October 9, 1912: Suffrage Spellbinders in Prineville, Pendleton and Multnomah County
“Suffrage Spellbinders Out,” Oregonian, October 9, 1912, 13.
By October 1912 suffrage activists in Oregon were making a strong last effort in the final days of the campaign and workers were active all across the state. Organizers sent out some of the campaign’s best speakers as “suffrage spellbinders” to rally votes. Booths and gatherings at county fairs, suffrage luncheons, rallies and street meetings signaled a concerted effort to reach male voters.
County fairs in cities like Prineville (held October 16 to 19) were a great way to get information out about suffrage. Volunteers in the votes for women booth handed out literature and engaged visitors. Margaret Sharp planned for a mammoth kickoff suffrage meeting on the eve of the fair at Prineville with speakers C.E.S. Wood, William Hanley and Dr. A. A. Morrison.
The Pendleton Hotel was the scene of a suffrage luncheon on October 8 featuring Oregon governor Oswald West, a Democrat, and Washington governor Marion Hay, a Republican, and Portland journalist Edith Weatherred. Also on the program—“one speaker from each political organization.” Party diversity underscored the scope of support for the campaign.
To reach diverse audiences Multnomah County workers planned everything from a rally at the Hillsboro Opera House to street meetings at Sixth and Alder in Portland and evening speeches from the back of a car in South Portland.
And there was more star power. Lawyer Olive Stott Gabriel, Oregonian by birth and in from New York for the campaign, joined Portland’s Mary Cachot Therkelson for a multi-city tour.
—Kimberly Jensen
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