NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Leonard, Gertrude H. [*E's & ML*] MRS. JOHN LEONARD R. F. D. I. BOX 115 PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Tuesday, August 24, 1943. My dear Edna, Your letter of August 17th has only just reached me, delayed a day or so because we have just come back from Laguna Beach via San Diego, where we went to see a wartime production city at war, - and certainly saw it. I shall not attempt at this moment to answer your letter excepting for its main purpose. Of course, I am glad to help toward covering the $200. balance for the printing &c. of the Guide. I appreciate and admire with all my hear the work that Mrs. Park has done, and have always been especially glad that we had someone so beautiful in countenance to stand for our Cause. Unfortunately I have let the days slide by, and realize that I am now too late to write Maud a letter of appreciation before the 26th. However, I'll send my offering after the event..... I enclose $10 by check. I wish it could be larger. Your arrangements about my photograph meet with my entire approval. Send me the bill in due course. As to the letters I wrote to Mary Page, I think maybe I'd better look them over. I knew Mary Page very well, and we did a lot of laughing together. I'd hate to have anything unkind a bout any of those women go on record, no matter how funny they were. As for you, my dear, I find myself more and more amazed by your diligence and your unerring judgment, your loyalty and your kind-ness of attitude toward us all. Here as usually you have obviously done most of the work and as usual someone else will get the spot-light. Here is one who perceives the situation clearly (in spite of your selflessness) even if from afar. Lots of the work, however, must have been fun. Harriet Walker and I are about to try with all our power to [??]rsuade Grace Johnson to for-sake home and husband, and come out here for a visit, shingles and all. In you can do any-thing to persuade the stubborn woman that it is her duty to herself and her world to fix her entire attention on change, rest and a new environment, it will greatly aid us. Much love to you. I'll be writing again. Gertrude Halladay Leonard. Mrs. John Leonard - R.F.D. I, Box 115 - Pasadena California Wednesday, March 22, 1944 My dear Edna, I can't seem to find your last letter, which enclosed the photograph of Teresa Crowley. I can't tell you how delighted I am to have that. It is an excellent picture with all the special charm that I felt in her; I seem to have retained a certain sense of guilt in keeping that picture, and I meant to test that impression by reading your letter again. Did it belong to some of her family; and might they not want it back? I comfort myself by knowing how surely I can rely on your not giving it to me if in any way "you hadn't oughter". I still wonder how on earth you knew I had a February birthday. Your lovely card was a great surprise to me, and equally a pleasure. Now I can think of nothing in regard to suffrage matters [*me*] remaining undone excepting the possibly over-frivolous remarks I made in those letter to Mary Page. Those haunt me from time to time. Don't you think you'd better pass them over for a survey before somebody sees them who might get hurt feelings? I wrote a letter to Mrs. Crowley's daughter Teresa Tiffany, and had the nicest of replies. I am glad to have gotten into touch with her again, thru you. Now take care of yourself, and get some well-earned leisure. I am so much improves in general health that I expect to be held up to public notice as a miracle. I'm glad, because I am used to being alive, and I like it, and hope to continue for awhile. With renewed, and many, thanks for everything, I am Affectionately yours, Gertrude Halladay Leonard Mrs. John Leonard - R.D.F I, Box 115 - Pasadena, California Saturday, April 15, 1944. My dear Edna, Thanks for the offending letter from Mrs. Page's folder. I would really like it removed and returned to wherever it should go, presumably the waste basket. I think it might seem to some casual reader in the future the sort of slightly malicious thing women are said to say about one another. I think we did singularly little of that sort among our group of suffragists. The date of the letter, by the way, was 1917; but that is not now important. Do give my love to Katherine Hersey. I'm sorry Maud Park is not very well; is it still that streptococcic infection which is troubling her. She is so active and always doing something worth while.. It's nice you continue to see Grace Johnson occasionally. It means a lot to her, and I wish I could drop in sometimes. I'd love a copy later of the index; and I appreciated the remark from Miss Blackwell, as I've always had a sneaking idea she found me somewhat inexplicably frivolous. The Anne Whitney you want to find I'm sorry to say I do not know. I was glad to be reminded of Mrs. Judith Smith, who was a most lovely person. I hope you yourself and well, and having some fun. Affectionately yours, Gertrude Halladay Leonard. Dear Miss Blackwell, I was so very sorry not to see you last time I was in Boston, two years ago. I had so much dentistry and business to accomplish that I was never able to call at the time you told me over the telephone. I was also already so ill that I was in the hospital for some weeks after I got back here. Now however, I am much better. I don't know whether I shall ever make another visit to New England. . . . but in any case I wish you all possible comfort and happiness. Gertrude Halladay