By Lorraine Glowczak
In 1915, three women drove across the country in an
Overland Six automobile, from San Francisco to D.C. with the sole purpose of
gathering and delivering over 500,000 signatures on a petition to Congress and
President Wilson, demanding women’s right to vote.
Maine author, Anne Gass, retraced that trip with her
husband in the summer of 2015 - 100 years after
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| Left to right Sara Bard Field (from Detroit), Maria Kindberg and Ingeborg Klingstedt. photo credit goes to Library of Congress |
The trip was sponsored by the Congressional Union for
Woman Suffrage (CU), a small but mighty group led by Alice Paul that was
determined to win voting rights for women through an amendment to the U.S.
Constitution instead of the much slower strategy, pursued for decades, of
winning it state by state. The CU set up a booth at the Panama Pacific
International Exposition in 1915 and spent months gathering signatures on a
petition demanding an amendment to the U.S. Constitution enfranchising women.
However, there needed to be a way to get those signatures
to President Woodrow Wilson and Congress in Washington, D.C. Paul decided that
a cross-country road trip was the answer. This would permit gathering
more signatures in the states they visited, and would also generate badly
needed publicity for their cause.
Paul asked a
poet, Sara Bard Field and wealthy socialite, Frances Joliffe to represent the
Congressional Union on that journey. “Unfortunately, Frances became ill and was
forced to drop out of the trip almost right away- in Sacramento,” explained
Gass. “Two Swedish immigrants from Rhode Island, Maria Kindberg and Ingeborg Kindstedt, had traveled
by steamship to the Exposition and were already planning to buy a car and drive
it back to Providence. They offered to drive the envoys and the petitions the 5,000
miles to D.C, getting there in time for the opening of Congress on December 6.”
As Gass explained at last Monday evening’s talk, “They
traveled the Lincoln Highway. However, the term “highway” was much different at
that time. In 1915, the ‘Lincoln Highway’ was little more than a cart track
that would turn to a sea of mud in the rain. It was highly unusual for women to
drive alone - but they were determined to do it and they overcame considerable
hardship.”
Gass revealed the many obstacles the three women faced. “Notice
the car is a convertible,” Gass pointed out the picture on the PowerPoint
presentation. “They begin their road trip in September and were traveling east
in early December. Obviously, they were going to face cold weather along the
way.”
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| Author and speaker, Anne Gass |
Gass also explained that they had three gas cans filled
with water, oil, and fuel stored on one side of the vehicle because gas
stations were not as plentiful and easily accessed as one would experience
today on a cross-country trip.
She told the story of the three women driving through the
Salt Flats of Utah on their way to Ibapah Ranch, where they were planning to stay
that night. “They went through extreme heat, through dusty salt plains and had
to stop to patch their tires a dozen times. Unfamiliar with the route, they’d
hired a man who swore he knew the way,.”
Not as much help as expected, the hired driver got lost.
With the help of two cowboys they found wrapped in their blankets at a
crossroads, they finally arrived at the ranch early in the morning hours. “
The women continued across the U.S., enduring snowstorms,
washed out roads and mud. “At one point, they got stuck in the mud near Hutchinson, Kansas at 10 p.m. at night,”
Gass said. “They had just passed a farm house, so they yelled for help with the
hope that someone would hear them and offer assistance. Getting no response, Field,
who had insisted on taking the short cut, was elected to walk to that house –
in mud up to her hips in places– to ask for help.”
They discovered from two men they met later that day that
their pleas for help were heard but ignored because, “If those women want the
right to vote, let’s see if they can help themselves out of the mud,” is what
the men said to the three feminists. Not impressed with their logic, Field
rebutted, “Do you know how many times I’ve been up in the night to help a man who
was ill and couldn’t take care of himself? This is not a matter of the right to
vote, this is about common humanity.”
Despite their challenges, the road trip provided
opportunities for signatures and education to the public, with Field informing
those who gathered in town squares, etc. about suffrage and encouraging people
to support voter rights.
Making it to D.C. in time and impressed by the size of
the petition, the President expressed his admiration and said he would consider
their demand. Although it took another five years, the 19th Amendment to
the Constitution, finally ratified in 1920, opened the polls to women. The
three women, plus the 500,000 signatures, helped pave the way for women winning
the right to vote.
Anne B. Gass is the author of “Voting Down the Rose:
Florence Brooks Whitehouse and Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage”, published in
2014. She is the great-granddaughter of Florence Brooks Whitehouse
who led Maine’s branch of the CU, working closely with Paul, Lucy Burns and
other well-known suffragists. Gass’s great-grandmother was present in D.C. to greet
Field, Kindberg and Kindstedt after their long three-month trip.
Gass lectures regularly on Florence Brooks Whitehouse and
Maine suffrage history at conferences, historical societies, libraries, schools,
etc. She serves on the Steering Committee of the Maine Suffrage Centennial
Collaborative, a diverse group of organizations from across the state working
to promote the one hundred year anniversary of woman suffrage.
To have Gass speak to your group, contact her at
agassmaine@gmail.com.
