PORTLAND, Ore. — As the nation prepares to commemorate the centennial of women gaining equal suffrage in the U.S., Oregon can look back knowing women in the 33rd state won the right to vote eight years before most other states.
Even so, it did not come easy.
“The first five times men voted it down,” said Kerry Tymchuk, Executive Director of the Oregon Historical Society. “We tell the history of Oregon, the good the bad and the ugly.”
Walking through OHS’s Experience Oregon exhibit, Tymchuk pointed out a display honoring Abbigal Scott Duniway, known historically as Oregon’s mother of equal suffrage.
“Just listen to her great logic,” said Tymchuk, beckoning us closer to the exhibit’s audio recording of an actor delivering a Duniway speech.
“Did you ever see a man who is inferior to his wife in intellect who believed that wife ought to vote? But the women of Oregon have faith in the enlightened manhood of this proud young state.”
In March, the Oregon Historical Society will open a new exhibit called Nevertheless, They Persisted: The Nineteenth Amendment and Women’s Voting Rights. It will take a closer look at those who stood beside Abigail Scott Duniway; women like Harriet “Haddie” Redmond, one of the few African Americans living in Oregon at the time.
“She was not only a suffrage leader, but a leader for civil rights as well,” said Tymchuk.
Besides celebrating what historians already know, there is an effort underway to discover new information about Oregon’s suffrage movement. The Oregon Heritage Commission recently awarded Metro a grant to research thousands of burial records.
They hope to uncover the untold stories of women buried in its historic cemeteries. That includes Lone Fir Cemetery in SE Portland, where Hattie Redmond is buried. The thought is that perhaps other, lesser-known women connected to the suffrage movement were buried there as well.
“We have significant gaps in our records,” said Juan Carlos Ocana-Chiu, cemeteries manager for Metro. “What makes me excited is getting more information and being able to paint a more complete picture.”
Ocana-Chiu hopes the public will search family archives, attics and ask themselves if their loved ones buried in Portland could have been connected to the suffrage movement.
“Our staff will chase down that information,” said Ocana-Chiu. “Hopefully if we find that information, it will highlight the histories of people of color who were marginalized even more so in those days.”
Anyone who knows of an outstanding woman buried in any of Metro’s historic cemeteries is asked to contact the cemetery office at 503-797-1709 or send an email to cemetery@oregonmetro.gov.
A lot has changed since Abigail Scott Duniway's plight.
“Gentleman, did you ever know a wife beater that was a woman's suffragist?” asked the actor reciting Duniway’s speech.
One day, Tymchuk gathered, another generation will look back at the history Oregon women are making, today.
“For the first time, four of the state’s top five elected officials are women,” said Tymchuk with a grin. “We’ve come a long way."
It’s not a stretch to imagine the women posed in black and white photos wearing suffrage buttons, would be proud.
RELATED: 'An absolute gem, an Oregon legend': Remembering Gert Boyle, matriarch of Columbia Sportswear