354:, Caroline Severance was lauded as the spiritual leader of the suffrage movement in Southern California, although her advanced age had limited her participation in the campaign. She was featured in every Los Angeles newspaper the day after the election. Although it has often been written that she was the first woman to register to vote in the state, this is not true. In fact, she registered a week after the election, when a registrar came to her home. She did, however, go to the polls the following year to vote in the presidential election, and in 1912, at the age of ninety-two she cast her vote for president, having worked for woman suffrage for more than sixty years. Although she told the press that she had voted for
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334:: “For more than thirty years this hospitable home has been a rendezvous for literary people visiting Los Angeles, for leaders in progressive thought . . . in whatever direction it may tend, and for men and women interested also in local or municipal reforms and improvements. The title "Mother of Clubs" has been supplemented by that of the "Ethical Magnet of Southern California ..."
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298:. In 1878, she founded the first Los Angeles Women's Club. Her interests were far ranging, from woman suffrage to historic preservation to world peace. As she grew older, she began to be considered the elder stateswoman of women's rights movements in the city. She also became more radical in her thinking, and was active in the city's
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In 1853, after several years of attending and speaking at conventions on behalf of woman's rights, she made her first appearance as a speaker to the general public with a speech to
Cleveland's Mercantile Library Association, the first lecture delivered there by a woman. Her subject was "Humanity: A
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Caroline attended the Upham Female
Seminary in Canandaigua and Miss Almira Bennett's Boarding School in Owasco Lake, New York. She graduated as valedictorian from Miss Ricord's Female Seminary in Geneva at age fifteen in 1835 and served on the faculty of Auburn Female Seminary. For a short time she
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With two of their children still in the east, Caroline and T. C. Severance had never lost their love of Boston, although they became passionate advocates for their newly adopted home. At first, they returned regularly to the east, and without
Caroline's immediate leadership, the Los Angeles
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in 1877. T. C. was a founder of the Orphan's Home
Society, and the Horticultural Society. Caroline began organizing the women of the rapidly growing community. She brought the kindergarten movement to Los Angeles, serving as president of the city's Free Kindergarten Association, and helped
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Definition and a Plea", by which she meant that women should be included as part of "humanity." It was a radical idea, but the speech was well received by the audience, and by the
Cleveland press. That same year, she presided over the first annual meeting of the Ohio Women's Rights Association.
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After her husband's death in 1892, Caroline
Severance changed the name of her home to "El Nido", which is Spanish for "the nest". Situated in a tree-shaded garden, El Nido was a gathering place for men and women devoted to social change. In 1906, Ella Giles Ruddy wrote in
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Shortly after the Civil War, Severance joined the faculty of the Dio Lewis School in
Massachusetts, teaching practical ethics. Severance's ethics were tested when a Black girl asked to be admitted to the school and was denied, the school citing parent objections.
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In 1875, for various reasons which included her husband's health and the fact that her two older sons had moved to the West Coast, she relocated with her husband to Los
Angeles, buying a tiny home on West Adams Street which they called "Red Roof."
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In 1854, Severance was elected, alongside her husband, to offices for the Fourth
National Women's Rights Convention in Cleveland, and testified to the Ohio Legislature in favor of women holding their own inherited property and earnings.
178:. T.C. and Caroline had five children between 1841 and 1849, one of whom died in infancy. The pair initially settled in Cleveland, and their home became a meeting place for those interested in liberal causes.
314:, " ran a lending library, maintained an employment bureau, and conducted classes." It became one of the most powerful and prestigious organizations in the city. She was also an active member of the
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Severance had many other firsts. She was the first woman member of the Parker
Fraternity Course, as well as the first woman to give a lecture in Boston before the Lyceum Association.
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were all invited to speak at the club's first public meeting. In its first years, the Club awarded scholarships, provided educational opportunities for women, backed the
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movement at the turn of the 20th century. She began to be referred to in the press as "Madame Severance", an indication of her prestige and position in the city.
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Both Caroline and T. C. Severance had a major impact on the development of Los Angeles. Together they founded the
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In the winter of 1867–1868, Severance established the first woman's club in the United States: the
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taught at Mrs. Luther Halsey's boarding school for girls on the Ohio River below Pittsburgh.
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Women's Club twice failed. Finally, in 1881, she established a lasting institution, the
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Severance helped establish the New England Women's Hospital. She also campaigned with
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soon after marrying and formed the Independent Christian Church, whose members were
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516:"Collection: Caroline Maria Seymour Severance papers | Smith College Finding Aids"
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As a result of the rift between suffragists, Severance, along with
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movement, and campaigned for the appointment of police matrons.
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In 1840, Caroline married Theodoric C. Severance, (nicknamed
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537: This article incorporates text available under the
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Caroline Maria Seymour was born on January 12, 1820, in
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Severance died on November 10, 1914, at the age of 94.
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Los Angeles and First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles
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463:"After Slavery: Caroline Severance in Los Angeles"
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574:Woman of the Century/Caroline Maria S. Severance
235:against the inclusion of the word "male" in the
273:and other New England suffragists, founded the
154:uncle had an outsized influence over Caroline.
189:. The couple left Cleveland and resettled in
352:Californian women achieved the right to vote
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388:, Elwood-Akers, Virginia, iUniverse, 2010
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360:Women in the Life of Southern California
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193:in 1855 and, inspired by the sermons of
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617:Caroline Maria Seymour Severance papers
316:Pacific Coast Women's Press Association
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291:First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles
714:Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
709:People from Ontario County, New York
580:Works by or about Caroline Severance
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120:Caroline Maria Seymour Severance
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724:Activists from New York (state)
382:, Baumgardt Publishing Co. 1906
197:, joined the Unitarian Church.
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16:American suffragist (1820–1914)
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719:American Christian socialists
467:Southern California Quarterly
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729:American non-fiction writers
684:20th-century American people
679:19th-century American people
346:Caroline M. Severance (1903)
122:(1820–1914) was an American
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754:Suffragists from California
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138:Early life and education
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694:American abolitionists
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47:Caroline Maria Seymour
520:findingaids.smith.edu
374:Works about Severance
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312:Los Angeles: From A-Z
191:Boston, Massachusetts
564:at Wikimedia Commons
420:"Caroline Severance"
256:Octavius Frothingham
252:James Freeman Clarke
237:Fourteenth Amendment
181:The couple left the
744:Socialist feminists
380:The Mother of Clubs
332:The Mother of Clubs
308:Friday Morning Club
300:Christian socialist
248:Ralph Waldo Emerson
207:Ralph Waldo Emerson
183:Presbyterian Church
604:. November 5, 2003
562:Caroline Severance
386:Caroline Severance
356:Theodore Roosevelt
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664:1914 deaths
659:1820 births
144:Canandaigua
84:Los Angeles
61:Canandaigua
653:Categories
608:August 17,
594:Severance"
393:References
271:Lucy Stone
168:T. C.
128:suffragist
88:California
53:1820-01-12
749:Clubwomen
643:Biography
539:CC BY 3.0
487:0038-3929
172:Cleveland
104:Signature
541:license.
525:June 26,
495:41170009
429:June 26,
424:uudb.org
148:New York
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592:Seymour
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629:Portal
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491:JSTOR
366:Death
610:2011
527:2020
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