Caroline Severance
January 12, 1820 - November 10, 1914Organizer, reformer, Woman's Clubs
Caroline Seymour was born in New York and graduated from the Female Seminary of Geneva, New York, in 1835. She taught in private schools until, in 1840, she married banker Theodoric Severance. She moved with him to Ohio and later to Boston. She became involved in reform causes that her husband and his family supported, including women's rights and abolition.
While the name of Caroline Severance is not one of the best-known in social reform and women's rights, she was instrumental in the founding of a number of organizations. She attended national and regional Woman's Rights conventions, and, in 1866, helped Susan B. Anthony found the Equal Rights Association. In 1867, with Lucretia Mott, T. W. Higginson and others, she helped to found the Free Religious Association. In February 1868 she and others founded the New England Woman's Club which she served as president until 1871. With Lucy Stone she helped found the American Woman Suffrage Association in 1869.
After the Severances moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1875, Caroline Severance continued her active efforts. She helped establish kindergartens, founded the city's first Unitarian congregation with her husband, and helped to begin three successive woman's clubs. The third, the Friday Morning Club, was in the center of social reform efforts for the city.
Caroline Severance continued her work for woman suffrage, was active in the campaign of 1911 which secured the vote for California women, and at age 91, she became the first woman in California to register to vote.
Caroline Severance on the Web
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Religion
History of early Los Angeles, mentioning Severance's ties to Unitarianism. -
Women
An analysis of women in Los Angeles, about 1890. Includes mention of Severance's role with the Woman's Club.
On this site
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Text copyright 1999-2009 © Jone Johnson Lewis.
