"I didn't do anything anyone else couldn't have done": A view of Oregon history through the ordinary life of Barbara Mackenzie

Oregon Historical Quarterly

Volumn 103, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 481-509

  Barber, Katrine ^a   Dilg, Janice ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 61049200730     PISSN: 00304727     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (74)

1. "Dalles Span Opened to Traffic in Ceremony," Oregon Journal, December 18, 1953. To avoid confusion, we will refer to Barbara Mackenzie by her married name (Mackenzie) throughout.
2. Elizabeth Jameson and Susan Armitage, eds., Writing the Range: Race, Class, and Culture in the Women's West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 5.
3. "Her Life," 1-2. Barbara Mackenzie's birth name is Amanda Barber Tudor, after one of Ezra's sisters.
4. Barbara Mackenzie, interview by authors, January 16, 2001, OHS inv. #1936, Research Library, Oregon Historical Society, Portland [hereafter OHS Research Library]. The college, located on the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, began as the Western Female Seminary in 1855 and became the Western College for Women in 1905.
5. Polk's Portland (Oregon) City Directory (Portland, Ore.: R.L. Polk, 1909), 1346
6. and House and Street Directory, Portland, Oregon (Portland, Ore.: Crane Direct Mail Service, 1933).
7. Also see "Report of Inspection," Building Records, Office of Planning and Development Review, City of Portland, Portland, Oregon. Mackenzie's biography states 1907 as the year of the move to Portland, but the first listing for Ezra Tudor in Polk's city directory is 1909, and the final inspection permit at 1397 Burrage (now 6623 N. Burrage) is listed as October 26, 1911. Both houses remain today.
8. "Her Life," 4-5.
9. G.H. Lee, A History of Sutherlin, Oregon (Roseburg, Ore.: Umpqua Print and Copy Center, 1990), 20, 22.
10. Stephen Dow Beckham, Land of the Umpqua: A History of Douglas County, Oregon (Roseburg, Ore.: Douglas County Commission, 1986), 141.
11. Mackenzie interview, January 16, 2001.
12. "Will Ask County to Help Library," Sutherlin Sun, November 2, 1917.
13. "Nominations, Department of the Interior, Hearing before the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, United States Senate," 83rd Cong., 1st sess., February 5, 1953, 31-9.
14. "Her Lire," 10.
15. Women's domestic labor has often been viewed as a natural duty, and economists have routinely defined it as "leisure" because it happens outside of market relationships. Nona Y. Glazer, Women's Paid and Unpaid Labor: The Work Transfer in Health Care and Retailing (Philadelphia, Penn.: Temple University Press, 1993), 37. Although Ida Jane was incapacitated by mental illness throughout most of her adult life, she did work at low-paying jobs in retail and at various hospitals in Portland and Bend and partially supported herself financially.
16. Mackenzie was under the impression that St. Mary's was not an accredited high school. In order to enroll at the Western College for Women, Mackenzie needed a high school diploma, so, according to her, she decided to leave St. Mary's Academy. Our research indicates, however, that St. Mary's was accredited at the time that Mackenzie was a student. At that time midyear graduations were common.
17. The Jeanne d'Arc was located at the corner of S.W. Fourteendi Avenue and Jefferson Street.
18. "Sisters of Mercy to Convert Old Hotel into Residence Hall," Oregon Journal, April 10, 1919. The Jeanne d'Arc's name during the exposition was the Hobart Curtis.
19. Louise Aaron, "This Was Portland," Oregon Journal, October 27, 1957.
20. Mildred Weeks, "Comfort and Peace Rule Residence Hall, with Fun and Health Abiding," Oregon Journal, January 22, 1928.
21. Nina Mjagkij and Margaret Spratt, eds, Men and Women Adrift: The YMCA and the YWCA in the City (New York: New York University Press, 1997), 1.
22. Weeks, "Comfort and Peace Rule."
23. See Joanne J. Meyerowitz, Women Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1880-1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).
24. and deceased card file, Western College for Women Alumnae Association, Western Archives, Peabody Hall, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
25. William Chafe, The Paradox of Change: American Women in the Twentieth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 103.
26. Mabel Newcomber, A Century of Higher Education for American Women (New York: Harper, 1959), 46.
27. The Sixty-ninth Annual Catalog of the Western College for Women, 1923-1924, Western College Memorial Archives, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, 17.
28. Julia Kirk Blackwelder, Now Hiring: The Feminization of Work in the United States, 1900-1995 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997), 68.
29. Mackenzie was drawn into a protest against the hospital's policy prohibiting students from cutting their hair. Several older students "bobbed" Mackenzie's and another trainee's hair, supposedly without their consent. Those actions created an uproar among the hospital staff, resulted in a two-week suspension of the two students, and generated headlines in a Cincinnati newspaper. Mackenzie did not go back to the hospital after her suspension. Instead, she returned to Oregon to pack apples at Hood River. "Nurses Who Found Locks Shorn Are Suspended from Hospital," newspaper clipping, source unknown, Health Sciences Library, Jewish Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio.
