Clara Snell Wolfe, Texas, Active 1917-20

Timeline:

1874 – Born in Milledgeville, IL on May 9th
1891 – Graduated from Milledgeville High School
1898 – Graduate from Ill. State Normal University
1898-99 – Critic Teacher, Ill. State Normal University
1900-01 – Critic Teacher, Eastern Ill. State Normal School, Charleston, IL
1901-1906 – Lecturer in teachers’ institutes
1906 – Married Albert Benedict Wolfe in Milledgeville, IL
1906 – Published Lessons in Fourth Year Geography: Topic, the Work of Water for the Eastern Illinois State Normal School
1905-1909 –Recording Secretary Ohio Woman Suffrage Association; member College Equal Suffrage League; organizer Woman Suffrage Party in Cleveland, Ohio
1908 – Moved into house on 272 Oak while Albert was teaching at Oberlin College and Clara was working on her degree
1909 – Graduated from Oberlin College, A.B.
1911-1913 – Corresponding Secretary Ohio Federation Women’s Clubs
1912 – Speaker and organizer in Ohio suffrage campaign of 1912
1912 – Visited La Crosse, WI as Corresponding Secretary for the Ohio Federation of Women’s Clubs
1913 – Published “The Aim and Content of the Undergraduate Economics Curriculum” in The Journal of Political Economy
1914 – Moved to Texas (husband worked for the University of Texas from 1914-1923)
1918 – Contributed $5.00 to Fund for Passage of the Federal Suffrage Amendment (while living in Texas)
                  (unsure of year – according to The Story of the Woman’s Party Wolfe was in Texas “on the trail of Senator Culberson”)
1918-1919 – as president of the Texas branch of the National Woman’s Party, kept pressure on federal officials to pass the woman suffrage amendment
1923 – moved to Ohio (husband worked for The Ohio State University from 1923-1946)
1926 – M.A. from Ohio State University – Dissertation: An Examination of the available prose works of Sir Walter Scott for traces of Spanish, particularly of Don Quixote
1932 – Listed as graduate student studying French at the University of California
1935 – Contributed $5.00 to Women’s Consultative Committee created by Council of League of Nations (while living in Ohio)
1938 – Spoke to the Elko Women’s Club in Elko, NV on the Equal Rights Amendment
1939 – Spoke in Wilmington, Delaware about the Equal Rights Amendment
1942 – Elected as Second Vice Chairman of the National Women’s Party
1948 – Bought a house in Columbus OH (1589 Richmond Ave, also known as “Hopkins House”)
1949 – Executive Council Vice Chairman of the National Women’s Party
1952 – Sold “Hopkins House”
1962-1971 – Albert and Clara Wolfe sponsored a scholarship at Oberlin College from 1962-1971

From the WASM website:

  • WOLFE, Clara Snell, ed. By John William Leonard. In Woman’s Who’s Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915, ed. By John William Leonard. (New York: American Commonwealth Company, 1914), pp. 897.
    • “WOLF, Clara Snell / (Mrs. Albert Benedict Wolfe), 35 N. Park St., Oberlin O. / Born Milledgeville, Ill., May 9, 1874; dau. Francis Adam and Ellen Rosamond (Campbell) Rosamond; grad. Milledgeville (Ill.) High School, ’91; Ill. State Normal Univ., ’98; Oberlin Coll., A.B. ’09; m. Milledgeville, Ill., Sept. 6, 1906, Albert Benedict Wolfe. Prin. High school, Dundee, Ill., 1898-99; critic teacher, Ill. State Normal Univ., 1900-01; critic teacher, Eastern Ill. State Normal School, Charleston, Ill., 1901-06; lecturer in teachers’ institutes, 1905-09. Corr. Sec. Ohio Fed. Women’s Clubs; recording sec. Ohio Woman Suffrage Ass’n; mem. College Equal Suffrage League; organizer Woman Suffrage Party in Cleveland, Ohio; speaker and organizer in Ohio suffrage campaign of 1912.”
  • Document 15: “Treasurer’s Report,” The Suffragist, 28 December 1918, p. 11. Courtesy of the historic National Women’s Party, Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, Washington, D.C.
    • “December 28, 1918 Treasurer’s Report … Contributions made to $500,000.00 Fund for Passage of the Federal Suffrage Amendment / Collections from December 1912 / List of Contributions from Dec. 7 through Dec. 12, 1918 / Contributions made to National Headquarters: … Mrs. Clara Snell Wolfe, Texas 5.00”
  • Document 18: Harriot Stanton Blatch to Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, 6 October 1920, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Cornelia Bryce Pinchot Papers, Box 10, NF.
    • “National Woman’s Party … National Advisory Council … Mrs. Clara Snell Wolfe, Tex.”
  • Inez Haynes Irwin, “Chapter V: Fighting for Votes in the Senate,” in The Story of the Woman’s Party (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921),Page 343: “For while we had been busy in Washington, Doris Stevens and Clara Wolfe had been busy in Texas on the trail of Senator Culberson.”
  • Document 27A: National Woman's Party, "Contributions Received for International Work, August, September, October, 1935," Alice Paul Papers, Box 33, Folder 430, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Courtesy of the historic National Woman's Party, Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, Washington, D.C.
    • “Collected for donation to Women’s Consultative Committee created by Council of League of Nations…Mrs. Clara Snell Wolfe, Ohio 5.00”

