The Oregon chapter on suffrage was closed on Aug. 28, 1920. At noon of that day, while nearly 300 women stood at attention around the banquet table at the Benson Hotel in Portland, every bell and whistle in the city sounded forth the glad refrain of liberty and righteousness, universal suffrage for women, proclaimed by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. The Mayor of Portland, George L. Baker, was there to rejoice with them. Old women who had stood in the battle-front for years were there to tell of the hard struggles they had passed through for the franchise and young women were there to promise that they would keep the faith and honor the inheritance that had come to them. The jubilee closed with the singing of a Hymn of Thanksgiving written for this meeting by Mrs. Helen Ekin Starrett, the only woman living who had attended the first and last conventions of the National Suffrage Association—1869-1920.
FOOTNOTES:
[150] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Sarah A. Evans, president of the State Federation of Clubs ten years; on the Child Labor Commission eighteen years and market inspector for Portland sixteen years.
[151] Sacajawea was a young Indian woman who accompanied her husband on the Lewis and Clark Expedition from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, the only woman in the party. She had been a captive from an Idaho tribe of the Shoshones and was the only person who could speak the language of the Indians that would be met on the way or who had ever been over the route to be traveled. With her baby in her arms she was the unerring guide through the almost impenetrable mountain passes and on several occasions saved not only the equipment and documents but the lives of the party. In recognition of this service the women of Oregon formed the Sacajawea Association, with the following officers: Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, president; Mrs. C. M. Cartwright, first vice-president; Mrs. M. A. Dalton, second; Mrs. J. B. Montgomery, third; Mrs. Sarah A. Evans, secretary; Mrs. A. H. Breyman, treasurer. This association secured subscriptions and erected a beautiful bronze statue on the exposition grounds, which later was transferred to a prominent place in the city park.
[152] Campaign Committee: Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe, chairman, president of the Equal Suffrage Association; Mrs. Duniway, honorary president; Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, its vice-president and auditor of the National Association; Mrs. Sarah A. Evans, president State Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. Lucia F. Additon, president Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Mrs. C. M. Cartwright, State Pioneers' Association; Mrs. Clara Waldo, State Grange; Dr. Luema G. Johnson, State Labor Organization; Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, Sacajawea Association.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
PENNSYLVANIA.[153]
Pennsylvania was a pioneer State in the movement for woman suffrage. One of the first "woman's rights" conventions in history took place in 1852 in West Chester under the auspices of the Friends, or Quakers, and Philadelphia was the home of Lucretia Mott, who joined with Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1848 in calling the first "woman's rights" meeting ever held. The State Woman Suffrage Association was formed in this city in December, 1869, a few months after the founding of the National Association, and did not cease its work until the final victory in 1920.