Women of WOU
This exhibit explores select notable women in the university’s history who have made significant contributions to the institution, the state of Oregon, or made a national impact.
Some of these women fought for women’s suffrage, equal pay, and others served in Congress. Others were the heads of dormitories, started literary organizations, and fundraised for better living facilities on campus. All of these women made a lasting impact in the lives on their colleagues and the students they served.
Mary Ann Stump Campbell
Mary Ann Stump was born in Monmouth, Oregon on March 12, 1851, to Catherine Elizabeth and David Stump. David was one of the original land donors and founders of Monmouth University.
When she was 16, Mary Ann Stump attended Willamette University, and later transferred to Christian College where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1871. During her last year at the college, Stump held the office of president of the Philosophian Society and editor of the Philosophian Review. After graduating, she helped her sister Cassie form the Vespertine Society after the college trustees voted that men and women were no longer permitted to participate in the same on-campus literary societies.
Stump went on to work as the secretary and assistant for the Pacific Christian Messenger, a local newspaper, where T.F. Campbell, was the editor. After T.F. Campbell (the second university president) began working to increase student enrollment, Stump Campbell was hired as the editor of the Pacific Christian Messenger. In 1885, she married T.F. Campbell and became his second wife. The couple had three children: Catherine, Agnes, and David.
Described in her obituary as being a, “beloved pioneer woman of Polk County,” Mary Ann Stump Campbell died in Monmouth, Oregon on August 19, 1927 leaving a legacy of literary contributions to the university and the community.
Catherine 'Cassie' Stump
Catherine 'Cassie' Stump was born in Monmouth, Oregon on February 8, 1855, to Catherine Elizabeth and David Stump. David was one of the original land donors and founders to Monmouth University.
Stump attended Christian College and received a Bachelor of Science from the school in 1875.
Both Cassie Stump and her sister, Mary Stump Campbell were pioneers in the literary world of Christian College. Cassie Stump was the co-founder and first president of the Vespertine Society. In an article written by Cassie Stump republished in “Since 1856 … Historical Views of the College at Monmouth,” she states that the literary society was formed after the Christian College trustees “passed a law prohibiting young ladies from participating in the exercises of the literary societies conducted then in the most part by the young gentlemen.” In the article, Stump goes on to explain how the Vespertine Society was determined to not be outdone by the Philosopians or Hesperians — both were literary societies that had existed on the Christian College campus before the trustee vote.
In early 1881, Stump left Oregon to attend Wellesley College in Boston, Massachusetts. While in Boston she visited Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whom she had befriended. Stump returned to Monmouth to care for her ailing mother and was unable to complete her studies at Wellesley. Upon her return she began teaching instrumental music at her alma mater and worked as a professor at the university until 1886.
In 1913, Stump registered to vote in the first national election since Oregon women achieved suffrage the year before.
For the majority of her life, Stump lived at the edge of campus in a house that her father built. After her mother's death, she boarded unmarried women professors at her home. Cassie Stump died on January 19, 1941 at the age of 86.
The house was razed in the 1950's in order to build the new campus library (now the Academic Programs and Support Center).
Laura Cattron Harris
Laura Cattron was born in Carlton, Oregon on September 20, 1855. She moved to Monmouth with her family when she was five. In 1869, at age 14, she earned her teaching certificate from Christian College. She taught school in Monmouth until she married Dr. T.W. Harris at age 17. She lived in Albany and finally settled in Eugene in 1884.
While at Christian College, Harris was a member of the Hesperian Literary Society, as well as piano student.
Harris worked with her husband in a medical office for 18 years until their separation. She was the first woman in the Willamette Valley to specialize in women's health and advocated for improving women’s health.
Her advocacy for women’s suffrage lead to a lawsuit against election judges who prevented her from voting in an 1897 school election. Harris sued Sherwood Burr, one of the election judges, for not upholding the 1878 amended law that stated “any citizen of this State shall be entitled to vote at a school meeting who is twenty-one years of age, and has resided in the district thirty days immediately preceding the meeting, and who has property in the district upon which he or she pays a tax.”
