Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920

Biography of Mary L. Doe, 1836-

 

DOE, Mrs. Mary L., woman suffragist, temperance reformer and business woman, burn in Conneaut, Ohio, 27th July, 1836. Her maiden name was Thompson. Her immediate ancestors, the Thompsons and Harpers, emigrated from Vermont and settled in that portion of Ohio known as the Western Reserve. At nine years of age she was sent to the Conneaut Academy, then just completed. At fifteen she began to teach a country school for one dollar a week and "boarded around." Later she attended the State Normal School in Edinboro, Pa. She signed the pledge under one of the original Washington¡ans when but eight years old, and in 1853 she joined the Good Templars. In 1878 she became a member of the Michigan Crand Lodge of Good Templars, and held the office of grand vice-templar and of grand assistant secretary for several years. She has further shown her interest in temperance by joining the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the various other temperance organizations in the towns where she has lived. In 1877 Mrs. Doe went to Saginaw, Mich., where she at once made friends with the advocates of equal suffrage. In 1884, in a meeting called in Flint by equal suffragists of national prominence to organize a State suffrage association, Mrs. Doe was chosen president of the association. That office she held for six years. She has been active in securing many of the privileges granted to women by the Legislature of Michigan, and has spent much of her time with other equal suffragists in the State capital. Mrs. Doe changed her residence from Saginaw to Bay City in 1886, and opened a store for fancy goods.