Other:

  • Listed as a graduate student in University of California Register 1921-32, Volume II Parts XIV-XVIII, December, 1932. Berkeley: University of California Pres, 1932.
    • Full entry: “Wolfe, Clara Snell Columbus, Ohio / A.B. (Oberline College) 1909; M.A. (Ohio State University) 1926 / French – 2646 Shasta Rd AS 8026)”
    • Explanatory Note at the beginning of the section: “…Graduate Students are not registered in colleges, and for these students the school (Med, Juris, Arch, Ed, Libr) or major subject is indicated…The place from which the student first registered at this University is given immediately following the student’s name; all such places are in the state of California, unless stated to be elsewhere. In the lines following the name and home are givent he student’s status and his address and telephone number while attending the University.” (AS-Ashberry)
  • Sherilyn Brandenstein, "NATIONAL WOMAN'S PARTY," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wensq), accessed July 02, 2015. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
    • “Austinite Clara Snell Wolfe was the first Texas branch president [of the National Woman’s Party]. She attempted to organize the group based on congressional districts but apparently failed to recruit more than seven district leaders at any time. Houston, El Paso, San Antonio, and Corsicana had active chapters. The party’s Texas branch was small but vocal.”
    • “Suffragists of all stripes kept the pressure on federal officials through 1918 and spring 1919. They gained congressional approval for the [woman suffrage] amendment on June 4, 1919. Mrs. Paul Millett, NWP Texas branch chairman, joined Clara Wolfe, the new legislative chairman, in lobbying Texas state legislators to ratify the amendment during a special session. Texas suffragists used their right to vote in primary elections as leverage to pressure incumbents hoping for reelection. The Texas House of Representatives approved the federal amendment on June 23, 1919, and the Senate unanimously voted it in on June 28. The NWP Texas branch engaged in fund-raising for ratification efforts in other states until the federal amendment became law in August 1920.”
  • http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu//oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=sch00065
    • Corresponded with Alma Lutz from 1926-1944, regarding CSW in her role as chairman of Organization in the NWP.
    • Mentioned in a 1941 report of the Congressional Committee
    • 1942 correspondence
    • 1943 correspondence
    • 1944 correspondence, and a list of organizations endorsing the Equal Rights Amendment
    • Mass. Branch correspondence, 1936. Includes correspondence on the regulation of women’s work and the inclusion of the Equal Rights Amendment in political party platforms.
    • Equal Rights correspondence 1939.
    • World Woman’s Part, 1938-1939. Includes newsclippings, party literature, press releases, and correspondence
  • http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu//oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=sch00378
    • Corresponded with Doris Stevens in 1939.
  • Clara Snell Wolfe, Lessons in Fourth Year Geography: Topic, the Work of Water (Charleston, IL: Eastern Illinois State Normal School, 1906). (16 pages)
  • Clara Snell Wolfe, An examination of the available prose works of Sir Walter Scott for traces of Spanish, particularly of Don Quixote, MA. Ohio State University Dissertation, 1926.
  • Clara Snell Wolfe, “The Aim and Content of the Undergraduate Economics Curriculum”(Chicago, 1913), reprinted from The Journal of Political Economy 21:1, January 1913. (17 pages)
  • http://dornberghouse.blogspot.com/2012/06/1589-richmond-avenue-hopkins-house.html
