Montana Wanda Smith (1914-1981)

From the 1945 Year Book of the State of Colorado.

  Our theme of politicians named in honor of states continues with a peek at the life of Montana Wanda Smith, who, while named after the nation's 41st state, achieved political distinction in Colorado. A two-term member of the state house of representatives, the former Montana Wanda French was born, appropriately enough, in Butte, Montana on October 25, 1914, the daughter of F.S. and Thea Plambeck French. Little is known of her early life, except notice of her marriage to Norton Alonza Smith in 1937. The couple had two children, Burton Earle and Byrne C. Smith, and later divorced in 1948.

  Following her removal to Lake City, Colorado, Smith was employed by the Colorado Department of Wildlife. She entered politics in 1946 when she announced her candidacy for the state house of representatives and hoped to represent the counties of Gunnison, Saguache, and Hinsdale. In November she defeated Republican incumbent Robert Tarbell by 242 votes and took her seat in January 1947. 

  During the 1947-49 term Smith was named to the committees on Counties and County Lines, Elections and Appointments, Mines and Mining, and Revision and Engrossment, and won a second term in the legislature in November 1948. She chaired the committee on Fish and Game during this session and held seats on the committees on Constitutional Amendments, Elections and Appointments, Public Buildings, and Roads and Bridges.

From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, November 25, 1946.

  Following her terms in the legislature, Smith was employed by the Denver Water Board as an engineer and for an indeterminate period worked for Boeing Aircraft Co. of Seattle. Active in several clubs in Colorado, Smith was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, a former worthy priestess in the White Shrine of Jerusalem, and "a conductress of the Columbine Court No. 15 Amaranth of Aurora." Montana Wanda Smith died at a Colorado hospital on May 30, 1981, aged 66. She was survived by her two sons and was interred at the IOOF Cemetery in Lake City, Colorado.

Neota Fowles Grady (1909-2000)

From the Bangor Daily News, October 25, 1941.

   Joining an all-to-short list of strangely named female political figures, Neota Fowles Grady is the first in a monthlong series of profiles centering on members of the Maine state legislature. Long a leader in Maine education circles, Grady began teaching school in the late 1920s, and in 1939 was elected to the Maine Teacher's Association Committee. This post was followed by service on the State Certification Committee, the presidency of the Maine Department of Classroom Teachers, and was the president of the Kennebec Retired Teacher Association. On the political front, Grady served two terms in the Maine House of Representatives from Lincoln County, and was Whitefield town treasurer. A lifelong Maine resident, Neota Ann Fowles was the daughter of George Ervin (1874-1923) and Minnie Dow Fowles (1876-1947).

  Fowles' early education was obtained at a school in Kings Mills, and later attended the Whitefield High School. A graduate of the Cony High School in 1925, Fowles went on to enroll at the Farmington Normal School, graduating in 1927. That same year she embarked on a teaching career that extended nearly forty years, teaching in schools at Kings Mills, Whitefield, and Carleton. From 1936-1937 she briefly taught at the Windsor and South Windsor schools located in Kennebec County.

  Active in Republican politics in Lincoln County, Fowles served as president of the Lincoln County Branch of Republican Women in the mid-1930s, and in July 1935 was named to its finance committee. She also held seats on both the Board of Governors of the Women's Republican Clubs of Maine and the Whitefield Republican town committee. In the summer of 1938 she announced her candidacy for the Maine House of Representatives from Lincoln County, and in August spoke at a meeting of the Randolph Women's Republican Club. While also promoting her candidacy, Fowles made note that:

"Since women had gained the right to vote it was their duty to educate themselves to vote intelligently on the various issues."

From the Kennebec Journal, July 23, 1935.

