Colorado Springs history. See also her article “The Making of Mesa Verde Into a National Park,” Colorado Magazine, VII, November 1930, 216-219. 22. “Colorado College Publishes Poems of Mrs. Gilbert McClurg,” The Sun, (Westerly, R.I.) June 12, 1933. 23. Obituary in Colorado Springs Gazette, April 30, 1931. 24. The 1931 resolution for disbandment, written by Maude M. Price, can be found in the McClurg papers at the Pioneers Museum, Box IV: A:4 25. Quoted in Howbert, 2.

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Spruce Tree Ruin in Chapin Mesa, Mesa Verde National Park, February 1964. Myron Wood photograph, © Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (002-2980).

Vida Francis Gregory Ellison holding a Pima woven utility tray and a Pawnee ladle. She is standing among some of her collection of old and rare Apache, Hopi and Pima baskets and Navajo blankets. The largest Apache basket, jar shaped on the left, is in the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum collection. Stan Payne photograph from Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District (26520E).

Vida Ellison & The Manitou Cliff Dwellings Katie Davis Gardner & Katherine Scott Sturdevant The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum houses an amazing collection of American Indian artifacts including baskets, beadwork, utility and household items, musical instruments such as drums and rattles, clothing, and other remarkable treasures, much of which Vida Gregory Ellison donated. Vida, her husband, Robert Ellison, and her parents, James and Emma Gregory, owned the Manitou Cliff Dwellings for 30 years while also accumulating hundreds of Southwest artifacts, building a renowned collection of Western Americana books and ephemera, and owning and restoring Briarhurst Manor. Under Vida’s management, the Manitou Cliff Dwellings enjoyed a Golden Age of activity as a major tourist attraction in the Pikes Peak Region. The Ellisons provided cultural entertainment, displayed educational exhibits on the prehistoric cliff dwellers, and offered American Indian-made souvenirs in their trading post. Their efforts were not without controversy among official and professional archaeologists and historians, but what they preserved and supported was often a boon to heritage preservation. Vida Ellison was representative of a type of historical collector-interpreters who often filled a void before scholarly academics took local or public history seriously. The Manitou Cliff Dwellings attraction was the brainchild of William S. Crosby, another such “popular historian.” In 1886, Crosby arrived in Manitou Springs with his Canadian family as a 13-year-old asthmatic seeking a healthy climate. He was a town booster and supported himself largely through tourism, working with the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway and opening curio shops to market Native American crafts. By the time he died in 1970 at age 97, he was known as “the oldest living pioneer of Ute Pass” and “the One Man Historical Society.”1 On his • 89 •

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travels, Crosby determined to bring something larger than Navajo blankets from the Southwest to his tourist community. Crosby purchased acreage in a Manitou canyon where “he believed the arching rock overhangs . . . were just like those that shelter ruins of historic and prehistoric Indian dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado.” Crosby then purchased a relatively intact cliff dwelling from a rancher in McElmo Canyon near Cortez, Colorado, and thus near Mesa Verde; had it dismantled and each stone or timber numbered; transported it all by railroad and wagons across the state; and had it reconstructed into “authentic” cliff dwellings opened for Manitou tourists in 1907.2 Publicity in anticipation of this tourist attraction established a pattern of hyperbole in its promotion. Not only had Crosby spent $100,000 to complete the project, but the newspaper proclaimed that the Manitou Cliff Dwellings were, incredibly, “erected at least 100,000 years ago.” The human remains presented had supposedly met their fate like the volcanic victims of Pompeii, “and the best feature of the whole thing is the complete absence of ‘fake’”3 Like Crosby, Vida Ellison and her family would see (and justify) the Manitou Cliff Dwellings as a means of preserving what pothunters and treasure seekers had been raiding from Mesa Verde before it became a national park and before the Antiquities Act. They also saw the Cliff Dwellings An early photograph of Vida Ellison. replica as a way to share Courtesy of Starsmore Center for Local History the educational and tourist at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. appeal in a place they thought

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more accessible to more visitors. Although substituting modern material for original clay mortar between the rocks in the interest of stability and safety, the reconstruction attempted to duplicate specific Mesa Verde structures, and claimed authentication by archaeologists.4 Crosby had worked with multiple promotional partners, including a dubious “Professor” Ashenhurst of the Ashenhurst Amusement Company in Texas, but one by one, the other investors fell away. By 1913, Vida Gregory Ellison and her family purchased the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. Perhaps Vida Francis Gregory came by her passion for Western Americana, its colorful promotion, and being larger than life, through family heritage. She claimed family connections with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and Wild Bill Hickok. Her grandfather and father were Wyoming Territory pioneers, where they accumulated Sioux bead work and heirloom furniture she always treasured. “Because her grandmother hated the sand, the wind, and the Indians,” the Gregorys moved to a Missouri farm, and later to Colorado, in a covered wagon, for her father’s health. “Mr. Gregory made several Texas to Colorado cattle drives and eventually became a U.S. Land Officer.” He met Colorado Springs founder General William Jackson Palmer, who gave him an elaborate bedroom set that Vida proudly kept. She also told the press that her grandfather made the first irrigation water rights claim on the Platte River and that she still had a bill of sale to him for livestock signed by Brigham Young.5 She “could handle a gun and had many trophies to show for this prowess.”6 She “often served up squirrel stew. She shot the squirrels herself.”7 In 1907, Vida Francis Gregory married Robert Spurrier Ellison, an attorney with Skylar & Skylar, a local law office that represented area mining and refining interests. Born and educated in Indiana, Robert Ellison had graduated University of Indiana Law School at Bloomington and came to Colorado Springs circa 1900, when Vida Gregory was still in high school.8 Their wedding was in the Gregorys’ home in Deer Lodge, near Colorado City. Showered with sweet peas and dahlias, the couple received the Deer Lodge home as their gift from the Gregorys. They took the train to the coast for their honeymoon.9 “One of our stops was at Salt Lake City,” Vida later recalled, “where

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we saw cliff dweller mummies and a few pieces of pottery. That aroused my interest in the prehistoric southwest, and I now have more than 1,500 pieces of cliff dweller pottery, Indian baskets and silver, fabrics, work of prehistoric Americans, and I even have a mummy of prehistoric days.”10 It is unclear whether she was referring to artifacts displayed at the Cliff Dwellings or in her own home. The Ellisons and the Gregorys purchased the Manitou Cliff Dwellings by 1913. They appeared in the 1913 Colorado Springs City Directory, with James Gregory, Vida’s father, Vida and Robert Ellison about the time that they were married, ca. shown as the manager, and 1907. Courtesy of Starsmore Center for Local Robert S. Ellison listed as the History at the Colorado Springs Pioneers company’s owner. In the 1920s, Museum. Vida Ellison was listed as the secretary and treasurer, although in reality the Cliff Dwellings was jointly owned by both couples. Robert Ellison served as the attorney for the City of Manitou Springs and for the Cripple Creek Short Line Railroad, but then his career took him and his wife away from the area and made them wealthy. They moved to Denver, 1916—1919, then to Casper, Wyoming, when he became attorney and vice president of the Midwest Refining Company. “’It was there,’ Mrs. Ellison said, ‘that I learned why my grandmother had hated the sand and wind.’”11 The Midwest Oil Company “had to pay their employees partly in stock and what a windfall that was for this family. The company was adjacent to the Tea Pot Dome property. This made the owners wealthy when the big strike was made.” With this wealth, Robert Ellison became a collector of expensive volumes of Western Americana.12

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Standard Oil purchased the Midwest Oil Company in 1930 and combined it with Standard Oil of Indiana, making Robert Ellison the president of the combined company. So the Ellisons moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was the president of the Stanolind Crude Oil Purchasing Company and the Stanolind Pipeline Company until retirement in 1940.13 In spite of her husband’s assignment, Vida Ellison was always personally involved in managing the Manitou Cliff Dwellings and her trading post. She even occasionally dressed in Native American garb to portray Cliff Dweller life. She noted, “my interest in collecting the silver was aroused by the trips through the Southwest, and for thirty years I operated the only Indian store in this region. Through operating the store I was brought in touch with dealers and many others interested in Indian lore. So I was able to obtain many valuable specimens.”14 She housed a museum at the site—furnishing it with prehistoric Cliff Dweller artifacts from the Four Corners region—to educate visitors about the ancient origins of the reconstructed prehistoric dwellings. Ellison also prided herself on the people she brought to work at the Cliff Dwellings. By 1916, she had forged a lasting relationship with Native American families from Santa Clara Pueblo whose descendants continued to perform rituals and crafts for visitors to the Cliff Dwellings for many years. In addition, “generally she tried to get Colorado College students, [Boy] scouters, and those interested in . . . ancient studies for her guides.”15

The reconstructed prehistoric cliff dwellings at Manitou Springs, Colorado, were the creation of William S. Crosby, who purchased and move the privatelyowned ruins from the Mesa Verde area. The Manitou Cliff Dwellings opened in 1907. Vida and Robert Ellison owned the Cliff Dwellings from 1913 to 1943. Haines Photo Co. January 17, 1908, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., (pan 6a02841).

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Nevertheless, the Ellisons’ years as owners of the Manitou Cliff Dwellings occasioned much controversy and frustration for the National Park Service staff of Mesa Verde National Park at the other end of the state. What passed between the two different sites was a classic rivalry of private, commercial, tourist development of replicas versus government, nonprofit, and academic standardization of cultural resource management practices. In 1906—1907, Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association founder Virginia McClurg had looked “foolish” affiliating herself with Ashenhurst’s sideshow approach to creating the Manitou reconstruction. After McClurg leant her credibility to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, “the Manitou Springs replica haunted Mesa Verde for the next half century.”16 Jesse Nusbaum, Mesa Verde National Park Superintendent from 1921 to 1945, “exploded” over 1920s publicity from the Manitou Cliff Dwellings that their site was “an exact and scientific reproduction” of Mesa Verde. The Ellisons’ materials asked “why visit Mesa Verde when you can see it all here for a dollar?” Nusbaum wrote to NPS Director Stephen Mather that “it really works a great hardship on this Park to be forced to compete with such a combination, with their constant ‘BallyHoo’ near a great tourist center like Colorado Springs.” When Nusbaum heard that the husband-and-wife owners of the Manitou Cliff Dwellings were coming to Mesa Verde for a visit in 1922, he suspected them of planning to “excavate” artifacts from the national park to take home to their site, and so had a ranger spy on them throughout.17 The problems continued through the “oral advertising” attributed to the Ellisons and their successors. Visitors to Mesa Verde reported that staff at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings had warned them off the Park by exaggerating its inaccessibility, difficulty of touring, and that the Manitou reconstruction was of higher quality.18 In 1943, however, the Ellisons sold the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. When Robert Ellison retired in 1940, the couple became permanent residents of Manitou Springs again and Vida Ellison dedicated herself to a new preservation project. While Robert served as president of the Bank of Manitou and, in 1944, was elected mayor, they purchased Briarhurst, the 23-room manor house of Dr. William Bell, the founder of Manitou Springs.19

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“I have tried to retain as nearly as possible the home and its furnishings as it was built,” said Vida Ellison, who found Briarhurst to be ideal for displaying her collections of Southwest artifacts and her husband’s collection of rare books. The Ellisons also owned original western artwork by Frederick Remington, Charles M. Russell and William Henry Jackson.20 Purchasing Briarhurst was “a long cherished dream.” The Ellisons “did so much to restore the place to its former grandeur” of the house and grounds, even constructing a stone bridge across Fountain Creek.21 When Robert Ellison died in 1945, John Jay Lipsey, a fellow book connoisseur and dealer, said of him, “he was Colorado’s greatest collector of books and his was the most extensive and most expensive private collection in the state.” Upon viewing the collection, Lipsey remarked, “We were astonished. We saw copies of books we never saw before and shall never see again. . . . Briarhurst was a treasure house, and I trembled when I thought that Fountain Creek might rise and sweep through the building as it had done in 1921 before Ellison purchased the estate.”22 According to his wishes, Vida donated Robert’s ten-thousand volume collection of Western Americana books to the University of Indiana at Bloomington library, his alma mater. After her husband’s death, Vida Ellison continued to be active in the community. She collected clothing for the Salvation Army in her pickup truck, which she preferred driving over her expensive automobile. She was a member of the Soroptimist Club as well as Chapter K of the Philanthropic Educational Organization. She “helped unfortunate people with clothing, food, and sometimes even hospital bills . . . At Christmas time she sent checks to many churches—the poorer the church the larger the check.”23 She supported the Cragmor Indian Sanatorium, where Navajo tuberculosis patients created American Indian arts and crafts sold in stores such as the trading post at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. “Despite her wealth, she remained a farm girl,” one story related. “It was not unusual to arrive at her home and eat squirrel stew for lunch. She bagged the squirrels and dressed them for the stew. Also, in her later years after Mr. Ellison died, she took to living in two rooms, the kitchen and

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another one which she made into a bedroom, and [one] can understand how [she] might do that in a twenty-room house!”24 When Vida Ellison died in 1966, the bulk of her basket collection, three hundred sixteen examples from over thirty tribes from all over the United States, was left to the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. Upon her death, however, reportedly Briarhurst was ransacked and her other collections were stolen. Her entire silver collection was gone, and many of her best Indian baskets had also disappeared. A 1958 photograph in the Colorado Springs Gazette (seen on the facing first page of this chapter) shows Ellison surrounded by part of her basketry collection, and only one of her three hundred sixteen baskets donated to the Pioneers Museum is in the photograph, indicating that she had a much larger collection.25 Bill Griffith, (Chief Executive Officer of Mountain States Bank), and friend from Denver, ensured donation of what was left of Ellison’s American Indian collection to the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. The collection included baskets, beadwork, Hopi kachina figures, lacrosse sticks, shields, drums, rattles, beaded moccasins, and a variety of other clothing. Bill Griffith managed the remainder of Vida Ellison’s estate into the 1980s. Twenty years after her death he decided to disperse those funds in her name to Denver charities and organizations. Children’s Hospital Clinical Research Center at the University of Colorado was the primary recipient. A minority scholarship was established in her name at the University of Denver. The Denver Museum of Nature and Science received several hundred thousand dollars. Probably the most visible evidence of her philanthropy is the Vida Ellison Gallery at the Denver Public Library, where artwork and historic objects from the library’s collection are displayed, as are traveling exhibits. Generous with their wealth and time, Vida and Robert Ellison contributed much to historic preservation efforts in Manitou Springs and throughout the West. Robert Ellison was the regional president of the Boy Scouts of America and was director of the board and the vice president of the State Historical Society of Colorado in Denver. In Wyoming, the Ellisons were among the founders of the Wyoming Historical Landmark Commission and helped save historic Fort Laramie

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by personally financing preservation efforts. Robert Ellison was regional director of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association. He was given the honorary name, Wyo-La Shar or Wyoming’s Protector, by the Pawnee tribe as a tribute for collecting data on Pawnee history and financing compilation of the history of the Pawnee Nation. Commercial exploitation of antiquities troubles us today. Archaeologists and historians might disapprove of the way that the Cliff Dwellings were collected and put on display as a commercial tourist attraction. Furthermore, displaying American Indian bodily remains is now illegal as well as disrespectful. Yet even without exercising today’s standards or winning the approval of professional archaeologists or historians, Vida Ellison did rescue important artifacts and a singular historic building that might otherwise have been lost. Her ownership and operation of the Manitou Cliff Dwellings was a labor of love, as was the Briarhurst restoration. Vida was visionary in her efforts to educate and entertain the public through first hand interaction with American Indian artists. The American Indian collection at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum,26 the Manitou Cliff Dwellings attraction, still successfully operating, and Briarhurst Manor,27 are tributes to Vida Ellison’s sincere enthusiasm for the West and its history. Katie Gardner was the curator at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, the City’s history museum, for nearly 20 years from 1989 to 2009. There she worked with the Vida Ellison American Indian collection and mounted the exhibition, “Bearing Our Burdens: Traditional American Indian Baskets,” in 2005, which drew from Mrs. Ellison’s extensive donation. She holds a Master’s Degree in Early American Culture from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture and the University of Delaware, and a B.A. from the Colorado College in Art History. She has worked in various museums continuously since her junior year in college, including the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and the Colorado Historical Society in Denver. Katherine Scott Sturdevant’s biography is at the end of her chapter on page 149 of this volume.

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Notes

1. Charles S. Dudley, “I Remember,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, October 22, 1967; Charles Niehuis, “Pioneer Marks 96th Year,” Colorado Springs Free Press, October 26, 1969; “W.S. Crosby, Noted Regional Historian, Dies,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, August 11, 1970. 2. “Indian Cliff Dwellings Rebuilt at Manitou,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, May 10, 1985. 3. “Cliff Ruins Are Ready,” Gazette, May 31, 1907. 4. Unknown author, “Colorado Cliff Dwellings, Manitou,” typescript, Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District. 5. Gladys Carlson, “Indian Lore One of Many Hobbies for Vida Ellison,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, November 30, 1958; James Richardson, “Briarhurst,” paper presented to the Historical Society of the Pikes Peak Region (no date), Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, CU 34.34 Box 2. Note that Jim Richardson was listed as a pall bearer at Vida Ellison’s funeral and a recipient of $5,000 in her will. “Last Will and Testament of Vida Francis Ellison,” 1966, Briarhurst Papers. 6. Richardson, “Briarhurst.” 7. Author’s correspondence between James Kroll, Manager, Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library, and Emily Occhiuto, on February 4, February 26, and March 20, 2004; archival collections of the Starsmore Center for Local History at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum (CSPM). 8. “Mayor Ellison, Manitou, Dies,” Colorado Springs Evening Telegraph, August 16, 1945. 9. “Engagements-Married,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, September 1, 1907. 10. Carlson, “Indian Lore.” Note on human remains: Vida Ellison’s collections (at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings and elsewhere) included “mummies,” ancient male and female bodies, bones, and skulls. Research has so far uncovered no indications that these remains received repatriation to native peoples for proper burial. Current Cliff Dwellings Manager Rob Hefner confirmed that the site has had no human remains on exhibit or in storage since Vida Ellison removed her possessions and sold it in 1943. Hefner and others speculate that the remains might exist in the legendary Briarhurst “vault” yet to be discovered. Rob Hefner, conversation with Sturdevant, March 1, 2010. 11. Carlson, “Indian Lore.” 12. Richardson, “Briarhurst.” 13. “Mayor Ellison.”

GARDNER & STURDEVANT • 99 14. Carlson, “Indian Lore.” 15. Richardson, “Briarhurst.” 16. Duane A. Smith, Mesa Verde National Park: Shadows of the Centuries (Lawrence, Kans.: University Press of Kansas, 1988), 68-69. See also in the present volume, Judith R. Finley, “Virginia Donaghe McClurg: Mesa Verde Crusader.” 17. Smith, Mesa Verde, 125. 18. Smith, Mesa Verde, 150. 19. “Mayor Ellison.” 20. Carlson, “Indian Lore.” 21. Richardson, “Briarhurst.” 22. John J. Lipsey, undated newspaper article, “The Ellison Collection of Western Books,” Starsmore Center for Local History. 23. Richardson, “Briarhurst.” 24. James Kroll, relating stories from Bill Griffith. 25 Ransacking story from author conversation with William (Will) Schmidt, Griffith’s grandson. “Mrs. V. F. Ellison, Noted Regional Pioneer, Dies,” unidentified newspaper, September 20, 1966, CSPM accession record files. 26. Several clippings about Eillison’s American Indian collection, from unidentifed newspapers, are in the CSPM accession record files: “Pioneer Museum Acquires Large Collection of Indian Basketry,” February 19, 1967; “Indian Artifacts Now on Display,” April 5, 1968; “Pioneer Museum Features Large Indian Collection,” February 9, 1969; “Indian Basketry,” photo caption, February 4, 1969; “Pioneer Museum Features Large Indian Collection,” February 19, 1969. Other articles in the file are attributed: “Pioneer Museum Has New Display,” Colorado Springs Free Press, April 6, 1968; “Pioneer Museum Has New Display,” Colorado Springs Free Press, April 6, 1968; “Indian Dress Worth $4,000 Is Oglala Sioux Original,” Rocky Mountain News, February 6, 1969; “Springs Museum Gets Collection,” photo caption, Denver Post, February 11, 1969?. Another article is in the CSPM Starsmore Center for Local History clipping file: “City Museum Gives Old Indian Baskets,” Colorado Springs Free Press, February 16, 1967. 27. A commonly held but unproven belief, confirmed by March 1, 2010, conversations with Rob Hefner (Manager, Manitou Cliff Dwellings) and Ken Healey (Owner/President, Briarhurst Manor) is that Vida Ellison left a hidden vault or secret rooms in Briarhurst that might contain her “lost treasures.”

Alice Bemis Taylor. Colorado College Photo Files, Biography – Taylor, Alice Bemis, Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Alice Bemis Taylor Vesta W. Tutt NOTE: This chapter is a speech given by Mrs. Charles L. Tutt at the opening of Taylor Hall, Colorado College. November 2, 1956. It is reprinted with only minor format revisions to the original typescript. Alice Bemis Taylor is a 2010 inductee in the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. Alice Bemis Taylor was born in Newton, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Judson Moss Bemis, both of whom were descended from pioneers who came to this country from England in the 17th century. Mrs. Taylor’s maternal ancestor, John Cogswell, and his family were literally washed ashore in 1625 after the shipwreck of The Angel Gabriel off the coast of Maine. For eight generations the Cogswell family were prominent in the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Mrs. Taylor’s mother, Alice Cogswell, was born there. Mr. Bemis, a descendant of Joseph Bemis who came to America about 1640, was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in 1833. When Judson Bemis was 5 years old, his family with their relatives, the Farwells, moved in covered wagons to Buffalo. They then journeyed by boat through the Great Lakes to Detroit and from there they drove to the Rock River Country in northwestern Illinois. Judson Bemis and Alice Cogswell met in St. Louis and were married in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1866. They were living in Newton in 1881 when Mrs. Bemis became ill and was brought to Colorado Springs in the hope that she would regain her health here. Colorado Springs in those days was a small community. Many of its citizens had come from Philadelphia, from New England, and even from England. Newcomers were made welcome at once. Alice Bemis’s friend, Miss Margaret Anderson, has said, “It was a close little town where everyone knew everyone else.” At first the Bemis family lived on Weber Street, • 101 •

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not far from the home of William S. and Helen Hunt Jackson. The Howbert family lived nearby. Mrs. Hamp and her sons, the family of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Parrish (parents of Ann Parrish, the novelist), Miss Katherine Adams--all were neighbors of the Bemises. At that time there were no paved streets in Colorado Springs and less than one hundred telephones. People walked or bicycled. They rode in buggies, in runabouts and occasionally in four-in-hand. Where the High School now stands was a series of vacant lots. In 1885, the Bemis family moved to 506 North Cascade Avenue and there Alice Bemis spent her girlhood. She enjoyed a simple life. A bowling club of eight members to which she belonged met in the stables back of the Dickey house at 1206 North Cascade Avenue. The same young people skated in the winter when the driveway of the Curr House at St. Vrain and Tejon Streets was flooded. They roller skated in the Temple Theatre. Built in 1894, on the southeast corner of Nevada Avenue and Kiowa Street, it served as an auditorium for political speeches, prize fights and roller skating. With her friends in the Tennis Club, Alice Bemis played on courts which occupied the corner where Coburn Library now stands. Picnicking in the Garden of the Gods or in the canyons was enjoyed. All the young people at the time rode horseback (Alice Bemis Taylor enjoyed this sport to the end of her life). Delightful parties were given by General Palmer and his daughter at Glen Eyrie and by Dr. and Mrs. William Bell at Briarhurst. Alice Bemis and her sister, Maude, May Howbert, Margaret Anderson and Katherine Adams were among the young ladies who attended these parties. They also originated what they called the “Cheap and Hungry” dances which were held in Kinnikinnick hall on the southeast corner of Tejon and Cache la Poudre streets. For these affairs, the girls brought lemonade and cookies--the young men paid fifty cents. The music was furnished by a piano; a violin was added if the amount subscribed warranted this extravagance. Through her mother’s influence Alice Bemis developed the habit of reading aloud with a small group of friends or in the family circle. This habit brought her great pleasure. Until the end of her life she read aloud once a week with three devoted

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friends, Margaret Anderson, May Howbert and Louie Fisher Blood. Each member subscribed to the Atlantic Monthly. They met to read and to discuss its articles and also to enjoy current books of a serious nature. While one member of the group read, the others sewed. Alice Bemis received her education in the private schools of Colorado Springs. In 1891, she went abroad with her family, and in 1896, with her mother and sister Maude, she spent a year studying and traveling in Europe. After Mrs. Bemis’s health improved, the family spent their summers on the east coast and their winters in Colorado Springs. Mr. Bemis’s affairs obliged him to live in the east for many years, and he was separated for months at a time from his family for whom he had a deep affection and love. Alice Bemis Taylor in later years often spoke of the immense amount of correspondence with which her father had to deal and how meticulous he was in writing all his letters in longhand. In 1903, Alice Bemis married Frederick Morgan Pike Taylor. Mr. Taylor had to come to Colorado Springs from New Jersey with his mother and sister. His uncle was President James Taylor of Vassar College. Alice Taylor had a great regard and affection for her Taylor relatives. Her interest in Vassar College was strengthened further when her nieces, the daughters of Farwell and Faith Gregg Bemis, were students there. Mr. Taylor was a sportsman who loved fishing, hunting and an outdoor life. He wanted few comforts when camping. Mrs. Taylor adapted herself to this mode of life when in the wilds of the Adirondacks or in the High Rockies. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor had one adopted daughter, Alice Dorée Taylor, who now lives in Maine. In the home which they built at 1238 Wood Avenue after their marriage, the hospitality so characteristic of the Bemis family was enjoyed by their friends. At tea, Mrs. Taylor would use with pleasure the delicate cups and plates which her mother had bought from “China Jim.” In their library Mrs. Taylor gradually assembled a collection of fine books. Many were western Americana. After her death, some of her rare books became the treasured possessions of Coburn Library at Colorado College. One may see there among the Taylor gifts: a Ronsard First Folio issued in 1584, a copy of the “Orlando

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Furioso” printed and bound by Aldine Press in Venice in 1545, a manuscript of Swinburne poem, David Garrick’s autographed copy of Congreve’s “Love for Love” and two huge volumes containing signatures and letters of British poets, ranging in time and interest from Thomas Sackville and Sir Philip Sidney to Matthew Arnold and Oscar Wilde. A gem of this collection is a first edition poem “Endymion” by John Keats. As you know, this poem begins: A thing of beauty is a joy forever: Its loveliness increases, it will never Pass into nothingness. It seems fitting to use these lines in describing the gifts which were Alice Taylor’s contributions to her community. The Day Nursery, built as a memorial to her mother is a structure of English Tudor architecture. Mrs. Taylor told friends that a legacy received from her mother would be used in the construction of a new building at Rio Grande and Tejon Streets to house the Day Nursery. Alice Cogswell Bemis had been one of the founders in 1897 of the Day Nursery. For the new building, William Stickney of Pueblo was the architect and was assisted by an Englishman, John Gray, who insisted that each detail of craftsmanship should be correct. Mr. R. E. Alderson, the master builder and contractor, has said that to work with Mrs. Taylor on a project was a tremendous privilege. I quote his words: “Mrs. Taylor was a very brilliant woman who had a great grasp of details. She could follow architectural plans and ideas as well as any professional builder. She had vision. I respected her very much.” The Day Nursery with its children’s playroom decorated by the artist, Allan True, was opened with a children’s party on Christmas Day 1923. On that Christmas, Mrs. Taylor gave every man who had worked on the building a twenty dollar gold piece. For years, Mrs. Taylor was acting and later honorary president of the Nursery. In her will she left funds for its maintenance and operation. Mrs. Taylor was interested not only in the well child but in the disturbed child. She, therefore, founded the Bemis-Taylor Child Guidance Clinic and supported it for

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12 years. Colorado College has had close ties with the Child Guidance Clinic. The psychiatrist in charge of the Clinic has been a member of the teaching staff at the College and has been available for consultation on student problems. In March 1928, a memorial organ recital was given at Grace Church and St. Stephens. On the back of the program was written, “In memory of Frederick Morgan P. Taylor and as an enduring tribute to his love of good music this organ is given by his wife, Alice Bemis Taylor.” Among the organ compositions played by Frederick Boothroyd on this occasion was the “Funeral March and Seraphic Hymn” by Guilmant which is a ‘moving expression of personal faith.’ The “Morgen” of Richard Strauss was sung by Florence Austral. The Parish of Grace Church in accepting the organ pledged its use for the benefit and enjoyment of the citizens of Colorado Springs. Mrs. Taylor twice gave large sums of money for the maintenance of the organ and for the endowment of the Taylor Memorial Concerts which she wished to be given late in the afternoon or in the evening so that those coming from work might enjoy them. Recently Dr. Julius Baird has given at Grace Church fifteen organ recitals covering four hundred years of keyboard music for Organ and Harpsichord. There have also been two performances of “The Passion of Our Lord According to Saint Matthew” by J. S. Bach. Mrs. Taylor through the years collected a large number of objects made by the Indians of the Southwest. She also gathered examples of the folk art known as “Santos” which had been made by the Spanish-American people of New Mexico and Colorado. She wished these to be housed properly and from her conception of a museum for this project arose the magnificent Fine Arts Center. Its architect was John Gaw Meem of Santa Fe whose wife is Faith Bemis Meem. Mrs. Taylor decided to build what is truly a center for all the arts. The Fine Arts Center building, erected on the site where the Broadmoor Art Academy once stood, houses a theatre where the Civic Players delight audiences, a music room and stage for the city’s musical clubs, and studios and workrooms for the art school where students of Colorado College attend classes in art. There are also galleries, where in the past twenty years exhibits of all types from Pre-

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Columbian masterpieces to works of contemporary artists have been displayed. The building contains the Taylor Museum where an outstanding collection has been made of objects of archaeological and anthropological value. The Taylor Museum library is enriched by many volumes from the valuable collection of western Americana accumulated by Mrs. Taylor. Mention should be made of the following: 1) the House of Representatives Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route For a Railroad from the Mississippi River To the Pacific Ocean mad in 1853-5 (volume 12, Parts 1 and 2). These books have beautiful illustrations. 2) J. C. Fremont’s Report made in 1845 on the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1842. 3) A first edition of South by West printed in London in 1874. This book gave Rose Kingsley’s impression of Colorado Springs in its earliest days. These and thousands of other volumes, including books on art collected by Mrs. Judson Bemis, may be consulted and enjoyed by the students of Colorado College and by the public. It is characteristic of Mrs. Taylor’s thought for her fellow man that work has begun in 1934 on the Fine Arts Center so that jobs might be available for a large number of men who were then unemployed due to the depression. On April the 20th, 1936, the Fine Arts Center was opened with a week of festivities. Thanks to Mrs. Taylor’s generous gift for the purpose, a number of artists delight the community. Among them were Albert Spalding, the violinist, and Martha Graham, the dancer. A gala crowd participated in each event. The community wished to give a token of its appreciation of this gift, and a silver plate was presented to Mrs. Taylor by acting mayor, Ben H. Stewart. Always shy and reserved, Mrs. Taylor chose to accept this honor in the privacy of her office at the Fine Arts Center with only a few friends near her. Mrs. Taylor inherited from her father and mother a keen interest in the affairs of Colorado College. Her father, for many years a trustee, gave the money for the building of Bemis Hall. Mrs. Bemis in writing to her son of the laying of the cornerstone of Bemis Hall in February, 1907 said, “I suppose Gregg wrote you or Sister that I helped lay the corner-stone to the new hall yesterday morning. Mrs. S., one of the 1908 Class, and myself

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patted on the cement. Gregg remarked if Daddy and Alan had been there, there would have been a lot more put on. The wind was very chilly yesterday, but we were not there very long and we were fairly well wrapped.” When Cogswell Theatre at Bemis Hall was named in her honor she said, “What would my ancestors say to having a theatre bear their name” (I am indebted to the sketch of the life of Alice Cogswell Bemis which was written by Mrs. Slocum for these details). Mr. Bemis made an endowment at Colorado College for a department of banking and business administration. Following his example, Mrs. Taylor during her lifetime not only gave large sums of money to the endowment fund of Colorado College but also specific gifts such as a bus for the use of students in the geology department and a sun room for the use of the girls living at Montgomery Hall. She became Colorado College’s first woman trustee. After her death in 1942, her will directed that a very large sum from her estate be given to Colorado College in the hope that it could be used toward the building of a new library. In the book Who’s Who in Colorado, Mrs. Taylor listed her hobbies as early American glass and architecture. But her greatest interest was that of helping her fellow man. This trait of character stemmed from her devotion to duty. To her, in Wordsworth’s phrase, Duty was the “Stern Daughter of the Voice of God.” Deeply religious, trained by a father who valued the “blessedness of drudgery” and a mother “who had the heart and will to bring all the happiness she could to others” Alice Taylor was driven by an inner compulsion to share her material possessions and good fortune with others. Her countless private philanthropies are known only to the fortunate recipients of her kindness. If she paid for an operation for one in need, she followed the case with unobtrusive but careful interest. She gave financial help to many Colorado College students. With her mind full of the many details necessary for the completion of a huge architectural enterprise she would yet find time to hunt for an antique silver porringer as a gift for the child of a friend. The ability to envision the lofty enterprise and at the same time to execute the daily kindness is very rare. Alice Bemis Taylor had this ability.

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Alice Taylor would have been surprised and probably horrified to hear herself compared with Christopher Wren but like him, she was a builder and like him she wrought in beauty. Perhaps when in London she visited St. Paul’s Cathedral and saw there in its crypt Wren’s tomb with the inscription, “Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice.” “Reader, if a monument you seek look about you.” Here, at the dedication of Taylor Hall we can look about us and everywhere see evidence of her gifts. We are near the Fine Arts Center and within a block or two if Grace Church. Not far away is the Day Nursery. All these buildings bear testimony to the love that Alice Bemis Taylor felt for her community. but beyond her structures of brick and stone and cement lie her creations of the spirit. She fashioned in her life a model of what a human being can accomplish through love and self denial. We can remember that not only in her great philanthropies but in and simple kindnesses she built stately mansions of the soul. Speech given by Mrs. Charles L. Tutt at the opening of Taylor Hall, November 2, 1956 Vesta W. Tutt (1900—1983), an archaeological enthusiast and patron of the arts was the second wife of Mr. Charles L. Tutt Jr. Active in social and civic affairs, Vesta was an honorary trustee of the Fine Arts Center and the Broadmoor Garden Club. Along with her many other activities, including memberships in the Colonial Dames of America, the Broadmoor Golf Club and the Colorado Historical Society, and serving as a board member of the Red Cross during World War II, she helped found a juvenile detention home in Colorado Springs, organized clothing drives for Europe following the war, and personally delivered supplies to starving families in the Dust Bowl of eastern Colorado in 1936. Vesta was the mother of John Wood Tutt, and of three stepsons, Charles Tutt II, William Thayer Tutt and Russell Thayer Tutt. From the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, January 29, 1983

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Alice Bemis Taylor. Colorado College Photo Files, Biography – Taylor, Alice Bemis. Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Alice Amelia Stewart Hill. Courtesy of Starsmore Center for Local History at the Colorado

Springs Pioneers Museum.

Alice Stewart Hill, Colorado Springs’ First Wild Flower Artist: Her Family & Her Friends Edwin Bathke & Nancy Bathke I wish to acknowledge my great obligation to Mrs. Helen Jackson. It was her kind interest in my work that first suggested this book, and it is because of her encouragement that I have published it. It has been somewhat a labor of love to try to express in form and color what one, who had such a nice appreciation of Colorado flowers, has expressed so eloquently in words. If I shall have done aught to add to the interest in what she has written, it is a grateful tribute which it will be a pleasure to me to pay to her memory. Alice Amelia Stewart, Colorado Springs The Procession of Flowers in Colorado, 1886 With this foreword in The Procession of Flowers in Colorado, Alice Stewart Hill paid tribute to her friend Helen Hunt Jackson. Except for this admired work, little has been documented concerning this accomplished artist. Hill’s artwork and role in Colorado history unfold with exploration though her family and friends.

Alice’s Family

Alice Amelia Stewart was born in Amboy, New York, in 1851. Her father, George H. Stewart, was born in Vermont in 1816, according to his obituary. Her mother, Sarah McFetridge, was born in Ireland in 1816, as documented on her tombstone. Her parents lived in New York where their first three children were born. Alice had two older sisters, Helen A., or Helena, born in 1839, and Harriet Newell, called Hattie, born in 1848. In 1852, George, his family and several friends moved to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, a small midwestern town on the • 111 •

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Beaver River, with a dam within the city limits. Immediately, George built a woolen mill and began his business ventures in Wisconsin. He assisted in starting the bank, the cemetery, the Presbyterian Church and its Sunday School and he was on the public school board. He aggressively traded in real estate, and owned several large farms where he raised crop seed. He was a life-long republican although he did not run for any office. Sarah Stewart was typical of the times, centering her activities around her husband, her children and her home. In Wisconsin, both joy and sadness befell the family. Their last child, another daughter named Marcia L., was born in 1855. The oldest daughter, Helen, died at the age of 22 on February 7, 1860. Alice demonstrated her artistic abilities early. She entered and won a cash prize and a diploma in the 6th Annual Fair of the Beaver Dam Agricultural, Mechanical and Stock Association, for the best landscape in oil and the best crayon drawing. In 1872, she entered a floss embroidery at the Wisconsin State Fair. Because of her artistic talent, Alice went to New York to attend the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and the National Academy of Design from 1873—1874. At this same time her father was diagnosed with asthma and was told to move to Colorado. Throughout the years 1872 and 1873, George journeyed between Wisconsin and Colorado three times. Each time he was in Colorado he felt better, thinking that he had regained his health, and he returned to Wisconsin to live. But in the fall of 1873, the Beaver Dam newspaper reported that George, Sarah and a daughter moved permanently to Colorado Springs. Originally, George was headed to Pueblo but he got off the train in the newly founded Colorado Springs. George wrote to the Beaver Dam newspaper that business opportunities abounded for a man who wanted to work. In July 1874, the Beaver Dam newspaper announced that Alice and Marcia Stewart were leaving Beaver Dam to join the family in Colorado Springs. George, ever the entrepreneur, started up in Colorado Springs where he left off in Beaver Dam. He sold crop seed to a needy and willing market. He bought and sold real estate. He became the president of the First National Bank. When elected Justice of the Peace, he was addressed as Judge Stewart, a name

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that he used for the rest of his life. George helped to start the Presbyterian Church and was active in the Temperance Union. He was on the public school board and the board of the School for the Deaf and Blind. Republican politics took up some of his free time. Most importantly, he purchased the Colorado Springs Plaster of Paris Company which was in debt. He turned around the financial bottom line by forming a larger company, Stewart Stucco and Cement, which manufactured or traded in plaster of Paris, cement, stucco, gypsum, clay, brick, tiles, graphite, paints, and lime. This facility was in Colorado City where there was a wealth of natural resources within feet of the building. Alice, a feminine version of her father, also jumped into many activities. She painted a portrait of Irving Howbert, the county clerk, with which he was very pleased, and she entered the first El Paso County Fair where she won awards. She rode her pony Gypsy around the Pikes Peak region and gathered the prolific wild flowers. Her pony trips were noticed around town, since the Colorado Springs Gazette reported an occasion in which she fell off Gypsy. She soon realized that she wanted more instruction in art, especially painting flowers. Colorado Springs pioneer resident and historian Gilbert McClurg wrote that Alice went to Chicago to study with a Mrs. Scott. The Gazette reported that Alice then would go on to New York to resume her studies at the National Academy of Design. Approximately a year later the Gazette reported that Alice had returned to Colorado Springs. Later she continued her studies, this time learning etching with local artist Thomas Parrish. Alice sold her artwork and a Colorado Springs Gazette reporter said, “the walls of her studio are well filled with productions from her brush and pencil and we were especially struck, on a second visit, with a portrait in crayons, and a view, in oil, on the Adirondack.” Alice sold pretty little paper knives made of Colorado cedar, and decorated in oil with Colorado flowers. There were also handsome paper folders, manufactured of native woods by Mr. Fred Ege, covered with delicate flowers and animals. Fred Ege came from Beaver Dam, knew the Stewart family, and was known in Colorado Springs as a master wood carver. The Weekly Gazette, October 12, 1878, printed the following article entitled “Miss Stewart’s Paintings of Flowers:”

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We had the pleasure a few days ago of looking over a very attractive portfolio of Colorado flowers painted by Miss Alice Stewart of this city. These pictures have all been painted from flowers gathered in the parks and canons, on the plains and mountains, near Colorado Springs. They have great value because they are really artistic productions. The flowers have that delicate quiet beauty and grace peculiar to our mountain clime. The pictures are exceedingly happy in expressing this. The drawings exhibit with rare skill their graceful forms while the tints and shades are excellently brought out by the delicate brush handled by a deft hand. But while the quality of the painting makes these pictures desirable their great value comes from the fact that they are paintings of Colorado flowers. It is well known that the flora of the Rocky Mountains is distinct in genus and species from that east of the Mississippi. For this reason the pictures are particularly valuable. Prof. Gray, of Harvard, the leading botanist of the country, who has made an especial study of the flora of this region, was so much pleased with samples of Miss Stewart’s work, that he has already sent in a large order for Colorado flowers. No greater compliment could be paid Miss Stewart than this. Among the flowers we saw we may mention the harebell, the daisy, the anemone, which were quite different from eastern varieties. We also noticed a group of Pike’s Peak flowers, which grew above timber line. Miss Stewart intends to have ready for Christmas portfolios of flowers and also decorated panels. We know of no more appropriate or beautiful presents for friends here or in the east than these paintings. We most heartily advise our readers to call and see this collection, as Miss Stewart is very willing and glad to show them. We may add Miss Stewart has carefully prepared herself for her profession. She studied at Cooper Institute and

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the Academy of Design in New York, and also received private instruction in the same city. There she had the best advantages in models and teachers, which this country affords. But she has also that which simple education cannot impart, a devoted enthusiasm for art. She has taken only unpretentious subjects at present, and in this she is wise. But it is not impossible in the near future that Colorado Springs may have an artist equal to the grander themes which are suggested in whatever direction the eye may roam about our beautiful city. Another article in the Gazette on September 14, 1878, reported, Possessing the largest collection of Colorado flowers in the United States, Miss Stewart is indefatigable in her efforts to get new specimens, and has just returned from a tour to southern Colorado, where she spent days in the celebrated La Veta Pass and in the neighborhood of La Sangre de Christo and Sierra Blanca. The young lady receives orders from all parts of the country. A portfolio of these flowers would be an invaluable and beautiful memento of the west for tourists who have any taste either for nature or art. Alice held many exhibitions, and taught art in Denver as well as in Colorado Springs. She participated in church affairs and in the weddings of several friends, and newspaper reports of these events often mentioned her art work, either on display or as gifts. On September 27, 1881, Marcia Stewart, the youngest Stewart daughter, married Joseph Church Helm. Alice was a bridesmaid and Francis B. Hill, Alice’s future husband, was an usher and signed the marriage certificate as a witness. The church was decorated with flowers: clematis, salvia, asters and golden rod. The bride had a rose in her hair and roses in her corsage and Alice, her bridesmaid, had roses trimming her dress. Joseph Church Helm was a young attorney who practiced law throughout the center of the state of Colorado. He was a republican who later became a state representative and a state

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senator. Joseph and Marcia moved to Denver. Joseph was appointed a justice to the Supreme Court of Colorado and he rose to the position of Chief Justice. In 1892 he ran for governor against Davis H. Waite but Waite won. Joseph returned to the Supreme Court and later in life he resumed his private practice. The Helms had no children. Alice Amelia Stewart married Francis Burke Hill on November 26, 1886. This wedding, like her sister Marcia’s, utilized flowers in every way possible. Francis was born in Scotland in 1838, making him about 13 years older than his bride. After attending the University of Edinburgh, he went to South Africa where he made a fortune in diamond mining and farming. As soon as Hill arrived in Colorado Springs, he acquired several large sheep ranches east of town. He also dealt in real estate and mining. He entered into business with his father-in-law, George Stewart, and his brother-in-law, Joseph Helm. Francis had a beautiful voice. He gave readings of Robert Burns poetry and acted in church pageants. He was a member of the Caledonia Society, the Library Board, the Dumb Friends League and he was one of the founders of the Unitarian Church. Alice and Francis had no children.

Alice’s Friends

Alice Hill became the illustrator of choice for several Colorado Springs authors. Writer Susan Teel Dunbar was a correspondent for a Boston newspaper before she arrived in Colorado Springs. Educated and talented, she became the first woman on the school board and the librarian for the Free Public Library. In 1883, she entered a writing contest for the best article extolling the virtues of the Pikes Peak area. She won $100, and her treatise was published in Dr. S. Edwin Solly’s book Health Resorts of Colorado Springs and Manitou. Susan also wrote a delightful story, “Anemones,”which was first published in booklet form in 1883. Susan was an accomplished artist; two volumes of her flower paintings are in the Special Collections at Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs. She took art classes from Alice, however, and chose Alice to illustrate her book. Susan did not give Alice acknowledgment anywhere in the book, but comparisons with other books where Alice was listed as illustrator, verify that Alice had done the work for her friend Susan.

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Author Susan Coolidge, pen name for Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, was a friend and traveling companion of Helen Hunt. Proper Victorian women were not readily accepted in the work place. As authors, women often used pseudonyms as Sarah did. Helen Hunt used several pen names such as Saxe Holm, Marah and Rip Van Winkle. Women also used their initials; Alice used AAS and ASH, while Helen Hunt used HH. Susan was also a good friend of Louisa May Alcott. Alcott used the publisher Little Brown, and so Susan used the same woman-friendly publisher for her books. Susan’s most successful books were the What Katy Did series. Coolidge set the last three books in the series of five volumes in the Colorado Springs area. Susan’s Katy books, ever so popular with young girls, are still in print today. Susan and Helen Hunt took a cross-country trip together. Thus, Susan wrote articles for Schribner’s magazine about how to travel, where to go, and what to take. Meanwhile Helen Hunt wrote magazine articles which evolved into the book Bits of Travel at Home. Susan Coolidge’s book, Her Garden, was a sevenstanza poem about her friend Helen Hunt Jackson, following Jackson’s death. The poem described Jackson’s favorite area of wild flowers on Cheyenne Mountain. This is a largeformat book, one stanza per page, each illustrated with An Alice Stewart Hill painting hangs flowers by Alice Stewart above Helen Hunt Jackson’s fireplace in Hill. Her drawings were the Jackson House exhibit at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. Photo by Edwin then etched by Thomas Bathke. Parrish and Alice Hill. The text and etchings were printed on Japanese plate paper in New York. The Gazette printing and bindery, in Colorado Springs, then issued a very limited edition. A copy of this beautiful book is in Special Collections of Pikes Peak Library District. So far research has uncovered only one other copy in institutional holdings. Poet Virginia Donaghe McClurg came to the Colorado Springs area and taught school before marrying Gilbert McClurg.

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She worked tirelessly for the preservation and establishment of Mesa Verde National Park. Among her poems were two with interesting titles: “Commemoration Ode to Pikes Peak” and her “Prize Ode to Irrigation.” Virginia wrote two books of poetry, Colorado Favorites and A Colorado Wreath, both of which Alice illustrated. In the book, A Colorado Wreath, Virginia used quotes from her friends Susan Coolidge and Helen Hunt to introduce her own poetry. Her poem “Anemones” used the same illustration of a pasque flower that Susan T. Dunbar used in her book, and Alice received due credit for her artwork in this instance. In 1933, Gilbert McClurg collected all of his wife’s poems and the Colorado College published this compilation. Alice Stewart Hill’s etchings appear in the section “Colorado Wild Flowers” in this publication. Helen Hunt Jackson, nationally renowned for her books Ramona and A Century of Dishonor, was another friend of Alice’s, and admirer of Alice’s work. When the Jackson house was demolished, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum was able to retain major rooms as a museum exhibit. In one of the rooms, above the fireplace is a large flower watercolor of Alice’s. In the Helen Hunt book Bits of Travel at Home is a chapter entitled “The Procession of Flowers in Colorado.” When Helen died in 1885, she bequeathed the rights to that chapter to Alice Stewart Hill to be used as she wanted. Helen and Alice had discussed different projects using Helen’s writing and Alice’s artwork.

Alice’s Artistry

In 1885, before Alice completed her book, another book appeared, Wild Flowers of Colorado, written and illustrated by Emma Homan Thayer. Emma, also educated at the National Academy of Design in New York, had married Elmer A. Thayer, a manager for the hotels along the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The Thayers had stayed in Colorado Springs several times and Emma had purchased flower studies from Alice. She also borrowed many examples of Alice’s work and took them to her home in Salida. Emma came to Colorado Springs with her newly published book and quickly showed it to Alice. Later Alice had time to really look at the illustrations. She wrote to the Colorado Springs Gazette that Emma had copied her work, and published those copies in her book, the copyright

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“The Colorado Anemones,” from A Colorado Wreath, by Virginia Donaghe McClurg, illustrated by Alice Stewart Hill (1899).

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precluding Alice from using her own work. Susan T. Dunbar also wrote letters to the newspaper in defense of her good friend Alice. Susan wrote about the lack of accuracy in the flower details in Emma’s book. She said that Coulter and Gray, the botanical authorities at the time, would agree with her. Emma Thayer admitted that she used Alice’s work, but only the arrangement of blossoms. Examples of Emma’s and Alice’s work were sent to art experts in New York who did not know either artist. The Nation concluded that Emma had copied Alice’s work. With a justice of the peace (her father) and a supreme court justice (her brother-in-law, Joseph Helm) in the family, Alice should have had wonderful legal counsel. Although we have no record of a lawsuit, in 1887 Emma published a new book, Wild Flowers of the Rocky Mountains. It is identical to her first book, the only changes being the cover and title page. Now Alice could use her own work and use the words “flower” and “Colorado” in the title of her book. A copy of The Procession of Flowers in Colorado, published by Outwest Publishing in Colorado Springs, now resides in Denver Public Library. Perhaps this book was a sample, because Roberts Brothers, Boston, successors to Little Brown, published a limited edition in 1886. One hundred copies bound in pale blue or green cloth with an ivory colored calf back-strip were decorated with a length of kinnikinnick in gold where the cloth and calf join. The title, and the author’s and illustrator’s names are impressed in a wavering Victorian script in gold. Each of the one hundred copies was individually painted and signed. The paper used was Whatman watercolor paper watermarked 1886. The first word on the first page was not printed, but Alice painted it in the style of the medieval illuminators. She then decorated the text, printed only on the odd-numbered pages, each page of text with different wild flowers. No two books are exactly the same. Some books have additional full pages of flowers, up to six additional pages, and a painted tail piece or colophon. Alice worked on completion of these books from 1886 to 1888. She was married during this time and at least one book is signed with her married name, but most are signed “Alice Stewart.” The book sold for $25 which was a considerable sum for the times. Of the one hundred copies published, the authors

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of this article have located twenty-six, including one copy without any artwork. The Procession of Flowers in Colorado, when found today, commands a premium price. In 1895, Alice Stewart Hill compiled a collection of three hundred sixty-five poems and verses all referring to flowers. Some of the selections she chose were by her friends Helen Hunt and Susan Coolidge, and others works were by nationally know people, Lowell, Longfellow, Whitman, and international poets such as Shakespeare, Shelley, Burns and Dickens. The book, The Day and the Flower, contained one entry for each day of the year. Gowdy Printing in Colorado Springs published this small volume, which is affectionately dedicated to F. B. Hill—her husband. Of the four known copies of this book, two copies have been studied by the authors of this chapter. Neither book has a hard cover, just a brown paper wrap. The books have one heavy watercolor-quality page interspersed between every four lighter-weight pages throughout. There is no artwork in either copy of the book, which suggests that it was a work in progress.

Alice’s Legacy

On January 10, 1896, Alice Amelia Stewart Hill died of cancer in the Jackson Sanatarium in Danville, New York, at the age of 45. In Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, in the cemetery started by her father, reside Alice’s sister Helen, her Stewart grandparents and her father. When George died in 1893, Hattie accompanied her father’s body back to Wisconsin for his burial. Near the Stewart tombstone are many relatives of Alice’s mother, the McFetridges. A large mausoleum in Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, is the final resting place for Joseph Church Helm and his wife Marcia Stewart Helm. Joseph died in 1915 and Marcia died in 1932. For a while after Joseph died Marcia lived with her sister Hattie in Colorado Springs. Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs is where the other members of the Stewart-Hill clan are interred. Sarah Stewart, Alice’s mother, died later the same year, 1896, as did Alice. Harriet N. Stewart, her sister and the last of the Stewarts, died in 1937. Hattie was certainly the caregiver for the entire family, taking care of her mother, her sister and her brother-in-law,

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Francis Burke Hill. In poor health, Francis went to California and Hattie went to take care of him. When he died in 1911, she brought his body back to Colorado Springs to be laid beside his adoring wife. When Alice died, both her husband Francis and sister Hattie went to New York for the sad duty of returning Alice to Colorado Springs and to the flowers that she loved so much. Alice’s body of work is somewhat limited, mainly to the books she illustrated. Her larger works are very few, with the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and Denver Public Library holding the primary examples. One oil painting is in a private collection. It is The Procession of Flowers in Colorado which is the most important accomplishment of this talented artist. When Alice Amelia Stewart Hill arrived in Colorado Springs in 1874, it was barely a small town. She was a proper, talented young lady, and became active with like-minded women in Colorado Springs. Hill, Coolidge, McClurg, Dunbar, Jackson, were all ladies of letters, and writers of considerable talent. Alice illustrated for all four of her literary friends. Alice was particularly proud of her knowledge of the flowers in the Pikes Peak region and in Colorado. Her artwork documented what she found on her excursions around Colorado Springs, as she collected plant specimens to use artistically. Alice died at a relatively young age. Her signature book, The Procession of Flowers in Colorado, is notable in being among the last of publications in the form with printed text and original hand-painted illustrations. Books with lithographs, identification books of wild flowers, came next, and eventually photography developed to the level that such individual effort was no longer required for book illustrations. There is no family to carry on Alice’s story or promote her talent. Her works are neither well known nor widely distributed, those few known examples of books with her illustrations, or of her artwork, being in institutions such as the Pikes Peak Library District, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, the Colorado College Tutt Library, and the Denver Public Library. Perhaps Alice’s contributions to history may not be as significant as other ladies of her time, even her immediate circle of friends, but her story mirrors life in pioneer Colorado Springs

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and in Victorian-era America, and demonstrates how careers in the humanities developed and interacted among 19th century American women. The Procession of Flowers in Colorado is a rare, beautiful and extraordinary book. And Alice Amelia Stewart Hill can be described the same way. Edwin & Nancy Bathke have been Colorado residents for 50 years, and after living in Manitou Springs for 36 years, they are now residents of Douglas County. Ed is a mathematician, holding degrees in the subject from the University of Wisconsin, and a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado. He retired as a computer analyst at Kaman Sciences in Colorado Springs. Nancy is a retired elementary school teacher. Her last assignment was teaching computer skills to kindergarten through fifth grade at Woodmen Roberts Elementary, Academy School District 20, in El Paso County. She has a B.S. in education from the University of Wisconsin, and an M.A. in education from the University of Colorado. Books Illustrated by Alice Stewart Hill Susan Coolidge, Her Garden (Colorado Springs, Colo.: [s.n.], 1888). Susan T. Dunbar, Pasque-flowers (Anemones) From Pike’s Peak: A Story (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Gowdy-Simmons Printing Co., 1885). General Federation of Women’s Clubs, Biennial Notebook, 1898. Alice Stewart Hill, The Day and the Flower (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Gowdy, 1895). Helen Hunt Jackson, The Procession of Flowers in Colorado, (Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, 1886). Gilbert McClurg, The Poems of Virginia Donaghe McClurg, (Colorado Springs, Colo.: [Colorado College], 1933). Virginia Donaghe McClurg, Colorado Favorites (New York, N.Y.: Francis Hart & Co., 1882). Virginia Donaghe McClurg, A Colorado Wreath (Colorado Springs, Colo.: V. D. McClurg?, 1899).

