Berks County Suffrage Leaders – Emily Cullen Habel

[This is the second in a series of articles about Berks County suffragettes researched and written by Mary Ellen Heckman, Yocum Library's Associate Dean of Library Services and Learning Resources. Mary Ellen is RACC's representative on Berks Women's History Alliance, the committee planning the Berks Suffrage 2020 Centennial. The centennial celebrates the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. The entire article can be read on TheYocum Library's blog and BCTV's web site.]

In the last article on Berks County’s suffrage leaders, we learned that Frances Addison Mason Wrenshall had been a tireless worker for women’s suffrage here. When she resigned in January 1915 the county suffrage group had “the greatest trouble to secure a woman to take the city chairmanship” (Reading Times 22 May 1915, page 8). They finally selected Mrs. Charles H. Habel as their next chairman.

So who was Mrs. Charles H. Habel? She was born Emma Cullen in Hancock County, West Virginia on 15 February 1873, the oldest of Levi Ritner and Margaret Melvina Beabout Cullen’s four children. Her father was a clay miner in this northern panhandle section of the rather new state of West Virginia, and “Nowhere in the state did clay mining reach the scale it did in Hancock County, which for a number of years, was the brick and tile capital of the United States.” (Grimm, Jeanne "Clay Mining." e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 21 June 2012. Web. 24 October 2019. Accessed 24 October 2019). The northern panhandle of West Virginia is a sliver wedged between Ohio and Pennsylvania so it’s not surprising that Emma / Emily’s mother was from Ohio and her paternal grandfather was from Pennsylvania.

In 1898 Emily or “Artie E.” Cullen married Charles H. Habel (sometime Baptist minister but more often traveling salesman) in Philadelphia. It is not known where or how Emily Cullen and Charles H. Habel met. Charles was born in Massachusetts in 1866 although there is a mention of a Rev. Charles H. Habel in Pittsburgh in 1896 (The Pittsburg Press 17 January 1896, page 4) and in Philadelphia in 1898 (The Philadelphia Times 11 July 1898, page 5). The West Virginia northern panhandle is not far from Pittsburgh. Charles H. Habel seems to have had a very questionable background if his first wife’s charges against him in their 1897 Pittsburgh divorce case were accurate – theft, sexual assault of a minor, imprisonment, name changes, attempted blackmail, desertion (Pittsburgh Press 27 March 1897, page 9 & Pittsburgh Daily Post 28 March 1897, page 3). How many of these charges were true or how much Emily knew is unknown. In 1900 the couple are living in Philadelphia with their toddler daughter Margaret and Charles is a paint salesman. In 1902 Emily’s father died and by 1905 her now widowed mother and two younger brothers Frank and Chester are living with the Habels in Camden, New Jersey. In 1909 a Charles H. Habel, “the traveling man” claimed that he was “’fleeced’ out of a roll of money and a gold watch” in a “disorderly house” (usually a term for a brothel or gambling den) in Iowa (The Des Moines Register 22 August 1909, page 6). In 1910 the Habels are living back in Hancock County, West Virginia with Emily’s mother, but they probably moved to Reading by 1911. In the 1912 Reading City Directory they are listed as living at 139 West Oley Street in the Hamel Apartments.

It isn’t long before Emily is involved in Berks suffrage activities. In November of 1912 she and Mrs. Nicholas H. Muhlenberg went to Bethlehem as representatives of Reading at a statewide meeting to organize every county in the suffrage cause (The Reading Times 1 November 1912, page 1). In Bethlehem the women invited Miss Mary Ingham of Philadelphia to come to Reading and speak “in the interest of Colonel Roosevelt, whom the women are supporting with great earnestness” in the 1912 presidential campaign. (The Reading Times 2 November 1912, page 1). In December of that year both Mrs. Muhlenberg and Emily were elected as vice-presidents of the local branch of the new Bull Moose political party of Theodore Roosevelt (The Reading Times 21 December 1912, page 1).

Emily had clearly influenced her daughter Margaret who ably defended the women’s suffrage cause in her eighth grade class at the Douglass and Weiser Streets School House. Led by their teacher Miss Esther M. Evans the girls took both sides of the debate while the boys watched.

