Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920

Biography of Mrs. Helen Moore, 1845-1917

By high school students Mirian Melendez and Eleanor Raab, Sacred Heart Preparatory High School, Atherton, California

State Organizer, California Equal Suffrage Association

Helen A. Moore was born in February of 1848 in New Orleans, LA. She moved to New Jersey, and had one child named Grace Moore with her husband, Franklin Moore, in 1873. By the 1890s, she was living on Noe Street in San Francisco and worked as a music teacher, and secretary for charitable organizations. She was a widow by 1910. Very few details exist regarding her personal life, her parents, or her marriage. She died in San Francisco on February 2, 1917.

Helen Moore's first recorded suffrage work was as a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She was mentioned in the proceedings of NAWSA's 25th annual convention in 1893 as a correspondent for the Peace and Arbitration committee. Moore later became an organizer for the California Equal Suffrage association from 1908-1917. Along with one of her colleagues, Moore led a "Talk on Suffrage." According to an article published on December 10, 1908, Moore was appointed as the state organizer of the California Equal Suffrage Association in Oakland, California. In this newspaper it mentioned that she would be leading a discussion and gathering with all women interested in participating in the suffrage movement. In the article "Banquet in Honor of Popular Suffragettes," Mrs. Moore along was honored "at a combined business meeting and tea given at the home of Mrs. Amrath, president of the Equal Suffrage League." In 1908 Helen Moore spoke in support of suffrage with another prominent California suffragist, Mrs. Lillian Coffin, at the First Christian Church in Santa Rosa. In 1910 she served as the auditor and chair of the organization committee for the California Equal Suffrage Association in San Francisco.

In the article titled "Equal Suffragist to Open Big Convention Here Today" it mentions that the 14th Convention was going to be held by the California Equal Suffrage Association. It was said to be the "largest equal suffrage convention ever held in this state" since suffragists from different states were gathering at the convention. There were many sessions held throughout the day as well as two-minute reports given by Moore and the members of the Association. As an organizer and auditor, Helen Moore dedicated herself to promoting the suffrage movement throughout California.

She continued to be politically active after suffrage was passed in California in 1911. In 1912 and 1913 she was registered to vote in San Francisco and affiliated with the Democratic Party. According to an article published in the San Francisco Call on January 6, 1912, Helen Moore participated in an annual convention to advocate for the passage of progressive legislation that would benefit women. This was part of her work with the California Equal Suffrage Association. She was an active member and speaker for the California Woman's Political League. She was also a member of the Civic League. She continued her reform work up until her death in 1917.

Sources:

1.California Equal Suffrage Association letterhead (President, Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe Watson) 1910, accessed online at http://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk0013f0t44/?layout=metadata&brand=oac4

2."California Equal Suffrage Association Holds Its Annual Convention With State Wide Representation," San Francisco Call, 6 January 1912

3.Coolidge, Mary Roberts, Cora Bell Kimball, George Thomas Cochran, A Directory of the Charitable and Benevolent Institutions of San Francisco (San Francisco: Municipal Authority, 1901).

4.Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory (H.S. Crocker Company, 1909).

5."Helen Moore, California, Voter Registrations, 1900-1968" Accessed through ancestry.com

6."Ladies to Talk on Suffrage Today. Mrs. Lillian Harris Coffin and Mrs. Helen Moore Will Both Be Here at Meeting this Afternoon" The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California December 10, 1908, accessed online at https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SRPD19081210.2.114

7."Equal Suffragists to Open Big Convention Here Today," San Francisco Call, September 30, 1910.

8."State Suffragists to Continue Work," Sacramento Union, January 7, 1912.

9."Suffragists of State to Meet," The San Francisco Call, January 4, 1912.

10.The Hand Book of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and Proceedings of the Annual Convention, 1893

11.Western Women Volume 1 (1907), 12, accessed online at https://books.google.com/books?id=iIJIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=Mrs.+Helen+Moore+and+Mrs.+Alice+Park&source=bl&ots=elliEvGj1F&sig=qwVyGb7_vWmky2mtKg9Os8O8lAc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB4K7byLrRAhVX1mMKHVdHABMQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=Mrs.%20Helen%20Moore%20and%20Mrs.%20Alice%20Park&f=false

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