In Her Garden Susan Coolidge STILL swings the scarlet penstamen Like threaded rubies on its stem, In the hid spot she loved so well; Still bloom wild roses brave and fair, And like a bubble borne in air Floats the shy Mariposa’s bell. Like torches lit for carnival The fiery lilies straight and tall Burn where the deepest shadow is; Still dance the columbines cliff-hung, And like a broidered veil outflung The mazy blossomed clematis. Her Garden! All is silent now, Save bell-note from some wandering cow, Or rippling lark-song far away, Or whisper from the wind-stirred leaves, Or mourning dove which grieves and grieves, And “Lost! Lost! Lost !” still seems to say. Poem from Her Garden: A Poem by Susan Coolidge, illustrated with etchings by Thomas C. Parrish and Alice Stewart Hill, from original drawings by Alice Stewart Hill, Colorado Springs, Colo., 1888. The illustrations displayed on these two pages are not from Her Garden, but from The Procession of Flowers in Colorado by Helen Hunt Jackson, Boston, Mass., Roberts Brothers, 1886.

Where is the genius of the place— The happy voice, the happy face, The feet whose light, unerring tread Needed no guide in wild-wood ways, But trod the rough and tangled maze By natural instinct taught and led? Upon the wind-blown mountain-spur Chosen and loved as best by her, Watched over by near sun and star, Encompassed by wide skies, she sleeps, And not one jarring murmur creeps Up from the plain her rest to mar. Sleep on, dear heart; we would not break Thy slumber for our sorrow’s sake: The cup of life, with all its zest, Thy ardent nature quaffed at full, Now, in the twilight long and cool, Take thou God’s final gift of rest. And still below the grape-vine swings, The Mariposa’s fragile wings Flutter, red lilies light their flame, Larks float, the dove still plains and grieves; But while one heart that loved thee lives, Still shall thy Garden bear thy name.

Helen Hunt Jackson, ca. 1885. Helen Hunt Jackson Papers, Part 1, Ms 0020, Box 10, Photo 1, Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“Helen of Colorado”: Helen Hunt Jackson, Colorado Springs, & the Making of an Indian Activist Katherine Scott Sturdevant “H. H.,” the popular post-Civil War poet, essayist, travel author, and novelist whom we know as Helen Hunt Jackson (1830—1885), is now most recognized by historians for her passionate advocacy of American Indian rights. As a travel essayist, Jackson had an uncanny ability to become a “writer of place” wherever she moved and settled, though she saw moving as a healthier state than settling. Colorado Springs and the state of Colorado still recognize her as one of our great literary figures. California also claims her as a near-native writer of that state. Yet she fit most appropriately native in New England, amongst the literati of New York and Boston, and she began her travel writings with European adventures. Remarkably, Jackson’s literary life moments that intertwined her with each locale occurred in less than 2 decades near the end of a tragically brief life. She died 2 months short of her fifty-fifth birthday. Even in death, burial, and re-burial, however, Helen Hunt Jackson became “Helen of Colorado.” Here she literally remains. For each locale, Jackson characterized the scenery, architecture, flora, fauna, culture, and personalities in winning ways for her readers. This alone, when concerning Colorado, would offer a worthy reason for Jackson’s listing as one of its “extraordinary women” and writers. H. H. also nourished, in Colorado, however, an ability to be struck by difference, to be flexible toward change, and to be passionate for making a difference and bringing about change. Biographers usually consider her awareness of the 1879 lecture tour by Ponca Chief Standing Bear in Boston and New York to be the turning point that made Jackson an Indian rights reformer.

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Nevertheless, a catalyst can only cause a reaction when reactive elements are in place. Key elements of Jackson’s earlier life, such as her New England roots, personal losses, and publishing expertise, prepared her for an explosion into reform. Among these elements, Jackson’s transformative period in 1870s Colorado Springs gave her a marriage with freedom for travel, provided her a home base and a boost of healthy energy, introduced her to neighbors who marched to different drummers, enabled her deeper reform vision, aroused her most aggressive opponent, and suggested her first weapons of war. Colorado Springs exerted more influence on the timeless aspects of Jackson’s life than it realizes. In Bits of Travel at Home (1878), Jackson described her own changing mind, and how it broadened in reference to Colorado Springs. She identified parallels between falling in love with and deciding to marry her Colorado Springs friend, William Sharpless Jackson, at the same time that she fell in love with Colorado Springs. I once said of a face, at hasty first sight, “What a plain face! How is it that people have called it handsome? I see no single point of beauty in it.” That face afterward became in my eyes not only noble, fine, strong, sweet, but beautiful. . . . Again and again I try to recall the face as I first saw it. I cannot. The very lineaments seem totally changed. It is much the same with my first impression of the Colorado Springs. I shall never forget my sudden sense of hopeless disappointment at the moment when I first looked on the town. It was a gray day in November. I had crossed the continent, ill, disheartened, to find a climate which would not kill. There stretched before me, to the east, a bleak, bare, unrelieved, desolate plain. There rose behind me, to the west, a dark range of mountains, snow-topped, rocky-walled, stern, cruel, relentless. Between lay the town—small, straight, new, treeless.

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“One might die of such a place alone,” I said bitterly. “Death by disease would be more natural.” To-day that plain and those mountains are to me wellnigh the fairest spot on earth. To-day I say, “One might almost live on such a place alone.” I have learned it, as I learned that human face, by heart; and there can be a heart and a significant record in the face of a plain and a mountain, as much as in the face of a man.1 The Roots of a Moral Reformer in a Mourning Healthseeker “Helen Hunt Jackson,” is the modern, popularly accepted name for the writer, the one that scholars have agreed to use. She was born Helen Marie Fiske in Amherst, Massachusetts, on October 14, 1830, to Reverend Nathan Fiske, Professor of language and philosophy (variously Latin and Greek, moral philosophy and metaphysics) at Amherst College, and Deborah Waterman Fiske, both intensely devout, orthodox Congregationalists. As loyal descendants of Calvinist Puritans in academic environments, they imparted strong moral and ethical codes, supported missionary efforts, and came from a tradition of moralizing privately, publicly, and in print. Yet they were loving parents, leaving their daughter more freedom of choice than they might have intended. It is a notable pattern among independently prominent women of earlier America that they were sometimes the eldest daughters of men whose only sons died young, or who had no sons, only daughters. These fathers endowed their inspirational and educational attentions on these daughters to a greater degree than they might have done, had there been sons. The most obvious example of this from Jackson’s era is woman’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Of Nathan Fiske’s four children, the two boys died as infants and Helen was the eldest. He schooled her closely and monitored her studies even as she attended boarding schools. Thus Helen was already armed to pronounce judgments on humanity articulately and in print. She also lived within the reaches of abolitionism, temperance, and women’s rights, although none of these sparked her reform fires. Indeed, she self-consciously hung back on anti-slavery

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and openly eschewed advocacy for women’s rights because of her conviction that women held rightful power in the domestic sphere (and because she gained satisfying rare power working side-by-side with men already). She was acutely aware, nonetheless, of these reform movements and seemed poised for her own to come along. Representing another influential social history pattern, Jackson was haunted by death and the scourge of her century, consumption (tuberculosis). Her mother died of a most conspicuously prolonged case, when Helen was only 13 in 1844. Three years later, Helen’s father traveled to the Holy Land to overcome his consumption but died there of dysentery. It was common belief that children of consumptives would inherit the disease, or at least be more susceptible to it, and thus needed behaviors and treatments to help prevent it. Helen experienced staying home to help her mother and being sent away to avoid the disease. Later in life, despite clearly espousing domesticity, she also believed she should travel to escape consumption. Conflicting beliefs that consumptive women should remain in-valid at home rather than travel, and that they should maintain their domestic surroundings while ill, were the ambivalent truths of Helen’s mother, Deborah Fiske’s, life. Fiske’s letters Deborah Waterman Vinal Fiske (1806made so revealing a story of 1844), Helen Hunt Jackson’s invalid one woman’s struggle with mother, who planned for her own the burdens of invalidism, death by training and documenting that medical historian Sheila guidance for her daughters. She left Helen forever worried about her own Rothman made Fiske the hereditary health. From Ruth O’Dell, case study of a chapter in her Helen Hunt Jackson (New York: Appleton, social history of tuberculosis.2 1939), courtesy of descendant Ruth Davenport.

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Deborah Fiske had lost her own mother to consumption before she was two and thus was shuttled to relatives during childhood. Throughout her life she received the spectrum of treatments and attentions due someone expected not to thrive. She then suffered during pregnancies, lost two baby sons, and thus raised her two daughters in the full expectation of her own early demise. Deborah searched unsuccessfully for letters from her own mother that might connect her with the woman she never knew. So, she wrote letters to replace herself for her own daughters and to continue their guidance after her anticipated death. Helen received loving but intense training in religious and moral discipline, as well as domestic duties, lest her love of books overtake her love of the needle. Deborah even meticulously prepared her girls for deathbed scenes and for living as submissive long-term guests in other people’s homes. Yet, rebellious little Helen was not “able to contain her rage as her mother’s coffin was lowered into the ground.”3 Picture the orphaned girl, in perpetual mourning clothes, going from relative to school to relative. She was not the dutiful and pleasing guest, especially when hosts attempted to force her submission to strict Congregationalist precepts during her resentful mourning for her mother. She also suffered alarming sore throats and coughing.4 Yet, like her mother, she finally found kindness in one home, and then found a husband. She married Army Corps of Engineers Lieutenant Edward Hunt 5 years after her father’s Helen Marie Fiske (Hunt Jackson), circa 1847. She spent most of her death, in 1852. She cast herself adolescent years in full mourning into domesticity with middress. Helen Hunt Jackson Papers, Part Victorian relish. Yet her first 1, Ms 0020, Box 13, larger album, Special son, Murray, born in 1853, died Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, at 11 months of a brain tumor. Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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She had a second treasured son, Warren Horsford Hunt, “Rennie,” in 1855. Edward Hunt, however, spent most of Rennie’s childhood stationed at outposts that they believed would jeopardize Helen’s health. In 1863, Edward was killed in an accident with a naval explosive device he had invented. Less than 2 years later, 9-year-old Rennie died of diphtheria. As literary biographer Kate Phillips notes in hers, the most detailed Jackson biography, Helen M. F. Hunt with her second son, Jackson was acutely aware Warren Horsford Hunt, “Rennie,” ca. 1856. Rennie died in 1865, completing that she had “spent her entire Helen’s loss of her entire nuclear adolescence in full mourning family. Helen Hunt Jackson Papers, Parts 1, dress,” and then, after a Ms 0020, Box 10, Photo 9, Special Collections, brief interlude of happy Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado marriage, wore it again and Springs, Colorado. again. Rennie’s death was a “catastrophe” from which “she would never entirely recover.”5 This type of situation led notable mid-19th century women into careers in literature or reform, where they might dedicate their time, energies, and passions, as well as earn incomes.6 Helen Hunt went to Newport, Rhode Island, for a respite that lasted 6 years, including travels to Europe. At Newport she met author Thomas Wentworth Higginson, better known for also mentoring poet Emily Dickinson. Higginson mentored the young widow Hunt into publishing her poetry and other writings. He was a sensitive proponent of equality for underdogs, having been an intense abolitionist, officer over African American Civil War troops, and woman’s rights advocate. Through him, Jackson re-connected with her childhood Amherst neighbor Dickinson. Higginson was married to an invalid wife and, according to most biographers, had a mutual but unconsummated affection for Jackson. With his help, Jackson built a “support network”

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for herself that grew exponentially as she delved into literary publication. Yet ill health overtook Helen Hunt by 1872, perfectly timed for healthseeking flights west. To recover, she took up the call of California. In the early 1870s, California was the established western mecca for healthseekers. Colorado boosters were preparing to compete with every claim they could make, legitimately or illegitimately.7 Jackson’s friend, travel writer Bayard Taylor, like many published contemporaries, lauded California’s glories first, then Colorado’s a few years later.8 Jackson’s first trip to Northern California inspired the writer into many essays, but her attitudes toward the Native Americans there vacillated between disgust and romantic “noble savage” representations, not displaying the sympathetic realism she would exhibit after Colorado Springs and Standing Bear.9 Returning east, Jackson again became ill. Her sore throat apparently turned to diphtheria and she was too ill to write in early 1873. She became thinner and her hair started to gray.10 Jackson’s fluctuating health that seemed so affected by circumstance and location was not unusual for Victorian American ladies. Sorting out the genuine ailments from what might have been the psychosomatic, hypochondrial, or appropriate to woman’s sphere is difficult and perhaps unfair in hindsight. The best Colorado Springs example of this dilemma might be Queen Palmer, wife of the founder and an arrival to Colorado Springs contemporary with Jackson. Later locals frequently mocked Queen’s “heart condition” that took her further away from her husband and Colorado Springs, ever closer to luxurious English living.11 Yet more recent discoveries of her personal correspondence and re-evaluation of her condition and early death have made historians more sympathetic.12 Biographer Phillips noted that Helen Hunt Jackson mentioned “in her extant correspondence . . . her personal health troubles more than any other subject.”13 While Jackson did not die of tuberculosis, she certainly had every reason to believe that she might. Following the medical explanations available at the time, she traveled seasonally and landed in the most recommended health resorts. She also reveled in travel,

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built her career and income writing about it, acknowledged its helpfulness for her understandable depression, and used it as a statement of her independence. Thus is ill health, and upon the recommendation of an old Amherst physician and her own research, Helen Hunt felt “’irresistably impelled’” to plan a trip to Colorado Territory.14 Helen Hunt Jackson Reborn in Colorado Springs When the popular writer H. H. came to Colorado Springs for her health in 1873, it is a tie whether the environment or William Sharpless Jackson—whom she married in 1875— offered her more curative powers for her next (and final) decade. In either and both cases, Colorado Springs provided her with the rejuvenation and inspiration to ignite her as a reformer in 1879. As quoted from Bits of Travel, she was not favorably impressed with the town or scenery at first. Her pessimism and sarcasm were so strong that one cannot help but attribute the positive change to finding a new, special friend at her Colorado Springs Hotel. Will was a younger man by 6 years, of humble Quaker upbringing, yet he was already well-established in fortune and position as the vice president of General William Jackson Palmer’s Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. He had supervised the construction of the line from Denver to what would become Colorado Springs in 1871. He was also a major investor in the new town and its institutions. The couple took meals together in the hotel, then carriage rides into the scenery of the area. Suddenly Helen loved that scenery. As she wrote to a dear friend, It is a strange thing in the life of a woman organized as I am, and who has had the experience that I have,— that the only man who has compelled her to seriously think of marrying should be a plain, unvarnished, comparatively uneducated business man. . . . He rests me and I trust him to the core, which is what I have seldom felt of any man. . . . he is truth, and uprightness itself . . . and he has won me to care for him by so slow a winning, that I am persuaded it must last.15

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They were married in a Quaker ceremony at her sister Ann’s house in New Hampshire in 1875. Next the couple set about remodeling and decorating their own home in Colorado Springs. Will had purchased the corner house at 228 East Kiowa Street before their marriage. Helen now loved the local scenery so much, especially her favorite peak, that they remodeled the house to give her a view of Cheyenne Mountain.16 Helen Hunt Jackson, who still wrote as H. H., became one of Colorado Springs’ most passionate and literary boosters. In Bits of Travel at Home (1878), she described herself as a “lover” of Colorado Springs. It stood up well in comparisons to New England towns, she purported, and its founders were dedicated to temperance. The “dry and rarified air” was healthful, of course. There were “myriads of flowers” for her endless, rapturous descriptions. To the east lay a “sea-plain.” To the north was the “Divide,” with a “lake whose shores in June are like garden-beds of flowers.” To the west were the sacred mountains, especially her favorite, Cheyenne, where she would hike and ride to discover nature’s specimens, and where she wished some day to be buried. She called Cheyenne Canyon one of the “nine places of divine worship” in Colorado Springs. The other eight were all churches.17 She wandered through “the lovely nestled nook of Manitou and up the grand Ute Pass” to South Park. She noted judgmentally the “poor, desolate, mistaken, discouraged ‘Colorado City,’” a town bypassed by General Palmer’s similar disapproval when he brought the railroad and founded Colorado Springs. She boasted of the fine people settled nearby, such as author Grace Greenwood and Englishman Dr. William Bell. She gloried in the experience of gathering wildflowers, as would tourists and locals for decades, never realizing they were removing the seed population from the future. When we drive down from “our garden” [in Cheyenne Canyon] there is seldom room for another flower in our carriage. The top thrown back is filled, the space in front of the driver is filled, and our laps and baskets are filled with the more delicate blossoms. We look as if we were on our way to the ceremonies of Decoration Day. So

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we are. All June days are decoration days in Colorado Springs. Most meaningfully, considering the source, she testified to the area’s healthfulness. “Asthmatics must come here. It is a sure cure for that. Bad throat and lung troubles are invariably helped if not cured. I believe half the people in this town are one lungers.” She added, “I have grown so stout and strong in Colorado you will not know me.”18 Ripe for a Cause In 1990, historian Valerie Sherer Mathes pinpointed Jackson’s metamorphosis into an Indian rights advocate. She identified the moment as the late October-early November 1879 visit by Ponca Chief Standing Bear and his party to Boston and New York. Sponsored by Omaha editor Thomas Tibbles and encouraged by sympathetic General George Crook, this delegation traveled to seek support for their plight. They had suffered great losses from removal to Indian Territory and arrest for trying to return to their Nebraska homeland to bury the dead. There is no question that Helen Hunt Jackson, visiting Boston and New York for such uncontroversial literary events as the 70th birthday party of her friend Oliver Wendell Holmes, surprisingly leapt to action on behalf of the Ponca, and then the Indian plight in general, as her new life’s work. She immediately wrote articles for multiple eastern newspapers defending Standing Bear’s position with outrage at his treatment. Beginning research into government documents in the Astor Library, she attacked Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz for statements in his 1878 Report. This led to a war of words between them in print. Thrilled that the secretary would even answer her, Jackson reveled in the power to effect change she seemed to have, as investigations of the Ponca situation went forward.19 In 1993, even after seeing Mathes’s conclusions, one literary analyst, Carol Schmudde, noted, “why Jackson, at the age of forty-nine, suddenly devoted herself to the cause of the American Indian has been essentially inexplicable to her biographers.”20 Schmudde went on to analyze Jackson’s two novels published

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under the pseudonym “No Name”: Mercy Philbrick’s Choice (1876) and Hetty’s Strange History (1877). Both novels involve heroines who, with good intentions, keep secrets or tell lies, living hypocritically, until redeemed by public honesty and selfless dedication. Schmudde delineates how Jackson’s 1879 research uncovered the hypocrisy and corruption of Indian policies and their perpetrators, instilling in Jackson so much moral indignation that she could burst forth on a “truth-telling mission” under her known “H. H.” identity, redeeeming herself from any insincerity or secrecy in her own life. Medical historian Sheila Rothman, in 1994, wrote that “living in Colorado Springs gave Helen a political mission. Beginning in 1877 and continuing until her death in 1885, she championed the rights of Native Americans.”21 Thus Colorado Springs’ influence on the turning point was a given for Rothman. In 2003, the more intimate literary biography by Kate Phillips explored Jackson’s personal observations from her Colorado Springs home in 1877—1879. Phillips’s close study of Jackson’s personal life made her development toward activism understandable rather than abrupt. Thus Phillips’s interpretation helps us connect Colorado Springs and its own Indian history with the radical attitudes toward it that Jackson exhibited when she suddenly became an activist. In Hetty’s Strange History (1877), Jackson portrayed a childless, older wife who came to believe that she should die soon so that her husband could marry a younger, prettier woman who could give him a family. This scenario was autobiographical, of course. In 1877, Jackson was acknowledging to herself that she would probably not have children again. She wrote to her sister Ann that she hoped her health would overtake her in “’six or eight years’” so that she would “’get out of the way (I trust!) in time for him to have his babies by a second wife.’”22 Jackson did, indeed, die in 8 years, leaving Will to marry and have children with his second wife, Helen Banfield, sister Ann’s daughter and thus Jackson’s niece and namesake. Interestingly, however, Hetty of the novel faked her own death to relieve her unromantic husband of herself and years later was reunited with him only to learn that he had loved her all along, as Jackson hoped was true of Will.

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Thus 1877—1879 appears to have been an important transitional period for Jackson, perhaps when her mind and passions became fertile ground for the reform spirit that could fill an emotional void. Kate Phillips summarizes this mood usefully. Jackson took a stronger interest in other people’s children—advising Ann’s and writing young people’s stories and Nelly’s Silver Mine (1878), a novel of Colorado. She unfortunately heard that Thomas Wentworth Higginson, whose invalid wife had died, married a younger woman. Jackson again suffered from bronchitis attacks but now blamed the extremes of Colorado weather for not being as healthful as she had thought. Somewhat imprisoned, she finally realized that her Colorado Springs neighbors were not as enlightened as herself and her New England friends. Now “many local residents had begun to consider her haughty, and to gossip about her fame, her earnings, her unusually liberal religious beliefs, and her frank enjoyment of champagne, wine, and sherry. . . .”23 According to Phillips, Jackson was “bored by her surroundings,” “restless,” and frustrated by Will’s inexpressiveness and insistence that he could not travel away with her for extended periods as she proposed. He was, however, magnanimously loving and supportive when they agreed that she should travel East, perhaps again to Europe, for even a year, to get out of her “rut” and “come back to me . . . with a new mucous membrane & with all the old cobweb washed away—only a clean sunlight of love and trust left in their stead,” Will wrote.24 The Colorado Indian Wars of Helen Hunt Jackson Soon after Jackson arrived in the East, the Thomas Tibbles Standing Bear Tour fired her new passion. Phillips determined that Jackson probably heard Standing Bear first on October 29.25 Jackson’s dedication to do what she could for the plight of Indians became her new life’s work. She had previously avoided being “a woman with a hobby,” the way she derided those with causes to her friend Higginson.26 From this moment on, however, she compared herself to the abolitionists whom she could now understand. Everything she had experienced, everything about her character, all of her energies had a clear

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purpose. She described it with wonderment in letters to Will, Higginson, and others. The more she heard and researched, the more certain she was that this was it, this was a cause so morally commanding that nothing mattered more. She proceeded to use her writing skills, publishing contacts, and the reputation of “H. H.” for the benefit of her new war on U.S. Indian policy. As rhetorician Stephen Collins has identified, she was creating her own “rhetoric of humanization” to counteract the long history of dehumanizing Indians.27 Having relished her high-level editorial battle with Secretary Schurz as though he was her vanquished arch-enemy, Jackson made two revealing choices in her next targets. Without seeing into the future, Jackson attacked what modern Colorado historians identify as the two most conspicuous instances of Colorado’s controversial treatment of the Indians within its boundaries: the Ute Removal of 1879—1880 and the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. Perhaps it was not remarkable that first she would so immediately address the “starving Utes” of western Colorado. Their fate was news of the moment. The government was withholding promised rations from them after the Meeker Massacre. That dramatic turn of events occurred when, after much mishandling and ill-will, leaders of the White River Utes had killed their misguided agent, Nathan Meeker, the other white men, and kidnapped the white women and children from the agency. All of Colorado Springs had been reading Gazette Telegraph reports of the continuing saga and speculations about the degree of suffering of the women hostages. Jackson focused, however, on the injustice of punishing the Ute population for the crimes of the few. Her independent research led her to the same interpretations of right and wrong that most scholarly historians make today. Worst of all, perhaps her neighbors thought, Jackson hit upon an example much closer to home than the White River Utes. Only one paragraph into her editorial, called “The Starving Utes,” she opened the Pandora’s Box of her home state’s history: Sand Creek. On November 29, 1864, Colorado Volunteers under Colonel John Chivington launched a surprise attack on Cheyenne and Arapaho lodges at Sand Creek, where Governor John Evans and federal officers had told them they

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could camp safely. The reported losses and sufferings of women and children led to four different official investigations of the events. Even today, there are Coloradans who disagree about whether to call it the Sand Creek Massacre or the Battle of Sand Creek, although, since 2000, its location has been designated the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. “I wish to tell the American people a few of the atrocities which Colorado white men committed upon Indians only fifteen years ago,” Jackson announced. In one phrase she condemned “Colorado white men,” incorporating any who were there in 1864, which, of course, Will was not. “In June, 1864, Governor Evans, of Colorado, sent out a circular to the Indians of the Plains . . .” she began, reciting the Sand Creek narrative as many a modern historian would tell it today. She had found the testimonies of participants, given during the several official investigations. One after another she quoted atrocity stories of murder and mutilation perpetrated on innocents, all under the guise of punishment for previous attacks on whites. “Shall we apply the same rule of judgment to the white men of Colorado that the Government is now applying to the Utes?” she asked.28 Among the Helen Hunt Jackson Papers at Colorado College Special Collections are two notebooks of her handwritten examples and statistics from this research, all Sand Creek related. Along with a scrapbook of the clippings, these are all that remain in the collection as evidence of this particular aspect of the work. Apparently, no other single event filled a notebook with Jackson’s emotional scrawl as did Sand Creek.29 It does not seem possible that Jackson suddenly realized Sand Creek’s importance without any foreknowledge of it. Colorado Springs was a small town, “’where everyone knew everyone else,’” and the Jacksons worked and socialized with “the white men of Colorado” who remembered Sand Creek. Most notably, the Jacksons’ neighbors included the Howberts. Irving Howbert had served with the troops at Sand Creek. He also served, as a business and railroad man, with Will Jackson at times. Almost 30 years after Helen Hunt Jackson was gone, Howbert wrote his memories and opinions as the defense of “the Battle of Sand Creek” that stood as the only locally conceived truth for the region’s history until the 1960s.30 Howbert did not mention

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Jackson or her views in his books. Jackson wrote to Will, “All this Indian business I should have known nothing of, at home—& even if I had—could not have consulted authorities.”31 Thus she had a true Eastern, “outsider’s” view, Helen Hunt Jackson’s notebooks (right) of perhaps without rehandwritten research on the Sand Creek alizing it, that there Massacre and scrapbook of clipped and would be no authpasted letters to the editor about Indian policy, including exchanges with William Byers. Photo orities on Sand Creek by Katherine Scott Sturdevant taken courtesy of Colorado in its own vicinity. College Special Collections. It seems likely, however, that Jackson heard of Sand Creek when in Colorado Springs, perhaps dismissing it along with her increasingly dismissive attitude toward some of her neighbors. It is difficult to imagine, considering her intense moral outrage, that she did not shun Irving Howbert if she knew, or wince each time she thought of the names of her beloved locations: Cheyenne Mountain and Canyon, or Kiowa Street. Yet Jackson might have been unaware of her neighbors’ involvements. “The ignorance of everybody on the subject is simply astonishing—my own included—till six weeks ago, & even now I am only beginning,” she wrote to Will.32 Certainly she did not hesitate to assault Indian-hating once she found it. Will expressed some concern during her exchanges with Secretary Schurz that she attacked Schurz too personally, became too sentimental about Indians, or should not go near the controversial topic of the Meeker Massacre. The Jacksons agreed that their neighbors had no sympathy for Indians and appear to have avoided discussion with them. Jackson reminded Will he was a Quaker and again compared her cause to anti-slavery. Will came around to supporting his wife’s cause wholeheartedly.33

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More remarkable than had she aroused Irving Howbert or some other Sand Creek veteran, Jackson was amazed to attract letters-to-the-editor responses of none other than William Newton Byers, the founding editor of Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, and perhaps the most determined booster for Colorado that ever was. Byers, Jackson’s age and a founder of Omaha, had arrived in the 1859 Gold Rush to help found Denver. He proclaimed Colorado’s virtues for settlement at every turn by every means available. His correspondence also reveals that he espoused removal or extermination of the Cheyenne and Arapaho because he perceived them as such barriers to settlement, financial success, and even statehood.34 Byers had directly witnessed the results of Indian attacks in the region and did not hesitate to use the popular dehumanizing terminology for Indians. As editor, postmaster, and Chamber of Commerce founder, Byers played interesting roles in Sand Creek. When, in June 1864, a family named Hungate was killed, reportedly by Arapahos, their bodies were displayed in his post office, assisting his “yellow journalistic” efforts to engage Colorado’s population in demands for war on the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Collaborative with Governor Evans and Colonel Chivington, Byers was a regular influence on the ensuing events and controversies. It was also a potential responsibility of the editor to educate Colorado with the results of all of the hearings against Chivington and Sand Creek, but Byers, of course, would not so enlighten the territory. In his responses to H. H. for the New York Tribune, Byers applied his “practical knowledge” of Sand Creek to refute every aspect of H. H.’s research and conclusions, including the investigation documents, which represented “a certain selfish purpose . . . to break down and ruin certain men.” (This was also Irving Howbert’s interpretation of the investigations.) “If ‘H.H.’ had been in Denver” at the time, Byers repeated, she would have seen the results of Indians’ savagery. Emotionally, relying on his own impressions and opinions rather than documents, and not hesitating to use personal attack, he recited his recollections of the events. He concluded, after also assaulting the issue of the Utes, with “His [Nathan Meeker’s] life and the honor of his aged wife and virgin daughter are gone, and “H. H.” is the champion of fiends who wrought the ruin.”35 Jackson found

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Byers “astounding,” and, after another Byers reply, “pitiful and at the same time audacious” in his repeated “lies.”36 Even the Tribune editor started to characterize Jackson’s responses to Byers with bias: “’H. H.’ Takes a Final Shot at Mr. William N. Byers,” or “’H. H.’ Scores Another Point.”37 What is, indeed, astounding, from a Colorado history perspective, is that these two individuals landed in this amazing war of words about Sand Creek. Jackson was so proud of it that she reproduced most of these letters as an appendix to A Century of Dishonor the following year. The Indians’ Harriet Beecher Stowe Helen Hunt Jackson most admired Harriet Beecher Stowe from among her contemporary women in literature. She most wanted to be like Stowe, especially to do for Indians what Stowe did for slaves by writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In an 1884 composite photograph, “Eminent Women,” Jackson stood central and Stowe sat in the foreground (see page preceeding the bibliography in this volume). Even as Jackson took on editorial battles, she planned her book about the history of American Indian policy. “This morning, the first thing that came into my mind as I waked,” Jackson wrote to Will, “were the words ‘A Century of Dishonor’—as if someone spoke them aloud in the room . . . I think I could do it in three months or less: I believe it would be a noble work to do . . . I feel ‘led’ towards it.”38 Jackson did write it by May 1880, and also saw President Rutherford B Hayes appoint a commission that offered reparations and a choice of reservations to the Ponca. A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government’s Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes (1881) did not bring about acclaim or reform as she hoped it might, however. In her “Author’s Note,” she had hoped that people, learning of the cruel truth, would “rise up and demand [fair play] for the Indian.”39 Even though she hedged a comprehensive history by using title words such as “sketch” and “some,” it was path-breaking nonfiction, ahead of its time for historical reporting. It was her first book to blatantly bear her name. She and Will delivered copies to Congress bound in red cloth with the words from Benjamin Franklin, “Look upon your hands! They are stained with the blood of your relations.”40

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In 1881—1882, Jackson traveled through Southern California on assignment for Century Magazine. This was her long-planned first trip to document the Spanish mission system. Exhibiting some of the harsher judgments of a social reformer, she described some San Diego Indians as “miserable, worthless beggars, drunkards, of course, and worse.” She saw them as in desperate need of help, however, and, even more directly than usual, was prepared to be that help. She believed there was “a grave danger of continued Indian massacres.” In another flurry of persuasive letters, she campaigned for and won a paid position as a Special Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Southern California. She built a team for herself and traveled through her district in order to write her report. Written from Colorado Springs, the public response to her report was another disappointment.41 Jackson also wrote about Sand Creek again, but this time as an aside in fiction, a short story for Atlantic Monthly. “Aunty Lane” (1882) was a pioneer woman who, among other remarkable experiences, could remember living in Denver when she “saw the men ride back from the massacre, Indian scalps hanging at their bridles, and other tokens of their barbarities, too horrible to be mentioned, proudly displayed.” Jackson interceded with her own opinion responding to Byers’ example about the Hungates. Aunty Lane “had also seen, a few days before, drawn in an open wagon through the streets of Denver, the dead bodies of some white settlers, murdered by Indians; but the first savagery did not, in her eyes, justify the second.” Jackson named the Sand Creek Massacre as the incident, and wrote that it was “one of the most fiendish massacres the world ever saw . . . in which unarmed, friendly men, with the United States flag flying over their lodges, were shot down in cold blood; women were killed, outraged, and indecently mutilated; babies, half killed and left to die.”42 Thus the author made multiple attempts to tell the stories only to be frustrated that they did not ignite reform. Finally, Jackson determined that only a great novel would accomplish Indian reform on a par with what Uncle Tom’s Cabin had done. She wrote Ramona between December 1883 and March 1884, as if “possessed.” In the romantic tragedy of a California Indian girl raised by a Spanish family on their rancho, and losing

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her Indian lover, Jackson hoped she had woven so much Indian reform wisdom that she would win the public outcry for which she had striven. The book was a success both serialized and in sales, but was not another Uncle Tom’s Cabin in effect. Over time, after Jackson’s death, it became the mainstay of California literature that romanticized the “halcyon days” of the Spanish ranchos and missions. It inspired several film versions, a popular ballad, and an annual pageant. No California history class or textbook would skip over Jackson. Though she had chosen Colorado over California in her own health seeking during the tourist boom of the 1870s, her writing did more for California tourism in the long run than for Colorado’s. From that coastal state’s perspective, she became Helen of California. She died there, in San Francisco, but ever frustrated that she had not been the Indians’ Stowe. She had not caused a revolution for Indian rights, but literally died trying. On her death bed she wrote to Grover Cleveland asking him to read Century of Dishonor and act upon it. Although Jackson’s illness and death were premature and unexpected, in many ways she had been preparing for death all of her life. Her working frenzy that began in 1879 Helen Hunt Jackson looking ill, greyexhibited urgency and haired, and mournfully clothed, circa coincided still with chronic 1885. Like her mother she prepared for ailments. In 1884, she was death, planned the lives of those she suffering from symptoms would leave behind, and maintained of menopause, bronchitis, her writing and responsibilities until the last minute possible. William S. Jackson and perhaps the stomach Photograph Collection, PP85-30s, Part 3, Folder 1, cancer that seems to have Photo 4, Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado killed her. On June 28, she College, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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fell down her stairs at home in Colorado Springs and broke her leg, laying her up and seeming to drain much of her life’s energy. Being Helen, she traveled for her health, to Southern and then Northern California when she thought Southern had given her malaria. She also considered a camping trip with environmentalist John Muir. Diagnosis and urgency eluded the doctor so that he and she did not recognize the severity until late. Will made it to her side, however. The doctor also concluded that her consumptive inheritance had contributed to her health issues. Most difficult for her and Will was the “wasting away” effect of her disease that was so similar to a tubercular decline. She died on August 12, 1885. Local Legacies: Planting Helen in Colorado Springs Jackson had busily documented her wishes. These included posthumous publications, the burning of private papers, and recommending to Will that he marry her niece Helen, who had come to visit after a “nervous breakdown” and been a guest-hostess in their home while Jackson traveled. She left her property to Helen so that it would descend in her mother’s family. She gave precise instructions about many of her treasured possessions, notably any remembrances of Rennie. She asked niece Helen not to wear mourning black. Although she was first buried in San Francisco, Will carried out his wife’s plans for her reburial in Colorado Springs. She requested to be carried up Cheyenne Mountain in an open wagon with kinnickkinnick over her and laid on her favorite camping spot amongst the trees. This was “’the spot I love best in the whole world.’”43 Jackson’s California legacy reflected Ramona. Her Colorado Springs legacy is more personal. Will remained a community leader and married niece Helen Banfield, whose emotional state led to her own suicide in 1899 after one of her seven children, named Margaret from a request of Jackson’s, died an infant. Another of the seven, Helen Jackson, became a popular community institution. Helen Hunt Jackson’s gravesite became a Mecca for her fans. As color postcards claimed, “it was her desire that tourists visiting her grave should deposit two stones on the heap that forms her monument and take one away as a

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souvenir. . . . From the top of Seven Falls, in South Cheyenne Cañon, to Helen Hunt’s grave is a distance of three-fourths of a mile. There is a good trail, and one can either walk or ride a burro to this spot.”44 A Colorado Springs resident described visiting the grave and her words were published in Illinois and New York: “her grave is covered with kinnickkinnick, a trailing vine which grows abundantly there. . . . The back of ‘H. H.’s’ writing desk at her old home is profusely covered with the kinnickkinnick vine which clings to her grave.”45 Indeed, Jackson’s grave (near “Helen Hunt Falls”) was too much of an attraction and, especially after a new Seven Falls owner charged admission, the Jackson family moved her remains to Evergreen Cemetery. The Cheyenne Mountain location remains marked as the site of Helen Hunt’s grave.

Helen Hunt Jackson’s grave near Seven Falls became such a popular tourist attraction that it occasioned many varied postcard pictures of the cairn from every imaginable angle. This one also has an inset of her portrait (upper right) and of her Kiowa Street house (lower left). Printed on the back are instructions to carry two rocks up and take one back home. Jackson’s later grave in Evergreen Cemetery bears a very plain stone, perhaps in keeping with her husband’s Quakerism. Postcard courtesy of Katherine Scott Sturdevant.

Perhaps it is fitting that, having been swept up and swept west by the tourist and health seeking booms, Jackson would become a tourist attraction herself, in both Colorado Springs and

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California. Her Kiowa Street house fell to urban renewal, but three rooms of it, furnished with her things, were reconstructed in the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. There was a small town named Ramona next to Colorado Springs, and a luxurious Ramona Hotel in nearby Cascade. The Helen Hunt Jackson Papers and a Southwest Studies program at Colorado College pay homage to her significance. She was in the first group inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. Even when booster-editor William Byers edited a Colorado dictionary of biography, he dedicated the appropriate pages to laud Helen Hunt Jackson.

Will and Helen Jackson’s house at 228 East Kiowa Street not long before it was lost to urban renewal. Compare to the earlier postcard inset (page 147), the Pioneers Museum exhibit (page 165), and the mantle of the exhibit interior (page 117). Stewarts Commercial Photographers photograph from Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (013-1085).

It was Amherst’s Emily Dickinson who characterized Jackson in a most relevant way for her Colorado Springs connection. Jackson had admonished Dickinson to publish her poetry in her lifetime, which of course she did not. Dickinson appreciated Jackson’s magnanimity in calling her a great poet. Dickinson wrote a sympathy letter to Will. “Helen of Troy will die, but Helen of Colorado, never,” were her oft-quoted words. “Dear friend can you walk, were the last words I wrote her. Dear friend I can fly—her immortal (soaring) reply.”46

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Katherine Scott Sturdevant is a Professor of History at Pikes Peak Community College, where she has been the lead American history teacher for about 25 years. Among the many subjects that she teaches are American Indian history, Colorado history, women’s history, and history of the Pikes Peak Region. She also team-teaches Learning Communities with Stephen Collins. Kathy received a Helen Hunt Jackson Fellowship from the Colorado College Southwest Studies program for her Jackson-Byers research. She is nationally recognized as an expert on doing family history in a social history context, about which she published two books. Kathy has won local, state, and national awards for teaching excellence.

Notes

1. H. H., Bits of Travel at Home (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1878, 1880 ed.), 224. 2. Sheila M. Rothman, Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis and the Social Experience of Illness in American History (New York: Basic Books, 1994), 77- 127. 3. Ibid., 126. 4. Ibid., 169-171. 5. Kate Phillips, Helen Hunt Jackson: A Literary Life. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 16. 6. First coming to mind are Sarah Josepha Hale, who, after her husband’s death, and left with a large family to support, became the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, and “Mother” Mary Harris Jones, who, after the loss of her husband and four children in a yellow fever epidemic, became the ardent campaigner for laboring classes. Both were Jackson’s contemporaries. 7. See J. Valerie Fifer, American Progress: The Growth of the Transport, Tourist, and Information Industries in the Nineteenth-Century West (Chester, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 1988), 255-267. 8. Phillips, 80, 109. 9. Ibid., 164-168. See also Valerie Sherer Mathes, Helen Hunt Jackson and Her Indian Reform Legacy (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), 38-39. 10. Rothman, 173. 11. See especially Marshall Sprague, Newport in the Rockies: The Life and Good Times of Colorado Springs (Athens: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1961, 1987).

150 • HELEN OF COLORADO 12. See especially Chris Nicholl, “’My Darling Queenie . . .’ A Love Story” in Tim Blevins et al., eds., Legends, Labors & Loves: William Jackson Palmer, 1836—1909 (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Pikes Peak Library District, 2009), 69-81. 13. Phillips, 19-22. 14. Jackson quoted in Rothman, 172-173 and Phillips, 168. 15. Jackson to Charlotte Cushman quoted in Phillips, 170-171. 16. The contractors for building the house had been Joseph Dozier (who later became the grandfather of author Frank Waters) and Winfield Scott Stratton (who later became the Cripple Creek millionaire). 17. Quotes are from “Colorado Springs” chapter, Bits of Travel at Home, throughout. On Cheyenne Mountain and Canyon, see also Katherine Scott Sturdevant, “‘Beloved Mountain’: Helen Hunt Jackson and ‘Cheyenne,’” KIVA Magazine (Fall 1997) Colorado Springs: Cheyenne Mountain Heritage Center. On the floral obsession of Jackson and early Colorado Springs, see Edwin Bathke and Nancy Bathke, “Alice Stewart Hill, Colorado Springs’ First Wildflower Artist: Her Family & Her Friends,” in this volume. 18. Helen Hunt to Moncure D. Conway quoted in Rothman, 174. 19. See both Mathes, Helen Hunt Jackson and Valerie Sherer Mathes, ed., The Indian Reform Letters of Helen Hunt Jackson, 1879-1885 (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998). 20. Carol E. Schmudde, “Sincerity, Secrecy, and Lies: Helen Hunt Jackson’s No Name Novels,” Studies in American Fiction 21 (Spring 1993), 1. 21. Rothman, 174. 22. Jackson to Ann Banfield, March 20, 1877, quoted in Phillips, 209. 23. Phillips, 220. 24. William Jackson, to Helen Hunt Jackson, August 1879, quoted in Phillips, 220-221. 25. Phillips, 223 and 328n. 26. Jackson to Higginson, January 17, 1880, quoted in Mathes, Indian Reform Letters, 84. 27. See Stephen Collins, “Helen Hunt Jackson and the Rhetoric of Humanization,” in this volume. 28. H. H. (Jackson), “The Starving Utes,” New York Tribune, January 31, 1880. Note that I am using and comparing the same letters as they appear in several sources. Foremost is Jackson’s scrapbook of the original clippings (which appears to date to the time) “Scrap Book,” BK2, Helen Hunt Jackson Papers No. 0020.7, South Vault, Colorado College Special Collections. Jackson reprinted most of the letters as

STURDEVANT • 151 an appendix to her still-in-print book, H. H. (Helen Hunt Jackson), A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government’s Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1881). Another source is Mathes, Indian Reform Letters, which offers the surrounding private correspondence and commentary as well. 29. Jackson, Sand Creek Notebooks, 2 vols., labeled “Mrs. W. S. Jackson Brevoort Hous,” Folder 3-8, Box No. 0020.3, Helen Hunt Jackson Papers, South Vault, Colorado College Special Collections. 30. For the small town comments, see Vesta W. Tutt, “Alice Bemis Taylor” in this volume. Irving Howbert recorded his experiences and viewpoints about Sand Creek, the investigations, and the aftermath in Indians of the Pike’s Peak Region (Glorieta, N.Mex.: Rio Grande Press, 1914, 1970) and Memories of a Lifetime in the Pike’s Peak Region (Glorieta, NM: Rio Grande Press, 1925, 1970). 31. Jackson to William S. Jackson, December 19, 1879, quoted in Mathes, Indian Reform Letters, 49. 32. Jackson to William S. Jackson, December 29, 1879, quoted in Mathes, Indian Reform Letters, 66. 33. Phillips, 228-229. 34. William N. Byers and Family Papers, Western History and Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library. 35. William N. Byers, “The Starving Utes, A Reply to the Questions Asked by H. H.,” New York Tribune, February 6, 1880. 36. Jackson, to Whitelaw Reid, February 22, 1880 and February 29, 1880, quoted in Mathes, Indian Reform Letters, 99, 110. See again Stephen Collins, in this volume. 37. Whitelaw Reid in headers for Jackson, “The Sand Creek Massacre,” New York Tribune, February 28 and “A Small Matter to Murder an Indian,” date unreadable, Scrap Book, Colorado College Special Collections. 38. Jackson to William S. Jackson, December 19, 1879, quoted in Mathes, Indian Reform Letters, 49. 39. Jackson, Century of Dishonor, Author’s Note. 40. Mathes, Helen Hunt Jackson, 33-37. 41. Evelyn I. Banning, “Helen Hunt Jackson in San Diego,” Journal of San Diego History 24 (Fall 1978), 457-467. 42. Helen Hunt Jackson, “Aunty Lane,” Atlantic Monthly (May 1882) 616. 43. Jackson quoted in Phillips, 272. 44. Postcard, “Helen Hunt’s Grave,” author’s collection. 45. Unknown, “Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson’s Grave,” New York Times, April 18, 1886. 46. Emily Dickinson, to William Jackson draft, quoted in Phillips, 274.

A painting of Helen Hunt Jackson. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., (LC-USZ62-51087).

Helen Hunt Jackson & the Rhetoric of Humanization: Creating a Rhetorical Space Between Traditional Feminine & Masculine Spheres in the Late 19th Century Stephen Collins Helen Hunt “H. H.” Jackson would be faced with a challenge unlike that of any of the other women activists of the 19th century. Helen Hunt would defend Native Americans against the actions of the United States government, first, in a series of editorials published in the New York Tribune from 1879 to 1880, particularly addressing the massacre at Sand Creek in Colorado in 1864, and then in her seminal work in defense of Native Americans, A Century of Dishonor, in 1881. In raising the issue of the mistreatment of Native Americans, Hunt operated at a distinct disadvantage compared to other social justice reformers and activists at the time. Unlike oppressed slaves in the South or oppressed women throughout the country, who were both championed by women in the 19th century, Native Americans did not appear to most white Anglo-Americans to be in any way as oppressed as those groups. If anything, they appeared to be less victims and more perpetrators. Whites perceived Indians as “savages” who at their best might be converted into some servile Christian condition and at their worst were nothing more than base killers of the men, women, and children moving west under God’s divine Providence. Helen Hunt, thus, not only had to deal with the challenges facing a woman moving beyond the traditional feminine sphere of influence and into the much more traditional masculine sphere of public action, but she had to overcome a deep and residing bias against Native Americans. This chapter will focus on Hunt’s response to those challenges as she worked to become one of the most vocal advocates for Native Americans in the 19th century. In particular, this article will focus on a selection of the 1879—1880 editorials which ran in the New York Tribune specifically in 1880 between Helen Hunt and William H. Byers. • 153 •

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Among the challenges facing Hunt was that advocacy on behalf of Native Americans flew in the face of a strong sentiment against indigenous peoples in the United States. That sentiment was fueled by attitudes and discourse which effectively marginalized and dehumanized Native Americans. According to James Waller in Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing, some of the factors contributing to one people’s ability to kill another include “us-them thinking” and moral disengagement. The latter includes the creation of a moral justification, the dehumanization of victims, and the euphemistic labeling of evil actions.1 A brief account of these factors is warranted.

Documents courtesy of Colorado College Special Collections, counterclockwise from lower right: two Sand Creek notebooks, scrapbook of Sand Creek/Utes editorials, publishing contract with Harper Bros. for Century of Dishonor, early edition of same turned to appendix of reprinted editorials. Photo by Katherine Scott Sturdevant.

Us-them thinking creates an artificial bifurcation between two different peoples that highlights differences, marginalizes similarities, and creates distance between people. Whereas rhetoric often seeks to create commonality and shared experience, the rhetoric of us-them thinking tries to do exactly

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the opposite. It seeks to divide by selecting the reality upon which it chooses to focus. That reality stresses difference almost exclusively. As Kenneth Burke, a 20th-century rhetorical theorist, pointed out in Language as Symbolic Action, our understanding of reality often involves choices whether conscious or unconscious: “Even if any given terminology is a reflection of reality, by its very nature as a terminology it must be a selection of reality; and to this extent it must function also as a deflection of reality.”2 Us-them thinking works diligently to deflect attention away from similarities between people when framing reality. As the thinking goes, the less similarity one group has with another, the less need that group has to care for the other. Conversely, anyone wishing to combat us-them thinking needs to select similarities between people when framing reality. The formulation of a moral justification creates a space in which people can operate within an ethical framework, thus indemnifying them against any actions which would otherwise be perceived as immoral and unacceptable. So William N. Byers, editor of the Rocky Mountain News, who responded to H. H.’s scathing indictment of Colorado troops’ behavior in a letter to the editor, set out a moral justification for the attack at Sand Creek which would include in part a reference to the killing of the Hungate family earlier in 1864: If “H. H.” [Helen Hunt] had been in Denver in the early part of that Summer, when the bloated, festering bodies of the Hungate family—father, mother and two babies— were drawn through the streets naked in an ox-wagon, cut, mutilated and scalped—the work of those same red fiends who were so justly punished at Sand Creek. . . . I think there would have been one little word of excuse for the people of Colorado.3 Byers went on to write in the same editorial that half of the homes on the Platte River stood “desolate” that summer and that “H. H.” should have seen the “tithe of the tears that were caused to flow.” Dehumanization makes it easier to kill people by reducing them to a lower and more easily killed form of life. Colonel John

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M. Chivington, who led the attack on Sand Creek, purportedly told his troops to kill even the children in the Indian camp, because “nits make lice.” Euphemistic labeling of evil actions ensures that people will not have to face up to the realities of the killing in which they are engaged. The “ethnic cleansing” of Kosovo and the “final solution” of Hitler gave little indication of the violence committed against the people of Kosovo or the Jews in Europe. The less any group has to think about the reality of killing, the easier it is to do. Each of these factors helped shape the negative perceptions held by Anglo-Americans. Although Helen Hunt would simultaneously have to build up the image of Native Americans while overcoming the entrenched negative perceptions of her time, she also had to deal with the cultural constraints placed upon women during the 19th century. The range of opportunities available to a female activist to gain a voice and articulate a stance toward an issue of social justice was limited. As the moral priestess of the household, it was a common view at the time that a woman should remain in the home, untarnished by the ways of the world whenever possible, thus maintaining her moral purity. Paradoxically, this same moral purity was the catalyzing agent for women’s purposeful, albeit slow, encroachment into the world. As the vessel of moral purity in society, it was the woman of the house who not only raised her children morally and rejuvenated her husband’s moral wherewithal each night when he arrived home, but also made the most appropriate social commentary of the day. She occupied a high moral ground which ultimately gave her an effective a fortiori argument (an argument by degree) for her intrusion into the realm of social justice criticism: if a woman is the most pure, moral force in our society, then there is no better person to speak out on issues of morality. Several noteworthy examples stand out of women reaching beyond the bounds of the home to comment on issues of moral concern, most notably Lucretia Mott, Angelina and Sarah Grimké, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sojourner Truth, Francis Willard, and Ida B. Wells. Their persuasiveness depended necessarily upon the rhetorical tools which male critics could least successfully

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countermand. Whenever possible women tried to rely upon the authority of Biblical citations—which they could readily quote in their position as moral priestess—and on the testimony generated by men of considerable and usually unquestioned credibility including that of the founding fathers. They also placed a great deal of value on their own experiences whenever possible which was problematic for anyone other than another woman to refute. In appropriating those experiences of womanhood, women built inductive arguments, one specific example at a time, until they had made the intended, generalized claim. They also wielded deductive argument with great skill on the assumption that if you could not deny the premises of an argument, then you must accept the claim that resulted from those premises. The validity of deductive argument existed, at least in theory, independent of the sex of the individual making the argument. None of this is to say that women did, indeed, make the great strides that they wanted to make at the time, with the possible exception of Harriet Beecher Stowe and her publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Even the best deductive arguments and wellconstructed syllogistic reasoning could not sway the judge and jury during Susan B. Anthony’s trial for voting in a presidential election in 1872. What many of these women did do, however, was lay out the arguments and persuasive appeals which would eventually make a difference. As Thomas Paine had laid out the talking points and arguments for independence which patriots would use throughout the thirteen colonies, the disseminated arguments and appeals of women would multiply in their own 19th-century “viral” way, through newspapers, women’s societies, speaking engagements, and conventions. Helen Hunt, thus, not only had to overcome the predominantly dehumanizing images of Native Americans at the time, but also the constraints placed on women who sought to shift issues of morality into the much more masculine sphere of public policy. Her rhetorical efforts at crafting her message would do both. In formulating a feminine rhetoric that selected a reality emphasizing the experiences of women and children, Helen Hunt would keep humanizing images in front of her readers as she laid out in graphic, testimonial detail the

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atrocities committed at Sand Creek. By citing the testimony of men in a well reasoned, rational, and non-emotional manner, Helen Hunt appropriated a masculine voice and, even if just temporarily, occupied the more masculine sphere normally denied to her sex. A strong focus on the women and children killed at Sand Creek did more than create a sympathetic pathos toward Native Americans. It also broke down the us-them dichotomy that made Native Americans look different than their white counterparts. Additionally, it served to humanize each of the victims that “H. H.” highlighted in her editorials. Helen Hunt was careful to select testimony which described the hardships facing Native American women and children, particularly on, although not limited to, the day of the attack. The testimony selected showed women and children in very vulnerable and very human terms. One citation used by Helen Hunt came from the report of the Indian Peace Commission in 1868: It scarcely has its parallel in the records of Indian barbarity. Fleeing women holding up their hands and praying for mercy were shot down; infants were killed and scalped in derision; men were tortured and mutilated in a manner that would put to shame the savages of interior Africa.4 In one instance, she cited an account told to one of the members of the Senate Committee at the time of their investigation: One of the squaws had escaped from the village, and was crouching behind some low sage brush. A frightened horse came running toward her hiding place, its owner in hot pursuit. Seeing that the horse was making directly for her shelter, and that she would inevitably be seen, and thinking that possibly if she caught the horse, and gave him back to the owner, she might thus save her life, she ran after the horse, caught it, and stood holding it till the soldier came up. Remembering that with her blanket rolled tight around her, she might possibly be

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taken for a man, as she put into the soldier’s hand the horse’s bridle, with the other hand she threw open her blanket enough to show her bosom that he might see that she was a woman. He put the muzzle of his pistol between her breasts and shot her dead: and, afterwards, was “not ashamed” to boast of the act.5

Jackson’s notes on Sand Creek with the resulting letter to the editor from her scrapbook suggest that she made a conscious choice to focus on a local Colorado example. Courtesy Colorado College Special Collections. Photo by Katherine

Scott Sturdevant.