Leonard With Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year -2- We have already available the names of many men of the greatest prominence in the State. This list in whole or in part, should be in our hands by APRIL 10th; otherwise, your town may be unrepresented in the Special Supplement. This list will be only one of many features connected with the Special Supplement, which is being framed first and foremost as a piece of Vote-getting propaganda of the most effective sort. The best thought of the State Association will be put into this venture and it is hoped that the result will be worthy of wide and systematic distribution, beyond the 400,000 normal circulation of the paper. It will have the advantage of novelty and inexpensiveness. We offer the paper at 1/2¢ per copy, which is what we pay the American. We shall sell the papers from Automobiles and on the streets of Boston for the usual price of 1¢. We urge the City Leagues to do the same, making as great a feature of the occasion as possible. In towns and villages we suggest that the papers be sold at any price considered desirable, or bought by the League as free propaganda and delivered at residences, or distributed in any other way that may be devised. All profit resulting from the sale of papers ordered by a League will be the property of the League. Orders must be definite (as no return of unused papers can be allowed), and should be in our hands in ample time to allow for delivery to your League. Offers of volunteers and automobiles to help sell the papers in Boston are urgently requested. An early reply telling us in what way you will cooperate in the distribution of the papers will be greatly appreciated. Yours for Victory in November, Gertrude Halladay Leonard. THE PIONEER, 410 STUART STREET, BOSTON 16, MASSACHUSETTS Sunday, Sept. 14, 1947. My dear Miss Blackwell, I have been in Boston a few days, and shall be here for several weeks, after an interval of six years. Yesterday Grace Johnson told me that you would celebrate your nineteenth birthday today and tho I hadn't time to find even a card. I am writing to send my warmest and most affectionate congratulations Just now I appear to be tired and not very well, but later I want to see you, and shall surely try to do so. How proud we are to have known you and worked with you. Cordially yours, Gertrude Halladay Leonard. MASSACHUSETTS WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION 585 BOYLSTON STREET, BOSTON My dear Mrs. Algeo, When Alice Paul was in Boston a week or so ago, she spent the night with my sister Mrs. Hasbrouck and me, and in the course of our talk she happened to say that you though Mrs. Hooker of Maryland had very unfairly agreed to run for Recording Secretary at the Convention and had then gone back on her agreement. I happened to be in a position to know just what happened at that time, as I asked Mrs. Hooker to run for that position, and I was very cross with her for getting up and saying she had not been consulted when her name was put on the ballot, for she certainly had been consulted,- but I believe I am right in saying that at all events she had not consented to run. It happened like this,- I asked her to stand for the position, and she was on the point of consenting, but at last told me she would stand if Miss Paul approved, and ran off to ask her. During the next few moments a dozen people came to me in great haste, asking what they should do about putting her name on the ballot. Each time I said she had gone to ask advice, and had not yet decided, although she had seemed on the point of agreeing. She was gone a long time, and some of the women got impatient, and went off. When Mrs. Hooker came back she told me that Miss Paul had advised her not to run, and that therefore she would not do so, So you see she never gave her consent, to me at least. I told her then, however, that she would undoubtedly have a certain number of votes from those who were unable to wait to hear her decision, and I did not like her announcing that she had not been consulted; but you know it is a little confusing when you rise to say something in Convention, and very likely she did not say it as she meant to; anyhow, that was what happened as I saw it. Alice Paul asked me to write and tell you, and I am very glad to do so. Ido hope the National will not be so unwise as to turn the Congressional Union out. I cannot think of anything more shortsighted. I hope things are going splendidly in Rhode Island. Wouldn't it be wonderful for you people if you led New England in getting "Votes for Women". We are in the midst of our yearly fight before the Legislature, and our chances seem sufficiently good so that I can hardly bear the suspense. I suppose the passage of our bill is too good to be true, and I say so to myself over and over to try and put myself into a better mind for a possible defeat. Cordially yours, Gertrude Halladay Leonard. (Mrs. John Leonard). Thursday, Feb.fifth. 