  In September 1938 Fowles won her legislative seat, and in a write-up in the Portland Press Herald noted that she would seek a place on the education committee "when those favors are passed out." She took her seat in January 1939 and, at age 29, was one of the youngest members of that session of the legislature. Described as "bright-faced, smiling, alert", Grady was soon named to the committees on education and the library, as well as the committee on sanitariums. During her first term, Fowles served in the additional capacity of secretary-treasurer of the Order of Women Legislators, holding that post into 1940. In 1939 Neota Fowles married fellow Whitefield resident Joseph George Grady (1902-1971), to who she was wed for 32 years. The couple had one son, Alan George (1945-1961), who died unexpectedly at age 16.

  Announcing her candidacy for reelection in 1940, Neota Grady handily won reelection and during the 1941-43 term continued on the education and library committees. After leaving the legislature she served Whitefield as town treasurer from 1943-45 and was a member of the Lincoln County Republican committee. After a decade away from teaching Grady returned in 1950 to teach elementary school in Kings Mill. Nine years later she transferred to the Whitefield school where she taught the fifth grade, and in 1965 was a grade 6 reading teacher and assistant music teacher at the Pray Street School in Gardiner.

From the Kennebec Journal, January 20, 1940.

  In 1970 Neota Grady retired from teaching for nearly forty years and continued an active role in education in her state. Beginning in 1963 she served a two-year term as president of the Maine Department of Classroom Teachers, and two years following her retirement from teaching was elected president of the Kennebec Retired Teacher Association. In 1973 she advanced to the National Retired Teachers Association-AARP Maine State Legislative Committee, which she served on until 1983. From 1975-76 she held the additional role of board chair. 

  Active in the civic life of Whitefield, Grady was a longtime member of the Whitefield Union Church and Helping Hand Society, being church treasurer and organist. She was a seven decade member of the local grange, and was remarked as a talented piano player, playing at various local and county functions. She celebrated her 90th birthday in 1999 and died a month shy of her 91st birthday on July 1, 2000, at a nursing facility in Augusta. She was later interred alongside her husband and son at the Whitefield Cemetery.

Gila Hebb Carpenter (1891-1969)

From the Burlington Free Press, February 27, 1937.

   We continue our stay in Vermont to profile one term state representative Gila Hebb Carpenter, an all-to-rare example of an oddly named female politician being highlighted here. A teacher in Elmore for two decades, Carpenter also served as a ballot clerk in that town on several occasions. Born on July 11, 1891, in Cambridge, Vermont, the former Gila Lucia Hebb was the daughter of Henry and Flora (Horner) Hebb. 

  A student in schools local to the Cambridge area, Gila Hebb Carpenter undertook further study at the Johnson Normal School and the University of Vermont. She married in 1918 to William Silloway Carpenter (1890-1968), to whom she was wed for fifty years. The union would be childless. Prior to her marriage Carpenter began a teaching career at age seventeen. She would teach at the East Elmore School between 1910-1928, continuing until the school's closure in the last-named year. She and her husband would reside on a farm in Elmore (located in Lamoille County) and in addition to teaching held the post of ballot clerk for town elections at various times.

  In 1936 Carpenter won election to the Vermont House of Representatives from Elmore and during the 1937-39 session was a member of the committee on State Institutions. Her service on this committee also saw her undertake fact-finding visits to the Women's Reformatory at Rutland and the State Industrial School in Vergennes. Interviewed by the Burlington Free Press shortly after taking her seat, Carpenter described herself as living "the life of an average Vermont housewife" and that she:

"Is interested in all constructive legislation, particularly that pertaining to educational matters and social welfare."

  Carpenter's term in the legislature concluded in 1939 and she was succeeded by Phillip Shonio, who sat in the legislature until 1943. She and her husband continued residence in Elmore and for an indeterminate period, Gila Carpenter held the office of constable in Elmore, being acknowledged as the first woman to occupy that post in Lamoille County history. Carpenter suffered the death of her husband William on June 29, 1968, and survived him by a less than a year, dying aged 77 on June 14, 1969, in Elmore. Both were interred at the Lake Elmore Cemetery.

From the Burlington Free Press, February 27, 1937.

Finette Benson Nichols (1864-1948)

Portrait from 1945-46 Connecticut State Register.