In another citation, Helen Hunt quoted the testimony of Major Scott J. Anthony who was in charge of Ft. Lyon to the southwest of Sand Creek and a willing participant in the attack in November of 1864. There was one little child probably three years old, just big enough to walk through the sand. The Indians had gone ahead, and this little child was behind following after them. The little fellow was perfectly naked, travelling in the sand. I saw one man get off his horse at a distance of about seventy-five yards and draw up his

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rifle and fire. He missed the child. Another man came up and said: “Let me try the son of a b-----. I can hit him.” He got down off his horse, kneeled down, and fired at the little child, but he missed him. A third man came up and made a similar remark, and fired, and the little fellow dropped.6 The testimony selected by Hunt also worked on several other levels. First, it cited men close to the events surrounding the attack, thus limiting in part criticism of her based upon her sex. She reported and framed male testimony, temporarily moving outside of her own feminine sphere. In a letter written to Whitelaw Reid, editor at the New York Tribune, immediately after William N. Byers’ first response to her editorials, Helen Hunt was clearly aware of her own need to keep a more feminine side, a “personality,” out of her editorials. She seemed to paint Byers as the more emotionally inflammatory debater of the two of them as she sought to press Reid to print her rebuttal: I am sure you will approve the letter—There is not a word of personality in it—I do not even mention Byers by name. The letter consists almost solely of quotations from the sworn testimony given before the Committees on the S[and] C[reek] Massacre: and of quotations from the Secretarys [sic] own Reports of the Dept. of the Interior. I am sure as Byers letter was so direct & gross an attack on me & my statements you will allow me the privilege of an immediate defense of both[.] [Helen Hunt’s emphasis.]7 Her remarks have a pointed sense of irony to them. If her conscious decision to not be emotional and not show “personality” seemed to be a masculine effort, then by unstated inference, Byers’ efforts were more emotional and traditionally feminine. Hunt was certainly aware that her editorial efforts had a masculinizing effect which suppressed her more feminine

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and much more typically emotional side. In a letter written to her husband just over a month before her editorial exchanges with Byers specifically on Sand Creek, Hunt commented on the recent editorial exchange she had with Secretary of the Interior, Carl Schurz in December of 1879: I can hardly tell you the praise I am getting for the manly method in which I have stated things—the quiet tone— the repression: all this is part of the inspiration which is at work on me—for it is not my temperament to work that way.8 [Emphasis added.] In a revealing moment later in the same letter, Hunt indicates a much more familiar and feminine way she would discuss the matter with her husband if they were not apart: “I wish I could have talked all this over with you with my arms around your neck & kissing you between every two words.”9 Clearly Helen Hunt’s choice to move temporarily into the traditional masculine, public sphere was a conscious and purposeful decision. Second, the presentation in Helen Hunt’s editorials of one example after another created inductive arguments which allowed the readers of the editorial to reach the appropriate conclusion for themselves rather than have a woman state it directly and in a more masculine manner for them. As Karlyn Kohrs Campbell has noted in Man Cannot Speak For Her, inductive argument was one of several characteristics of a feminine, 19th-century rhetoric: [Concerning a feminine construction of rhetoric,] It will tend to be structured inductively.... It will invite audience participation, including the process of testing generalizations or principles against the experiences of the audience. Audience members will be addressed as peers, with recognition of authority based on experience . . . and efforts will be made to create identification with the experiences of the audience and those described by the speaker.10

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Although women activists such as Susan B. Anthony used deductive argument because of its reliance on premises which could be very difficult to refute if an argument was well planned, the inductive argument simply required the sharing of multiple examples on areas where women had experience and then passively letting readers or audience members draw their own conclusions. Thus, a woman could not be accused of telling a man what to think. He could reach the conclusion for himself. Although Helen Hunt did not use inductive arguments exclusively, they did predominate in her editorials, showing a female social activist encroaching upon masculine rhetorical techniques while still utilizing less direct methods more appropriate at the time for her gender. Third, by focusing on the experiences of women and children at Sand Creek, Hunt was operating well within the realm of her own female sphere of experience, thus locating her editorials closer to the appropriate moral scope of her 19thcentury womanhood. Noticeably lacking from her editorials is any lengthy mention of atrocities committed against men. Although this might have been a conscious choice to focus on more emotionally shocking and persuasive examples of atrocities against women and children, Helen Hunt’s credibility might have suffered if she had placed much emphasis on the experiences of men on that fateful day. Comments directed toward the experiences of Native American men at Sand Creek would have likely been seen as presumptuous on her part and outside of the realm of her experience and expertise; as a woman, however, Hunt could speak much more freely about the experiences of fellow women and the children within their charge. A final note is necessary concerning the adoption of a voice within these editorials. Helen Hunt, in claiming her own dual feminine and masculine voice for these exchanges, also claimed a voice for Native Americans as well, one which would work to counter euphemistic labeling and also work to re-humanize perceptions of Native Americans in the Anglo-American community. The opening of her January 31, 1880, editorial shows that she recognized in the New York Tribune the presence of what James Waller would later call euphemistic labeling:

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To the Editor of the Tribune, SIR: In your capital editorial note this morning, you say: “The two most serious hindrances in a satisfactory solution of the Indian question are Indians and white men. Any problem is embarrassing when one of its factors is addicted to scalping men, torturing women, and braining children.[“] The problem becomes still more embarrassing when “one” of the “factors” has no way of making known to the people what the other “factor” has done to him.11 Helen Hunt called attention to the word choice, “factor,” to describe the parties involved at Sand Creek and especially the lack of voice from the Native American side of events. The use of “factors” to describe the parties in the conflict took away personal conceptions of humanity. In the process, the use of the euphemistic term, “factor,” reduced the culpability of AngloAmericans, who had a much clearer and more predominant voice in their culture. Today we see this form of analytical calculus in the use of such terms as “collateral damage” in times of war. As “factors,” Native Americans without ready access to the public forum were reduced to a non-human, voiceless entity. Hunt thus claimed, albeit presumptuously, a voice for herself and all Native Americans although she did so as a selfappointed surrogate. Helen Hunt’s 1880 editorial debate against William N. Byers in the New York Tribune is significant for how it simultaneously sought to humanize Native Americans in the eyes of AngloAmericans while struggling to give her a voice outside of her traditional, feminine sphere. Her fight to express that voice created an ambiguous, dualistic space between the feminine and masculine spheres through which she could move as she created and crafted her arguments. Her ability to do so showed a determined resourcefulness on her part to move as much as she could between both the feminine and masculine spheres of her time. In the process, Helen Hunt left her mark not only on 19th-century feminist rhetoric, but also on American history.

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Stephen Collins holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Communication Studies. He is currently a professor of communication at Pikes Peak Community College, specializing in the history of rhetorical theory and the study of American public address. He team-teaches basic and advanced public speaking and group communication courses in combination with U.S. history courses with Kathy Sturdevant and speaks regionally and nationally on learning community pedagogy and college retention issues. He is currently working on a Master of Divinity degree at Iliff School of Theology.

Notes

1. James Waller, Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing 2nd ed. (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2007), 198-212. 2. Kenneth Burke, Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1966), 45. 3. William Byers, “’The Starving Utes’: A Reply . . .” New York Tribune, February 6, 1880. Note that quoted editorials are available in the appendix to H. H. [Helen Hunt Jackson], A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government’s Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1881) and “Scrap Book,” [Mark Twain’s Patent Scrap Book c. 1878] BK2 Helen Hunt Jackson Papers No. 00207 South Vault, Colorado College Special Collections. 4. H. H., “The Sand Creek Massacre: ‘H. H.’ Takes a Final Shot at Mr. William N. Byers and His Account of the Affair,” New York Tribune, February 28, 1880. See note 3 above for locations of these editorials. 5. Ibid. 6. H. H.,”The Starving Utes: More Questions for the People by ‘H. H.’ What White Men Have Done and Are Doing to Indians in Colorado,” New York Tribune, January 31, 1880. See note 3. 7. Helen Jackson to Whitelaw Reid, February 22, 1880, in Valerie Sherer Mathes, ed., The Indian Reform Letters of Helen Hunt Jackson (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), 99. 8. Helen Jackson to William S. Jackson, December 19, 1879, in Mathes, 50. 9. Ibid.

COLLINS • 165 10. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, Man Cannot Speak For Her, Volume I: A Critical Study Of Early Feminist Rhetoric (New York, N.Y.: Praeger, 1989), 13. 11. H. H., “The Starving Utes: More Questions for the People by ‘H. H.’ What White Men Have Done and Are Doing to Indians in Colorado,” New York Tribune, January 31, 1880.

The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum contains a reconstruction from Helen Hunt Jackson’s 228 East Kiowa Street home. The rooms are decorated with Jackson’s original furnishings. Photo by Diana Francese.

Aerial view looking north up Sierra Madre Street at St. Mary’s School (center left) and St. Mary’s Catholic Church, ca. 1930. The Knights of Columbus and Colorado Springs Public Library Carnegie (lower right) buildings are in the foreground on Kiowa St. Stewarts Commercial Photographers photograph, from Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (013-1067).

View from West Pikes Peak Avenue showing top of Antlers Garage, in foreground, and from left, St. Mary’s High School, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, and the Colorado Springs Public Library Carnegie building, April 1965. Photograph by Myron Wood, © Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (002-

1251).

They Came To Educate: The Sisters of Loretto in the Rocky Mountain West, 1852—Present Eugenia R. Ahrens They came by twos, fours, and sixes. They were young women from large cities, small towns, and farms. They came by riverboat, wagon, and train. They came at the request of archbishops, bishops and parish priests. They were the women religious, the Catholic nuns or sisters, who arrived in the mountains and plains of the southwestern territories of the U.S. during the last half of the 19th century to create and maintain educational, health, and social welfare institutions. Nuns created and administered schools, maintained hospitals, and cared for poor and homeless children. They worked side by side with male clergy, miners, soldiers, secular businessmen, immigrants, and laity of all socioeconomic classes. They traveled extensively to reach the area they were to serve and to secure monetary and material gifts for the institutions they had established.1 “Reformer” and “activist” are two words some would not associate with women religious; however they were in the forefront of the earliest reform movements for women’s rights. As many orders of Catholic nuns joined the tide of immigrants that flowed into the new nation in the early part of the 19th century, American orders without European affiliation were being established. Among the first American communities, established during 1812 in Kentucky, was the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross. It is their influence in the Southwest that will be explored here. At first glance, one would wonder how these young women, dressed in black habits with headdresses that resembled Conestoga wagons, could survive in the rough and tumble West. Not to worry, for these were tough women who had already endured much to get so far. They were the first wholly • 167 •

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American sisterhood and the first frontier nuns with so much to offer a growing nation.2 In 1805, Fr. Charles Nerinckx, a Flemish priest who had escaped persecution, arrived in central Kentucky. He began his mission among the scattered Catholic families near Hardin’s Creek. Ministering to spiritual needs and building small churches, Nerinckx saw the need for nuns to teach the children. But early efforts to establish a sisterhood failed. In 1811, Mary Rhodes came from Maryland to visit relatives and saw the lack of educational opportunities for pioneer children. Settling in the area, she began teaching her relatives basic skills and catechism. Soon neighbors were asking her to teach their children, and as the number of pupils increased, Rhodes welcomed the assistance of Christina Stuart and Ann Havern. In 1812, with Fr. Nerinckx as their spiritual guide, these three women founded the Little Society of the Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross of Jesus. Soon, two other women, Nellie Morgan and Ann Rhodes, joined the small group.3 They built a small log cabin school near St. Charles, Kentucky, and named it “Little Loretto,” after the Holy House of Loreto shrine in Italy, reputedly the original Nazarene home of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The order dedicated its work “to the glory of God, the honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the propagation of our holy religion . . . by instructing youth.” Soon they were called the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross and later simply Sisters of Loretto.4 In 1824, the sisters moved from Little Loretto near St. Charles to St. Stephen’s Farm south of Bardstown, Kentucky. This was the original home of Fr. Stephen T. Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States. The sisters bought this property from the Bardstown Diocese and established their novitiate. The original log cabin school was moved from Little Loretto to the St. Stephen’s property. Today this site continues to serve as the Motherhouse for the order. The area was renamed Nerinx and given its own zip code.5 The community grew and developed its primary goal to provide education for girls. The only way for children to receive an education in the early 19th century was by private teacher. More often than not, girls were not deemed worthy of

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the expense to educate them. With no intent to exclude boys from education, the sisters were simply filling a need for girls’ education that they saw going unmet. This girls-first principle was in effect until, or if, a school was adopted by a parish to become a coed parochial school.6 The sisters began their westward movement in 1824 with the opening of a school in Barrens, Perry County, Missouri. Over the next 30 years they opened schools in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Kansas, teaching pioneer and Indian children alike.7 At the conclusion of the Mexican War in 1848, the United States gained possession of the vast Southwest. Two French priests arrived in the New Mexico Territory in 1850 to establish the Diocese of Santa Fe and minister to the mostly Catholic population. Fr. Jean Baptiste Lamy was consecrated Bishop and Fr. Joseph Machebeuf was Vicar General. Willa Cather based the main characters of her novel Death Comes for the Archbishop on the lives of these two priests. In 1852, Bishop Lamy requested the help of the Sisters of Loretto to teach the children of Santa Fe. After attending the Plenary Council of Baltimore in June 1852, Bishop Lamy was met in St. Louis, Missouri, by six nuns who had traveled by wagon from the Motherhouse at Nerinx, Kentucky. The bishop and the nuns embarked on a riverboat for Independence. Cholera broke out on the boat sickening many including Mother Superior Mathilda, who died. Two other sisters became ill; both survived, but one was too ill to continue the trip. The four women, ranging in age from 24 to 40, and the bishop, boarded a Dearborn coach and followed the dangerous Santa Fe Trail one thousand miles overland to Santa Fe. Arriving in Santa Fe on September 26, 1852, they were met with a great reception of flower-covered arches, tolling church bells and a feast of delicious food. This reception was two fold: one for the triumphant return of the beloved Bishop Lamy and the other for the arrival of nuns to start a school.8 Santa Fe was a small village inhabited mostly by Indians and former Mexican citizens. The sisters immediately found a home in the center of town. In November 1852, they opened their first girls school in the Southwest, the Academy of Our Lady of the Light.9

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In 1855, Bishop Lamy sent his good friend and fellow missionary priest, Fr. Joseph Machebeuf, to meet four more Sisters of Loretto in St. Louis. In late June, they began their journey, traveling with a wagon train of merchants. Mother Ann Joseph recalled the events of July 16, “Looking toward the east we saw the whole bluff covered with Indians on horseback, the faces and arms painted in warlike style. They swooped down on us like so many eagles.”10 Fr. Machebeuf ushered the four nuns into a small wagon and fastened heavy canvas storm covers over them. As the Indians approached the camp they were greeted by the merchants and were given gifts of blankets, sugar, molasses and tobacco. For four hours the merchants and tribesmen visited as the poor nuns lay in the hot, airless wagon, praying for survival. Finally, all was well. The sisters were quite taken by Fr. Machebeuf. He would ride ahead and prepare campsites for them, adding flowers, shells, small branches or any pleasantries he could find along the dry plains, all to cheer the nuns after a long weary day of travel.11 This first encounter with the missionary priest would serve well to establish a long and successful relationship between priest and nun. In 1860, Bishop Lamy sent Fr. Machebeuf north to the fledgling city of Denver to minister to the Catholics among the prospectors and miners who were flowing into the Pikes Peak region in search of gold and silver. Fr. Machebeuf said the first Mass in the Pikes Peak region on October 15, 1860, in Colorado City. He traveled to Denver to establish the Catholic Church there. A few years later he sent a request to Santa Fe for the Lorettines to join him to start a school.12 Twelve years before Colorado became a state and Denver a diocese, Sisters Johanna Walsh, Ignatius Mora, Beatriz MaesTorres departed Santa Fe with all their possessions in one trunk and traveled north to the next frontier—Colorado. They arrived in Denver on June 27, 1864, prepared to open “the first select school for girls.” St. Mary’s Academy opened on August 1, 1864 with twenty students.13 Fr. Machebeuf was consecrated Bishop on August 16, 1868, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He then traveled to Nerinx, Kentucky, to

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accompany five Lorettines to Denver. There were now twelve nuns serving at St. Mary’s Academy. The school quickly became known as the finest girls’ school in the area. In 1875, St. Mary’s Academy awarded the first high school diploma in the Colorado Territory to Jesse Froshee. Miss Froshee became a Sister of Loretto and served in Denver for many years.14 St. Mary’s Academy continues today under the guidance of the Lorettines. At the requests of both Bishop Lamy and Bishop Machebeuf, more sisters traveled to the Southwest. More often than not, these travels were treacherous. On July 23, 1867, returning to Santa Fe after a trip to Rome, Bishop Lamy was accompanied by fifteen priests and eleven sisters. The party was attacked by three hundred Indian warriors on the banks of the Arkansas River. The youngest nun, Sister Mary Alphonse, was terrified. She died the next day. “She was a girl beautifully educated, and a true model of piety and all virtues. . . . she died of terror.” She was buried by the train in a crude coffin made of planks from one of the wagons.15 The San Luis Valley population of the Colorado Territory consisted almost entirely of Hispanic Catholics from the Territory of New Mexico. Conejos was the first religious center of Catholicity in Colorado. The church at Conejos is the oldest in the state. Mass was celebrated as early as 1856 in a little town on the Conejos River opposite the spot on which Conejos now stands. The parish covered a strip of territory about thirty miles wide and extended from the present northern boundary of New Mexico to the north one hundred fifteen miles. By the early 1870s, the parishioners numbered more than three thousand. Bishop Machebeuf, then the prelate of the newly formed Diocese of Denver, had recruited Jesuit priests to serve the faithful of Conejos and the San Luis Valley. In 1875, these faithful petitioned the Jesuit Fathers of the New Orleans Province to find women religious to teach the children. The Jesuits forwarded the request to Denver. The bishop instructed the people to erect a building for a convent and school. The priest and the people met to make plans for the school. Each placita, or small community, was to be responsible for the cost of one or two rooms. The Christian Mothers’ Sodality traveled the parish begging for contributions

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of food, bedding, and other necessities for the nuns. By summer 1876, the adobe building was ready for occupancy. The convent and school consisted of ten rooms and three halls with the luxury of wooden floors. Every room had a fireplace except the larder, kitchen, and chapel, where there were stoves.16 The Sisters of Loretto arrived in Conejos in 1877, the year following Colorado’s admission to the Union. They opened the school for girls in September and for boys in October, calling both Sacred Heart Academy. There were extreme hardships and inconveniences for the sisters in Conejos. At times, the superior general might have recalled them but for their devotion to the work, and the anxiety of the pastor and parents for the education of their children, and her own zeal for their success.17 During its early statehood, Colorado organized public schools and entered a unique association with the Lorettines. In Conejos, they were asked to take charge of the public school. This they did, and taught for many years in the building which had been built for the Catholic school. The county mill levy was raised to two mills to take care of 75 percent of the salary and housing of the nuns. The parish raised the other 25 percent.18 A modern building was erected and occupied in 1914, but the Sisters of Loretto continued to live in their “adobe.” They taught in the public school until 1918, leaving Conejos when the superior general withdrew them because the convent was no longer habitable. The high cost of building materials and lack of labor prevented the building of another convent. They received great praise from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and from the president of Greeley State Normal School.19 While schools were being established in Santa Fe, Denver and Conejos, the seeds were being sown to bring Catholic education to Colorado Springs. General William Jackson Palmer, a Pennsylvania Civil War veteran and railroad builder, established his “Newport in the Rockies” on the banks of the Monument and Fountain creeks at the foot of Pikes Peak in 1871. He envisioned an elite resort and town in which wealthy easterners would vacation and live.20 By the mid 1880s, Colorado Springs was becoming a polished and refined town. Many families were moving into the city and were expressing the desire for the amenities they had enjoyed in the east, especially schools.

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Soon after arriving in Colorado Springs in 1881, Fr. Robert F. Byrne, pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic Church, in response to the Bishop’s Council and the Baltimore Plenum requiring parishes to open schools, recognized the need for a school in his parish. He attempted to bring an order of women religious from the East but none accepted his offers. Knowing of the work of the Lorettines in Denver and Conejos, he turned his request to them and to Bishop Machebeuf. At the time, enrollment at St. Mary’s Academy in Denver was growing. The nuns were seeking a place to expand their boarding facilities. The Bishop and Mother Superior Pancratia Bonfils wanted to build another school in Denver. With persistence, Fr. Byrne convinced them that Colorado Springs was the best place for the school.21 In the summer of 1885, Sisters Mary Columba Gallavan, Walburga O’Sullivan and Jovita Mills arrived from Denver, rented a house at 425 North Tejon Street, known as the Clark House. On August 21, 1885, the following appeared in the local newspaper. LORETTO ACADEMY 425 North Tejon Street Conducted by the Sisters of Loretto The first term of Loretto Academy will begin on the first Monday of September. Pupils of all denominations will be received. The course of study will embrace all the branches of a thorough education—instrumental and Vocal Music, Drawing, Painting and the various kinds of Fancy Work will be taught. For Terms, &c., Apply at the Academy22 Nine girls enrolled for the first term. As enrollment grew, the space soon proved unsatisfactory. In September 1886, the school moved to the “first house north of the El Paso Club.”23 No records of the exact address have been found; however the 1886 Colorado Springs city directory shows the El Paso Club located at the northwest corner of Kiowa and Tejon streets.24 With Bishop Machebeuf’s assurance that a school would come to Colorado Springs, Fr. Byrne talked to parishioners and other prominent citizens regarding securing a suitable location

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for a building. They said they would look into it but the matter was dropped. In 1885, Fr. Byrne and the sisters set about to select a location themselves.25

Sisters of Loretto at Loretto Academy 1885. Sisters Mary Columba Gallavan, and Jovita Mills are identified. The first Loretto Academy was located at 425 North Tejon Street. In 1886, the Academy relocated to the “first house north of the El Paso Club.” Courtesy St. Mary’s High School Archives.

Earlier, Bishop Machebeuf had traded some property the Diocese owned in Manitou Springs to the Colorado Springs Company for lots 1-6 in block 302, located at Cascade Avenue and Las Animas Street, with the intent of building a church.26 As it became evident that the growth of the city was to the north rather than the south, the Bishop decided that the Cascade and Las Animas property was unsuitable for a church. He gave it to the sisters.27 Although the Lorettines appreciated the bishop’s gift, it did not meet their needs, as they believed it was too far from the city

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center. To live within the community was a goal and a desire from which they drew their strength. They traded these lots, valued at $900, to the Colorado Springs Company for lots 1 and 10 in block B and paid an additional $1,000 for two adjoining lots. The trade was effective June 22, 1886.28 This was a shrewd business transaction. The sisters owned a three point property bordered by Bijou, Kiowa, and Sierra Madre streets, one of the prime pieces of real estate in Colorado Springs. The land was almost in the center of the city, just steps from the Denver and Rio Grande railroad station and slightly north of the Antlers Hotel. The new Loretto Academy was ready for occupancy in September 1888. The four story red brick building, costing more than $20,000, was the tallest building in Colorado Springs and an imposing site as it towered over the city.29 The building was described as “large and well ventilated, combining both comfort and convenience with spacious and well arranged classrooms, separated by corridors, offer facilities for the maintenance of order and a proper attention to study and recitation.”30 The small, cramped fourth floor served as living quarters for the nuns.

Kiowa Street. Loretto Academy and the St. Mary’s Catholic Church basement. The $20,000 four-story brick building opened in 1888 as the tallest in Colorado Springs. Courtesy of Starsmore Center for Local History at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

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The school opened under the leadership of Mother Catherine Conner with seven teachers on staff; only one of the original three, Sr. Walburta remained. Sr. M. Columba in failing health had returned to Denver in 1886 and Sr. Jovita returned to Kentucky in early 1888.31 The academy grew and prospered. Young ladies attended the school from kindergarten through grade eight. A graduation ceremony was held at the completion of the eighth grade. If parents did not want their daughters to attend the public Colorado Springs High School they would have to postpone higher education until a religious high school was established. In the early years, pupils could be boarders or day students. Tuition, room and board were $125 per term, which lasted five months. Day tuition depended on the grade and covered a ten week quarter: Primary (K-3rd)-$5.00 Intermediate (4th & 5th)-$7.50 Grammar (6th)-$10.00 Senior (7th & 8th)-$12.50 Instruction in plain and fancy needle-work was free, but fees ranging from $2 to $20 per session were charged for other instruction. Payment was due semi-annually in advance. The school term ran for ten months, from the first Monday in September to the end of June. The only vacation during the school year was Christmas break, December 23 to January 2. The school day was 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a one hour lunch break.32 Loretto Academy of Colorado Springs provided a nurturing and intensive learning environment for the girls. The sisters ensured that a young lady in their care left them as prepared as possible for American life in their era. The school had intentionally remained unassociated with the St. Ann’s parish in Colorado Springs. While most students came from the parish families, the school did not want to be tied with St. Ann’s until the parish had its own permanent structure. Additionally, the sisters had a tradition of openness to teach students of other faiths. From the founding of the order there was a policy that students of all faiths, or no faith, would be allowed to attend

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Loretto schools. These students would not be proselytized or required to attend Catholic religion classes; however, they would be required to sit through Mass with their classmates and show normal respect for the beliefs of their Catholic teachers and the other students.33 The curriculum at Loretto Academy was challenging, even for the youngest students. Grades K-3 studied reading, penmanship, orthography (spelling), and arithmetic. Grades 4-6 studied reading, penmanship, orthography, arithmetic, geography, history, elocution, physiology, marches, drills, and dumbbell exercises. Grade 7 continued with arithmetic, elocution, composition, and added algebra, geology, botany, zoology, general literature and bookkeeping. Grade 8, the graduating class, studied philosophy, geometry, classic literature, logic, mythology, chemistry, astronomy, and bookkeeping. Optional instruction was offered in Spanish, German, Latin, drawing, painting, piano, organ, guitar, and banjo as well as plain and fancy needlework. Instruction in politeness and social etiquette was also available. Not only were the girls instructed in intellectual and moral realms, but also in skills to succeed in mid-American culture. To keep pace with her peers, a late 19th-century cultured young woman would have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the fine arts.34 Written examinations were held twice a year and quarterly reports were sent to the parents or guardians, giving a statement of each girl’s progress in academics and behavior.35 The sisters quickly established themselves in Colorado Springs and earned prestige on their own merits not under the shadow of a parish. Fr. Al Montenarelli, the pastor of St. Ann’s, recognized this prestige and desired the parish to also benefit. He purchased land for a new building in July 1888, and announced, “St. Ann’s Catholic Church has purchased two lots near the Loretto Academy for the purpose to erect a new church building.”36 This would be the fifth location for the Church in Colorado Springs: the first (1876—1877) was a small church of upright boards and batten on the corner of Rio Grande and Sahwatch streets; the second (1877—1879) at Cascade Avenue and Costilla Street; the third (1879—1882) at the south side of Cucharras

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Street, west of Tejon Street; and the fourth (1882—1891) at the corner of Cascade and Vermijo avenues. It is important to note that this fifth and final move of the church was to be next to the new school building, an imposing structure that towered over the small city. This sequence of events speaks to the impact the school had already made on the Catholics of the city. Associating with the school would be good for the parish, not the other way around.37 A basement of limestone was completed by March 1891. A simple slanted room was installed over the below-ground space. This location would become the permanent home of the Catholic Church in Colorado Springs. The parish decided to change the name of the church to St. Mary’s.38 The Panic of 1893 placed a financial burden on the parish, stalling plans to complete the church building. Construction resumed in 1897, after adequate funds were raised by Fr. Frederick Bender, who had returned to Colorado Springs to shepherd the church. Fr. Bender had served the Catholic Church in the area from 1877—1879. He is credited with being the founder of the Catholic Church in El Paso County. He returned to the area in 1889 and established parishes in Colorado City and Manitou. He was pastor of St. Mary’s from 1890 to 1901.39 Relationships between Fr. Bender and the sisters were often strained, especially when it related to the education of boys. Although the primary goal of the Lorrentines was to teach girls, they had made a decision on October 1, 1888, to open the primary department to boys under the age of 12, announcing in the local paper that they would, “open a temporary school in the basement of the Academy for youth until such a time as the proper accommodations can be provided.”40 Fr. Bender wanted the programs of the Academy extended to the older boys and used parish money to construct a room at the school and furnish it with fixtures for the boys. He also continually bombarded the Superior General, Mother Praxedes Carty, with this request and sought support from the Bishop of Denver, Nicholaus Matz. Bishop Matz tactfully encouraged Fr. Bender and the sisters to reconcile their differences and do what they thought best. He did write to Mother Praxedes and requested more sisters be dispatched to Colorado Springs to help with the increasing enrollment of both girls and boys.

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Near the end of the 19th century, the sisters expressed their disapproval of teaching boys in the Academy. In a letter dated August 4, 1898, from Mother Superior Praxedes to Fr. Bender, their position was very clear: As to the continuance of the boys school at the Academy, I will now state, dear Father, that this has been very detrimental to our school, as that building was erected for no other purpose than as a select day Academy and not for parochial school purposes, no agreement having ever been made to that effect. It is my opinion that it will never be a success until you have a parochial school for boys and girls and leave the Sisters free to conduct the Academy according to the original intentions. I will refer the matter to the Superior at the Springs, and, also, to the Right Reverend Bishop.41 This dissension over the issue of educating boys led to changes at the Academy. In the spring of 1901, Bishop Matz and Mother Praxedes began correspondence regarding St. Mary’s parish purchasing part of the property owned by the sisters with the intent of building an addition to the Academy to accommodate boys and eventually make the school a parochial school. Initially, the sisters rejected all offers and considerations from the bishop and some sharp words were exchanged; however, the Bishop prevailed. On December 3, 1901, an article appeared in the Gazette Telegraph announcing that St. Mary’s would open a parochial school with a public school curriculum, plus religion classes. Two wings would be added to the Loretto Academy, one for boys and one for girls at a cost of $20,000. Work would begin as soon as agreements could be signed between Bishop Matz and Mother Praxedes.42 An agreement between St. Mary’s Parish and the Loretto Literary and Benevolent Institution, Marion County, Kentucky, was signed on May 21, 1902. The Parish agreed to bear all expenses for the building and furnishing of the new addition, the cost to heat the entire building, insurance cost, plus provide custodial service and keep the premises in order. The sisters agreed to permit the use of the necessary ground for the wings, furnish the number of teachers needed for the parochial school,

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never to mortgage the property, and should they dispose of the property they agreed to pay the parish the value of the new wings. The sisters would be paid at a rate of $25 per month for the 10 month scholastic year.43 The sisters always returned to the Motherhouse in Kentucky for 2 months each summer to attend college classes to better their abilities to teach. Fr. Bender left Colorado Springs in the summer of 1902 and was replaced by Fr. Godfrey Raber, who began his service at St. Mary’s in a still unfinished church with wooden steps, an undersized altar, unfinished bell towers, and the construction of a parochial school just beginning. He also had the responsibility of assisting the school with spiritual and sacramental instruction.44 The sisters enjoyed a better relationship with Fr. Raber than they had with Fr. Bender. In 1902, the name of the school was changed to St. Mary’s School. There were two hundred fifty students enrolled. High school grades for the girls were added that year. Elizabeth O’Haire and Mary Clifford were the first graduates of St. Mary’s High School in 1904. Enrollment in grades K-8 continued to grow, but the high school struggled for the next decade, perhaps in part due to the refusal of the sisters to admit boys to the high school program.45 In September 1907, Fr. Raber complained to Bishop Matz about the sisters’ continued resistance to allow boys to enroll in the high school. Fr. Raber and Bishop Matz wanted St. Mary’s to become a full parochial school, grades K-12, like its counterparts in Denver. Again, lively correspondence flowed between the Bishop and the Mother Superior. The sisters held to the belief that boys of high school age should have male teachers. The Bishop informed the Mother Superior that it was the trend nationwide for women to take the lead as teachers of young males. Mother Praxedes informed the Bishop that she had not prohibited the sisters from teaching boys and she did not want to deny these young men an education; therefore she would instruct the Superior, Sr. Eustachia, to accept the enrollment of boys into the high school grades at the beginning of the 1908 school year.46 The school, parish and city continued to grow and prosper. St. Mary’s School was an established and respected institution that was attractive to the new families, Catholic and non-Catholic, who were moving to Colorado Springs.

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As use of the school building increased, so did the upkeep and maintenance problems. The St. Mary’s Church Committee addressed the need for another addition to the school building and the need to replace an inadequate septic system. Again Bishop Matz contacted Mother Praxides informing her of the desires of the parish to add another addition onto the school to accommodate the growing enrollment. In his letter of June 10, 1912, he also asked at what price the sisters would be willing to dispose of the school should the parish desire to purchase the property. On June 25, 1912, Fr. Raber received a letter from Mother Praxedes objecting to further additions to the school property without a further commitment from the parish for a more permanent relationship between the two entities; therefore, she offered to sell the school to the parish.47

Sisters of Loretto on steps of St. Mary’s School 1909. The first graduates of the girls’ high school received their diplomas in 1904. Boys were admitted at the beginning of the 1908 school year. Courtesy St. Mary’s High School Archives.

On July 2, 1912, the Board of the Loretto Literary and Benevolent Institution agreed to sell the property to the Board of Trustees of the parish of St. Mary’s for the sum of $30,000. Request for permission to sell the property was quickly sent to Rome for approval. Permission was received on September

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13, 1912, and the sale was completed on December 17, 1912. The sale covered all furnishings, the building, and the land. An agreement between Fr. Raber and Mother Praxedes allowed the parish to make a $5,000 down payment and pay the remainder in annual installments of $3,000 with a low 5 percent interest rate.48 This was a generous offer, in part a gift, by the sisters of Loretto to the parish. Mother Praxedes managed the affairs of the Lorettine schools across the country for over 16 years. She knew a solid connection with a parish would ensure stability for the school and the sisters who taught there. The year 1912 marked the centennial of the founding of the order. Perhaps the Mother Superior wanted to show the charity of her nationwide community with such a generous gift to St. Mary’s. The parish acknowledged this 100th anniversary with a celebration. Fr. Raber presided at a solemn High Mass in honor of the sisters and the students treated them to a banquet and entertainment. There was greater reason to rejoice. The parish purchased the land directly behind the school at 25 Bijou Street and built a house for the sisters. They were able to move out of the crowded, cramped, hot, fourth floor of the original Academy.49 St. Mary’s Church, Msg. Raber, St. Mary’s School and the Sisters of Loretto enjoyed a long association. Msg. Raber served not only as the pastor of St. Mary’s parish but also as the superintendent of schools. Various mothers superior served as principal. The school continued in good standing in the community as enrollment grew along with overwhelming financial support from successful businesses and individuals. Along with the rich classical instruction, the curriculum kept up with the changing times by offering courses in typewriting, shorthand and bookkeeping. In 1920, the building was remodeled again and a fourth floor classroom wing was added at a cost of more than $50,000.50 Sports programs, extra curricular activities, and social clubs soon became a regular part of the school—all under the watchful eye of the Lorettines. The editors of the first yearbook, Marylin, published in 1926, wrote this tribute to the sisters:

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To all the Sisters of Loretto who have taught us in St. Mary School this page is lovingly dedicated. Although, the Sisters will not consent to having their photographs printed in our yearbook, the images of those selfless women who have patiently labored for us and with us will ever remain clear and well-defined in our grateful memories.51

Children stand in front of St. Mary’s School, ca. 1920s. Harry L. Standley photograph, from Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (044-453).

Msg. Raber died in the summer of 1932. His replacement was Fr. William Kipp. Joining the staff of St. Mary’s Church 6 months before Msg. Raber’s death was a young priest from Denver, Fr. William Kelly. Fr. Kipp did not involve himself as closely with the school as did his predecessors. He assigned Fr. Kelly to the position of teacher of religion and superintendent of schools. For the next 30 years, Fr. Kelly and the sisters shared an enjoyable association as they secured a place of respectability in the community for the ever popular Pirates and the only Catholic high school in El Paso County. Many in the community remember the annual operettas directed by Fr. Kelly, the sisters and Mary Kelleher, a local dance instructor and physical education teacher, and performed for the community at the Fine Arts Center.

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In 1933, a wealthy parishioner, Julia Cassidy, donated a house located at 14 West Bijou Street to the parish to be used as a convent. The sisters lived in this house until 1972. Today this is the location of Marian House Soup Kitchen, a division of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Colorado Springs. Surely the spirit of the Lorettines shines down each day as the needy of the community are served. During the 1950s, a shift in demographics caused the school to phase out the elementary grades to accommodate the large number of students in the high school classes. As the city grew, more parishes were established and for these parishioners new elementary schools were built. A small number of women religious from other teaching orders came to Colorado Springs to teach in these elementary schools, but none were as numerous, or served as long, as the Lorettines. Loretto Academy, now affectionately known as “Ole Green,” stood tall, true, and immensely overcrowded. In the late 1960s, church leaders in Denver decided to build a new Catholic Education Center across the street from Ole Green. The new education center would house an expanded St. Mary’s High School and provide facilities for adult education and training for religious education teachers from the parishes.52

St. Mary’s High School, shortly before the building was razed in 1971. Stewarts Commercial Photographers photograph, from Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (013-856).

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Students moved across the street into the new school building on February 5, 1971, and on March 31, 1971, Ole Green was torn down.53 Gone was the original Loretto Academy, but still present was the uncompromising devotion and commitment of the sisters. This had remained constant for many years; however, this one true constant would eventually be influenced by changes in the sisterhood. By the 1970s there was a nationwide shortage of priest and nuns. The Sisters of Loretto and SMHS were not immune to this shortage. Two hundred thirty-three sisters had served in Colorado Springs since their arrival in 1885. They were teacher, and mentor, to thirty-nine hundred twenty-five graduates as well as thousands of other children who attended the school. They also influenced forty-seven young men and women to enter the priesthood and sisterhood. By 1980, there were only two sisters on the staff of SMHS. The last left Colorado Springs in 1985. Ironically, the last to leave, Sr. Gladys Ann Givan, was the grand niece of the first to arrive, Sr. Mary Columba Gallavan.54 Currently no women religious serve on the staff of St. Mary’s High School, but their spirit remains in the dedication of those who have worked tirelessly to keep the school opened and thriving for over 124 years. The work of the Lorettines spread to sixteen states and to China, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and Africa. Loretto Heights Academy, in Denver, opened in 1891 as an elementary and secondary school for girls under the guidance of Mother Pancratia Bonfils. In 1918, a college curriculum was added and the Teacher Education Program was established in 1926. The elementary and secondary courses were gradually phased out and by 1941 Loretto Heights College became a four-year college for women. Male students were admitted in 1970. Financial struggles caused the school to be absorbed by Regis University in 1988.55 Besides Loretto Heights College in Denver, the Lorettines founded Webster College in St. Louis in 1916. One hundred and fifty-five years after their arrival, the Lorrentines’ presence is still evident in Colorado and the Southwest. They continue to sponsor St. Mary’s Academy in Denver and Loretto Academy in El Paso, Texas. In 1987, they

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were instrumental in opening Havern Center, for children with learning disabilities, in Littleton, Colorado. Loretto ideas continue to underlie Webster University which today includes eighty-three campuses in the U.S., one in Colorado Springs, and six in Europe, Asia, and Bermuda.56 The primary goal of these women religious has been to teach, yet they have successfully played a significant role in support of social justice and peace initiatives around the world. They have been, and continue to be, seen picketing with farm workers and civil rights leaders, protesting at nuclear weapons sites, and delivering food and humanitarian aid to children in Africa. They also have secured significant leadership roles in interreligious and ecumenical efforts. One sister stands out in her contributions. Sr. Mary Luke Tobin was born in Denver in 1908, educated at Loretto Heights College, and taught at St. Mary’s High School in the 1930s. She served as the president of the Sisters of Loretto from 1958 to 1970, but her career as a religious leader reached numerous high marks. She was one of just fifteen women, and the only one from the United States, to take part as an auditor in the Second Vatican Council, and one of just three women who served on the commissions that prepared the council documents. She opened many doors for women religious. She was at the center of remodeling religious life in the wake of Vatican II. She collaborated ecumenically with other faith traditions, co-founding a Buddhist-Christian dialogue and meditation group in Denver, teaching at Iliff School of Theology, a Methodist institution, and addressing national assemblies of many Protestant denominations.57 The success of the efforts of sisters like Sr. Luke would not have been possible if not for the contributions and sacrifices of early sisters. They are remembered kindly in tributes such as this to Sister M. Columba Gallavan upon her death in 1913: Her sojourn on earth records nothing heroic or wonderful— hers was truly the hidden life, marked by fidelity to Rule and principle. But who can tell the effect of her true devotion and staunch faith? Countless are the souls who have come within the range of her influence—that influence, which made them better because they had known her58

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Behind every Sister who served is a story of a woman who followed a call to the difficult vocation of teaching, with little money, creature comforts or prestige in return. Their reward came in the loving tributes such as the one for Sr. M. Columba. They taught the minds and influenced the hearts of many young people, all of whom were in the sisters’ debt for their education. Their personal dedication to a life of Christian service inspired both those who chose to follow them on the path of religious vocation and those who chose secular life.59 Extraordinary women, indeed! These women religious, these Catholic nuns, these Sisters of Loretto; they came, they served. Eugenia R. Ahrens, mother of five and grandmother of seven, avid volunteer in the Colorado Springs area since 1992, resides with her husband, Bill, in Monument. Jeanie has been a high school English teacher, social worker, accountant, and librarian. She volunteered at the Monument Branch of the Pikes Peak Library District for 6 years. She was active at St. Mary’s High School from 1992—2002 as a parent volunteer, teacher, and bookkeeper. Four of her five sons are graduates of SMHS. In 2004 she decided to compile a history of the school. Her work, A Pirate’s Treasure: The History of St. Mary’s High School, will be completed in time for the school’s 125th anniversary celebration in the spring, 2010.

Notes

1. Carol K. Coburn, “Pray for Your Wanderers: Women Religious on the Colorado Mining Frontier, 1877-1917.” Frontier Publishing, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3687/is_199501/ai_ n8723943 . 2. Bernadette Saenz and Victoria Valdez, “Sisters of Loretto Have Long Tradition in Southwest,” Borderlands: An El Paso Community College Local History. http://www.epcc.edu/nwlibrary/ borderlands/19_loretto.htm . 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. Untitled and anonymous documents. Sr. Kate Misbauer, S.L.

188 • THEY CAME TO EDUCATE Archivist, Motherhouse, Archives of the Sisters of Loretto. Nerinx, Kentucky. 6. Ibid. 7. Ibid. 8. Lynn Bridgers, Death’s Deceiver: The Life of Joseph P. Machebeuf (Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press, 1997), 100. 9. Saenz. 10. Bridgers. 117. 11. Ibid.118. 12. Ibid. 120. 13. Arthur Jones, “After 190 years, Loretto Sisters Still Stake Out New Frontiers,” National Catholic Reporter Online, http://www. natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/041202/041202j.htm . 14. “St. Mary’s Academy, At A Glance,” http://www.smanet. org/about/about.glance.html . 15. Bridgers, 178. 16. Denver Catholic Reporter, “Nuns Staff Public Schools,” August 14, 1953. Archives of the Sisters of Loretto. 17. Ibid. 18. Ibid. 19. Ibid. 20. Marshall Sprague, Newport in the Rockies: The Life and Good Times of Colorado Springs (Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1987). 21. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, June 9, 1885. 22. Ibid. August 21, 1885. 23. Ibid. September 11, 1886. 24. Colorado Springs City Directory 1886. 25. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, June 9, 1885. 26. Archives of the Sisters of Loretto. 27. Ibid. 28. Ibid. 29. Sr. Mary Claver, S.L., Annals, Archives of the Sisters of Loretto. Architectural plans for a building were drawn by Mr. Ed Brook, and Frasier and Broner were the contractors. 30. “Circular of the Young Ladies’ Academy Conducted by the Sisters of Loretto, Colorado Springs, Colorado,” Archives of the Sisters of Loretto. 31. Sr. Mary John, S.L. “St. Mary’s in Retrospect-Colorado Springs,” 1959. Archives of the Sisters of Loretto.

AHRENS • 189 32. “Circular of the Young Ladies’ Academy.” 33. John. 34. Donna Drucker, To Your Holy Mountain: The History of St. Mary’s Catholic Church and Cathedral in Colorado Springs, (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Star Publications, 1999), 55. 35. “Circular of the Young Ladies’ Academy.” 36. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. July 27, 1888. 37. Drucker, 51. 38. Ibid., 55. 39. Ibid., 52. 40. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. September 25, 1888. 41. Correspondence between Fr. Bender and Mother Praxedes Carty. August 4, 1898. Archives of the Sisters of Loretto. 42. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. December 3, 1901. 43. Agreement dated May 21, 1902, signed by Bishop N. C. Matz and Mother Praxedes Carty. Archives of the Sisters of Loretto. 44. Drucker, 86. 45. Scrapbooks and anonymous papers. St. Mary’s High School Archives. Colorado Springs, Colorado. 46. Corresponsdence between Fr. Bender and Mother Praxedes, Archives of Sisters of Loretto. 47. Ibid. 48. Archives of Sisters of Loretto. 49. Ibid. 50. Drucker, 88. 51. Marylin, St. Mary’s High School Yearbook, 1926, 6. 52. Colorado Springs Free Press, November 5, 1969. 53. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. March 13, 1971. 54. St. Mary’s High School Archives. 55. Regis University, “Loretto Heights College Timeline,” http:// www.regis.edu/regis.asp?sctn=abt&p1=hs&p2=lh . 56. Mission Projects: Loretto Educators/Schools. http://www. lorettocommunity.org/education.html . 57. Sister Mary Luke Tobin, S.L. The Record. Archdiocese of Louisville. http://www.archlou.org/therecord/article53326.htm . 58. “Sister M. Columba Gallavan—In Memoriam.” The Loretto Magazine, December, 1913. Archives of the Sisters of Loretto. 59. Drucker, 55.

Gretchen McRae. Courtesy of Starsmore Center for Local History at the Colorado Springs

Pioneers Museum.