In 1898, the case moved to the Oregon Supreme Court. Oregon Chief Justice Charles Edwin Wolverton, also educated at Christian College, ruled in her favor nearly a year later, deeming it legal for women to vote in school elections. In his opinion brief he affirmed Laura Harris’s right to vote for Lane County school director, and provided a long history of school voting decisions. He stated that the framers of Oregon Statehood could imagine women as voters: “Under the Oregon territorial law of 1855 every inhabitant above the age of 21, without regard to sex [who met residence and taxpaying requirements] was declared to be a legal voter at school meetings.” Women in Oregon did not achieve full suffrage until 1912.
Harris was active member of many Eugene establishments, including being: a charter and life member of the Evangeline chapter of Eastern Star, a member of the First Christian Church, Lewis and Clark Club, Ladies of the Elks, and an honorary member of the Quota Club.
The Oregonian Journal’s obituary for Laura Cattron Harris stated, “She long was active in civic affairs, and took a leading role in the early day campaign to win the vote for women in school elections.”
Her son, Lawrence T. Harris, mirrored his mother’s charge for civic responsibility and the law, becoming a lawyer, circuit court judge and speaker of the House of Representatives. Harris died on September 2, 1955, only 18 days before her 100th birthday, leaving a long legacy of better rights for women in Oregon.
Jessica Spalding Todd
Jessica Spalding Todd was born in 1869 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. She was one of four siblings.
In 1887, Todd enrolled in Geneva College in Beaver Falls, but did not graduate. In 1901, Todd became the principal and critic teacher in the intermediate grades in Platteville, Wisconsin. In 1908, she was made the assistant director of the training school in Platteville.
In 1912, Todd moved to Monmouth and began working as a supervisor of critic teachers for the Monmouth Training School at Oregon Normal School (ONS). Todd quickly saw the need for a dormitory on campus and worked together to petition the state for funds to build a women’s dormitory.
With the new dormitory completion in 1913, Todd became the first Dean of Women, and the first Director of Dormitories. While in these positions, Todd was in charge of the school-owned dormitory, as well as all of the sanctioned boarding houses in Monmouth and the dormitories that were associated with rural centers for practice teachers. Through her frugal efficiencies and tight budget she kept enough savings to build the Senior Cottage in 1917 when the dormitory was seeing its first addition. The Cottage doubled as the Dean of Women’s office and her residence during the rest of her tenure at ONS.
While serving as the Dean of Women, Todd was known for her strict nature and interest in teaching female students how to be proper women. Alumnae tell stories of how she would close and lock the front door at the exact time of curfew leaving them saying good night to their dates on the porch. Over the years, her many talents for teaching, listening, organizing, and directing garnered much respect among students and throughout the academic world. She was said to have saved more than one girl from family, social, or financial shipwreck. Todd had the ability to see all sides of a question, she was loyal, and never known to betray or exploit a confidence.
In June 1926, Geneva College honored Todd with an honorary baccalaureate in recognition of her exceptional work at ONS. Upon her retirement in 1931, the Oregon State Board of Education unanimously agreed to rename the dormitory which she had run in honor of her.
Todd Hall remains in use today, housing various faculty offices, classrooms and the campus day care. Jessica Todd’s ghost is rumored to roam the halls of the building and play pranks in the Cottage.
Jessica Spalding Todd was living in Ford City, Pennsylvania in 1944 when she died after having a stroke.
Pearl Heath
Pearl Heath was born on Jan. 22, 1898 in Langor, Minnesota and raised in Ashland, Oregon. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon, a master’s degree from San Jose State University, and, from 1924-1925, worked on a teaching certificate from Oregon Normal School (ONS).
Professor Heath began her ONS career in 1926 and remained until her retirement in 1963, seeing the name change to Oregon College of Education during her tenure.
