Powelton’s Suffragettes

     Poweltonians were a generally civic-minded group and were always involved in various social and political organizations. The women’s suffrage movement was no exception. Several Powelton women were prominent in the suffrage movement both locally in Pennsylvania and nationally. The story of the suffrage movement in Philadelphia was chronicled by Caroline Katzenstein (1876-1968) who was herself a key organizer of the movement. When passage of the 19th amendment was imminent, she resigned her position and became an agent for Equitable Life Insurance Co. In the 1920s, she moved to an apartment at 3411 Powelton Ave. where she lived until at least the 1950s. Her history of the suffrage movement in Philadelphia (Lifting the Curtain) includes information about the involvement of several Powelton residents. (See “Caroline Kateznstein and Woman's Suffrage.”)

 

Caroline Katzenstein, c1914 (Temple Univ. Archives)

     The most senior of Powelton’s suffragists (the term they preferred to “suffragettes”) was Charlotte L. (Woodward) Peirce (1830-c1923). In 1848, she was 18 year-old girl living in central New York State when she attended the Seneca Falls Convention. She is often identified as a teacher at the time of the Convention. Apparently she had taught school when she was 15. However, in the summer of 1848, she helped earn money for her family by sewing gloves at home for a local glove factory. She later moved to Philadelphia and in 1857 and married Quaker dentist, Cyrus Newlin Peirce (later Dean of the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery). In 1869, she was named vice president of the new Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association. The Peirces moved to Powelton in 1892 and into their new home at 3316 Powelton Ave. in 1895. She remained active in suffrage politics throughout her life. She was the only signer of the Seneca Falls Declaration who lived long enough to vote under the 19th amendment, although it appears that her health prevented her from voting.  She is the subject of a children's reader, "Meeting Mrs. Pierce," which gives an introduction to women's suffrage.    She was also a founder and long-time treasurer of the New Century Club and a founder of The Spring Garden Unitarian Society.

Charlotte L. Peirce and Caroline Katzenstein (Lifting the Curtain)

     Charlotte Peirce must have influenced many Powelton women, but Powelton women had been involved in women’s issues since at least 1876. (See “Advancement of Women, 1876.”) Several women became active in reform politics through the New Century Club. The Club addressed problems facing working women and their children. Miss Mary A. Burnham (1852-?; 3401 Powelton Ave.) was an active member. Katzenstein calls Burnham “one of the State’s most prominent Suffragists” and notes her knowledge of “political affairs.” In addition, “she was Pennsylvania’s outstanding financial supporter of the national suffrage movement.” As a daughter of George Burnham, a senior member of the partnership that owned Baldwin Locomotive Works, she was in a position to offer both financial and material support. In 1907, she gave $2,500 to the Susan B. Anthony memorial fund which was designed to meet the expenses of woman suffrage work for the next five years. In 1915 during the campaign to amend Pennsylvania’s constitution, she loaned the Equal Franchise Society a driver and automobile (termed the “Burnham Winner”) for three months. It was freshly painted in the movement’s colors with a purple body and yellow wheels. The “Burnham Winner” led of a string of 150 automobiles that were part of a pre-election parade up Broad St. During the election of 1916, Mary Burnham was the third largest donor to the National Woman’s Party. Her contribution of $2,300 was enough to buy about six Ford Model Ts.
 

The "Burnham Winner" (Evening Ledger, July 29, 1914)

      Katzenstein relates an amusing story about Mary Burnham. As part of relations for the Equal Franchise League, Katzenstein organized a campaign to plaster posters throughout the city. To get press coverage, she asked three “older and socially prominent members” to join a “Poster Brigade.” Miss Burnham (and possibly fellow Poweltonian Mary Grice) made a brave effort to plaster a poster to a brick wall. Dressed in their long, black dresses they must have made a spectacle as Katzenstein notes they were not used to this kind of work.

     Another member of the Burnham household also active in suffrage activities was Mrs. Katherine G. Halligan (1862-1928), a trained nurse. She was probably hired to assist George Burnham, but remained in the household long after his death. Katzenstein credits her with designing a moveable speaker’s platform, among other contributions.

      Mary Burnham’s support of the suffrage movement was not her only foray into the politics of women in society. In 1912-’13 she was one of four women on the Mayor’s 22-member “Vice Commission.” The Commission investigated conditions in the Tenderloin district. It based its findings on the reports of an expert team hired to carry out what we would call an ethnographic survey of the area. The Commission’s findings were almost revolutionary. The traditional view held that men’s needs for gratification were lamentable, but understandable while condemnation; enforcement (to the extent there was any) was aimed at the women. The Commission soundly rejected this view. They also noted the large number of homes of “respectable” people living in the so-called “segregated district” and the large number of young children surrounded by the prevalent vice. Two other Poweltonians were members: Theodore J. Lewis (212 N. 34th St. and 3405 Powelton Ave.) who was vice-chair (and Mary Burnham’s brother-in-law), and Joseph W. Cochran (3302 Baring St.) who was the minister of the Northminster Presbyterian Church (35th & Baring).