Gretchen McRae: Civil Rights & Political Activist of Colorado Springs & the United States, 1924—1966 Caroline E. Blackburn In the cold month of December, 1978, the body of 80-yearold Gretchen McRae, a long-time Colorado Springs resident, was found in her home. The body was wrapped in layers of clothing in the unheated house, surrounded by stacks and stacks of papers she had written and notes she had taken. The Colorado Springs Gazette recorded her life story as an afterthought to the mysterious circumstances of her death. But it was McRae’s life that serves as testimony to the hardships endured by African Americans in the post-slavery United States. Gretchen, or Gretta, was born Gretchen Delta McRae on December 23, 1898, in Mount Airy, North Carolina, to Bonaparte McRae and Martha Ann Hopper. Her family was one of many black families native to that region who had survived the Civil War only to find themselves battling more insecurities and oppressions. Lucy J. Hopper, Gretchen’s grandmother, was among the few African Americans at that time who could read and write. She passed away in Colorado Springs in 1937, at the age of 99, the oldest resident of the city at the time. Lucy’s determination to educate herself, through reading and writing, was a trait she would pass on to her three grandchildren, Almena, Carye and Gretchen, whom she helped raise after their mother died in 1903 North Carolina. As early as the 1870s, a large migratory movement drew black Americans from the South to the northern and western states in search of better employment and economic conditions, and away from racial discrimination. Many found that although the North and West offered great improvements over the South, racism still existed in these areas. Many first settled in African American agricultural towns such as Dearfield, Colorado, and • 191 •

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Nicodemus, Kansas. However, they experienced little success in making a living. Therefore, by the early 20th century, many gave into the lure of urban jobs in cities of the West and North.1 In 1903, Bonaparte P. McRae moved his family to the primarily black neighborhood of South Weber Street, south of downtown Colorado Springs. The largest group of African Americans in Colorado Springs lived between Costilla and Fountain streets on South Wahsatch Avenue, Weber and Pueblo streets. At one time, the area was occupied by white families, but as the black population moved in, the white population moved to more “desirable locations.”2 At the time of the family’s relocation, Gretchen was 4 years old, her sister Carye was 6 and her oldest sister Almena was 10. They moved into a new bungalow at 822 South Weber Street, in a neighborhood that showed some promise for the McRae family. They remained there until 1922 when they moved to 812 South Weber. The family also acquired property at 805 South Weber, which, along with 822, became rental properties owned by the family. During her later life, issues surrounding these rental properties would bring to light discriminations that Gretchen would have to face. None of the houses remain standing today due to a redevelopment of that area, which occurred long after Gretchen’s death. Bonaparte was aware of the obstacles for African Americans in the society of the time. He was dedicated to the education of his three girls. He helped them all earn their high school diplomas, which proved to be a major step toward helping them excel in their lives. To support his family, Bonaparte worked as a janitor for the majority of his life. He spiritually supported the girls as well, being an active member of the Payne Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he was a steward and trustee. The sisters attended Lowell Elementary School and all three graduated from Colorado Springs High School, fueled with the desire to become successful citizens. However, all was not equal in the West. Gretchen graduated high school in 1917, 32 years after the first black graduate of the school. Yet she was placed, along with three other black students, in the back of the school’s yearbook, The Lever Annual, racially segregated from the others in her class. Despite her intelligence, she was never mentioned as a participant in any clubs in her high school, something

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popular for young women of her time. The yearbook predicted that Gretchen would go to China with Mattie Duncan, another black graduate, to teach young minds. The Lever Annual’s page showing the four African American students was a modest grouping of characters: Alma Thornton, Mattie Duncan, James Hine, and Gretta “M’Rae.” Captions under their names included “Was always here,” “Kept out of the limelight,” and, “Lived up to her brother’s reputation.” The caption under Gretchen’s photograph, “Was the delight of her teachers,” was by far the nicest description of the four.3 A sendoff such as this might be little inspiration, but Gretchen realized at this early age that she wanted something. In this society of discrimination, Gretchen had nothing to lose. With that mindset, she set forth into the world with the courage to set changes in motion. Gretchen graduated high school during Colorado’s period of most blatant racism, the heyday of the Ku Klux Klan. Its greatest strength was in Denver, seventy miles to the north of Colorado Springs. Colorado had earlier been home to ten thousand members and twenty-five chapters of the American Protective Association, an anti-Catholic association that began in 1887.4 This group provided the foundation for the Klan in Denver. Many of the children of the APA members later grew up to support Colorado’s Ku Klux Klan. In addition, in early 1921, the Imperial Wizard William Joseph Simmons visited Denver and organized a local klavern called the Denver Doers Club, which quickly became publicly linked to the Ku Klux Klan. The already present anti-Negro, anti-Semitic, and anti-Catholic appeals in the area brought in an ever expanding membership, which began meeting in larger areas such as Table Mountain, nine miles west of Denver, Castle Mountain, near Golden, in Estes Park or at the Klan’s Cotton Mills Stadium in south Denver.5 Fifty thousand Coloradoans were in the KKK, ranking Colorado second (to Indiana) in KKK membership in the United States during the 1920s.6 Dr. John Galen Locke, Grand Dragon of Colorado, quickly became a powerful and feared man in local politics. Threats were a common method of his and the Klan’s. In 1924, the Denver Express described him as being able to “remove any officer in the state of Colorado. He may also suspend any

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man from the order without a hearing . . . public officers are completely subservient. They either obey or are kicked out of the organization.”7 In the Denver mayoral election of May 1923, Republican incumbent Dewey C. Bailey lost to the Democratic challenger Benjamin F. Stapleton, who later accepted the support of the Klan. Although Stapleton declared, prior to the 1923 election, that racial or religious prejudice is un-American, he pledged, before the 1924 election, “I will work with the Klan and for the Klan in the coming election, heart and soul. And if I am reelected, I will give the Klan the kind of administration it wants.”8 In the spring and summer of 1924, the Klan gained maximum power in the city of Denver. Its members included not only the mayor, but also state representatives, state senators, the city attorney, the manager of public safety, the police chief, a police inspector, and two deputy sheriffs. The Klan also moved south into Colorado Springs. On July 4, 1923, a thirty-foot cross was burned on the top of Pikes Peak to announce the beginning of a Klan chapter in the Springs.9 Local black woman, Charlotte Collins, remembered the Klan trying to burn down her family’s house because her father, Charles Banks, was the president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at the time. Later in life, this brave man would work with Gretchen to promote civil rights in Colorado.10 After the Colorado elections of 1924 re-instated Stapleton, the popular vote brought in powerful Klansman Clarence Morley as governor. He remained in that office from 1925 to 1927. Again, the Klan held the majority of the powerful political offices in Colorado, but its power soon dissolved. By 1926, the Invisible Empire ended its strong reign in Colorado politics. Scandals had caused arrests and disillusionment nationally. Members dispersed, some adopting the title of Minute Men of America. However, Mayor Benjamin Stapleton remained in office until 1931, when he lost the office, only to regain it from 1935 to 1947. Prior to Gretchen McRae’s high school graduation, in February 1916, the widely-acclaimed movie “Birth of a Nation” showed at the Colorado Springs Opera House, igniting a protest from the black community.11 The film made heros of the Ku Klux

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Klan. Throughout the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan had been agitating the black community by requesting that employers in Colorado Springs not hire “colored men.” Blacks were allowed in all but one cinema house in Colorado Springs, but they were always directed to segregated seating. Many restaurants or soda fountains did not serve black customers.12 Growing inside Gretchen was an anger that fueled her life’s path in the coming years, which would be clear in some of her future writings and letters. An established cultural trend of the black American West was that women spearheaded issues related to education and economic security. In the West, it was black women who built the churches. They achieved an astounding literacy rate compared to blacks in other parts of the country.13 Gretchen must have felt a pull to continue the strong leadership of black women in the West. Black leaders who visited her community might also have influenced Gretchen. On January 11, 1906, 3 years after the McRaes moved to Colorado, Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Margaret Murray, spoke at the Payne Chapel in Colorado Springs to an interracial audience. She returned in 1909 to speak at the Temple Theater.14 On May 31, 1906, the first conference of the NAACP was held in New York City with three hundred black and white Americans in attendance. The Colorado Springs branch of the NAACP was initiated on July 25, 1918, with the help from one of the founders from New York.15 Thus Gretchen’s town had a reform minded African American community. Gretchen’s high school graduation was also timely for national inspiration. She was becoming an adult during a time of great black leadership in the country. In April 1920, The National Urban League (NUL) was founded to assist southern black emigrants to the North. On June 21, 1915, in Guinn v. the United States, the Supreme Court ruled against the “Grandfather clauses” used in southern states to deny blacks the right to vote. Partly because of the Great Migration and the effect of World War I, the 1910s and 1920s were a time of civil unrest. For example, from July to October 1918, a time that Harlem Renaissance author James Weldon termed the “Red Summer,” more than twenty-five race riots against blacks occurred across the country, leaving over one hundred people dead.16

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In this awakening era, following her graduation, Gretchen left Colorado Springs with her sister Almena. They headed to Washington, D.C., to look for work, and fortunately both found jobs. Jobs were in short supply; World War I had ended, troops returned, and defense industries closed. Many black migrants to the North were jobless and living in the first black ghettos.17 Gretchen and Almena’s strong education, however, helped them find employment. Gretchen worked as a clerk and stenographer in the U.S. Department of Interior, after a small job as an employee for a magazine subscription service. Almena, who had studied education at Fisk and Harvard universities, acquired a job as a clerk in the Department of Commerce. Gretchen McRae had not earned a college degree, but her inherent intelligence was evident throughout her life. Despite Gretchen’s intelligence and work ethic, she continually experienced segregation in her position with the Department of Interior’s General Land Office. As a stenographer, McRae could only work with the black clerks. She was paid less than her white counterparts. Almena also experienced setbacks in her department regarding wages and promotions. McRae did not submit to this treatment unquestioningly, however. She wrote several letters on her own, and her sister’s, behalf. In October 1943, in a letter to Senator Edwin C. Johnson, McRae referenced the Civil Service Rules and Executive Order 8802 regarding Almena’s experiences with discrimination at her job as a clerk in the Geographer’s Division of the Census Bureau, Department of Commerce. The Civil Service Rules and Executive Order 8802 together supported affirmative action, equal opportunity and forbade racial discrimination in government jobs. It is unknown if she received a reply to her letter or if Senator Johnson took any action on the matter. Based on McRae’s further writings to government officials, it is unlikely that Senator Johnson took the desired action, even though he had gained some admiration from the black citizens of Colorado during his years in office.18 In 1924, after 4 years employment at the Department of Interior, McRae appealed in writing to the Personnel Classification Board requesting that she receive a higher job classification. She had worked as a clerk for seven office employees in the Homestead Division and the Desert Land

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and Reclamation Division. In her appeal, she also expressed her disgust with the physical racial segregation in the clerks’ offices. African-American employees were segregated from the other employees by partitions. The Board transferred her requests to Hubert Work, the Secretary of the Interior, stating that they saw “no justification” for her request. McRae did receive a minor pay raise after this, but the physical segregation persisted.19 A petition, reportedly started by McRae and eleven other General Land Office employees, asked for the elimination of racial segregation. It was sent to Secretary Work, but received no reply. Later, an April 16, 1928, article in The Washington Post stated that the partitions were removed due to the successful protests of black employees, including Gretchen McRae.20 Bonaparte McRae also wrote letters, on behalf of his daughter Gretchen, to Senator Lawrence C. Phipps of Colorado, regarding the discrimination that existed in the Department of Interior, detailing McRae’s minor promotions within the department. Moving to the public press, Bonaparte wrote to William M. Trotter, editor and co-founder of The Guardian of Boston, regarding the discrimination that McRae faced. Trotter was a strong voice for desegregation. He previously led protests against segregation in the federal government and protested President Woodrow Wilson’s decisions regarding civil rights. Wilson banned Trotter from the White House for the remainder of his term.21 In April 1928, McRae wrote another appeal to the Personnel Classification Board, requesting a higher job classification. Again it was not approved. In November of the same year, she wrote to the newly appointed Secretary of the Interior Roy O. West and appealed again for an end to segregation in the department, in addition to a new job classification for herself.22 She eventually resigned on October 23, 1928, in protest against the conditions of racial segregation in the department. Revealingly, she received a reply accepting her resignation on the same day she delivered it.23 Gretchen McRae had not operated alone in her campaign. She had become an active member in the Washington, D.C., branch of the NAACP. She was a delegate to its June 1928 conference. The organization’s president, Neval H. Thomas,

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had organized a delegation, in 1926, to protest at Secretary Hubert Work’s office regarding the racial segregation in the Department of Interior, citing Gretchen McRae as one of those affected. Hubert Work responded harshly that black clerks only became concerned about their conditions because of outside agitators. After Thomas continued his demands, Work finally made arrangements to end segregation in the Bureau of Pensions, but not in the General Land Office where McRae worked. At the 19th Annual NAACP Conference in Los Angeles, California, McRae presented an address on the governmental segregation she had experienced in the General Land Office and praised the work of Neval Thomas. During this time Gretchen McRae became known as “the coloured Joan of Arc.”24 McRae’s approach to racial segregation and inequality differed from that of many other activists. In McRae’s view, segregation must not exist at all, neither by forcible separation of the races nor by the construction of environments or services to serve only black Americans. The NAACP, on the other hand, supported the work of the Negro Advisory Council set up by the U.S. government, to aid black Americans. McRae believed that any council such as this, including the Indian Affairs Council, only perpetuated segregation because, by their nature, these councils were recognizing differences between people and separating them into different groups. McRae believed that in order for segregation and racist ways of thinking to come to an end, society and the government needed to see everyone as equal. In her notes, taken for the purpose of future publication, McRae wrote, If colored people don’t wake up they will be smothered with their own duplicity and if the NAACP ever expects to reach [its] goal, it will have to drop the segregation ball and pick up one for equality, because it just can’t reach goal-sanctioning segregation. If the time, energy and money that colored organizations spend in sanctioning and protecting governmental segregation and segregated jobs were turned to getting equality the race would now have something worthwhile.25

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McRae had come to believe that all national segregation was the result of the national government’s own segregation. In her eyes, individual citizens could justify their own racist beliefs if the government also was promoting racist environments. Anticipating the presidential election of 1928, she attempted to discredit the Interior Department, specifically Hubert Work, manager of Herbert Hoover’s presidential campaign. In a letter to the Evening World, New York City, written November 3, 1928, McRae made public her previous requests to Work. She cited segregation orders that the Interior Department under Work had issued. The letter also referenced Work’s failure to respond to protests against the segregation, and the obvious lack of African American employees in the department. McRae supported Democratic candidate Alfred E. Smith, whom she believed could stand up to the racist members of the U.S. government. In Massachusetts, McRae made a strong case by addressing people at a series of meetings in Worcester and Boston in support of the Democratic ticket.26 Few blacks were voting at the time, and most still supported the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln. In Boston, she addressed three thousand people at a rally for Governor Smith. The Guardian, a black-owned newspaper, stated that, not in more than a decade has a Colored American spoken to as large an audience of white Americans in Massachusetts on race discrimination as Miss Gretchen McRae. Not in over a decade has any member of our race received such approval and sympathy for our cause from a great white audience as Gretchen McRae. . . . She was greeted with great applause as she stood up before the microphone. . . . The audience gave her such an ovation that she had to rise and acknowledge it. Later that day she attended a reception in her honor at the League for Community Service.27 McRae did not always have a life of politics and civil rights in mind. From 1921 to 1927, during her time as a clerk in

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Washington, D.C., she also took art classes at Howard University, the great African American college originated during post Civil War Reconstruction. Her interest in art carried over when she moved to New York City in 1929. There, she completed three art classes in May 1931 at the Cooper Union Women’s Art School, and graduated from that school in 1932. Cooper Union had been the bastion of abolitionist speeches before the Civil War. Yet even Cooper Union was not free of racism. McRae found discriminatory words in the student newspaper, Cooper Pioneer. She quickly wrote to the faculty adviser on this matter. Her letter stated that, practically every issue of the Cooper Pioneer has carried some slurring reference to colored people as in the dialect ascribed to them, “nigger,” “darkey,” or in some other manner. This is persistent propaganda to create disrespect for a certain group of people, and I believe it is contrary to the wishes of the founder, and the principles upon which this school is built. It certainly violates good taste and intelligent journalism.28 Upon leaving the school she decided to move back to Washington, D.C., to live with Almena at 125 South Street. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt’s administration—held captive by the support of Southern democrats—did not advance civil rights as many African Americans hoped it would. McRae continued working against racial discrimination and segregation perpetuated by the government. She became a correspondent to the Washington Tribune and The Guardian. She criticized the government as continuing the pattern of discrimination with the creation of the “Black Cabinet.”29 The “Black Cabinet,” first known as the Office of Advisors on Negro Affairs, was made up of a group of African American public policy advisers to the president. Although many African Americans saw the establishment of the Office of Advisors on Negro Affairs as a positive step, McRae thought very differently. Throughout the New Deal she devoted much time in writing to government offices and newspapers about her opposition. In her notes she wrote,

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We should be able to look to the government to enforce the laws where we have good ones. That is merely what I have asked and I do not intend to turn my rights over to some social agencies, many of which are openly against the law and policies of democracy.30 She was convinced that this Office of Advisors perpetuated discriminatory ways of thinking in the government, because it was a group composed of segregated African Americans. They were segregated both by the nature of their office, as a primarily black council, and physically in location of their office in Washington, D.C.31 Yet, the government at the time did not see these attributes as discriminatory. In February 1934, Gretchen McRae obtained an appeal conference with the new Secretary of Interior, Harold Ickes, a self-proclaimed supporter of civil rights and liberties and former president of the Chicago NAACP. The conference was for the purpose of calling an end to segregation in the Department of Interior. Specifically, McRae desired the removal of E. K. Burlew, administrative assistant of the Department, C. A. Obenchain, administrator of the General Land Office, and Clark Foreman, Adviser on Negro Affairs, all of whom Ickes had appointed.32 For McRae, it was not merely the people Ickes had appointed to these offices that were the problem, rather it was the existence of the Adviser on Negro Affairs office itself. It perpetuated the idea that segregation existed of its own accord and the government must form committees with the purpose of dissecting the causes of discrimination.33 Ickes was uninterested in her opinions, however, and despite McRae’s letter to Ickes and President Roosevelt, no actions were taken. McRae was frustrated with Ickes’ inaction on her personnel matters and the fact that he did nothing to alleviate the economic depression, but rather continued to ask for more spending by the government for “segregatory projects.”34 In 1932, she issued a pamphlet titled “Have You Depressionitis?– Here is a Way to Prosperity,” which addressed economic and social issues of the time in a different light than that proposed by the government and Ickes. In it, she indicated that the way out of the economic depression was for more members of society to recognize their

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responsibilities towards their fellow men.35 Still believing that the government perpetuated discrimination by recognizing it, rather than treating people as equal, McRae wrote that, [Ickes] set up the Office of Advisers on Negro Affairs while flaunting himself as a liberal and progressive. He first initiated these discriminatory offices in his department and sponsored and urged them on other departments until these parasitic, tax absorbing discriminatory jobs were spread.36 Without these committees, McRae believed that society would eventually begin to see all people as equal. On July 1, 1936, Gretchen wrote a letter to the editor of the Washington Post regarding Ickes. In a radio address Ickes gave, wherein he stated all of his recent accomplishments for the black community, he neglected to include the actions he had taken against this community. Again she wrote of the Negro Affairs as being parallel to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and that it lowered the status of “colored” citizens. She publicly wrote, Mr. Ickes has been unjust in his administration of the Interior Department and the Public Works Administration in regard to colored Americans, has failed to give them a proper share of jobs, has segregated them and initiated general discrimination against them. She concluded by writing, “One thing is certain, colored citizens do not need Mr. Ickes’ sympathy as wards; what they need is a little justice.”37 On May 6, 1941, she further protested the Office of Adviser on Negro Affairs, stating that, these offices feed on discrimination because of race and will not cease in the attempt to segregate every colored citizen in the United States in every field of endeavor until they have done so, because that is the source of their existence.38

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This sentence was the root of McRae’s protest regarding any governmental agency created in order to examine segregation in the country. McRae wrote to Marvin McIntyre, assistant secretary to the president, repeating her request for a formal hearing regarding the discrimination she had experienced within the Interior Department. She cited her disgust with the handling of her complaints, with the officers within the government and with the establishment of the Advisers on Negro Affairs.39 Again, she received no response. Throughout the next decade there were, however, advancements in African American government employment in the government. In 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, creating the Fair Employment Practice Committee in a response to the threat of a mass march on Washington, D.C.40 This committee, in theory, was to forbid racial discrimination in defense industries and in government service. Gretchen McRae did not believe that it would accomplish its mission because it worked with and under the same principles as the Office of Adviser on Negro Affairs. She had more hope for this committee than any other governmental office before. In 1943, she wrote to the chairman of the Fair Employment Practice Committee, enclosing her protest against the Office of Adviser on Negro Affairs, against segregation and discrimination in the government, and against the Fair Employment Practice Committee. In this protest she wrote, “Segregation because of race has increased in every department in which these Advisers have worked, in spite of the few ‘integrations’ for which they claim credit.” She continued, “in accordance with the [Adviser on Negro Affairs] policy of segregation, they have sponsored housing and residential segregation.” McRae also cited the War Manpower Commission, set up to manage the labor market during World War II, as discriminatory for having employment surveys made according to, and on the basis of, race, which later caused directives for employment according to race. Her views of the effects of these offices were directly outlined in the letter. In this way Negroes are barred from certain labor markets, denied advancement into higher grades and pay scales; this in turn closes other opportunities

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such as participation in housing programs of better construction, and on the other hand causes segregated cheaper housing units to be built, - all of which denies these people freedom of choice and action both in the matter of employment and housing because of race. With this over all proscriptive program, and the fact that defense workers cannot change jobs without consent of employer merely insures mass segregation, with no alternative for the worker, and with no regard for Civil Rights Laws, or other basic laws of the country. . . . Colored people should be able to receive more desirable jobs according to their ability in the open labor market, without accommodating some Negro Adviser with his proscriptive administrative device for exclusion because of race on the one hand, and segregation because of race on the other if there is inclusion.41 She concluded her letter, I am asking [for] the elimination of segregation and discrimination in the Executive Departments, which included these segregated offices of Adviser on Negro Affairs. Since my protest and request for remedy has been pending before the Committee on Fair Employment Practice, or pigeoned-holed by it, for two years, I am asking that it take precedence over recent filings and be acted on immediately.42 In her protest against the Adviser on Negro Affairs, written on May 9, 1941, she wrote that the United States should be an example to the rest of the world at a time when “great nations are being weighed in the balances.” She compared the treatment of the African Americans in the United States to the treatment of the Jews under Hitler’s regime. She boldly wrote, “Americans raise their hand in horror at the treatment of the people in Germany , yet they seek to establish similar conditions of proscription here for colored people.” Her protest did not cite specific instances of injustice. Rather, it angrily stated that,

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The Negro Adviserships are enemies of freedom, supplementing their policies of segregation, discrimination, proscription and limitation wherever they find it. They have indulged in bold and arrogant interference in personal, private and business affairs of colored people in order to bring them under their dominance; they have hindered other colored people engaged in worthy enterprises, when these enterprises were not in accordance with their segregation policies. They have used federal funds and relief workers to propagate this policy, influence public opinion and corral social and political agencies to sanction it.43 McRae concluded her protest with a daring and thought provoking statement: Many injustices have been wrought against helpless people of different countries, but the most pitiful injustice is to a people so reduced in economic condition, and so demoralized, that they sanction these injustices in order to get bread to eat. That is the condition of conquered France today, but are we Americans also conquered by prejudice? A program to starve the colored people into submission to a segregation policy cannot possibly prosper America.44 McRae attached two pages to this protest full of citations from Civil Service Laws, the Civil Rights Laws and Executive Order No. 8802. She felt that if she told the public and the government offices about these written orders that they would be required to act in her favor. There were reforms to come in the 1940s. In June 1943, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was founded, and in 1946, President Harry S. Truman established the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. Truman’s orders provided the foundation for affirmative action in later years. Truman’s Democratic Congress was held prisoner by the “Dixiecrats,” however, who held enough votes in Congress to filibuster any legislation that would aid civil rights.45 The years of the Civil

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Rights Movement were just beginning to build, and some of the most difficult struggles for African Americans were yet to come. Meanwhile, Gretchen McRae’s time in Washington had ended with her grandmother’s illness in 1937. She returned to Colorado Springs to live at 812 South Weber Street. In Colorado Springs, the black population’s increase led to more segregation and an attitude change in the community. Colorado Springs had viewed the black servant population of the 19th century with no objection, but viewed the new working-class black population of the 20th century with apprehension. Black families were permitted to live only in two main districts in the area south and east of downtown. In the late 1920s, there were two cases in which black families were forced to move from white districts.46 In black neighborhoods many streets were not paved or lit, and the city government spent less money for improvements. McRae always believed that “people will adjust to housing next to Negroes,” but the majority of the white community was not prepared for this.47 In a 1936 study of racial prejudice in the area, author Samuel Goering noted that “the colored people find it cheaper to take undesirable, too close to railroads, shabby house, etc., than to develop a new district.” Yet he also noted that “When the colored people move in, the white people move out.” Goering wrote that one of the white men he interviewed, who used terms such as “dago” or “nigger” when referencing black neighbors, had said he would have sold out and moved away but since “they” got so close, the property “wasn’t worth a damn.”48 The 1930s proved to be a tumultuous time for the black community in Colorado Springs. Three largely publicized, violent acts occurred in the first half of the decade, which involved members of the black community, and stemmed from or perpetuated racism. One event, called the “Prospect Lake Incident,” involved two black men accused of a violent assault on a college-age couple near Prospect Lake in April 1934. The tensions throughout the ensuing investigation and trials propelled a group of racists to drag an effigy of a black man down East Costilla Street and hang it from a tree in the primarily black downtown neighborhood. Crowds rode through the streets shouting threats to people within these black

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neighborhoods.49 In Goering’s study of twenty white neighbors interviewed in this area, four used the word “nigger” and three were bitter against the black community as a whole. He wrote that a prominent real estate man had described the present trend in Colorado Springs as moving toward “more exclusive colored districts because more and more of the white people in or near the colored sections [were] ready to sell out and move to other quarters,” and that, “all the real estate men interviewed agreed that as soon as a colored family [would] locate in a white district property values and rent prices [would] shrink.” This realization came with hard facts regarding racial prejudice in the city. There were places in Colorado Springs where blacks were excluded. At hotels and restaurants, and at many white churches, “a colored person [was] not often served or welcomed except on special occasions.” It was generally agreed among business owners that admitting a “Negro” into a restaurant would ruin the business.50 One black woman recalled an experience in a church. She stated, “I took a seat in about the center of the church, although the church was later crowded, no white person sat down with me. During prayer an usher came and asked me to move to a seat in the back of the church.” Another noted, “I was going to attend a Christmas program but was met by a young man at the entrance who said that since the church would be very crowded, they would not have room for outsiders. The program was advertised in the paper.”51 Despite the lack of segregation of the city’s schools, some schools chose not to admit black students based on other reasons. One student quoted a teacher that “colored” students “shouldn’t expect the same treatment as a white child.”52 As was often the case nationwide, fewer black students attended the higher grades. They needed to work and support their families, while discrimination discouraged advancement. Still, Gretchen McRae, along with the majority of the black community in the area, preferred this discriminatory system over segregation of the schools. Robert R. Moton, Booker T. Washington’s successor as principal at the Tuskegee Institute, stated, “in education, as in other matters, segregation means distinctly discrimination, neglect and inferior provision for the Negro.”53 The churches of the black community were the only institutions of which they were in complete control. Colorado

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Springs was no different from other communities across the country, and the community agitation fueled McRae’s need to inspire equality and a focus on solutions. In order to achieve this, McRae began publishing A Free Republic. McRae desired to provide solutions, through open discussion, to the economic and social ills of the nation. She believed that the country would do well if its leaders would support Thomas Jefferson’s ideal democracy, instead of countering it.54 In Goering’s study, of fifty blacks interviewed, 84 percent said that the local papers were unfair in the presentation of events connected with black society. McRae aimed to change this. She was influenced by the black newspaper The Colorado Voice, which operated just down the street from her house, and held the motto “Freedom Our Ultimate Goal.”55 In an essay entitled “Civil Rights,” McRae remarked how the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States provided the building blocks to eliminate social injustices in the nation. She wrote, “America is one of the chief and last bulwarks of freedom left on this earth.”56 Many government officials believed that their relief programs were adequate to help the unemployed poor and minorities. Robert C. Weaver, an African American who served as an advisor to the Secretary of Interior, wrote in his 1935 essay “The New Deal and the Negro,” that “insofar as the Negro was greatly victimized by the economic developments, he was in a position to benefit from a program which provided adequate funds for relief.” McRae did not see any government relief programs aiding the black population, and Weaver also recognized this. He wrote, it is admitted that there were many abuses under the relief set-up. Such situations should be brought to light and fought. In the case of Negroes, these abuses undoubtedly existed and do exist. We should extend every effort to uncover and correct them.57 Unfortunately, McRae did not see any appropriate steps to alleviate these problems, so she utilized her own publication as a tool to shed light, as Weaver suggested. McRae had worked

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as a subscription representative for leading black journals including the NAACP’s The Crisis, the National Urban League’s Opportunity, and The Messenger, all of which influenced her future writing in A Free Republic.58 She continually educated herself on writing and publishing. With her sister Carye, and another woman, Doris Lewis, she directed the publication.59 Throughout her essays, her opinions on the nation’s administrations were clear. Gretchen continued to express her views on the civil rights programs over the years. She wrote that the government was misusing these programs in order to promote segregation across the country. With the Fair Employment Committee endorsing segregation and discrimination, with the Negro Adviserships, a segregated set-up, propagating segregation and discrimination all over the country, with the Federal Works Agency declaring, in effect, the “Jim Crow” is not discrimination, with the WPA [Works Progress Administration] and NYA [National Youth Administration] planning discriminatory programs, propagating them in the schools, and getting social agencies and the city to endorse them, with all these programs against the law, paid for with tax money, with protests ignored, or given the run around from agency to agency, the Federal government moves unmistakably toward complete abrogation of civil and constitutional rights—this in spite of the fact that most of the laws of this state are in favor of freedom and against discrimination. Where then is democracy and where is freedom?60 Although the publication existed mainly for the discussion of the community and national affairs, McRae also included poems, articles on art, prints of artwork, as well as recipes, which gave the publication a well-rounded community perspective. This format was a mirror of Gretchen McRae herself, who combined an interest in art and politics throughout her life. Unable to attract a large readership, the magazine piled up in the closets of McRae’s house, to be found after her death. The

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last issue for her publication was in September 1945.61 Despite its end, she attempted to sell her writing to other journals and newspapers across the country. In the mid-1930s, a few black community members planned the construction of an African American recreation center at the Lincoln School building. The project, administered by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), had an anticipated finish date of 1937, but was never completed.62 Robert Washington took up the cause of the construction. Washington was born in Denver and graduated from Colorado Springs High School in 1908. He Gretchen McRae began publishing A Free also attended Colorado Republic in July 1935. The journal was printed College. He later irregularly until the mid-1940s. Courtesy of returned to Denver to Starsmore Center for Local History at the Colorado work as a taxi cab driver. Springs Pioneers Museum. Washington spent the second half of his life living on McRae’s street, and attending the Baptist Church in Colorado Springs.63 Among his many accomplishments in Colorado Springs, he was a pianist, arranger and leader of a local orchestral group, and Head of Research, General Manager and Treasurer of The Colorado Voice, the newspaper that had influenced McRae.64 An educated man, he became the elected foreman and timekeeper on the recreation center project. Supporters believed that the construction of a recreation center for African Americans would solve some of the race discrimination occurring throughout the city. Legally, all recreation centers in the city were open to all colors, but blacks faced various restrictions. In one instance, a young black man

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was arrested for swimming with white boys in Monument Park Lake. In another instance, on July 4, 1935, a group from the black community went for a picnic at Stratton Park, causing an uproar from other park-goers who then called the police and threatened a fight between the whites and the “niggers.” There were also numerous signs discriminating against blacks at Prospect Lake.65 During the project’s planning stages, at a meeting at City Hall on August 19, 1937, the South Side Improvement Society protested the use of this center by “Negroes.”66 Gretchen McRae immediately voiced concerns of the black community regarding the link between segregation and discrimination. McRae’s stance on the matter was different from that of other community members. She believed that the new recreation center should be not only for African Americans, but for all members of the community, in order to promote equality. McRae was astounded that black community members saw the construction of a recreation center for African Americans as a step in the right direction in the fight for equality. If African Americans promoted environments for their own exclusive use, how was that different from the white community doing the same? She also saw the construction site as discriminatory in itself. She wrote on this matter, with an air of cynicism, nor did it seem incongruous for ministers to approve dance halls and gymnasiums down a hill between the railroad and a deep gully, where billowing smoke would envelope the athletes because these athletes belonged to the so called underprivileged. Keeping the underprivileged down under the railroad tracks is a special job of the devoted privileged in trying to “help” them, and they work at it tirelessly.67 During one of the many City Council hearings discussing this project, McRae wrote that she was the only one in attendance to “uphold constitutional guarantees.” She was the only one who saw a recreation center strictly for use by African Americans as promoting segregation. She wrote that as she stood up to speak, someone tugged on her sleeve. She turned to see the chairman of the State Social Agencies who had earlier visited McRae at

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her home to urge her not to oppose the project’s outline.68 She voiced her opinion anyway. The project was still in the works in 1941. Statements made during a city council meeting cited that, [Negroes] are substantially a low-income group and therefore are not able to provide adequate recreational facilities for themselves. The public school system and facilities are open equally to the white children and children of minority groups, as are the city parks and playgrounds, but it is found that these children are not encouraged to use the playgrounds because of the attitude of the white children.69 Gretchen McRae’s opinions regarding the use of recreational facilities did influence decision-makers during these years, however, at this same city council meeting it was also stated, that “this center should be in a section predominately colored,” but “as accessible as possible to all groups.” No direct segregation was further involved, but racial discrimination was far from being out of the picture in Colorado Springs. In 1943, McRae decided that she could no longer watch the city administration make decisions in which she did not believe. On April 6, 1943, a petition was issued to place Gretchen McRae on the ballot of the city council election. Gretchen and her campaign advocates worked tirelessly to present a candidate who would not corrupt the city but would work under the ideas of democracy and the U.S. Constitution. She and political committee members drove poor and minority residents to City Hall in order to assist them in registering to vote in the election, thus promoting the black vote. This was before 1944, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Smith v. Allwright that primary elections would be open to African-Americans,70 and before April 1946, when the Supreme Court, in the case of Primus King v. State of Georgia, declared the “white primary” to be unconstitutional, thus removing a significant legal barrier to black voting in the states.71 America’s black community had not been voting due to racial discrimination and verbal or physical abuse at the polls.

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The obstacles facing Gretchen McRae were many. At the time, there were few black politicians in the area, and the black vote in Colorado Springs would probably split, so there would be little chance for any African American candidate to gain an office in the election. There was a general feeling among the minorities that the majority, or white, candidate would always be given preference in an election, even though he or she may not be as well qualified.72

Gretchen McRae with her father Bonaparte and grandmother Lucy J. Hopper. Photograph taken not long before Lucy’s death at the age of 99 in 1937. Courtesy

of Starsmore Center for Local History at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

Although unsuccessful in the race, finishing seventh among seven candidates, McRae succeeded by simply getting her name placed on the ballot. Throughout her campaign she advocated for the poor and minority groups. Her actions were unprecedented. It was not until 1969 that an African American would sit on the Colorado Springs City Council. In December 1946, McRae’s father died. She was alone and suffering financially. Bonaparte had worked as a janitor at the Kaufman and Co. dry goods store from 1904 to 1912, and in 1913 at the Barnes Building. He then worked as janitor in the Colorado Springs City Hall, a good job for a black man at the

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time. He held the job for 20 years, until his body would no longer allow him to do the work and he retired. Following his retirement, Bonaparte did not receive a pension from the city of Colorado Springs, and despite a letter he wrote to E. L. Mosley, city manager of Colorado Springs, regarding his pension, and another written for him by his daughters, the city did not provide Bonaparte a pension. Bonaparte resorted to small entrepreneurial jobs, including selling spruce trees in the summer and at Christmas.73 Bonaparte died in his home, and McRae became the owner of all three family properties.74 In the 1950s and 1960s, the black civil rights movement gained momentum. McRae became a member and supporter of the NAACP. She had a love-hate relationship with the organization, however, stating in her protest against the Advisers on Negro Affairs that, “[the Advisers] might undertake to enlist the services of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, since that organization, at the behest of the advisers, has approved, sanctioned and even sponsored segregated projects.”75 McRae believed that the NAACP was manipulated by government offices, specifically the everpresent Advisers on Negro Affairs, to promote segregation in areas of community life, such as all black universities or allblack recreation centers. A Colorado Springs demonstration on voting rights, led by the local NAACP, took place in 1965. One-hundred and fifty people turned out for a meeting on the steps of City Hall carrying signs that read “Voting – A Right For All,” and “What Image America?” The demonstration was called to protest the brutalities that occurred in Selma, Alabama, where troopers attacked protesters asking for federal legislation to guarantee voting rights to all qualified citizens.76 It was 22 years earlier that McRae and other members of her city council campaign had urged local African Americans to register to vote. It was not until August 6, 1965, that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. Throughout these years, McRae continued to write about civil rights and the social ills of the country. She expressed opinions regarding employment as well. In her view, the employment status of youth would improve if older workers

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would retire. She believed that this was the duty of older workers in a society and that it would solve economic problems better than government aid to underemployed. McRae believed that all resources should be distributed equally among all people, and that democracy is at odds with the private concentration of wealth. In her notes, she reiterated the idea that economic downfalls are not due to a lack of resources, but to human qualities of selfishness, acquisitiveness and incomprehension.77 In the late 1960s, black nationalism and violent protest became popular movements, but this was not the leadership Gretchen McRae wanted. She was tied to the “Era of Nonviolence,”78 and was much more interested in Martin Luther King Jr.’s messages of peace, building education and economic conditions, than targeting white people specifically. She wrote in 1966, “Non-violence is more morally right and practically correct.”79 She took hundreds of notes on this subject, on half pieces of paper, which she would edit and re-edit, and produced eloquent and strong essays that she would then try to publish in periodicals across the nation. There was obvious interest in civil rights within Colorado Springs at the time. In 1964, the Colorado Springs Gazette even included the entire text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, because of “the singular interest exhibited by readers.”80 McRae found it difficult, however, to get her own writings published in newspapers. So, after her father’s death, McRae decided to rely on her rental properties at 805 and 822 South Weber Street for income. Even in this decision she faced discrimination. Despite a housing shortage in the area of Colorado Springs, McRae had difficulty receiving permission to rent her property She wrote to the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation that racial discrimination was making it impossible to rent her property in a timely manner or gain the money to convert the house into apartments. In a letter dated November 3, 1943, she wrote that, the difficulty in filing was brought on by the fact that the real estate men, representatives of HOLC, and the employment service held an unannounced meeting at which they had a Negro Adviser present, who acquiesced in the exclusion of colored people from

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the program. . . . I spent two days telling officials that this was wrong, that the regulations provided for no discrimination because of race. Finally, they agreed to accept the application. Even after her application was accepted, McRae still had difficulty renting her property at a legitimate rate. She wrote that this was due to HOLC having “condemned the neighborhood merely because of these few colored people,” who lived in the area of South Weber Street among several white families.81 Yet, the post-World War II housing shortage in Colorado Springs led to advertisements in the local newspaper offering a $20 reward for any information leading to available houses for rent. Housing was in such short supply that the Office of Price Administration declared the region a rent-controlled area.82 McRae did not back down on the charges she held against HOLC for discrimination, stating, “I don’t scare easily.” She stood in the face of threats made to cause her to withdraw her application, stating, “I am not going to withdraw anything when I know I am right.”83 McRae saw this sort of government action as building the foundation for black ghettos in the United States. She wrote many times that ghettos were erected by powerful officials and were not the by-product of the choices black people had made. At one point, a debate arose in Colorado Springs in which the City Planning Commission contemplated segregating army personnel and other citizens based on race or religion with the use of Federal Housing Administration funds. McRae quickly typed up her opposition stating that, “to use tax money to set up a ghetto pattern for minorities is in violation of the Constitution of the United States.”84 It is unknown whether her protest changed the outcome of this “ghetto pattern.” Shortly after she acquired the funds to fix up her rental properties, the local housing expediters, Tighe E. Woods and Frank R. Creedon, informed McRae that she was breaking the law by renting her property at too steep a price, even though other property owners were renting equivalent properties for the same price in her neighborhood.85 This ruling cost McRae both substantial funds and the ability to ever rent her properties

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again. From 1945 to 1954, McRae was in and out of courtrooms filing endless motions and appeals. It is no surprise that Gretchen McRae decided to represent herself in the legal system. While a stenographer in Washington, D.C., she had learned much about the legal system. When she believed that judges were ruling against her with discrimination, she openly voiced her opposition.86 Yet, it was rare for an African American to bring suit against the white majority, because the chances of a positive verdict were low, and the court costs high. As always, this verdict was not in McRae’s favor. She was unable to sell her writing regularly. She received collection letters from the West Publishing Co. and the National Association of Schools and Publishers requesting payment of overdue debts. Gretchen was unable to regularly sell her writing. Perhaps it was the wrong time for her points of view, in a nation struggling to create a clear definition and place for African Americans. Almena returned to Colorado Springs in 1953 to live with Gretchen, and the two unmarried women continued their already exceptionally close sisterhood.87 They were poor, supported by McRae’s difficult work as a writer, and they were an isolated pair. McRae documented her reactions to the escalating Civil Rights Movement in her notes. No doubt she listened to the news on the radio of the turmoil at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, or of the “Freedom Rides” from Washington, D.C., to the South to challenge segregation. McRae must have paid attention to President Eisenhower’s forced desegregation of schools. One can imagine her emotions when President Kennedy brought new hope to the black population, only to be killed in 1963, and when the same happened to Martin Luther King Jr., in 1968. Numerous newspaper articles and notes on these and other current events were packed away in boxes and in piles all over the house. Carye returned to Colorado Springs in 1970, due to a liver ailment, and she died two years later.88 Carye had somewhat of a strained relationship with Gretchen. Although she supported McRae’s views on segregation and civil rights, she tired of Gretchen’s endless need for monetary support.89 Carye had been the most financially secure, however, she did not have

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the resources to support many of Gretchen’s endeavors. Near the end of her life, McRae’s other sister, Almena, experienced paranoid delusions, and believed that someone was digging under the basement of the house.90 McRae was the only sister seen out and about, walking in her tennis shoes, coat and scarf to and from the supermarket. On December 16, 1978, after the postman discovered that the McRae sisters had not picked up their mail in several days, the community decided to investigate the status of the sisters’ health. The best informed neighbor was Areba Stephens, later Areba Jackson, who lived at 823 South Weber Street, and who would later donate McRae’s papers and photographs to the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. She stated that she had seen McRae walking about but she had not seen Almena in 5 years. Upon entering the house, police found McRae, dead of a heart attack, wrapped in several layers of clothing. The frigid house was covered in papers, magazines and newspapers, leaving only small paths from room to room. It was determined that she had died 3 days earlier. In the same room, under piles of newspapers and wrapped in blue absorbent paper towels, propped in a chair, was the body of her sister Almena. Almena had died 3 years earlier of natural causes. Even though McRae had pre-paid the heating bill several months in advance, the heat in the house was no longer running, which aided in the preservation of Almena’s body.91 The media jumped on the bizarre story, but perhaps there lay deeper love that was unexplored. Gretchen was a loyal sister to Almena and was perhaps unable to accept the fact that Almena had passed on before her. She must have been lonely. For her, the struggles of life as a black woman had taught her that black women could achieve a lot together. Word was that she had begun to write a book, which she later abandoned, chronicling the pursuits of black Americans.92 Gretchen McRae was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery after a funeral at the Angelus Funeral Chapel on January 3, 1979. One of her many essays written during the second half of the Civil Rights Movement, toward the end of her life, describes McRae’s underlying beliefs that carried her through her many struggles with discrimination. She wrote,

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December 15th marks the 165th anniversary of the ratification of the Civil Rights Amendments to the Constitution, and many states have enacted additional civil rights laws. It was but nine years after Colorado was admitted into the Union as a state, that she took action on this most important question of civil rights, enacting a civil rights law in 1885. Colorado Springs was founded by General William J. Palmer in 1871, the next year after the XV amendment was ratified, so that the history of Colorado, and the history of civil rights seem closely linked. None of the “ism” philosophies, or satellite countries even pretends to grant so much. The most essential difference between them and our democracy is civil rights. The first step toward dictatorship is to crush civil rights, therefore we must preserve them at all costs. If there are those citizens, and there are many, who do not enjoy the benefits of freedom and civil and constitutional rights here in America, it is not the fault of these precious founding documents, but rather the administration of them. Local and federal authorities have fallen far short of the high standards set out in them, but never forget that the foundations for freedom are right here in America to be attained and fulfilled.93 All of her life Gretchen McRae worked to educate the public to understand the roots of segregation and discrimination. Although her views went against the grain during her lifetime, they are views now widely accepted. Today, the majority of the public believes that any segregation, whether it is viewed to assist black Americans or not, is contrary to the Constitution. Today, most Americans believe that we should all have equal rights to any community and government service. Gretchen McRae was one of the first black Americans to view civil rights in this way. She was a pioneer in the fight for civil rights for black Americans and all Americans. Throughout her life, McRae’s struggles were many, her victories few, but the victories were large.

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Caroline E. Blackburn has enjoyed an interest in history since childhood, which was cultivated during her volunteer activities at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum from 2005 to 2007. During this time, she assisted in the cataloging of the Museum’s Helen Hunt Jackson Collection, as well as, the archival processing of the Areba Jackson Collection in the Starsmore archives, which contains the papers of Gretchen McRae. Since then, Caroline has worked with archival and museum artifact collections at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and the City of Greeley Museums. She is currently finishing her graduate degree in Library and Information Science, with a concentration in archives, through the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and will graduate in May 2010.

Notes

1. New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, “In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience,” http://www.inmotionaame.org/home.cfm (accessed January 21, 2010). 2. Samuel Goering, “A Study of Race Prejudice: With Special Reference to Colorado Springs, Colorado, A Thesis Presented to the Department of Psychology, Colorado College, May 1936”, Dolphus Stroud Collection, Starsmore Center for Local History, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 3. The Lever Annual, Colorado Springs High School, 1917. 4. Kenneth Jackson, The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915-1930 (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1967), 215. 5. Ibid., 219. 6. Laura Mauck, Five Points Neighborhood of Denver (Chicago, Il.: Arcadia Publishing, 2001), 68. 7. Jackson, 220. 8. Ibid., 224. 9. John S. Holley, Invisible People of the Pikes Peak Region (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Friends of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, 1990), 223. 10. Cara DeGette, Independent, Colorado Springs, Colorado, February 16-23, 1993. 11. Holley, 223. 12. Dorothy Rehm, “The Negro in Colorado Springs.” 1929, Pikes Peak Library District Special Collections, Colorado Springs.

BLACKBURN • 221 13. William Loren Katz, The Black West, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded (Seattle, Wash.: Open Hand Publishing Inc., 1987), 292. 14. “Mrs. Booker T. Washington To Give Address Tonight,” Colorado Springs Gazette, September 24, 1909. 15. Holley, 223. 16. Francis Adams and Barry Sanders, Alienable Rights: The Exclusion of African Americans in a White Man’s Land 1619-2000 (New York, N.Y.: Harper Collins Publishers, 2003), 251. 17. Robert H. Brisbane, Black Activism, Racial Revolution in the United States 1954-1970 (Valley Forge, Penn.: Judson Press, 1974), 18. 18. Holley, 152. 19. Areba Jackson Collection, Starsmore Center for Local History, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. 20. Holley, 138-139. 21. Ibid., 139-140. 22. Ibid., 140. 23. Areba Jackson Collection. 24. Holley, 142. 25. Areba Jackson Collection. 26. Holley, 142-43. 27. Ibid., 144-145. 28. Areba Jackson Collection. 29. Holley, 146. 30. Areba Jackson Collection. 31. Ibid. 32. Holley, 146-47. 33. Areba Jackson Collection. 34. Ibid. 35. See Areba Jackson Collection, and Ed Ashby, “Death’s Finality Was Ignored,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, December 22, 1978. 36. Areba Jackson Collection. 37. Gretchen McRae, “Mr. Ickes and the Negro,” Letters to the Editor, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., July 7, 1936. 38. Areba Jackson Collection. 39. Holley, 148. 40. Brisbane, 20. 41. Areba Jackson Collection. 42. Ibid. 43. Ibid. 44. Ibid. 45. Adams, 269. 46. Rehm.

222 • GRETCHEN MCRAE 47. Areba Jackson Collection. 48. Goering. 49. Holley, 118-129. 50. Goering. 51. Ibid. 52. Ibid. 53. Ibid. 54. Areba Jackson Collection. 55. See The Colorado Voice, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 56. Areba Jackson Collection. 57. Robert C. Weaver, “The New Deal and the Negro: A Look at the Facts,” Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life, Vol. 13, No. 7, July 1935. 58. Holley, 145. 59. Ibid, 149. 60. Areba Jackson Collection. 61. Ibid. 62. Ibid. 63. Obituaries, “Robert J. Washington,” Free Press, Colorado Springs, Colorado, May 10, 1964. 64. The Colorado Voice, 1948. 65. Goering. 66. Areba Jackson Collection. 67. Ibid. 68. Ibid. 69. “City Employees Seek Pay Raises, Retirement Fund; Committee Seeking Recreation Center,” Colorado Springs Gazette, October 29, 1941. 70. Steven F. Lawson and Charles Payne, Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968 (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998), 6. 71. The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Supreme Court of the United States No. 1003 Chapman et al. v. King,” http://www.stanford. edu/group/King/about_king/details/460401.htm (accessed May 21, 2007). 72. Goering. 73. Areba Jackson Collection. 74. See Colorado Springs City Directory. 75. Areba Jackson Collection. 76. “150 Persons Participate In Springs Demonstration,” Colorado Springs Gazette, March 16, 1965. 77. Areba Jackson Collection. 78. Brisbane, 287. 79. Areba Jackson Collection.

BLACKBURN • 223 80. “Entire Text of Civil Rights Act Published in Today’s GT,” Colorado Springs Gazette, July 28, 1964. 81. Areba Jackson Collection. 82. Bruce-Fritz, Carol and Kathryn Davis Gardner, On the Home Front: Colorado Springs in World War II, (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, 1994). 83. Areba Jackson Collection. 84. Ibid. 85. Ibid. 86. Ibid. 87. Holley, 153. 88. Ibid. 89. Areba Jackson Collection. 90. Holley, 153. 91. Gazette Sun, Colorado Springs, Colorado, December 18,1978. 92. Ibid., December 22, 1978. 93. Areba Jackson Collection.

Maggie Smith Hathaway. From Maggie and Montana: The Story of Maggie Smith Hathaway, by Harold Tascher, Exposition Press, New York, N.Y., 1954. Courtesy of Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives & Special Collections, The University of Montana—Missoula.

Maggie Smith Hathaway: Montana’s Unsung Progressive Era Reformist Patsy Clark In 1954, Harold Tascher, a professor of social work at the University of Montana, wrote a biography of Maggie Smith Hathaway. Hathaway, the intrepid champion of prohibition and suffrage, the “lady” legislator and child welfare reformer, was awarded a place in Montana history within the pages of Tascher’s somewhat homogeneously laudatory biography. After years of mindfully choreographing public perception of her contributions, Tascher’s is exactly the type of tribute Hathaway appeared to have in mind. We know this because Tascher set out to write a different kind of book, a book that provided texture and shading to a life filled with unusual progressions and contradictions. His manuscript, a carefully referenced piece of scholarship, was shrewdly pared down to a distillation of bright snapshots revealing Hathaway’s strides throughout her career. This paring down was done by at least two sets of hands, those of Maggie Smith Hathaway and her sister, Mattie Grace.1 Despite Hathaway’s efforts to control her appearance in posterity, she has all but faded from view. That this is so becomes a fascinating starting point to a re-examination of Hathaway, using not only Tascher’s manuscript, but also the many scrapbooks and notes Hathaway left in his keeping. Secondary sources offer contextual layers in which to glean a remarkably different version of Maggie Smith Hathaway than what Tascher obligingly offered.2 What we find in this expedition through the archives is really a study in contrasts. These contrasts re-invigorate Hathaway’s life and career and make clear that we have been missing some extraordinary stories. These contrasts surround her innate conservatism when placed in relation to her progressive reform work; her modesty versus her manipulation; her philosophical divergence with • 225 •

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contemporary Jeanette Rankin; and her operation within and without significant social movements of her time. Within the confines of these contrasts, we find both a woman of many layers and clues to her mysterious fade from history. From Evangelist to Reformist Maggie Smith Hathaway was truly a product of her upbringing. Tascher titles his first chapter of Maggie and Montana “Cradled by Crusaders” and it is easy to see why this is so: both of her parents were deeply committed to remedying the social problems of their time. Reverend Isaac Smith believed that government had a duty to act with justice and mercy. “Their first care must be to protect every citizen in his rights, and provide for every citizen in his helplessness.”3 Indeed, he appears to have rather progressive values within and beyond his religiosity. In one of his sermons he speaks with conviction about those with “great power of wealth in varied forms and places [who] have entrenched themselves in the seats of power, dictating to presidents and governors, controlling judges and legislatures in their own selfish interests.”4 Both parents in one way or another foreshadowed certain paths Hathaway would herself traverse. Her mother, Martha Smith, served as president of the Montana Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), first in 1902 and again in 1912.5 Her father, Reverend Isaac Smith, served as chaplain for the Senate in 1897, 1901, and 1913 and for the House of Representatives in 1911 and 1915.6 The WCTU and the state legislature were both defining arenas for Hathaway’s development as a progressive reformer. Indeed, it was within these milieus that she honed and took advantage of her exemplary oratorical skills and received extensive press coverage as a result. Her parents’ zeal and commitment to public affairs, as well as their Christian and democratic values, undoubtedly left their mark. Reverend Smith sought to “create in his congregation a living sense of responsibility to eliminate social injustices in the community.”7 His congregation clearly extended to his daughter, Maggie. While still in her 20s, Hathaway became involved in the Epworth League, a Methodist organization originating in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1889. The name Epworth comes from the childhood home of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist

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movement.8 The League’s purpose was to prepare and encourage youth to use their Christian values and spirit in the service of the public good. Smith’s memorabilia from her Epworth League days is filled with evangelical pamphlets from conventions that she helped organize. Her writing in these pamphlets casts her in the role of Methodist evangelist in a very believable way.9 She had yet to see much of the political and social world outside of the church and her writing reflects this singular focus. Her zeal here foreshadows a philosophy that will endure throughout her career and life: the belief that if you save the youth, you save the world. The Epworth League provided the infrastructure to begin this work at a modest level. She ended her career in the service of youth and families much as she began it with the Epworth League: with tireless energy and strength of purpose. Hathaway also assisted her father in the pulpit, acting as assistant pastor when he was unable to lead services.10 One can almost hear her strident tones ringing in the church, another practice ground for her growing skill in persuasive public speaking. How then, does a woman, raised in a family that frowned on live reviews, dancing or card playing, end up financing her own whirlwind suffrage tour across the state of Montana? Or muster the interest and conviction to run for and win a seat in the state legislature as a democrat representing Ravalli County? The varied base that Reverend Isaac Nathaniel Smith and his wife Martha Adams Earick Smith provided for Hathaway and her nine siblings included the ingredients that made such a leap possible. Despite their pious environment, it cannot be forgotten that Martha Smith herself graduated from college, in 1861 no less. Her parents believed in education and suffrage.11 The words of Reverend Smith, recounted above, reverberate with an air of Christian socialism. This is the context that made conservatism and progressive reform natural bedfellows. Suffrage Not for Suffrage’s Sake Alone Between the years 1883 and 1911, and the states of Ohio and Montana, Hathaway toiled 29 years in the field of education. She was a rural schoolteacher for 11 years, from her ages 15 to 26. She served as both teacher and principal in Helena,

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Montana, schools, starting at the Jefferson School near the Capitol, until 1905, when she ran for and won a position as Lewis & Clark County Superintendent of Schools. She served in this capacity for two terms, 1905—1907 and again 1909— 1911. Between these terms she taught at Helena High School. In 1911, she married Benjamin Tappan Hathaway, who was at the time a deputy superintendent of public instruction. He left this position in 1911 because of ill health and left Hathaway widowed 6 months after they were wed. Faced with this loss, she decided to retire from public life at the age of 44 and return to Stevensville, Montana, to live with her aging parents. Upon her return in 1912, Hathaway’s mother had plans that did not include her highly promising daughter’s retirement. Martha Smith put Hathaway’s name on a program for an upcoming WCTU meeting. Hathaway spoke and by doing so started the mechanism that became the catalyst for her suffrage work. One reason we do not hear much about Hathaway from secondary sources recounting the suffrage movement may be found within her own motivations for her campaign. She openly remarked that the only reason she traveled over fiftyfive hundred miles in 5 months in the pursuit of suffrage enactment was her belief that only women could secure the passage of prohibition.12 She was not to be counted among the breed of suffragists who used militant tactics or blatant justiceoriented arguments. She tended to castigate those who did.13 As a result of her positioning at the time, her contributions to suffrage enactment within the state of Montana have been sadly underestimated. Her story here deserves a second look. Hathaway began her suffrage campaign under the auspices and sponsorship of the WCTU. Her time spent speaking on the topic of suffrage, however, far outweighed her time stumping for prohibition. She has been quoted in many places as being aware of her audience as coming from “wet” communities that might not welcome a suffrage speaker known to be passionately “dry.”14 This friction between the suffrage and prohibition movements is a common theme in most historical accounts of the American suffrage movement. Hathaway’s narrative of her campaign embodies this friction and also serves to underline a growing rivalry between Jeanette Rankin and Hathaway,

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as evidenced by the following (parenthetical notes added by author): I started out under the WCTU of which I was a member, but soon realized that in our state it was much better to talk on one issue: votes for women. This did not meet with the approval of the “powers that were,” who insisted that prohibition should be made prominent and membership solicited at the street meetings, so I turned to the Suffrage organization [National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)] But the president [Jeanette Rankin, the state chairman] and other women were afraid of my white ribbon [signified support for prohibition], so they said, but evidently afraid of my speaking ability, so I was informed, and they would not route me. My spirit of independence and persistency asserted itself and I made a complete tour of the state without the backing of any organization and undoubtedly spoke to more people than any other person during the campaign. In reading Hathaway’s accounts of this period, it is plausible that she began her campaign for suffrage with prohibition in mind. But it also seems likely that she grew to believe in suffrage for suffrage’s sake along the way. Her public platform had no real connection to prohibition, per se, and instead included arguments that taxation without representation was simply wrong; that women in labor had a right to speak to the regulation of their workplace conditions; and that men could relax more if their wives ceased to inveigle a particular vote in one direction or another.15 That is not to say that the cause of prohibition and its foe, the liquor interests, did not intersect with the cause of suffrage: the three were deeply and complexly connected. Suffragist and historian Ida Hustad Harper recounted the Montana campaign in her seminal state-by-state suffrage history, noting both Rankin’s and Hathaway’s contributions in the more remote areas of Montana, responsible for entering “every little mining camp and settlement that could be reached.”16 Both Harper17 and Carrie Chapman Catt,18 the

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president of NAWSA, remarked on the particularly vindictive machinations of the liquor industry in Montana and how those machinations attempted to block the suffrage movement in any way possible. Catt surmised that the liquor industry orchestrated and bankrolled the foreign vote against suffrage.19 Several suffrage scholars also note the covert partnerships of female anti-suffrage groups and liquor interest groups.20 In the light of this complex tension between suffrage, prohibition and the liquor interests, Hathaway maintained a powerful equilibrium that actually placed her in a position of unusual effectiveness. Her independent stance, outside the confines of the WCTU or NAWSA, provided a flexible base from which she proceeded to change the minds of Montana’s frontier men. Hathaway was operating in an often times strategically conflicted field fraught with factionalism, as evidenced by her experience of being wedged between the interests and goals of suffrage and prohibition. In 1914, Hathaway understood that she need not “preach to the choir,” but rather should focus on the males who would be voting in the next polls.21 This was not historically the tactic used by the suffrage movement in Montana. An “elite” Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League strategy, where activists of Women Voters in 1919. She was a focused on lobbying the leader in the National American Woman elite and members of the Suffrage Association and established the legislature, was deemed Committee on the Cause and Cure of War. the most effective by Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division figures such as Carrie Washington, D.C., (LC-USZ62-109793). Chapman Catt and Jeanette Rankin in the late

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1880s, 1890s and the 1910s.22 Montana had a disappointing track record in its struggle for suffrage and it was not until those tactics changed that the vote was finally won.23 Hathaway’s approach to the campaign for suffrage embodied that tactical change, as she possessed the ability to apply a myriad of strategies in an atmosphere of de-centralized and organizationally diverse leadership. She capitalized on her moral values, her ranching background, and her ties with labor and prohibition. She appeared to shuffle her strategy cards and play particular ones when most appropriate. Even after suffrage was enacted in Montana in November 1914, Hathaway continued to stump for the cause in the recalcitrant East during her legislative years and her trips to Washington, D.C.

Serving only two congressional terms, lifelong pacifist Jeanette Rankin cast one of fifty dissenting votes against U.S. entry into World War I. Hers was the sole negative vote on entry into World War II. Library of Congress

Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., (LC-DIG-hec-18526).

Jeanette Rankin as Catalyst & Ideological Foe Jeanette Rankin telephoned Hathaway’s home in Stevensville in 1916. Rankin asked Hathaway to assist her in a bid for the republican seat in Congress, obviously impressed with her work in the suffrage campaign. It was immediately clear to Hathaway that she would respond, “No, I cannot,” after which she abruptly terminated the call. She turned to her father and said, “I am going to run for state representative,” her mind made up “in a flash.”24 So goes a story Hathaway clearly

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relished telling, but the story also serves to illustrate the basis of a conflicted relationship. Although it is unclear how often the two women met, their clashes existed nonetheless.

