April 1880: First woman to address Congress played the Woodward Opera House

MOUNT VERNON — Back in the days when Mount Vernon wasn’t a whole lot smaller than it is now, it’s important to remember that many other cities in the region were, at that time, much smaller than they are now.

This meant that Mount Vernon was very much the social and industrial equal of many towns that grew larger later.

This prominence also meant that important speakers and performers made sure to stop and perform at the Woodward Opera House.

While complete listings of seasons of performers who played at the Woodward are no longer in existence, some of them can be reconstructed through newspaper accounts of the time.

It’s fun to consider those who once appeared here. While recently browsing old newspapers, I discovered one of interest.

Anna Elizabeth Dickinson went down in the annals of history as being the first woman to address the United States Congress, which was a considerable feat during the days when women were largely excluded from public policymaking in this country, and didn’t yet have the right to vote.

It all came about because of Dickinson’s upbringing in the Quaker church, which unlike most other faiths encouraged women to participate in public debate on social issues.

The daughter of abolitionists, Dickinson became a passionate speaker on both antislavery platforms and women’s rights in the 1850s, when she was still a teenager.

As the country became split by the Civil War in the 1860s, Dickinson ramped up her speaking activities, campaigning for politicians who supported the abolition of slavery.

Period accounts said Dickinson was a mesmerizing speaker who could hold an audience spellbound for two hours at a time.

She was known to be friends with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Her public profile became so prominent that she was invited by Republican lawmakers in 1864 to address Congress about the future of America after slavery, and she received a standing ovation from the lawmakers.

At the height of her career as an orator, Dickinson was making over $20,000 a year, which in modern terms would be like making a half million a year. It was good that she was doing so well, because she was also supporting her extended family, including her mother and sister.

Remaining money was donated to charity.

Unfortunately, Dickinson’s particular gift was for rallying audiences during times of crisis. By the 1880s, her income from public speaking had dwindled to just a shadow of its former level as audiences turned to lighter forms of entertainment.

To keep relevant, Dickinson took up mountaineering in Colorado, giving talks about her experiences, and she still spoke whenever possible about women’s rights.

She also spoke in defense of interracial marriage, in favor of technical training for workers, in favor of temperance, rights for former slaves, assistance for the poor, and compulsory education for children, all very progressive stances for the time.

For additional activity, she took up writing plays, which she would produce and act in.

Turns out that her acting was less impressive than her speaking, but the plays themselves were said to be pretty good, and it was one of these that came to Mount Vernon in April of 1880, with Dickinson performing.

As the Mount Vernon Democratic Banner put it, “Miss Dickinson’s new play, Aurelian, is acknowledged by the ablest critics as a noble drama, lofty in style, poetic in sentiment, its action spirited and well sustained and its climaxes impressive and brilliant.”

They quote the Cincinnati Enquirer as stating that, “No other American woman has had such shining versatility of talent, and in all that she has done she has sought to lift life by a lofty purpose.

“Platform lecturer, unequaled among women, novelist, dramatist, actress — who among American women has ever dared attempt such varied and elevated tasks? She has spirited ambition, invincible hope, and reckless industry.”

It is exciting to picture such a remarkable voice of her era on stage at the Woodward. I also have reason to cite her here during what is today gay pride month, and not just in big cities.

I have often wanted to find something in local history to write about in terms of queer life, but of course during the times when alternative sexuality was strongly prohibited, those who were gay, lesbian, or bisexual had to keep it hidden. So, other than the occasional reference to Paul Lynde, I simply haven’t been able to find anything to write about it in the deep history of the county.

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t here. With enough resources, such stories have been traced back to the earliest records of humanity. I just wish I could find something more direct.

As it turns out, it was revealed after her death in 1932, by correspondence and close friends, that Anna Dickinson had been a lesbian her whole life. She had never married, but had close relationships with a number of women, culminating in a 40-year partnership with Sallie Ackley, ended only by Ackley’s death.

Dickinson wasn’t entirely forgotten after her own death, for the U.S. Navy named a ship after her during World War II, but few remember her today.

That’s a shame, because she was an important voice, and one who was said to have converted a large number of people to support causes like abolition and women’s rights, purely through the sheer power of her passionate public speaking.