      Another prominent suffragist was Mary (Mrs. Edwin C.) Grice who was a founder of the New Jersey National Congress of Women. She became vice president of the National Congress of Women which was led by Hannah Schoff (3418 Baring St.). (See “Hannah Schoff - The "Mother" of the Nation's Organized Mothers” and “Hannah Schoff In Her Own Words.”) She was also active in the New Century Club. The Grices moved to Powelton (first 3308, then 3318 Arch St.) from N.J. about 1907. In 1914, Mary Grice headed a delegation of 20 Pennsylvania women to Washington where they met with legislators to push the House of Representatives to consider a suffrage amendment. The delegation included Mary Burnham and Maria Chase (Mrs. Thomas) Scattergood (3515 Powelton Ave.). Becoming active in the suffrage movement put Grice at odds with Schoff who believed that a woman’s influence should be through motherhood. However, many of the local units of the NCW did support suffrage, including the New Jersey chapter.

Mrs. Edwin C. Grice

     Grice and Schoff differed over another important topic: organizing parents’ involvement in schools. Schoff turned the National Congress of Women into what became the PTA. Grice, on the other hand, was a leading organizer, and first president, of Philadelphia’s Home and School Association. She served as president from 1907 to 1919 and was a leading critic of the Board of Education. Philadelphia still has a Home and School Association rather than a PTA. Grice was also a prominent member of the Woman’s Peace Party of Pennsylvania, a leader of the Church Woman’s Housing Committee, and in 1918 served on the governor’s Old Age Pension Commission. Her husband, Edwin C, Grice was a leading founder of the Ethical Society.

     These differences between neighbors remind us that Powelton’s suffragists were bold proponents of a new vision of women’s role in society.  As with any new social movement, there are differences of opinion on the best way to proceed and these were all strong women with strongly held opinions.

(Note: Charlotte Woodward Peirce’s name is almost universally spelled incorrectly as “Pierce.” The spelling used here comes from her signature and other documents. Her date of death is generally given as 1921 or “c1921.” There is no notice of her death in the Philadelphia Inquirer through the end of 1922. Her name is still listed in Boyd’s Directory for 1923 which was generally complied the previous fall. She was not listed in the 1924 Directory. It appears likely that she died in 1923. Her age at the time of the Convention is often given as 18 or 19. The 1900 census lists here date of birth as January, 1830. )

Hannah Schoff In Her Own Words

   My previous post gives an introduction to Hanna Kent Schoff.  I think her success as a national spokesperson for child rights and maternal education was a product of her deep commitment to these issues and to her skills with the written and spoken word.  Her writings are quite emphatic and she must have been an inspirational speaker.

       The following interview with her was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, April 3, 1917.  The accompanying graphic highlights many of her comments.

"MOTHER" OF NATION'S ORGANIZED' MOTHERS
OPPOSES "MILITARY DRAFT" FOR CHILDREN
Mrs. Frederic Schoff, President of National Congress, Not a Pacifist, but Indignantly Scores Desire of Militants of U. S. to Put Universal Training in the Schools of the Country Has Four Sons

By M'LISS
     "NOT a nation in the world, not even the mad, war-torn ones, not even Germany has drafted Its children Into military service, and yet the militarists of America, in the most crucial time of our history, lose their heads and threaten us with this thing!"

     In ringing tones of Indignation, Mrs. Frederic Schoff, for the last fifteen years president of the National Congress of Mothers and Parent Teachers' Association, an organization representing more than 100,000 mothers, denounced the agitators who would legislate the rifle and the musket into the hands of the school children and left no doubt as to the scale Into which she would throw her Influence when the all-Important subject of universal military training is brought up at the annual gathering of the association, to be held In Washington this month.
     It is quite possible that in her gentle, retiring way, this little white-haired Philadelphia woman molds opinion in as great a degree as many a nationally prominent statesman. For almost two decades in a benign and motherly fashion she has been engaged in educating mothers the country over out of the state of passivity over public questions into which she thought they had fallen.
     She is the mother of the organized mothers of the United States, and if she declares against universal military training it's a safe bet that the militarists of the country will have to sit up nights to offset her influence.

