Eastern Iowa Farmer Fall 2020

Eloise Tabor Stewart works with her
father-in-law, James Stewart, on the
family’s farm in Preston. Besides driving
a tractor, Eloise did many chores and
particularly liked working with cattle.
Eloise drives the tractor while James
mans the oat binder.
Eloise Tabor Stewart,
right, poses with one
of her friends in the
flapper-style clothing
that was popular in
the 1920s.
(Below) Amelia
MacDonald Cutler
authored this suffrage
handbill, “Six Reasons
Why Farmers’
Wives Should Vote.”
Courtesy of the Virginia
Commonwealth
University Libraries.
Eastern Iowa Farmer
photos / Contributed
decades later ran a farm herself after
being widowed, drove that car to town
the same year the 19th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution passed giving women
the right to vote. Rural Iowa played a
role in that pivotal moment in history.
Political roots
Eloise’s father, George Washington
Tabor, was a state senator from 1929
to 1933 when he lost the Democratic
primary to Carolyn Campbell Pendray,
who was from Maquoketa.
In a letter to Eloise after the election
her mother wrote, “Your dad
didn’t like being beat by a woman.
He went to bed for three days.”
Not only was Pendray the
first woman elected to the state
Legislature (she was sworn into
the Iowa House in 1929), she
later became the first woman to
preside over the Iowa Senate,
pointed out Linda Stewart, who
is married to Eloise’s grandson
Tom.
“Carolyn Pendray was a
pioneer,” Linda said.
While Eloise never ran for
office, her brother, Howard,
and her son, Roger, both served in the
Iowa Legislature. A lifelong Democrat,
she lobbied on behalf of Farm Bureau
Women and never missed an election.
“She took her voting rights very seriously,”
said Jennie, who is the family historian.
Even when macular degeneration
robbed her of most of her eyesight, “she
insisted on me getting her to the polls.”
And exercising that right can be partly
traced to another young girl in rural Iowa.
A leader emerges
Years before Eloise drove that car, future
suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt
had a ringside seat to spirited, dinner-table
political conversations at the family
farm outside of Charles City, Iowa.
“Her experience on the farm is where
she became a suffragist. Her family talked
politics. They were great fans of Horace
Greely,” said Karen Kedrowski, director
of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for
Women and Politics and professor of political
science at Iowa State University.
Greely, a newspaper editor and publisher
active in politics, ran for president
eifarmer.com fall 2020 | Eastern Iowa Farmer 13