Florence Collins Porter

Florence Collins Porter (August 14, 1853 – December 31, 1930) was an American newspaper editor, clubwoman, political campaigner, and activist for temperance and women's suffrage.

Florence Collins Porter
Florence Collins Porter, from a 1913 publication.
Born
Florence Collins

August 14, 1853
Caribou, Maine
DiedDecember 31, 1930
Los Angeles, California
Years active1880s-1930
Known forNewspaper editor, clubwoman, temperance activist, suffragist, Republican campaigner
Notable work
President, Los Angeles Equal Suffrage League
Signature

Early life

Florence Collins was born August 14, 1853, in Caribou, Maine,[1] the daughter of Samuel W. Collins and Dorcas Hardison Collins.[2][3] Her parents ran the town's general store.[4][5]

Education and journalism

Porter was the first woman to serve on a Board of Education in Maine, and was superintendent of schools in Caribou for four years.[2] In 1900, she was owner and publisher of the Aroostook Register, and president of the Maine Federation of Women's Clubs; that year, her uncle, oilman Wallace Hardison, invited her to California to join the editorial staff the Los Angeles Herald, which he owned.[2] She also wrote and edited for the magazine California Outlook.[4] and wrote political opinion pieces for various publications.[6][7] She was a popular guest speaker, invited to speak on a range of topics, including "Myths and Legends of Maine" for the Pine Tree State Association of Los Angeles, in 1916.[8]

Porter co-wrote a book of family history with her sister, Clara W. Gries, Our Folks and Your Folks: A Volume of Family History and Biographical Sketches (1919).[5] She edited a book, The Story of the McKinley Home for Boys (1921), and co-edited another book, Maine Men and Women in Southern California (1913).[2]

Temperance, suffrage, clubwork
Florence Collins Porter, from the Library of Congress.

Porter attended the World Congress of Representative Women in 1893, where she gave a paper titled "The Power of Womanliness in Dealing with Stern Problems."[9] For her, those "stern problems" facing women included temperance and suffrage.[10] She joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and was a national officer in the offshoot Nonpartisan Woman's Christian Temperance Union when it was founded in 1888. She was president of the Los Angeles County Equal Suffrage League for two years. She was vice-president of the California Federation of Women's Clubs in 1906–1908.[11] In 1909, she was president of the California Business Women's Association of Los Angeles.[12] In 1916, she was secretary-treasurer of the Norwalk State Hospital.[13] She was a member of the Ebell Club, the Tuesday Morning Club, and the Women's Improvement Club of Pasadena.[2] "I am a woman's woman," she declared in a 1923 speech. "I find no fault with women in the mass. To me, organization women are always kind, beautiful, and achieving."[14]

Party politics

Porter was active in Republican and Progressive Party politics in California.[4] She was vice president of the Roosevelt Progressive League in Los Angeles after it formed in 1912. She was one of two women to serve as California delegates to the 1912 Republican National Convention in Chicago.[15][16] She was also an elector that year.[17][18] In 1918 she campaigned for William Stephens in the California gubernatorial race.[19] In 1920 she organized the Los Angeles Republican Study Club, a precursor of the California Federation of Republican Women.[20] She helped to found the National Women's Republican Association, and seconded the nomination of Calvin Coolidge at the 1924 Republican National Convention.[21][22] She campaigned for Herbert Hoover in 1928.[23][24] A portrait of Porter, painted by Kathryn Woodman Leighton, was unveiled at a luncheon honoring Porter, held by the San Pedro Republican Women's Club in 1930.[25]

Personal life

In 1873, Florence Collins married Rev. Charles William Porter, a Congregational minister who also served in the Maine state legislature. They had three children.[4] Rev. Porter died in 1894.[2] She moved to South Pasadena, California in 1900, and died December 31, 1930, aged 77 years.[4][26][27]

Her great-great-grandniece, Susan Collins, is a current United States Senator from Maine. Other notable kin of Porter's include her great-grandnephews Maine politician and judge Samuel Collins (1923-2012) and Maine legislator Donald Collins (1925-2018).