   The recent discovery of the name of Finette Benson Nichols comes as a welcome surprise, as oddly named female political figures remain difficult to come by! An eight-term member of the Connecticut House of Representatives between 1931 and 1947, Nichols etched her name into the history books when she became the first woman to represent Fairfield in the state legislature.

   One of three daughters born to John and Finette Edwards (Benson) Nichols, Finette B. Nichols was born in Fairfield on November 5, 1864. She received her education at the Fairfield Academy and for over two decades was employed as a private secretary to Henry L. Morehouse, the head of the American Baptist Society in New York City. Nichols would also work as a nurse during the Spanish-American War and later was a founder of the Family Welfare Society. 

   It wasn't until after entering her sixth decade that Nichols decided to enter politics. Although women had received the right to vote in 1920 Nichols was remarked to have been "opposed to the suffrage movement", believing that voting was a privilege reserved for men. Despite her feelings regarding the suffrage question, Nichols lost no time entering the political life of Fairfield following the passage of the 19th amendment, being a member of the Fairfield town Republican committee and in 1923 was a candidate for Fairfield County Commissioner. 

   In 1930 Nichols was elected as one of two representatives from Fairfield to the Connecticut legislature, receiving 2,076 votes. She would be reelected to a further seven terms in the state house and her long term of service saw her serve on the committees on Claims, Public Welfare, Human Institutions, Labor, Towns, and Cities.

  Nichols' final term in the legislature concluded in 1947 and she died the following year at age 83. Nichols had never married and was interred at the Fairfield East Cemetery, the same resting place as that of her parents.

Nichols during her time in the legislature.

Esto Bates Broughton (1890-1956)

Portrait from the History of Stanislaus County, California, 1921.

   Today's write-up highlights the life of Esto Bates Broughton, one of the first women to serve in the California State Assembly. A lawyer and graduate of the University of California, Broughton was one of four women elected to the 1919-21 assembly session, subsequently serving a total of four terms in that body. Following her time in state government, she worked as a reporter for several California newspapers and later was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1932 and 1952.

   The daughter of James Richard and Jennie Bates Broughton, Esto Bates Broughton was born in Modesto, California on January 9, 1890. Being the daughter of a bank president, Broughton was afforded an excellent education, attending the public schools of Modesto as well as the Lowell High School in San Francisco. She later continued her education at the University of California and earned both her Bachelor of Arts Degree (1915) and law degree (1916) from that institution.

   Mentioned as being the first female attorney to practice in Stanislaus County, Broughton served as President of the Modesto Improvement Club prior to serving in the assembly and is remarked as having been an advocate of a national prohibition law. Nominated for the state assembly from Stanislaus County in 1918, Broughton won the election that November, being the youngest of the four women to win assembly seats that year. The only Democrat amongst the four, Broughton proved to be busy as a freshman legislator, serving on the following committees: Civil Service, Direct legislation, Engrossment and Enrollment, Irrigation, Public Morals, and Ways and Means. 

   Broughton's first assembly term saw her make "a special study of the irrigation laws", and her interest in that subject led her to introduce a bill "allowing irrigation districts to develop electric power in connection with irrigation projects." Broughton's bill would be passed into law and proved to have lasting results, with:

"Bonds for the Don Pedro Dam project were voted on by the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation districts, and the two districts concerned will be assured of an abundance of water and also of power, the income or saving of which will be a great consideration for the taxpayer."

   Esto Broughton won her second term in the assembly in 1920 and during that session chaired the committee on the normal school, as well as serving on the agriculture, taxation, judiciary, charities, and corrections committees. This term also saw her aid returning WWI veterans by "advocating special job programs". She would win two further assembly terms in 1922 and 1924 and in the last-named year "easily defeated an independent candidate."

Portrait from www.nwhm.org.

