Tag Archives: Suffragist Teachers

Nancy Cook: Vocational Ed teacher, suffragist, and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt

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Vocational education teacher, suffragist, and Chalkboard Champion Nancy Cook, at right, with Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, at left. Photo credit: George Washington University

Many remarkable teachers blend their interests in teaching with an interest in politics. Such is certainly the case with Nancy Cook, a high school vocational education teacher who was also a tireless worker for women’s suffrage and other political causes dear to her heart.

Nancy was born in Massena, New York, on August 26, 1884. After her graduation from high school, she attended Syracuse University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1912. There she became an avid supporter of woman’s suffrage and campaigned for legislation to protect women, to abolish child labor, and to secure world peace.

After her graduation from college, Nancy accepted her first teaching position in Fulton, New York, where she taught art and handicrafts to high school students from 1913 to 1918. It was here that she ran into fellow Syracuse classmate Marion Dickerman, who was also a teacher of arts and handicrafts at the school. These two women become lifelong partners, spending almost their entire adult lives together.

During World War I, Nancy and Marion became active doing volunteer work for the Liberty Loan Drive and the Red Cross. As Marion remarked after the war, they both “really believed this was a war to end wars and make the world safe for democracy.” In 1918, Nancy and Marion traveled to London, England, to work in the Endell Street Military Hospital., a facility staffed entirely by women. There they scrubbed floors and performed whatever other chores were needed. Nancy would, with less than two weeks of training, begin to make artificial limbs for veterans that had lost an arm or a leg in the conflict.

Women earned the right to vote while Nancy and Marion were abroad. Upon their return to the United States, Nancy accepted a job as the executive secretary of the Women’s Division of the State Democratic Committee, a position she held for nineteen years. She was key to the gubernatorial and presidential campaigns of Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1927, Nancy, Marion, and Eleanor Roosevelt purchased a small, private school for girls in New York City they called the Todhunter School. The school provided primary and secondary education, emphasizing art, music, and drama, as well as a college preparatory curriculum. Todhunter combined traditional testing and grading standards with progressive teaching methods.

Nancy and Marion were very good friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. Together, the three women built Stone Cottage at Val-Kill, on the banks of FallKill Creek in Dutchess County, New York. Nancy and Marion lived there full-time, and Eleanor often visited. Nancy, who was an expert woodworker, made all the furniture for the home. The trio established Val-Kill Industries with the goal of producing fine hand-made heirloom furniture/. More importantly, by doing so, they were acting on a larger social goal of providing a second income to local farming people in rural Hyde Park in order to keep them from migrating away to city jobs.

When Eleanor Roosevelt committed herself to redeveloping Arthurdale, West Virginia, she asked Nancy to work with the subsistence homestead program. Nancy and the First Lady oversaw the interior needs of each Arthurdale house, while Nancy temporarily administered the furniture and woodworking projects of Arthurdale’s Mountaineer Craftsmen’s Cooperative Association.

Nancy Cook, Chalkboard Champion and suffragist, passed away on August 16, 1962.

Teacher and activist Julia Flisch fought for equity for women

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History teacher and social activist Julia Flisch fought for equal education for girls in the late 19th century. Photo Credit: Georgia College

In my opinion, teachers are among the most dedicated proponents of social change in American society. Julia Flisch a Georgia teacher who fought for equal education for girls in the late 19th century, is a fine example of this.

Julia was born on Jan. 31, 1861, in Augusta, Georgia, the daughter of immigrants from Switzerland and Germany. She was raised in Athens, Georgia, where her father operated a candy store and ice cream parlor, and her mother was a homemaker. As a young girl, Julia had always dreamed of attending the all-male University of Georgia, but when she applied in 1869 she was denied admission because of her gender. Instead, she enrolled at Cooper Union New York City, where she studied secretarial skills. But it was the rejection from the University of Georgia that inspired her life-long campaign for women’s rights and higher education, as an educator and scholar, and also as a journalist and author.

While still a student, Julia spend her summers working as a school teacher. Eventually she was able to take courses at both Harvard University and the University of Chicago. In 1905, she opened a school at the University of Wisconsin, where by 1908 she had earned both a Bachelor’s and a Masters degree in History. After earning her degrees, Julia accepted a position at Tubman High School in August, where she taught for 17 years. Until the 1950s, Tubman was the area’s only public high school for girls. Later Julia served as the first female instructor at the Junior College of Augusta.

Throughout her years in the classroom, Julia was a hardworking teacher dedicated to the success of her students. During this period, she advocated for collective bargaining rights for teachers, which had been unheard of before her time. She also actively lobbied for women’s suffrage and state grants to pay for women’s higher education. Her rallying cry was “Give the girls a chance!”

To advance her campaign for women’s education, Julia published an anonymous letter to the editor in 1882 in the Augusta Chronicle which called for opportunities for women to pursue financial and social independence. She also spread her message through fiction, and her first novel, Ashes of Hopes, which depicted the story of three young women searching for independence, was published in 1886. The effort earned wide acclaim.

Julia Flisch passed away on March 17, 1941. After her passing, this Chalkboard Champion was described as having accomplished “more than than any other person to advance the cause of women’s education in the state of Georgia.” In 1994, she was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement.

To read more about Julia Flisch, see this article about her published in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Kansas teacher Anna C. Wait worked tirelessly for women’s suffrage

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Many classroom teachers work diligently to improve social conditions in their community. One was Kansas teacher Anna C. Wait, who worked tirelessly to win the right to vote for women. Photo credit: Public domain.

