Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Marguerite Geist
By Manya S. Chylinski, Writer and researcher, M.S.L.I.S, Boston, MA
Teacher and women's rights advocate
Marguerite (Margaret) Geist was a young high school teacher from Hamburg, Germany. As part of her travels around the world, she joined "General" Rosalie Jones' Army on the Hudson to march to Washington D.C. arriving the day before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson in March 1913. She made the march with her donkey, Jerry, who is reported as being grey or white and dirty.
After the march, Geist planned to travel to California with her donkey (which is sometimes referred to as Jerry and sometimes as Suffragette the mule). This trip was reportedly inspired by a German newspaper syndicate that offered her $5,000 to complete the trip across the continental United States with her donkey in less than two years. On the way, she stayed in YWCA headquarters when possible; and gave talks about suffrage and sold post cards to make money.
The trip was reportedly inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's book Travels with a Donkey. By completing the journey in February 1915, a few weeks before the two-year deadline, she became the first woman in the world to drive a donkey across the American continent. She reportedly planned to exhibit Jerry at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco that year, before continuing to travel the world. "I shall travel twelve more years, she declared. I shan't take a donkey or gun along next time however."
PHOTOS
Woman Tramps Across Continent. Donkey Her Traveling Companion, Oakland Tribune, 14 January 1915, accessed via Newspapers.com
As the Army of Fair Invaders Marched on the City, Baltimore Sun, 24 February 1913
SOURCES:
Another Freak Traveler in Town, Tulare Advance-Register (CA), 30 December 1914, accessed via Newspapers.com
As the Army of Fair Invaders Marched on the City, Baltimore Sun, 24 February 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com
'Colonel' Craft Hikers' Heroine, San Francisco Call, 25 February 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com
Hikers Plod North East Over "Worst Road," Baltimore Evening Sun, 21 February 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com (referred to as Jennie Geist), accessed via Newspapers.com
Suffragist to Drive Mule Across Continent. Miss Margaret Geist Soon to Start for California, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 March 1913, accessed via Newspapers.com
Woman Tramps Across Continent. Donkey Her Traveling Companion, Oakland Tribune, 14 January 1915, accessed via Newspapers.com
Ida Husted Harper, et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 6 (1922), LINK to NY state report.
See also the Elisabeth Freeman document project (part 1) on the Women and Social Movements in the United States website for a group of newspaper accounts of the N.Y. to D.C. Hike in February 1913.