During her 37-year career at the school, Heath taught art courses and served as head of the Art Department. She traveled extensively, participated in a London research project with blind folk, and was an active member of Delta Kappa Gamma, the Salem Women’s Club, and the International Society for Education through Art.
A prolific artist as well as an excellent instructor, Professor Heath was well-known in her profession; in 1959, she was invited to Denmark to spend the summer attending an Arts and Craft Workshop sponsored by the Danish Museum and the Arts and Crafts Society. While there, she received special training in many areas including architecture, interior decoration, ceramics, glass blowing, and weaving.
In addition to teaching arts and crafts, Professor Heath used her artistic talents to create unique objects outside of the classroom, including jewelry, sculpture, and enhance architecture. In 1949, she designed the fireplace in Maple Hall when it was remodeled from a gymnasium to the school’s first student union. When the new library (now the Academic Programs and Support Center) was initially built in 1951, Heath built a cloisonné clock that was located in the faculty lounge. She also designed the agricultural-themed frieze that decorates the front of the building.
Professor Pearl Heath died on Dec. 20, 1988 in Keizer, Oregon at 90 years old.
Dessa Hofstetter
Dessa Elvira Devin Hofstetter, born on Nov. 24, 1901, was raised and attended school in Heppner, Oregon. Suffering from an illness during her senior year of high school and balking at the doctor’s advice to stay at home for a year, she accepted an offer from the school librarian to independently study in the library.
This began her lifelong love affair with libraries. In 1924, she ventured out of Heppner and made her way to Monmouth and Oregon Normal School. While at school, she quickly established herself as a superior student and was invited to work in the library.
After graduating from Oregon Normal School in 1926, Hofstetter returned to northeastern Oregon and began work as the children’s librarian at the Umatilla County Library in Pendleton. In 1932, she continued studying library sciences at the University of Oregon, graduating in two years with a baccalaureate degree. She proceeded to University of California Berkeley, where she earned a Certificate of Librarianship. While at Berkeley, Hofstetter worked as a graduate assistant at the Education Library.
Her dedication to libraries continued when she returned to Oregon to work as the head of the School Reference Department at the State Library of Oregon and in Ontario, Oregon as the Malheur County librarian.
In October 1941, Charles A. Howard, president of the Oregon College of Education (OCE), asked her to return to Monmouth and be the school’s librarian. In 1951, she helped in planning a new library building and oversaw the library collections as they moved into a new building.
Hofstetter worked at OCE until she passed away from an incurable illness on January 16, 1966. Campus legend held that her ghost was thought to have haunted the book stacks of the library she helped establish.
Maurine Brown Neuberger
Maurine Brown Neuberger was born on January 9, 1907 in Cloverdale, Oregon. Brown graduated from Bethel High School and earned her teaching certificate from Oregon College of Education in 1924. She went on to receive a bachelor of arts in English and physical education from University of Oregon in 1929.
She taught English in public school for twelve years. In 1945, she married Richard Neuberger, a journalist and eventual seat on the Oregon House of Representatives and Oregon Senate. Neuberger’s first foray into politics was helping her husband during his Democratic senate race in 1948. While helping her husband, Neuberger was inspired to start her own election journey for a position in the State House of Representatives. She won the election in 1950, and the Neubergers became the first married couple to simultaneously serve in both chambers of a state legislature.
While serving in the State House of Representatives, Neuberger was adamant about supporting various consumer rights and education reform – including the increased regulation of food coloring in margarine and increased implementation of special needs programs for students. Though Neuberger had initial hesitations about running for member of Congress, she decided to run after her husband died on March 10, 1960 before his bid for re-election. Neuberger ran for the Democratic nomination and secured both a temporary and full term, from November 9, 1961 to January 3, 1967.
While serving as a member of Congress, Neuberger continued to fight for consumer issues; she served on various committees including Agriculture and Forestry, Banking and Currency, and Commerce. She also sponsored legislation that supported equal pay between men and women.
