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.
Phillip H. Haskell was a cordwainer. In the 1880 census, of Gloucester, MA, he is listed as a stone mason.
10733. Maj. Leonidas K. Haskell
Newsletter of the International Haskell Family Society
Volume 13, No. 2, June 2004
The House Leonidas Built
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Leonidas was a cordwainer. He is also listed as a broker and as a trader. The birth and death dates given here are those on the grave marker in the Sumner Street Cemetery, West Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts.
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U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles
Name: Leonidas Haskell
Enlistment Date: 20 Sep 1861
State Served: U.S. Volunteers
Survived the War?: Yes
Service Record: Promoted to Full Captain on 20 Sep 1861.
Commissioned an officer in the U.S. Volunteers Aide-de-Camp Infantry Regiment on 20 Sep 1861.
Promoted to Full Major on 16 Jun 1862.
Mustered out on 04 Jun 1864.
Death Date: 15 Jan 1873
Sources: Heitman: Register of United States Army 1789-1903
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Civil War Pension File
Invalid application # 174787, cert # 163707
Widow application # 208740, cert 163155
Captain of U.S. Volunteers
Leonidas Haskell married Sarah Elizabeth Haskell July 26, 1846
Children per sworn statement of Sarah E. Haskell
Broderick born in San Francisco, July 10, 1860
Leonidas born in San Francisco, December 26, 1861
Frank born in New York City, December 29, 1863
Ortega born in New York City, September 2, 1865
Henry born in New York City, October 5, 1866
Allie F. born in Stapleton, Staten Island, New York, April 15, 1868
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San Francisco Chronicle
June 1, 1936
Leonidas K. Haskell, sir; major, United States Army, arrived in California 1849 and three years later constructed a cootage which in the following 84 years, was destined to house 36 of the army high commands.Fort Mason Reservation, site of the Generals quarters, was established November 6, 1850, on the location of the old Spanish "Battery San Jose", erected in 1797.
Ortega Haskell was unmarried.
U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865
Name: Leander Haskell
Residence:
Enlistment Date: 26 Sep 1861
Rank at enlistment: Private
State Served: Vermont
Survived the War?: No
Service Record: Enlisted in Company C, Vermont 6th Infantry Regiment on 15 Oct 1861.Mustered out on 12 Jan 1863.