Miss Margaret Habel, daughter of Mrs. Charles Habel, one of Reading’s leading suffragists, and Miss Julia Shanaman, daughter of ex-Mayor Shanaman supported the affirmative side. It was reported that Margaret used statistics and in a clear, distinct voice she gave instances of woman’s achievements since time immortal. She referred to women’s equalization with man as a stenographer, lawyer, artist and journalist. She spoke of immense wealth of the world owned by woman and pointedly asked the question why woman should not, at least, have a say as to who should rule her own possessions. Her vocabulary would have done credit to women many years her senior. (The Reading Times, 8 February 1913, page 2).

In 1913 Emily continued to be active in the local Bull Moose political organization (The Reading Times 23 May 1913, page 1), but by spring of 1914 she was active in suffrage events again and served on the Suffrage Tea Committee which was planning a big event on May 2nd (The Reading Times 25 April 1914, page 9). In June Emily was a member of the Berks Suffrage party that visited the temporary camp 2nd Battalion, 3rd U.S. Field Artillery of the U.S. Army which had stopped in Berks County on their way to western Pennsylvania. (The Reading Times 11 June 1914, page 1). Later that year Emily is mentioned as assisting Mrs. John C. Wrenshall, Jr. at another Suffrage Tea, a “Yellow Mum Tea” at the Wrenshall home (The Reading Times 10 December 1914, page 6 and 12 December 1914, page 8). Yellow was the suffrage color and the home was filled with yellow chrysanthemums.

In January 1915 Mrs. Wrenshall resigned from the local suffrage group and Emily was part of the nominating committee to replace her (The Reading Times 23 January 1915, page 1). At a parlor meeting of the Berks suffragists in April “Mrs. Charles H. Habel was in charge” (The Reading Times 26 April 1915, page 6). In September Mrs. Hamel is still identified as chairman for the local suffrage organization as they plan for the arrival of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, a suffrage leader on the national level, and the arrival of the “suffrage liberty bell” in the fall (The Reading Times 10 September 1915, page 7). After Dr. Shaw’s appearance in Reading Mrs. Hamel and Mrs. Amanda Woodward Ringler met Pennsylvania Suffrage state leaders at the Outer Station to discuss suffrage efforts in Berks County (The Reading Times 8 October 1915, page 2). Later in October Mrs. Hamel led the Berks suffrage delegation to meet the “women’s liberty bell party” arriving from Lancaster County. (The Reading Times 14 October 1915, page 1 & 3). The “Suffrage Liberty Bell” was a bell that was taken across Pennsylvania to highlight the suffrage cause. The plan was to end the trip in Philadelphia on October 30th with a large demonstration. (The Reading Times 9 April 1915, page 1). By October 1915 Emily Hamel is identified as the president and chairman of the local suffrage organization. (The Reading Times 21 October 1915, page 7 & 27 October 1915, page 7). On October 25th the Suffrage Shop opened at 11 South Fifth Street in Reading with yellow pennants and posters telling the suffrage story and planned to stay open until the election. Mrs. Hamel was in charge of the Suffrage Shop (The Reading Times 27 October 1915, page 7).

The last report of Emily Hamel’s work with the Berks suffrage effort in the newspapers occurred in December 1915 with the report that she and Mrs. Amanda Ringler would attend the convention of the Women’s Suffrage Societies in Philadelphia. (The Reading Times 1 December 1915, page 8). The next newspaper article appears in July 1916 and described the serious car accident that happened when the family was touring western Pennsylvania. Mrs. Habel is noted as “a well known suffragist” (The Reading Times 11 July 1916, page 4). In January 1917 Emily is well enough to help at the Hope Rescue Mission bazaars (13 January 1917, page 11 & 16 January 1917, page 1). In February 1917 it is reported that Emily “was awakened and found in her room a burglar, who escaped.” (The Lebanon Daily News 28 February 1917, page 4). About six months later the family moves to Oberlin, Ohio, but their house there is burned in December (The Reading Times 19 December 1917, page 7). In the 1920 Census the Hamel family is living in Oberlin Village, Ohio, where Charles is working as a salesman for a business files company. Living with them is a Reading native, George Dewey Shaaber, described in the census as a foster son, but more probably, living with them while attending nearby Oberlin College. Emily and Charles’ daughter Margare,t who as a teenager ably defended the suffrage cause, attended Oberlin College too where she was editor of the Oberlin College Review. In the 1917 Reading High School for Girls yearbook her caption read “When Peggy comes down the street in her Ford we dodge for there is an air of nonchalant carelessness about Peggy. Knocking down a few telegraph poles would be quite in her line.” After Oberlin Margaret graduated from the Allegheny General Hospital as a nurse and was editor of their yearbook, “The Stethoscope.” (The Internet Archive). Margaret was very active in her community, started a summer playground program and became president of the local Board of Education in the 1950s.

