Ellen Cole Fetter, by Kelly Meadows,
commissioned for the Peru Public Library
by Miami County IN Worth remembering,
in honor of this lady's continued generous legacy providing money to buy books for the library to this day.
As part of the Humanities/OCRA's Preserving Women's Legacy Grant project
The Seneca Falls Convention[1] of 1849 was the first of its kind. A woman’s rights convention where maybe for the first time the idea of woman’s suffrage was voiced out loud.
Even Elizabeth Cady Stanton[2]’s husband chose to stay away when she pressed on to present the idea as part of the Declaration of Sentiments[3].
The two women had met in London at the World Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840[5], to which they had been denied access because they were women. Some men of the American delegation refused to be separated from them and joined the women in the spectator’s gallery.
This exclusion started a fire in Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and 8 years later they would organize the Seneca Falls Convention.
A month later another convention was held in Rochester, NY and the ball continued to roll thereafter.
You might be surprised to learn that the Midwest was not asleep either and Indiana was at the heart of the stirring. In October 1851[6], in Dublin, Wayne County, women gathered asking for their rights. Referring to the state constitution of Indiana, they wanted to know if women were not citizens themselves. Were women not people?
A year later, another convention was held in Indiana, in Richmond, a stone throw away from Dublin.
Lizzie Bunnell[7]
and many others were in attendance and signed[8]
the constitution of a new organization: The Indiana Woman’s Rights Association. Lizzie Bunnell moved to Peru in 1856 and in 1861, started
a woman’s rights newspaper, The
Mayflower[9], in
Peru, with the support of Dr. Mary Thomas, of Richmond, IN. The paper managed to survive February 1864, when it died in Columbia City, IN where newlywed
Lizzie had moved to earlier that year. The last Mayflower published in Peru is dated October 1, 1863.
The 1942 Palladium Item mentions a long list of people.
We found an “E H Shirk” acknowledged as a Mayflower subscriber in 1864. He is likely Elbert Hamilton Shirk of Peru, grandfather of Marie Stuart Edwards’ husband, Richard E Edwards. Otherwise, none of the subscribers’ names stand out with absolute certainty as Miami county people.
The local newspapers turn up a blurb about 1882 Converse: “A Woman Suffrage meeting was held at the home of Mrs. M Edwards in Deer Creek township, Mrs. S R Haynes presiding. Miss M A Clark was chosen secretary."[10]
Again, determining without a doubt who for sure these women are has proven to be very difficult.
A lot of commotion occurred on election day, November 6th, 1894[11] when Indiana women decided to go to the polls and attempt to vote as did Helen Gougar and were refused a ballot on account of their sex:
- In Anderson 250 members of the WCTU.
- In Howard County too women turned up at the polls.
- But no similar action is reported in Miami County.
So we pick up the story in Miami County on Oct 15, 1914, when the Peru Franchise League was created.
I may be grasping at straws at this point, looking at the records trying to connect the Miami County woman’s suffrage story to more of the early days.
What did take place between 1864 and 1914?
Does the WCTU hold answers?
What role did it play in Miami County?
Who were the women involved?
The Miami County Museum kindly shared with me some more of its treasures in the form of a directory. It meant very little when I first looked at it.
A great article on the WCTU[12] explains much better than I can, its role in organizing the women so they could begin to exert influence on society, as a group. Its main objective was to combat the ills of addiction, most to alcohol, which was perceived as one of the main causes of abuse in families. They believed that “one ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Miami County’s WCTU had 5 Unions, organized at different times:
1. The Amboy Union in 1888
2. The Peru Union organized a Union in 1898
3. The Converse Union in 1912
4. The Macy Union in 1915
5. The Kate Liebrick Union in South Peru in 1917
“Why would they use a woman’s name?”, was my question. Who was Kate Liebrick?
Kate LIEBRICK/LEEBRICK was born in Dublin, Indiana on May 1, 1842, to John Newman LEEBRICK and his wife Rosanna Matilda FRITCHEY. She and her sister Emma came to Miami County to teach school. The whole family ended up moving here and several are buried here.
Her sister Frances Ellen LIEBRICK, aka “Ella” came to Peru to visit her sisters and met George Curtis MILLER whom she married in 1869. George Miller worked with Elbert Hamilton Shirk as business partners. They lived at 82 West 6th, where the Miami Indian Tribal Headquarters are now.
Ella aka Mrs. G C MILLER is named in the article on the December 1914 meeting of the Peru Franchise League. As they only named 5 of 16 founding members, it is not a big jump to believe she is one of them.
“Officers of the Peru League are:
- President, Mrs. Harry Fetter
- Vice-President, Mrs. R E Edwards
- Second vice-president, Miss Harriet Henton
- Treasurer: Mrs. A Wertheim
- Secretary: Miss Grace Armitage
For the arrangement committee Thursday, Mrs. Joseph Shirk was appointed chairman, but was unable to serve, Mrs. Hector Loughran acting in her place. The reception committee was composed of Mrs. Harry Fetter, Mrs. Frank Stutesman, Mrs. E W Shirk, Mrs. R E Edwards and Miss Harriet Henton. Assistant hostesses were Mrs. G C Miller, Mrs. John Lawrence, Miss Ethel Blair, Grace Armitage, Mrs. Will Charters, Mrs. Charles Fultz, Mrs. S S Brewer, Mrs. A Wertheim and Mrs. John Hiner.
