Volume 42, number 2
October 2020
Grand River Times The Newsletter of the Grand Rapids Historical Society Inside this issue:
Women Should be Seen and Heard: Grand Rapids and the Fight for the Vote
Cover Story: October Program Letter for our President page 2 Happening in History page 5 New Book Review page 6 Photo Sleuth Update page 6 Photo Sleuth page 7
By: Ruth Stevens and Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council Thursday, October 8, 2020, 7:00 p.m. Virtual Program on Zoom and YouTube https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ tZMrceGtqDwtH9ZtvcySQH5mkqjnIk9rs1Mm The story of the women’s suffrage movement in Grand Rapids began as early as 1874 when the Grand Rapids Woman Suffrage Association and Kent County Woman’s Suffrage Association were formed and suffragists brought national leader Susan B. Anthony to Grand Rapids. Hosted by Marion Carr Bliss and Cordelia Briggs, Anthony spoke to large crowds at Luce’s Hall in downtown Grand Rapids as she rallied support for a fall suffrage referendum. While the 1874 campaign was unsuccessful, suffragists persisted and finally claimed victory in 1918 when male electors voted to amend the Michigan constitution to grant women the right to vote, a full two years before the federal 19th Amendment went into effect.
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Our next program will be on Thursday, November 12, 2020. David Britten will be speaking about: A Journey from Plaster to Community: The Story of the GUB (Galewood-UrbandaleBurlingame)
Home of Cordelia and Edward Briggs, 2420 Plainfield, NE where Susan B. Anthony stayed during 1874 visit. Source: historygrandrapids.org.
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GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Dear GRHS Members,
A huge thank you goes out to the Historical Society Board members who worked diligently to make our first virtual program a reality. Matthew Daley gave a great presentation on the Black Hills neighborhood including the environmental factors, the residents and the industry. People joined on Zoom and others watched the live stream on the Historical Society You Tube channel. The presentation is scheduled to stay up on You Tube at least until October 7, 2020. The Grand River Times is the newsletter of the Grand Rapids Our next presentation on October 8, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. is one that Historical Society, published six should not be missed. Ruth Stevens is presenting Women Should be Seen times annually. Established in 1894, the Grand Rapids Historical Society and Heard: Grand Rapids and the Fight for the Vote. This presentation will is dedicated to exploring the history be virtual on both Zoom and You Tube. A question and answer period will of West Michigan; to discover its follow, just as was done in September. The Historical Society Facebook romance and tragedy, its heroes page will have information for signing up for Zoom. If you watch on You and scoundrels, its leaders and its Tube or Zoom you will be able to ask questions in the chat feature. We are ordinary citizens. The Society collects and preserves our heritage, very pleased to continue our collaboration with the Greater Grand Rapids passing it on to new generations Women’s History Council. More information about the program and the through books, lectures, and presenter is available on the Society web page, www.grhistory.org. education projects. As the Covid19 pandemic keeps many of us closer to home many are cleaning out years of savings. I don’t mean money, I mean those things we Executive Committee: have accumulated over the years that we couldn’t quite part with. And then Gina Bivins, president there are those who bought things at estate sales and garage sales so they Matthew Daley, vice-president wouldn’t be put in the dumpster. We are in the midst of some of that John Gelderloos, treasurer cleaning at our house and at my husband’s art studio. It is amazing what has Nan Schichtel, secretary been uncovered, such as books, books and more books. There are a number of yearbooks from local schools. There are art books galore. There are Board members: magazine, most of which have gone to a friend who does creative things Charles Bocskey with old magazine pages. Some juvenile topics like The Bobbsey Twins that Thomas Dilley date back to my childhood. Those are Matthew Ellis distributed among family members who will Chris Kaupa pass them along to their young ones. Have Gordon Olson, emeritus you found any treasures as you clean? Wilhelm Seeger, emeritus Jeff Sytsma Julie Tabberer Jim Winslow Kurt Yost Jessica Riley, editor Grand Rapids Historical Society c/o Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library St. NE Grand Rapids, MI 49503 Website: www.grhistory.org Email: grhs.local@gmail.com Grand River Times
