See the photo gallery.
Prior to the parade, a suffrage monument dedication ceremony was held near Boone High School, where a monument was erected. State Rep. Donovan Olson (D-Boone) presented Gov. Chet Culver's gubernatorial proclamation. Boone County Supervisor Mike O'Brien read the board of supervisors' address while Boone Mayor John Slight gave his mayoral proclamation.
|
|
"One hundred years ago, women here in Boone County and in Iowa went against public rejection and possible physical danger to march to the center of Boone to proclaim their right to go alongside their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons," Irwin said.
Boone's suffrage march, pioneered by Des Moines Unitarian Church minister and IESA President Eleanor Elizabeth Gordon, was held during the 38th convention of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association. Approximately 100 suffragists marched with National Woman Suffrage Association President Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw. Unlike the suffrage movement that took place in England during the same era, Irwin noted that Boone's demonstration was well-received and less militant in nature.
"Although they were treated by the Boone residents with respect and even approval, the marchers on that chilly, windy day had no way of knowing what the ramifications of their actions would be," Irwin said.
Confronted by violence during the same year, American suffragists in New York City were refused the right to march, although 23 women marched anyways. At the time, Iowa women were attempting to find new expression within the suffrage movement.
"The old ways to advocate for the right to vote were no longer working," Irwin said. "Legislators were no longer listening to their pleas for equal citizenship. Women were seeking methods that would attract the public, politicians and civic leaders to their cause."
After being proposed in 1919, the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920 and granted women the right to vote.
"Although the Boone parade did not result in gaining Iowa women the right to vote in 1908, it marked a turning point in the suffrage movement in that landmark year," Irwin said. "Boone and Iowa women played an important role in defining the future that women would take between 1909 and 1919."
In the late summer of 1908, Gordon corresponded with Rowena Edson Stevens, president and founder of the Boone Equality Club. The role of Stevens was portrayed by Marcheta Munoz, of Findlay, Ohio, who is Stevens' great-granddaughter.
Munoz said the weather during the march of 1908 was cold and windy, presenting more challenges than Saturday's conditions. One woman in the original parade even suggested that the parade should be postponed. However, the suffragists realized securing the right to vote would be a hard-fought battle.
"The leaders said, 'If we get the right to vote and it's cold and windy or rainy and snowy on Election Day, are you going to stay home or are you going to vote?' Of course the answer is, 'I'm going to vote,'" Munoz said.
When Munoz was informed of the suffrage reenactment, she knew she wanted to be involved. She and her sister took a genealogy vacation last year and stopped by the Boone County Historical Society with an album of more than 90 photographs of Stevens and the city of Boone in 1908.
"It's such an important event in Boone's history and so important especially in an election year to restate the message that it's important for us to vote if we want to have a government of the people, by the people, for the people - that people have to vote and we women are people," Munoz said.
Earlier this year, during the planning stages of the historical suffrage march reenactment, Boone County Historical Society Secretary Suzanne Caswell asked Stevens if she would like to play the role of her great-grandmother.
"I consider it an honor and a privilege. I have heard about Rowena all my life. She was quite a lady. She was an excellent mother and she was an excellent critical thinker," Munoz said. "We too often accept what media of various kinds tell us without questioning, 'Where did that come from and is it really true?' Rowena would've said, 'No, don't accept that just because someone said it.'"
Munoz said her great-grandmother could have lived a comfortable life as a typical housewife during the early 20th century. Stevens' father was a successful farmer and her husband was an accomplished judge, lawyer and community leader. With more than half of the population being excluded from voting, Stevens sought equality.
"She could've been just a housewife and mother with a social life," Munoz said. "She chose to be involved in a number of things and she was concerned about government and she appreciated living in a country that has the form of government that listens to people and she understood that people have to speak.
"And if you can't vote it's a little hard to talk to those people in Washington. She felt very strongly that women were a powerful force that was being excluded from public life."
