"Neither Head nor Tail to the Campaign": Esther Pohl Lovejoy and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Victory of 1912

Abstract

KIMBERLY JENSEN "Neither Head nor Tail to the Campaign" EstherPohl Lovejoyand the Oregon Woman Suffrage Victoryof1912 IN FEBRUARY 1913, Oregon suffragist, physician,and public health activist Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy summed up Oregon's 1912woman suffrage victory for theWoman sProgressive Weekly: "Itwas pre-eminently a campaign of young women, impatient of leadership, and theyworked just about as they liked ? and that is how theywill vote. There was certainly neither head nor tail to the campaign." Lovejoy cited the independent work of a number of suffrage groups, the support of theNational American Woman SuffrageAssociation (NAWSA), positive press coverage, the impact of visiting speakers, and the diverse activities ofOregonians for the cause. "There were lunches, dinners and talks here and there and everywhere," shewrote, "and a continuous distribution of literature. Oregon women worked during this campaign as they never did before ? and the returns showed clearly that where theyworked theywon."1 Pohl Lovejoy was at the center ofmuch of this activity.Her assessment of the vital role of a coalition of independent, diverse suffrage groups and the impact of modern mass advertising and public relations outlines key areas of historical investigation and analysis for the 1912victory. By 1912, important developments in the long history ofwomen's quest for voting rights inOregon suggested the possibility of a successful campaign. Oregon women had what Pohl Lovejoy called a "local grievance:" theywere voteless but surrounded by suffrage states. Women had achieved the vote in Idaho (1896),Washington (1910), and California (1911), and itappeared that theRepublic of China would grant suffrage towomen.2 Abigail Scott Duni way, theveteran but domineering first-generation suffrage leader ofOregon OHQ vol. 108, no. 3 ? 2007 Oregon Historical Society Suffragecampaigners ? includingEstherPohl Lovejoy, holding the"Votesfor Women" umbrella, andW.M. "Pike"Davis, sittingin the frontpassenger seat ? promote theircause during theJune 1912 Portland Rose Festival with Votesfor Women banners andflags,which were used throughoutthe winning campaign. and the Pacific Northwest, had lostmost local and national support by 1912 and was bedridden most of the campaign. The Washington and California victories ? based on new strategies ofmass media and advertising ? may have influenced Oregon suffragists to reject Duniway's passive campaign styleknown as the "stillhunt,"which favored behind-the-scenes work among elitemale leaders and avoided public debate or discussion.3 The ideas and new style of activism of Pohl Lovejoy and other Portland campaigners were significant contributions to victory. The 1912Oregon campaign may have succeeded because of the strength of independent organizations with "nei ther head nor tail to the campaign," the ability of those like Pohl Lovejoy to form coalitions for action in spite of conflicts, and the effectiveness of Jensen, Esther Pohl Lovejoy and Oregon Woman Suffrage,1912 modern mass advertising. This studywill address these issues surrounding the 1912 campaign with a primary focus on Portland, Esther Pohl Lovejoy, and her suffrage activism.4 ESTHER CLAYSON WAS BORN in1869ina logging camp inSeabeck, Washington Territory, to immigrant English parents. From an early age, she and her brothers worked in the family's boarding house and hotel and, later, in their hotel and restaurant when the familymoved to East Portland in the 1880s. At eighteen, Esther started work as a clerk, earning twenty dollars a month at the Lipman andWolfe department store to help support herself and hermother and younger sisters. In 1890, inspired by earlywomen physi cians practicing inPortland and the promise of interesting and remunerative work, she began the three-year course of study at theUniversity ofOregon Medical Department (UOMD). Her funds ran out after the end of the first term, however, and she took a year off to return to department store employment. "There were no scholarships to be won " she recalled, "and 18 months behind hosiery and underwear counters was the price of my last two terms."5Those years gave Esther a labor consciousness and a concern for OHQ vol. io8y no. 3 EstherClayson married Emil Pohl, her classmate at theUniversity ofOregonMedical Department, severalweeks afterhergraduation inApril 1894. He died in 1911. the needs ofworkers that she retained throughout her life. The University of Oregon Medical Department, Esther later remembered, "suited" her "exactly." "Itwas a pioneer institution," she noted, "unhampered by a past, but with a boundless future." "None of the...