The young ladies who assisted in serving were the Misses Alice Stutesman, Mildred Keyes, Helen Cole, Mary McClintic, Mabel Loughran, Kate Cox, Minnie Antrim, Addie Ream, Georgia Redmon, Grace Deniston, Jane Long and Hazel Arnold.”[13]
Ella was born 27 Sep 1848, so she would have only been 3 years old when the Dublin Convention took place. Chances are slim she might have been there. Her mother’s name does not appear on the newspaper list and neither does her grandmother’s. Yet, it is hard to imagine the family was not influenced by the events taking place in the Richmond area at the time.
George C MILLER served as elected representative of the Howard and Miami district in the state senate.
Ella LIEBRICK MILLER died on 27 Nov 1920[14]. She is buried at Mount Hope with her husband and her parents.
Other names stand out, such as Mrs. E W Shirk, aka Mary Emma KIMBERLY, wife of Elbert Walker SHIRK. Minnie ANTRIM who would, during the war, help bring the first biplane to Peru while doing war work in St Louis. Harriet HENTON, the columnist for the Peru Republican; Kate COX who would be secretary of the Indiana Franchise League when Marie EDWARDS served as president.
[3] http://www.womensrightsfriends.org/pdfs/1848_declaration_of_sentiments.pdf ; https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbcmil.scrp4006702/?sp=10
[7] https://mciwr.blogspot.com/search/label/Lizzie%20Bunnell%20Read – The Palladium Item, 15 March 1942, Richmond, IN
[8] The Palladium Item, 15 March 1942, Richmond, IN
[9] https://hollis.harvard.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01HVD_ALMA211836042950003941&context=L&vid=HVD2&lang=en_US&search_scope=HVD_SCH&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=books&query=title,exact,The%20Mayflower,AND&sortby=rank&mode=advanced&offset=0
[10] published in the "Forty-One Years Ago Today" column of the Peru Republican 1 Jun 1923, from the earlier issue dated 8 June 1882.
[11] Chicago Tribune on Nov. 7, 1894; The Peru Republican 6 Nov 1894, Peru, IN
[12] The Temperance Movement In Indiana, Author(s): Charles E. Canup
Source: Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 16, No. 2 (JUNE, 1920), pp. 112-151; Published by: Indiana University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27785940 - Accessed: 23-02-2020 10:25 UTC
[13] The Peru Republican 18 Dec 1914, Peru, IN
[14] The Peru Republican 1 Dec 1922, Peru, IN
The Woman’s Franchise League of Indiana was divided into 13 districts[1].
Several counties were grouped within each district with a District Chairman at the head.
Peru was part of the Eleventh District, which included
- Blackford County - Cass County
- Grant County - Huntington County
- Miami County - Pulaski County
- Wabash County
Each county had a growing number of branches, who had to organize an annual county convention.
Mrs. E A Gould, of Peru took over as 11th District Chair in April 1917. She succeeded Mrs Eva Rohbock of Wabash. In
1917, Mrs. Isaac Beitman (Wabash), Margaret Magee (Logansport) and Mrs. Charles Butler (Huntington) made
up her team. Mrs. Rohbock was a tough act to follow but Fannie proved to be up to the task.
 |
| The Sentinel, 9 Nov 1893, Peru, IN |
The 1917-1918 Woman’s Franchise League of Indiana directory stresses the importance to not discount the presence of the women of color. On page 21, we find the following:
“We are overlooking a valuable corps of workers if we do not enlist the colored women. This was brought to the attention of the Conference by the president of the colored woman’s league at Marion, Mrs. Stella Weaver Nukes. In an excellent talk, she urged that all cities where the colored population was large enough to warrant it, we go to their minister and ask him who are the leaders. In Most cases he will be glad to assist us.”[3]
It is interesting that within our district there were 2 African American branches:
- one in Wabash: The Wabash Colored League was organized in August 1917 and
- one in Marion: The Afro-American League was organized in June 1917
In Peru we were able to find the names of 2 African American women: Cassie Hill and Mattie Moss. Cassie Hill had moved away by the 1920 census but Mattie Moss was still here. Very little is known about them however.
Mattie Moss was married to Frank Moss, Ora Moss’ brother. The Mosses were a family of barbers and hairdressers with ties in Indianapolis and Logansport. The grandfather, Alexander Moss[4], arrived in Miami County before 1850, a free man. He became a wealthy and well respected member of the community.
On April 24th, 1918, Aileen Crockett stopped by Mattie’s house on East 3rd Street in Peru to sign her up for war work thru the Council of Defense registration program. This is how we learn that in 1917, after the Maston-McKinley Act gave partial suffrage to the women of Indiana, Mattie registered to vote.