DENIES PACIFISM
     "Please do not think I am a pacifist," she said and the flag in the window at her home in Baring street was a concrete exhibition of her patriotism "I believe firmly and stanchly In being prepared. Three of my ancestors came over in the Mayflower; I am an American first, last and
all the time, but I believe America must point a newer and better way, not follow in the footsteps of mad, insane nations which are wiping each other off the face of the earth.
     "Experts will tell you," she continued earnestly, "that military training, in its strict sense, is not the best thing for children. I am not speaking of its spiritual effect now, but of Its purely physical effect. Why inject it into the schools? Later on, perhaps, at college, or when a man reaches his majority it would be well to have a military course. It should not take long to teach a healthy man the methods of warfare. But spare the children.
     "Give them a compulsory physical training, both the girls and the boys. That is real preparedness. Militarists will try and make you believe that the bill passed by New York recently putting physical training into the schools is military. It is not. It is simply a health measure, and as such could be copied in every other State with good effect.
     "But before we talk of a greater army, should we not better the condition of those already in it? Is it patriotic for us to sit back and criticise [sic.] men for not enlisting when they are expected to enlist at something like $15 a month?
     "Put the army and navy on the basis of a decent profession and then talk about enlistments.”
     "Mrs. Schoff is just back from a tour of the western States, where she spoke before the local mothers' organizations in the interest of child welfare, and to speak of child welfare at the present time without mentioning war and militarism was, she declared, more than she was capable of.
     "But I found many women who do not believe as I believe, some who are for war at any price and some for peace at any price. This augurs for a stormy convention In April. Do not magnify my influence I am but one woman among a hundred thousand or more represented in the mothers' association. They may go on record for universal military training."
     "But knowing mothers as she does, it was plain to see that she doubted that they would. Mrs. Schoff herself is the mother of seven children, four of whom are boys of war-going age.
     "One of my boys served on the border," she said, "and I believe the sending of those 150,000 boys down to Mexico did as much for the mothers of them as it did for the boys themselves. It made them learn things It brought the atmosphere of war Into their homes and opened their eyes to the seriousness of life. [Note: during her tour of western states, she visited her son, Albert, who was serving with the First Pennsylvania Cavalry in El Paso Texas.]

     "The trouble with most women has been that they haven't thought, they haven't studied. Federal bills are being considered the passage of which will touch every home and affect millions of lives. Yet few women know anything about these bills.
     "Great Britain and Europe are demonstrating that in times of war the women play almost as strenuous a part as the men. It behooves us to be prepared. Physically the women of America can pass muster with the men, but If It comes to a question of service we should put a little sane thinking into our expressions of loyalty and patriotism."
     "Millions for defense, but not one penny, not one man for aggression, is the message that its president will take to the annual convention of the National Congress of Mothers, which is to meet for the week beginning April 21 in Washington, D. C."

Hannah Schoff - The "Mother" of the Nation's Organized Mothers

       Frederick and Hannah Schoff raised their seven children at 3418 Baring St. They moved there in the early 1880s and expanded the house to fit their family's needs. Hannah lived there until her death in 1940, almost 60 years later.

Frederic and Hannah Schoff, their three sons (L to R: Harold, Wilfred, and Alfred), one their daughters and son-in-laws (Edith and John Boericke) and granddauther Beatrice taken at 3418 Baring St.

        Leonard and Hannah were very industrious. Frederick ran Stow Flexible Shaft Co. which was co-founded by George Burnham, Jr. (214 N. 34th). Their flexible shafts and variable speed motors were widely used in industry and made possible such innovations as the dentist's drill. He was a member of the Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborg), the Union League, and the Sons of the Revolution.

Annie's picture from the Philadelphia Inquirer

      Hannah was by far the more interesting. In 1899, she read about an eight-year-old girl who set fire to a house. The girl’s mother died when she was two, she was sent to an orphanage and then put to work in a boarding house. A front page article in the Inquirer gave the girl's name and included a picture of her [at right].  It stated that experts “acknowledged her to be one of the most clever and accomplished of natural-born criminals.” Phrenology showed that “three prominences of the back head… [which] form the basis of our selfish properties, are well developed” on the girl. The consensus was that she was a “degenerate.” She confessed to setting the fire and to numerous petty crimes and was tried in a regular court and sentenced to a House of Refuge along with adults. Hannah Schoff convinced the judge to place the girl in a good home.
       Hannah credited this incident with setting her on a twenty-five-year battle to change the court system and focus attention on strengthening families and educating mothers. She declared that “there is no criminal class of children, but their faults come from faults of schools, church, and State.” (Phila. Inquirer, Nov. 28, 1911) She repeatedly stated that children who commit crimes “are not criminals. They are children who, by loving intelligent help at this time, may have their lives turned into the right direction.” (Phila. Inquirer, Nov. 3, 1912) She urged the legal system, schools and churches to develop approaches to supporting these children and their families.
       Her first step was to set about reforming the treatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system in Philadelphia. Working with other members of the New Century Club in Philadelphia, she began the campaign that led in 1901 to the establishment of a juvenile court system (only the second, after Chicago's), separate detention homes, and a system of (volunteer) probation officers. During the first eight years, she observed almost every session of the new court. She pushed for a similar system in Pittsburgh and for the whole Commonwealth. One of the New Century Club members who worked with her on this was Mrs. Elizabeth W. Garrett (3613 Powelton Ave.). Hannah also assisted successful efforts in other states including Connecticut, Louisiana, and Idaho as well as in Canada.  Her efforts in Canada led to her becoming the first woman ever invited to address the Canadian Parliament.
       At the same time, she was involved in the establishment of the National Congress of Mothers in 1897. She served as its president from 1902 to 1920. During this time, the organization's name was changed to the National Congress of Mothers and Parent Teacher Associations and she is credited with turning the PTA into a national organization with many state affiliates. She founded its journal, Child Welfare (later National Parent-Teacher) and edited it from her home. She was instrumental in getting Theodore Roosevelt to serve on an advisory board throughout her presidency.
       A major focus of the National Congress of Women was keeping children from falling into a life of crime. For example, they opposed complete bans on child labor on the grounds that some children should work to keep them out of trouble. Hannah oversaw a large-scale investigation into the childhood circumstances that led to criminal incarceration. Her study of 8,000 questionnaires filled out by prisoners and her years of observing the criminal justice system and visiting prisons led to her book The Wayward Child (1915). In it, she wrote that over the years she had been in touch with the so-called incorrigible children and she had seen many who were regarded as hopelessly wicked respond to the love and care given them.

