Elizabeth Upham Yates (July 3, 1857 — December 23, 1942) was an American suffragist and missionary in China. She was also one of the first two women to run for statewide office in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

Early life

Elizabeth Upham Yates was born in

Bristol, Maine Bristol, known from 1632 to 1765 as Pemaquid (; today a village within the town) is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,834 at the 2020 census. A fishing and resort area, Bristol includes the villages of New Har ...

, the daughter of Alexander Yates and Lois Thompson Yates. She studied oratory at the Boston School of Expression with the actress

Sarah Cowell Le Moyne Sarah Cowell Le Moyne (July 22, 1859 – July 18, 1915) was an American stage actress in New York City, famous for her readings of Robert Browning's poetry, and her work with the Henry Street Settlement and Playhouse. Her stage debut was in 18 ...

, and earned a license to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church tradition.

Career

From 1880 to 1885, Elizabeth Upham Yates worked in China under the auspices of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society. She wrote about her experiences as a missionary in ''Glimpses into Chinese Homes'', published in 1887. Elizabeth Upham Yates began lecturing for the temperance and suffrage movements in 1890. She spoke at a convention of the New England Woman's Suffrage Association in 1895 in

Nashua, New Hampshire Nashua is a city in southern New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 91,322, the second-largest in northern New England after nearby Manchester, New Hampshire, Manchester. Along with Manc ...

, on the same program as Julia Ward Howe and

Alice Stone Blackwell Alice Stone Blackwell (September 14, 1857 – March 15, 1950) was an American feminist, suffragist, journalist, radical socialist, and human rights advocate. Early life and education Blackwell was born in East Orange, New Jersey to Henry Browne ...

. She regularly traveled within and beyond New England to lecture on the case for suffrage and encourage suffrage workers in other states. Yates was elected president of the Rhode Island Women's Suffrage Association in 1909, and re-elected in 1911 and 1913. She delivered the Fourth of July address at the Providence City Hall, a novelty for a woman at the time. She spoke on her work leading the Presidential Suffrage Committee at the 1914 national convention of the

National American Woman Suffrage Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. When Rhode Island women were first permitted to register to vote, she published "An Open Letter to Women" (1919), exhorting women to have "jubilant hearts, but sobered minds" in accepting their new duty of suffrage. She was the Democratic Party nominee for lieutenant governor of Rhode Island in 1920, one of the first women to run for statewide office in Rhode Island (along with Helen I. Binning, who ran for Secretary of State on the same ticket). In 1934 she joined Carrie Chapman Catt's "committee of ten" prominent women, in petitioning

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

to admit German refugees fleeing Nazi persecution.

Personal life

Elizabeth Upham Yates died in 1942, aged 85 years, in Rhode Island. Her house in Providence, built in 1913, is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as part of the Blackstone Park Historic District.Blackstone Park Historic District
National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yates, Elizabeth Upham 1857 births 1942 deaths People from Bristol, Maine American Methodist missionaries Methodist missionaries in China Suffragists from Rhode Island Politicians from Providence, Rhode Island Rhode Island Democrats Women in Rhode Island politics Female Christian missionaries Suffragists from Maine