About the Grand Rapids Historical Society. The Grand Rapids Historical Society sponsors eight programs each year, beginning in September and running through May, including lectures, audio/video presentations, demonstrations, collections, or special tours. Membership. Membership is open to all interested persons with annual dues of $30 per family, $20 for seniors and students, or $400 for a lifetime membership. The membership year runs from May to the following May. Members of the Grand Rapids Historical Society receive eight newsletters each year. Members also receive a 20% discount on books published by the society as well as books published by the Grand Rapids Historical Commission. Change of Address. If you will be permanently or temporarily moving to a new address, please notify GRHS before your change occurs. Let us know your new address and the date you plan to leave and plan to return. Email to grhs.local@gmail.com, or mail to Grand Rapids Historical Society, c/o Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library Street NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 2
GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Continued from front page
Grand Rapids suffragists achieved their first victory in 1885 when they convinced the Michigan legislature to give property-owning women and mothers of school-age children in Grand Rapids the right to vote in school elections and to hold school offices. Only three years later, as a result of efforts by female supporters, who had reportedly come “out in full force,” Harriet A. Cook, a respected local dressmaker, won a seat on the Grand Rapids Board of Education, becoming its first female member. As suffragists pressed forward to win full voting rights, several Grand Rapids women rose to state and national prominence. Emily Burton Ketcham, a veteran of the school suffrage fight, served four terms as president of the Michigan Equal Suffrage Association (MESA) and was chosen to represent MESA at National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) conferences and on the NAWSA executive board. Later, Clara Comstock Russell and Alde T. Blake, members of a new generation of Grand Rapids Herald, September 4, 1888. Grand Rapids suffragists, also assumed leadership roles in MESA. In 1898, Ketcham, representing the local Susan B. Anthony Club, took the bold step of inviting NAWSA to hold its 1899 annual conference at the St. Cecilia Auditorium in Grand Rapids. The invitation was accepted and Grand Rapids became just the third city outside of Washington, DC to host a NAWSA convention. As the convention approached, the city eagerly awaited the arrival of Susan B. Anthony, Anna Howard Shaw, and other well-known suffragists. Dozens of suffrage supporters offered to provide lodging for delegates. Bissell CEO Anna Sutherland Bissell capped the city’s welcome with factory tours and gifts of miniature Bissell carpet sweepers specially engraved for the occasion. The convention was deemed a success, but an incident at the convention highlighted the reluctance of national suffrage leaders to take a stand on issues of racial equality. When Lottie Wilson Jackson of Bay City, Michigan, most likely the only Black women at the convention, asked delegates to support a resolution providing that, “colored women ought not to be compelled to ride in smoking cars, and that suitable accommodations should be provided for them,” she met fierce opposition from southern delegates. Chair Susan B. Anthony steered the convention away from acting on the resolution, declaring that women as the “helpless, disfranchised class” did not have the power to remedy the problem.
Emily Burton Ketcham, 1904, Grand Rapids Public Library History and Special Collections.
Lottie Wilson Jackson, delegate to 1899 NAWSA convention in Grand Rapids. Source: Berrien County GenWeb.
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Continued from page 3 Many unheralded women also worked to propel the suffrage movement forward. Union High School history teacher, May F. Conlon, started a suffrage club at the school and “organized cadres of girls to go out on the street and stand outside churches with leaflets.” Countless other volunteers assisted with canvassing, petition drives, and raising money. Suffragists also became adept at organizing public events to draw attention to their cause. In 1910, the Grand Rapids Equal Franchise Club, dazzled spectators with a float in the Grand Rapids Homecoming Parade featuring future State Senator Eva McCall Hamilton at the reins and young Grand Rapids suffragist Margaret McKee enthroned on top of the float Grand Rapids Press, January 27, 1915. portraying Justice. Four years later, suffragists responded to a call for nation-wide pro-suffrage demonstrations by organizing a mass meeting at Fulton Street Park and a “takeover” of the Grand Rapids Press. As Press readers perused the special 1910 Grand Rapids Homecoming Parade. May 2, 1914 edition, they found a new masthead portraying a Photo courtesy of Bentley Historical Library. vote-less Michigan woman in chains trudging behind women representing the nine full-suffrage states followed by 22 pages of article written by local suffragists. Finally, in 1918, a year after the Michigan legislature had granted presidential suffrage to women, suffragists achieved their goal when male voters endorsed a suffrage measure. Suffragists now turned their efforts to getting women to register and vote. A coalition of groups in Grand Rapids organized a successful get-out-the-vote campaign which led to the registration of 26,500 women before the April 1919 election. As they registered, women were given a poster to be displayed in their windows at home proclaiming their new status as voters – a sign that the efforts of generations of Grand Rapids suffragists had finally born fruit.