Unlike Maggie Smith Hathaway, Montana Representative Jeanette Rankin supported the views of The Suffragist, the official weekly newspaper of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. Washington, D.C., ca. 1917. National Woman’s Party Records, Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., (mnwp 276027).

Maggie Smith Hathaway and Jeanette Rankin had in common the gift of attracting and captivating an audience. Hathaway’s style has been described as relying on “ingenuity, good humor and sparkling wit, sincerity of purpose, persistent effort, convincing speech to capture the attention, interest

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and support of the males who had a right to vote.”25 Rankin’s success in suffrage work has been said to hinge on “her tact, her gentle feminine persuasion and her ever ready logic.”26 But from here the two diverged dramatically in a number of significant philosophical ways. As Hathaway so coyly put it, Rankin was “afraid of my white ribbon.” Despite her personal endorsement for prohibition, Rankin made it clear that the issue and its supporters had no place within her campaign for suffrage.27 Like many suffragists of Rankin’s age, prohibition was seen to conflict with the cause, draining talent, money and energy. Hathaway’s ties to the WCTU were strained during the suffrage campaign because of Hathaway’s decision to speak on suffrage solely, but this did not temper her belief in prohibition as an avenue for total social reform. Her vehement stand regarding the use of spirits extended to every corner of her life. Tascher, in his manuscript, implied that Hathaway would not support any government leader who was not known to be a total abstainer.28 Hathaway and Rankin also differed on two other significant topics, the war and the radical labor group, the International Workers of the World (IWW). Rankin is famous for her congressional vote against World War I and Hathaway derided Rankin for it. In fact, Hathaway regretted she did not run as a democrat for the congressional seat in 1916. Tascher interpreted Hathaway’s regret this way: “With the dramatic scene of Congressman Rankin’s vote against the war in mind, the sarcastic democratic feminine state legislator asserted she would not weep or become hysterical when voting for or against resolutions or bills.”29 While Rankin risked the national suffrage vote in order to vote against war, newspaper articles quoted Hathaway as saying that suffrage would aid the war effort.30 During the 1918 legislative session, Hathaway assured her colleagues that “the patriotic women of Montana would gladly work in the fields if there was a labor shortage and urged Representatives not to hesitate to pass a measure [seed-grain bill] that would speed military victory.”31 Rankin’s support of the IWW must have perturbed Hathaway deeply. The IWW was sparking a fury of labor strikes in several industries, which threatened the flow of production during the war. Hathaway’s speech of May 1918

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grouped the IWW as “either too ignorant to recognize freedom when they see it or too lazy and anarchistic by nature to earn a living; they are traitors; make them see the errors of their way or put them out of the way.”32 This is also the year the Montana legislature passed a sedition bill, designed to give teeth to the 1917 Espionage Act, which sought to punish those who interfered, by verbal slander, with the U.S. military during wartime.33 Hathaway had no patience with the suffragists who picketed Wilson’s White House and certainly none for the IWW. Her belief in the sedition bill was evident in her public outcry against U.S. District Attorney Burton Wheeler, who did not care to prosecute those accused of seditious acts.34 Rankin’s pacifism and open support of the IWW as well as her fondness for White House picketer and suffrage leader Alice Paul, put her in direct philosophical opposition with Maggie Smith Hathaway. Hathaway’s stance mirrored the climate in Montana at the time, but that climate would change.35 In 1922, Hathaway ran for Congress under the Democratic banner. By the end of the primary, it was clear she faced defeat at the hands of seasoned campaigner and congressman John Evans. Hathaway blamed Rankin’s performance in Congress for her loss in this race, but it is likely her prohibition work and preoccupation with treason hurt her more—she ran in the first district which included counties that were resolutely “wet.” In 1923, Hathaway went on to run for a state Senate seat, this time as an independent. This move seriously alienated her democratic support base and undermined her success. The progressive newspaper, The Western News, attacked Hathaway, charging she “appears to have won the gratitude and unstinted support of the Bi-partisan Machine, the Interlocking Press, and the big privilege-seeking interests that lurk behind. Yet Mrs. Hathaway claims to be a progressive.”36 These sequential political defeats, in effect, derailed Hathaway’s decidedly public career. Her scrapbooks show a halt in press clippings from this point on and her child welfare work provided little opportunity for media interaction. This was an important transition for Hathaway—she had carefully cultivated a relationship with the press in several states. Her self-conscious participation with the media during her suffrage and legislative careers provides another series of contrasts to unwind.

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Progressive Era Spin Hathaway believed in the power of good press. By 1921, she could claim mastery in the art of cultivating and receiving positive and extensive coverage in local and national media. The articles in her scrapbooks hail from Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, Illinois, Ohio, Maine, Minnesota and of course the state of Montana. Her philosophy was detailed to the public when she addressed the state Epworth League in June 1917 on the topic “Power in Politics,” stating, “Finally, it is necessary that a legislator make use of the public press for the creation of sentiment in favor of his cause. This should help to make it easy to do things well and hard to do things wrong.”37 In this fascinating mix of political protocol and parochial accountability, Hathaway herself found a metaphor for her participation within the public and political machine. She learned during her suffrage campaign that press coverage could make all the difference when building a support base and she would remember this lesson as a politician—not only as a campaigner, but also as a popular incumbent. She also learned that cultivating coverage required shrewd tactics at times. During a suffrage talk in Miles City, Montana, Hathaway received a chilly welcome. The top paper in town, The Miles City Star, had historically refused to cover the topic of suffrage. She went to the paper’s office when her speech had concluded and requested that the paper print her speech. The newspaperman informed her that neither Rosalie Jones of New York nor Jeanette Rankin had received any press during their travels to the town. Hathaway had then remembered that her husband had often visited Miles City and on her way out the door inquired whether the man knew B. T. Hathaway. The man did indeed—reminiscing commenced and Hathaway’s speech appeared in full the next day.38 This is the kind of story Hathaway delighted in telling. After all, there is nothing improper or immodest about a widow reminiscing about the memory of her husband with an appreciative old crony. As long as the circumstances were impeccable and were not “sensational public scenes and demonstrations,” Hathaway felt quite comfortable exerting herself in the pursuit of good press.39

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One of the most brilliant examples of Hathaway’s sophisticated approach to this pursuit can be found in the many magazine and newspaper spreads published between 1917 and 1921, the same years she served in the Montana House of Representatives. These pieces always play to Hathaway’s biggest strength—her winning combination of can-do, forthright frontier spunk (embodied in plowing her own fields, running a “manless” ranch, pruning her apple trees in coveralls and delivering blisteringly forthright speeches in the House) and her womanly skills in the domestic realm, where she, can tenderly care for the sick, bake splendid bread, cook and serve a good meal, raise her own poultry, make a garden, milk cows, manage her farm, do her own laundry work, sew, use a hammer, saw and plane . . . Last year she canned two hundred jars of vegetables and took a premium on her canned goods at the state fair, besides making a unique exhibit showing thirty four varieties of fruits and vegetables grown by herself.40 The few women serving in state legislatures were compelling fodder for the newspapers during this era.41 The intersection between suffrage, labor, prohibition and war created a colorful backdrop for women to make their political debut. Hathaway was no exception and made particularly good copy with her wide range of capabilities. Happily, her desire and perceived need of the limelight coincided with public demand. She had many successes to celebrate during her three regular and three special sessions in the House, among them a banner moment in the Speaker’s chair. A few days following her maiden speech in 1917, the Speaker of the House asked Hathaway to preside over the committee of the whole House. The February 1, 1917, Anaconda Standard reported that, “For the first time in the history of Montana . . . there sat a woman in the speaker’s chair . . . When the lady ascended the stairs she was accorded a standing ovation . . . she took her bonus with becoming modesty.”42 Stories on Hathaway that began in Helena would also see print in national journals.43 There are two examples of this during her legislative years that bear re-telling. The first was in 1921, the year she was appointed minority floor leader by

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her democratic peers. In an article praising Hathaway as the “Lady Floor Leader,” a Miles City American article of March 3, 1921, reports, “Mrs. Hathaway can loose a barrage of withering sarcasm which blasts the courage of mere men and shell shocks victims into mute silence and sheepishness.”44 The second was the coverage of her birthday celebration in the House chamber on March 19, 1921. After a twenty pound cake had been ceremoniously carried through the double doors at the rear of the chamber, members of the House sang “Gone are the days, Maggie” and adopted a resolution expressing its “respectful admiration and esteem” for the “peerless leader of the minority,” a “Jeffersonian Democrat” and champion of democracy.45 Hathaway apparently had a well-defined sense of humor as well, a key strategic style she never feared using in politics. Many newspaper headlines regaled the public with Hathaway’s antics on January 5, 1921.46 Republicans, during the 1917 session when democrats controlled the House, introduced a bill to abolish the Office of the State Fish and Game Warden as a gesture of economy. In 1921, with the Republicans in power, Hathaway made the humorous gesture to re-introduce the measure, which she knew would be killed. Tascher recounts another story that was covered in the papers as well: Once while a legislator seated next to her was in a drunken stupor, the bill to enforce state prohibition came up to vote. It had been introduced in the Senate but piloted through the House by Mrs. Hathaway. She nudged him and whispered, ‘Vote Aye.’ He followed her instructions.47 Hathaway was more than the sum of her press. She was often cited as one of the best-informed members of the legislature and she claimed to have “never voted blind.” She tended to champion the causes related to the passage of prohibition, the protection of women in matters concerning labor and motherhood and the protection of children in general. She is well known for her work in advocating for a mother’s pension, an eight-hour workday for women, the first equal pay for equal work law and many bills pertaining to the enactment and

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upholding of prohibition laws. She was always interested in state fiscal responsibility and often ushered in bills that would cut costs or raise revenues. From Press Darling to Pioneer Social Worker The next transition for Maggie Smith Hathaway pointed in a direction that challenged her to consolidate decades of experience into direct advocacy work. After nearly ten years of notoriety as a champion of women and children, Hathaway slipped into relative anonymity in her position at the Bureau of Child Protection beginning in the year 1925. Late in 1923, Hathaway was approached by State Board of Health’s Child Welfare Division to compile a manual of laws regarding children; she accepted and the manual was printed in 1926. In 1925 came her appointment to the bureau, by that time a 22-year-old agency. It is interesting to note that, until 1925, the agency was called the Bureau of Child and Animal Protection, an apparent source of ridicule in governmental circles. Hathaway’s first act was to draft an amendment to the law pertaining to the duties of sheriffs, letting them take on the burden of the animals. This was passed and signed by the governor. As a result, Hathaway had the pleasure of turfing reports of cows and horses needing care to the sheriff, and was able to say “the animals had been put out the back door and that we are devoting our time to children.”48 Her work with the Bureau included active coverage of four counties—Ravalli, Mineral, Sanders and Granite—as well as acting as supervisor-at-large over the entire state. Her approach to this position was more holistic than one might imagine for the era: To say that 3,334 children have come under the jurisdiction of this department during the last two years does not give the complete picture. The rehabilitation of families, reconstruction of lives on a more stable basis— these are significant phases of our work. The most vital facts are the most intangible and defy reproduction.49 Hathaway, in her biennial reports, calls her approach “constructive welfare,” or working with families to repair the

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environment that at one time necessitated a child removal. Many of her cases had fortuitous results when dealt with in Hathaway’s groundbreaking style. What was groundbreaking for the realm of child welfare was really the intense pragmatism that Hathaway had demonstrated her entire career. She assumed the well being of a child impacted the prosperity of the eventual adult. She knew that taking care of the child within the family of origin, by working with the system of the family, would save the state countless dollars. Hathaway carried these professional assumptions into her supervisory work and created a league of social workers that were apparently grateful for the role model.50 She established a precedent in many phases of her child welfare social work and lobbied for reform in areas such as the legal treatment of rape and incest cases. She insisted in her Bureau reports that there needed to be women on the juries trying these cases. She also felt that the automatic institutional commitment of children was an inefficient and cruel way of solving problems and instead suggested new and different services. She advocated for the establishment of a bureau to affect juvenile research to better serve and classify children before they were sent to state institutions.51 Judges, especially, benefited from such information when ruling on sensitive cases. Hathaway’s earlier legislative victory involving the establishment of the “Mother’s Pension” was crucial in that it enabled women to keep their children while remaining at home, rather than seeking work outside the home. It is historically important to note that Hathaway herself was raised during one of American society’s transitional periods, where childhood as a construct evolved from one of economic value to that of emotional value.52 Hathaway’s work in both politics and child welfare formalized this transition with child labor legislation and child protection social work. Maggie Smith Hathaway’s early work with the Epworth League began a strand that wove through her work to empower women, and threaded through her work to craft and pass laws that elevated and protected women and children, both in labor and at home. This strand continued as she more personally touched the lives of thousands of people in her practice as one of the first direct service social workers in the state of Montana.

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Holding History Accountable We can make some fairly well-educated guesses about what happened to Hathaway’s legacy over time. Perhaps she was correct when she inferred that Jeanette Rankin hurt the plight of women in politics everywhere with her dramatic pacifist stance in Congress. But there are other factors to bear in mind. There was Hathaway’s intractable position regarding prohibition, a position she would maintain well into her eighth decade and a position that likely led to the loss of her job as Secretary of the Bureau of Child Protection. At the turn of 1937, Roy Ayers, a former congressman serving the second district, became governor of Montana. According to Tascher’s manuscript, Hathaway declined to support Ayers in the primary or general election because he was not a prohibitionist and not a “total abstainer.” After Ayers’ election, Hathaway was “astonished when a nurse came into the Bureau’s office and announced herself as the new Secretary of the Bureau of Child Protection.”53 Has history left her in the archive box because her values were too Methodist? Was her activism not worthy of recounting because she participated for conservative reasons? In his biography of Hathaway, Tascher ends with letters from academics, community members and social workers paying tribute to a woman with a laudable career that had never really been publicized until the book came out in 1954. Remarkably, the last letter writer chose to frame a tribute in the following way: I find this account of Mrs. Hathaway’s life a fascinating American instance, the living record of a mind, parochial in many ways, inclined sometimes toward a narrow impatience with what passes its limits or defies its standards, but always vigorous, unselfish and innocent of hypocrisy or intrigue. There is something almost heartbreaking at the present moment in looking back over a life in which politics was a matter not of expediency and power but of the exercise of virtue. It is tempting to hope, though a little difficult to believe, that this is an essential and eternal American contribution to politics: this willingness to translate ethical principles directly into action, even at the risk of being occasionally absurd.54

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Perhaps it was easy in a post-World War II climate to be complacent and somewhat condescending toward a life lived as Hathaway lived hers. Even today we seem reluctant to welcome her into the pantheon of revered social workers and suffragists we hold so dear. Women like Jeanette Rankin, Jane Addams, Bertha Capen Reynolds and Alice Paul all hold us enthralled to their pioneering, history-making lives and work. Do we then exclude a woman of extraordinary accomplishment because she was “on occasion absurd” or “parochial in many ways?” What has been forgotten or perhaps never acknowledged is the enormous range Hathaway would traverse in her “parochial absurdity.” Her flexibility and effectiveness deserve to be studied as we ponder the social movements in front of us. Her ability to succeed and thrive in factional, de-centralized environments demands a second look as her personal philosophy and level of engagement are not often found in this age. Patsy Clark completed her Masters of Social Work at the University of Montana School of Social Work. Her academic interests include the efficacy of social movements, women in social work history, issues surrounding human rights, nontraditional families, and positive youth development. She has worked as a parent educator, a research assistant, and a freelance artist. As a martial arts instructor for young people, she hopes to inspire a new generation of extraordinary women. As a current resident of Washington State, she is happy the publication of this compilation coincides with Washington’s Suffrage Cenntennial, the state’s celebration of the long and arduous road to the enactment of suffrage.

Notes

1. Harold Tascher, Maggie and Montana manuscript, MSS 224, Box 4, Folder 1, Maggie Smith Hathaway Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana—Missoula. 2. Harold Tascher, Maggie and Montana (New York, N.Y.: Exposition Press, 1954). In his preface, Tascher refers to the book as a gift to Hathaway and her relatives.

242 • MAGGIE SMITH HATHAWAY 3. Smith, in Tascher, 22. 4. Ibid., 23. 5. Tascher, 16. 6. Ibid., 15. 7. Ibid., 21. 8. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, “Epworth League,” http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=EL (accessed on February 17, 2010). 9. Hathaway, MSS 224, Box 1. 10. Ibid. 11. Tascher, 15. 12. Hathaway, MSS 224, Box 1. 13. Tascher, 65. 14. Hathaway, MSS 224, Box 1. 15. Ibid. 16. Ida Hustad Harper, History of Woman Suffrage (New York, N.Y.: J. J. Little &. Sons, 1922). 17. Harper, 365-366. 18. Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers Schuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement (Seattle, Wash.: University of Washington Press, 1923). 19. Ibid., 195. 20. See Rebecca J. Mead, How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914 (New York, N.Y.: New York University Press, 2004), as well as Catt, 132-159. 21. Tascher, 63. 22. Mead, 152-153. 23. See Mead, 154, and Holly J. McCammon and Karen E. Campbell, “Women’s Suffrage Movements,” Gender and Society, (February 2001). 24. Tascher, 66. 25. See Tascher, 65. 26. See New York Organizers to James Laidlaw, March 21, 1912, Jeannette Rankin Papers, Montana Historical Society, in James J. Lopach and Jean A. Luckowski Jeanette Rankin: A Political Woman (Boulder, Colo.: University Press of Colorado, 2005). 27. Lopach and Luckowsky, 96. 28. Tascher manuscript, 60. 29. Ibid., 43. 30. Hathaway, MSS 224, Box 2. 31. Tascher, 78. 32. Missoula Sentinel, May 18, 1918. 33. Hathaway was a member during this special session in 1918.

CLARK • 243 See Clem Work, “Good Night with the Stars and Stripes, Army, Navy and Mister Damned Wilson,” Montana: The Magazine of Western History. Winter 2005, 16-35. 34. Tascher manuscript, 29. 35. Ibid. 36. Tascher manuscript, 45. 37. Tascher, 76. 38. Ibid., 64. 39. Ibid., 65. 40. Hathaway, MSS 224, Box 2. 41. Ibid. 42. Ibid. 43. Ibid. 44. Ibid. 45. Tascher, 87. 46. Hathaway, MSS 224, Box 2. 47. Tascher, 73. 48. Hathaway, MSS 224, Box 3. 49. Tascher, 96. 50. Hathaway, MSS 224, Box 3. 51. Ibid. 52. See Paula S. Fass, “Children and Globalization,” Journal of Social History 26 no. 4 (Summer 2003): 963-977. 53. Tascher manuscript, 60. 54. Leslie A. Fielder, professor in the English Department, Montana State University, Missoula, in Tascher, 134.

Dr. Caroline E. Spencer. Edmonston photograph from National Woman’s Party Records, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., (mnwp 275029).

Dr. Caroline Spencer & Colorado Springs’ Radicals for Reform Chris Nicholl Springs Girl Picket Arrested at Capital—Miss Natalie Gray Placed in Cell for Blocking Street Traffic Colorado Springs Gazette, August 28, 1917 Springs Physician Gets Long Term in Workhouse—Dr. Caroline Spencer of this City is Sentenced for Picketing at White House Colorado Springs Gazette, October 23, 1917 Suffragist Sentenced to Five Days in Jail—Berthe Arnold of Colorado Springs Behind Bars for Picketing Colorado Springs Gazette, January 26, 1919 Natalie Gray, Dr. Caroline E. Spencer, and Berthe Arnold were imprisoned in Washington, D. C., jails during the years 1917-1919. Arrested and charged with “obstructing the traffic” while publicly demanding a national woman suffrage amendment, their actual crime was militant feminism and it earned the women sentences ranging from a few days to 7 months. Dr. Spencer, a retired physician in her mid-50s with fragile health, and Natalie and Berthe, youthful daughters of prominent Colorado Springs families, joined the nearly two thousand members of the National Woman’s Party (NWP), the radical wing of the American woman suffrage movement, who converged at the White House during those 2 years. In that most spectacular of public arenas, at the gates of the presidential mansion, the women battled for political justice. It was a nonviolent battle, carried out by silent pickets, armed only with suffrage sashes and lettered banners. For demanding political equality, five hundred American women were arrested and one hundred sixty-eight were sentenced to jail terms up to 7 months.1 • 245 •

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In the context of the era, the women’s actions were radical in the extreme. Women demanded a share of political power and the very idea of upsetting the traditional patriarchal structure was revolutionary. The pickets endured mob violence on the streets and brutality in the jails. Yet the women prevailed. On August 6, 1920, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment for Woman Suffrage, the nineteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, became law. With a great bloodless revolution, American females won the vote. That accomplished, with their hard-won political power, women could begin correcting a raft of other inequalities.2 Militant women willing to go to jail to win the vote represent the final chapter of a decades-long struggle for political equality. Feminist founding mother Elizabeth Cady Stanton said in 1848, “it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right of the elective franchise.”3 By 1913, women voted in nine Western states—gained through a painfully slow process of Susan Brownell Anthony and Elizabeth securing the franchise by Cady Stanton ca. 1891. “Two great constitutional amendment pioneers in the Equal Rights cause. in the individual states. Without them, American women Finally, legions of American would not have progressed as far as they have in their fight for freedom.” feminists began seeking a Quote transcibed from photograph, National federal amendment that Woman’s Party Records, Library of Congress, would enfranchise women Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., (mnwp 159001). across the nation. Many suffragists subscribed to the ladylike tactics of Carrie Chapman Catt’s National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), that attempted persuasion of lawmakers to grant the amendment.4 But the demonstrations by the NWP, orchestrated by their leader, Alice Paul, were audacious acts of political performance art that riveted the nation’s attention to

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the issue of woman suffrage. Unwilling to plead for the ballot and weary of the near-futile state-by-state process, radical females stood up to male lawgivers, faced them down, and demanded a federal amendment.5 Largely forgotten until her 2006 induction into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, Caroline Spencer was a pioneering advocate for women’s equality.6 Spencer’s life’s work and the tactics she used for advancing feminist rights embody the meaning of radical—one who advocates thorough or complete political or social reform. Recounting a contentious conversation between herself and a Colorado state senator who had ignored a pro-suffrage document that she had sent to him, expecting he would have forwarded it to the federal Congress, Spencer wrote, I . . . spent Friday at the Capitol. Senator Adams a Democratic “boss” said he had never read the memorial, and when I said he had had a month, he said there were so many things more important. We wanted them to act that day and telegraph to Congress. He said important financial measures would prevent. I said nothing was more important than the memorial. He said, “Not even money with which to run the government?” I said if the government ignored justice; we would better do away Caroline Elizabeth Spencer at with most of it, including the approximately 3 years. Courtesy money to run it. To which he of Lynmar Brock, Jr. from the private remarked that was the radical collection of Brock/Spencer family records. view.7 Spencer’s remark perfectly captures her political spirit. Already enfranchised by an 1893 Colorado state suffrage amendment, Spencer saw the national right to vote as the first

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step toward advancing women’s equality. She framed the struggle in revolutionary terms, arguing that the first priority for females was equal rights. Those who disagreed, she called, “followers of men, worms of the dust, who cannot see that the tyranny of half the race over the other half is the first wrong to be righted, and its overthrow the greatest revolution conceivable.”8 Once she stated, “Really, at heart I am a revolutionary socialist . . . but that does not enter into present calculations.”9 Spencer’s revolutionary ideas identified the women’s equality struggle as a class/gender conflict. The conflict arose in the context of a legal and traditional socio-political system that claimed that enfranchised males, through their votes, represented and protected the interests of females. In practice, the system was merely the antiquated efforts of the male ruling class to deny equality to the oppressed class of disfranchised females. The disfranchisement denied females the vote, the single legitimate means by which they could correct a myriad of disabilities that specifically targeted and burdened women. Although a revolutionary idealist, Spencer respected the law and order imbued in the American political system. Its constitutional guarantees of citizens’ rights to freedom of political speech, to assemble and to petition the government for redress of political grievances ensured the women’s revolution could be won legally and peaceably. With no need to resort to violence and guns, the women’s weapons would be the powerful—but often viewed as radical—tactics of militant nonviolence. Their militance was expressed in defiance to authority. It was civil disobedience—primarily public demonstrations and pickets with slogan-emblazoned banners; ceaseless pressure on elected officials including the president; massive telegram and phone campaigns; and the most potent weapon of all, the women’s willingness to sacrifice energy, time, money, reputation, and even life itself, to win political justice. The political power derived from enfranchisement offered Colorado’s women unique power at the turn of the 20th century, an age dominated by the idea of separate spheres that defined female and male duties. Women ruled the private or domestic domain, overseeing matters of cleanliness and morality. Males ruled the public, political arena—engaging in the messy world

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of politics and business. Imbued with moral authority, women resolved to classify all social issues as domestic and in need of cleaning up. The vote empowered Colorado’s women to shape the public world as never before. Casting their first votes, women corrected some of the most pressing social evils, claiming political victories in public health and institutional and election reforms. Their most significant achievements benefited females and children. They won Colorado mothers co-guardianship of children, raised the age of consent for females, and oversaw the establishment of an orphanage and state industrial school for girls. Their votes enforced legislation prohibiting child labor and allowing clerks to sit, rather than stand long hours on the job. They said, “While all we have done is a mere bagatelle compared with what we hope to do, it has been at least a significant straw.”10 More specifically, in his 1912 treatise “Equal Suffrage in Colorado,” suffrage advocate, Senator Edward T. Taylor, enumerated one hundred fifty beneficial laws enacted in Colorado from 1895 to 1912, due largely to the suasion of women.11 Along with other targets of reform, Colorado women lobbied for universal suffrage. Across America, females endured political and economic injustices. Millions of women worked in industry, manufacture, agriculture, and service jobs; many labored in unsafe, unhealthy conditions. Single women owned property and paid taxes, but could not vote. Upon her marriage, a female lost control of her wages and property; she was unable to make contracts; while a male jury might try her, she was barred from jury service. In most localities fathers, even stepfathers, were the legal custodians of children.12 Even enfranchised women faced extraordinary political disabilities. By law a woman’s citizenship and legal domicile matched that of her husband. If a Colorado woman or her spouse moved to a non-suffrage state or if she married an immigrant, she was robbed of her franchise. Seeking to extend the franchise nationwide, the “Colorado Suffrage Association” raised funds, traveled and campaigned in regions identified as imminent suffrage states.13 In a 1915 essay, Caroline Spencer outlined both why women needed the vote and why they required a national amendment:

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There is no other way to civic betterment, so closely intertwined with social and political problems of national scope, than to see, first the enfranchisement of all women through federal legislation. . . . Women must perceive that without political power, their energies are wasted, and their talent counts for naught; and, deeper yet, they must understand that this political power must be nation-wide—human ills are not confined within State lines—with the best of will, the people of isolated States cannot remedy them alone.14 How did a woman arrive at these conclusions? The future feminist, Caroline Spencer was born in 1861, to Anna Brock Spencer, who died when Caroline was 9 years old, and to J. Austin Spencer, an influential Philadelphia attorney. Extraordinarily well educated, Caroline prepared for careers in teaching and medicine, virtually the only professions that women had successfully entered by the late 19th century. Graduating from the prestigious Philadelphia Dr. Caroline Spencer in Los Angeles, Normal School for Girls in California. She traveled extensively 1880, Caroline was honorthroughout her lifetime, to Europe ed with a gold medal for in 1897 and across Colorado and the scholastic achievenation to achieve woman’s equality. her ment. Following a teaching She found the healthy climate she needed in Colorado, making it her career, she entered the home in 1893. Courtesy of Lynmar Brock, Women’s Medical College Jr. from the private collection of Brock/Spencer of Pennsylvania, earning family records. a medical degree in 1892.15 Upon completing her formal education, Dr. Caroline Spencer was the personification of the era’s “new woman.” Educated, independent, confident, she was looking for exciting challenges

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and meant to do something important to make a difference. Caroline Spencer intended to devote her life to correcting women’s political and economic inequalities. Spencer visited Colorado in 1889, seeking relief for lifethreatening bronchial asthma or perhaps for the tuberculosis that killed her in 1928. Finding the climate beneficial, she later moved west and received a Colorado medical license in April 1893.16 What better place to tackle women’s issues of inequality than in Colorado, where the question of woman suffrage would appear on the forthcoming November ballot?17 Dr. Spencer practiced in Colorado Springs until her 1915 retirement. Yet even in the pristine mountain air, illness punctuated her days. At the height of the suffrage struggle, she wrote, “Woe is me—bronchitis with asthma is my portion. . . . I hope to shake it off in a few days, but I can’t risk coming to demonstrate. If they don’t pass the S.B.A. [Anthony Amendment] thru, I shall consider it my fault.”18 In spite of intermittent ill health, Caroline proved a dynamic newcomer to the young city. She and other “new women” founded the region’s influential charitable, educational and improvement organizations. Such women’s associations offered a socially acceptable avenue for them to intervene in public matters. The clubs harnessed the intelligence and energy of hundreds, enabling the women to lay the foundations of the city’s present-day civic and cultural life. The 1902 founding of the Woman’s Club of Colorado Springs, along with the traditional educational departments, introduced a novel venue for women’s civic work, a “Social Science Department.” With Dr. Spencer’s programming guidance, that department stepped into the public sphere in theretofore unheard of ways—the women scrutinized municipal and public sectors, including, “finding out the character and qualifications of [male] political candidates.”19 The Civic League, founded in 1909, offered women a broader public arena. Although holding no elected office, a cadre of forceful women calling themselves “Municipal Housekeepers” became a powerful shadow government. The League’s early programs included investigating and improving parks and playgrounds, organizing fly-eradication campaigns, and sponsoring gardening contests. Over time, however, they scrutinized the work of city fathers, examining all aspects of

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political, cultural, environmental and even moral life. With League pressure, the city hired its first policewoman; health and environmental evils and the records of political candidates became topics of public discussion. The League’s Bulletins offer evidence that it was a dynamic, Progressive Era organization. While the city reaped the benefits of League activities, the women aggravated powerful interests. League officials agitated for labor’s right to unionize as well as for universal woman’s suffrage. Both were unpopular subjects among Colorado Springs’ mining capitalists, who opposed labor’s organizing efforts as much as they feared the potential assault by voting women on unregulated labor practices. On those topics, Spencer’s voice was radical and uncompromising.20 Ultimately, the League was neutralized. According to co-founder, Bertha Fowler, the League was Organized at the insistence of Dr. Spencer . . . by women who believed that they “could better conditions in innumerable ways” in their city and that their experience might be very valuable in city housekeeping. The League interested itself in . . . investigation of prevailing conditions . . . at first, to comparatively minor matters . . . while working to secure very necessary reforms, the league was found to be stepping on the toes of political and private interests. . . . Murmurs arose, rumors that men had been warned to detach their wives from the league if they wished to keep their jobs. The slogan arose from all sides. “The Civic league is antagonizing the men” . . . the league dissolved and after over five years of useful activity, disappeared.21 In July 1914, the League’s officials resigned, but immediately regrouped as a more radically aggressive force. Retaining its organizational structure, the League’s founders and officials allied with Alice Paul’s militant suffragists, the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU), later known as the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The singular goal of Paul’s organization was securing the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.22 Of those aggressive, intelligent women, who dominated the progressive

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clubs and suffrage organizations, a contemporary wrote, they “are clever but antagonize everyone where they go into things.” Spencer, an unabashed rabble-rouser, who, along with her militant associates, delighted in “stirring things up as hard as we can” was the acknowledged leader of Colorado’s radical feminists.23 Bertha Fowler, chairman first of the Civic League and then of the CU/NWP, lauded Spencer’s leadership and organizing ability, “Dr. Spencer . . . will set to work with all the energy and talent she possesses and both are considerable and she luckily can give unlimited time as well” . . . “[She] is right on the job and does most of the work herself . . . and without delay.”24 A contemporary historian detailed Spencer’s critical role in the organization, “The work of the Colorado Branch [Woman’s Party] was under the able leadership of Dr. Caroline Spencer, as executive secretary. She gave all her time, much money and unceasing enthusiasm. Her unusual political wisdom together with marked ability in arousing interest gained the support of very many, both men and women throughout the state.”25 At least three hundred women supported the Colorado Springs Woman’s Party, as did many prominent men, including Progressive Party leader and publisher of the Colorado Springs Gazette, Clarence Dodge. Over time, the NWP’s political agitations were increasingly defiant. Dodge’s was one of few Colorado newspapers willing to publish the women’s activities, risking condemnation and accusations of sedition from political authorities.26 Political activism was the CU’s first endeavor. With Woodrow Wilson’s 1914 inauguration, Democrats controlled the presidency and the majority of Congressional seats. Consequently, the CU held the “party in power” responsible for enacting or withholding the Anthony Amendment. They intended to defeat all Democratic candidates in the suffrage states in the 1914 and 1916 elections. Of course, Republican candidates generously supported the women’s efforts to unseat their rivals.27 Blanketing Colorado with anti-Democratic propaganda, the defeat of Colorado Springs native, Representative Harry Seldomridge, and the reduced majority of Senator Charles Thomas were dramatic demonstrations of the power of the vote to shape the political landscape, and of women’s eagerness to

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overthrow the government that denied suffrage.28 Colorado’s primacy at enacting woman suffrage by constitutional amendment imbued it with symbolic importance to many feminists. Paul originally selected Denver as the site for the Colorado CU headquarters and for Western states’ suffrage conventions. Dr. Caroline Spencer persuaded Alice Paul to move her organization to Colorado The 1916 campaign in Colorado Springs, arguing that tourists advertised opposition to the Party for its position flocked to the region and Democratic against woman suffrage. National that the local feminists were Woman’s Party Records, Library of Congress, united.29 Paul agreed and Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., (mnwp 159017). everyone benefited. The women wanted publicity for the Anthony Amendment. City boosters wanted to promote tourism and convention trade. Together, the women and the Chamber of Commerce orchestrated extravagant suffrage events. “Suffrage Specials”— cross-country auto and train tours—stopped in Colorado Springs. The city hosted conventions and galas and pageants of marching women accompanied by brass bands. The mayor and civic leaders welcomed party officials at the steps of City Hall. There were suffrage programs at the opera house and openair meetings in the parks and elegant luncheons at hotels. All were widely publicized; all benefited the women’s cause and the city’s coffers.30 So successful was the location, that by July 1915, the headquarters of Colorado’s radical feminism was Colorado Springs.31 Representing the region’s voting woman, Caroline Spencer claimed center stage at many theatrical events at home and in Washington, D.C. In December 1915, she accompanied three hundred suffragists who presented President Wilson with a petition inscribed with the names of a half million women demanding the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.32

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Ella Clair Thompson, Lillian Kerr, Dr. Caroline Spencer, and Bertha Fowler in front of the Colorado Springs NWP headquarters, 1915. “The headquarters are on the ground floor in an excellent location. They are given rent free by one of our members, Mrs. Leonard Curtis and have been furnished by another member, Mrs. Berne Hopkins—They are quite beautiful—.”Courtesy of Starsmore Center for Local History at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

In August 1916, Colorado Springs hosted a 3-day planning gala and announcement that the Congressional Union would organize a new political party, the Woman’s Party. Hundreds flocked to the city, boosting its economy and convention fame. The delighted Chamber of Commerce provided a motorcade to the summit of Pikes Peak for thirty of the Woman’s Party— this during the week of flamboyant millionaire and Springs publicist extraordinaire Spencer Penrose’s first Pikes Peak Auto Hill Climb. There, at the summit, Dr. Caroline Spencer raised the Party’s tri-colored banner, the emblem “of the struggle for the liberation of American womanhood.”33 The Pikes Peak events captured national headlines for Penrose, Colorado Springs, and the Woman’s Party. But the raising of the purple, white, and gold banner of America’s suffragists was more than a publicity stunt. For the millions of disfranchised women the event announced the arrival of a new brand of womanpower— non-violent but defiantly militant. Caroline Spencer, known as “fearless” even within her own radical circle, signaled the increased militancy by using

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suffrage banners in more provoking ways. An October 1916 headline announced, “Banner of suffrage removed by police from [William Jennings] Bryan meeting.” During the famous politician’s speech to local democrats, Dr. Spencer unfurled a banner that demanded a federal suffrage amendment. “Despite the protests of the women, led by Dr. Caroline E. Spencer, the streamer was taken to the city jail and later sent to Dr. Spencer by special messenger.” Weeks later, Spencer, and a cadre of suffragist leaders, shocked President Wilson as he delivered a speech to Congress. In the midst of Wilson’s recommendation to expand political rights for Puerto Rican males, the women dangled a shimmering yellow banner over the edge of the visitor’s balcony. Emblazoned across it were the words, “Mr. President, What Will You Do For Woman Suffrage?” A congressional page tore down and destroyed the banner as Wilson continued speaking. The next day’s newspapers headlined the women’s coup: “Suffs flaunt banners in Wilson’s face as he addresses Congress.” Wilson’s speech proved less intriguing than the women’s well-phrased political question.34 Near-constant pressure on elected officials produced little action on the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. Wilson—refusing admission of NWP deputations to the White House—remarked they should “concert public opinion.” Taking his counsel seriously, on January 10, 1917, self-described ‘’Silent Sentinels,” began daily vigils at the gates of White House holding banners inscribed with suffrage appeals to the president, Congress and the public. In Washington, the banner-wielding women were a sensational and entertaining curiosity, inspiring mixed reactions, but typically, popular support while offering an amusing diversion to bureaucratic drones and tourists. Even Wilson, motoring through his gates, offered a tip of his hat and a smile to the banner-inscribed question, “Mr. President, How long must women wait for liberty?” Still, Wilson ignored the women’s petition for political justice. On March 4, 1917, an amazing tableau of one thousand pickets marched outside of the White House in a freezing drizzle, demanding an interview with President Wilson who had just won reelection as a peace candidate. Declining to meet

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with a delegation, their president also rejected the women’s effort to leave a suffrage resolution for his later consideration. With the United States drawing closer to entering World War I, women were increasingly determined to have the vote. War would take their husbands, brothers, sons, and even daughters. Women wanted a voice on U.S. involvement. Caroline Spencer eloquently articulated their concerns, [T]his is a momentous question in the history of this country. This is especially true because of the grave international problems that confront us and in which women as much as men have a vital interest, and therefore an equal right to be heard in the only way possible politically, that is by the possession of the ballot.35 Taxation without representation, America’s Revolutionary spark, was an additional concern. Bertha Fowler observed, “The new war tax bill will strike hard at women housekeepers and affect salaried women as the income tax has never affected them before. Is it right to impose this and other war burdens on women and still to deny them the elementary right of representation?”36 With America’s impending entrance into World War I, the women expected plummeting interest in their demonstrations. They wanted publicity, refusing to halt the White House protests, even in the tense pre-war climate. Caroline Spencer explained, “Women stood aside in the civil war, being told that it was the Negro’s hour. We must not let our representatives in Congress think that we will do the same now. They must represent us by fighting for our full citizenship.”37 The women’s decision was reckless at best and dangerous at worst. Perceived as unpatriotic and seditious, their presence at the White House antagonized the public and the Wilson administration. But the pickets stood fast. Spencer wrote, “It gives us joy to know that they can’t take a photograph of the White House without including our banner. [We] saw it in the New York times.”38 Announcing America’s entry into World War I, in April 1917, Wilson declared, “We shall fight for the things we have

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always held nearest our hearts, for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government.”39 Oblivious to his own self-contradictions, Wilson’s words provided justification for continuing the demonstrations, even at a time when publishing anti-war messages or questioning presidential decisions and authority were deemed near treasonous. Hearing the president’s self-contradictory words on democracy, the suffragists stridently demanded democracy at home. The lettered banners became embarrassing restatements of the administration’s claims about America’s political system as well as insolent, but accurate, criticisms of Wilson’s autocratic rule over disfranchised women. Those banners captured the nation’s attention. They also transformed the nonchalant tolerance of the pickets into a systematic and brutal betrayal of the women’s civil rights. Physically and verbally attacked by angry mobs, often led by uniformed military men and police, women suffered injuries as their banners and suffrage sashes were torn away. The silent women stood, non-violent and nonresisting, as angry riots exploded in their midst, creating scenes of public disorder. Finally, on orders from Woodrow Wilson, authorities threatened arrest. Neither mob violence nor threatened arrest stopped the women. Arrests of the militants began in June 1917. In July, pickets were sentenced to jail for demanding political equality. Jailhouse conditions were horrid. Following her release Dr. Spencer reported, “No air, no exercise was allowed. The jail was full of rats and cockroaches, and general unsanitary conditions prevailed.”40 Reports of attacks on peaceable, unarmed women along with accounts of jailhouse abuses outraged many Americans. Hoping to stem public condemnation, the Wilson administration, believing that even brief jail sentences would deter the women, “pardoned” and ordered the pickets’ release. Wilson’s “pardon” fueled the suffragists’ rage. Having committed no crime, for what were they pardoned? Women wanted the vote, not Wilson’s condescending concessions. The demonstrations continued at the White House gates. Over time, there evolved a high stakes “cat & mouse” political game between public officials and the militant

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suffragists. To garner publicity, the NWP defiantly engaged in increasingly insolent public spectacles, albeit non-violent and within the boundaries of First Amendment guarantees. Women marched with slogan-emblazoned banners, crowds gathered, mobs attacked, women suffered injuries and arrests, reports of prison abuses circulated, public outrage arose, the arrests were halted. Returning to the streets, the women instigated a new publicity cycle. Some NWP members withdrew, either disapproving of the pickets’ militaristic defiance, or fearful of personal injury, or of being associated with the radical feminists, by then accused of all manner of political, moral, or mental deviancy. On the other hand, the women’s mistreatments radicalized many as never before. The abuses revealed how helpless females really were; memberships spiked and donations and pledges poured in.41 At the onset of the demonstrations, Spencer declared, We are doing our best to light the fire of self sacrifice in the hearts of our women and to bring them into touch with you who are in Washington, so that they will put the freedom of women first and unite in a mighty effort to help in the accomplishment of this necessary first step.42 To stand picket under threat of physical attack and imprisonment took enormous courage and absolute conviction that the women’s demand for equal citizenship and their tactics for achieving it were correct. The stories of Colorado Springs’ suffragists at the nation’s capitol in 1917 through 1919 illuminated their magnificent courage and their immovable conviction. They demonstrated the efficacy of the women’s peaceable tactics of political protest that included their readiness to sacrifice freedom, safety, reputation, and even life for their cause. The accounts reveal that at that time, far from defending females, some males— those with the power to change the status quo, but who instead resorted to brutality and punitive punishments—would rather demean, humiliate, and imprison women than give them the vote.43

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Twenty-three-year-old Natalie Gray was the first Colorado Springs militant to go to jail for justice in the hot days of August 1917. Born in 1894, to Laurence and Susie Gray, Natalie learned her lessons in social responsibility within a family deeply grounded in social and political activism. Lawrence, a lawyer and engineer, stood for Colorado’s lieutenant governor on the Progressive ticket around 1900. Susie, a co-founder of the region’s powerful women’s organizations and a formidable feminist reformer, remained the treasurer of the Colorado Branch NWP until her 1939 death.44 A popular young Colorado Springs girl, prominent in school and community activities, Gray’s 1914 school portrait presents a solemn, no-nonsense countenance, suggesting she was perfectly suited to join the picket line.45 Before departing to Washington, Gray received an innocuous-sounding job “Miss Natalie Gray, of Colorado description. She should be Springs, Colo., a member of the prepared, “to help us picket, National Woman’s Party, who was do some lobby work and help arrested and imprisoned for 30 days at in a general way at head- the Occoquan workhouse for picketing quarters.” After suggesting at the gates of the White House,” ca. 1916. Quote transcibed from photograph. that Gray would learn much J. M. Krogmoe Studio photograph from through her association with National Woman’s Party Records, Library of Manuscript Division, Washington, Washington’s leaders, the Congress, D.C., (mnwp 151008). writer concluded, “I am sure you will find it enjoyable.”46 In a published interview, Gray confidently asserted “that she was in no way worried at the prospect of having to spend sixty days in jail, as has been the lot of several of the women pickets.”47 With her daughter’s impending departure, Susie Gray stated, “I have no son to give my country to fight for democracy abroad and so I send my daughter to Washington to fight for

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democracy at home.”48 But her private letters to NWP officials, while brimming with a mother’s pride, reveal the severe economic and emotional strain Natalie Gray’s activism placed upon her family. In response to [the] appeal and hurry call for a Colorado volunteer to picket, we are sending our daughter, Natalie. . . . Our family cash resources are very limited, just at present. Getting together the few clothes necessary and a little to ‘go on’, is all we could on such short notice. We understand . . . hospitality there at headquarters will be given her for a time at least, while she makes herself helpful in any way you may direct. Of course she will be anxious to be earning something as soon as she is trained into acceptable value. We feel it is a great opportunity for her to help in the cause at a time, when if ever, you need help. . . . If Natalie has to go through the experience of arrest and jailing, you will look out for her interests as thoroughly as for the others, will you not? Perhaps the wide publicity given that attempt to smother your peaceful activities will forbid a repetition of such action. We are tremendously glad to have her know all you wonderful people. We want her to understand the power and force of the Equal Suffrage principle as only close association with you will give.49 As her mother anticipated, Gray’s letters reveal how politicizing and exhilarating the Washington experiences were for young women and how dangerous and terrifying. I have just come in from my third time doing picket duty. . . . The experiences of a picket are . . . Thrilling . . . wearying . . . maddening . . . exasperating . . . stupid . . . tiresome . . . slow; but very convincing, very worthwhile and necessary, I believe. To be a picket . . . is to see with great clearness the justice of all the women’s work in trying to get the speedy passage of the amendment. . . . no girl or woman can stand for an hour and a half . . . holding a . . . banner

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bigger than herself for passing crowds to sneer at, without knowing why she does it and believing it to be necessary.50 Natalie Gray planned to carry other banners later that day, but said, “We do not expect any trouble but there is a possibility, of course. It is about time something else did happen, I presume. I am right here and ready.”51 She anticipated no trouble as arrests had been halted in response to public condemnation of the 6-month sentences of prominent, peaceable women. As it happened, her subsequent outings ignited frenzied skirmishes and mob attacks. In what proved to be the most inflammatory militant banner of all, Gray strode along Pennsylvania Avenue wielding a flag emblazoned with the slogan, “Kaiser Wilson, have you forgotten your sympathy with the poor Germans because they were not self-governing? Twenty million American women are not self-governing. Take the beam out of your own eye.” Those banners sparked riots. According to a news account: Following the third attack on the Woman’s party pickets in Washington, in which Miss Natalie Gray . . . has figured . . . [she] sent the following letter . . . “A two hours riot between White house employees and . . . pickets resulted in 36 of our banners being destroyed. I carried four Virginia Arnold holding a banner, ca. of the banners. The Stars August 1917. Harris & Ewing photograph and Stripes were torn from National Woman’s Party Records, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, from our headquarters D.C., (mnwp 160030). by uniformed sailors . . .

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a shot was fired.” [Into the woman’s party headquarters.] The . . . mob failed to stop . . . the pickets.52 Gray described sympathetic onlookers; they tried to shield the women from excessive violence, but fearing their own arrest, they refused to protect the banners. Some of the more antagonistic ruffians waited until the crowd dispersed, then verbally abused the women, calling them “perfect little hussies” who should “be sent home,” and insulting mothers who could raise up daughters “to be so impudent.” Lingering in the background were police who refused to defend the women until the banners were destroyed; only then would they intervene, scattering the crowds, and “good-naturedly stand around.”53 Finally, officials warned the women they would be arrested for picketing, not for obstructing traffic. A news account, headlined “Miss Gray Sent to Jail for 30 Days,” reveals the women’s defiant, courageous refusal to be silenced. Miss Gray . . . has had a stormy career in Washington. She volunteered to serve as a banner-bearer before the White House and immediately upon her arrival there a week ago she was assigned to carry a standard, which severely criticized President Wilson. A crowd formed and in the melee her banner was torn from her hands and she was roughly pushed against the iron fence surrounding the executive mansion. Undaunted she came with another banner the next day and on Friday she and her associates were so severely roughed that her clothes were torn and several banners reared by her were demolished. Finally the police interfered and arrested five of the women, including Miss Gray.54 According to Woman’s Party historian, Doris Stevens, by August 1917, “the government’s repressive methods became physically more brutal and politically more stupid. Their conduct became lawless in the extreme.”55 Natalie Gray’s story exemplifies Stevens’ assertion. Refusing to pay the $10 fine imposed for “obstructing traffic,” she pleaded not guilty and chose a month’s jail time. Criminalized for demanding

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women’s political justice, Gray served 25 days in a Washington area workhouse.56 Gray, and those arrested with her, endured extraordinarily punitive treatment. According to news accounts, “the latitude previously allowed their sisters had vanished. In its place was a set of grim rules.” Ordinarily, prisoners could receive food from outside, but suffragists were allowed only prison food. They were forced to “do their share of scrubbing, sewing or gardening, just as the other prisoners.” And “the women [were] . . . furnished hoes and . . . compelled to labor in the municipal gardens of the capital.” Suffrage prisoners could not communicate among themselves or with others. Visits only from relatives or attorneys were allowed, “and then only twice a month.” Some, including Natalie Gray, were denied mail. Returning Susie Gray’s unopened letter to her daughter, the warden had scrawled, “I consider this letter if admitted detrimental to the good discipline of the institution.”57 According to Natalie’s post-release statement, conditions were revolting. Near inedible food, often wormy, was served on unclean dishes in a fly-infested hall. The breakfast fruit along with a weekly “plate of sorghum syrup” were the only palatable fare. She deplored the unsanitary conditions, recalled drinking water from an uncovered pail, using a common cup. “No soap was allowed” except during the weekly bath when, “a few pieces . . . were distributed and passed from hand to hand regardless of whether the prisoners had any disease.”58 While brutal, Natalie’s imprisonment was exceptionally fortuitous in the publicity blitz that followed. Intensifying pressure for the S.B.A., Colorado’s pro-suffragists torpedoed elected officials with letters, telegrams and phone calls, demanding investigations into the prisoners’ welfare. In response, Congressman Charles Timberlake sent the following telegram: “Am investigating conditions Occoquan was there yesterday refused permission to see Miss Gray have now warrant authority and will see her today and make full report.”59 The congressman’s published letter, headlined, “Suffragists Treated Well in Workhouse,” when read nearly a century after the fact, is an appalling documentation of the dissident women’s helplessness and of the arbitrariness of the jail warden’s rule.

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Timberlake’s first effort to visit Natalie was refused on the ground that he had not obtained prior authorization and the superintendent was offsite. Nevertheless, the congressman was invited to thoroughly investigate the men’s facility where he found the sanitary and dietary conditions quite acceptable. The next day, permission granted, and with the superintendent leading the investigation, Timberlake toured the female facility. He observed women eating lunch and examined the food, but avoided commenting on the quality of the meal or the sanitary conditions as he had done about the male facility. The congressional investigators “were permitted to meet each one of our constituents confined there . . .” He reported, “a very pleasant 15 minutes conversation with Miss Natalie Gray. She says tell her friends that her incarceration has not dampened her ardor for the cause.” Timberlake revealed that four of the six suffrage prisoners were sequestered in separate rooms in the hospital ward. According to the superintendent, the women’s isolation resulted from their attempts to talk to each other and to other prisoners. Justifying his punitive method, the warden said that allowing the women to speak, “would give a bad precedent to other inmates who were not allowed this privilege . . . recognizing the importance of this rule being complied with, he thought best to remove them to the hospital ward.” The women were forced to work at sewing. They prepared their own food. If Timberlake noted that males were sequestered or remanded to silence, he made no comment, and he specified that the men did not prepare their own meals.60 Timberlake agreed with Natalie Gray’s contention that she was “wrongfully incarcerated,” but he thought that the subject should be investigated as a legal matter, not as an investigation into the conditions of the workhouse and of the women’s treatment. He offered a defense on the women’s behalf, noting that the women had picketed for 6 months before the arrests began and further that the police and court claimed that the arrests and imprisonments resulted not from the nature of their banners, but rather because they were guilty of “obstructing traffic on the streets.” Timberlake argued that the “unruly crowd” that assaulted the pickets and destroyed their property

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were in fact guilty of interfering with traffic. In his view the police had a duty to protect the pickets and to arrest the mob. These are the parties, in my judgment, that now ought to be in Occoquan, and while I do not believe it is a matter with which the congress can deal, being simply a violation of the law, and if these women have not violated the law, they are unlawfully detained. As a postscript, Timberlake wrote, I am still firmly of the opinion that present plans of picketing are not calculated to hasten the accomplishment of our desires, the enfranchisement of women. This however, will not deter me in any effort I may put forth to see that their other constitutional rights are not abridged.61 In a previous telegraph to another correspondent, however he said, Sentiment of congress strong against picketing of White House under methods lately used and further efforts to continue same will not be upheld by the courts or by congress in my judgment. Have deep sympathy for Miss Gray in her arrest and have offered and will pay the price of her fine for her release—the banners carried are too nearly treasonable in their nature for the endurance of even the most ardent supporters of the cause of suffrage of which number I count myself almost ultra in its advocacy.62 Natalie Gray’s brutal and punitive experiences and the contradictory statements of her congressman fueled rather than stemmed her enthusiasm. To Alice Paul she wrote, I surely need not tell you how much I want to come back to Washington and help you keep up this protest. . . . At the same time, circumstances in Colorado, at present seem to indicate that I can help out here. . . . I am anxious

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to be where I can give the most service; if in Colorado, then here, if in Washington D.C.—there.63 Continuing as a paid NWP organizer until the ratification of the Anthony Amendment, Natalie Gray traveled Colorado, the north-western states, and Illinois, organizing suffrage campaigns and building support for the Anthony Amendment by recounting her slide-illustrated story of abuse and imprisonment.64 In June 1920, Gray joined a suffrage delegation in Chicago to President-elect, Warren Harding. With the democrats voted out of power, the NWP turned its pressure to republicans to ensure the passage of the Anthony Amendment.65

Mrs. Gertrude Crocker Watson, Miss Lavinia Dock, Miss Catherine Flanagan, Miss Edna Dixon, Miss Natalie Gray, Miss Lucy Ewing, ca. 1916-1918. Harris & Ewing photograph from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., (hec 09588).