It seems that Charles H. Habel “motored from Oberlin” to Tampa, Florida in December 1924, and probably out of his family’s life (The Tampa Bay Times 23 December 1924, page 34). In 1926 Margaret married and by 1930 is living in Delaware County with her husband and two small children including a daughter Emily. Her grandmother Emily is living nearby as a servant for an elderly couple and listed as “single” in the census record. In 1940 Emily is still independent and living with and working as a companion to a “sick lady” in her 80s in Philadelphia, but her daughter Margaret is not far away in Bergen, New Jersey. By the time Emily’s brother dies in 1957 she seems to be living with Margaret in Park Ridge, New Jersey where she died on August 21, 1963, listed as the widow of the Rev. Charles H. Habel (The Hackensack Record 22 August 1963, page 28).

Along with Frances Addison Mason Wrenshall, the loss of Emily Cullen Habel from the women’s suffrage cause in Berks County were reasons why the Reading Times reported in August of 1919 that “There is no longer a suffrage organization here, the principal leaders having moved out of town. Berks is one of the few Pennsylvania counties without an organization. (The Reading Times 1 August 1919, page 6).

Berks Celebrates Centennial of Passage of 19th Amendment

Berks County Suffrage Leaders – Frances Addison Mason Wrenshall 

This is the first in a series of articles about Berks County suffragettes researched and written by Mary Ellen Heckman, Yocum Library's Associate Dean of Library Services and Learning Resources. Mary Ellen is RACC's representative on Berks Women's History Alliance, the committee planning the Berks Suffrage 2020 Centennial. The centennial celebrates the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. This article can also be read on BCTV's web site.

There was an organized women’s suffrage organization in Berks County by at least 1913. On February 10, 1913 the “first real session of the local branch of the Pennsylvania State Woman’s Suffrage League was held in the Board of Trades rooms…and nearly 200 disappointed women were turned away” because the room was too small to hold them. (Reading Times, 11 February 1913, page 2). The Board of Trades rooms were at 25 North Sixth Street, Reading, floor 2, and were a popular meeting space for many groups. Mrs. John C. Wrenshall was named as chairman of the local branch in the newspaper article. 

So who was Mrs. John C. Wrenshall? She was born Frances Addison Mason in Hagerstown, Maryland, in February 1873 and called “Fannie” by her family. She was the sixth child and second daughter of Dr. Augustine Smith Mason and his wife Mary McIntyre Eliason Mason. Although Dr. Smith had practiced medicine in Hagerstown for decades by the time of his death, he had been chief surgeon for the Confederate Army in Richmond in 1863 and president of the Confederate Memorial Association in Washington County, Maryland (Evening Star, 26 May 1911, page 1). Her mother was from “an old Virginia family” according to her obituary (The Baltimore Sun, 14 January 1910, page 11). The family was prominent in Hagerstown society. In June 1901 a 28-year old Frances married 33 year-old John Richard Cowan Wrenshall formerly of Baltimore, but working as a civil engineer for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad at Lebanon, Pa. The Wrenshalls were prominent in Baltimore society and Frances’ father-in-law had been an engineer in the Confederate army although he was from a wealthy family in Pittsburgh, Pa. It was the first marriage for Frances and the second for her husband who married as a young man but must have been divorced as his former wife and child were still living at the time of his second marriage.

While living in Lebanon, Pa., Frances was active in local society such as the Bridge Club, the Woman’s Club where she performed piano pieces, and managed theatrics at her church. Descriptions of her gowns are included in articles about local balls and she summered at her cottage on Long Island. There is no evidence that the couple had children. 