       Hannah was very Victorian in that she stressed childrearing as "the highest, holiest duty of womanhood.” She felt women needed to be better prepared for this task. This focus on childrearing put her at odds with the more radical feminists of her day. For example, in an impromptu speech in Harrisburg in 1913, she declared that “With so much work waiting to be done, so many great and good undertakings that fall flat for lack of competent persons to assume control, it does not seem to me that our women of today may better devote themselves to the things which may be accomplished rather than bewail the fact that they are hampered in their actions for civic good by the lack of a vote.”
       Hannah Schoff was widely recognized as a national leader on many of the issues of her day involving the health and welfare of children. An article in the New York Tribune in 1917 about child nutrition referred to “the great progressive army of mothers and educators organized under the leadership of Mrs. Frederick Schoff.” The same year in an interview with her about proposals to give military training to school children, the Philadelphia Inquirer called her the “’mother’ of [the] nation’s organized mothers.” That interview (which I will post in my next blog) reveals in her own words Hannah Schoff’s strength, character and political acuteness. In her day, Hannah Schoff was a true force to be reckoned with. In terms of national prominence and influence on her times, she was certainly one of Powelton’s finest.

Caroline Katzenstein and Woman's Suffrage

     The General Assembly of Pennsylvania, House Resolution 81, Session of 2011: Recognizing the month of March 2011 as "National Women's History Month" in Pennsylvania reads, in part:

“WHEREAS, It was the lesser-known suffragists, such as Pennsylvanians Dora Kelly Lewis and Caroline Katzenstein, who inherited the struggle from Anthony, Stanton and Mott and oversaw the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which gave women the right to vote on August 18, 1920;…”

     Caroline Katzenstein lived in an apartment at 3411 Powelton Ave. from the 1920s until the 1950s. Her papers on women’s suffrage are available at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.  Their website offers a very good biosketch of her.  The Abstract reads in part:

Photo: HSP.ORG

“Caroline Katzenstein (1888-1968) was a leader in the Pennsylvania suffrage movement. She served in official positions for the Equal Franchise Society of Philadelphia, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and the National Woman’s Party. After women won the vote in 1920, Katzenstein continued to fight for women’s rights and lobbied tirelessly for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment for over twenty years. In 1919, Katzenstein used her expertise in publicity to aid the Women Teachers Organization of Philadelphia in their efforts to increase salary for women teachers. Additionally, Katzenstein was a successful insurance agent for the Equitable Life Insurance Society of New York, the Massachusetts Bonding and Insurance Company (Philadelphia Branch), and the Philadelphia Life Insurance Company.”

     In 1955, she published a book entitled: Lifting the Curtain; the State and National Woman Suffrage Campaigns in Pennsylvania as I Saw Them.

     Katenstein was also concerned about world peace.  Melissa Klapper wrote in the Journal of American History in 2010: “In addition to working for peace in ways that emphasized Jewish identities and values, American Jewish women also drew liberally on maternalist ideals…. As the former suffragist Caroline Katzenstein wrote, ‘we women, because we are the mothers of the race, know perhaps better than men the true value of life, and it is up to us to show that war and the causes that lead to it can be abolished.’ Framing the issue as an appeal to mothers made it a message to which all women could presumably subscribe.”

Erratum: Caroline Katzenstein was born  Dec. 21, 1876 in Warrenton, N.C. (not 1888).  She and her sisters understated their ages in later censuses.  2/1/2013