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References
  1. Leonard, John William (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada. American Commonwealth Company. p. 654.
  2. Porter, Florence Collins; Trask, Helen Brown (1913). Maine Men and Women in Southern California: A Volume Regarding the Lives of Maine Men and Women of Note and Substantial Achievement, as Well as Those of a Younger Generation Whose Careers are Certain, Yet Still in the Making. Kingsley, Mason & Collins. p. 77.
  3. "Woman Well Known Here Dies in East". Los Angeles Herald. September 11, 1919. p. 22. Retrieved September 8, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  4. Gustafson, Melanie (1997). "Florence Collins Porter and the Concept of the Principled Partisan Woman". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 18 (1): 62–79. doi:10.2307/3347202. ISSN 0160-9009. JSTOR 3347202.
  5. Porter, Florence Collins (1919). Our folks and your folks : a volume of family history and biographical sketches including the Collins, Hardison, Merrill, Teague and Oak families, and extending over a period of two centuries. Los Angeles, Calif. : The Fred S. Lang Company Publishers – via Internet Archive.
  6. Porter, Florence Collins (November 2, 1912). "Women of Imperial Valley From a Woman's View-Point". Calexico Chronicle. p. 3. Retrieved September 8, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  7. "First Woman Delegate Writes for Beacon". The Wichita Beacon. June 18, 1912. p. 12. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Arostook People Plan to Entertain". Los Angeles Herald. April 20, 1916. p. 13. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  9. Sewall, May Wright (1894). The World's Congress of Representative Women. Rand, McNally. pp. 391–394. Florence Collins Porter.
  10. "Equal Suffrage Has Its Day". Los Angeles Herald. October 3, 1906. p. 4. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  11. "Women Meet in Final Session; Mrs. F. C. Porter Retires from Presidency". Los Angeles Herald. November 20, 1908. p. 5. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  12. "Los Angeles Business Women Hold Luncheon". Los Angeles Herald. July 4, 1909. p. 11. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  13. "She Takes Secretaryship". Riverside Daily Press. February 16, 1916. p. 1. Retrieved September 8, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  14. Nye, Myra (November 25, 1923). "Woman Leader is Honored". The Los Angeles Times. p. 8. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. "California's Women Delegates to Urge Suffragists' Cause". Los Angeles Herald. June 12, 1912. p. 3. Retrieved September 8, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  16. "Convention Hears First Woman's Voice". The Inter Ocean. June 19, 1912. p. 3. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "'Bull Moose' Electors Named". Chico Record. September 14, 1912. p. 1. Retrieved September 8, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  18. "Woman May Carry Vote of Electors". Sacramento Union. January 13, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. "L. A. Woman, One of Seven, Honored". Los Angeles Herald. August 13, 1918. p. 4. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  20. "About CFRW: CFRW History". California Federation of Republican Women. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
  21. "Women Play Big Part in G. O. P. Convention Plans". San Pedro News Pilot. April 19, 1924. p. 5. Retrieved September 8, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  22. "Cheers Greet Able Women of New Type". The San Francisco Examiner. June 13, 1924. p. 3. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. "Porter, Florence Collins (1853-1930)" Jane Addams Digital Edition, Ramapo College.
  24. "Noted Woman to Speak at Hoover Rally". San Pedro News Pilot. March 19, 1928. p. 1. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  25. "Members of Local G. O. P. Present at Luncheon Honoring Mrs. F. Porter". San Pedro News Pilot. April 23, 1930. p. 6. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  26. "Woman Leader Taken by Death". The Los Angeles Times. January 1, 1931. p. 23. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. "Mrs. Porter's Will Leaves All to Relatives". The Los Angeles Times. February 6, 1931. p. 9. Retrieved September 9, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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