Most pickets, like Natalie Gray, were youthful, healthy women, able to withstand the hazards of picketing and imprisonment. But there were less robust women, including Dr. Spencer. She found dignity in demonstrating for women’s equality, recognizing that it offered to feminists their only

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immediate chance to win the Anthony Amendment. Days after Gray’s emprisonment, Spencer wrote, I almost came to Washington this week, but both Mrs. Fowler and Mrs. Gray thought it not wise for me to leave Colorado stranded at this time, as I am supposed to be the one person who can give all my time to keeping things going; later you will see me.66 True to her promise, Spencer, frail of health but “fearless,” joined the fray. On October 1, 1917, she departed for Washington, “to do picket duty at the White house.” Before month’s end, she would be in jail.67 Soon after Spencer arrived in D.C., Congress adjourned without considering woman’s suffrage as a war measure, as many Americans believed should be done.68 In protest, eleven militant feminists, including Spencer, took to the streets in a silent demonstration. This was a politically electric event. Alice Paul, for the first time, elected to lead a picket. Party officials feared for her safety, knowing that Paul, the despised leader of those hordes of harridans at the White House gates, would surely be the target of mob and police hostility. It was a stupendous act of bravery for Spencer and the others to take banner in hand and accompany her. In a short time, a crowd gathered, shouting insults and taunts. The mob followed the women’s silent, peaceable march to the White House gates. Finally some men attacked. The banners were smashed. The police arrived and dispersed the crowd, again freeing those who harassed the peaceable women and destroyed their property. Silent and non-resisting, the women were ushered into a waiting police wagon. Found guilty of obstructing traffic, but with a jail overflowing with nineteen suffragists, the judge suspended sentences for that first offense but threatened a severe penalty if they reappeared in his court. In a self-conscious act of civil disobedience, the women returned to the picket. Paul and Spencer reappeared in court where the irate judge sentenced them to 6 months in a workhouse. For violating his previous order, he tacked on a 7th month.69

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With the perspective of nearly a century and outside of the political context of that time, four unarmed women, peaceably appealing for the vote, hardly appears threatening—and it was not. According the New York Times, although a big crowd had gathered before the police arrived, “the only demonstration was the cheering and hissing of the women as they were placed in the patrol wagon.”70 On the second march, Spencer displayed a banner stating, “Resistance to Tyranny is Obedience to God.” Her civil disobedience and the banner were imbued with Revolutionary meaning. The slogan was a 1776 patriotic call to arms, and in 1872, Susan B. Anthony repeated the motto to defend her civil disobedience, when she was arrested and sentenced for voting—a crime for a disfranchised woman.71 Explaining her own actions, Caroline proclaimed, “I feel that I am here as the representative of the women voters. I accept my sentence under protest because of my innocence of any unlawful act, for the purpose of showing the nation that the women voters are equal to any sacrifice necessary to secure political freedom.”72 Thrust into an airless, dusty cellblock with closed windows and foul air, Alice’s efforts to pry open a window attracted a band of guards who threw her into a cell. Those two women, Spencer and Paul, brilliantly educated, convinced of the justice of their cause, undeterred by mob attacks, judiciary threats, and presidential authority, although both petite and frail, could never be intimidated by a few burly jailers. They ignited a jailhouse riot—throwing any objects they could lay hands on at one window—books, tin drinking cups, light bulbs. Eighty other women joined in. Finally the glass broke, allowing fresh air to circulate.73 That event was memorialized as one stanza of a suffragist resistance song, We asked them for some air, As we choked, as we choked, We asked them for some air As we choked. We asked them for some air And they threw us in a lair, They threw us in a lair, so we choked.74

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In the stifling atmosphere, Spencer suffered a lifethreatening asthma attack. Released by physician order, she steadfastly continued her protesting, [E]ither the federal amendment must be put thru congress or American women permitted to die in a struggle for liberty in this land which boasts throughout the world of its democracy. Until you go to jail with these women you cannot realize what they are being made to endure by the Democratic administration, which is opposing the enfranchisement of women, for which they are struggling.75 Alice Paul remained imprisoned. Insisting that the suffragists were jailed for their political views and should be treated as “political prisoners,” not criminals, Paul undertook a hunger strike to draw attention to the women’s maltreatment. In retaliation, Paul was mentally and physically brutalized; sequestered in a psychiatric hospital and forcibly fed. Women flooded elected officials with protests. Bertha Fowler’s telegram to Wilson spoke for many, “In the name of humanity will you not act at once to stop the national disgrace of brutal treatment of National Woman’s Party . . . No civilized country treats political prisoners with such inhuman cruelty.”76 In early January 1918, bowing to years of incessant feminist pressure and adverse publicity, the president announced that he favored the federal suffrage amendment as a war measure. With Wilson in their camp, the women shifted attention to the Senate where the amendment was stalled. Again, they took to the streets. Again there were violent mobs and arrests of pickets, but this time they were sentenced to a vermin infested, abandoned jail. Women fell sick with the rank air and contaminated water. Caroline Spencer, like so many others, was “aghast at the bold brutality of the administration.”77 But to sustain pressure for the amendment, Berthe Arnold journeyed to the Capitol, as announced in the local press in late August 1918, “Springs Girl to Risk Jail With Suffrage Squad.” According to the article, “So far, all the speakers who have attempted to be heard have been

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arrested and most of them now are in jail.”78 Upon Arnold’s departure, Spencer wrote, We hope you will find Berthe Arnold a help. I made it clear to her that jail was her objective, and that whatever the most militant of you in Washington do, we expect of her. I have been talking to her mother who was rather worried last night, we cannot wonder at such a sudden departure of her child. But she said Berthe’s father said to her that she was very foolish to feel worried, because there can be no progress without just such efforts as we are making, and it is fine for Berthe to have a part in it.79 Born in Colorado Springs in 1896, to Louise and Clarence Arnold, a prominent physician, Berthe attended local schools and Colorado College where she studied voice and elementary education. A circa 1900 photo suggests an early flair for political lobbying. The image is of a tiny child, clearly too young to comprehend the expediency of staged political propaganda. Perched on a stars and stripes draped porch, Berthe holds an umbrella imprinted with the words, “I am a Pikes Peak McKinley Girl.” That childhood photograph is a nearly

“This is a photograph of my granddaughter Bertha Louise Arnold, aged four years, sitting on the front step of my home, holding a Protection Umbrella used in the political campaign of 1898 over her and smiling because I told her I would send the picture to Wm. McKinley, whom we elected President, and whom the American people consider the greatest man of the age.” Photograph by Dr. W. W. Arnold, Artist, June 1900. Colorado Springs Century Chest Collection, Folder 110, Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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prescient image of the adult political-protestor, audaciously leading elaborate suffrage demonstrations.80

Lucy G. Branham, Julia Emory, Bertha Arnold, Katherine Morey, Elizabeth Kalb, and Jessie Benton MacKaye burned President Woodrow Wilson’s speech in front of the Lafayette Statue in Washington, D.C., on September 16, 1918. Harris & Ewing photograph from National Woman’s Party Records, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., (mnwp 160002).

Arnold matured into an adored, beautiful and gifted performer who was praised in the local press for her “unusually light and flexible” soprano voice and “her dainty and youthful charm.”81 Selected for the title role of a 1913 production of the Little Princess, a reporter said, The choice has indeed been a happy one, for the honor has fallen to Miss Berthe Arnold, the talented daughter of Dr. and Mrs. C. R. Arnold, to whose dignity of ancestry and position is added a winsome and altogether attractive personality. One of the prettiest compliments . . . was given by the little children who are to be her fairy benefactors in the play . . . who . . . exclaimed, “Yes, she looks just as we wished the ‘Little Princess’ would.”82

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Berthe Arnold’s beauty, talent and experience in public performance perfectly fitted the purposes of the NWP with its theatrically staged political demonstrations. Upon her arrival in Washington, D.C., she announced that Colorado Springs’ women sent her to represent them while other women remained in jail and that she “came, willing to share their imprisonment if necessary.” Emphasizing her ladylike aspirations, Arnold demurely concluded, “After the demonstration is over, I go back to take up my kindergarten work in Colorado Springs.”83 With that, Arnold joined a demonstration protesting inaction on the amendment and the maltreatment of the imprisoned pickets. Alice Paul found the newest Colorado Springs militant delightful, telling Spencer, “We are indeed glad that you sent Miss Arnold . . . We all like her very much and would like to keep her as an organizer after the demonstration.”84 Arnold remained in Washington, working as Paul’s private secretary and leading elaborately staged demonstrations. Conveying contempt for inaction on the Anthony Amendment, the women began burning the words about American democracy spoken by the president and antisuffrage senators. In mid-September 1918, forty banner-bearing women marched along Pennsylvania Avenue, to the Lafayette Monument. Before an entranced crowd, Arnold read a symbolic appeal, “‘Lafayette, here we are!’ We, the women of the United States, denied the liberty which you helped to gain, and for which we have asked in vain for sixty years, turn to you to plead for us.” A torch, representing the “burning indignation” of women denied political equality was lighted, the president’s words were “consigned to the flames.”85 In a widely publicized plan, the women intended to burn the words spoken by anti-suffragist senators—on the floor of the Senate Chamber. This spectacle attracted a huge crowd. Police lined up, senators gathered to watch, carloads of people flooded in to cheer or jeer the women. The suffragists marched toward the Capitol Building. Detained for hours by a battalion of police, the women’s flags and banners were confiscated and destroyed. There were no arrests, but Arnold remarked, “As a woman voter it is hard for me to believe that for seeking the

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same privilege for all women that I myself possess I am arrested at the Senate doors and man handled by the Capitol police.”86 In mid-December 1918, Berthe’s letter appeared in the local paper. Unlike Natalie Gray’s sanguine descriptions of the dangers of picketing, Arnold articulated enormous fear of the mobs, revealing the magnitude of the sacrifice for women’s equality that some, such as Arnold, offered up for American women’s political equality. Anticipating that she would participate in upcoming demonstrations to protest Congress adjourning without acting on the suffrage amendment, she wrote, On the 16th of December, we are having a large demonstration, for which we want 1,000 women to march up to the steps of the capitol. . . . I hate to go out on this line, frankly, but when your captain asks you to go—somehow you just go. . . . I have been out on the picket line and as before the police are unspeakable. It is unbelievable that in a civilized country, and at the country’s Capitol at that, we should allow men of that brutality to manhandle women who come asking for liberty. . . . I myself am unhurt, because—yes, I am frank to say it—there is something in me which won’t let me hang on to my banner until I am pulled down the steps or dragged to the ground by those beasts. . . . let go, as I do, the man who has me in charge then lets me go and has no more to say to me. I run on then to Miss Paul’s assistance, for they always make for her . . .87 In early November 1918, Caroline Spencer, at home in Colorado, and uncertain whether to again risk her life for equality, had written to Alice Paul, If the amendment is coming up, will you wire me? I have not made up my mind whether to come east this year, or not. That might decide, perhaps. I cannot picket, because I must not get myself in bed for my visit, as I did last year. I am not sorry about last year, rejoice in it in fact, but I do not feel justified in that this year.88

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Yet by January 1919, Caroline Spencer made a lifethreatening decision. She wrote, “I will be in Washington the fifteenth. I had intended not to come East until April, but I cannot resist being there for a final protest.”89 At that time, Wilson was constructing a peace treaty in France, claiming that it would replace tyrannical oppression with democratic freedom. Incensed at Wilson’s hypocrisy about the nature of American democracy, and still short one Senate vote, in January 1919, the NWP devised another spectacular demonstration, the “Watchfires for Justice.” President Wilson’s words about democracy were cast into cauldrons of fire. They planned to keep the fires burning around the clock until the suffrage amendment passed. Bystanders, including the ever-present uniformed police and military men, tried extinguishing the fires. They rushed the women, “Watchfires Scattered by Police—Dr. knocking over the urns and Caroline Spencer Rebuilding It,” Dr. stamping out the flames. The Spencer served a 5 day prison sentence determined women kept the after refusing to pay a $5 fine for “the flames burning throughout building of fires in a public place in the four days and nights. As District of Columbia between sunset and sunrise.” Doris Stevens, Jailed for a group of women was Freedom, New York: Boni and Liveright Inc., arrested and sentenced, a 1920. new group appeared. For Dr. Spencer, there was no contest between risking her life and winning suffrage. Carrying wood from the free West, she traveled to Washington. There she cast into the flames Wilson’s words, spoken when he laid a wreath on the tomb of Lafayette, “in memory of the great Lafayette—from a fellow servant of liberty.” To Spencer, who had devoted her life to advancing liberty, and who was at that moment risking it for that purpose, Wilson’s words surely seemed pretentious. Evidently, the opportunity to burn away some of her disgust was worth the

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risk to her life on a cold, wet day. A poignant photograph of Spencer relighting a scattered fire memorializes her courage. Subsequently, a headline announced, “Dr. Caroline Spencer Liberated From Jail—Hunger striking for the entire period.” The story detailed her 5-day imprisonment and weakened condition upon release. Irrepressible in spite of illness, and speaking for all of the courageous, radical women, who stood picket, endured violence, risked their lives, and languished in jail for justice, she said, Jail is not a pleasant experience, but I do not regret the time I spent there. I would return today if my act would help call attention to the glaring injustice of the administration’s treatment of American women. We demand, and shall continue to demand, that President Wilson bend the same energy that he is exerting to bring democracy in Europe to bring it to the women of his own country.90 Berthe Arnold, too, guarded the watchfires. Although fearful of the brutality she faced as a picket, she bravely withstood the brunt of administration and mob fury. Through-out January 1919, accounts of Berthe’s arrests and sentencing appeared in her hometown newspaper: “Miss Arnold in Next Watchfire Party at Capitol.” “Miss Arnold Arrested Again For Picketing.” “Suffragist Sentenced to Five Days In Jail, Berthe Arnold of Colorado Springs Behind Bars for Picketing!”91 Calculated to rivet attention to the suffrage cause, the news accounts were

Berthe Arnold was arrested in January 1919 for her watchfire demonstration in Washington, D.C. She was sentenced to five days in jail.Harris &

Ewing photograph from National Woman’s Party Records, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., (mnwp 147007).

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extremely effective. A letter to Berthe from an unidentified “Pal” illuminates the anguish of one who viewed her adventures as simultaneously heroic and horrifying. The satirical letter is laced with pride in her and her co-dissidents, and with angry sarcasm at women’s unjust political status and maltreatment for demanding equality. The excerpt below conveys a poignant and timeless recognition of what it was that the rowdy women were achieving and it illuminates the price for advancing women’s equality paid by those who loved the militant, unrelenting feminists. Onct when you was a little kiddo you had a little stove and I wouldn’t let you make any fire cause you’d get burned. . . . But I see how it was, you couldn’t play with the toy stove so you had to build a fire big enough to fire them words of our president. Gosh, they made hot stuff . . . Must sort of been pretty nice for the old stars and the sunlight to see the faith of women burning presidents mighty words. Plucky—that you all over Bertha—and back of some little star Mr. Lafayette peeked out and he knowed you weer there—burnin’—burnin’—lightin’— lightin’—the soul of a people flaming up, the heart of the women blazing—shucks, somebodys got to keep this old thing democracy in the world . . . The worlds got to be kept safe for it—you know thems the very words of Woodrow hisself. . . . I wonder whether your Miss Paul has any thoughts of what people way out west may be thinking in the dark of the night and the long waits between letters—maybe it’s worth a few tears to let you burn presidents mighty camouflage.92 Only weeks later, in February 1919, the women created an even more radical demonstration. Hoping to push Wilson to pressure for the one outstanding Senate vote, the women burned an effigy of the president, provoking riots and wholesale arrests. The Colorado militants were not arrested. Ironically, Berthe Arnold was dropped from the Daughters of the American Revolution, established by women denied membership in the Sons of the American Revolution. Berthe humorously retorted,

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“We are cordially disliked and disowned ever since we burned Woody Wood’s whiskers in Washington.93 Spencer’s and Arnold’s January mistreatments fueled an avalanche of protests, rankling some elected officials, but inspiring others to pressure for the amendment. Colorado’s Senator Charles Thomas, supported woman’s suffrage and the moderate tactics for achieving it practiced by Carrie Chapman Catts’s NAWSA. His response to the blitz of telegrams revealed the senator’s pettiness and implied that women might have their way—at some future time and if the petitioners behaved demurely. I have received several . . . telegrams . . . your last . . . informs me that your associates in Washington will continue their agitation until the suffrage amendment is passed the senate. . . . it is safe to say the suffrage amendment will be taken up when they abandon their characteristic methods of bidding for and obtaining notoriety. The authorities are very unwise in mitigating the sentences of those convicted . . . heavier sentences should have been imposed and rigidly enforced.94 In contrast, Colorado’s Governor Oliver H. Shoup acknowledged that the most difficult job he faced was, framing a telegram to Washington protesting against the treatment of two Colorado Springs suffragists who were imprisoned there. . . . I was fairly besieged by delegations of women . . . my telegram . . . objected to the mistreatment of the women. This was the warmest session I have had so far.”95 In the spring of 1919, to redeem good will that was lost by the burning of presidential words and effigy, Berthe joined twenty-five suffrage prisoners on a national train tour, the “Prison Special” or the “Democracy Limited.” Clad in prison garb, the women spoke to packed houses about the Anthony Amendment, showing films of the peaceable pickets and their mistreatment. It was a resounding success. Ending the campaign at New York City’s Carnegie Hall,

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3,000 women gave them a hearty reception . . . Following speeches and the donation of seven thousand dollars to help pay the cost of the trip, the meeting unanimously adopted a resolution calling upon President Wilson to hold an extraordinary session of Congress to pass the amendment.96 Finally, in 1920, the women won their amendment. It had taken decades, from 1848 until 1920. But it was pushed along mightily, by those militantly defiant women of the NWP, who endured insults and violence on the streets and brutality and deprivation in the jails to win political justice for women. Among its most important effects were: • The 19th Amendment enfranchised all American women. Coffin Mott was a Quaker • The militants’ actions Lucretia abolitionist and early activist for redefined the scope of women’s rights. She was considered womanpower and ill- a radical feminist, yet gentle in her ustrated the efficacy of methods for championing these causes, as well as temperance and non-violent resistance. peace. The Equal Rights Amendment • The women tested the was named in her honor by the boundaries of democracy. NWP. Portrait ca. 1870. F. Gutekunst The Superior Court of photograph from National Woman’s Party Washington, D.C., ruled Records, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., (mnwp 275011). that the women could not legally be detained without charges brought against them. • The court affirmed the women’s rights of free speech and protection of private property in ruling that officials could not confiscate and destroy their banners.

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• Attempts to make the women’s White House pickets illegal failed, ensur-ing the right of political protest. • Distinguished, wellconnected women prisoners exposed the wretched conditions in Washington, D.C., jails. Official investigations brought about reform. • Following the ratification of the Anthony Amendment, the NWP wrote the Lucretia Mott Amendment for Equal Rights, known as the ERA. Along with ninety women who served prison sentences for picketing the White House for political equality in 1917, Caroline Spencer was awarded, and proudly wore for the rest of her life, a silver broach designed by Alice Paul that resembled a prison door.

The Mott Amendment’s original wording was lifted from a draft created in Speaking of Colorado.97 that amendment, Caroline Spencer said,

Courtesy of Lynmar Brock, Jr. from the private collection of Brock/Spencer family records.

[T]he ballot for women was sought by the fore-sighted leaders in the movement with the idea of giving women equal rights with men. . . . We were striving to work out a higher ideal, a better race, a greater government thru mutual cooperation of the two sexes. . . . We achieved our aim, which was equal suffrage for men and women. We are now trying to break down the conventional barriers, having caused the downfall of the legal obstacles. The National Woman’s Party is attempting to develop a higher humanity by the equal cooperation and labor of both male and female.98

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Afterword In 1923, the NWP held a massive Equal Rights convention at the Garden of the Gods. The pagent attracted a crowd of twenty thousand, who gave, “rapt attention to the story which . . . unfolded in living pictures in the great out-of-doors theater which nature has provided for the benefit of the people of the Pikes Peak region.”99 After winning the 19th Amendment, Natalie Gray entered law studies in San Francisco. She married William Sheffer of Colorado Springs in December 1921. In 1923, she was present in Colorado Springs for the ERA gala at the Garden of the Gods. The Sheffers resided in California where Will was a prominent dentist and they raised daughters, Natalyn (Nan) Wallin, and Elizabeth Joyce (Betty) Day. Natalie died in California in September 1955. She was buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs.100 Berthe Arnold attended the Girls Collegiate College at Los Angeles. In September 1921, she married musician Frederick Knorr, with whom she had one daughter, Jean Knorr Johnson. At the 1923 ERA convention, Berthe appeared as Lucretia Mott, for whom the amendment was named. The Knorrs lived in Colorado Springs into the late 1930s where Berthe worked as a private secretary. She died in San Diego, California in 1968.101 Mortally ill, in April 1928, Caroline Spencer returned to her ancestral home in Philadelphia, leaving forever the city she loved and helped to build. Remaining on the national council of the National Woman’s Party, she labored for the ERA until days before her death in October 1928; Caroline is interred at the Spencer family plot at Philadelphia’s historic Old Laurel Hill Cemetery. There can be little doubt that if she were yet alive, Caroline Spencer, the great radical for reform, who devoted and risked her life to advance woman’s equality, would continue to work toward that elusive time and place that she envisioned—A place where men and women might stand “upon a plane of perfect human equality, economic, political, social.” As Caroline Spencer saw it, “until that status is reached, there can be no progress, or at best but a maimed and halting effort toward achievement.”102

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Chris Nicholl has been employed in Special Collections at Pikes Peak Library District since 1993 where her duties include assisting researchers with regional history and genealogy questions. Ms. Nicholl has served as an adjunct instructor of history, teaching history courses for CSU-Pueblo and for Pikes Peak Community College. She organized and served as cochair for six successful Pikes Peak Regional History Symposia, and successfully nominated and inducted Dr. Caroline Spencer into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in March 2006.

Notes

1. Linda G. Ford, Iron Jawed Angels (Lantham, Md.: University Press of America, 1991), 3. 2. Susan B. Anthony, for whom the NWP named the federal woman suffrage amendment, first drafted it in 1875; see, Caroline Katzenstein, Lifting the Curtain (Philadelphia, Penn.: Dorrance & Company, 1955), 169. 3. Elizabeth C. Stanton, et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. 1 (New York, N.Y.: Fowler & Wells, 1881), 73. 4. Carrie Chapman Catt, May 24, 1917, Reel 43, National Woman’s Party Papers, The Suffrage Years, 1913-1920, Microfilming Corporation of America (Hereafter citied as: NWPP), “Most suffragists . . . disapprove of the picketing. . . . the National American Woman Suffrage Association . . . a nation-wide federation . . . with a total membership of 2,000,000 women, has never countenanced such tactics. . . . we feel most keenly the handicap and injustice to the suffrage cause when suffragists as a whole are blamed for the action of a small group belonging to an organization which is no part of ours, and which is in no sense representative of the suffrage movement generally in the [U.S.].” 5. Demanding the vote, see, Dorothy Schneider and Carl J. Schneider, American Women in the Progressive Era, 1900-1920 (New York, N.Y.: Facts on File, Inc., 1982), 165; state suffrage legislation, see: Anne Firor Scott and Andrew MacKay Scott, One Half the People (Chicago, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1975, 1982), 166-168. 6. http:/www.cogreatwoman.org; National Cyclopedia of American Biography Vol. XXI (New York, N.Y.: James T. White & Company, 1931), 141 . . . [Dr. Spencer] was a charter member of the National Woman’s party and came to play an active part in planning the policies of the party. . . . After the national amendment had been won . . . and the Woman’s party reorganized for the fight for equal rights, [she] . . . served as Colorado’s representative in the national council. . . . she fought vigorously for political and industrial equality for women and

NICHOLL • 283 . . . did much to define the position of the Woman’s party in special legislation and to outline the program for equal rights. 7. Caroline Spencer to Anne Martin, March 5, 1917, Reel 40, NWPP, reference to Colorado Senator W. H. Adams, Alamosa, Colorado. 8. Caroline Spencer to Anita Pollitzer, April 30, 1921, Reel 7, NWPP. 9. Caroline Spencer to Doris Stevens, April 18, 1916, Reel 26, NWPP. 10. Women’s voting record, see, “Mountain Sunshine,” Vol. 1. No. 3, 62, Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 11. “Equal Suffrage in Colorado, Speech of Hon. Edward T. Taylor of Colorado, Delivered in the House of Representatives Wednesday, April 24, 1912” (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1912), 5, Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District. 12. For working women see: Report on Condition of Women and Child Wage-Earners in the United States, Vol. IX: “History of Women in Industry in the United States,” (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1910), 243-259; for laws see “How Colorado Laws Discriminate Against Women,” in this book. 13. The Daily News, Denver, Colorado, January 17, 1897. 14.“Transactions of the Alumnae Association, Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1915,” 130-131, courtesy Archives and Special Collections, MCP Hahnemann University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 15. “Sketch of the Philadelphia Normal School for Girls,” Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1882); Caroline Spencer was awarded the “Dodd” gold medal for her average grade of 97, she wrote, but did not deliver the valedictory address, The North American (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) June 18, 1880; “Woman’s Medical College Faculty Minutes, April 1892” and “Annual Announcement of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, session of 189293,” Archives and Special Collections, MCP Hahnemann University; Historic Records, College of Physicians of Philadelphia. 16. On climate, see National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. XXI, 141; Death from tuberculosis, “Journal of American Medical Association,” October 20, 1928, 1210; Spencer “was licensed to practice medicine in Colorado on April 4, 1893, and at that time she received Colorado medical license 1856. . . . She practiced medicine at Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, ”Medical Society Historical Archives, Colorado State Archives; see also, Rocky Mountain News, April 6, 1893. 17. Colorado Springs Gazette, January 27, 1893, reported that previous to Spencer’s April 1893 arrival in Colorado, that “the

284 • CAROLINE SPENCER & RADICALS FOR REFORM minority report [of the Colorado House] favoring woman’s suffrage was adopted.” The suffrage amendment passed on November 7, 1893. 18. On illness see, Colorado Springs Gazette, December 11, 1902, Illness prevented Spencer’s delivery of a prepared speech to the Woman’s Club; on asthma see, Caroline Spencer to Lucy Burns, n.d., Reel 64, NWPP. 19. “Club Women to go into Politics, Social Science Department Will Determine Best Way to Inquire into Qualifications of Candidate,” Colorado Springs Gazette, January 28, 1904. 20. Organization of Civic League, see Colorado Springs Gazette, October 31, 1909; The Civic League Bulletin, Vol. II. No. 4, (July 1914), 2-3, Special Collections Pikes Peak Library District; in January 1914, the Civic League urged its members to join Alice Paul’s militant Congressional Union, see, The Civic League Bulletin, Vol. II. No. 2. (January 1914), 6. 21. Bertha W. Fowler, “Women in Politics,” Colorado Springs Gazette, March 4, 1929. 22. The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU) was a national organization open to all women to work toward achieving the federal woman suffrage amendment. Originally a wing of the NAWSA, under Alice Paul the CU became independent in 1914; the Woman’s Party, organized in June 1916, was a political party composed of voting women from the six western suffrage states, the CU & the Woman’s Party merged under Alice Paul’s leadership in March 1917, becoming the National Woman’s Party (NWP). Feminist leaders of Colorado Springs, the Civic League’s former officials, led the Colorado Branch CU/NWP; among them were State Chairman Bertha Fowler, Secretary Caroline Spencer, First Vice Chairman Lillian Kerr, and Treasurer Susie Gray. 23. For “clever,” see, Olivia Caseweert to Doris Stevens, April 18, 1916, Reel 26, NWPP; for “stirring things,”see, Caroline Spencer to Alice Paul, January 31, 1917, Reel 38, NWPP. 24. “Will set to work,” see, Bertha Fowler to Alice Paul, August 26, 1915, Reel 18, NWPP; “Right on the job,” see, Bertha Fowler to Anne Martin, n.d. 1917, Reel 46, NWPP. 25. Manly Dayton Ormes and Eleanor R. Ormes, The Book of Colorado Springs (Colorado Springs, Colo.: The Dentan Printing Co., 1933), 312. 26. On 300 members, Colorado Springs Gazette, August 16, 1917; on Dodge’s Gazette, see, Bertha Fowler to Alice Paul, August 19, 1918, Reel 64, NWPP. 27. As example of Republican Party assistance, “The Republicans are making the fight of their lives this year against Senator Shafroth

NICHOLL • 285 and have placed against him Mr. L. C. Phipps, a multimillionaire who is ready to spend any quantity of money. It was Mr. Phipps who gave us $100 to pay the expenses of Miss Arnold to Washington.” Iris Calderhead to Doris Stevens, September 13, 1918, Reel 64, NWPP. 28. Caroline Spencer to Alice Paul, November 16, 1918, Reel 65, NWPP; 1914 election results, “Report of the Congressional Union, 1914”, 49, 51; see also, The Evening Telegraph, Colorado Springs, November 11, 1914. “It is an interesting fact that the two candidates in the recent election who sneered most vigorously at the work of the Woman’s Congressional union are the ones who appear to have suffered most heavily. . . . Charles S. Thomas declared . . . that the Woman’s union was doing a great serviced for him in this state by opposing him and that he hoped that they would continue. And . . . H. H. Seldomridge declared that the work of [the CU] was a ‘joke.’ . . . it appears that Mr. Seldomridge was amply defeated and Mr. Thomas may [have] escaped by the skin of [his] teeth.’ . . . In the wide sweeping results of the recent election, which indicate a loss of 120 members in the Democratic majority of congress, it is an undoubted fact that the Woman’s Congressional union had a substantial part in bringing about this defection.” 29. Caroline Spencer to Alice Paul, June 30, 1915, Reel 17, NWPP. 30. Inez Haynes Irwin, The Story of the Woman’s Party, (New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921, and New York, N.Y.: Kraus Reprint Co. 1917), 109. 31. Gunnison Bayfield Blade August 27, 1915, “Mrs. B. Fowler Elected, Heads Colorado Branch of Congressional Union. . . . Headquarters will be continued in Colorado Springs. The place is now so well known that it is thought best not to change, at least for the present.” 32. Evening Chronicle, Marshall, Michigan, December 6, 1915. 33. Colorado Springs Gazette, August 16, 1916; 34. “Fearless,” Linda G. Ford, Iron-Jawed Angels, 53; “Banner . . . removed,” Colorado Springs Evening Telegraph, October 14, 1916; “Suffs Flaunt . . . ,” see, Colorado Springs Gazette, December 6, 1916. 35. Caroline Spencer to Mrs. S. A. Walker, March 13, 1917, Reel 40, NWPP. 36. Bertha Fowler to Edwin Y. Webb, April 1917, Reel 43, NWPP. 37. Caroline Spencer to Mrs. S. A. Walker, March 13, 1917, Reel 40, NWPP. 38. Caroline Spencer to Alice Paul, May 3, 1917, Reel 42, NWPP. 39. Woodrow Wilson’s war message, quoted Linda G. Ford, Iron Jawed Angels, 123. 40. Colorado Springs Gazette, January 19, 1919.

286 • CAROLINE SPENCER & RADICALS FOR REFORM 41. Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom, 111. “. . . women protested. From coast to coast . . . Of course, not all women . . . approved this method of agitation. But the government’s action had done more than we had been able to do for them. It had made them feel sex-conscious. Women were being unjustly treated;” see, The Suffragist, June 26, 1919, 9. As militancy increased, contributions soured—1913- $27,000; 1916$100,000 with Western states’ anti-Democrat campaigns; after pickets began—1917—$132,000 and 1918- $136,000. 42. Caroline Spencer to Alice Paul, January 26, 1917, Reel 38, NWPP. 43. In addition to Gray, Spencer, and Arnold, at least three other Colorado Springs women joined the pickets; Ida Ostrum departed on September 2, 1917, “to assist you in all ways possible and to help Natalie Gray represent us there [Ida] is a most capable young woman. . . . she is staunch and efficient, also a real revolutionist;” and Eva Decker and Genevieve Williams, arrested and found guilty of “obstructing the sidewalk” on November 12, 1917. Fines paid, the two were released without sentence; for Ostrum, see, Caroline Spencer to Beulah Amidon, September 2, 1917, Reel 47, NWPP; for Decker and Williams, see, Inez Haynes Irwin, The Story of the Woman’s Party, 25125 and Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom, 193. 44. Natalie Gray Sheffer, birth and death dates, California Death Records at RootsWeb.com; Laurence Tenny Gray, Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, December 7, 1958; Susan Gray obituary, Colorado Springs Evening Telegraph, January 31, 1939. 45. The Lever Annual, Colorado Springs High School 1914. 46. Hazel Hunkins to Natalie Gray, July 30, 1917, Reel 46, NWPP. 47. Colorado Springs Gazette, August 3, 1917. 48. Susan Gray quoted in Inez Haynes Irwin, The Story of the Woman’s Party (New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1921), 220. 49. Susie H. B. Gray to Lucy Burns, August 4, 1917, Reel 46, NWPP. 50. Colorado Springs Gazette, August 14, 1917. 51. Ibid. 52. Ibid., August 16, 1917. 53. Ibid. 54. Ibid., August 19, 1917. 55. Stevens, Jailed for Freedom, 111. 56. Summit County Journal, September 15, 1917, “Miss Natalie Gray of Colorado Springs and the five other suffragists who were detained at Occoquan for picketing the front of the White House, were released.”

NICHOLL • 287 57. Oshkosh, Wisconsin, The Daily Northwestern, August 2, 1917; Los Angeles Times, August 24, 1917, “Jailed Suffragists to Hoe Gardens;” mail returned, quoted in, Christine A. Lunardini, From Equal Suffrage to Equal Rights (New York, N.Y.: New York Univ. Press, 1986), 131. 58. “Affidavit of Natalie H. Gray,” October 1, 1917, Reel 49, NWPP. 59. Charles B. Timberlake to Bertha W. Fowler, August 30, 1917, Reel 47, NWPP. 60. Colorado Springs Gazette, September 6, 1917. 61. Ibid. 62. Charles B. Timberlake to H. F. Avery, August 21, 1917, Reel 47, NWPP. 63. Natalie Gray to Alice Paul, November 12, 1918, Reel 64, NWPP. 64. Return to Colorado, see Natalie Gray to Anne Martin, October 3, 1917, Reel 49, NWPP; work in Colorado, see, Caroline Spencer to Alice Paul, November 7, 1918, Reel 64, NWPP; in Northwest, see, Linda G. Ford, Iron Jawed Angels, 187; Gray also served as National Committee Petition Chairman, organizing massive telegram and letter campaigns to elected representatives, see, “Fall Organizing Report,” November 1917, Reel 52, NWPP. 65. New York Times, June 13, 1920, “Suffrage Campaign Centres on Harding.” 66. Caroline Spencer to Anne Martin, August 31, 1918, Reel 47, NWPP. 67. Colorado Springs Gazette, October 23, 1917. 68. Ibid. August 15, 1917,“Suffrage As A War Measure;” August 14, 1917, “A Suffrage Test.” 69. Ibid.; Suffragist, October 18, 1917, 4-5, Inez Hayes Irwin, The Story of the Woman’s Party, 245-246. 70. October 21, 1917. 71. Anthony was arrested for voting in 1872. Found guilty of voting without a “right to vote,” she was fined $100 and court costs or sentenced to go to jail; Anthony refused to pay and was never sent to jail. Her defiance and statement to the court inspired the NWP’s militancy, “I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old Revolutionary maxim, ‘Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God,’” see, Caroline Katzenstein, Lifting the Curtain (Philadelphia, Penn.: Dorrance & Company, 1955), 169. 72. Colorado Springs Gazette, October 23, 1917. 73. Stevens, Jailed for Freedom, 235. 74. Excerpt from “We Worried Woody Wood,” quoted in Ford, Iron-Jawed Angels, 277.

288 • CAROLINE SPENCER & RADICALS FOR REFORM 75. Colorado Springs Gazette, November 1, 1917. 76. Alice Paul’s treatment, see, Stevens, Jailed for Freedom, 192-228; Bertha Fowler, Colorado Springs Gazette, November 18, 1917; Paul’s arrest and demand to be treated as a “Political Prisoner, see New York Times, October 25, 1917; believing they were arrested for political protest, not for criminal activity, the NWP prisoners were recognized “as the first political prisoners to serve terms in a government prison,” “No Longer Suffrage—but Justice,” opinion, George A. Hoagland, Colorado Springs Gazette, October 10, 1917; After serving 5 weeks of the 7-month sentence, Paul and twenty-one others were released on November 27, 1917, without condition or explanation. On March 4, 1918, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled that each one of the suffragists had been “illegally arrested, illegally convicted, and illegally imprisoned.” http://law.jrank.org/pages/2806/TrialsAlice-Paul-Other-National-Woman-s-Party-Members-1917.html. 77. Caroline Spencer to Doris Stevens, August 18, 1918, Reel 64, NWPP. 78. Colorado Springs Gazette, August 20, 1918. 79. Caroline Spencer to Alice Paul, August 20, 1918, Reel 64, NWPP. 80. Bertha Louise Arnold, Century Chest, Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 81. Colorado Springs Gazette, September 14, 1913. 82. Ibid., August 10, 1913. 83. The Suffragist, August 31, 1918, 6. 84. Alice Paul to Caroline Spencer, Sept. 7, 1918, Reel 64, NWPP. 85. Inez Haynes Irving, The Story of the Woman’s Party, 364; “The Suffragist,” September 28, 1918, 6-8. 86. The Suffragist, November 23, 1918, 9. 87. Colorado Springs Gazette, December 8, 1918, “Berthe Arnold Writes of Her Part in the Fight for Democracy at Home.” 88. Caroline Spencer to Alice Paul, November 7, 1918, Reel 64, NWPP. 89. Caroline Spencer to Alice Paul, December 4, 1918, Reel 66, NWPP. 90. Colorado Springs Gazette, January 19, 1919. 91. Ibid., January 21, 25, 26, 1919. 92. “Pal” to Berthe Arnold, n.d., 1919, Reel 75, NWPP. 93. For DAR, see Ford, Iron Jawed Angels, 240-241; see also Berthe Arnold to Mary Gertrude Fendall, n.d., February 1919, Reel 69, NWPP. “Suffragists Burn Wilson in Effigy: Many Locked up,” New York Times, February 10, 1919.

NICHOLL • 289 94. Charles Thomas to Bertha Fowler, August 24, 1918, Reel 64, NWPP. 95. Colorado Springs Gazette, February 4, 1919. 96. Inez Haynes Irwin, The Story of the Woman’s Party, 331; New York Times, January 27, 28, 1919, and February 16, 1919; at Carnegie Hall, New York Times, March 11, 1919; see also, The Suffragist, February 1, 1919, 4, “Miss Arnold, who was sent to Washington to represent her state, has helped organize in Florida and in New Hampshire and has picketed the Senate Office Building. 97. Olean, New York, Olean Evening Times, November 11, 1922, “National Woman’s Party meets in Washington to Initiate new Campaign for ‘Equal Rights,’” In Washington, D.C., the NWP met to draft an equal rights amendment which was inspired by the Colorado Branch which “had drawn up for it on one of the foremost lawyers in Colorado, and which simply states the general principle that women shall have all the rights and privileges possessed by men, without specifying what these rights and privileges may be.” Dr. Caroline Spencer attended that meeting on November 11, 1922. 98. “Universal Suffrage is Success Says Dr. Spencer,” no date, Sinton Scrapbook, Tutt Library Special Collections, Colorado College. 99. Colorado Springs Gazette and Telegraph, September 23, 1923; in July 1927, the NWP staged another ERA convention with meetings at the Broadmoor and Antlers hotels and a pageant in Monument Valley Park, see Colorado Springs Gazette and Telegraph, July 10, 1927. 100. Gray and Sheffer wedding, see Colorado Springs Gazette, January 1, 1922; Evergreen Cemetery Burials, Colorado Springs; William Sheffer obituary, Colorado Springs Free Press, March 8, 1950. 101. Colorado Springs Gazette, September 11, 1921; California Death Records, RootsWeb.com. 102. Spencer internment permits, Laurel Hill Cemetery Company, Philadelphia; Spencer wills and estates, nos. 563, 1428, 3219, Register of Wills, Philadelphia, courtesy by e-mail of Mr. Darien Andes; Spencer quotation, Civic League Bulletin, Vol. II, No. 4 July 1914, 2-3, Special Collections Pikes Peak Library District.

Lillian Hart Kerr. From Representative Women of Colorado: A Pictorial Collection of the Women of Colorado, The Alexander Art Publishing Co., Denver, Colorado, 1914.

“Someday the women are going to run this government” Lillian Kerr, A Colorado Springs Legend Chris Nicholl For Heaven sake stay with it, the real battle is yet to come. Men have got to be taught that civilization cannot progress by the forces of destruction; the present chaotic state of the world proves it. Women have got to come into positions of executive power—they have got to run things for a while—no “side by side with men” until we have “shown them” and when they are fit we will talk about “side by side with women!” Lillian Kerr to Alice Paul, immediately following ratification of the 19th Amendment--September 19201 Muckraking Activist. Humanist. Socialist. Feminist. Pacifist. Those words, pejorative sounding though they might be to some, define Lillian Hart Kerr. Living nearly 96 years, from 1866 until 1962, Kerr built an impressive social and political legacy. So much so, that if one looks around, one can detect her imprint can on nearly all components of the cultural and civic landscapes of Colorado Springs, on the status of females whose political and economic equality she advanced, and on the international scene where she worked to achieve world disarmament and peace. By looking at Lillian Kerr, the individual, and her astonishing achievements, it is possible to view her as a representative exemplar of countless unsung women. Those women, past and present, are the community builders. They push the persistent “glass ceiling” higher and higher, and they imagine a world without war. Born in 1866 in Iowa, Lillian Hart’s family settled in Archer City, Texas, where she grew up. She graduated from the North • 291 •

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Texas Female College around 1887.2 An accomplished pianist, by her late teens she traveled by horseback, teaching music in regional schools. While teaching was among the few socially sanctioned professions open to Victorian era females, Lillian nevertheless circulated in the male-dominated public world. She served as the state of Texas’s first female notary public, was postmaster in Archer City from 1892 to 1893, and was selected as a judge over Archer City’s exhibits for the Texas exhibition in the 1893 World’s Fair, joining a panel composed of five men and only one other woman.3 In 1893, following a 10-year courtship, Lillian married Robert Kerr. Even with his impressive resume—Civil War veteran, land developer, prominent judge—Lillian’s decision to marry was a difficult one for her. Believing the world to be already overpopulated, she refused to have children. She was highly educated and capable of self-support. Throughout her lifetime, single or married or widowed, Lillian was a working woman.4 The Kerrs settled in Colorado Springs around 1895, where Robert became a respected county judge, civic leader and advocate of women’s equality, and Lillian connected with a cluster of educated, lively, females like herself, known as “new women” of the late 19th century. Imbued with a sense of civic responsibility and outrage at existing conditions, Lillian Kerr and her friends expected that they would change the world. So much change was needed. Children, women and unskilled workers labored long hours with low pay and virtually no health or safety protections. Gender inequalities posed special legal and economic disabilities for females. Environmental destruction and hazards were everywhere. Political and corporate corruptions were the order of the day—all were blights in need of attention and correction. A forceful humanist, Kerr was a lifelong advocate for social justice. In a 1902 essay, she revealed her radical socialist and pacifist leanings as she promoted the rights of laboring people, called for the end of poverty and the abolition of corrupt “boss” politics, while also deploring the cost of war. As she put it,

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If this nation can appropriate more than $400,000,000 for war purposes it does seem that it might well afford to furnish free transportation to men seeking work . . . furnish them work by establishing public works . . . and send the laborers and their families from their dungeons in the tenements out into a place where air and sunlight at least are plenty. . . . Unfortunately the people do not control the government in most cities, so that they can tear down and clean out such foul and poisonous places which infest the community. The gang politicians are in control, and they are paid well for omitting to enforce the law.5 Kerr and her circle of progressive friends determined to attack and resolve such glaring injustices. How? They would use the power of the vote, and work together in organized leagues. After 1893, Colorado’s women possessed a nearly unique authority that authorized them to address political issues. That year the state’s male voters passed a state constitutional amendment granting woman suffrage. Possessing the vote amounted to a giant step forward for females. It reshaped the idea of separate spheres for the genders. Previously, males participated in the public, political sphere and females were shunted into the private, domestic sphere—cleaning and setting an example of moral purity for their families and society. With voting power, women gained the authority to step outside the home and clean up society. It was by organizing into groups that women, once powerless in the public sphere, could begin reshaping the political landscape. In 1902, Lillian Kerr was the founder and first president of the Woman’s Club of Colorado Springs. Already, many women’s organizations existed that generally focused on a single cause. Some were educational—devoted to the study of literature, art or music—others were charitable organizations and patriotic societies. Meetings were held in private homes, consequently, the groups were small and elitist. But the Woman’s Club was a new idea in town. Any women who cared to join could do so and there was no limit on membership. The

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organizational meeting, called by Lillian Kerr, brought out one hundred women. Within weeks, membership jumped to two hundred seventy-five.6 There were three departments: Art & Literature, Home and Education, and the Social Science department. The first department was a traditional educational organization, with meetings devoted to cultural topics. The second department, disingenuously called “Home and Education,” pondered intensely feminist inquiries, including: “Shall We Give Our Girls a Business Education?”. . . “Shall we be Marthas or Marys?” . . . “How Much Should We Yield to the Demands of Society?”. . . “How to be Happy Though Married.” Among some topics Kerr presented over time were: “Housework! Is it necessary drudgery?” and “The Ministry of Fun.” The Social Science department was a new venue for women’s clubs. That sub-group scrutinized everything in the public sphere; in the first year, a series of seventeen topics devoted to analyzing urban problems and solutions was presented by club-members whose expertise—whether as physicians, educators, or social workers—was the basis for each session of the bi-weekly meetings. While her cohorts discussed many aspects of city life, Kerr presented an in-depth analysis of the economics of a city. Overall, the Woman’s Club’s contributions were and remain important. Expanding the boundary of the “domestic” sphere to include all public issues, the clubwomen examined qualifications of political candidates, pressured for food and drug standards, lobbied for a national parks system, and invited experts on municipal planning, political life and social problems to speak to local audiences. Self-described socialists, Jane Addams and Helen Keller were among the significant theorists on social issues who came to town. The women organized the city’s first free kindergarten, supplied fresh milk to school children, lobbied for a public library and raised over $1,200 to purchase books for it. They funded a girls home in Denver, collected gifts for institutionalized soldiers and clothes for soon-to-be-released prison inmates. They gave educational loans and scholarships to young female students. At all times, they educated each other with well-researched papers.7

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But there were other subtle, yet striking, outcomes of Kerr’s Woman’s Club. Inviting all women to join was a means of social leveling, largely democratizing Colorado Springs’ women, both those with old money and those with new money. It harnessed the energies and talents of nearly two hundred intelligent women to collectively work for the social good. An additional outcome, quaint sounding today—is that their bulletins listed each woman by her given name rather than only by the socially accepted title of Mrs., followed by her husband’s full name. It is difficult to grasp the significance of that action. At the turn of the 20th century, except in the four suffrage states, women did not have a legal identity.8 They were the property of their husbands, fathers and even adult sons, if widowed. Married women’s identities were subsumed in their husbands’ identity; and the Woman’s Club members wanted to know who they were. The local group affiliated with the state and national federations of woman’s clubs and that unity of hundreds of thousands of women granted the nation’s females, most of whom could not vote, a powerful political voice. Of course, an urgent goal of the woman’s club federation was achieving national woman suffrage. Thrusting womanpower further into the public world than ever before, in 1909, Kerr was also a co-founder of the Colorado Springs Civic League. The ladies demanded and got a desk in city council chambers where Lillian, as chairman of the Council Proceeding Committee, sat for 5 years, scrutinizing the all-male council’s decisions and reporting back to the League and the city’s citizens. The mayor then appointed Lillian Kerr a member of the City Planning Commission. In conjunction with the Woman’s Club, the Civic League petitioned the council to hire a planner to create a guide for the growth and development of the city. The local press described the women’s visit to the City Council for that purpose as “an invasion,” revealing in no uncertain language the disdain in which women were held by some journalists.9 Nevertheless, the women prevailed and pioneering civic planner Charles Mulford Robinson designed a graceful

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downtown center with dignified civic buildings, surrounded by greenways and parks.10 The Civic League insisted that a policewoman be hired in 1913. The League also worked to protect the pristine landscape: it demanded that the Colorado Midland Railroad give up its ever-popular, environmentally destructive flower excursions during which tourists pulled armloads of flowers from the mountainsides. At day’s end they had thrown the wilted plants aside. True muckrakers, the League exposed corrupt politicians and environmental hazards, publishing names and photos in its bulletin. It demanded investigations into unscrupulous labor practices and exploitation of the working class, of working children, and of working women. Always, of course the women campaigned for a national woman’s suffrage amendment. After 5 years of intense agitation for all manner of reform, the women of the Civic League found themselves to be very unpopular. According to one report, the League was neutralized by threats that husbands might lose jobs or merchants might suffer if wives and daughters did not withdraw from the League.11 Still the Civic League’s legacy lives on in the city flag that they designed and gave to the city, and in the idea of parks, trails and greenways that surround the region, in the position of city planner and, indeed, in women having not only invaded, but been elected to serve on City Council, as county commissioners, and even as mayor.12 Although stalled, the determined women did not dissapear. They reorganized as a Colorado Chapter of what would become known as the National Woman’s Party (NWP), the radical, militant wing of the woman’s suffrage movement. Lillian Kerr retained her previous Civic League position as first vice president and, by 1915, Colorado Springs emerged as the headquarters of the state’s radical suffragists. While some regional women, who joined White House pickets for the national suffrage amendment, were arrested and sentenced to Washington, D.C., area jails in 1917—1919, Kerr maintained a tireless pace, pursuing a wide range of humanist interests and activities that would have thwarted most others.13

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She wrote eloquently argued editorials, demonstrating the effectiveness of women, who, using their votes, influenced legislative action on more than one hundred fifty socially beneficial laws. Other letters defended the suffragists’ militant tactics.14 She also traveled the West as a salaried organizer for the NWP. Moving from Colorado to Wyoming to New Mexico to Oklahoma and to Washington, she campaigned on behalf of suffrage, organized NWP chapters, hosted tea parties for the ladies and harangued the elected officials to put through the suffrage amendment. As 1919 drew to a close, lacking enough states’ votes to ratify the amendment, in her typical get-it-done style, Kerr “decided to go to Wyoming to secure a majority of the legislators who [would] attend the special [ratification] session without mileage or pay.” As it happened, through charm and tenacity, Kerr had engineered the successful ratification session.15 After achieving woman suffrage in 1920, the Woman’s Party reorganized and began to agitate for the Equal Rights Amendment, seeking not just political equality but legal and economic equality for women. Lillian Kerr was among the coauthors of that amendment and it was she who, in 1923, was selected by the NWP to organize Colorado for the equal rights campaign.16 In the context of her experience, it is easy to understand why Kerr and her cohorts so diligently sought equality. In Colorado Springs, a relatively progressive city, women faced old-time, patriarchal political barriers, even a quarter of century after winning the suffrage. In 1917, she wrote, We are facing a Municipal . . . election. . . . An effort is being made to adopt the “City Manager Plan” of nine MEN. At a meeting of Tax payers called to discuss the question in the city hall and at which about 150 citizens were present, I made as strong a protest as I could against the “Plan” on the sole ground that half the populations, viz women—were not represented on the proposed Commission. . . . The gentlemen ask[ed] us ‘to wait’ as usual.17

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The NWP sought equality for both genders—for equal treatment under the law, at the workplace, and for social and moral parity. Kerr, representing NWP ideas, advocated for equal access to alimony, to paternal as well as maternal laws, and she fully believed that “someday” women would run the government. More than 50 years ago, she anticipated the imminent election of a woman president of the United States. In the meantime, she stated that as president, she would balance the government by reorganizing her “cabinet on a fifty-fifty basis of men and women.”18 Lillian tirelessly worked for the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1923, the NWP held a massive Equal Rights Pageant at the Garden of the Gods. More than twenty thousand people attended. Lillian Kerr, programming chair for that event, appeared as Amelia Bloomer, clad in bloomers—the precursor to the pantsuit—woman’s attire no less shocking at that date than when it first appeared in the mid-19th century. Throughout the late 1920s, she co-hosted a weekly radio program devoted to equal rights. In the 1930s, as a representative of the NWP she protested “legislation which would deprive married women of state jobs except in cases where they are the sole bread-winners of the family.”19 Always a woman of action, Kerr devoted her energies to social and cultural aims as well as political ones. She organized the Women’s Auxiliary of the local YMCA and later worked with the YWCA. In 1913, she was the force behind the city owned utilities. Believing that private ownership was too costly, she petitioned door-to-door, garnering six hundred signatures to persuade officials toward municipal ownership. As she saw it, The whole trend of public sentiment, even in this country, is toward public ownership. America has been slow to adopt the progressive measures which have been established for years in older countries. There is a reason for this. The people of America have never really owned their government; always even from the beginning, barriers have been interposed between us and the control of our affairs. No transportations system, gas or electric light system, telephone, telegraph water

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system or town lot for that matter, would be worth a rap if it were not for the people who use them. In the nature of things their value is ‘social’ and should be owned by ‘society’ for the benefit of ‘society.’20 In 1914, Kerr ran for political office, standing for state representative; her political literature noted that she was the “only woman candidate for the legislature.” Perhaps more revealing, it continued, “ El Paso County has never had a woman representative.”21 Lillian headed Teddy Roosevelt’s Colorado Bull Moose Party campaign in 1916.22 She took a salaried position in Washington, D.C., on the Civil Service Commission and was a Red Cross worker during World War I. She was a member of the North End Women’s Christian Temperance Union—a powerful voice for women’s rights and equality. She was a charter member of the Colorado Daughters of the American Revolution, serving as state parliamentarian for 3 years.23 Kerr was an official of the Business and Professional Women’s Club, founded in 1914, with its motto “A Better Business Woman for a Better Business World.” How much fun it might have been to hear her address, entitled “Big Women in Big Business.”24 She was on the faculty of the Labor College of Colorado Springs, teaching night classes in parliamentary law and current events. She was among the founders of the city drama league and the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.25 She was a popular lecturer on current political and economic events, often speaking on behalf of labor and labor rights. Again, in 1924, she stood for political office; running for Congress, hoping to help create a woman’s bloc to balance the male domination of government.26 Along with her other stunning achievements, Lillian Kerr was the Colorado Chairman of the Women’s Committee for World Disarmament. On Easter Sunday, 1921, she organized a mass disarmament meeting, one of fifteen held in the country. Two hundred Colorado women met in the YWCA at Colorado Springs, and passed resolutions urging the president to call for a disarmament conference. She long remained a member of the National Council for the Prevention of War.27 In late 1951,

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Kerr declared that if she were the U.S. president, she would establish a new cabinet post—a “department of peace”—that would match war funds appropriations with equal funds for peace programs.28 Lillian Kerr was a remarkable woman, a woman of action who through her club and organizational work powerfully shaped the social, political, environmental, civic and cultural lives of Colorado Springs. Some called her “the black-eyed devil,” but today we enjoy the fruits of her labor.29 She and her “new woman” friends helped redefine the status of females from helplessly dependent and politically oppressed to independent, self-actualized individuals, who even have a personal identity in the form of a given name. More importantly, Kerr worked tirelessly to advance women’s equality, helping ensure the passage of the nineteenth amendment, enfranchising more than half the nation’s women. She instilled the idea of gender equality that we continue to inch toward today. She even redefined ideas about marriage: she chose not to have children, and town gossips wondered how her husband could tolerate her being away so much. For when she was not mixing up local affairs, she took job opportunities in distant places. The Kerrs’ surely were a devoted couple. In a letter, Lillian confided that following Robert’s death, her work was her “salvation.”30 Until near her death at 95, in January 1962, Lillian carried on a battle for a great cause: the passage of the ERA, which she optimistically thought would be passed in her lifetime. Until her death she never gave up on the idea of world peace, bequeathing $500 in her will to the Woman’s Club to be used for that cause.31 Lillian Kerr loved the community that she helped to build and where she made her home for nearly 70 years. Her ashes were scattered in the Garden of the Gods, where she helped usher in the ERA. Stop by and say, “Thanks for all you did.”32

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Notes

1. Lillian Kerr to Alice Paul following the ratification of the 19th amendment, September 1920, Reel 81, National Woman’s Party Papers, The Suffrage Years, 1913-1920, Microfilming Corporation of America. 2. Rozetta & Leo Guess, The Curtis Book (Privately Published, 1933), 110. 3. Elisabeth Crocker Mitchell, “Frontierswoman, Music Teacher on Horseback, Fighter for Women’s Rights, This Was Lillian Kerr, A Woman Who Shaped History,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, February 25, 1967; “Fifty Counties Already Organized for the World’s Fair,” The Galveston Daily News, June 29, 2891. 4. Kerr as land-developer, see, Fort Worth Daily Gazette, May 3, 1890; “An Ideal Mayor for Colorado Springs: Robert Kerr,” Colorado Springs Labor News, June 17, 1909; for courtship, see, Mitchell, “Frontierswoman;” Archer County Texas Marriages – Book 1. 5. Colorado Springs Gazette, August 31, 1902. 6. Woman’s Club of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Annual Announcement, 1902–1906, Pikes Peak Library District Special Collections; Mitchell, “Frontierswoman.” 7. Woman’s Club Annual Announcement. The Woman’s Club remains alive today. It continues to raise funds for charitable causes and to give generous scholarships to local female students. 8. By 1904, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho were woman suffrage states. 9. Colorado Springs Gazette, November 1, 1911. 10. Charles Mulford Robinson, A General Plan for the Improvement of Colorado Springs (Colorado Springs, 1912). 11. Civic League of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Bulletin 19111916, Pikes Peak Library District Special Collections; Bertha W. Fowler, “Women in Politics,” Colorado Springs Gazette, March 2, 1929. 12. Mary Lou Makepeace was elected Colorado Springs’ first woman mayor in 1997. 13. Imprisoned were: Natalie Gray, Dr. Caroline Spencer, and Berthe Arnold of Colorado Springs and labor advocate, Margaret Wood Kessler and journalist Mildred Morris, both of Denver. 14. On women’s votes, see, Colorado Springs Gazette, August 6, 1913; for defense of militarism, see, Lillian Kerr, “The I.W.W.’s of the Woman’s Movement,” Colorado Springs Gazette, August 20, 1918; “The Suffragists’ Arrest,” Colorado Springs Gazette, August 19, 1917. 15. For Kerr in Wyoming, see, Mabel Vernon to Dr. Caroline Spencer, December 23, 1919, Reel 75, National Woman’s Party Papers.