In January of 1910, Frances’ mother died. In March of 1910 her husband is promoted and transferred to Reading, Pa. According to the 1910 U.S. Census Frances’ husband is living alone in Reading as a boarder. In May of 1911 her father died. By the end of 1912 Frances began to get involved in Reading society including the Woman’s Club, Young Woman’s Auxiliary of Christ Church, and the YWCA where she chaired the Education Committee (Reading Times 13 February 1913, page 2). By February 1913 the couple are living at 228 North Fifth Street in Reading. In April Mrs. Wrenshall’s “imported model of heliotrope peau de soie” frock was commented upon at the Woman’s Club Bridge Dance (Reading Times 12 April 1913, page 3). 

At a January 1913 meeting of the Woman’s Club in Reading Frances participated in a suffrage debate where she “ably defended the cause of suffrage” (Reading Times, 14 January 1913, page 10), and by February she is identified as the “chairman” of the Berks County suffrage group. Frances began to be mentioned frequently in the local press as an active member of the local suffrage movement. In February 1913 she was “the sole representative from Reading at the national suffrage conference held in Carnegie Hall, New York (Reading Times, 21 February 1913, page 3). In April 1913 she met with Miss Hannah J. Patterson, state chairman of the Pennsylvania Woman’s Suffrage party (Reading Times, 22 April 1913, page 5). In May 1913 she traveled to New York City and “witnessed the suffrage pageant in the Metropolitan Opera House and the parade” (Reading Times, 10 May 1913, page 3). In September 1913 the Berks County Suffrage Association “officially allied itself with the state organization at their meeting…at the home of Mrs. John C. Wrenshall, Jr.” (Reading Times, 27 September 1913, page 1). In October and November Frances worked with Mrs. Maude McCreery of the Pennsylvania state suffrage group and energized by her attendance at the “Votes for Women” state convention in Pittsburgh. She planned to go around Berks County and distribute literature, buttons, and suffrage stamps (Reading Times, 5 November 1913, page 6). In November 1913 she traveled to Philadelphia to hear the English suffragist Mrs. Pankhurst and remarked “Even if I had not been wholly convinced before, I should have been at the conclusion of her lecture.” (Reading Times, 21 November 1913, page 4). In December 1913 Frances traveled to Washington, D.C. to the national suffrage convention where she was “a student at the Suffrage School” (Reading Times, 15 December 1913, page 4). While Frances was in Washington. D.C. she “was a member of the delegation who visited President Wilson in an endeavor to enlist his support” but she “considered his reply to the delegation hedging” (Reading Times, 24 December 1913, page 2). 

Frances continued her suffrage work in 1914 by inviting and hosting suffrage speakers plus traveling around the county, but took time to throw a dinner party for her visiting sister, and, of course, the decorations and flowers are all in the suffrage color of yellow. However, a newspaper article from March 1914 noted that she “earned her first money speaking at the Washington birthday party at Womelsdorf” (Reading Times, 11 March 1914, page 7). In April 1914 Frances was appointed to the national Congressional Suffrage Committee whose task is “to interview candidates for any office whatever all through the United States…[her] duties will be confined within her own congressional district.” (Reading Times, 3 April 1914, page 5). On May 20, 1914, the Reading Times published a speech by Frances Wrenshall following the May 2nd suffrage demonstration in which she stated that 

“I, for one, freely admit that I am no longer contented to care only for my own home. I want to see a woman wherever women and children are concerned; a police woman when a girl is arrested; fair proportion of women on a jury that decides where the guilt is to be laid; women probation officers; on the school, asylum and institutional boards. Have we not always had the patching and mending to do? Why should not those talents be applied in human affairs?” (Reading Times, 20 May 1914, page 5). 

