1st woman U.S. senator selected….

Item # 565217

October 4, 1922

THE NEW YORK TIMES, New York, October 4, 1922

* Rebecca Latimer Felton
* 1st United States Woman senator
* Historic political item

This 48 page newspaper has one column headlines on the front page that include: “GEORGIA WOMAN, 87, IS NAMED AS SENATOR”, “Mrs. W.H. Felton Is Appointed by Governor Hardwick to Fill Watson’s Place”, “FIRST OF SEX SO HONORED” and more. (see)

Tells of the very 1st United States female senator being officially chosen. A historic item on the beginnings of Women in politics.

Other news of the day. Usual browning with some margin wear and tear, otherwise good. Should be handled with care.

wikipedia notes: Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton (June 10, 1835 – January 24, 1930) was a white supremacist American writer, teacher, reformer, and briefly a politician who became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, filling an appointment on November 21, 1922, and serving until the next day. At 87 years old, 9 months and 22 days, she was also the oldest freshman senator to enter the Senate. As of 2009, she is also the only woman to have served as a Senator from Georgia.

In 1922, Governor Thomas W. Hardwick was a candidate for the next general election to the Senate, when Senator Thomas E. Watson died prematurely. Seeking an appointee who would not be a competitor in the coming special election to fill the vacant seat, and a way to secure the vote of the new women voters alienated by his opposition to the 19th Amendment, Hardwick chose Felton to serve as Senator on October 3, 1922.

 

Source: rarenewspapers.com

Women’s History Month

Harriet Maxwell Converse

Harriet Maxwell was born in 1836 in Elmira, New York, and raised within a family that was fascinated by Native cultures. Both her grandfather and her father were Indian traders who had been adopted by the Seneca Nation; her grandfather, Guy Maxwell, even earned the respected name “Ta-se-wa-ya-ee” (translated as “Honest Trader”).

Not much is known about Harriet’s early years; only that after her mother died, she was sent to live with an aunt in Milan, Ohio, and for a time attended school with Thomas Edison. At the age of 25 Harriet married Frank Converse, a musician best known as “The Father of the Banjo.” His wealth, combined with a fortune Harriet inherited from her father, enabled the couple to spend many years travelling throughout the U.S and Europe. Harriet would devote time not spent on the road to her writing talents, and she became a published poet and regular contributor to national magazines.

By 1881, Harriet and Frank Converse were living on West 46th Street in New York City — not far from the apartment house of Ely and Minnie Parker. A chance social encounter led to a long friendship between the two couples, the deepest bond forming between Ely and Harriet. Parker’s knowledge of the Haudenosaunee rekindled her interest in Native cultures, and with the Sachem’s guidance Harriet began to research and write about the Six Nations. She traveled to reservations in western New York as well as Canada, collecting wampum belts and other cultural artifacts, most of which are held today in the collections of the State Museum at Albany. She also became a political advocate for the Six Nations, writing on their behalf against legislation for citizenship and new financial claims from the Ogden Land Company. In 1884, Harriet teamed with Ely Parker to fundraise the Buffalo Historical Society’s efforts to erect a monument to the Seneca orator Red Jacket. However, their hoped-for design of a barren, knobbed tree was rejected as “horrid,” and another larger-than-life heroic sculpture of Red Jacket now stands in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

The Seneca Nation recognized Harriet’s untiring efforts by adopting her into the Snipe Clan, and giving her the name “Gayaneshaoh.” In September of 1891, Converse became the first white woman ever condoled as a Six Nations Chief. She was invested with the responsibility of the welfare of her adopted people, and given a new name, “Gaiiwanoh,” translated as “The Watcher.”

Harriet Maxwell Converse died in November of 1903, just a few weeks after her husband passed away. Her collection of essays entitled Myths and Legends of the New York State Iroquois was published 5 years later, edited by Ely Parker’s grand-nephew, Arthur C. Parker.

Resources:    on-this-day.org      pbs.org

1379 – The Gelderse war ended.

1545 – German Parliament opened in Worms.

1550 – France and England signed the Peace of Boulogne.

1629 – In Virginia, the first game law was passed in the American colonies.

1664 – A charter to colonize Rhode Island was granted to Roger Williams in London.

1720 – In Paris, banking houses closed due to financial crisis.

1765 – Britain passed the Quartering Act that required the American colonies to house 10,000 British troops in public and private buildings.

1792 – Benjamin West became the first American artist to be selected president of the Royal Academy of London.