1914 P.S. Mrs Hooker became Feb 1914 Chn of Finance Com. of Coy. Union Thursday, July 15, 1943. My dear Grace, Since Edna is missing among the shifting sands of Chilmark, I am sending this feeble effort to you, tho it may make it necessary for you to take action with it, where action is not good for shingles. I can't think of anything to add to what I've written excepting that Harriet thinks I ought to mention the passage principally by my efforts, tho under Winona Pinkham's leadership, of the bill for Wages for Prisoners in the State Prisons. Therefore I will add a paragraph about that. I really was almost wholly responsible for that bill's passing. Of course I could go on telling incidents which happened while lobbying at the State House, and a few such things, but they don't seem very important. I wonder if anyone has given Teresa credit for the success of the Levi Greenwood campaign? She should have it. She spent days compiling the list of the bills for which he voted or didn't vote, always against anything progressive or in favor of the "man in the street". It was that flier, so carefully assembled, so as to tell the exact facts, without any possible libel or misstatement, which, with Margaret Foley and much general distribution, brought about his defeat. Please do whatever occurs to you with this material, such as it is, and I hope, I hope, I hope, I have come to the end of what I can do to aid and abet. Much love. Harriet is coughing but valiant. Also, I htink, getting better. Gertrude. Re TERESA CROWLEY. When it was decided to try to defeat Levi Greenwood, who was then President of the Senate (?) and slated to rise politically to unknown heights, the task of compiling a flier for distribution was undertaken by Mrs. Crowley. There was plenty of material, for Mr. Greenwood had voted consistently against all progressive measures; but it was necessary to avoid any possibility of misstatement, so as to remain legally safe. Mrs. Crowley, as an attorney, was actively aware of the dangers of the situation, and spent day after day examining the records of his attitude, and his votes. The resulting flier was a model of effective facts, and upon its use, by wide distribution, and the automobile speeches of Margaret Foley, he was defeated. When someone asked him, "What do you think defeated you, Mr. Greenwood?" he replied with a somewhat wry smile, "The Ladies, God Bless 'em!" Re Gertrude Halladay Leonard. ----of any importance, excepting the passage of a bill by which wages were paid to prisoners in the Massachusetts State Prisons. This bill was drafted by Mrs. Winona Pinkham, then Executive Secretary of the Massachusetts Civic League, and the work was done through that organization. Mrs. Leonard did the lobbying at the State House, and the bill passed. This was in 1928. 2 Mrs. Leonard resigned from her chairmanship in the Mass. Woman Suffrage Association in 1917, on account of the serious illness of her husband; and after his death in 1918, she went at once to France as a member of Miss Anne Morgan's Committee for Devastated France. She worked in the Army Garden Service #1, at Versailles for a year, and later with the Red Cross at Bordeaux and in the Ainse for another year. [*(Insert?)*] Since that time she had done very little public work, and has spent much time in leisurely travel in many parts of the world. The last seven or eight years she has spent quietly in Pasadena, California. She has never been identified with either political party. MISS ALICE STONE BLACKWELL MRS. ROBERT L. DE NORMANDIE MRS. SUSAN LEWIS BALL PRESIDENT CLERK TREASURER MASSACHUSETTS WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION 585 BOYLSTON STREET, BOSTON MRS. GERTRUDE HALLADAY LEONARD, FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN EXECUTIVE BOARD MRS. BENJAMIN F. PITMAN, CHAIRMAN WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE MISS MARY W. DEWSON, CHAIRMAN LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE MRS. CLAUDE U. GILSON, CHAIRMAN ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE MRS. LEWIS J. JOHNSON, CHAIRMAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE April 20, 1917. Mrs. James W. Algeo, 394 Angell St., Providence, R. I. My dear Mrs. Algeo: This year's meeting of the New England Conference, which is to be held at the rooms of the Twentieth Century Club, 3 Joy St., Boston, on Thursday evening, May 10, will celebrate the first suffrage victories of the Atlantic seaboard, and discuss ways and means for bringing further glory to New England by a victory in Maine. Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston, chairman of the Maine Campaign Committee, will give us the latest news of the Maine campaign and its needs. The leaders in Vermont and Rhode Island have been asked to tell us all about their victories and the campaigns which led to them. We also want everyone to come prepared to report on their progress in patriotic work, and armed with suggestions for the development of this part of our service during the war. We are not only depending upon you personally to come, but want you to bring as large a group of your best workers as possible. We believe that a heart-to-heart discussion just now of methods and plans would be of great advantage to suffrage in New England. Supper will be served at 6 o'clock, and the speeches and discussion will follow. Hospitality will be furnished to those requesting it. Please let us know as soon as possible that you are coming, and tell us about how many others we may expect from your state. Sincerely yours, Gertrude Halladay Leonard. Chairman Executive Board. P. S. Thank you for your letter in answer to my telegram. As you see, I received it just as the notice for the New England Conference was to go out. I am depending on you to speak briefly about the Rhode Island victory. Of course, Mrs. Jenks as State President has been asked to give the principal Rhode Island report. Don't fail to come. We want to make it a very successful occasion. G. H. L. Mrs. John Leonard - 1109 Roanoke Place - Pasadena 2, California Tuesday, April 9, 1946. My dear Edna: My long delay in acknowledging my birthday card from