LAKESIDE, OHIO

“Dear Ed, Have been out this P.M. to call on Mrs. And Mr. Gibson. We are going to church this evening. All are well. It is so very cold here. Matie had a four hour wait at the train so she did not get here until 3 o’clock or after. We are going up in the city tomorrow. Love from all, Margaret.”

To E.M. Herman
Marblehead, Ohio
September 9, 1914 Mailed from Detroit, Michigan

Margaret was thriving in her new environment. Her postcard to Edward was lively and upbeat. People of her own faith, Methodists, also surrounded her. She would go to the big city for relaxation and entertainment, but not before she went to church. In the early 1900’s church as it had been the previous century was central to many people’s lives. It provided the social entertainment for families, and often was the only provider of educational opportunities, especially for women. The church was at the front of social, political and reform issues. The idea of the separation of church and state was an ideological conviction not held by the masses unless you were against the platform of reform that a particular denomination stood for. While men may have preached the protestant gospel, women were the movers and shakers of the bible, giving voice to the morals of right and wrong with strong political agendas.

During the 1800’s the political agenda had been the abolition movement and the rights of women, namely to vote. In the 1900’s the political agenda had been the women’s temperance movement and the right to vote. The way to get your particular political agenda through was by the power of the vote. Whether you were a liberal or a conservative woman, you were united by the desire to obtain the right to vote. Each group needed this right to further the cause of their own agendas and voting was the only way to accomplish this.

Men had failed miserably in the areas of social reform and women‘s education and health issues. Denying education to women and basic human rights to children, it was left to women to forge a new frontier, the women’s movement. In doing so women crossed all political and religious lines to gain the freedom to vote and shape the country’s politics, as they deemed necessary.

The women’s suffragist movement has a long and complicated history in The United States. As early as the late 1700’s the issue was made public and continued to become an issue although it usually involved individual circumstances. The early 1800’s gave rise to more voices, mostly women who expressed the desire that they should have the right to vote. The voices heard were for the most part not at the national level, but within individual states. Some states such as Utah did give women the right to vote, but it was not generally accepted and was negated at the federal level. Following the War Between the States women grew more active in the movement to secure the right to vote. That right had been granted to men of color, while women of any color still did not have that privilege. Although there were men of both white and color who supported granting women the right to vote, it was not largely accepted by the opposite sex. Not all women supported the right to vote. Some felt that it undermined their roles in the home and society and actually hindered their political power and personal relationships with men.

Men of the late 19th and early 20th century mostly feared giving women the right to vote would mean the temperance movement would succeed and the prohibition of alcohol would become national policy. The complexities of the issue are far greater then any one slight discourse could give justice to its history, however it remained one of the more important hindrances for women’s voting rights. By the turn of the century, women had united into a strong political force and it was not just at the individual or state level. They had formed a strong political voice at the national level with the formation of a national women’s political union.

Education for women was another area of contention for the female sex. Schools had been opened to both sexes at the lower grade levels for decades. Yet, for many Americans the highest level of education thought necessary for life skills was the eighth grade. “Getting an education,” meant learning the basics, reading, writing and math. Colleges were expensive and few had opened their doors to females. Many jobs that did employ women, such as teaching and nursing were closed to them after marriage. Higher professional levels such as doctors and lawyers were not generally thought acceptable for women. While there were some women who did enter these professions, they did not make up the majority of their sex. Women who wanted more in life then to sit by the fire darning socks had to formulate a plan.

When Margaret first placed her foot on the rocky soil of the Marblehead peninsula, she stepped right into a community that had one such plan. Not only had it been in existence for a long time, it was also Methodist. Margaret’s life was soon to become a part of Lakeside, Ohio and she would be influenced by their religious, political and educational responses to the world around them. The community would also provide both Edward and Margaret a support system and a place to call home when Edward retired from the United States Lighthouse Service.