We will recall how Aaron Berger, the overzealous young County clerk, had stopped all women registrations in June 1917[5], after Indianapolis Judge Thornton ruled against women voting. So we know Mattie had already registered in anticipation of casting her ballot for delegates to the September 1917 Constitutional Convention. This would be declared illegal and the suffrage law would be rescinded instead.
It would be nice to compare the data with other cities but we have no knowledge of other cities having the tools we have been able to use.
In Wabash’s African American League, the president was Mrs. Walter Russel with Vice-President, Mrs. James E Johnson, Secretary, Mrs. Mazie Frisco and Treasurer, Mrs. Lulu Watkins.
Mamie Russell was a hairdresser born in Canada on Dec 2, 1865, the daughter of Hezekiah Harper and Elizabeth Preston. She married Walter Russell in Wabash on May 2, 1889. She died pm March 30, 1951 in Wabash, IN. Mamie was a freemason and belonged to the Order of the Eastern Star (colored lodge). In 1922 she was a grand matron.[7] So much more to research here.
Another article published in March 1918 mentions Stella speaking at a California Convention of the WCTU[9] but we need to go back to August 24, 1917 to read in the Evansville Press where the directory quote was pulled from.
In August 1917, the Woman's Franchise League held another big statewide convention, again attended by Carrie Chapman Catt. During this convention, each county league president was asked to present a report of their work. After describing the women attending the conference as a "quiet, capable, sweet, intelligent, democratic, human crowd that somehow never find their way into print as regular people like the rest of us, but usually as a vague, ambiguous mob shouting for their 'rights' and trying to down the men', Marie Barnett, Evansville Press correspondent, continues:
"The suffragist at the Indianapolis convention is a mother with soft gray hair, or a grandmother, perhaps; or she is a young girl with a flash in her eye and the natural rose tint of youth yet on her cheeks; a handsome leader of her social crowd at home; a scrub woman who spent the morning mopping the floor of the hotel, and who crept into the back of the big assembly room in the afternoon to see if 'votes for women couldn't do some good an' maybe make a machine for the cleanin' up of things so that a woman would have to go down on her knees to scrub."
and then she drops the 'bombshell'...
"And there is also a suffraget there who represents the negro race. There was a stir at the conference when ..."
Picture this... in the Claypool Hotel, walking to the pulpit, filled with all these women in their best attire...
"... Mrs. Stella Weaver Nukes of Marion appeared as a representative of the Afro-American Franchise league, which is affiliated with the state and national organization. The colored woman is enthusiastic over the work her race is doing. Mrs. Nukes is 29 years old and has six children."
Stella May Weaver Nukes[10] was born on 28 January 1888 in Indiana to Franklin Weaver and Catharine Laiuie Jones. She died in Marion, IN on 28 Aug 1937. She married Thomas Nukes on Jun 20th, 1906 in Grant County. In 1920 they still reside in Grant County. Her husband is listed as a "chiropedist" in a barbershop. On the 1930 census he is said to be a podiatrist - which matches his grandson Hubert Nukes'
description in correspondence he exchanged with Kyra Hicks for her book.
He says that his grandfather was a 'foot doctor' and gave massages[10a]. The census reports that Stella is a newspaper writer!
er book, Franklin Roosevelt's Postage Stamp Quilt, Kyra E
Hicks, recounts the story of a quilt Stella Nukes designed and created with the help of other women of the WPA[10b]'s Sewing Class, at the Marion civic hall, under the supervision of Mrs. Ferol McMillan. [11] The quilt is nowhere to be found today.
Stella was also involved with the WCTU.
Her sister Debra Weaver who was living with them. She was married to Hershel Wood Dodson, and another sister married a M L Wood with whom she moved to South Bend. A third sister, Mrs. Otto Jones took trips with Stella to South Bend to visit the family.[12]
There is no connection with Aileen Crockett, war card registrar, who married Edgar C Dodson. Although Stella tragically lost a daughter in Peru in 1923.
We have but scratched the surface in this matter.
We call out to the descendants of these women to help us reconstruct the story.
[3] http://cdm16066.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16066coll48/id/360/rec/1 pp 21-22
[4] The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Aug 28, 1920, Fort Wayne, IN “Colored Citizen Dies”
[5] The Peru Journal 25 Jun 1917, Peru, IN ; The Peru Journal 27 Jun 1917, Peru, IN; The Peru Journal 28 Jun 1917, Peru, IN
[6] Mrs. Aileen Dodson (1904*-1978), The Indianapolis News, 15 May 1978, Indianapolis, IN – Obituary – 1900 census shows she is alive already born in Dec 1899
[7] The Star Press, 26 Jun 1922, Muncie, IN page 9 “Colored Lodge Will Hold Sessions Here”
[8] The Republican 6 Jan 1918
[9] Women Christian Temperance Union – The Fairmount News, 18 Apr 1921, Fairmount, IN
[10] https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/41887535/person/19691938757/facts
[10a] Franklin Roosevelt’s Postage Stamp Quilt, by Kyra E Hicks, page 5
[10b] WPA Works Progress Association https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration
[11] The Phoenix AZ Gleam 15 January 1937
[12] The South Bend Tribune, 14 Jun 1930