302 • LILLIAN KERR 16. “Mrs. Kerr helped to compose the text of an equal rights amendment which was to supercede state laws and give all women of the country the rights and privileges with men under the law,” Colorado Springs Gazette, July 17, 1953; Glad Morath, “Madam President,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, November 17, 1951; “Mrs. Kerr Made Organizer for Equal Rights Campaign,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, September 26, 1923. 17. Lillian Kerr to Anne Martin, March 8, 1917, Reel 40, National Woman’s Party Papers. 18. Mildred Morris, “Alimony for Men New Cry,” New Castle, Pennsylvania, New Castle News, November 25, 1919; Morath, “Madam President.” 19. For radio program, see, Lillian Kerr to Mabel Vernon, September 1928, Reel 39, National Woman’s Party Papers; Http:// www.uccs.ed/~library/newdeal_timeline.pdf 20. Colorado Springs Gazette, January 15, 1913; John J. Lipsey, “How the People Regained Their Power.” Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District. 21.Colorado Springs Gazette, November 1, 1914. 22. “Mrs. Kerr, Progressive Worker, is Prominently Mentioned in Denver,” Colorado Springs Gazette, September 28, 1916. 23. Mitchell, “Frontierswoman.” 24. Business and Professional Women’s Club, “Bulletin,” September 1932. 25. Glad Morath, “Civic Players Grew From Old Play Reading Group,” Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, October 31, 1954. 26. “Boom for Mrs. Kerr as Senator Started by Springs Women,” Colorado Springs Gazette, March 31, 1923. 27. Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Biography File: Lillian Kerr. 28. Morath, “Madam President.” 29. Mitchell, “Frontierswoman.” 30. Lillian Kerr to Mabel Vernon, National Woman’s Party Papers Reel 39, September, 1928. 31. Mitchell, “Frontierswoman.” 32. The Law Mortuary, Colorado Springs, January 16. 1962. Case Sheet 14778; Birth date May 8, 1866; age 95, residence 1815 N. Tejon, “Disposal of ashes – We scatter Garden of Gods;” minister: none; birthplace: Seward, Nebraska; Father’s name: L. W. Hart; Mother’s maiden name: Eleanore VanBergen.

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“Women for Congress Campaigners Before the Arcade of the Broadmoor Hotel Colorado Springs, Colorado. In the picture, from left to right, are Mrs. Stuart P. Dodge, Miss Katherine Courtney, Mrs. Lillian H. Kerr, Mrs. Bertha W. Fowler, State Chairman; Miss [Margaret] Whittemore, Mrs. Lawrence T. Grey, Miss Vernon, Mrs. Rowena Dashwood Graves, Dr. Caroline E. Spencer, Miss Ernestine Parsons and Miss Eva Shannon. All, except Miss Whittemore and Miss Vernon, are members of the Colorado Branch of the National Woman’s Party.” From Equal Rights, v. 13, 9 (April 10, 1926), front cover, H. L. Standley

photograph, National Woman’s Party Records, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C. (mnwp 160083).

Alimony For Men New Cry Pensions For Fathers Also Included In Program Of Organization WOMEN LEADING NOVEL VENTURE Mildred Morris

International News Service Staff Correspondent New Castle News, November 25, 1919 New Castle, Pennsylvania

WASHINGTON, November 25.—Alimony for men and pensions for fathers is the new war cry of feminists in Washington. They are organizing a movement for protective legislation for men declaring it inconsistent for women to clamor for equality while receiving special benefits by law. Not that they feel gentle toward males. Take it from Mrs. Lillian H. Kerr, vice chairman of the Colorado state branch of the National Woman’s Party and wife of Judge Robert Kerr of Colorado Springs, Colo., they decided they do not feel gentle toward males. A sex war is coming, they darkly predict, but until it comes they will be consistent. Men Need Protection “Good heavens!” exclaimed Mrs. Kerr, exasperated that any one should think there was anything strange about wanting to protect men. “If they don’t need protection, who does? They are more helpless than children. It is necessary for the salvation of the world that women protect them. “The world would not be in the disorder it is now if the men had not muddled affairs. Let them turn the government over to the women and stay at home. We’ll support them. Heaven knows they have done enough talking about protecting and sheltering us! Well, we’ll protect and shelter them and not talk about it.

“Some men I suppose have a hard time in life. There are some hard working fathers. There are fathers left either by death or divorce with children on their hands. They should be pensioned by the state. States which have mothers’ pensions certainly should have father’s pensions. Alimony For Men “If it is right for women to have alimony, it is right for men to have it. In cases where there are no children and the woman has the bigger income she should be the alimony paying one. I don’t see how any self-respecting woman or man able to earn a living could take alimony, but both sexes should be treated alike by the law. “There should be paternity as well as maternity laws. Some day the women are going to run this government. Before they run it, they should show the men women’s idea of justice. The laws that are passed to protect men, we women are going to get for them. I am willing they should have exactly the same rights as women. That is not to say they are the equal of women in intelligence.” “Your husband------“ began the interviewer delicately. “He agrees with me always,” said Mrs. Kerr. “So far as I know he is the best husband in our precinct.” adadadad Mildred Morris, a newspaper writer and investigator for the War Labor Board from Denver, was arrested in January 1919, along with Dr. Caroline Spencer of Colorado Springs for participating in “Watch Fires for Justice,” demonstrations. [Morris] became very good at lighting asbestos coils, the fires matching her flaming red hair. She once almost set off the White House trees. [She was] described . . . as “cynical, thin and wiry, her hair red with streaks of white as it stood out in all directions. . . . [She] stopped at nothing . . . she slept where she happened to be . . . ate when she had money, drank too much and smoked endlessly.” She had to be carried out of her jail cell on a stretcher. Linda J. Ford, Iron-Jawed Angels: The Suffrage Militancy of the National Woman’s Party, 1912-1920 (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1991), 238.

The Awakening, by Henry Mayer. Originally published in Puck, v. 77, no. 1981, February 20, 1915, with a poem by Alice Duer Miller. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., (LC-USZC2-1206).

How Colorado Laws Discriminate Against Women NOTE: This chapter was originally published in 1924. It is reprinted with only minor format revisions to the original leaflet. The mother’s rights are less than the father’s. Women bear the brunt of the burden of illegitimate parenthood. The wife’s services in the home belong to her husband. Women are excluded from jury services. Women in industry are hampered by discriminatory legislation. Laws controlling venereal diseases are more stringent for women than for men. This [1924] leaflet is a brief summary of discriminations which are shown in a digest covering all Colorado laws and court decisions in any way affecting women. The said digest, with similar digests for other states, was compiled for the Legal Research Department of the National Woman’s Party by Emma Wold, LL.B., LL.D., Member of the Bar of the District of Columbia. Colorado, so proud of its vanguard position in the march of legislative progress, has yet some laggard laws that need to be whipped into front rank shape. Under the common law a woman was always the protected ward of some man, first of her father or guardian, then of her husband. She was not given the rights, privileges or responsibilities of a thinking, independent person. The common law is the rule of decision and remains in full force in Colorado until it is repealed. Women are still denied some rights of the independent male individual, though subject to equal responsibilities. • 307 •

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The logical step for Colorado is to wipe from the pages of the law books all traces of inequality and to set up as a standard for all legislation and court decisions the principle that laws shall apply equally to men and women, thus placing this state at the forefront of legislative progress. The National Woman’s Party is working to remove all forms of inequality which place women in the position of subjection— in the law, in custom, in the moral world, in the professions, in industry, in education, in elective and appointive positions, in the church and in the home. Its first object is the removal of discriminations in the law. It is endeavoring to obtain an amendment to the Federal Constitution declaring: “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.” Such a national amendment would overrule discriminations against women in state constitutions and discriminations existing in statutes and court decisions. The Colorado Branch of the National Woman’s Party is working to secure the adoption of Equal Rights legislation by the Colorado General Assembly. It is urging legislation placing men and women on an equal plane before the law. At the 1923 session of the Colorado Assembly it secured a change in the code of civil procedure which gives the right of action for the death or injury of a child to both the father and the mother or to the surviving parent and provides that, if one parent has deserted or refuses to sue, the other parent may maintain the action. When both parents sue each is to have an equal interest in the judgment. Discriminations against women still recognized in the statutes or by the courts of this state are outlined in the following pages. How Colorado Laws Discriminate Against Women I. The Mother’s Rights Are Less Than the Father’s. Formerly the common law recognized the father as the child’s only legal parent. Later, as the mother obtruded herself upon the legal consciousness, the equal guardianship law was passed in Colorado. But, though this law recognizes both parents as joint custodians, the old belief in the father’s superiority is so

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strong that even to this day he retains greater rights than the mother over the child. Instances are given in the following paragraphs: A. Fathers alone may bind children as apprentices. By the Colorado statute the consent of the father alone is sufficient to bind his minor legitimate child as an apprentice or clerk. Against the decision of an unsympathetic, avaricious father the law gives no power to the mother’s understanding or ambition, and her consent is necessary only when the father is dead, or incompetent, or an habitual drunkard, or abandoned the family.2 If the child be over 14, his or her own consent must be obtained.3 Mothers may bind illegitimate children, since the father is spared what society considers the undesirable responsibility for such offspring. But the power of the mother to bind her child, whether legitimate or illegitimate, ends upon her subsequent marriage and may not be exercised at any time during such marriage.4 A father's right, on the other hand, is not affected by his subsequent marriage. In a matter so intimately affecting the welfare and future usefulness of a child, if would certainly seem just that a mother's wishes be consulted and that the law require her consent, as well as that of the father before a child is “bound out.” B. Fathers alone may make contracts for their children's services. Colorado still recognizes the father's common law authority over his children in vesting in him alone the right to assign or contract for his children's services during their minority.5 A mother's consent is not required. C. Mothers have greater responsibility than fathers for illegitimate children. In the case of the illegitimate child whose existence is usually frowned upon by society, the weight of responsibility is still placed upon the mother, and not the father, in Colorado. Unless the parents intermarry after the birth of the child, the custody and control of such a child are the mother's alone; it

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usually takes her name and her residence, and is incapable of inheriting from or through its father.6 While the father is liable to criminal prosecution if he willfully neglects, fails or refuses to provide reasonable support for his illegitimate child under 16,7 and while this is true even if he has not been adjudged in some earlier proceeding to be the father,8 in order to hold him civilly liable, he must be proved to be the father in proceedings begun before the child is 12 months old.9 This liability is limited to the amount fixed by the court for the support of the child. II. The Wife's Rights Are Less Than the Husband's Rights. The right of the husband still makes him, by the common law influence which remains, master of his house and, in some respects, even master of his wife. Instances are as follows: A. A husband owns his wife's services in the home. Colorado still gives to every husband, as under the common law, the ownership of his wife's services.10 A wife's work in the home belongs, therefore, not to herself, but to her husband, and the law does not recognize her right to any money return for these services. This is not limited to the ordinary duties of a housewife, but it includes the labor of her hands for and with him outside household duties when it is given to a business in which she is not engaged in her own right. In the absence of clear proof to the contrary, property accumulated by husband and wife through their joint efforts is assumed by the law to belong to the husband because his wife's help is due him in return for her board and clothes.11 Thus the product of long years of mutual industry and selfdenial becomes the property of the husband unless he makes his wife a gift of it. He may give it away to some person other than his wife; he may invest it without her consent. In only two instances is the wife's right to the property which she has helped to accumulate recognized by the law. If the marriage bonds are dissolved by the death of the husband,12 or by divorce,13 she is held entitled to her share. If the property is the homestead to the value of $2,000, the husband may not dispose of it without her consent.14

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B. The husband receives money damages when the wife is injured. The fact that the wife's labor in the household is the property of her husband, gives him the right to collect damages when she is injured through the negligence of a third person. The wife may sue for damages for her pain and suffering and for expenses which she personally incurred, such as medical expenses,15 but the husband, not the wife, is entitled to compensation for the loss of her services and working capacity in the home. The loss of her time through her inability to work there is considered his loss, and not her loss,16 and he alone may recover money damages for such loss. The loss of the wife's society, care and comfort, “past, present and prospective,” is also an element for which he may recover. He may also recover for the loss of his own time spent in caring for his wife during illness following an injury.17 How much the services of the wife and her society are worth in money does not have to be shown. In one case the court said: “The companionship and society of a wife are not articles of commerce. They cannot be weighed or measured; they are not bought and sold and no expert is competent to testify to their value. Yet the husband is entitled to compensation in money for their loss, and the amount of that compensation is to be determined by the jury, not from evidence of value, but from their own observation, experience and knowledge, conscientiously applied to the facts and circumstances of the case.”18 So also with regard to the services of the wife, the court said, “All the work of the home may be done by hired employees, and her services still give character to the home. They are not rendered in accordance with set rules; they are not repeated in regular order from day to day; they have their source in the thoughtfulness of the wife, and her regard for her husband, and no witness is qualified to define them, or reduce them to a list, or say what they are worth; so that their value must also be estimated by the jury.”19 The amount awarded for loss of a wife's services differs, therefore, according to the discretion of the jury. In one case, when the wife was seriously and permanently injured, she received damages of $10,000 for her pain and

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suffering, but nothing for the loss of her time; her husband was awarded damages of $6,000 for the loss of her services.20 Had she been allowed to collect damages for the loss of her time and earning power as an unmarried woman could, or as a man could, she would have received the full sum of $16,000. An illustration of the effect of the law that a wife's services belong to her husband is the following case: Mrs. Young was injured in a railroad accident. She was living with her husband in a farm in Arapahoe County and, in addition to doing her ordinary household work, she took care of and milked three cows, made and delivered butter and did other manual work on the farm. Her injuries made her unable to do any of this work. She sued to recover damages. The Supreme Court held that she was not entitled to damages for the loss of her time resulting from her inability to work, but that the damages for this loss should be awarded to the husband. The court said that the state laws giving married women the right to sue in all matters regarding their property and person as if they were single “have not abrogated the common law relations of husband and wife. She is still required to perform the usual and ordinary household duties. For services of this character she is not entitled to any monetary compensation from the husband. Her services on this account belong to him.21 If the husband is injured on the other hand, he himself recovers all damages and the wife has no right to recover for the loss of his services to her in the way of support during the time he is unable to work, nor can she recover for the loss of his society. While he is unable to work, she still owes him her services and she is liable as well for the family expenses, for the law says: “The expenses of the family and the education of the children are chargeable upon the property of both husband and wife, or either of them, and in relation thereto they may be

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sued jointly or separately.”22 This makes even the wife's own personal belongings liable to be seized for debts incurred by the husband for himself and his family.23 C. The husband and not the wife determines the wife's legal residence. The old common law rule which held that the legal residence of a husband become that of his wife and that she could not establish a separate domicile for herself still holds in Colorado. The court has said, “The law presumes the wife's domicile to be that of her husband,”24 and “in this state as well as elsewhere the domicile of the husband is the domicile of the wife.”25 This means that for purposes of voting and holding office, for taxation, for settlement of estates and other legal matters, a wife has no right to establish her own domicile but must use that of her husband. Though all her property may be elsewhere, though her taxes there may be treble or quadruple his, though reasons of health or business may cause her to reside elsewhere, still should her husband choose at any time to pick up his household and move from Denver to Colorado Springs with the intention of making it his residence, she straightaway becomes a legal resident of Colorado Springs.26 Should he move to another state with the intention of making it his permanent residence, he thereby loses his residence in this state,27 and his wife loses hers with him. She may never live there and she may have given years of public service to the place in which she remains, yet her right to vote or to hold office there can be challenged at any time after her husband has fixed his legal residence elsewhere. D. The husband and not the wife is the legal head of the family. The state constitution provides “that the personal property of every person being the head of the family to the value of $200 shall be exempt from taxation.”28 The phrase “head of the family” is defined by statute to mean the husband “where husband and wife are living together,” except “where the wife provides the chief support for the family, then it shall mean the wife.”29 So long as the marriage relation exists, all the personal property of the wife must be taxed unless she can show that

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she is the chief provider for the family. Yet under the law of the state her property is as liable as that of the husband for family expenses.30 III. The Woman's Rights are Less Than the Man's Rights. It is not marriage and its “protection” only that seemingly incapacitate a woman from taking her place beside man as an equal. Even the unmarried woman must take her place below the men, who are held able to take care of themselves. Instances are given below: A. Women many not serve on juries. Women are excluded from jury service by the constitution of Colorado which specifies that a jury, whether it be a petit or a grand jury, shall consist of “men.”31 The only other class shut out with women are convicted criminals. The statute confines jurors to “male inhabitants of this state of the age of 21 years, who are citizens of the United State or have declared their intention to become such citizens, and who have not been convicted of felony.”32 This statute forbids discriminating against, rejecting or challenging any person, otherwise qualified, who may be able to speak only Spanish or Mexican and is unable to understand the English language.33 Women have long had the right to vote and to hold office, but are still judged less capable of weighing evidence in civil or criminal cases than a man who cannot understand the language. Colorado is not in line with progressive states in thus prohibiting women from rendering a great service to their community and to women who in a trial are entitled to be judged in the light of the experience and knowledge of women as well as men. B. Women, but not men, are excluded from coal mines. Under the Colorado laws regulating coal mines “no males under 16 years and no female shall be employed in or about the coal mines or coke ovens, except in an office in a clerical capacity.”34 This excludes women from lucrative engineering positions in connection with the mines as well as from the actual mining.

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C. Women, but not men, are limited to an eight-hour day with no allowance for overtime. Women, but not men are limited to an eight-hour day with no provision for overtime, in all manufacturing, mechanical and mercantile establishments, laundries, hotels and restaurants.35 If the law applying to women workers applied to all persons in those establishments, all the workers would benefit by the law and women would not be placed at a disadvantage in competing with men, when work is scarce, by being able to offer less service to their employers than can their male competitors. D. Women are subject to more stringent quarantine laws in treatment of social diseases. Colorado laws for the regulation of venereal diseases provide for the commitment of women suffering from such diseases to the State Detention Home for Women.36 This statute applies to “any female.” There is no similar provision for men. The only law applying to men is one which requires health officers to examine “persons” suspected of social diseases and to require them to report for treatment to a physician or public clinic, and, if necessary, to quarantine them,37 but such persons are not subject to commitment to an institution. This is a glaring instance of the double standard sanctioned by the law in the different treatment accorded men and women suffering from the same cause and constituting an equally great menace to the community. The woman may be sent to a “detention home,” while the man is required only to secure treatment from his physician or in a public clinic, and is then free to go about from place to place. E. Women teachers are discriminated against. Colorado has no statute requiring equality of treatment for men and women teachers. In the absence of such provision, women may be paid less for doing work like that done by men, they may be given fewer opportunities for promotion; and their marriage may reduce their salaries or exclude them entirely from the service. For equality of treatment they are dependent only upon the discretion of the local boards of education. For instance, in Colorado Springs a rule of the Board of Education reads: “Marriage by a teacher during the term of her employment

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may be deemed good cause for cancellation of her contract.” In Rocky Ford there is a rule reading, “Married women who are not dependent upon their own efforts for family support are not eligible to teaching positions in the schools of this district.” IV. The Female Child's Rights Are Less Than the Male Child's Rights. Man's superiority, it seems, does not begin with manhood. So ingrown is this idea that even before the age of majority special privileges are accorded the child because of sex. An example follows: A. Girls are less protected than boys against too early marriage. A boy under the age of 21 may not marry without the consent of the parents or guardian. A girl may marry without such consent if she is 18 or over.38 Since such consent is intended by the laws to be a protection to young people, it would seem to be as necessary for girls as for boys. In relation to property rights, girls are not of age until they are 21.39 For important matters of business, it is held necessary to protect a girl to the same extent as a boy, but for marriage, which involves all of a woman's future, she is held to be wiser than a young man. Is her judgment more mature? Is she less in need of protection from the unscrupulous? Or is it less important she be saved from youthful errors?

Notes

References given are to the Compiled Laws of Colorado of 1921 and decisions of the Colorado Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals of Colorado. 1. Section 6516. 2. Section 5517. 3. Section 5518. 4. Section 5517. 5. Section 5539. 6. Section 5158. 7. Section 5566. 8. Section 64 Colo. 521.

NATIONAL WOMAN’S PARTY • 317 9. Sections 6299, 6301. 10. 21 Colo. 340. 11. 30 Colo. 349. 12. Section 5151. 13. Section 5599. 14. Section 5929. 15. 20 Colo. App. 74. 16. 41 Colo. 272. 17. 21 Colo. 340; 16 Colo. 423. 18. 14 Colo. App. 132. 19. 14 Colo. App. 132. 20. 55 Colo. 538, 540. 21. 30 Colo. 349. 22. Section 5575. 23. 64 Colo. 226. 24. 3 Colo. 408. 25. 42 Colo. 367. 26. Section 7726 (5). 27. Section 7726 (4). 28. Const. Art. 10, Sec. 3. 29. Section 7194. 30. Section 5575. 31. Const. Art. 2. Sec. 23. 32. Section 5830. 33. Section 5830. 34. Section 3546. 35. Section 4184. 36. Section 1066. 37. Section 1079. 38. Section 5557. 39. Section 5229.

adadadad

NOTE: Among the many services Dr. [Caroline] Spencer rendered, was research work in the statutes of Colorado. She, aided by Mrs. [Susan] Gray, made the digest of all the laws in the state affecting women. This was the basis of a complete Digest of such laws, by the Legal Research Department of the National Woman’s Party, costing many thousands of dollars. A short resumé of this Digest was printed and hundreds of copies were distributed throughout the state and country. Manly Dayton Ormes, The Book of Colorado Springs (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Dentan Printing Co., 1933), 313.

The 1923 Equal Rights Pageant attracted 20,000 spectators to the Garden of the Gods. Courtesy of Mrs. George Fisher, from Special Collections, Pikes

Peak Library District. (001-2476).

The Corset Conflagration, or Women’s Liberation, 1923 Inez Hunt & Wanetta W. Draper NOTE: This chapter was originally written during the 1960s. It is reprinted with only minor format revisions to the original manuscript. There were no bras to burn in 1923 but women were resenting their corset stays and the confinement which they symbolized. Sunday, September 23, 1923, was Women’s Liberation Day in Colorado Springs. It was the grand finale of countless rehearsals for the climax of the most ambitious pageant ever held in the state. At least the news media predicted that it would be. It was to be a protest by suffragettes of the National Woman’s Party against the tyrannical rule of MAN. The date chosen was the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the organization and was to depict the courage of Lucretia Mott, pioneer suffragette. Women from coast to coast were converging upon the resort town to lend their shrill voices against their prime enemy. The national leader of the movement was slated to spearhead the festivities. She was no less than the formidable Mrs. O. H. P. [Alva] Belmont, bellwether of the flock. She was assisted by a shining coterie of the vocal protesters which included Mrs. John Winters [Eunice] Brannan, the daughter of Charles Dana, creator of the Gibson Girl, and other national figures, such as Alice Paul, and Sue White displaying her pin of locks, chains and bars to symbolize her imprisonment for the cause. They were assisted by local socialites and life members of the organization which included Mrs. Leonard [Helen] Curtis, wife of the president of the Colorado Springs Power Company; Mrs. Spencer [Julie] Penrose, wife of “Spec,” the copper king owner of Broadmoor estates; Mrs. Verner Z. [Mary] Reed, wife of the • 319 •

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mining magnate; and Mrs. Oliver [Unetta] Shoup, wife of the former governor. Although Colorado was more liberal than most states concerning the rights of women, it seemed an appropriate as well as central location for the celebration. Nevertheless, according to Mrs. O. H. P. [Alva] Belmont, women’s status was far from satisfactory anywhere in the country. Even in Colorado a wife’s services were still the property of her husband, women were excluded from jury service, and a married woman could not choose her own domicile. The women pledged themselves to work with all the states. There were some laws that even men would admit were grossly unfair. In Georgia, the father of a family could will his children from their mother without her consent. He was the sole director of their religious instruction. There was no equal pay for equal work, and they were not “treated alike in sex offenses.” A newspaper reporter interviewed the leader and asked for a statement. “A wife is no better than a slave,” cried Mrs O. H. P. [Alva] Belmont. She was so emphatic in her statement that even the reporter quailed and chains seemed to rattle. Preceding the big pageant of the day, an elaborate luncheon was given by Mrs. Belmont at the Broadmoor [Hotel]. Among the guests came Anne Ellis, mentally analyzing recipes for every dish on her plate and enjoying her conversation with Nellie Burget Miller, the poet laureate of Colorado. Mrs. Ellis was invited because of her political popularity. Immediately following the luncheon, the group went to the Garden of the Gods, arriving a little late, having loitered over dessert. They found hundreds milling around the red rocks and with Alice Paul standing on the hillside like “Napoleon directing, commanding, and changing orders before anyone had a chance to carry them out.” At one time she handed out tin cups to be used for donations, then changed her mind. Those who didn’t hear her went on collecting and she lashed out at them with her tongue. Mrs. Ellis later recalled that all day she had not seen Alice Paul smile. “Poor thing,” Mrs. Ellis recorded, “I think she wasn’t well. Probably while she was working for equal rights for women, Nature was having its way with her and demonstrating the main reason why it is impossible for women to take their place beside men.”

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Anne Ellis read her program and the prologue for the ceremonies. Nellie Burget Miller had been requested to write this. The words depicted the past status and also the present obligation of women. It read: The women whom we honor here today With quiet courage left their sheltered place, To face the world’s battery of scorn Sustained by visions of a world re-born. An opportunity for all the race. They saw the vision and did not delay, “Freedom for all,” they cried, “is on the way.” They struck a light at cruel, chafing chains And silken cords of rose-hung chivalry. No Amazons were they with martial dreams Of world supremacy but fragile forms In silken gowns and dainty caps of lace Pleading that justice take her rightful place And grant to all—EQUALITY—at last. ‘Tis ours to hold the ground they won. The strife not o’er, the battle done, Pick up their torch and “carry on!” They summon us today to lead their quest. We may not falter, may not rest Until their goal at last we see, America a true democracy. Oh Women rouse from sodden sleep Of cloistered centuries And keep the faith! Go gravely as the unfearing go, Go proudly as the unconquered go, Go singing as the far-seeing go, To victory! In no time at all, an estimated twenty thousand spectators came from all directions to the natural stage setting which was later to become the site for Easter pageants. Some alighted from cabs, others hiked all the way to the scene. Many more took advantage of the special half-fare rate on the streetcar

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and walked to the scene over the Ridge Road. The ones who had ridden the busses to Twenty-Eighth Street merged with the other pedestrians. A veritable cloud of red dust hovered over the gathering. Party after party came in groups to see the pageant and join in dinner entertainment later. Movie companies Fox, Pathé and Universal were on hand with their equipment grinding out the scene. Eventually the crowd was assembled and it was curtain time. The orchestra struck up an overture from the pit which was literally dug out of the earth. The blind singer, Ruth Montgomery, stepped to the fore to sing “Angels Ever Bright and Fair.” She was assisted by a chorus of two hundred voices. From the sky rocks came the sound of the trumpets announcing the procession which was coming on the stage led by a blonde Amazon, Sally Halthusen Gough, riding out on a horse, black as night. Behind her came the covered wagon, followed by an old red stagecoach with creaking wheels. Time moved on with the surrey with the fringe on top and then a fashionable horsedrawn coupe. Behind them came a procession of pioneers bringing with them a sudden squall of rain to polka-dot the crowd with the red dust. There was a scatter for shelter from the storm which had become a downpour. But luckily, the shower subsided as if by a prearranged signal, and on cue a great purple banner bearing the words of the declaration of the party unfurled against a giant slab of sandstone. Colors and banners made purple, white and gold in lines upon lines of garland bearers of five hundred young girls paraded before the crowd. All through the gathering were men and women who had come dressed in the costumes of 1848. Following the procession, Lloyd Shaw appeared on stage portraying James Mott in the costume of a Quaker gentleman. Dr. Lloyd Shaw was a prominent educator and one of Colorado Springs’ most talented dramatic actors. Bertha Arnold Knorr, one of the most beautiful women of Colorado Springs, took the part of Lucretia Mott. She stood tall and dignified, her golden hair half-hidden by a Quaker bonnet. She looked uncompromisingly feminine. Miss Ernestine Parsons appeared as Susan B. Anthony. Mrs. Robert [Lillian] Kerr, a strong political figure in Colorado, was dressed as Amelia Bloomer of

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pioneer fashion revolutions and grandmother of the pants suit. Mrs. Manley [Eleanor] Ormes was dressed as Lavinia Latham, Mrs. H. V. [Lillie] Wandell was cast as Sally Pitcher. Miss Frances Heiser appeared as Ann Porter. These were a few of the prominent members of the cast. The rocks echoed with the confident songs of the women as they sang “Shout, Shout, Up with Your Song—Enter and Conquer.” The banners of Susan B. Anthony waved wildly with the words “Failure is Impossible.” Words of hope and determination by Mrs. O. H. P. [Alva] Belmont were more or less lost on the mountain air. Her voice was not as overpowering as her personality. Miss Alice Paul had a part in the speeches. Sue White, the militant leader from Tennessee, declared that present laws were enough to make married women wish they were single. She deplored the old English common law still in vogue which declared that man and wife were one and that MAN was the ONE. The applause of the spectators echoed over the rocks. At the conclusion of the pageant there was a seething mob of motorists and pedestrians without traffic control. It would not occur for almost a half century that women could and would direct traffic. The local papers reprinted a caustic article by Arthur Brisbane which was syndicated in the majority of the country’s papers. Brisbane criticized Mrs. Belmont’s views on marriage, and described her two brownstone palaces on Fifth Avenue and the marble house in Newport [Rhode Island] where footmen in scarlet plush breeches and silk stockings and powdered wigs catered to her every whim. Brisbane ventured that with all these luxuries nothing could have been as important to her as her three children. The columnist agreed that marriage could not be perfect in an imperfect world, and then with tongue in cheek, predicted that perhaps marriage could exert some influence on male babies and that women would no doubt be improving the men and eventually they might make husbands worthy of their wives and then the door of real civilization would be open. A reporter, seeking to fan the fire by getting an answer to Brisbane from Mrs. Belmont, telephoned her that evening at the Broadmoor Hotel. She simply informed him that she felt it was not worthwhile to contradict Mr. Brisbane. She said that he had

324 • THE CORSET CONFLAGRATION

been a friend of hers and shouldn’t have written such things. At this point she banged the receiver. The reporter was not quite certain what had happened to the connection and called back to ask if he had been accidentally cut off. Mrs. Belmont said “No,” and the receiver banged again. In various ways men used the columns of the newspaper for their feeble defense. One man wrote of the imaginary visit of an Indian chieftess by the name of Mugwump who returned after 300 years to reveal how Indian women achieved their rights— by subtly furnishing the comforts of food and a warm teepee. The fabled Princess Mugwump concluded that her white sister had fallen into evil ways and had been made to seek in open, the rights that they had already acquired if they would but ask for them when their men were dulled with the comforts wrought about them. Later in the evening, the riotous Elks Club Minstrels put on a male version of the suffragette pageant. Clad in diaphanous feminine garments, they cavorted about in a haze of purple and white cheesecloth bunting as they presented their minstrel show. Lou Funk and his brothers starred. Tiny Jones was the elephantine end man. The show would have been the envy of Rowan and Martin half a century later. One of the feature songs of the chorus was a hit tune of the day which lamented the complete lack of a certain tropical fruit. On a more dignified plane were the glittering social occasions which highlighted the night. Most spectacular of all was the reception given by Mrs. [Julie] Penrose. Among the guests were Governor [William] and Mrs. [Joyeuse] Sweet and Mrs. O. H. [Unetta] Shoup, wife of the former governor. Among prominent citizens of the state came Anne Ellis, county treasurer of Saguache County, and her daughter. Feeling extremely humble and over-dressed in her new lace gown, Mrs. Ellis forgot her insecurity in the presence of celebrities. She thought Mrs. Shoup was the best dressed woman there. She felt that Mrs. Belmont, despite the newspapers’ statement that she was never tired, showed the effects of a strenuous day. Perhaps the social activities were catching up with her. Perhaps her girdle was killing her.

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The next morning among those who departed from the railroad station were Alice Paul and her representative who had been chosen to travel over Colorado to speak for women’s rights with a salary of $200 a month. Anne Ellis thought she was probably the only woman who profited financially from the convention. Inez Hunt & Wanetta W. Draper Tesker collaborated throughout their writing careers and co-authored many books, including Ghost Trails to Ghost Towns (1958); Horsefeathers and Applesauce (1959); To Colorado’s Restless Ghosts (1960); and Lightning in His Hand: The Life Story of Nikola Tesla (1964). All published by Sage Books. Later works included Colorado Crazy Quilt (1971), published by HAH publications. Much of the research for Ghost Trails to Ghost Towns was completed on joint family camping trips. The “youngest Colorado feminist,” Mildred Bryan, shakes the hand of feminist leader Alice Paul in the Garden of the Gods at the Equal Rights Pageant on September 23, 1923. H. L. Standley photograph, National Woman’s Party Records, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., (mnwp 159039).

Helen Hunt Jackson was a woman of the East as much as the West. This composite photograph, “Eminent Women,” displays how prominently she factored among her literary contemporaries. Photographer William Notman created many composites. Jackson and the others had their separate portraits taken at Notman Studios, Boston, in 1884. They are, standing, left to right: Mary A. Livermore; Sara Orne Jewett; Grace A. Oliver; Helen Hunt Jackson; Nora Perry; Lucy Larcom; Frances Hodgson Burnett. Seated, left to right, are Elizabeth Stuart Phelps; Louise Chandler Moulton; Louisa May Alcott; Julia Ward Howe; and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Courtesy Orchard House/Louisa May Alcott

Memorial Association.

Selected Bibliography Bennion, Sherilyn Cox. Equal to the Occasion: Women Editors of the Nineteenth-Century West. Reno, Nev.: University of Nevada Press, 1990. Becker, Cynthia S. Chipeta, Queen of the Utes, a Biography. Montrose, Colo.: Western Reflections Pub. Co., 2003. Bluemel, Elinor. Florence Sabin: Colorado Woman of the Century. Boulder, Colo.: University of Colorado Press, 1959. Brown, Dee Alexander. The Gentle Tamers; Women of the Old Wild West. New York, N.Y.: Putnam, 1958. Business and Professional Women’s Club of Colorado Springs, Colorado: Calendar (1923, 1931-39). Butler, Anne M. Uncommon Common Women: Ordinary Lives of the West. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1996. Carmack, Sharon DeBartolo. A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors. Cincinnati, Ohio: Betterway Books, 1998. Chartier, JoAnn. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon: Women Soldiers and Patriots of the Western Frontier, Guilford, Conn.: TwoDot, 2004. City Federation of Women’s Clubs Colorado Springs Colorado. The Civic League Bulletin (1910-1916). Cleaveland, Agnes Morley. No Life for a Lady. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1941. Cornell, Virginia. Doc Susie: The True Story of a Country Physician in the Colorado Rockies. Carpinteria, Calif.: Manifest Publications, 1991. Enss, Chris. Hearts West: True Stories of Mail-Order Brides on the Frontier. Guilford, Conn.: TwoDot, 2005. Farley, Ronnie, ed. Women of the Native Struggle: Portraits & Testimony. New York, N.Y.: Orion Books, 1993. Faulkner, Debra. Touching Tomorrow: The Emily Griffith Story. Palmer Lake, Colo.: Filter Press, 2005. Flexner, Eleanor. Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1975. Ford, Linda G. Iron Jawed Angels. Lantham, Md.: University Press of America, 1991. • 327 •

328 • BIBLIOGRAPHY Henderson, Caroline. Letters from the Dust Bowl. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. Holmes, Kenneth L., ed. Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1890. Vols. 1-11, Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. Iversen, Kristen. Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth. Boulder, Colo.: Johnson Books, 1999. Kaufman, Polly Welts. National Parks and the Woman’s Voice: A History. Albuquerque, N.Mex: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. King, Evelyn. Women on the Cattle Trail and in the Roundup. College Station, Tex.: Brazos Corral of the Westerners, 1983. Lee, Mabel Barbee. Cripple Creek Days. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1984, 1958. Luchetti, Cathy. Home on the Range: A Culinary History of the American West. New York, N.Y.: Villard Books, 1993. MacKell, Jan. Brothels, Bordellos, & Bad Girls: Prostitution in Colorado. Albuquerque N.Mex.: University of New Mexico Press, 2004.

______ . Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountains. Albuquerque N.Mex.: University of New Mexico Press, 2009.

Mathes, Valerie Sherer. Helen Hunt Jackson and Her Indian Reform Legacy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.

______ , ed. The Indian Reform Letters of Helen Hunt Jackson, 1879-1885. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.

McGinn, Elinor. A Wide-awake Woman: Josephine Roche in the Era of Reform. Denver, Colo.: Colorado Historical Society, 2002. Mead, Rebecca J. How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914. New York, N.Y.: New York University Press, 2004. The National Woman’s Party Papers (Microfilm) The Suffrage Years, 1913-1920, Rolls 1-96, Sanford, N.C.: Microfilming Corporation of America, 1981. O’Meara, Walter. Daughters of the Country; the Women of the Fur Traders and Mountain Men. New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. Passet, Joanne E. Cultural Crusaders: Women Librarians in the American West, 1900-1917. Albuquerque, N.Mex.: University of New Mexico Press, 1994.

BIBLIOGRAPHY • 329 Peavy, Linda S. Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier. New York, N.Y.: Smithmark, 1996. Perrone, Bobette. Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989. Phillips, Kate. Helen Hunt Jackson: A Literary Life. Berkeley. Calif.: University of California Press, 2003. Propst, Nell Brown. Those Strenuous Dames of the Colorado Prairie. Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Publishing Co., 1982. Robertson, Janet. The Magnificent Mountain Women. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1990. Scharff, Virginia. Twenty Thousand Roads: Women, Movement, and the West. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2003. Schroeder, Pat. 24 Years of House Work—and the Place is Still a Mess: My Life in Politics. Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Pub., 1998. Seagraves, Anne. Daughters of the West. Hayden, Idaho: Wesanne Publications, 1996. Smith, Duane A. Mesa Verde National Park: Shadows of the Centuries. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 1988.

______ . Women to the Rescue. Durango, Colo.: Durango Herald Small Press, 2005.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, eds. Vol. 1-6, History of Woman Suffrage. New York, N.Y.: Fowler & Well, 1881-1922. Trenton, Patricia, ed. Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945. Berkeley, Calif.: Autry Museum of Western Heritage in association with the University of California Press, 1995. Tucker, Phillip Thomas. Cathy Williams: From Slave to Buffalo Soldier. Mechanicsburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books, 2002. Varnell, Jeanne. Women of Consequence: The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. Boulder, Colo.: Johnson Books, 1999. Wills, Kathy Lynn. Cowgirl Legends from the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Salt Lake City, Utah: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1995. Woman’s Club of Colorado Springs Annual Announcement. Zanjani, Sally Springmeyer. A Mine of her Own: Woman Prospectors in the American West, 1850-1950. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.

A “cowgirl.” From Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (001-360).

Archives Collections by or About Women in Special Collections, Pike Peak Library District Charles and Virginia Baldwin Papers, MSS 0263. Correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, memorabilia, ca. 1867—1960. Beth-El Hospital, Women’s Board Records, MSS 0222. Minutes, reports, histories etc. of Beth-El Hospital, School of Nursing, ca. 1903— 1942. Broadmoor Garden Club Records, MSS 0191. Meeting minutes, correspondence, scrapbooks, ca. 1935—ongoing. Gladys Bueler Papers. Research materials and lectures on Colorado history (from UCCS), ca. 1972—1980. Susan Coolidge Manuscript: “Helen Hunt Jackson,” MSS 0122. Biographical sketch of author Helen Hunt Jackson, published as an introduction in the 1900 Little, Brown, and Co. two volume Monterey edition of Ramona, 1900. Daughters of the American Revolution, Kinnikinnik Chapter Scrapbooks, MSS 0152. From the Kinnikinnik Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a national patriotic women’s organization whose members can trace their ancestors to Patriots in the American Revolution. The Kinnikinnik Chapter was established in Colorado Springs in 1914, 1914—ongoing. Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1861-1865. Mero L. Tanner Tent No. 4 Records, MSS 0140. This collection consists primarily of membership records for the Colorado Springs Tent of the national patriotic women’s organization, the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1861—1865. Membership records include the name of the member, age, address, place of birth, name of sponsor, and date of initiation. Also included is the name of father or grandfather who served in the Civil War, his rank, unit, enlistment and discharge dates, and G.A.R. post number, 1916—1972. Georgia (Mrs. Stanley V.) Davis Correspondence, MSS 0134. Letters written by Georgia (Mrs. Stanley V.) Davis of Cheyenne Mountain to Mrs. James K. Doughty of Lamar, Colorado, describing her daily activities, 1938—1944. • 331 •

332 • ARCHIVES COLLECTIONS Delta Kappa Gamma-Omega State, Eta Chapter Records, MSS 0054. Records of the Colorado Springs, Colorado, area chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, an international honor society for women in education. The collection includes the organization’s charter, minutes, annual reports, correspondence, financial records, necrologies, scrapbooks and publications. Also included are biographical and autobiographical typescripts about women educators in Colorado, many of which were submitted for use in the Omega State (Colorado) publications Up the Hemline and Torchbearers, 1938—ongoing. Ellen T. Brinley Guild Records, MSS 0071. Records, including correspondence, minutes, and scrapbooks documenting the activities of a Colorado Springs based charitable organization. The Ellen T. Brinley Guild, founded in 1932, to assist needy families in El Paso County. Early projects included clothing drives, Christmas stockings, aid to the blind, and supplementing school lunches. Over time the Guild’s service area expanded to other Colorado counties and parts of Kansas and New Mexico. After World War II, the Guild assisted with relief efforts by sending clothing, money and other supplies to needy families in European countries. The Guild also helped establish a juvenile detention home in Colorado Springs. The Brinley Guild was disbanded in June, 1982, 1932—1981. Mary Haines Herriott Correspondence, MSS 0135. Transcription of a letter from Mary Haines Herriott to Mrs. L. G. McKinley in which the author shares memories of Colorado Springs and of studying at Colorado College in 1889. Also included is a letter from Mrs. McKinley to Louise Kampf, Colorado College librarian, giving background information about Mrs. Herriott, 1957. In Memoriam: Helen Hunt Jackson (H. H.), Pamphlet, MSS 0148. Handwritten and hand-drawn pamphlet recounting the life and death of Helen Maria (Fiske) Hunt Jackson (1831-1885). Text, title and some drawings are the same as Frank S. Thayers’ 1886 publication by the same name, undated. Dorothy Josephine Krause Scrapbook, MSS 0176. Scrapbook compiled by Colorado Springs resident Dorothy Krause documenting her activities during 4 years at Vassar College. Scrapbook includes programs, invitations, clippings, and ephemera, 1913—1917. Ladies Guild Society of Green Mountain Falls Records, MSS 0067. Photocopies of meeting minutes and treasurer’s reports from the ladies society of the Church of the Wildwood in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado, 1923—1925 and 1934—1936.

ARCHIVES COLLECTIONS • 333 Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic. Kit Carson Circle No. 9 Records, MSS 0136. Primarily scrapbooks and membership related materials, for Kit Carson Circle No. 9 of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Colorado Springs chapter of the national women’s patriotic organization. Also included is some membership information for Denver Circle No. 1 and proceedings from some of the Colorado and Wyoming Department annual conferences, 1894—1988. League of Women Voters of the Pikes Peak Region Records, MSS 0052. Records of the non-partisan organization established as part of the National League of Women Voters, to “promote political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government.” Materials document the activities of the Colorado Springs area League from its inception in 1938 through the 1990s and include correspondence, annual reports, meeting minutes, subject (research) files, newsletters, publications, scrapbooks, ephemera and audio and video tapes, 1908—ongoing. Ruth Banning Lewis Papers, MSS 0109. Personal papers of Ruth Banning Lewis, including schoolwork, professional correspondence, clippings, and political (largely anti-liberal and anti-Communist) mailings and publications. Among her many civic activities, Ruth Banning Lewis served on the Colorado Springs’ District Eleven Board of Education from 1923—1935, was on the Colorado Springs City Council from 1943—1949, and was an organizer of the Volunteer Nurse’s Aide Corps, and portions of this collection reflect her participation and interests in those organizations, [1906]—1953. See also, Banning Lewis Ranches Records, MSS 0098. Grace Strong Lightfoot Correspondence, MSS 0131. Correspondence to Grace Strong Lightfoot from family members, including Charles F. Strong of Lawrence, Kansas, and Grace’s husband, W. J. Lightfoot, who was U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor and wrote from Cripple Creek, Colorado, from 1892—1896, 1878—1911. Helen Lindahl Michelson Letter, MSS 0121. Author’s memories, in the form of a letter to the church, from over 80 years with the First Evangelical Free Church of Colorado Springs, including recollections of ministers, members, and the author’s own family, 1995. Dorothy Mierow Manuscript: “Crystola,” MSS 0088. Author’s recollections, including memories of living in Crystola, Colorado, the Ute Pass Flood of 1929, and working in Nepal, undated.

334 • ARCHIVES COLLECTIONS Jean Miller Collection, MSS 0300. Audio tapes, sheet music and biographical material, ca. 1960s? Compositions, photographs, clippings and audio recordings document the life of composer Jean Miller, who attended Colorado Women’s College in Denver, and Julliard School of Music in New York, 1946—1972. Ruth Mary Noble Correspondence, MSS 0132. Photocopies of letters written by Ruth Mary Noble from Tracy and Divide, Colorado, to her family in Cripple Creek in 1904. Letters describe Noble’s move to Tracy and her experience teaching school in Divide, 1904. Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center Records, MSS 0178. This collection contains material from the Pikes Peak Family Counseling and Mental Health Center and, more specifically, from its two parent organizations, Associated Charities and the Colorado Springs Child Guidance Clinic. Early records include casebooks, correspondence, meeting minutes and annual reports. Later material consists largely of news clippings and board records, 1886—1992. Pikes Peak Republican Women’s Roundtable Scrapbooks, MSS 0172. Scrapbooks compiled by the women’s organization established in 1958 and affiliated with the Colorado Federation of Republican Women. Its objectives include promoting the purposes of the Republican party and encouraging an informed electorate. Scrapbooks document the activities of the Roundtable and include clippings, photographs, annual reports and copies of their newsletter, the Trunkline. Scrapbooks from 1985—1989 include clippings about local Republican women candidates and office holders, 1958—ongoing. Idabelle Sullivan Robinson Manuscript: “Memories of My Grandmother,” MSS 0077. Recollections by Idabelle Sullivan Robinson about her grandmother’s life and family events primarily in Ramah, Colorado, in the early 1900s; includes brief references to Cripple Creek and Elkton, Colorado, 1983. Ruth Shaw Architectural Collection, MSS 0250. Correspondence, floor plans, blueprints and memorabilia from various buildings in Colorado Springs, relating mostly to historic preservation. Leila F. Shields Diaries, MSS 0064. consisting of short daily records of events and weather, 1899—1946. Lillian M. Starrett, Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Collection, MSS 0167. Pamphlets, flyers, clippings and other published materials, 1898—1940.

ARCHIVES COLLECTIONS • 335 Helen Stephenson Diaries, MSS 0067. Journal kept by 17-year-old Helen F. Stephenson while camping with her family in North Cheyenne Canyon near Colorado Springs in the summer of 1905. Transcribed (1997) by Stephenson’s daughter, Ida Robertson Miles. Lida Taylor Collection, MSS 0125. Reminiscences of a preacher’s daughter, including moving from Kansas to the Pikes Peak region of Colorado by covered wagon in the 1890s, typhoid fever in the family, and living and traveling throughout Colorado, 1976. Josephine Tutt Scrapbooks. Nine Scrapbooks, containing news-clippings about racehorses, (hunters, jumpers, polo, etc.), ca. 1920s—1940s. Heidi Vazquez Guy Videos. Two videos (video histories of Hispanic seniors of the Pikes Peak Region) with one notebook of background information, ca. 1996. Visiting Nurse Association of the Pikes Peak Region Records, MSS 0118. Primarily reports to the board and meeting minutes, of the health care oriented organization, established in 1907 and in operation until 1986. Instrumental in establishing and/or maintaining many public health programs such as clinics for the needy, dental and child welfare clinics, school nursing, community health education, and professional home health care, 1909—1995. Nellie V. Walker Papers, MSS 00211. Newspaper clippings, contracts, ephemera relating to her sculpture in Colorado Springs, ca. 1905—1970. West Central Regional Conference of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs Scrapbook, MSS 0096. Clippings, conference program, and songs from the First Regional Conference of the West Central Regional Conference of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs which met in Manitou Springs, Colorado, in June 1930. Julia Ryan Wills Manuscript: “Alice Bemis Taylor” MSS 0094. Biographical information about the Colorado Springs philanthropist, 1995. YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region Records, MSS 0072. Records including correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, financial information, newsletters, brochures, scrapbooks, blueprints, audio-visual material and ephemera. Materials include records from the YWCA, Pikes Peak Y, and Y/USO, 1886—1992. Margaret Yoder Manuscript: “Homesteading with Menno Yoder, Greeley County, Kansas, 1886-1887,” MSS 0129. Transcript of daily journal entries and cash account book entries of a settler in Greeley County, Kansas, in 1886—1887.

Bronc rider, possibly Vera McGinnis or Prairie Rose Henderson, ca. 1917. From

Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, (001-134).