I have often noted that often excellent classroom teachers work diligently to improve social conditions in their community. One of these is Anna C. Wait, a 19th-century schoolteacher who also campaigned for the right to vote for women.

Anna was born on March 26, 1837, in Hinckley, Medina County, Ohio. She attended first the Richfield Academy and then the Twinsburg Institute. As a young woman, she married fellow educator Walter Scott, and the newlyweds moved to Missouri. The couple had a son there. When the Civil War broke out, Walter joined the Union’s 50th Volunteer Infantry, Company H. He served three years during some of the most fierce fighting of the War Between the States. During these years, Anna relocated to Ohio, where she taught school in order to support herself and her young son. When the war was won, the family reunited, and then moved first to Indiana and then to Kansas.

Once Anna settled in Kansas, she re-established her teaching career, eventually founding a normal school there to train others to become excellent teachers. She also became active in the Suffrage Movement. In 1879 Anna and fellow suffragists, Emily J. Briggs and Sarah E. Lutes, founded the local branch of the Equal Suffrage Association. In 1884 a Kansas Equal Suffrage Association was formed, and Anna served as the organization’s Vice President. In 1911 Anna was elected President of the Sixth District of the Equal Suffrage Association. Because of her efforts, legislation granting the right to vote to women was passed in the state of Kansas.

Anna C. Wait passed away on May 9, 1916, in Lincoln County, Kansas. She was 79 years old. For her tireless work as a suffragist, Anna was included in A Woman of the Century, by Charles Wells Moulton and published in 1893. To read more about this amazing pioneer teacher, see the reprint of a 1909 article printed by the Lincoln Republican.

Michigan school teacher and suffragist Emily Burton Ketcham

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Teacher and suffragist Emily Burton Ketcham. Photo credit: Grand Rapids History and Special Collections (GRHSC), Archives, GRPL, GR, Michigan.

Dedicated educators often become involved in movements that benefit society as a whole. One of these is Emily Burton Ketcham, a school teacher who was active in the struggle to secure the right to vote for women.

Emily was born on July 16, 1838, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her parents were Josiah and Eliza (Freeman) Burton. As a young girl, Emily attended first Mary B. Allen’s School for Girls and then Henrietta Academy. She earned her degree from St. Mark’s College, a private theological institution located in Grand Rapids. When she was only 15 years old, Emily became a school teacher.

Emily’s work in the suffrage movement began in 1873. She became active in the initial effort to remove gender as a qualification for voting in Michigan. Later, Emily met with suffragist movement leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and by the 1890’s had developed long-lasting professional relationships with them.

Emily was heavily involved in many community improvement groups. She was a member of the Grand Rapids Woman’s Suffrage Association, the Political Equality Club, the Susan B. Anthony Club, the Woman’s Civic League, and the Woman’s and Children’s Protective League. She was a charter member of the Michigan Equal Suffrage Association, she would serve as its president from 1892-1893, and again in 1900.

As part of her work as a suffragist, Emily was a featured speaker at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Due to Emily’s indefatigable work and outstanding organizational skills, Stanton and Anthony brought the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to Grand Rapids for its annual convention in 1899.

This amazing Chalkboard Champion passed away on January 13, 1907, in Detroit, Michigan. She was 68 years old. She is interred at Rosedale Memorial Park in Tallmadge, Ottawa County, Michigan.

To honor her work as a suffragist and educator, Emily Burton Ketcham was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1999. To read more about Emily, see her page on the website for the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

Kansas teacher Mamie Dillard was a suffragist and civil rights activist

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Kansas teacher Mamie Dillard was a suffragist and civil rights activist. Photo credit: Public Domain

Many excellent classroom teachers also work tirelessly to improve society as a whole. One of these is Mamie J. Dillard, an African American teacher and suffragist from Kansas.

Mamie was born Mary Jane Dillard in Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, on September 10, 1874. Although her name was Mary Jane, she always preferred to be called Mamie. Her parents, Jesse and Fannie Dillard, were both born in Virginia. Neither of them could read or write. The family moved to Kansas in 1870.  As a young girl, Mamie was an excellent student. She graduated from Lawrence High School with top grades. In fact, she was the only African American in her graduating class.

The future educator earned her Bachelor’s degree from Kansas University in 1896. Once she earned her degree, she launched her career as an educator at the Pinckney Elementary School in Lawrence. One of her most famous students there was famous Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes. In 1909, Mamie attended graduate school at the University of Kansas, where she studied English and special education. Once she completed her courses there, she accepted a position as the principal of the Lincoln School, a local segregated elementary school. In addition to her responsibilities at the school, Mamie was appointed delegate to the Negro National Educational Congress in 1916.

All her life, Mamie devoted herself to improving her community. She was an ardent activist for women’s suffrage. She promoted rights and votes for women and civil rights and leadership for the African Americans in her area. She was active in the African American Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. She was also a member of the Double Six Club, the Home and Garden Club, and the Sierra Leone Club. In addition, she was a patron of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.  in 1933, of the Self Culture Club, a local organization for African American women. In 1933, Mamie became a member of the Self Culture Club, an organization that promoted education and community building among working mothers.

This Chalkboard Champion passed away in her home town of Lawrence on November 24, 1954. She was 80 years old. She was interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence.

To read more about Mamie Dillard, see this article printed online in the Kansaspedia.