Doggerel from New Years Day in 1868 and Reprinted in 1925 points to Reconstruction

On January 1st, 1925, the afternoon paper published a fascinating poem from January 1st, 1868.

Peter D'Arcy on right with City and RR VIPs
for Union Street Bridge Opening, March 1913
(Oregon Historical Society)

January 1st, 1925

Peter H. D'Arcy would have been a newsboy of 13 or 14 when he wrote it. (It's not difficult to imagine he also had some adult "editorial" assistance, but we are unlikely to know for sure!) Later he was Mayor, and the old Whitlock building undergoing renovation is more formally called the D'Arcy building. His father had built the big house with a classical portico on Church Street.

Come all ye readers, far and near,
And hear the News-Boy's greeting!
The old year's gone, the new one's here,
And still Old Time is fleeting.
And since Old Time is on the wing,
And will be ever flying,
Why should we fear to laugh and sing,
And be forever sighing?

The whole poem (click to enlarge)

One section in the poem is of particular interest. It appears to criticize President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat and foe of Reconstruction, and praise General Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican, as a potential candidate. Johnson had not yet been impeached when the poem was written. Describing "Old Andy" as "the Freedman's Moses" seems very sarcastic, and it's hard to understand what all is going on. The difference in Freedman/freeman may be significant and racialized. I do not grasp all the subtexts and nuance and implications. It may be possible to come back to this later.

If Alderman should go astray,
Or Congressman be drunken -
If Senators should fall away
To depths of vileness sunken -
Should Presidents their power abuse,
Prove faithless or unstable -
We'll tell them their P's and Q's
As well as we are able.

While criticizing every man,
And every false deduction,
We'll speak as mildly as we can
Of Andy's Reconstruction.
Because Old Andy once agreed
To be the Freedman's Moses,
That is no cause why he should lead
The white folks by the noses.

Since this our Moses has turned back,
Forgive us, gentle reader,
If we keep on the good old track,
And seek some other leader.
Another leader, brave and true
(And may he soon be GRANT-ed),
Whose steady feet on Freedom's ground
Are firmly, surely planted.

Our hosts are gathering for a fight -
A conflict of opinions,
As fierce as that our armies fought
With Treason's bloody minions.
But God will surely speed the right;
Let no true freeman doubt it,
GRANT is our leader! name of might,
Let every freeman shout it.

Reconstruction in Salem is an ongoing matter of interest. Early organizing here for Suffrage, Temperance, Black education, and even Spiritualism started and might even have flourished in that period following the Civil War. The arrival of the railroad made for trade in ideas as in commerce, of course, but the national moment was Reconstruction. We usually understand Reconstruction as something that occurred in the former Confederate states, and a new book argues that we should understand it more broadly.

Manesha Sinha's book from earlier this year, The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920, offers a framework for thinking more about this organizing in Salem.

Reconstruction as women's history (the intro)

A central theme in the book is "women's history." A note pointed to an important text, the History of Woman Suffrage by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage. Specialists will know it of course, and maybe you've read it, but I had not.

History of Woman Suffrage

I was mainly interested in the Oregon part, as I wondered how its history was told. Unsurprisingly its author was Abigail Scott Duniway.

But legitimately surprising were the appearance of Cyrus A. Reed of the Reed Opera House and George Williams, the banker and Mayor here. They'd appeared in contemporary newspaper clips, but it was particularly interesting to read that mention of them had survived into this second order reflection, an attempt at an authoritative history by some of its principals. Duniway didn't have to write about them as she sifted and edited her understanding of the history.

Reed and Williams in Duniway's account

Reed's involvement in Suffrage advocacy is hardly mentioned in our public history. The Mill now hosts the Salem Online History, and about Reed, in the entry for the Reed Opera House it says only

General Cyrus A. Reed, who built the Opera House, had been Adjutant General of Oregon during the later part of the Civil War. He was interested in women’s rights, spiritualism and dramatics. He was a self-taught artist who painted the scenes for his theater.

Similarly, the current Reed Opera House website's "history" says:

The pioneering Reed was not only an optimistic visionary, but a teacher, merchant, builder, industrialist, politician and artist who painted the opera house sets....The Reed’s stage was a pulpit for Susan B. Anthony and Abigail Scott Duniway at the height of the national drive for women’s suffrage, which in 1871 Oregon was headed by Cyrus Reed.

This last point deserves more attention. Duniway says, "The first woman suffrage society ever formed in Oregon, was organized in Salem.... Col. C. A. Reed was chosen president." To say merely, as the online history does, that "he was interested in women's rights" is to understate the matter!

First society

The society didn't last very long in Salem and was reconstituted in Portland. Maybe we'll be able to find out more about this some time. It might just be as simple as population. In the 1870 census Salem had 1,137 and Portland 8,293. There would be many more advocates in the Portland area.

But shortlived

At the Legislature C. A. Reed also championed suffrage.

Reed an ally at Legislature

In 1873 the annual convention met in Portland and Reed spoke, as well as Mary Beatty, a Black suffrage advocate.

Reconstituted in Portland, with Reed and Bailey

Another ally was George Williams, who was later a banker and Mayor here.

George Williams

Mary Beatty also clearly deserves more attention, though she was not a Salemite.The Oregon Encyclopedia has a brief article on  her. She was one of four women who attempted to vote in 1872!

New Northwest, Nov. 8th, 1872

Oregonian, September 29th, 1899

Her death notice sadly said nothing about her suffrage advocacy.

The Oregon Encyclopedia article says she and her husband had moved from Portland to Cornelius in 1874 and that her "visibility in woman suffrage activities declined." This is a little open-ended, suggesting more a gap in the evidence than certainty that she had also retreated from advocacy. Still, it could be a sign she was not as welcome in the circles of white women.

There are other themes from Sinha's book we'll circle back to another time. It didn't surface any new facts about Salem, and indeed Oregon had no specific place in the narrative or analysis. But her reconsideration and reperiodization of the greater Reconstruction era suggests some new angles for thinking about Salem history.

Previously here:

• "Lucy Rose Mallory: Publisher, Feminist, and Spiritualist" (2020)
  
• "Cyrus Reed of Reed Opera House was also a Spiritualist" (2020)
  
• "Which George Williams was Mayor and Banker here?" (2024)
• With the first part on Rev. Daniel Jones' activity here c. 1870, "Notes on Black Churches in the 19th and early 20th Century" (2022)
• The second half of this discusses "Little Central School," the segregated "colored" school c. 1870. Its first version was based on an incorrect ID in the Salem Library Historic Photos, and the second half of it is substantially corrected and revised, "With New High School, Big Central School was Moved in 1906 - Updated." (2020)
• On Oregon's role in the Election that ended Reconstruction narrowly understood, "1876 Election Back in the News" (2021)
• And "Susan B. Anthony visits Salem in 1871" (2020) and more in "Susan B. Anthony at the Reed Opera House, September 14th, 1871" (2022)