NEW MEMBER Please welcome James Garlock as the newest member of the Grand Rapids Historical Society Image courtesy of Grand Rapids Public Museum Grand River Times
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HAPPENING IN HISTORY: OCTOBER 2020 Western Michigan Genealogical Society Saturday, October 3, 2020, 1:30 p.m. Main Library—Ryerson Auditorium 111 Library St. NE ***Virtual presentation via Zoom Webinar*** ***Check www.wmgs.org for Zoom link*** Topic: Researching Beyond the Usual Civil War Union Sources Presenter: Mark Hoffman
Michigan Historical Society Friday and Saturday, October 2 & 3, 2020 Virtual Conference Join the Michigan Historical Society for two days filled with behind-the-scenes virtual tours, a wide variety of sessions on diverse topics, time to spend with exhibitors, online workshops, a virtual “happy hour,” State History Awards presentation, and more! All from the comfort and safety of your home! For more information and how to register please go to: http://hsmichigan.org/conferences/ annual-state-history-conference/
This session moves beyond the basic information on the service of Union veterans of the Civil War. It includes many seldom-used sources – online, archival and printed -- which help provide context and detail to the Union Civil War experience. The presentation will include sources of information on ancestors, both men and women, soldier and civilian. It draws upon almost 40 years of experience researching Civil War-era soldiers and their families, both as a genealogist and as a Civil War historian. Mark Hoffman currently serves as the Chief Administrative Officer for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Previously, Hoffman was deputy director of the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries for eight years after holding leadership roles with the Michigan Bureau of State Lottery and the Michigan House of Representatives. A life-long student of the American Civil War, he is the author of Among the Enemy: A Michigan Soldier's Civil War Journal (2013) and My Brave Mechanics: The First Michigan Engineers and Their Civil War (2007) – both published by Wayne State University Press. Hoffman is a graduate of Michigan State University, with a degree in History. Grand River Times
West Michigan PostcardClub . Faith United Methodist Church 2600 7th St. NW ALL PROGRAMS CANCELLED FOR THE FALL
Grand Rapids Civil War Round Table De Witt Student Center Kuyper College 3333 East Beltline NE ALL PROGRAMS CANCELLED FOR THE FALL
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Book review by Christine Byron London Street: A Memoir by Jane E. Griffioen Resource Publications, 2020
Jane Griffioen grew up on London Street in southwest Grand Rapids in the 1950s and 1960s. Her memoir is the unabashedly honest and sometimes painful story of growing up in a Christian Reformed Dutch-American neighborhood near Grandville Ave and Clyde Park. There are places in the book that Grand Rapids readers will recognize including the Kelvinator Plant and Grandville Avenue Christian Reformed Church, as well as familiar local names like Kingma, DeBoer, VanderGroot, Hoogeveen and DeLeeuw. Growing up in a loving family with brothers and sisters there were hardships but also charming stories of family life. Her father was a strict master and his rigid belief system was bewildering to someone not raised in the Christian Reformed Church. I felt like an anthropologist exposed to the strange customs and belief system of an ethnic group I knew so little about. But the book is about more than just Griffieon’s ties to the Christian Reformed Church, it also shows her connection to the Grand Rapids community. Jane E. Griffioen earned her BA from Calvin College with majors in theology and English. She has published poetry and essays in several journals. This is her first book.
Photo Sleuth Update After originally appearing in our April 2020 newsletter and not receiving any information, we decided to put this picture up on our Facebook page. Pretty quickly we started getting hits. It was fun to read the comments back and forth from some of the women in this photo. So far we have identified the following in this photograph from 1964, (left to right) Antoinette (May) Smith, unknown, Linda Joseph, Eva Mathews, Olivia (Lewis) Harvey, unknown, Rosalind Bee (James) Harris, unknown, unknown, unknown. We love it when our members and people in the community take the time to let us know the names of our photo sleuths.
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GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOIN THE GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY OR GIVE A MEMBERSHIP AS A GIFT The Grand Rapids Historical Society sponsors eight lectures each year. Members of the society enjoy these benefits:
The Grand River Times is the newsletter of the Grand Rapids Historical Society. Published and mailed to members eight times a year, it includes current items of historical interest, details of upcoming lectures, historically relevant activities, and short articles.
20% Discount on all books and other items published by the society.
Please enroll me as a member of the Grand Rapids Historical Society: ____ New ___Renewal ____Gift
_____Lifetime:
$400.00 one-time fee
_____Individual/Family Membership
$30.00 per year
_____Senior Citizen or Student
$20.00 per year
Name: Address: City/State/Zip: Email: Please make check payable to the Grand Rapids Historical Society and mail it with this form to: Grand Rapids Historical Society, c/o Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library Street NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY PHOTO SLEUTH Our October Photo Sleuth selection comes from the Robinson Photo Studio Collection. Smiling children holding baskets and lunch sacks are photographed waiting for a bus at Monument Square in downtown Grand Rapids on October 26, 1946. If anyone in this picture looks familiar please email the Grand Rapids Historical Society at grhs.local@gmail.com
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Non-Profit Org. U.S. postage PAID Grand Rapids, MI Permit No. 234
Grand Rapids Historical Society, Inc. c/o Grand Rapids Public Library 111 Library St. NE Grand Rapids, MI 49503
GRAND RAPIDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Women Should be Seen and Heard: Grand Rapids and the Fight for the Vote By: Ruth Stevens and Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council Thursday, October 8, 2020, 7:00 p.m. Virtual Program on Zoom and YouTube
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ tZMrceGtqDwtH9ZtvcySQH5mkqjnIk9rs1Mm
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Cover Story: October Program Letter for our President page 2 Happening in History page 5 New Book Review page 6 Photo Sleuth Update page 6 Photo Sleuth page 7
For more information on Historical Society programs, please visit www.grhistory.org Grand River Times
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