Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Jessie Fremont Waite (Mrs. George H.) Wright, 1856 - ?
By Joyce Weaver, Director of Library & Archives
The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina
President, Equal Suffrage Association of the District of Columbia (1906-1908 or 1909); Vice-President of the Maryland State Equal Franchise League representing Montgomery County (1912); President of the Montgomery County (MD) Equal Franchise Suffrage Association (1914-1916); president of the Equal Suffrage League (Montgomery County) (1917)
Jessie Fremont Waite Wright was born in November 1857 in Chicago, IL, the eldest daughter of Charles Burlingame Waite (1824-1909) and Catherine Van Valkenburg Waite (1829-1913). Judge C.B Waite was an attorney and a territorial judge of Utah under President Abraham Lincoln. Catherine Waite graduated from Oberlin College and Union College of Law. She is known for donating her legal services to women unable to afford them and helped found the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. Jessie graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1873 and from the University of Chicago in 1877, being only the second woman to have done so from that university. In 1885, she married Dr. George Herdman Wright (1858-1930). They had 5 children: Marcia Catherine (or Katherine) (1892 – ), Wallace Waite (1886- ), George Van (1888 – ), Lucy Eleanor (1889-1960), Frederick William (1894 – ). Together, Dr. George and Jessie Wright ran the Carroll Springs Sanitorium (founded 1887), a homeopathic institution featuring "medicinal baths," in Forest Glen, Maryland. Upon George's retirement, their daughter Katherine (Dr Katherine Wright Wright) ran "the San" as it was called until its demolition after World War II. Their daughter Lucy Wright Trundle (Mrs. A. Dawson Trundle) became the first woman member of the Montgomery County (MD) Board of Education and was active in the League of Women Voters.
Jessie's earliest recorded suffrage activity was her January 24, 1880 speech before the House of Representatives (46th Congress), as one of the delegates of the Woman Suffrage Convention meeting. (Miss Jessie F. Waite's speech can be read in full at https://archive.org/details/womansuffragearg00unit ) Beginning in the early 1900s, Jessie Waite Wright appears regularly in the press as an active suffragist. In 1902, she participated in the First International Woman Suffrage Conference and 34th Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Washington, DC as chair of the local committee on hospitality. Additionally, Carroll Springs Sanitarium placed a full-page ad in the program for the convention. In 1907, she was identified as president of the Equal Suffrage Association of the District of Columbia at the annual meeting on November 25 and was re-elected for the next year. Jessie Waite Wright presented the District of Columbia state report at the 40th Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Buffalo, NY held October 15-21, 1908. In 1909, she presided over the annual meeting of the Montgomery County Federation of Women's Clubs held in Sandy Springs, MD on May 21 and presided, as retiring president, over the annual meeting of the Montgomery County Federation of Women's Clubs held in Forest Glen, MD on May 3 at Carroll Springs Sanatorium in 1910. In 1912, she served as a Vice-President of the Maryland State Equal Franchise League representing Montgomery County and attended the annual meeting April 30-May 2 in Baltimore. Mrs. Jessie Waite Wright is identified as president of the Montgomery County Equal Franchise Suffrage Association, an officer of the Federal Suffrage Association, and as vice-president of the Interstate Suffrage Club in 1914. The latter organization was noted in the press as likely to close due to lack of support from the Congressional Union. In 1916, Mrs. Wright was identified as representing the Equal Franchise Association (Montgomery County) while attending the Montgomery County Community Conference in April in Rockville, MD. In 1917, a brief article in the Evening Star of DC noted the formation of the Equal Suffrage League by the uniting of the Montgomery County Suffrage Association and the Woman Suffrage League of Montgomery County. This new organization of which Mrs. Jessie Waite Wright was president declared allegiance to the policy of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and loyalty to the US government. In 1921, Mrs. Wright presided over the June meeting of the Montgomery County branch of the Maryland League of Women Voters and the election of Mrs. Lavinia Eagle as President.
Sources
1900 United States Federal Census (from ancestryheritagequest.com, accessed 8/2/2018)
Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), April 19, 1912 "Suffrage Its Theme, State Equal Franchise League Has Interesting Program" Newspapers.com (accessed August 4, 2018)
Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), April 30, 2016 "For County Efficiency – Educators of Montgomery Hold Meeting at Rockville-Many Problems Taken Up-Addresses by Various Experts in Rural Economics Followed by a General Discussion" Newspapers.com (accessed July 29, 2018)
Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), June 29, 1921 "Montgomery Women Elect – Mrs. Lavinia Eagle Chosen President by Voters' League" Newspapers.com (accessed July 29, 2018)
Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), May 22, 1909 "Women's Clubs' Federation – Those of Montgomery Have Meeting at Sandy Spring." Newspapers.com (accessed August 4, 2018)
Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), May 4, 1910 "County Clubs Elect – Mrs. Robert C Warfield President of Montgomery Federation" Newspapers.com (accessed July 29, 2018)
Evening Star (Washington, DC), December 1, 1907 "The Equal Suffrage Association of the District of Columbia . . ." Newspapers.com (accessed August 4, 2018)
Evening Star (Washington, DC), February 1, 1914 "Montgomery County E.F.S.A." Newspapers.com (accessed August 4, 2018)
Evening Star (Washington DC), March 24, 1914 "The Federal Suffrage Association . . ." Newspapers.com (accessed August 4, 2018)
Evening Star (Washington, DC), March 31, 1914 "Beauty Squad Promised for Suffragist Parade – Mrs. G.W. Latimer to Head Baltimore Delegation – Interstate Club May Close" Newspapers.com (accessed August 4, 2018)
Evening Star (Washington, DC) November 11, 1917 " Suffrage League Pledge Loyalty" Newspapers.com (accessed August 4, 2018)
Salina Daily Union (Salina, KS) February 19, 1909, "Women Promise a Warm Fight, if Suffrage not Given in Columbia; Will Battle Again, Say it Must be For Both or None – Weekly Washington Letter" Newspapers.com (accessed August 4, 2018)
District of Columbia Deaths and Burials 1840-1964 "George Herdman Wright," Family Search https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3AGeorge~%20%2Bsurname%3AWright~%20%2Bspouse_givenname%3AJessie~&collection_id=1674800 (accessed November 2, 2018)
Portrait and Biographical Record of the Sixth Congressional District – Maryland – containing Portraits and Biographies of many well-known citizens of the Past and Present together with Portraits and Biographies of all the Presidents of the United States, New York, Chicago: Chapman Publishing Company, 1898. (archive.org accessed September 22, 2018)
Program of the First International Woman Suffrage Conference and the 34th Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Washington, DC, Held in the First Presbyterian Church, 4 ½ Street, Washington, DC February 12-18, 1902
https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbcmil.scrp1008601/?st=gallery
Program of the 40th Annual Convention of the NAWSA, Buffalo, NY Held in the YMCA, October 15-21, 1908. https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbcmil.scrp50025e01/?st=gallery
United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary, "House of Representatives Report: Woman Suffrage: arguments before the Committee on the Judiciary. February 3, 1880," House of Representatives Report: Woman Suffrage: arguments before the Committee on the Judiciary. February 3, 1880 House of Representatives, 46th Congress, 2d Session Mis. Doc.#x200eAnn Lewis Women's Suffrage Collection, https://lewissuffragecollection.omeka.net/items/show/1217 (accessed October 13, 2018)
University of Chicago Alumni Directory 1919, published June 1920 by the University of Chicago. (archive.org, accessed September 22, 2018);