   Upon leaving the assembly at the end of the 1926-27 session Broughton returned to practicing law and from 1928-31 served the Pasadena Playhouse as its publicity director. In the early 1930s, Broughton is recorded as being a reporter at the California capitol, being affiliated with the Fresno Republican, Stockton Record, and the San Francisco News. She would return to political life in 1932  when she served as a member of the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention held in Chicago that nominated Franklin Roosevelt for the Presidency. 

   Little is known of Esto Broughton's life following her service as a delegate. Sources of the time denote her service as Secretary of the Stanislaus County Bar Association (dates of service unknown) and also her time spent teaching journalism at the University of Hawaii in 1935. In one of her last acts of public service, Broughton was again a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1952, this time as an alternate to the convention being held in Chicago.

   Esto Bates Broughton died in California on November 20, 1956, at age 66. Many aspects of her private life continue to remain a mystery, including whether or not she married and had children. The origins of her unusual first name also remain unknown.

Arcada Stark Balz (1879-1973)

                                                                   Arcada Campbell Stark Balz, 1879-1973.

   Joining an all-too-short list of oddly named female political figures who've been featured here, Arcada Campbell Stark Balz etched her name into the history books in November 1941 when she became the first woman to be elected to the Indiana State Senate. A nearly lifelong resident of the Hoosier State, Balz was active in numerous women's civic organizations in the state and gained further distinction as president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs in the late 1930s.
   The daughter of James Orbin and Mary Elizabeth Stark, Arcada Campbell Stark was born in near Bloomington, Indiana on December 31, 1879. She was a student at the Manual High School in Indianapolis and would later be engaged as a teacher in that city's junior high school system, teaching history, literature, and art classes. Stark married in Marion County, Indiana on November 20, 1905, to Frederick George Balz (1875-1954), the owner of the Indianapolis-based Star Millinery Company. The couple is believed to have remained childless through their nearly fifty years of marriage.
   Prior to her time in state government, Arcada Stark Balz was a prominent figure in numerous women's clubs in Indianapolis, including service as president of the Indiana Federation of Women's Clubs from 1932 to 1935. Two years later she would assume the directorship of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, holding that office until 1939. Beginning in 1937 Balz was affiliated with the New Harmony Memorial Commission, a "voluntary commission" established by an Indiana legislative resolution that aimed to "preserve and protect" the historic New Harmony settlement, a 19th-century community that had been devoted to religious/Utopian ideals. Balz had been appointed to the commission by then Indiana Governor Maurice Townsend and served as the group's president. During the commission's existence its members:

"Diligently conducted surveys and programs in keeping with the provisions of the joint resolution. It sponsored two elaborate annual Golden Rain Tree Festivals in New Harmony....and numerous newspaper and magazine articles were published for the purpose of cultivating public interest."

From the 1943 Indiana State Senate composite portrait.

    In November 1941 Arcada Stark Balz was elected to the Indiana State Senate from the counties of Marion and Johnson. The first woman ever to win election to the state senate in its 120-year history, Balz defeated Democratic nominee Robert C. Kirby by a vote of 89,093 to 78,654 and took her seat at the start of the 1942-46 session. She would be returned to the Senate in the 1945 election year and served another four-year term. During the 1947 session, Balz was chairwoman of the Committee on Public Health and also held a seat on the Committee on Benevolent Institutions. Having set a precedent as the first female member of the Indiana senate, her government service was praised in her 1973 Kokomo Tribune death notice (shown below) which noted that she:

"Pioneered in the campaign for legislation to license nursing homes and to regulate women's working hours and wages. She was also amongst the first to push for improving school attendance requirements and establishing a merit system for state employees."

  After leaving the senate in 1950 Balz continued to reside in Indianapolis until a few years before her death. She celebrated her 90th birthday in 1969 and later removed from Indiana to Orlando, Florida, where she died at age 93 on August 18, 1973. She had been preceded in death by her husband Frederick in 1954 and was later interred alongside him at Indianapolis' famed Crown Hill Cemetery.

Arcada S. Balz, from the 1947 Indiana Senate composite.

