Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920

Biography of Mary (Mrs. M.A.) Woog, 1864-?

By Hailey Hoyt, Undergraduate, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

Member of California State Equal Suffrage Association, Board Member of the California State Equal Suffrage Association

Mrs. M.A. Woog, or Mary E. Woog, was born in 1864 in Illinois. She married Charles Woog of Norway in 1900. It is estimated that Charles immigrated to the United States in 1874 and the couple settled in Northern California in the late nineteenth century. In 1910 they resided in Fremont and he was recorded in the census as a fruit farmer. By 1920, they had moved to San Benito where he continued in farming. The couple had a son, Chas E Woog, by then nine years old. We have not found subsequent census links or a death record for Mary Woog.

Mrs. Woog was a member of the California State Equal Suffrage Association and served as a board member for the Association beginning in 1902, and by 1907 she was the organization's Recording Secretary. Woog was inspired by the annual suffrage convention that took place in San Francisco on October 24-25 in 1902. The President of the National American Suffrage Association, Carrie Chapman Catt, rallied the California suffrage clubs after the defeat of the 1896 suffrage referendum. The convention proved effective; eighteen new suffrage clubs were registered in California and many regular members volunteered to take on large leadership positions within the organization. In response, Woog took on a position as a Board Member for the State Equal Suffrage Association and became more active in her hometown community of San Benito.

Sources:

Ida Husted Harper, et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 6 (1922) [LINK].

1910 and 1920 Federal Manuscript Censuses of California, accessed with HeritageQuest.com.

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