you, (which pleased me a lot, I assure you), is because I have been having eye trouble and haven't been able to read or write since Thanksgiving time. Now I can write a letter or two a day, and every time I grow restive and want to read, I think of how wonderful Miss Blackwell is, and grow much ashamed of myself. I do hope I shall see that Radcliffe Collection some time. Out here I feel bereft by Mrs. Upton's death, and because I now get no second-hand news about Mrs. Catt. I hope you yourself are well and happy. You should be, if gratitude from many of us can make you so. Greetings and good luck. Gertrude Halladay Leonard MRS. JOHN LEONARD - R. F. D. 1, BOX 115 - PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Thursday, September 2, 1943. My dear Maud, It was a very nice thought of you all to write me from the Faculty Club dinner. I appreciated it very much, and wish I could have been there with so many old friends and fellowworkers. I should have written you before, for I've been thinking about you a lot since the suffrage collection and its presentation have been under way. It is an excellent thing to have done, and with you and Edna and the rest to carry it out I am sure it has been well done. I congratulate you; and since perhaps I've never happened to express at any one time to yourself my appreciation of all you did and my admiration of the way you did it,- your logical clarity of mind, and your perseverance and dependableness,- and all the rest of what is you, please let me do so now. I am very happy to have worked so closely with you all those years. Do you still actively miss Mary? I do. And Teresa too. I wonder what you are planning to do now in the immediate future. Your energy fills me with surprise and probably a little envy,- but not much. I am certainly reprehensible to be so contented [to] to end my days at leisure in the midst of beauty and comfort. Whatever you are doing I give it my blessing. With all good wishes I am As ever your friend, Gertrude Halladay Leonard Mrs. John Leonard - R.F.D. I, Box 115 - Pasadena, California Wednesday, January 5, 1944. My dear Maud, I did feel a sort of obligation to become a sponsor of the Women's Action Committee, but not because of any one person. I should be sorry not to be associated with that group of women in anything they elected to undertake; and I am grateful to you for bringing them to my attention. I hadn't happened to hear anything about it. As to my contribution to the printing of the Guide, I was delighted to have the opportunity to do my share toward that big undertaking, which was so well worth while. Edna made it quite plain that you had nothing to do with the suggestion. I wish I could have been there at the presentation, and at the dinner where you all wrote me such a friendly letter. California is a"long way off" and in spite of my satisfaction at being and staying here, I have my times of a certain homesickness for the old haunts, and for those who are left of my old friends. Happy New Year to you! and I'll keep on hoping that our futures may hold a meeting. I have great pleasure in having Mrs. Upton so near. Gertrude Halladay Leonard GERTRUDE HALLADAY LEONARD. "Gertrude Leonard was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association when I first became associated with the State organization. Her remarkable ability to carry forward the purposes of the meeting and to secure the cooperation of all the members made a big impression upon me. She also was able to get people in all parts of the state to make astounding sacrifices in order to carry forward any project that the State Board decided to undertake. As I knew her Mrs. Leonard seemed a woman of firm determination, coupled with gentleness and personal modesty which in anyone else might have been an ineffective combination but in her was an adamant characteristic. When she saw something to be done, she threw her whole personality into it and called to her assistance a group of people whom she inspired to do better than they thought they could. She was no "mush of concession". Criticism merely fortified her determination to accomplish what she thought was essential. Day after day and yearafter year she sat at her desk or presided at committee meetings, planning honest and clever methods to win votes for women in Massachusetts. All day she would work and gaily go to a movie or the theatre in the evening, and come back refreshed and vigorous for the next day's activities. Certain things she would not trust to anybody else, such as the card file made up of those who had promised to march in the remarkable parade which she and her committee managed in Boston. - 2 - If the work stretched out after hours she worked until very late and spent the night on a couch in the office. Mrs. Leonard was a remarkable executive whose strong point was management. There was one thing which she crawled out of if she could and that was making a speech. I shall never forget my astonishment when someone came from Washington to urge a change of policy on our part, how firmly Gertrude opposed it and succeeded in preventing its taking place. It was a signal victory. It was her speech at that time which carried the convention to support her program She likes to think about her work with the Massachusetts Legislature. It was a privilege to work with her. Grace Allen Johnson August 1943. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH- Gertrude Halladay Leonard. 