INDEX 1917 Espionage Act: sedition bill, 234 Academy of Our Lady of the Light, 169 Adams, William H. (sen.), 247 Addams, Jane, 241, 294 African Americans, 191 Colorado Springs, 192 discrimination, 192 migratory movement, 191 suffrage, 195, 212 women, 2, 195 Ahrens, Eugenia R., 187 “They Came To Educate: The Sisters of Loretto in the Rocky Mountain West, 1852—Present,” 167–189 Albright, Madeleine CWHF inductee, 7 Alcott, Louisa May, 117 illust. of, 326 Alderson, R. E., 104 Aldred, Anna Lee CWHF inductee, 8 “Alice Bemis Taylor” by Vesta W. Tutt, 101–109 “Alice Stewart Hill, Colorado Springs’ First Wild Flower Artist: Her Family & Her Friends” by Edwin & Nancy Bathke, 111–123 Alimony: equal access, 298, 304–305 “Alimony For Men New Cry” by Mildred Morris, ref., 304–305 Allen, Stephanie CWHF inductee, 8 Alphonse, Mary (sr.) death, 171

Alvarado, Linda Martinez CWHF inductee, 9 American Indian: artifacts, 89. See also Manitou Cliff Dwellings; Mesa Verde National Park photo of artifacts, 88 rights, 127 American Protective Association, 193 Anaconda Standard (newspaper), 236 Anasazi culture. See Mesa Verde National Park Anderson, Margaret, 101, 103 Anderson, Susan CWHF inductee, 9 “Anemones” by Susan T. Dunbar, ref., 116 by Virginia McClurg, ref., 118 Anschutz-Rodgers, Sue CWHF inductee, 8 Anthony Amendment. See Susan B. Anthony Amendment Anthony, Scott J. (maj.), 159 Anthony, Susan Brownell, 282 arrested, 269 photo of, 246 portrayed, 322 rhetoric, 162 Antlers Garage photo of, 166 Antlers Hotel: photo of Linen Room, 62 Araminta’s Paint Box by Karen Ackerman descr. of, 13 Arapaho Indians, 142 Archaeology: Mesa Verde, 76–77 Archuleta, Eppie CWHF inductee, 9

338 • INDEX Archuleta, Lena CWHF inductee, 11 Arnold, Bertha Louise “Berthe” 2, 270–274, 322 as Mott, 281 DAR, 277–278 death, 281 descr. of demonstrations, 274 education, 271, 281 jailed, 245 photo of, 271, 272, 276 watchfires, 276 Arnold, Clarence, 271 Arnold, Louise, 271 Arnold, Virginia photo of, 262 Art: women &, 17 Ashenhurst Amusement Co., 91, 94 Ashenhurst, Harold, 83 Atler, Marilyn Van Derbur CWHF inductee, 9 “Aunty Lane” by Helen Hunt Jackson, ref., 144–145 Authors: women, 18 “The Awakening” illust. by Henry Mayer, 306 Ayers, Roy (gov.), 240 Baca, Polly CWHF inductee, 9 Badin, Stephen T. (fr.), 168 Bailey, Dewey C., 194 Baird, Julius, 105 Balcony House, Mesa Verde, 81 descr., 76–77 discov., 76 photo of, 77 Baldwin, Charles, 51 Ballou, Kingsley, 64

Ballou Studios, 64 Bancroft, Caroline CWHF inductee, 10 Bancroft, Laura P., 79 Banfield, Helen, 137 Banking, 37 Bank of Manitou, 94 Banks, Charles, 194 Banning-Lewis Ranch, 68–69 Barclay, George Sandoval &, 25 Barrett, Lena, 68 Barrett, Maud, 68 Barry, Ceal CWHF inductee, 9 Barstow, Pansy, 64 Bathke, Edwin, 15, 123 “Alice Stewart Hill, Colorado Springs’ First Wild Flower Artist: Her Family & Her Friends,” 111–123 Bathke, Nancy, 15, 123 “Alice Stewart Hill, Colorado Springs’ First Wild Flower Artist: Her Family & Her Friends,” 111–123 Battle of Sand Creek. See Sand Creek Massacre Beaver Dam (Wisc.), 111–112 Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide & Mass Killing by James Waller, ref., 154 Belmont, Alva, 319, 320 Belschner, Elizabeth, 68, 70–71 Bemis, Alice Cogswell, 101, 104 Bemis Hall (Colo. Coll.), 106 Cogswell Theatre, 107 Bemis, Joseph, 101 Bemis, Judson Moss, 101, 103 Bemis-Taylor Child Guidance Clinic, 104 Bender, Frederick (fr.), 178, 180

INDEX • 339 Berg, Herbert, 50 died, 51 Billy the Kid, 46 Bird, Isabella Lucy, 29 CWHF inductee, 11 Birkland, Joan CWHF inductee, 9 “Birth of a Nation” (film), 194 Bits of Travel at Home by Helen Hunt Jackson, ref., 128–129, 135 Bjorklund, Linda, 42 “Marie Guiraud: A Remarkable Character,” 33–43 Blackburn, Caroline E., 220 “Gretchen McRae: Civil Rights & Political Activist of Colorado Springs & the United States, 1924— 1966,” 191–223 “Black Cabinet,” 200 Black, Helen Marie CWHF inductee, 10 Blair’s Business College, 67 Blood, Louie Fisher, 103 Bloomer, Amelia portrayed, 298, 322 Bofonda, Leo James “China Jim,” 65 Bonfils, Helen CWHF inductee, 11 Bonfils, Pancratia (mother sup.), 173, 185 Bordas, Juana CWHF inductee, 9 Bordellos. See Brothels Boulding, Elise CWHF inductee, 9 Bowling club, 102 Boyd, Louie Croft CWHF inductee, 8 Boy Scouts of America, 96 Branham, Lucy G. photo of, 272

Brannan, Eunice, 319 Briarhurst Manor, 94–95 ransacked, 96 Brico, Antonia CWHF inductee, 11 Brisbane, Arthur art. on Women’s Liberation Day, 323 Broadmoor Art Academy, 105 Brothels, 48, 49 Colorado City, 47–57 current photo of, 49 The Trilby, 50 Brown, Clara CWHF inductee, 10 Brown, Margaret “Molly” Tobin, 28 CWHF inductee, 11 photo of, 29 Bryan, Mildred photo of, 325 Bureau of Child & Animal Protection (Mont.), 238 Bureau of Indian Affairs, 202 Burlew, E. K., 201 Burnett, Frances Hodgson illust. of, 326 Burns, Joy CWHF inductee, 9 Business & Professional Women’s Club, 67, 299 Businesswoman, 16–17 Byers, William Newton, 142–143 on Jackson, 155–156 Byrne, Robert F. (fr.), 173 Cannary, Martha “Calamity Jane,” 29 photo of, 31 Cantwell, Hendrika CWHF inductee, 10 Carty, Praxedes (mother), 178–179, 180, 181–182

340 • INDEX Caruthers, Jack, 53 Cassidy, Julia, 184 Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Colorado Springs, 184 Catholic Church: estab. in Denver, 170 first relig. cent. Colo., 171 women’s rights, 167 Catholic Education Center, 184 Catt, Carrie Chapman, 229–230 photo of, 230 Cattle, 68 breeding, 37 killed, 37 photo of Domino, 69 stolen, 40 Census Bureau: descr., 196 A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson, ref., 18, 143–145 Chabreat, Marie Antoinette, 33 Chamber of Commerce (Colo. Spr.), 70, 255 “Suffrage Specials,” 254 Chambers, Merle CWHF inductee, 8 Chapin, Lorenda, 62 Chase, Mary Coyle CWHF inductee, 11 Cheyenne Indians, 142 Cheyenne Mountain (Colo.), 117, 135 Jackson gravesite, 146–147 Child protection laws Hathaway &, 23–24 Children: illegitimate, 309–310 rights, 316 Children’s Hospital Clinical Research Center, 96 Child welfare, 238–240, 249. See also Social services laws, 309–310

The China Jim Store, 64, 103 photo of, 65 Chinese Americans: first born in Colo., 22 marriage, 26 prejudice against, 22 women, 16 Chin, Lily, 16, 22 children, 27 marriage, 27 photo of, 26 Chipeta, 17, 20–21, 22, 26 CWHF inductee, 11 literacy advocate, 21 photo of, 21 traditional dress, 24 widow, 27 Chivington, John M. (col.), 139, 156 Christian Mothers’ Sodality, 171 Churchill, Caroline CWHF inductee, 10 Civic League, 295, 296 Civic Players, 105 Civil rights, 191–223, 226 Act of 1964, 215 support for, 186 Civil Rights Movement, 205, 214 McRae on, 218–219 Clark, Patsy, 241 “Maggie Smith Hathaway: Montana’s Unsung Progressive Era Reformist,” 225–243 Cliff dwellings. See Manitou Cliff Dwellings; See Mesa Verde National Park Clifford, Mary, 180 Clothing: women’s, 24–25 Coal mines: women prohib. to work, 314 Coburn Library (Colo. Coll.), 103

INDEX • 341 Cogswell, John, 101 Collins, Charlotte, 194 Collins, Judy CWHF inductee, 8 Collins, Stephen, 139, 164 “Helen Hunt Jackson & the Rhetoric of Humanization: Creating a Rhetorical Space Between Traditional Feminine & Masculine Spheres in the Late 19th Century,” 153–165 A Colorado Wreath by Virginia McClurg, illust., 119 Colorado: common law, 307 Indians, 139 laws impacting women, 249, 307–317 mother’s rights in, 308–310 wife’s rights in, 310–314 woman suffrage, 248–249 “The Colorado Anemones” illust., 119 The Colorado Voice (newspaper), 208, 210 Colorado City (Colo.), 135 brothels in, 47–57 Mass, first, 170 Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association, 81, 82, 84, 94 Colorado College, 106–108 Bemis Hall, 106 Coburn Library, 103 Cogswell Theatre, 107 Taylor Hall dedication, 101–109 Colorado Daughters of the American Revolution, 299 Colorado Federation of Women’s Clubs, 80 Colorado Humanities, ii Colorado Midland Railway, 37 flower excursions, 296

Colorado & Southern Railroad, 37–38 Colorado Springs Civic League, 251–252, 295 city flag, 296 muckrakers, 296 National Woman’s Party, 296 neutralized, 252, 296 Colorado Springs Co., 175 Colorado Springs, (Colo.) African Americans, 192 Catholic schools, 172 city council elec., 212–213 city flag, 296 demographics, 60 descr., 101–102 health &, 112 healthfulness, 136 Jackson &, 128–129, 134–136 Ku Klux Klan, 194 leisure activities, 102 parks, 296 photo of city flag, 363 political barriers for women, 297 racial violence, 206 rec. center, 210–212 segregation, 195, 206 utilities, 298–299 working women, 59–73 Colorado Springs Gazette (newspaper), 215, 253 Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, 118, 299 American Indian artifacts, 89, 96, 97 Jackson House, 148 Colorado Springs Plaster of Paris Co., 113 Colorado Springs Public Library photo of, 166 Colorado Springs Woman’s Party, 253

342 • INDEX Colorado Suffrage Association, 249 Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, ii, 6–8, 148 inductees, 7–11 Columbian Exposition McClurg lect. at, 79 Conejos (Colo.), 171 Catholic schools, 172 Confederate States of America sympathizers, 35 Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, 252. See also National Woman’s Party Congress of Racial Equality, 205 Conner, Catherine (mother), 176 Conservatism, 227 Consumption. See Tuberculosis Conter, Lindy, ii Coolidge, Susan, 17, 117 Her Garden: A Poem, 17, 117 “In Her Garden,” 124–125 Cooper, Fannie C., 66 Cooper Pioneer (newspaper), 200 “The Corset Conflagration, or Women’s Liberation, 1923,” 2 by Inez Hunt & Wanetta W. Draper, 319–325 Coval, Margaret (Maggie) A., ii Cowgirl: photo of, 330 Crain, Oleta CWHF inductee, 10 Crawford, Dana Hudkins CWHF inductee, 10 Creedon, Frank R., 216 Cripple Creek Short Line Railroad, 92 Crook, George (gen.), 136 Crops, 36 Crosby, William S., 83, 89–91

Curry, Margaret CWHF inductee, 10 Curtis, Helen, 319 Dale, Samuel, 45 Dances, 102 Daughters of the American Revolution, 277–278 “The Day & the Flower” by Alice Stewart Hill, descr., 121 Day, Elizabeth Joyce (Betty), 281 Day Nursery: Taylor &, 104 Dearfield (Colo.), 191 Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, ref., 169 Decker & Sons, Embalmers & Funeral Directors, 64 Decker, Gertrude, 64 Decker, Sarah Platt CWHF inductee, 10 Democracy, 258, 270 woman’s club &, 295 Democratic Party: photo of advert. against, 254 Demonstrations, 245–246, 248, 256, 273–274 arrests, 258 effigy of pres. burned, 277–278 experience of, 261–262, 274 mob violence, 246, 258, 259, 262–263, 265–266, 268, 270 protected, 280 “Watchfires for Justice,” 275 Dennis, Evie CWHF inductee, 8 Denver (Colo.) Ku Klux Klan, 194 Machebeuf at, 170 Denver Doers Club, 193 Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 96

INDEX • 343 Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, 75 Dickinson, Emily, 132, 148 Discrimination. See Prejudice & discrimination legislation &, 307–317 teachers &, 315–316 Dixon, Edna photo of, 267 Dixon, Emily, 40 Dock, Lavinia photo of, 267 Dodge, Clarence, 253 Domino (bull) photo of, 69 Donaghe, William Rice, 77 Dowda, Sandra, ii Downs, Marion CWHF inductee, 8 Draper, Brad, ii Draper, Paul, ii Draper Tesker, Wanetta W., 325 “The Corset Conflagration, or Women’s Liberation, 1923,” 319–325 “Dr. Caroline Spencer & Colorado Springs’ Radicals for Reform” by Chris Nicholl, 245–289 The Dress Shop in the Bungalow, 66 Dubofsky, Jean CWHF inductee, 8 Dudley, Corrine (Cora), 38 Dunbar, Susan Teel, 116 “Anemones,” 116, 118 Emma Thayer book, 120 Duncan, Mattie, 193 Dunn, Morgan, 46 killed, 47 Dyer, John Louis (fr.), 35–36

Easley, Georgia, 59 Easton, W. G., 67 Education, 103, 192 Arnold &, 271, 281 beauty school, 65 Blair’s Business College, 67 boys, 178–179, 180 Catholic, 167–189 curriculum at Loretto Academy, 177 girls, 168–169 Hathaway &, 227–228 Jackson &, 129 kindergarten in Colo. Spr., 294 Lewis &, 71 public school, 71 racial seg., 207 Spencer &, 250 teacher, 185 woman &, 59 Woman’s Club &, 294 women &, 20–21 Ege, Fred, 113 Eisenhower, Mamie CWHF inductee, 11 The Elizabeth Inn, 67 Elks Club Minstrels: parody of Women’s Liberation Day, 324 Elliott, Maxine painting of, 44 Ellis, Anne, 320 Ellison, Robert Spurrier, 89, 91 book collection, 95 death, 95 marriage, 91 Ellison, Vida Francis Gregory, 16, 89–99 American Indian artifacts 95–96 death, 96 estate, 96

344 • INDEX Manitou Cliff Dwellings, 20, 89 –99 marriage, 91 photo of, 88, 90 El Pueblo (Colo.). See also Pueblo (Colo.) estab., 19 “Eminent Women” photo comp. by William Notman, 326 Emory, Julia photo of, 272 “Endymion” by John Keats, ref., 104 Englert, Lorene on Jackson & McClurg, 15 Episcopal Church at Garo, Colo., 38 Epworth League, 226–227, 235, 239 Equality & rights: for both genders, 298 inequality of Colo. laws, 308–317 Kerr &, 298, 300 legislation, 308 of women, 283–289, 307–317, 321 Equal Rights Amendment, 298. See Lucretia Mott Amendment for Equal Rights Equal Rights Convention, 2, 281 Equal Rights Pageant, 298, 319–325 photo of, 318, 325 Estés, Clarissa Pinkola CWHF inductee, 8 Ethnological Congress McClurg lect. at, 81 Eustachia (sr.), 180 Evans, John (cong.), 234 Evans, John (gov.), 139

Ewing, Lucy photo of, 267 Fair Employment Practice, 203 Committee, 203–204, 209 Fallis, Edwina Hume CWHF inductee, 10 The Fashion Shop advert., 58 Feminism: militant, 245 Feminists, 23 Fewkes, Jesse (arch.), 81 Fiction: women in, 13–14 Fine Arts Center, 183 opened, 106 Taylor Coll., 105 Finkel, Terri H. CWHF inductee, 10 Finley, Judith R., 84 “Virginia Donaghe McClurg: Mesa Verde Crusader,” 75–87 Fiore, Genevieve CWHF inductee, 10 Fire: house, 38, 46, 49 red-light district, 50 First National Bank, 112 Fiske, Deborah Waterman Vinal, 129 death, 130 illust. of, 131 tuberculosis &, 131 Fiske, Nathan (rev.), 129 death, 130 Flanagan, Catherine photo of, 267 Flowers, 114 excursions, 296 Floyd, Daisy, 64 Floyd’s Marcelle Shop, 64–65 advert., 58

INDEX • 345 Folk art: Taylor coll., 105 Foote, Ira, 50 Ford, Bob, 48 Ford, Justina CWHF inductee, 11 Foreman, Clark, 201 Forster, Elizabeth W., 66 Fort Laramie (Wyo.), 96–97 Fowler, Bertha, 252, 253, 257, 270 photo of, 255 Fowler, Erma photo of, 60 Fowler, Marie Tate photo of, 60 Fraser, Virginia Hart CWHF inductee, 9 A Free Republic (journ.), 19, 208–211 illust., 210 Free Public Library, 116 Free speech: protection, 279 “From Breeding Persian Cats to Wrapping Candy: Working Women of Colorado Springs in the 1920s” by Michael L. Olsen & Patricia B. Olsen, 59–73 Froshee, Jesse, 171 Ft. Barclay (N.Mex.), 19 Funk, Lou, 324 Gabow, Patricia CWHF inductee, 8 Gallavan, Mary Columba (sr.), 173, 176, 185 death, 186 Garden of the Gods: ashes of Kerr, 300 photo of, 318, 325 Women’s Liberation Day event, 1923, 281, 298, 320–323

Gardner, Katie Davis, 97 “Vida Ellison & The Manitou Cliff Dwellings,” 89–99 Garo (Colo.) descr. of, 37 Episcopal Church, 38 estab., 19 platted, 37 railroad at, 37 Garo Street (Colo. Spr.), 20 Gaskill, Gudrun Timmerhaus CWHF inductee, 9 General Land Office descr., 196, 198 Ghettos, 216 Gilfillan-Morton, Lynn A., 30 “An Introduction to the Extraordinary Women,” 13–31 Gilfoyle, Elnora M. CWHF inductee, 10 Givan, Gladys Ann (sr.), 185 Goering, Samuel quoted, 206 Gold: robbery, 35 Goldberg, Miriam CWHF inductee, 10 Gough, Sally Halthusen, 322 Government: repression of pickets, 263–264 woman president, 298 Grace Church: organ, 105 Gray, John, 104 Gray, Laurence (lt. gov.), 260 Gray, Natalie, 260–268, 281 death, 281 jailed, 245, 260, 263–264, 265 photo of, 260, 267 prison conditions, 264 Gray, Susie, 260–261 legal research, 317

346 • INDEX Greenberg, Elinor CWHF inductee, 7 Gregory, Emma, 89, 91 Gregory, James, 89, 91 “Gretchen McRae: Civil Rights & Political Activist of Colorado Springs & the United States, 1924—1966” by Caroline E. Blackburn, 191–223 Griffith, Bill, 96 Griffith, Emily CWHF inductee, 11 Guajardo, Maria CWHF inductee, 7 Guiraud, Adolphe, 33 crops raised, 36 death, 36 farmer/rancher, 34 mercantile, 34 op. pub. scales, 34 wine dealer, 34 Guiraud, Antoinette, 39 photo of, 43 Guiraud, Cynthia Caroline Rink photo of, 43 Guiraud Ditch, 36 Guiraud, Ernest Charles, 41 Guiraud, Eugenia Louise, 40 lightning shock, 40 Guiraud, Fred Otto photo of, 43 Guiraud, Henry Eugene death, 34 Guiraud, Henry Louis, 40–41 Guiraud, Joseph Adolphe, 39–40 Guiraud, Louis Charles, 38 killed by lightning, 39 Guiraud, Marie, 1, 16, 18 banking, 37 cattle breeding, 37 children, 38–41 death, 42

Garo &, 19 hay lawsuit, 38 house burned, 38 water rights, 36 Guiraud, Marie Antoinette, 40 photo of, 32 Guiraud, Marie Mathilda Josephine, 40 Gypsy (horse), 113 Hamilton (Colo.), 34 Harding, Warren (pres.), 267 Hardscrabble (Colo.) estab., 19 Harper, Ida Hustad, 229 Harper, William Rainey, 79 Hartsel, Sam, 37 Harvey, John hay lawsuit, 38 Hasbly, David, 45 Haskell, Thomas Nelson, 79 Hathaway, Benjamin Tappan, 235 death, 228 Hathaway, Maggie Smith (rep.), 2, 16, 18, 23, 225–243 biography, 225, 226 birthday celeb., 237 domestic skills, 236 education, 227–228 evangelist, 227 IWW, 233–234 marriage, 27 “Mother’s Pension,” 239 photo of, 224 press, 235–237 prohibition, 228, 229, 240 public speaking, 227 rivalry with Rankin, 228–229, 231–232, 240 sedition bill, 234 social services, 238–240 state representative, 231

INDEX • 347 suffrage, 228–234 women’s rights, 22 youth, 227 Havern, Ann, 168 Havern Center (Littleton, Colo.), 186 Hay: quality, 38 Heath, Josie CWHF inductee, 9 Heiser, Frances, 323 “Helen Hunt Jackson & the Rhetoric of Humanization: Creating a Rhetorical Space Between Traditional Feminine & Masculine Spheres in the Late 19th Century” by Stephen Collins, 153–165 “’Helen of Colorado’: Helen Hunt Jackson, Colorado Springs, & the Making of an Indian Activist” by Katherine Scott Sturdevant, 127–151 Helm, Joseph Church, 115, 116, 121 Helm, Marcia, 116 Helm, Marcia Stewart, 121 Henderson, Prairie Rose photo of, 336 Hennessy, Sumiko CWHF inductee, 10 Her Garden: A Poem by Susan Coolidge, ref., 17, 117, 124–125 Hetty’s Strange History by Helen Hunt Jackson, ref., 137–138 Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 132, 138 Hill, Alice Stewart, 15, 16, 17, 111–123

artistic abilities, 112 artwork, 113–115 copyright infr., 118, 120 The Day & the Flower, desc., 121 death, 121 education, 112, 113 Her Garden: A Poem, 17 illust. by, 116–117, 119, 124–125 photo of, 110 photo of painting, 117 The Procession of Flowers in Colorado, 17, 20, 120 Hill, Francis Burke, 115–116, 122 Hine, James, 193 Hirschfeld, Arlene CWHF inductee, 8 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 136 Home Owner’s Loan Corporation, 215 Hooyer, Birdie Mae photo of gravestone, 57 Hooyer, Harry, 49 Hopper, Lucy J., 191 photo of, 213 Hopper, Martha Ann, 191 Horses: breaking, 41 Horton, Anna, 45 Horton, Beulah, 50 Horton, Frederick, 45 Horton, Grover, 50 Horton, James, 45, 50 Horton, James Jr., 45 Howbert, Irving, 113, 140–142, 142 Howbert, May, 103 “How Colorado Laws Discriminate Against Women,” 2, 307–317 Howe, Julia Ward illust. of, 326 Humanitarians: women, 22–23

348 • INDEX Hungate family killed, 142, 144, 155 Hunt, Edward B. (maj.), 26, 131 killed, 132 Hunt, Inez, 325 “The Corset Conflagration, or Women’s Liberation, 1923,” 319–325 Hunt, Murray birth & death, 131 Hunt, Swanee CWHF inductee, 9 Hunt, Warren Horsford “Rennie,” 132 death, 132 Ickes, Harold (sec.), 201–203 Identity: rhetoric &, 153–165 women &, 295 Ignacio, Chief, 80 Indian Affairs Council, 198 Indians, 170 Anglo-American perceptions, 153–154, 156 attacks, 171 Colorado, 139 Jackson advocate for, 136–145, 153–165 oppressed, perception of, 153 removal, 142 treatment of, 139 “In Her Garden” by Susan Coolidge, ref., 124–125 International Workers of the World, 233–234 “An Introduction to the Extraordinary Women” by Lynn A. Gilfillan-Morton, 13–31

Jackson, Areba Stephens, 218 Jackson, Helen Banfield, 146 Jackson, Helen Hunt, 1, 15, 16, 22, 111, 117, 118, 127–151 A Century of Dishonor, 18, 143 A Procession of Flowers in Colorado, 17 “Aunty Lane,” 144–145 author, 18 Bits of Travel at Home, 128–129, 135 California &, 133, 145 Colorado Springs &, 134–136 CWHF inductee, 11 death, 145–146 deaths of others, 131 education, 129 gravesite, 146–147 Hetty’s Strange History, 137–138 illness, 133 illust. of, 326 impression of Colo. Spr., 128–129 Indian rights advocate, 136–145 marriage, 26–27 married, 135 Mercy Philbrick’s Choice, 137 Nelly’s Silver Mine, 138 painting of, 152 pen names, 117, 137 photo of, 126, 131, 132, 145, 147 Ramona, 18, 144 rhetorical methods, 153–165 travel, 133–134 tuberculosis, 130 women’s rights, 129–130 Jackson House, 135 exhibit, 117, 148, photo of 165 photo of, 148 Jackson, William Henry, 75 Jackson, William Sharpless, 15, 27, 128, 134

INDEX • 349 married, 135 second wife, 137 Jacobs, Frances Wisebart CWHF inductee, 10 James, Jessie, 48 Jameson, Elizabeth, 14 historiography of women, 28 Japanese Americans: fiction about, 14 Jesuit priests: San Luis Valley, 171 Jewett, Sara Orne illust. of, 326 “Jim Crow” leg. See Suffrage Johns, Harry, 41 Johns, Mildred, 41 Johnson, Edwin C. (sen.), 196 Johnson, Jean Knorr, 281 Johnson, Mabel, 62 Jones, Jean CWHF inductee, 8 Jones, Josephine, ii Jones, Tiny, 324 Joselyn, Jo Ann Cram CWHF inductee, 9 Joseph, Ann (mother), 170 Joslyn, Lotty A., 64 Kalb, Elizabeth photo of, 272 Keating, Katherine CWHF inductee, 8 Kelleher, Mary, 183 Keller, Helen, 294 Kelly, William (fr.), 183 Kerr, Lillian Hart, 291–303, 322 Bloomer, Amelia (port.), 298 City Planning Commission, 295 cong. bid, 299 Council Proceeding Committee, 295 death, 300 equality, 300

ERA &, 297 humanist, 292–293 memberships, 299 men need protection, 304–305 NWP &, 296 pacifism, 299–300 photo of, 255, 290 politics, 292–293 state rep. bid, 299 YMCA & YWCA, 298 Kerr, Robert (judge), 292, 304–305 Kiester, Fran, ii King, Martin Luther (jr.), 215 Kingsley, Rose, 106 Kiowa Street (Colo. Spr.) photo of, 166, 175 Kipp, William (fr.), 183 Kistler, Anna death, 49 photo of gravestone, 57 Kistler, John, 48 photo of gravestone, 57 Kitto, Charles, 50 Kitto, Eva Pearl Dale Moats, 46, 48 estate, 53 inheritance, 53 Knights of Columbus building: photo of, 166 Knorr, Frederick, 281 Korsemeyer, Helen, 64 Korsmeyer Drug Company, 64 Korsmeyer, Jennie, 64 Kramer, Matilda photo of, 62 Ku Klux Klan, 193–195 Colorado Springs, 194 Denver, 194 Labor College of Colorado Springs, 299 Labor rights, 23, 249 eight-hour day, 315

350 • INDEX Lafayette Statue: photo of, 272 Lamm, Dottie CWHF inductee, 11 Lamy, Jean Baptiste (fr.), 169 Langdon, Pearl, 50 Language as Symbolic Action by Kenneth Burke, ref., 155 LaNier, Carlotta CWHF inductee, 8 Larcom, Lucy illust. of, 326 Latham, Lavinia portrayed, 323 Lathrop, Mary Florence CWHF inductee, 10 “Laura Bell McDaniel: Queen of the Colorado City Tenderloin” by Jan MacKell, 45–57 Laws: affecting women, 307–317 alimony for men, 304–305 Colo., 249, 307–317 common law, 307 damages allowed husb., 311–313 discriminatory legislation, 307–317 diseases, 307 equality, 298 “head of the family,” 313–314 illegitimate parenthood, 307 jury service, 314 marriage, 309, 316 mother’s rights, 307, 308–310 social diseases, 315 teachers, 315–316 unfair, 320, 323 wife’s legal residence, 313 wife’s rights, 310–314 wife’s services, 307, 310 Leach, Mary E. photo of, 62

Leisure activities: Colo. Spr., 102 The Lever Annual (yrbk.), 192 Lewis, Inez, 68 Lewis, Inez Johnson, 71 Lewis, Raymond W., 68 Lewis, Ruth Banning, 16, 18, 68–70 photo of, 69 Lightning: Guiraud killed, 39 Guiraud shocked, 40 Lincoln, J. Virginia CWHF inductee, 9 Lindgren, William, 40 Linscott, Ralph, 37–38 Lipsey, John Jay, 95 Little Loretto, 168 Little Society of the Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross of Jesus, 168 Livermore, Mary A. illust. of, 326 Locke, John Galen, 193 Lombard, William D., 50 Long, Mary Hauck Elitch CWHF inductee, 10 Lorber, Fannie CWHF inductee, 8 Loretto Academy (El Paso, Tex.), 185 Loretto Academy of Colorado Springs, 173–177 curriculum, 176, 177 education of boys, 178–179, 180 faith of students, 176 location, 173–175 parochial school, 179 photo of, 175 tuition, 176 Loretto Heights College (Den., Colo.), 185 Louis Charles Guiraud, 38–39

INDEX • 351 Lucretia Mott Amendment for Equal Rights, 280 Kerr &, 297 Spencer on, 280 Machebeuf, Joseph (fr.), 169, 170 Denver, 170 MacKaye, Jessie Benton photo of, 272 MacKell, Jan, 55 “Laura Bell McDaniel: Queen of the Colorado City Tenderloin,” 45–57 Maes-Torres, Beatriz (sis.), 170 Maggie & Montana: The Story of Maggie Smith Hathaway by Tascher, ref., 225, 226, 240 “Maggie Smith Hathaway: Montana’s Unsung Progressive Era Reformist” by Patsy Clark, 225–243 Majors, Mamie, 49 photo of residence, 49 Makepeace, Mary Lou CWHF inductee, 8 Man Cannot Speak For Her by Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, ref., 161 Mancos Canyon (Colo.), 76, 80 Manitou Cliff Dwellings, 20, 83, 89–99 photo of, 93 purchased, 92 Manitou Springs (Colo.), 94–95 Manitou Springs Journal, 64 Mansfield, Portia CWHF inductee, 8 Marian House Soup Kitchen, 184 “Marie Guiraud: ‘A Remarkable Character’” by Linda Bjorklund, 33–43 Marrack, Philippa CWHF inductee, 7

Marriage: girls & boys &, 316 women &, 26, 47 “The Marriage of the Dawn & the Moon” pageant, 83 photo of, 83 Martinez, Ramona CWHF inductee, 7 Marylin (yrbk), 182 Mathes, Valerie Sherer on Jackson, 136 Matz, Nicholaus (bish.), 178–179, 180, 181 Maxwell, Martha, 28 CWHF inductee, 11 Mayhall, Frank, 34 Mayol, Rose, 37 McCarty, Dusty, 46, 51 survived crash, 51–53 McCarty, Henry, 46 McClurg, Dudley, 79 McClurg, Gilbert, 79, 82–83, 113, 118 McClurg, Virginia Donaghe, 2, 15–16, 75–87, 94, 117 author poem honoring Roosevelt, 18 “A Colorado Wreath,” illust., 119 descr., 78 photo of, 74, 78, 83 poems, 118 poet, 83–84 McColl, Rosie, 64 McConnell-Mills, Frances CWHF inductee, 10 McDaniel, Hattie CWHF inductee, 7 McDaniel, John Thomas, 46 divorce, 48 killed Dunn, 47 marriage cert. photo, 47

352 • INDEX McDaniel, Laura Bell, 1, 16, 22, 24, 26, 28, 45–57 acquitted, 51 charged, 51 death, 51–53 divorce, 48 funeral, 53 photo of criminal doc., 52 photo of gravestone, 57 photo of marriage cert., 47 photo of residence, 51 McDowell, J. T., 41 McElmo Canyon, (Colo.), 90 McGinnis, Vera photo of, 336 McIntyre, Marvin, 203 McPherson, Louise, 64 McRae, Almena, 191, 192, 196, 217 death, 218 McRae, Bonaparte P., 191, 192, 197 death, 213, 214 employ., 214 photo of, 213 McRae, Carye, 191, 192, 217 McRae, Gretchen, 2, 22–23, 191–223 art interests, 200 author, 19 city council elec., 212–213 Civil Rights Movement, 218–219 court cases, 217 death, 191, 218 emp. General Land Office, 196 equality at rec. ctr., 211–212 A Free Republic, 208–211 income, 215, 216, 217 NAACP, 214 Off. of Advis., 201 photo of, 190, 213 racial seg. views, 198 resigned, 197

Meeker Massacre, 139 Meeker, Nathan, 142 killed, 139 Meem, Faith Bemis, 105 Meem, John Gaw (arch.), 105 Meir, Golda CWHF inductee, 11 Men: alimony for, 304–305 helpless, 304 “manless” ranch, 236 rights of, 304–305 Mercy Philbrick’s Choice by Helen Hunt Jackson, ref., 137 Mesa Verde National Park, 18–19, 75–87 archaeology, 76–77 lease, 80, 82 Manitou Cliff Dwellings &, 94 photo of, 77, 83 poem about, 18–19 Midwest Refining Co., 92–93 The Miles City Star (newspaper), 235 Miles City American (newspaper), 237 Miller, Elizabeth M., 61 Miller, Mary CWHF inductee, 9 Miller, Nellie Burget, 320 prologue, 321 Miller, Sue CWHF inductee, 9 Milligan, James, 40 Mills, Jovita (sr.), 173, 176 Moats, Cecil, 48 Moats, Ed, 48 Montana: woman suffrage, 225–243 Montenarelli, Al (fr.), 177 Montgomery, Ruth, 322 Monument Park Lake (Colo. Spr.), 211

INDEX • 353 Moore, Emma Guiraud photo of, 43 Mora, Ignatius (sr.), 170 Morey, Katherine photo of, 272 Morgan, Nellie, 168 Morley, Clarence (gov.), 194 Morris, Mildred, 305 “Alimony For Men New Cry,” 304–305 Morse, Fred, 36–37 Moton, Robert R., 207 Mott Amendment. See Lucretia Mott Amendment for Equal Rights Mott, James portrayed, 322 Mott, Lucretia NWP founding anniversary, 319 portrayed, 322 Mott, Lucretia Coffin photo of, 279 Moulton, Louise Chandler illust. of, 326 Mountain Side Camp, 62 Mount Manitou Incline Railway photo of, 12 Muckraking: Civic League, 296 Murray, Margaret, 195 Muse, Reynelda CWHF inductee, 9 Music, 102 organ recital, 105 Taylor Memorial Concerts, 105 Mutter, Carol CWHF inductee, 9 Nash, Mamie, 41 National American Woman Suffrage Association, 229, 246

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 194, 195, 214 National Council for the Prevention of War, 299 National Urban League, 195 National Woman’s Party, 23, 24, 245, 255, 259, 280 Civic League &, 296 Colorado Branch, 260, 308 photo of, 255 equality &, 298 Kerr &, 296–297 leaflet on laws, 307–317 Women’s Liberation Day, 1923, 319–325 filming at Garden of Gods, 322 National Youth Administration, 209 Native Americans, 17. See also Chipeta Jackson &, 18 Negro Advisory Council, 198 Nelly’s Silver Mine by Helen Hunt Jackson, ref., 138 Nerinckx, Charles (fr.), 168 New Deal, 208 New York Life Insurance Company, 64 New York Times (newspaper), 269 Nicholl, Chris, 282 “Dr. Caroline Spencer & Colorado Springs’ Radicals for Reform,” 245–289 “‘Someday the women are going to run this government’: Lillian Kerr, A Colorado Springs Legend,” 291–303 Nicodemus (Kan.), 192

354 • INDEX Nie, Lily CWHF inductee, 8 Noel, Rachel Bassette CWHF inductee, 10 Nuns, 185, 187. See also Sisters of Loretto Nusbaum, Jesse, 94 Obelhart, Anna, 66 Obenchain, C. A., 201 O’Brien, Susan CWHF inductee, 7 O’Byrne, John “Prairie Dog,” 48 poem by, 54 Occoquan (Va.) prison, 264–266 Occupations: advertised, 67 physicians, 66 women’s, 61–73 Office of Advisors on Negro Affairs, 200, 202, 204, 209, 214 O’Haire, Elizabeth, 180 O’Keeffe, Georgia, 28 Oliver, Grace A. illust. of, 326 Olsen, Michael L., 72 “From Breeding Persian Cats to Wrapping Candy: Working Women of Colorado Springs in the 1920s,” 59–73 Olsen, Patricia B., 72 “From Breeding Persian Cats to Wrapping Candy: Working Women of Colorado Springs in the 1920s,” 59–73 Olson, Bada, 72 Olson, C. H., 72 Oregon Trail Memorial Association, 97

Ormes, Eleanor, 323 Orullian, LaRae CWHF inductee, 10 O’Sullivan, Walburga (sr.), 173, 176 Otto, Calvin P., ii Otto, Patricia, ii Ouray, Chief, 17, 20 Owl Woman CWHF inductee, 11 Pacifism, 291 Kerr &, 299–300 Rankin &, 233–234 Pageants, 83 equal rights, 281 Palmer, Queen, 133 Palmer, William Jackson, 79, 91, 172 Panic of 1893, 178 Pansy’s Lunch Room, 64 Paris Exposition, 81 Park Co. (Colo.) residents of, 33–43 Parks: Colo. Spr., 296 Parrish, Thomas, 17, 113, 117 Her Garden: A Poem, 17 Parsons, Ernestine, 322 Patterson, Thomas (sen.), 82, 84 Paul, Alice, 234, 241, 246, 252, 254, 319 desc. of character, 320 Gray &, 273 hunger strike, 270 ignited jailhouse riot, 269 jailed, 268–270 photo of, 325 picketing, 268 Pauly, Lona E., 66 Pawnee Nation, 97 Payne Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 192, 195

INDEX • 355 Peabody, Lucy, 82 Peace: support for, 186 Pearson, “Little” Laura Horton, 49, 50 death, 51–53 funeral, 53 photo of gravestone, 57 Pearson, Robert W., 50 Penrose, Julie, 319 reception, Women’s Liberation Day, 324 Penrose, Spencer Hill Climb, 255 Perry, Charlotte CWHF inductee, 9 Perry-Frueauff, Antoinette CWHF inductee, 9 Perry, Nora illust. of, 326 Persian Cattery, 61 Peterson, Helen Louise White CWHF inductee, 11 Petteys, Anna C. CWHF inductee, 8 Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart illust. of, 326 Phillips, Kate on Jackson, 137–138 Physicians: women, 66 Picketing. See Demonstrations Pikes Peak, 255 cross burned, 194 Pikes Peak Auto Hill Climb, 255 Pike’s Peak Cog Railway, 89 Pikes Peak Library District, 3 Special Collections, 1 Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium, 1 Pioneers, western stereotypes, 1 Pitcher, Sally portrayed, 323

Politics, 240 barriers for women, 297 Kerr on, 292–293 reform, 245–289 Ponca Indians, 136 Porter, Ann portrayed, 323 Pottery, 77 Prejudice & discrimination, 192, 193, 194, 203. See also Racial violence; Segregation Colo. Spr., 206–207 employ., 196, 203 riots, 195 of women, 320 Prendergast, Mary J., 66 Presbyterian Church, 113 Press: Hathaway &, 235–237 Priests, 185 Prison: conditions, 264–265, 269–270, 270 The Procession of Flowers in Colorado by Helen Hunt Jackson, ref., 111, 122–123 described, 120–121, 122 Hill illust., 17, 20, 124–125 oil painting, 122 Progressive reform, 226, 227 Prohibition: Hathaway &, 228, 229, 233 liquor interests, 229–230 Prospect Lake (Colo. Spr.), 211 racial violence, 206 Prostitution & Prostitutes, 45–57 warning to leave, 50 Protests: labor, 186 peace, 186 Public library: Colo. Spr., 294

356 • INDEX Pueblo (Colo.). See also El Pueblo (Colo.) estab., 19 The Quilt That Walked to Golden by Sandra Dallas desc. of, 14 Raber, Godfrey (fr.), 180, 182 death, 183 Racial violence: Colo. Spr., 206 Racism. See Prejudice & discrimination Railroad: cattle killed, 37 Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson, ref., 18, 144 Ramona Athletic Club, 50 Ramona (Colo.), 148 estab., 50 Ramona Hotel, 148 Ranching: women &, 18–19 Randolph, Hans, 83 Rankin, Jeanette (cong.), 226, 230–233, 241 against WWI, 233 IWW support, 233–234 pacifism, 233–234 photo of, 231, 232 rivalry with Hathaway, 228–229, 231–232, 240 Rape & incest, 239 Reed, Mary, 319 Regis University, 185 Reinhardt, Peter Forney, 40 Religious faith, 176 Reynolds, Bertha Capen, 241 Reynolds, Jim, 35 Rhetoric: feminine construction, 161–162

identity &, 153–165 Jackson &, 153–165 Rhodes, Ann, 168 Rhodes, Mary, 168 Richardson, Susan Boylston, 77 Ries, Jane Silverstein CWHF inductee, 10 Rights. See Equality & rights mother’s, 307 Rink, Cynthia, 39–40 Rippon, Mary CWHF inductee, 11 R.M.S. Titanic (ship), 28 Robbery: stagecoaches, 35 Robinson, Charles Mulford, 295–296 Robinson, Cleo Parker CWHF inductee, 10 Robinson, Pauline Short CWHF inductee, 9 Roche, Josephine Aspinwall, 16, 22–23 CWHF inductee, 11 labor rights, 23 photo of, 23 Rogers, Mamie. See Majors, Mamie Roosevelt, Franklin D. (pres.) Fair Employ. Pract., 203 Roosevelt, Theodore (pres.), 81, 82 McClurg poem honoring, 18–19 Rothman, Sheila on Jackson, 137 Routt, Eliza CWHF inductee, 8 Rowan, John, 51 Sabin, Florence CWHF inductee, 11 Sand Creek Massacre, 139

INDEX • 357 Byers on, 155 Chivington &, 156 Jackson on, 139–142, 144 National Historic Site, 140 women & children killed, 158–160, 162 San Diego Indians, 144 Sandoval, Maria Teresa, 16 drawing of, 25 marriage, 26, 27 town-founder, 19 traditional attire, 25 San Luis Valley (Colo.) demographics, 171 Jesuit priests, 171 Santa Clara Pueblo (N. Mex.) families at Manitou Cliff Dwellings, 93 Santa Fe (N.Mex.) desc., 169 Santa Fe Trail, 169 Santos, 105 Schafroth, John F. (sen.), 82, 284 Schmoll, Hazel CWHF inductee, 11 Schmudde, Carol on Jackson, 136–137 School for the Deaf & the Blind, 113 Schroeder, Pat CWHF inductee, 11 Schurz, Carl (sec.), 136 Scott, Bartley Marie CWHF inductee, 7 Segregation, 205–206. See also Prejudice & discrimination Colo. Spr., 195, 206 gov. employ., 196, 197, 201–202 housing, 204 Seldomridge, Harry (rep.), 253, 285 Seven Falls Curio Company, 64

Shaw, Lloyd, 322 Sheep, 116 Sheffer, William, 281 Short, Wiley, 45, 46 Shoup, Oliver H. (gov.), 278 Shoup, Unetta, 320–319 Sierra Madre St. photo of, 166 Silliman, Ruth, 67 Simmons, William Joseph, 193 Sisters of Loretto, 17, 22, 26, 167–189, 185 artists, 17 photo of, 174, 181 relig. academy, 20 Smith, Alfred E. (gov.), 199 Smith, Almy S., 66 Smith, Edith Forster, 66 Smith, Eudochia Bell CWHF inductee, 11 Smith, Isaac Nathaniel (rev.), 226, 227 Smith, Martha Adams Earick, 226, 227 Social diseases: laws &, 307 quarantine laws, 315 Social services: Hathaway &, 238 Solomon, Susan CWHF inductee, 8 “‘Someday the women are going to run this government’: Lillian Kerr, A Colorado Springs Legend” by Chris Nicholl, 291–303 Southern Ute Indians, 80 South Park (Colo.) Guiraud family at, 33–43 South Side Improvement Society, 211 Spencer, Anna Brock, 250

358 • INDEX Spencer, Caroline E., 17, 23, 245–289, 282 city flag, photo of, 363 CWHF inductee, 8 death, 281 education, 250 equal rights &, 248 hunger strike, 276 ignited jailhouse riot, 269 jailed, 24, 245, 258, 268–270, 276 legal research, 317 medical practice, 283 Mott Amendment, 280 National Woman’s Party, 23–24 photo of, 244, 247, 250, 255, 280 released from jail, 270 tactics, 247, 248, 253, 256 tuberculosis, 251 universal suffrage, 250 watchfires, 275–276 Spencer, J. Austin, 250 Spitz, Vivien CWHF inductee, 8 Spruce Tree House, Mesa Verde, 81 pageant at, 83 photo of, 87 Spurlock, Obadiah Perry, 40 Stagecoaches: robbing, 35 Standard Oil, 93 Standing Bear, Chief, 127, 136, 138 St. Ann’s Catholic Church, 173, 176, 177 location, 177 Stanolind Crude Oil Purchasing Co., 93 Stanolind Pipeline Co., 93 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 129, 246 photo of, 246 Stanton, May Bonfils CWHF inductee, 11

Stapleton, Benjamin F. (myr.), 194 State Detention Home for Women (Colo.), 315 State Historical Society of Colorado, 96 Steinbeck, Anne CWHF inductee, 11 Stevens, Doris gov. methods of repression, 263–264 Stewart, Alice, 112 Stewart, Ben H., 106 Stewart, George H., 111, 112, 116 asthma, 112 Stewart, Harriet Newell “Hattie,” 111, 121–122 Stewart, Helen A., 111, 121 Stewart, Marcia L., 112, 115 Stewart, Sarah F., 81 Stewart, Sarah McFetridge, 111, 112, 121 Stewart Stucco & Cement, 113 Stickney, William (arch.), 104 St. Mary’s Academy (Denver, Colo.), 171, 173 opens, 170 St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 20, 178 parochial school, 179 photo of, 166, 175 St. Mary’s High School. See also St. Mary’s School photo of, 166, 184 razed, 184 St. Mary’s School, 180. See also St. Mary’s High School photo of, 166, 183 remodeled, 179, 182 sale of, 181–182 Stockton, Ruth CWHF inductee, 11

INDEX • 359 Stone, Elizabeth Hickok Robbins CWHF inductee, 10 Stone Wall Park, 62 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 143–145 illust. of, 326 Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 143, 144, 157 Stratton Park (Colo. Spr.), 211 Stuart, Christina, 168 Sturdevant, Katherine Scott, ii, 149 “‘Helen of Colorado’: Helen Hunt Jackson, Colorado Springs, & the Making of an Indian Activist,” 127–151 “Vida Ellison & The Manitou Cliff Dwellings,” 89–99 Sturgess, Alice photo of, 62 Suffrage. See also Woman suffrage African Amer., 195, 212 domicile &, 313 Jim Crow leg., 209 Voting Rights Act, 214 The Suffragist (newspaper) photo of, 232 Susan B. Anthony Amendment, 246, 251, 252, 253, 254, 256, 264, 267, 273, 278–279 won, 279 Tabor, Augusta Pierce CWHF inductee, 10 Tabor, Elizabeth Bonduel McCourt “Baby Doe” CWHF inductee, 11 Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas desc. of, 14 Tanner, Gloria Travis CWHF inductee, 9

Tascher, Harold Maggie & Montana: The Story of Maggie Smith Hathaway, 225, 226, 240 Taxes, 257 wife’s, 313 wine, 33 Taylor, Alice Bemis, 101–109 Colorado College, 106 CWHF inductee, 7 Day Nursery, 104 education, 103 folk art, 105 gifts from, 104, 106, 107 hobbies, 107 photo of, 100, 109 Taylor, Alice Dorée, 103 Taylor, Arie Parks CWHF inductee, 9 Taylor, Edward T. (sen.), 249 Taylor, Frederick Morgan Pike, 103 memorial recitals, 105 Taylor Hall (Colo. Coll.) dedication, 101–109 Taylor, James, 103 Taylor Memorial Concerts, 105 Taylor Museum, 106. See also Fine Arts Center library, 106 Teachers: discrimination, 315–316 Teller, Henry (sen.), 82 Temperance Union, 113 Temple Theatre, 195 rollerskating, 102 Tennis Club, 102 Thatcher, Ada, 80 Thayer, Emma Homan, 118 use of Hill ill., 118, 120

360 • INDEX “They Came To Educate: The Sisters of Loretto in the Rocky Mountain West, 1852—Present” by Eugenia R. Ahrens, 167–189 Thomas, Charles (sen.), 253, 278, 285 Thomas, Neval H., 197 Thompson, Ella Clair photo of, 255 Thornton, Alma, 193 Tibbles, Thomas, 136, 138 Tietjen, Jill CWHF inductee, 7 Timberlake, Charles (cong.), 264–266 Tobin, Mary Luke (sr.), 186 CWHF inductee, 9 Tourism, 89–91, 254 Tourist services, 62 The Trilby, 53 McDaniel brothel, 50 photo of, 51 Trotter, William M., 197 Truax, Carol, 67 True, Allan (artist), 104 Truman, Harry S. (pres.), 205 Tuberculosis, 251 Jackson &, 130 Tulsa (Okla.) photo of Camp Garland, 93 Tutt, Vesta W., ii, 108 “Alice Bemis Taylor,” 101–109 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, ref., 143, 144, 157 Union Ice & Coal Co., 68–70 advert., 58 Untold Stories: Jewish Pioneer Women, 1850-1910 by Andrea Kalinowski, ref., 14–15

Urioste, Martha M. CWHF inductee, 9 Utah: Ute Indians &, 21 Ute Indians, 17, 75, 76. See also Chipeta clothing, 25 gov. treaties &, 21 removal, 139 rights of, 20–21 Southern, 80 Utah &, 21 Ute Museum, 17 Utilities: public ownership, 298–299 Valladolid-Cuarón, Alicia (sr.) CWHF inductee, 8 Van Diest, Anna L., 81 Vassar College, 103 “Vida Ellison & The Manitou Cliff Dwellings” by Katie Davis Gardner & Katherine Scott Sturdevant, 89–99 “Virginia Donaghe McClurg, Mesa Verde Crusader” by Judith R. Finley, 75–87 Walker, Lenore E. CWHF inductee, 10 Wallin, Natalyn (Nan), 281 Walsh, Johanna (sr.), 170 Walter, Mildred Pitts CWHF inductee, 10 Wandell, Lillie, 323 Warmoth, Birdie Mae, 45, 48 Warmoth, John, 45 Warner, Emily Howell CWHF inductee, 9 Washington, Robert, 210 Watchfire demonstration. See also Demonstrations

INDEX • 361 Morris &, 305 photo of, 276 Water rights, 36 Guiraud Ditch, 36 Platte River, 91 Watson, Gertrude Crocker photo of, 267 Weaver, Robert C., 208 Webb, Wilma CWHF inductee, 10 Webster College (St. Louis, Mo.), 185 Weimer, Elsie, 64 Weinshienk, Zita L. CWHF inductee, 9 The Western News (newspaper), 234 West, Roy O. (sec.), 197 Wheeler, Burton (dist. atty.), 234 White, Letty, 66 White, Sue, 319, 323 Wild Flowers of Colorado Thayer’s use of Hill ill., 118 Wilson, Woodrow (pres.), 197, 256, 258 effigy burned, 277–278 fav. suff. amend., 270 “Kaiser,” 262, 263 pardons suffragists, 258 photo of protest against, 272 Wolcott, Edward D. (sen.), 80 Wold, Emma (atty.), 307 Woltman, Rhea CWHF inductee, 8 “The Woman’s First Fourth of July” poem by Virginia McClurg, ref., 79 Woman’s Club of Colorado Springs, 251, 293–294 democracy, 295 Social Science dept., 294

Woman suffrage, 23, 79, 228–234. See also National Woman’s Party Colo., 248–249, 293 Colo. Spr. women &, 245–289 demonstrations, 245–246 factionalism, 230 Montana, 225–243 prisoners tour, 278–279 radicals, 245–289 universal, 249–250 vigils, 256 Women: African American, 2 anonymity &, 14 art &, 17 authors, 18 business &, 16–17 Chinese American, 16 discimination &, 320 discriminatory legislation, 307–317 education, 20–21, 59 equality & rights, 321 excluded from jury, 307 fiction about, 13–14 humanitarians, 22–23 jury service, 314 marriage, 26, 47 moral force, 156–157 occupations, 61–73 physicians, 66 pioneer, 1 political barriers, 297 ranching &, 18 rhetoric of, 157 rights of, 248 roles in history, 14–31 roles of, 2, 30, 59–73, 156 stereotypes, 1 suffragists, 23 teachers, 315–316 unmarried rights, 314–316 work in coal mines prohib., 314

362 • INDEX Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Montana, 226, 228 Women’s clubs, 67–68, 80, 251–252, 293–294 Women’s Committee for World Disarmament, 299 Women’s history: western, 14 Women’s Liberation Day Colo. Springs, 319–325 Women’s rights, 23 Catholic Church &, 167 injustices, 249 Jackson &, 129–130 legal identity, 295 Woods, Tighe E., 216 Woolsey, Sarah Chauncey. See Coolidge, Susan Work, Hubert (sec.), 197, 198, 199 Works Progress Administration, 209 rec. center, 210 World War I, 257–258 Wormington-Volk, Marie CWHF inductee, 11 Wren, Christopher, 108 Wright, Hinda M., 71 Wyoming Historical Landmark Commission, 96–97 Yancey, Jean CWHF inductee, 11 YMCA: Women’s Auxiliary, 298 Young, Brigham, 91 Yuen, Look Wing, 26 YWCA: Kerr &, 298 photo of building, 363 Zaharias, Mildred “Babe” Didrikson CWHF inductee, 8

Laying the cornerstone for the YWCA building on the corner of Kiowa Street & Nevada Avenue, November 19, 1912. The Colorado Springs city flag, presented to the community by Dr. Caroline Spencer on behalf of the Civic League of Colorado Springs, is seen just right of center. From Special Collections,

Pikes Peak Library District, (072-9597).

Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West brings us the real women who homesteaded, worked the ranches, built the cities, ran the businesses, brought art to the frontier, founded the institutions, preserved human history and natural wonders, fought against racial and gender discrimination, and advanced the cause of equality for women. The women of this book exhibited “can-do, forthright frontier spunk;” some were quiet, others were strident. They were nonviolent but definitely militant. Their stories are powerful, exciting, and inspiring, all the more for being the unsung heroines who carved a life out of a vast region and forged a society where strong, intelligent, capable women stood up to forces of nature and political opposition and conquered most obstacles.

off th theRocky Mountain West

Regional History Series

Once you’ve read the stories of Virginia Donaghe McClurg, Dr. Caroline Spencer, Mother Superior Praxedes, Helen Hunt Jackson, Marie Guiraud, or Gretchen McRae, you’ll never have to stretch your memory to remember those namby-pamby Hollywood creations again. You’ll have new heroes that will always remain with you. —Lindy Conter Co-chair of the Board of Directors (2004-2009) Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame

Extraordinary Women

As a Chicago child of the first Television Generation, my heroes were from the Wild West. Precious few of them were women, however, because the screens were filled with men in chaps rather than the ladies who MUST have been there at their sides. Annie Oakley, Miss Kitty, Sky King’s niece, Penny, and Dale Evans— not the most powerful females to influence a youngster’s choice of role models.

ISBN 978-1-56735-255-9 90000 >

Regional History Series 9 781567 352559

Extraordinary Women of the

Rocky Mountain West