On November 1, 1965, Neuberger announced that she would not seek re-election for her position, and instead went on to chair the Commission on the Status of Women, and to teach consumer affairs and the status of women at Boston University, Radcliffe Institute, and Reed College.
According to her obituary in The New York Times on February 24, 2000, “Mrs. Neuberger devoted much of her efforts to consumer issues. She sponsored one of the first bills to mandate health-warning labels on cigarette packages and wrote a book highly critical of the tobacco industry […] Mrs. Neuberger astonished Oregonians when she took on the powerful dairy industry and a state law, backed by dairy interests, that banned the sale of margarine with yellow coloring. Putting on an apron and using a mixing bowl, she showed her House colleagues, all men, how to color the pale butter substitute. After that, the ban was lifted.”
Maurine Brown Neuberger died on February 22, 2000 at a nursing home in Portland.
Katherine Arbuthnot
Born in Mahro, Nebraska and orphaned in infancy, Katherine (Kitty) Arbuthnot was raised by an aunt in Des Moines, Iowa. She received degrees from Drake University, Iowa State University, and Columbia University.
Professor Arbuthnot began as a critic teacher in Des Moines, teaching for several years at public schools throughout the area. In 1913, a fellow critic teacher convinced her to move to Monmouth where she was appointed as a critic teacher at Monmouth Elementary School on the Oregon Normal School campus. She later became the principal of the Independence Elementary School.
While at Oregon Normal School (which changed to Oregon College of Education during her tenure), she became an assistant professor of Social Science and head of the Geography department. She stayed in these positions until her retirement in 1947.
A year before Professor Arbuthnot’s retirement, she received an award for outstanding teaching. An excerpt from her recognition reads, “Katharine Arbuthnot, assistant professor of social studies, world traveler, true scholar, inspiring teacher: For distinguished service as a teacher, counselor, and friend to students at Oregon College of Education for over a third of a century.”
The effect she had on the campus wasn’t forgotten; in 1962, the university built a new women’s dormitory and held an official dedication ceremony on January 27, 1963. Arbuthnot Hall was used as a women’s dorm until 1986, when it became the dormitory for the Oregon Police Academy. The building was demolished in 2011.
Professor Arbuthnot’s love for students and for teaching was apparent and appreciated by all who knew her. An appreciation article from the Statesman Journal about her read, “At the very hour of her death on October 27, 1952, she was helping a student prepare an English paper for class at OCE.” Professor Arbuthnot was living at her house in Salem before her death.
Montana Rickards Walking Bull
Dr. Montana Rickards Walking Bull was born on January 22, 1913 to a Cherokee mother and white Methodist minister father. She was one of nine children.
Though Dr. Walking Bull spent most of her childhood in Oklahoma, she moved to eastern Oregon for the last two years of high school, earning a diploma from LaGrande High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in drama and a master’s degree in education from the University of Oklahoma. After receiving her master’s degree, Dr. Walking Bull held various teaching positions in Oklahoma, Texas, California, and Oregon.
She began teaching at Oregon College of Education (OCE) in Monmouth as a professor of humanities and education in 1963. While teaching, she earned her doctorate from the University of Oregon.
In 1975, Dr. Walking Bull and Gilbert Rickards, her husband, and both members of the Oglala Sioux tribe, published their first book in a series, O-Hu-Kah-Kan: poetry, songs, legends and stories; it was among the first books to print the Oglala language. Both Dr. Walking Bull and her husband were passionate about the promotion of Native American literature, language, and culture.
Dr. Montana Walking Bull continued to teach at the Oregon College of Education, by that time known as Western Oregon State College, until her death in 1987.
Acknowledgements
This exhibit was compiled and written by Zoe Strickland, English literature major and WOU Archives student employee.
Editing assistance was provided by Jerrie Lee Parpart, WOU Archives Coordinator and Janeanne Rockwell-Kincannon, Reference Services Librarian.
Information regarding Laura Harris was provided by Dr. Kimberly Jensen.