30. The Norm [yearbook], 1924, 16;
31. Anne Fox, Reference Librarian for Archives, Western Oregon University, to authors, January 18, 2001. Enrollment stood at 424 in 1922, jumping to 933 by 1927. In 1926, the school educated 79 male students out of a total enrollment of 950.
32. Oregon Normal School Bulletin, catalog number 1924-1925, Robert W. Straub Archive, Hamersly Library, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, Oregon [hereafter WOU], 11-13.
33. Newspaper clipping, December 28, 1924, vertical files, School - Colleges and Universities - Western Oregon State College, OHS Research Library.
34. The Norm, 1924, 146.
35. "Work of League of Women Is Explained," The Lamron, June 13, 1927, WOU.
36. The Norm, 1926, 46.
37. Women constituted 78.7 percent of all social workers and 81 percent of all teachers in 1930. Newcomber, A Century of Higher Education, 179.
38. Chafe, Paradox of Change, 110.
39. In 1955, only 27 percent of women with children under the age of eighteen worked outside the home. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://stats.bls.gov.
40. Oregon State College (now Oregon State University), annual catalog, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945.
41. Foster Rhea Dulles, The American Red Cross (New York: Harper, 1950), 374;
42. Dulles, American Red Cross, 374, 379, 395.
43. These scrapbooks can be found at the Mid-Willamette Valley American Red Cross, Albany, Oregon [hereafter Mid-Willamette Valley ARC].
44. Annual Meeting Minutes, Benton County ARC, October 4, 1943, Violet Turner Envelope-1943, Cummings Box 3, Mid-Willamette Valley ARC. Violet Turner was executive secretary of the Benton County Chapter in the 1950s.
45. Dulles, American Red Cross, 384.
46. "Damage Great in All Sections of Country," Oregon City Enterprise, January 3, 1943;
47. "Willamette Falling Steadily All Day, After Highest since 1911," Corvallis Gazette Times, January 2, 1943;
48. "Red Cross Rushing Flood Relief Work," Salem Capital Journal, January 7, 1943.
49. See also "Willamette River Flood, 31 December 1942-4 January 1943," December 30, 1943, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, Oregon.
50. Meeting Minutes, November 8, 1943, Violet Turner Envelope-1943, Cummings Box 3, Mid-Willamette Valley ARC.
51. James T. Nicholson, "The Social Service Program of the American Red Cross," in Social Service in Wartime, ed. Helen Wright (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944), 91-2.
52. "Red Cross Has a New Secretary," Yaquina Bay News, October 9, 1947;
53. "Red Cross Asks Funds For Co.," Newport News, March 1, 1951.
54. U.S., Bonneville Power Administration, The Economic Base for Power Markets in Oregon, vol. 7, Lincoln County, by Carol Colver (Portland, Ore.: Division of Industrial and Resources Development, Market Analysis Section, 1946), 11, at Multnomah County Library, Portland, Ore.
55. Lincoln County's Road from Mud to Glory (Newport, Ore.: Lincoln County Historical Society, 1995), videocassette.
56. "Red Cross Action Reported," Newport News, February 5, 1948;
57. "County Red Cross Issues Annual Report," Newport News, October 7, 1948; Mackenzie interview, January 16, 2001.
58. "County Red Cross Issues Annual Report," Newport News, October 7, 1948.
59. Colver, "Economic Base for Power Markets," 12.
60. "Red Cross Campaign Short $2000 of Goal," Newport News, April 1, 1948.
61. "Thrift shop in Operation," Newport News, November 3, 1949;
62. "Red Cross Begins Drive for 1950 Fund Raising," Newport News, March 2, 1950.
63. "Her Life," 43, 47. Against Barbara's wishes, Ida Jane would follow the Mackenzies to The Dalles, where she again lived separately from them in an apartment in town. Little mention is made of their relationship after this period. According to Tom Mackenzie, Jr., Ida Jane resided in a full-care facility in Portland until her death on October 10, 1961. Telephone interview by Katrine Barber, December 5, 2000. Ezra Tudor died on April 7, 1955.
64. "Population of Oregon Cities, Counties and Metropolitan Areas, 1850 to 1957: A Compilation of Census Counts and Estimates in Oregon," University of Oregon, Bureau of Municipal Research and Service, Information Bulletin, no. 106, April 1958, 4.
65. "Interviews Set on Relocation," The Dalles Chronicle, November 28, 1956.
66. Barbara Mackenzie, interview by Katrine Barber, August 27, 1999, OHS inv. #1936, OHS Research Library.
67. Mackenzie interview, August 27, 1999.
68. Flora Thompson, oral history, OHS Research Library.
69. "Narrative Report - Celilo Relocation Project," n.d., Folder "Misc. Pertaining to Celilo Relocation," Portland Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Portland, Oregon.
70. "Minutes of Committee Meetings," Mss. 2678, Box 1, Folder 3, "Celilo Falls Indian Relocation Project Records, 1955-1957," OHS Research Library.
71. "Narrative Report - Celilo Relocation Project," 4, 5.
72. Barbara Mackenzie, interview by Katrine Barber, September 30, 1999, OHS inv. #1936, OHS Research Library.
73. Barbara Mackenzie to Donald Foster, December 31, 1956, Mss. 2678, Box 1, Folder 2, "Correspondence, July 1956-1957," OHS Research Library.
74. See, for example, "Her Life," 74.