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Lucie Fulton Isaacs - Women’s Rights Activist

Lucinda Fulton Isaacs, played by Walla Walla librarian Liz George, arrived in the Willamette Valley by wagon train in 1847, a few months before the Whitman Massacre. In 1860 she married Henry Isaacs and two years later the couple moved to Walla Walla where he established a flour mill. 

At their home on Brookside Drive, Mrs. Isaacs entertained suffragist Susan B. Anthony in whose cause she worked, as well as the first Women’s Club in Walla Walla, the Ladies Park Club, the Walla Walla Art Club, the Reading Club, the Education Club, the Humane Society, and the first meeting of the symphony. She was also a poet and under pen names a writer of essays and historical sketches, as well as correspondent for the Washington Equal Suffrage Association and the National Council of Women Voters.

August is important to Women's History as August 18 marks the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing American women's right to vote. Liz George, Vi Jones, Barbara Clark, Shaun Careen Martin, and Judith Fortney portray Lucie Isaacs, Martha Roberts, Maria Whitman, Rebecca Boggs Butler, and Suzanne Cayouse Dauphin, respectively, in a special Fort Walla Walla Museum Living History presentation, “Women’s History Celebration.”

To help commemorate the event, the Museum offers free admission to girls 12 years old and younger and admits women at 77% of regular fees to reflect the ratio of women’s salaries to men's that still persists today.

The road to achieving voting rights was a long and difficult one. Women began organizing into suffrage groups early in the mid-1800s that spoke out publicly, wrote letters and lobbied legislators, and engaged in acts of civil disobedience for many years before results were gained.

A United States constitutional amendment was first introduced in 1878. In the meantime, some groups worked for passing suffrage rights in individual states. Washington Territory almost became the first to pass women’s suffrage in 1854, the proposal losing by one vote. To crush the movement the Territorial Legislature decreed that "no female shall have the right of ballot or vote."

According to the Washington Secretary of State web page, “In 1871, Susan B. Anthony and Abigail Scott Duniway led a crusade through the territories of Washington and Oregon and helped to form the Washington Woman Suffrage Association. Due to the group's constant protesting and pushing, full voting rights were given to women in 1883 by a bill that passed through the Territorial Legislature. But in 1887, the Territorial Supreme Court overturned that law. Another was passed in 1888, but was also overturned. This happened because women voters were making sales of liquor more difficult with their votes, and the state's liquor lobby had fought hard to remove their voting rights. In light of this opposition, some activists chose to emphasize the contributions of women workers to the community and finally, in 1910, the Washington State Constitution was permanently amended to grant women the right to vote.”

Across the country, some groups challenged the status quo in court while other Suffragists employed parades, silent vigils, and hunger strikes to further their cause; they often met with heckling, arrest, and physical assault.

In the 19-teens, most suffrage groups had agreed upon pursuit of a United States constitutional amendment. In 1917, New York State voted in women’s suffrage, causing President Wilson to alter his position to back the amendment and change the political equation.

Museum hours are 10 am to 5 pm daily. Admission is free to members, children under 6, and through a reciprocal agreement Tamástslikt Cultural Institute's Inwai Circle cardholders and enrolled members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation; $3 for children ages 6-12; $6 for seniors (62+) and students; and $7 for adults. Your admission cost can be applied to a membership, which includes free admission to all Living History performances, priced beginning at $25. For more information, contact Fort Walla Walla Museum at 509-525-7703 or www.fortwallawallamuseum.org.