Being that March is Women’s History Month, I thought I’d write a bit about a few women from Minneapolis history that you may not have heard of before.
Mabeth Hurd Paige (1869-1961) was a suffragist, teacher and politician. Born and educated in Massachusetts, Macbeth Hurd would eventually find her way to Minneapolis in 1891 where she would become an art teacher in the public schools. In 1895 she married James Paige, a law professor at the University of MN. She would later also get her law degree from the university. In 1914 she became president of the Women’s Christian Association in Minneapolis which ran a boarding and rooming house for women. Mabeth Hurd Paige was the founder of the Minneapolis Chapter of the Urban League and was a board member there for 25 years. She also raised money for the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House. In 1919, Paige chaired the committee that reorganized the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) into the Minnesota League of Women Voters. In 1922 she was elected to the Minnesota Legislature for the 30th District. The district covered downtown and the Northside up to Lowry Ave. She was one of the first four women to be elected to the Minnesota Legislature. While in the legislature, she championed psychiatric care, children’s welfare, and protecting the state’s forests and lakes. She was reelected to her seat every election until she retired in 1945. After she retired, she was appointed to the Governor’s Commission on Race Relations. The Minnesota Junior Chamber of Commerce named Mabeth Paige as one of eight women among the Hundred Living Great Minnesotans in 1949 at the state centennial banquet commemorating Minnesota’s admission as a state.
Jenova Martin (1866-1937) was a poet, playwright, essayist and suffragist. She was born in Norway, but for a number of years she lived in North Minneapolis on Lyndale Ave. She was one of the founders of the Scandinavian Voting Association. She also became the first president of the Scandinavian Woman Suffrage Association (SWSA) in 1907. The SWSA was a group which combined women of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish heritage, and fought for universal suffrage in the United States. She felt that having these ethnic groups working together would strengthen their membership and clout. A quote from her at the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association annual meeting in 1908: “Half the population, namely the women, are governed without their consent. If there is a woman here who does not rebel against these conditions she is stupid or yet asleep.”
Emma Louise Paine (1856-1923) was the first Police Matron in Minneapolis. The Police Matron was the first role in policing open to women. Emma Louise Kingsley was born in Pennsylvania on August 2, 1854. In 1878, she married Horace Paine and moved to Elmira, NY where she lived until his death in 1887. The following year, in 1888, she moved to Minneapolis, to be near her sisters. She was named to the position of Police Matron in 1889 and remained in the position for 12 years until 1901. As the Police Matron she would reside day and night in the Police Station and would have under her care all arrested women and children, regardless of location in the city. For this she received a salary of $120 per month.
Georgiana Sharrott (1869-1937) was the first Police Woman in Minneapolis. She had been the head of the nursery at Pillsbury House and a special officer of the Juvenile Protection League when she was appointed by the Mayor to the Minneapolis Police Department on June 16, 1914. She was designated a “street mother” and was assigned duty as an advisor to children and young persons up to the age of 17. Her duties as a Policewomen included the enforcement of curfew and child labor laws, and the prevention of juvenile crime through advice to youth and their parents. Officer Georgianna Sharrot was struck by a car as she crossed the street at Lyndale and Franklin Aves on January 31, 1937. She died from her injuries on June 14, 1937 at the age of 67.
These women are among the many who had a part of shaping the history of Minneapolis.