Lenna Lowe Yost (January 25, 1878 – May 6, 1972), president of the
West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association
The West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association (WVESA) was an organization formed on November 29, 1895, at a conference in Grafton, West Virginia. This conference and the subsequent annual conventions were an integral part of the National American Wo ...
(WVESA) during the state woman suffrage referendum campaign of 1916 and chairman of the WVESA Ratification Committee during the national amendment ratification campaign of 1920. Yost was at the time also the state president of the West Virginia
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program th ...
, thus being the only woman in the nation to serve as both president of temperance and of the suffrage club at the same time. Yost was the first woman to be appointed to the state Board of Education, and the first woman to chair the West Virginia Republic Party convention.
Background
Born January 25, 1878, to Columbia S. Basnett (1851–1939) and Jonathon S. Lowe (1840–1886), Lenna Lowe Basnett was their third child of four. Her siblings were Fred H. (1873–1958) and Petrolia (who died in childhood) and Glenn Andrew (1883–1953). She was raised in
Basnettville, a small town in
Marion County where her father worked as a sewing machine agent. She studied art at
Ohio Northern University
Ohio Northern University (Ohio Northern or ONU) is a private United Methodist Church–affiliated university in Ada, Ohio. Founded by Henry Solomon Lehr in 1871, ONU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It offers over 60 programs to ...
and graduated from
West Virginia Wesleyan College
West Virginia Wesleyan College is a private college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. It has an enrollment of about 1,400 students from 35 U.S. states and 26 countries. The school was founded in 1890 by the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist E ...
in
Buckhannon
Buckhannon is the only incorporated city in, and the county seat of, Upshur County, West Virginia, Upshur County, West Virginia, United States, and is located along the Buckhannon River. The population was 5,299 at the 2020 United States Census ...
.
She met Ellis Asby Yost (1872–1962) of Fairview, West Virginia. They married on September 25, 1899, and they had one son, Leland Lowe Yost (August 29, 1902 - February 24, 1976). Ellis Yost became a lawyer and then a state senator; his older brother
Fielding H. Yost
Fielding Harris Yost (; April 30, 1871 – August 20, 1946) was an American football player, coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at: Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Nebraska, the University ...
became a famous football coach.
Leadership in Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Yost became active in the Morgantown
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program th ...
(WCTU) soon after her son's birth, and Yost became president of the state WCTU in 1908. In 1918, she left the presidency to accept a national WCTU role as Washington correspondent of that organization's journal, ''
The Union Signal
''The Union Signal'' (formerly, ''The Woman's Temperance Union'', ''Our Union'') is a defunct American newspaper, established in 1883 in Chicago, Illinois. Focused on temperance, it was the organ of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), a ...
''.
Suffrage work
At the same time as she rose in the ranks of the nation's largest women's club, Yost became interested in furthering the suffrage movement in West Virginia, and she joined the Morgantown chapter of the
West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association
The West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association (WVESA) was an organization formed on November 29, 1895, at a conference in Grafton, West Virginia. This conference and the subsequent annual conventions were an integral part of the National American Wo ...
(WVESA) in 1905. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution through her maternal grandmother's ancestry.
In 1913 her husband Ellis A. Yost presented a woman suffrage amendment in the House of Delegates. It passed the House by a vote of 58 to 25; but, in the Senate, with a barrage of amendments (including one to limit women to school suffrage only), the bill never achieved the two-thirds majority required to send the state constitutional amendment to the voters.
Yost became president of the state suffrage organization in 1916. This was the first time that the president of the state's WCTU was also the president of the state suffrage association.
Yost conducted a vigorous, although unsuccessful, state referendum campaign; and stepped down as president as she returned to her work for the national WCTU. She kept up with the state's suffrage movement, however, and served as the West Virginia delegate to the National Executive Committee 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 ...
(NAWSA).
Yost served the state organization again in 1920 as leader of its campaign to secure ratification by the West Virginia legislature of the federal woman suffrage amendment. As Chairman of the WVESA Ratification Committee, Yost organized a statewide petition drive to support woman suffrage and in late February 1920 organized a “living petition” compiled of a small delegation of women from each district ready to greet legislators as they arrived in Charleston for a special session called by the governor.
After 1920
Following the success of this amendment, Yost joined the Republican Party, in which her husband, an attorney, was also active throughout his life. She served on the West Virginia platform committee, as the West Virginia Women's Activities Director as an active campaigner during the presidential races of the 1920s, and eventually as Director of the Women's Division of the national party.
Yost also continued her work with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She wrote a weekly Washington letter for the ''Union Signal'' until 1930.
She attended international conferences on alcoholism in 1921 (Switzerland) and 1923 (Denmark).
In 1922 Yost became the first woman member of the West Virginia State Board of Education, and for twelve years championed the improvement of girl's and women's education. She pushed for the establishment of a women's physical education building at West Virginia University, allied with the American Association of University Women, fought for equal pay and rank for women faculty. In addition, she served on the board of directors of the federal women's prison at Alderson.
In 1927 Yost became the first woman to serve on the West Virginia Wesleyan College Board of Trustees. According to the U.S. Census in 1930, Yost was living in Huntington with her husband and she was still a salaried national representative for the WCTU.
Death
On May 6, 1972, Yost was admitted to the Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. She died within thirty minutes of arrival, cause of death listed as arteriosclerotic heart disease. She was buried in the Saint Johns Cemetery in Marion County, West Virginia, next to her husband.
Yost's personal papers were donated to the West Virginia and Regional History Collection at
West Virginia University
West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...
by a cousin, Mrs. Virginia Brock Neptune.
A state historical marker celebrating her political career was erected by the West Virginia Division of Archives and History in 2005. The marker can be found at junction of WV218 & CR17, Basnettville.
See also
*
Beulah Boyd Ritchie
Anna Beulah Boyd Ritchie (March 24, 1864 – October 4, 1939) was a founding member of the Fairmont Woman Suffrage Club (later the Fairmont Political Equality Club), third president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association, and officer in th ...
*
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 ...
*
West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association
The West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association (WVESA) was an organization formed on November 29, 1895, at a conference in Grafton, West Virginia. This conference and the subsequent annual conventions were an integral part of the National American Wo ...
*
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program th ...
References
Resources
*Lenna Lowe Yost to Carrie Chapman Catt, 10 March 1920, National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Records, Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library (NYPL), New York, NY.
*"Lenna Lowe Yost (Mrs. Ellis A. Yost): West Virginia Political and Government Leader," Lenna Lowe Yost Papers, West Virginia and Regional History Collection, West Virginia University Library, Morgantown, WV
ereafter WVRHC
*Anne Wallace Effland, '"Exciting Battle and Dramatic Finish': The West Virginia Woman Suffrage Movement," West Virginia History 46(1985–86): 137–58 and '"Exciting Battle and Dramatic Finish': West Virginia's Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment," ibid. 48(1989): 61–92
*Karina G. Thurston, "Lenna Lowe Yost, temperance, and the ratification of the woman suffrage amendment by West Virginia" (2009). M.A. Thesis, West Virginia University. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/695
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yost, Lena Lowe
1878 births
1972 deaths
American suffragists
Activists from West Virginia
American political activists
American temperance activists
Woman's Christian Temperance Union people
People from Marion County, West Virginia
Ohio Northern University alumni
West Virginia Wesleyan College alumni
West Virginia Wesleyan College trustees
West Virginia suffrage