1868 - Gertrude Halladay was born in Boston, and grew up in old Roxbury, at that time a dignified and delightful suburb. She was educated in the public schools, and at the Boston Normal School; and taught for a short time, just long enough to prove to herself that teaching was not the profession where she could be outstandingly successful, or happy. She had a careless and carefree girlhood; but after her marriage to John Leonard she wanted to use her energies at something worth while, outside of her private life; and therefore volunteered to help the Suffrage cause. From then on for some twelve years, until the winning of the vote for women, she gave an always-increasing amount of time to the Massachusetts Suffrage Association (1905-1917). During the last five years of her service she was Chairman of the State Board, and practically Acting President, as Miss Blackwell, who was president, was unable to space time from the Woman's Journal to fill the daily routine. The work of a board chairman is of course chiefly executive, and at a desk; but Mrs Maud Wood Park has said that the organization and success of the first Boston Suffrage Parade were due to Mrs. Leonard, who was the parade chairman. The main differences between this parade and any other, were that much attention was given to its artistic arrangement,- due to Miss Virginia Tanner's professional help, and that she walked beautifully at its head as "Victory"; to the fact of an unusual arrangement, by which the head of the procession drew in from the most remote position in assembling (which obviated the usual unfortunate gaps in formation); & to the fact that the parade started on time. In passing the headquarters of the Anti-Suffrage women, whose symbol at that time was a red rose, several of the bands were instructed to play the "Last Rose of Summer" with all possible gusto. The number of marchers was some 15000 (?) several times the number of those enrolled in advance; and the Parade was a great surprise to the City of Boston. The work of lobbying the members of the Massachusetts Legislature at the State House in favor of the Bill was done in great measure by Mrs. Teresa Crowley-and Mrs. Leonard, who enjoyed the interviews with the differing types of men, and the opportunities for applied psychology, more than any other experience. She remember with gratitude the unremitting help and valuable advice given by many of the men, and the courtesy shown by most of even the antagonistic. Mr. Martin Lomasney, boss of Ward 8, was supposed by us to be one of our most dangerous enemies. One day, as he was passing by on his way to his place in the House, Mrs. Leonard said, "Do you want to talk to me, Mr. Lomasney?" "No, I do not", said Mr. Lomasney, "and what is more, when the bill comes before the House, I will vote exactly as I see fit." "All right, that is fair enough", said Mrs. Leonard. And, believe it or not, Mr. Lomasney smiled at her. GERTRUDE HALLADAY LEONARD, Prominent worker for Woman Suffrage, Passes Away in California. Mrs. Gertrude Halladay Leonard, widow of John Leonard of Boston, passed away at her home in Pasadena, California, on November 13th after a short illness. Born in Boston on February 13, 1868, she was the daughter of Charles and Sarah Adams Halladay. Mrs. Leonard first became interested in the suffrage cause in 1906, and from that time until 1917 she gave an increasing amount of time to the work of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. For four years, as Chairman of the Executive Board and First Vice-President, she directed the legislative activity of the Association. Probably the most important single contribution to the campaign in Massachusetts was her organization and direction of the first Suffrage Parade. In 1918 Mrs. Leonard went to France as a member of Miss Ann Morgan's Committee for Devastated France. There she drove an ambulance for a year and served for six months with the Midi Station of the Red Cross Unit in Bordeaux. Her work in the Aisne was completed in 1920 and she returned to Boston to continue her civic work. Her public activity until 1928 included organization work with the League of Nations Non-Partisan Association and service on the Legislative Committee of the Massachusetts Civic League in connection with the bill for Wages [for] to Prisoners. A brother, Mr. Henry G. Halladay of Cambridge survives her. THE BOSTON HERALD, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1951 Mrs. Leonard Is Dead in California Funeral services were held in California yesterday for Mrs. Gertrude Halladay Leonard, 83, one-time suffrage leader in Boston who died Tuesday at her Pasadena home. As the wife of famed antique auctioneer John Leonard, she engaged actively in the suffrage cause from 1906 until her other major interest, war relief work, called her abroad as a member of the Committee for Devastated France in 1918. Overseas she drove an ambulance and served with the Bordeaux Red Cross unit. Mrs. Leonard's efforts for the franchise included her participation on a committee of three which organized the first Suffrage Parade of 1913. She was chosen Chairman of the Executive board and also first vice-president of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. After the first world war, Mrs. Leonard returned here to aid the League of Nations Non-Partisan Association and served the Massachusetts Civic League legislative committee in connection with a bill for wages to prisoners. Mrs. Leonard had spent the past decade in California in retirement several years after the death of her husband. She leaves a brother, Henry G. Halladay of Cambridge. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.