Ellen Battelle Dietrick (1847–1895) was an American suffragist and author who was active in the movement's organizations in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

and

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. She was a core member of the group that published ''

The Woman's Bible ''The Woman's Bible'' is a two-part non-fiction book, written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of 26 women, published in 1895 and 1898 to challenge the traditional position of religious orthodoxy that woman should be subservient to man. ...

'' in the 1890s.

Biography

Ellen Virginia Batelle Dietrick was born in Virginia, one of several daughters of the Rev. Gordon Battelle and Maria (Tucker) Battelle. Her father had been a member of the convention that framed Virginia's constitution. She married William A. Dietrick of Baltimore and they moved to Covington, Kentucky. There Dietrick established various organizations to aid women: a Women's Educational and Industrial Union, a day nursery, a cooperative bakery and cooking school, and a home for elderly women. She campaigned for civic reform in such areas as jail conditions and city government, and it was said of her that she "ran the town". In 1888, she was the founding vice-president of the

Kentucky Equal Rights Association Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA) was the first permanent statewide women's rights organization in Kentucky. Founded in November 1888, the KERA voted in 1920 to transmute itself into thKentucky League of Women Votersto continue its many and ...

(KERA). The following year, Dietrick, KERA founder

Laura Clay Laura Clay (February 9, 1849June 29, 1941), co-founder and first president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, was a leader of the American women's suffrage movement. She was one of the most important suffragists in the South, fav ...

, and three other women established the Kentucky Lecture Bureau to provide free speakers on suffrage-related topics to clubs and civic organizations around the state. She served in other official capacities in the national suffrage movement. After moving to Boston, she served as state organizer and general agent for the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association (1892) and secretary of the

New England Woman Suffrage Association The New England Woman Suffrage Association (NEWSA) was established in November 1868 to campaign for the right of women to vote in the U.S. Its principal leaders were Julia Ward Howe, its first president, and Lucy Stone, who later became president. ...

(ca. 1895). In the 1890s, she also served as the chair of press work for 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 ...

(NAWSA). She later served as president of the Boston Suffrage League (founded in 1903 by

William Monroe Trotter William Monroe Trotter, sometimes just Monroe Trotter (April 7, 1872 – April 7, 1934), was a newspaper editor and real estate businessman based in Boston, Massachusetts. An activist for African-American civil rights, he was an early opponent of ...

). Dietrick lectured on equal rights and wrote for various publications, including the ''Woman's Journal''. Her main topic was equal rights, but her 1889 book ''The Families of John and Jake'' is a treatise on the relations between labor and capital, following two families, one prosperous, and the other poor. Her last book, ''Women in the Early Christian Ministry'', a refutation of Christian teachings that relegated women to second-class status in the world, was published posthumously in 1897. While it covered a broad ground, it included arguments aimed specifically at New York Bishop

William Croswell Doane William Croswell Doane (March 2, 1832, in BostonGeorge Lynde Richardson, Project Canterbury: William Croswell Doane, First Bishop of Albany (Hartford, Connecticut; Church Missions Publishing, 1933), found aAnglican History website G L Richardson pa ...

, who had spoken out strongly against universal suffrage. Dietrick was a member of the Revising Committee for ''

'', a version with extended commentary challenging the orthodox Christian view of women's subservience to men. She lived to see only Part I published, in 1895, the year she died. Part II, published in 1898, included five commentaries signed by Dietrick and was dedicated to her memory as "the ablest member of our revising committee". One recent biblical scholar credits Dietrick as the first person to publish (in Part I of ''The Woman's Bible'') the theory that "most of Hebrew Scripture, including the Books of Kings, was composed in the Hasmonean era", now a common view of revisionist biblical historians. This same scholar also notes that Dietrich has not been given due credit for being the progenitor of this thesis. Dietrick died in Boston on November 25, 1895, at the age of 48 and was remembered at the following year's NAWSA convention as an exceptional advocate and writer for the suffragist cause. She is buried at

Forest Hills Cemetery Forest Hills Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery, greenspace, arboretum and sculpture garden located in the Forest Hills section of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery was established in 1848 as a public ...

in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

Publications

*''Women in the Early Christian Ministry: A Reply to Bishop Doane, and Others'' (Philadelphia: Alfred J. Ferris, 1897) * (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke, 1889) * , ''

Popular Science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...

'', vol. 44, no. 33, 1894, p. 481ff.

Quotations

“The steps toward the emancipation of women are first intellectual, then industrial, lastly legal and political. Great strides in the first two of these stages already have been made by millions of women who do not yet perceive that it is surely carrying them towards the last.”

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dietrick, Ellen Battelle 1847 births 1895 deaths American suffragists American political activists Activists from Virginia American women's rights activists Place of birth missing 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American writers Burials at Forest Hills Cemetery (Boston)