1828 – The Philadelphia & Columbia Railway was authorized as the first state owned railway.

1832 – Mormon Joseph Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio.

1837 – Canada gave blacks the right to vote

1848 – A state of siege was proclaimed in Amsterdam.

1868 – Metropolitan Life Insurance Company was formed.

1878 – The British frigate Eurydice sank killing 300.

1880 – The first “hail insurance company” was incorporated in Connecticut. It was known as Tobacco Growers’ Mutual Insurance Company.

1882 – In Berlin, German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis germ (bacillus).

1883 – The first telephone call between New York and Chicago took place.

1900 – Mayor Van Wyck of New York broke the ground for the New York subway tunnel that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1900 – In New Jersey, the Carnegie Steel Corporation was formed.

1904 – Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur.

1905 – In Crete, a group led by Eleutherios Venizelos claimed independence from Turkey.

1906 – In Mexico, the Tehuantepec Istmian Railroad opened as a rival to the Panama Canal.

1906 – The “Census of the British Empire” revealed that England ruled 1/5 of the world.

1911 – In Denmark, penal code reform abolished corporal punishment.

1920 – The first U.S. coast guard air station was established at Morehead City, NC.

1924 – Greece became a republic.

1927 – Chinese Communists seized Nanking and break with Chiang Kai-shek over the Nationalist goals.

1932 – Belle Baker hosted a radio variety show from a moving train. It was the first radio broadcast from a train.

1934 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.

1938 – The U.S. asked that all countries help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.

1944 – In Rome, The Gestapo rounded up innocent Italians and shot them to death in response to a bomb attack that killed 32 German policemen. Over 300 civilians were executed.

1946 – The Soviet Union announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iran.

1947 – The U.S. Congress proposed the limitation of the presidency to two terms.

1954 – Britain opened trade talks with Hungary.

1955 – Tennessee Williams’ play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” debuted on Broadway.

1955 – The first oil drill seagoing rig was put into service.

1960 – A U.S. appeals court ruled that the novel “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” was not obscene and could be sent through the mail.

1972 – Great Britain imposed direct rule over Northern Ireland.

1976 – The president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country’s military.

1980 – In San Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass.

1980 – “Nightline” with Ted Koppel premiered.

1982 – Soviet leader Leonid L. Brezhnev stated that Russia was willing to resume border talks with China.

1985 – Thousands demonstrated in Madrid against the NATO presence in Spain.

1988 – Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pled innocent to Iran-Contra charges.

1989 – The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound after it ran aground.

1989 – The U.S. decided to send humanitarian aid to the Contras.

1990 – Indian troops left Sri Lanka.

1991 – The African nation of Benin held its first presidential elections in about 30 years.

1993 – In Israel, Ezer Weizman, an advocate of peace with neighboring Arab nations, was elected President.

1995 – Russian forces surrounded Achkoi-Martan. It was one of the few remaining strongholds of rebels in Chechenia.

1995 – The U.S. House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package that made the most changes in social programs since the New Deal.

1997 – The Australian parliament overturned the world’s first and only euthanasia law.

1998 – In Jonesboro, AR, two young boys open fire at students from woods near a school. Four students and a teacher were killed and 10 others were injured. The two boys were 11 and 13 years old cousins.

1998 – A former FBI agent said papers found in James Earl Ray’s car supports a conspiracy theory in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

1999 – In Kenya, at least 31 people were killed when a passenger train derailed. Hundreds were injured.

1999 – NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Vojvodina). The attacks marked the first time in its 50-year history that NATO attacked a sovereign country. The bombings were in response to Serbia’s refusal to sign a peace treaty with ethnic Albanians who were seeking independence for the province of Kosovo.

1999 – The 7-mile tunnel under Mont Blanc in France became an inferno after a truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire. At least 30 people were killed.

2001 – Apple Computer Inc’s operating system MAC OS X went on sale.

2002 – Thieves stole five 17th century paintings from the Frans Hals Museum in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The paintings were worth about $2.6 million. The paintings were works by Jan Steen, Cornelis Bega, Adriaan van Ostade and Cornelis Dusart.

2005 – The government of Kyrgyzstan collapsed after opposition protesters took over President Askar Akayev’s presidential compound and government offices.

2005 – Sandra Bullock received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2006 – In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire.

2014 – It was announced that the U.S. and its allies would exclude Russia from the G8 meeting and boycott a planned summit in Sochi in response to Russia’s takeover of Crimea.