Here Come the Suffragists: The Role of the Mercer Girls in the Washington Woman Suffrage Movement
by Shanna Stevenson, Coordinator of the Washington Women�s History ConsortiumSome Mercerites came from families noted for reform ideas. One of these was Mehitable Haskell Elder whose aunt, Hitty Haskell, was a renowned Massachusetts suffragist, speaker and abolitionist. She was a friend of Lucy Stone, Wendell Phillips, Lydia Maria Child and William Lloyd Garrison. These women, immersed in equal rights in the east, would have strong views about womens rights and found fertile ground for their ideas in the west.
Mehitable Elder
Perhaps some of the most interesting members of the 1866 Mercer party were Mehitable Haskell Lord and her extended family. Mehitable Lord came with her daughter Clara and son James with Mercer from Massachusetts where, as noted previously, she had a famous abolitionist and womens rights aunt, Hitty Haskell for whom she was named. Pioneer historian Thomas Prosch stated that Mehitable Lord was a dressmaker when she came to Olympia and married a widower, A. R. Elder in 1868.
Elder was a minister and Indian agent who had come to Olympia in the early 1860s. The Elders lived near Daniel and Ann Elizabeth Bigelow, fellow suffragists, on the eastside of Olympia. Mehitable Elder was one of the primary organizers of the 1871 WTWSA convention, serving with A. E. Bigelow on the Executive Committee for both the convention and the WTWSA. Mehitable Elder also took on the fundraising duties after the convention to raise funds to raise funds for a delegate to the National Woman Suffrage Association Convention representing Washington Territory a sum of $100 to support the chosen delegate, Susan B. Anthony. Clara Lord Littlejohn, Elders daughter was also an active participant in the 1871 convention and one of the signers of the notice to convene the meeting. Likewise Priscilla Elder, Mrs. Elders stepdaughterinlaw was listed as one of the conveners of the 1871 meeting as P.E. Elder.
Mehitable Elder was later one of the founding members of theWomans Club of Olympia in 1883, one of the oldest womens clubs on the West Coast. Other founding members of the club were strong advocates for womens right to vote including Abbie Howard Hunt Stuart, Ella Stork, Pamela Case Hale, Clara Pottle Sylvester, Phoebe Moore and other Olympia suffragists. The club, according to Abigail Scott Duniway was established to advance the cause of suffrage, The Womans Club Movement in Olympia as a necessary step in the progress of the cause.
Mehitable Elder was one of the women whom Abigail Scott Duniway called out for special mention as part of the 1883 Washington suffrage victory, saying, Among the residents of Olympia who have been Woman Suffragists for many years and deserve special mention are . . . Mrs. Haskell Elder, niece of the renowned Eastern worker, Aunt Hitty Haskell, who has long rested from her labors, though "her works do follow her.
Elder lived a long life to the age of 96 and became known as a prominent poet. One of her poems featured in 1909 on the occasion of the 20 year statehood commemoration pointedly stated, To make her sons and daughters one, in liberties and rights.
She moved to Tacoma with her daughter and registered to vote there in 1911 after permanent woman suffrage in the state. She died the following year, known as an accomplished poet and pioneer.
In 1910/20 Jacob is living in a Veterans Home
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U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers
Name: Jacob S Lord
Birth Year: abt 1838
Keyed Birth Location: Gloucester Mass
Birth State: Massachusetts
Birth City: Gloucester
Admitted Year: 1909
Age at Admission:71
State: South Dakota
County: Fall River
City: Hot Springs
Branch: Battle Mountain Sanitarium
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U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records
Name: Jacob S Lord
Residence: Gloucester, Massachusetts
Class: 1
Congressional District: 5th
Age on 1 July 1863: 25
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1838
Race: White
Marital Status: Unmarried (Single)
Place of Birth: Massachusetts
Notes from: Some Descendants of Amos Richardson of Stonington, Connecticut. Posted on RootsWeb.com WorldConnect in the Kinney/Bosart Family Tree.
As a young man Paschal went to Massachusetts. There he married in Ipswich, June 14, 1831 to Elizabeth J. Lord...she died in 1837. Paschal second marriage, recorded in Ipswich, was May 30, 1839, to Sarah Tobey. This couple removed to Danvers, MA. While living in Danvers, Paschal is said to have begun the practise of medicine, being probably a self-taught herb doctor. Sarah died in Danvers, February 12, 1843, aged 28 and is buried in Monumental Cemetery, Peabody, MA. The third marriage of Paschal's was September 6, 1843 to Almina Louisa Slafter. These two were distantly related sharing the same great grand-parents David and Rachel Richardson. About 1844 they moved to Tuscola County where Paschal was in the milling business with his brother, John. In 1850 the census lists Paschal as tanner and in 1870 his is called a manufacturer. He was a Representative in th State Legislature in 1854-60, and served as postmaster in Tuscola.
Mark Haskell Lord
Died of Consumption -- Darling Papers, Vol 32, page 6bEssex Co., Mass Probate Record, Book 80, Page 188
Guardianship of Mark Haskell Lord, a minor aged 15 years, son of Jacob Lord, Esq., late of Ipswich, deceased, was granted to Charles Kimball, Esq., who gave bonds with Paschal Richardson, and Jacob S. Lord, baker
Essex Co., Mass Probate Record, Book 239, Page 523
15 Sep., 1863
3 Oct., 1863, Auction the 26th, at 2 o'clock, the valuable dwelling of Mark Haskell Lord, deceased,159
Court held at Newburyport, the Third Tuesday of September, 1863.
Petition of Robert Stone, administrator of the estate of Mark H. Lord, yeoman, deceased,
Robert Stone, Administrator. Asa Lord, Thomas H. Lord,
Presence of Edward Lord.
28 rods, bounded north and south by the highway, west by the Eastern Railroad.
Reference, Essex Co., Mass. Registry of Deeds, Book 517, Leaf 58
-- Darling Papers, Volume 132, Page 52Occupation tanner according to death records
Sources:
Title: Darling Papers Volume 132
Author: Fewkes
Media: Book
Page: 51bNote: Fewkes, Darling Papers Volume 132, 51b. Consumption
Title: Vital Records of Ipswich Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849
Publication: Published by The Essex Institute, Salem, Mass, 1910
Media: Book
Page: 246Title: Vital Records of Ipswich, Massachusetts 1850-1910
Media: Book
Page: 88Note: Vital Records of Ipswich, Massachusetts 1850-1910, 88. Consumpti