ATLAS

Podcast #6 – Cora Benneson

Posted on 27. Jun, 2009 by ATLAS in Famous Women, Quincy, Suffrage

Cora Agnes Benneson was an opinionated woman and a proponent of woman’s suffrage, yet most of her public energies were spent outside the suffrage arena. She was born in Quincy, Illinois, on June 10, 1851 to Robert Smith and Electra Ann (Park) Benneson, who was known as Annie. Alice, Anna, and Susan (called Lina) were Cora’s older sisters as she was the youngest of the four.

The Benneson family lived in a large, square house at 214 Jersey Street, high on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. Her family extensively participated in Quincy’s politics and education. For example, her father spent fourteen years as the president of Quincy’s Board of Education and served for many years as the town’s mayor, primarily during the Civil War. Her parents also helped to establish the Unitarian church of which her mother served as an officer and Sunday school superintendent. In addition to her mother’s work in the church she worked as a school teacher and felt all children needed to excel in authorship.

By the time she was twelve, Cora could read and write Latin, was proficient at math, and was quite intrigued with history. She graduated from the Quincy Academy at the age of fifteen with a high school diploma. Cora then enrolled in the Quincy Seminary, a college preparatory school, and graduated when she was eighteen. After graduating from the Seminary, Cora stayed on as an instructor and taught English and composition from 1869 to 1872. Her yearning to continue her education and to become an attorney meant that she had to leave Quincy as there were neither a four-year college nor a law school in the area. She chose to attend the University of Michigan.

Cora had such a passion for learning and thoroughly enjoyed writing, editing, reading, and discussing literature which likely started in her early years when she and her older sisters began their own magazine entitled, The Experiment. Each week during family hour her parents would read the articles written by the girls and their mother awarded a small prize for the best article of the week. It is believed that Cora won her first prize at age eight when she wrote a satire on upper-class women.

At the University of Michigan she excelled both in academic subjects and in public speaking and served as editor of the student newspaper, The Chronicle. She was the first woman to hold this position. Cora was one of the early members of the Friends In Council in Quincy, a group of women who met weekly to discuss a book read in common and other topics of interest. She was also proud to have founded the original Unity Club, which quickly became the leading forum for bright men and women to discuss the social and political issues of the day.

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Cora applied to Harvard Law School. Even though five Harvard alumni wrote letters of recommendation for her, Harvard denied her entrance on the grounds that “the equipments were too limited to make suitable provision for receiving women,” according to the Administrative Board of the Graduate School. In a letter to Professor Peirce, the Dean of the Harvard Graduate School, Cora wrote:

“I appreciate the reasons for your judgment that it would be unwise to pursue the matter at present . . . Perhaps, by the time the Chair left vacant by Dr. Snow is filled, there may be such changes in the Governing Board of Harvard University that I shall be enabled to carry out my purpose.”

Even though she was not accepted at Harvard University, she attended law school at the University of Michigan. Of the 175 students in her class, only two were women. In 1880, she was admitted to the Illinois and Michigan bars. It was awhile before she settled into a law practice. In the meantime, her curiosity as to how law was practiced in other parts of the world and the treatment of women under the laws in these countries led Cora to undertake rather extensive travels.

In 1883 and 1884, when she was just 32 years old, Cora took a two-year around-the-world tour to learn how women were treated in the legal systems of foreign countries, especially in the courts. She studied the customs, religions, and dress of people around the world. She traveled to many countries, including the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, China, Burma, India, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, and most of the European nations. The traveling and study exhilarated Cora and expanded her horizons. She traveled by more modes of transportation than anyone ever thought possible. Steam ships, railroads, rickshaws, sampans, sedan chairs, ox carts, donkeys, elephants, and dromedaries helped Cora make her way around the world.

During these voyages Cora occasionally traveled to politically unstable areas, even though she was cautioned by many against such travel. For example, she was in China during the eve of the Boxer Rebellion which was a bit edgy. It was nearly impossible and likely erroneous, to apply the ways and standards of one nation to another. In China, the foreigners live a somewhat isolated life, but were compensated with a luxurious, extravagant way of life rarely seen in the United States. Labor in China was very cheap and the relations between the white and “brown” races were far different than anything she ever saw at home.

When Cora returned to the United States after 28 months, and after giving several lectures in Quincy about her travels, she embarked on a nationwide lecture tour to share with others the commonalities and differences between the major countries of the world regarding their law courts, governing assemblies, religious practices, social life, customs, and especially the status of women.

In the autumn of 1888, after a year teaching history at Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania, Cora relocated to Boston. In 1894 Cora was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts. There after, Cora practiced law at Number 4 Mason Street in Boston and resided across the river in Cambridge, the home of her ancestors. While in Boston, she made many new friends and often visited in the home of suffragist Lucy Stone. Lucy and Cora shared many similar views although Lucy was much more engaged in the activities of the suffrage movement. In fact, shortly after she arrived, The Woman’s Journal, noted Cora’s presence in Boston: “Miss Cora A. Benneson, Fellow in History at Bryn Mawr College, is in Massachusetts for two months, and can be secured by the Leagues at usual rates… Her best subject for the Leagues is: “The Position of Women in Foreign Lands.’”

Cora closed her law practice in 1918 in order to concentrate all of her time and energy on obtaining a diploma as preparation to become a civics teacher in Massachusetts. Through her teaching Cora wanted to establish a school to assist in the Americanization of Foreigners.

She was asked many times why she didn’t get married. She would say it was her own conscious choice that she did not want to weaken the spirit of independence and control that so many had instilled in her. Not only did her parents and other leaders in Quincy contribute to her determined, inquisitive spirit, but also nationally known intellectuals, especially Waldo Emerson who visited her parents’ home on many occasions. Cora felt strongly that self-development was better for both the individual woman and the society in which she lived and worked. She felt that men should help their wives in most household duties and yet the care of the children should be left to the mother. Cora believed in equality in the private sphere of the home; women should not be subservient – women’s sole purpose in life was not that of wife and mother. Cora dedicated her life to the belief that education was the social equalizer between men and women.

Cora believed that financial independence and economic justice for women around the world were essential forerunners to equality between the sexes. Being financially independent herself, Cora felt it was the key to her open mindedness, professionalism, and willingness to serve and advance society. Her experiences and studies during her world travels reinforced the belief that reforms and advancement can not be forced on any society. Rather, they must come through the natural evolution of society supported by the liberty of opinion and action for all. It was her last wish for all to be free to seek truth without fear, to study and work diligently, and to serve mankind in whatever manner talents and circumstances permit. According to her obituary in the Quincy Daily Herald, dated June 12, 1919, Cora matured to become “one of the women who has made the name of Quincy known abroad, and at one time one of the city’s best known residents.”