One of the original messages of the 1908 parade displayed on Saturday read, "For the long work day, for the taxes we pay, for the laws we obey, we want something to say." As a voter, Munoz said the message holds true today.
"If I'm bound by the laws of this country, I want to vote for the legislators who make those laws and the executives who enforce those laws and the judges who interpret those laws," Munoz said.
Munoz was one of 21 descendants of Stevens who attended Saturday's commemorating events. Family members came from Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, Ohio, Kentucky and Iowa, and spanned five generations to one of Stevens' great-great-great-great-grandchildren who is 8 months old.
Stevens passed away in 1918, at the age of 64. Though she never had the opportunity to vote, Munoz said she would have been proud of the progress that the suffrage movement paved for future generations, including Stevens' own children.
"She was up on a cloud in heaven on the day that her four daughters voted for the first time," Munoz said. "She raised four daughters who were not stay-at-homes. They were actively involved people. They were Daughters of the American Revolution, teachers, and leaders in the kindergarten movement in the United States."
Munoz said one important lesson that today's voters should take away from the historical strides that women made in the early 20th century, is that the U.S. government is elected by the people to serve the people.
"We need to remember that the government doesn't fall out of the sky to us. Human beings make government and we need to participate in it," Munoz said.
Diane Patton, state president of the American Association of University Women, also took part in Saturday's festivities due to the organization's support for equity in education.
"AAUW has longtime been involved with women's equity issues. When we heard about the reenactment, we wanted to be supportive because AAUW is an advocate for women's issues," Patton said.
Mary Ann Ahrens, of West Des Moines, who serves on the AAUW membership committee, participated in the reenactment to honor her family - the Knezevich family, of Boone.
Ahren's parents, Bude and Mildred Knezevich, were Serbian immigrants who came to Boone in the early 20th century. Ahren's mother was born in 1912 and always discussed the women's progressive activities within the community. She said immigrants during the early 1900s faced many struggles while adapting to America and trying to help people understand their cultures while often being rejected.
"Immigrant women had it even more difficult than (American) women," Ahrens said.
Etta Berkowitz, of Des Moines, a member of Des Moines' Unitarian Church who portrayed the part of Shaw on Saturday, said she learned the history of her church and due to her involvement in theatrical events she was drawn to the reenactment.
"I was hooked. I was totally excited about the 100-year reenactment of this historic event," Berkowitz said.
In learning about the historical movement, Berkowitz said the original women suffragists gained her admiration for their efforts to achieve equality.
"It increased my respect for the struggle and how hard people fought for the right of women to vote," Berkowitz said. "We are still struggling with issues in our culture of who should have rights."
Saturday's reenactment began near Boone High School at Seventh Street and Carroll Street and traveled eastward to Story Street. Like the original march in 1908, the parade came to a halt at the intersection of Eighth Street and Story Street, where Berkowitz portrayed Shaw's leading of an open-air meeting. Her speech was about the nature of a republic and whether a republic had ever been successful - which, as Shaw said, was not successful because a true republic had not yet been attempted, since half of the population (women) was disenfranchised.
For Berkowitz, it was an enjoyable experience to be a part of, not just as a woman, but to see a community embrace its history.
"I think it's great that this is happening. It's wonderful how the Boone community has gotten involved," Berkowitz said.
When Shaw gave her open-air address in 1908, she was accompanied by two English suffragists, Elinor Rendel and Rachel Costelloe, portrayed on Saturday by Hanna McCubbin and Marjie Tometich, respectively.
Tometich, 17, and McCubbin, 16, are both juniors at Boone High School. During discussions about the suffrage movement in their American history class, both students gained an understanding of the event's significance and decided to get involved. Though the two students are not yet of voting age, they said they both plan to be politically active and they also realized the important role that women from Boone and throughout Iowa played in securing equality for future generations.
"Young women today should realize it didn't come easy and that we had to fight for it," Tometich said.