From the Kokomo Tribune, August 20, 1973.

Aloha Eagles (1916-1992)

                                      Portrait courtesy of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

  Joining an all-too-short list of interestingly named female political figures who've had profiles here on the site, Minnesota native Aloha Pearl Taylor Browne Eagles was a homemaker who was elected to several terms in the North Dakota House of Representatives and gained statewide distinction as an advocate of liberalizing that state's abortion laws. Prominent in state social organizations in addition to public service, Eagles was honored as North Dakota Woman of the Year in the early 1970s and was accorded similar honors in 1976 by the University of North Dakota. 

   Born in Duluth, Minnesota on November 8, 1916, Aloha Pearl Taylor Brown was the daughter of Edward Richard (1879-1967) and Irene Belle Taylor Browne (1885-1978). She would attend school at the Crosby-Ironton High School and later studied at a nursing school in Duluth for a short time. She graduated from the Hibbing Junior College in Hibbing, Minnesota in the class of 1936, and also studied at the University of Minnesota for one year. In August of 1939, she married Donald Eagles (1916-1980), with whom she would have two sons, Donald Taylor (died 1994) and Keehn (born 1947). 

  In 1942 the Eagles family removed from Minnesota to Fargo, North Dakota, where Aloha would be a homemaker. In 1966 she announced her candidacy for a seat in the North Dakota State House of Representatives from that state's 21st district, and in November of that year won the election. Elected as a Republican, Eagles took her seat at the start of the January 1967 term and so began an eighteen-year tenure in the North Dakota legislature, one that would see Eagles become a standout figure in state government, being a prime mover in legislation for women's rights.

   As one of just three women serving in the North Dakota legislature during the 1969 term, Eagles authored a bill (House Bill 319) that aimed to legalize abortion "in cases of rape, incest, or if the mother's health was endangered". At that time, women residing in North Dakota could be subjected to fines and imprisonment for asking for an abortion, and with the announcement of Eagles' bill, a storm of controversy ensued. As the leading voice behind House Bill 319, Aloha Eagles was targeted by anti-abortion advocates, receiving "abusive phone calls", hate mail, and even death threats. These threats eventually necessitated Eagles being provided with a North Dakota Highway Patrol officer out of concern for her safety, and in 1969 House Bill 319 was defeated by a vote of 52 to 42. Undeterred, Eagles reintroduced the same bill during the 1971 legislative session where it again met defeat, this time being struck down by a vote of 85-15.

  Despite the failure of House Bill 319, Aloha Eagles made great strides in promoting other pieces of social legislation, including a bill that prohibited "the sale of volatile solvents" that were being used in "glue-sniffing", as well as being an advocate for the construction of a women's prison in the state. During her third term in the legislature Aloha Eagles was named as North Dakota Woman of the Year for 1973 and three years later received the University of North Dakota's Law Woman's Award.

Aloha Eagles, a scanned portrait from the 1981 North Dakota State Blue Book. 

  While still an incumbent legislator, Aloha Eagles was an active participant in several North Dakota social services and organizations, being a member of the State Law Enforcement Council, the Coordinating Council for Family Planning, the State Day Care Board, the Advisory Board for Vocational Rehabilitation, the Fargo Chapter of the League of Women Voters, Church Women United, and was the director of the Community Action Agency.

  Aloha Eagles' final term in the legislature concluded in 1985. Widowed in 1980, Eagles died in Virginia Beach, Virginia on February 22, 1992, at age seventy-five, and was survived by both of her sons. A burial location for her is unknown at this time.