However, a few days later Frances returned to her family home in Hagerstown for “a much needed rest before beginning her strenuous campaign planned for the early summer month.” (Reading Times, 22 May 1914, page 12). However, her rest was short because she had already been traveling outside of Maryland and returned to Reading in early June. (Reading Times, 4 June 1914, page 2). By September of that year the Berks County suffragists planned to visit every home in the county and have “heart-to-heart talk” with the women they meet. (Reading Times, 24 September 1914, page 5). President Frances and her colleagues also held meetings such as the October 1914 event at Bortz’s Hall in Temple which attracted more than 80 women and which featured Frances as the keynote speaker. (Reading Times, 10 October 1914, page 1). During 1914 Frances continued to be active in the Maryland suffrage movement so she traveled often to those meetings. (Reading Times, 23 October 1914, page 5). Even in November Frances led the suffrage workers who will “tramp to Yellow House, distributing literature along the way.” (Reading Times, 9 November 1914, page 1). Later in November Frances attended the Pennsylvania Suffrage convention in Scranton and then addressed a suffrage meeting in Amityville (Reading Times, 16 November 1914, page 3). In December Frances hosted suffrage teas and meetings at her home on Fifth Street. (Reading Times, 12 December 1914, page 8). However, Frances was still involved with other local groups and hosted the YWCA Board at her house to “sew and embroider for the Christmas bazaar” (Reading Times, 11 November 1914, page 6). 

On 12 January 1915 the Mondell Bill was voted upon by the U.S. House of Representatives. It was the first vote on a federal woman suffrage amendment, but was defeated by a vote of 204 nays to 174 yeas. (Library of Congress, American Memory: Detailed Chronology National Woman’s Party History. https://www.loc.gov/static/collections/women-of-protest/images/detchron.pdf). Frances had previously written to local Congressman Rothermel urging him to vote for the bill, but he was expected to vote against it (Reading Times, 13 January 1915, page 7). In January 1915 there were newspaper headlines reporting that the Reading Suffrage Association voted to merge the “local branch with the Woman’s Suffrage Party of Berks County.” Frances who had been serving as president of the Reading Association tendered her resignation which was accepted with regret. A nominating committee was formed and a special meeting planned when new officers and committees would be chosen. (Reading Times, 23 January 1915, page 1). Although in March and April of that year Frances is identified as president of the Berks County Suffrage Association in several newspaper articles, by May she has resigned because “the duties proved too arduous” and was reported to be “enjoying an extended vacation after a winter of strenuous suffrage endeavor.” (Reading Times, 3 May 1915, page 8). The county suffrage group had “the greatest trouble to secure a woman to take the city chairmanship” so they definitely missed Frances’ leadership (Reading Times, 22 May 1915, page 8).

However, there may have been a personal reason for her resignation because it seems that her marriage was in a troubled state. In the 1915 Reading city directory Frances and her husband John Cowan Wrenshall, Jr. are living together at 228 North Fifth Street, but in the 1916 city directory her husband is living at a different address and without her. Another clue is that when reports about Frances’ activities appear again in the newspapers, she is not using the title of “Mrs. John C. Wrenshall” but now is identified as “Mrs. Frances Mason Wrenshall.” By spring 1916 Frances is living in Hagerstown, Maryland and active once again in the suffrage movement there. (Baltimore Sun, 23 March 1916, page 3). In 1918 Frances’ estranged husband is transferred to Philadelphia where he divorced Frances in 1919 (Philadelphia Inquirer, 8 July 1919, page 12). 

Frances Mason Wrenshall did not stay inactive long. She was a member of the suffrage organization “The Just Government League of Maryland” serving as toastmaster at their 1916 meeting (Baltimore Sun, 27 April 1916, page 3) and the Hagerstown Forward Club of United Women (Baltimore Sun, 13 May 1917, page 7). In 1922 Frances offered lessons in parliamentary law at her Hagerstown home (The Daily Mail, 4 February 1922, page 5). By 1925 Frances had moved to San Francisco and was listed in directories as a “child engineer” or as an educator. In 1930 she traveled through Europe with her sister. (The Morning Herald, 5 August 1930, page 2). By the 1940 U.S. Census Frances is listed as living in Los Angeles and working as a housekeeper in the construction business. She died there on October 16, 1958 at the age of 85. 

Frances Addison Mason Wrenshall had been a tireless worker for women’s suffrage in Berks County and her leaving was a reason why the Reading Times reported in August of 1919 that “There is no longer a suffrage organization here, the principal leaders having moved out of town. Berks is one of the few Pennsylvania counties without an organization. (Reading Times, 1 August 1919, page 6).