    • Husband was on the faculty of: Oberlin College (economics and sociology) from 1907-1914, University of Texas from 1914-1923, and The Ohio State University from 1923-1946.
    • Clara Snell Wolfe bought a house in 1948 from Paul A. and Mabel E. Byers in Columbus, OH: 1589 Richmond Avenue – Hopkins House; they sold it James W. and Telitha E. Williams in 1952.
  • http://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/Ohio/Clara-Snell-Wolfe_16sb9y
    • 1940 Census lists the Wolfe’s as having a servant named Christine Wher, age 52, who was born in Texas (probably moved with them from Texas back to Ohio)
    • Lists Clara as unemployed, and Albert as a teacher for Ohio State, who made $5,000 in 1939.
  • Letter to Ada James, November 22, 1912
    • Stationary says that Wolfe was Corresponding Secretary for the Ohio Federation of Women’s Clubs from 1911-1913.
    • Notes on a visit to La Crosse (WI?) – Ada James was in Richland Center, WI so I’m guessing it was La Crosse, WI not IL.
      • “I must tell you now what splendid support Mr. Brayton of the La Cross Tribune gave the cause. Will send you his editorial and a paper containing the ten dollar space he gave himself to the Vote Yes advertisement.”
      • “I must also tell you what a splendid worker I found in Mrs. Charles Linker. If it had not been for her we could not have begun to cover the twenty-one words on election day. She secured forty-two workers herself.”
      • “Will you also tell me how to join your state organization? I will send you a list of names of those I think might like to join from La Crosse.”
      • “And do warn any suffragists who may in future go to La Crosse to avoid any contact with Miss Rose Keefe. Metaphysically speaking, she almost kicked me out of town.”
  • http://library.sc.edu/socar/uscs/1995/poltzr95.html
    • Listed as being Executive Council Vice Chairman of the National Women’s Party in 1949
  • https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2293&dat=19390212&id=3usmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DwMGAAAAIBAJ&pg=3880,6719938&hl=en
    • February 12, 1939 newspaper, The Sunday Morning Star from Wilmington, Delaware, lists an upcoming event in Delaware in April: Clara Snell Wolfe speaking about the Equal Rights Amendment
  • https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19421026&id=WJc0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=rGgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5782,1971343&hl=en
    • October 26, 1942 newspaper, The Lewiston Daily Sun, has an announcement from Philadelphia: “Alice Paul, of East Charleston and Echo Lake, VT., was elected National Chairman of the National Women’s party at the group’s closing session of the annual convention today. Other officers include: Miss Laura Berrien, Washington, First Vice Chairman; Mrs. Clara Snell Wolfe, of Ohio, Second Vice Chairman, and Mrs. Lloyd Williams, of Connecticut, Third Vice Chairman.”
    • Probably should have said “re-elected,” right?
  • http://larson.library.emory.edu/marbl/DigProjects/swh/images/Raoul%20548/0548-012.pdf
    • Mrs. Clara Snell Wolfe, Tex. Listed as part of the National Committee of State Chairmen of the National Women’s Party.
  • http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/75074059/
    • Clara Snell Wolfe speaks to the Elko Women’s Club (Elko, NV) on the Equal Rights Amendment in 1938 (mentioned in the April 24, 1938 Nevada State Journal, page 11)
  • http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/holdings/finding/RG8/inventory.html
    • Albert and Clara sponsored a scholarship at Oberlin College from 1962-1971.
  • http://www.oberlinheritagecenter.org/cms/files/File/HistoricOberlinToday.pdf
    • Moved into 272 Oak, Oberlin, OH (near Oberlin College) in 1908 while Albert was teaching at Oberlin