Zatae Leola Longsdorff Straw (1866-1955)

  Today on the 57th anniversary of her death, oddly named New Hampshire state representative Zatae Longsdorff Straw is honored as the first female politician to be profiled here on the site! During a long life that extended nearly 90 years, Straw was a woman of many accomplishments, including being the first female graduate of Dickinson College, a prominent physician and head of the Manchester Medical Association, and one of New Hampshire's first female legislators. 
   I originally located Straw's name in a 1925 edition of the Manual of the General Court of New Hampshire. Located throughout this book were numerous instances of candidates and legislators elected that year, and I will admit that when I first saw the name "Zatae L. Straw" I presumed that it belonged to a man. It was only after doing a quick search of the name that I learned the full story of this amazing woman, one which will now be told here on the site!
   Zatae Leola Sturgis Longsdorff was born in the town of Centerville, Pennsylvania on April 16, 1866, one of six children born to Dr. William Henry Longsdorff and his wife Lydia. Zatae spent her early life near the Carlisle, Pennsylvania area and began attending Wellesley College in 1883. The next year she followed in her father and older brother's footsteps by enrolling at Dickinson College. Zatae Longsdorff would eventually graduate from Dickinson in the class of 1887, earning lasting distinction as the first female graduate of that institution in its century-plus history.
  After leaving Dickinson, Longsdorff continued her education at the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia, earning her medical degree in 1890. Around this same time, she relocated to the Blackfoot, Idaho area, where she became a resident physician at the Ft. Hill Indian Reservation. In 1891 she returned east and in November of that year married Amos Gale Straw (1864-1926), who himself would become a prominent physician in the Manchester, New Hampshire area. Zatae and Amos would eventually have four children, who are listed as follows: Enid Constance (1900-1981), Zatae Gale (1906-1930), Wayne C. (1909-1931), and David Gale (1923-1979). Amos and Zatae later adopted a fifth child, Gertrude Grey (1898-1986).

                            Zatae Longsdorff as she looked around the time of her marriage in 1891.

   After her marriage to Dr. Amos Straw, Zatae Longsdorff Straw began a medical practice of her own in Manchester, becoming one of the first practicing female physicians in that city, let alone New Hampshire. Straw's medical practice continued well into the 1920s, and as she entered her fifties, she embarked upon a very bright political career.
   In November 1923 Zatae Straw won election as a Republican to the New Hampshire State House of Representatives from Manchester's fourth ward. Officially taking her seat in January 1924, Straw won re-election to the house in November 1925, and during her two terms held a seat on the Committee on Health (later serving as its chair), as well as serving on the Committee on Fisheries and Game. During this term, she introduced legislation "prohibiting of marriage of persons having social diseases", a bill that she later recommended to the Public Health committee. Also during this term Straw accomplished another first, serving as the chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican State Convention of 1926, being the first woman ever to do so in the state of New Hampshire.

  

  As her second term in the legislature came to a close in November 1927, Straw mounted a campaign for a New Hampshire State Senate seat. As mentioned in the above passage from the Nashua Telegraph, she was "the first woman in the state to aspire for this position." Although she was unsuccessful in her candidacy, Straw continued to be politically active throughout the remainder of her long life.

   This article on Zatae L. Straw appeared in the September 6, 1935 edition of the Nashua Telegraph.
  
   After leaving politics, Dr. Straw continued to be active in several state organizations, including serving as vice president of the New Hampshire Department of the American Legion Auxiliary. In 1935 she was elected as the state president of this organization, serving until 1936. An article on her nomination to this office appeared in the September 1935 Nashua Telegraph and has been posted above.
   Accolades continued to come to Dr. Straw later in her life. Upon the 50th anniversary of her graduation from Dickinson College in 1937, that institution conferred on her an honorary degree in science. Four years later in 1941, she was awarded a gold medal for her lengthy service to medicine by the New Hampshire Medical Society. Many sources on Dr. Straw's life also mention her as serving as the first woman president of the American Medical Society, although no source lists her dates of service.
   Zatae Longsdorff Straw died at age 89 on October 1, 1955, in her native city of Manchester. Her husband Amos had predeceased her in 1926, and two of her children (Wayne and Zatae) had also died at young ages. Straw was memorialized in the Manchester Union Leader as "one of New Hampshire's most distinguished women" shortly after her death and was interred with her husband and children at the Pine Grove Cemetery in Manchester.