HISTORY AT A GLANCE

A front-page story in the May 28, 1938, Shelton Daily Spokesman began: "Despite the fact that he lost the election to the Democratic candidate for county auditor back in 1884, Clermont S. Brumbaugh, pioneer resident and long active in local politics, still treasures a copy of an 1884 issue of the Puget Sound Angus, published in Port Townsend, that showed the results of the territorial election as well as the Mason County election. Mr. Brumbaugh, still active at over 80 years of age, is the sole remaining survivor of that election."

Brumbaugh lost his 1884 bid for Mason County auditor to E. A. Wilson. Other county officers elected that year included M. Fredson, treasurer; William Callow, sheriff; Frank Kennedy, probate judge; David Shelton, school superintendent; George Huntley, coroner; and A. Jones, surveyor. Included in the paper's election tabulation column was the position of "Wreckmaster and Sheep Commissioner," won by A. H. Kneeland. This purely honorary office was a sign of political achievement and community esteem. Democrat M. C. Simmons, son of early settler Michael Simmons, ran for county commissioner against John B. Forbes, both of Kamilche. Michael Simmons' wife was a Republican and refused to vote for her husband, who nevertheless won by 13 votes.

In spite of being strongly Republican, the Washington Territory elected Democrat Charles S. Vorhees as its territorial delegate to Congress, based on his campaign to accelerate Washington's establishment of statehood (which was finally accomplished on Nov. 11, 1889).

In 1883, Washington had been the third territory in the country to approve women's suffrage. Of the 41,857 votes counted in the 1884 territorial election, 8,368 of them were cast by women. In 1887, a court decision declared the territory's suffrage law unconstitutional, ending women's right to vote. In 1910, the Washington state constitution was amended to return voting rights to women - 10 years before the Nineteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution declared that "the right of citizens of the United States shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

A biography of Mary M. Knight, written by an unknown author in 1903, was enthusiastic about the role of women in Mason County. "In some of the older states of the east the medieval notion still lingers that woman is an inferior sort of creature, not able to govern herself much less a body of people in organized form. Not so in the boundless expanse of the great Northwest, where woman is accorded all her rights, political and business as well as social and civil. For this reason, no one is surprised when he drops into Shelton and sees a woman acting as superintendent of county schools. And if he inspects the schools and sees how well Mrs. Knight has discharged the duties of superintending them, he will find that no man could have done better."

Clermont Brumbaugh had been Mrs. Knight's predecessor - he ran for office again in 1888 and was elected superintendent of county schools, serving several terms. On his 85th birthday on Nov. 5, 1940, Brumbaugh was looking forward to casting his 16th presidential vote on the following Tuesday. He had first voted for president - marking his ballot for Rutherford B. Hayes - in 1877.

■ Jan Parker is a researcher for the Mason County Historical Museum. She can be reached at [email protected]. Membership in the Mason County Historical Society is $25 per year. For a limited time, new members will receive a free copy of the book "Shelton, the First Century Plus Ten."