Mabel Craft Deering

Mabel Clare Deering ( Craft; November 5, 1873 – July 8, 1953) was a San Francisco Bay Area socialite, journalist and supporter of progressive causes such as women's suffrage and the admission of black women to a national women's organization. As a University of CaliforniaAt that time there was only one campus, in Berkeley. student, she protested the awarding of a medal for scholarship that was given to a man instead of to her.

She was the first woman to edit a national Sunday magazine.

Early life and education

Craft was born on November 5, 1873, in Rochelle, Illinois, to Ellen Eugenia Coolbaugh and Richard Corson Craft.California State Library, 1906
/ref>"The High School," ''Oakland Daily Evening Tribune,'' June 2, 1888, image 3
/ref>"Popular Member of Junior League to Wed Mr. Howe," ''The San Francisco Examiner,'' August 22, 1931, image 6
/ref> Her father became "a wealthy grocer in East Oakland," California."She Doesn't Want It," ''The Examiner,'' San Francisco, June 30, 1892, image 3
/ref>

Mabel Craft attended Oakland public schools. While at Oakland High School, she participated in the Aegis Publishing Company, where she was elected to "take charge of the ladies' department." She was also president of the Girls' Debating Society"The High School," ''Oakland Daily Evening Tribune,'' February 17, 1888, image 2
/ref> and vice-president of the Irex Boating Club."The High School," ''Oakland Daily Evening Tribune,'' March 5, 1888, image 5
/ref> She graduated as valedictorian in June 1888.

Craft graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, on June 29, 1892, when she gave an address on "The Economic Position of Women."

That year she was denied a gold medal, the prestigious prize in a yearly competition for the highest grade among graduating students on the Berkeley campus. Instead, the award was offered to Joseph Baldwin Garber, who refused it because, he said, "it made invidious distinctions.""Commencement Day," ''The Examiner,'' San Francisco, June 30, 1892, image 4
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The two had almost identical records over four years. In a statement, she said that her average over four years was 93.588, while Garber's was 93.581. She stated that:"What Miss Craft Says," ''The Examiner,'' San Francisco, July 2, 1892, image 3
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Craft made an unsuccessful appeal to the Board of Regents. She said she had been informed that the university's acting president, Martin Kellogg, told the board that the award "was ''not'' given on account of the military, but because the young man was a more distinguished scholar."

Interviewed later, Kellogg said:

She would have been the first woman to win the gold medal.

Craft entered Hastings College of Law in August 1892. She was elected vice president of the sixty-member junior class in November of that year. She graduated from Hastings with a law degree.

Career

Craft worked ten years as a writer or editor on the ''San Francisco Chronicle,'' three of them as editor of the Sunday supplement magazine, the first woman in the country to hold such a position.

Her free-lance articles or stories appeared in ''Atlantic Monthly, St. Nicholas Magazine, Everybody's, Munsey's, Leslie's Weekly,'' ''Sunset'',
''New Idea Woman's Magazine,'' ''Japan,'' '' National Magazine,'' and ''Good Housekeeping.''

In 1898, she accompanied a delegation of Congress members on an inspection trip to Hawaii, which had just been taken over by the United States. She wrote a book about the islands, ''Hawaii Nei,'' after which one reviewer called her "an ardent royalist" who criticized the Republic of Hawaii for "inconsistencies which will probably stir the gorge of the leaders in Hawaii but which is rather amusing to Americans.""Hawaii Nei," ''San Francisco Chronicle,'' December 18, 1898, image 4
/ref> She recalled decades later that the book was banned from the Honolulu library because, according to a local newspaper, "in it she panned the missionaries."

''Town Talks,'' a San Francisco publication, said of her in 1899:

In 1902, ''The Anaconda Standard'' of Montana said that Craft had "made a hit when put in charge of the story about the return of the California volunteers from the Philippines, with eight reporters and three artists working under her instructions."

Activities

Women's clubs

In 1901 Craft was active in a campaign to allow organizations of Negro women to join the National Federation of Women's Clubs. The ''San Francisco Examiner'' reported that Craft, in a "spirited debate" before the Forum omen'sClub, "stood forth as the champion of the social equality of colored women.""The 'Color Line' Excites the Ladies," ''The Examiner,'' San Francisco, November 8, 1901, image 1
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In another debate, within the Philomath Club women's group, she stated:

The next year, Craft appeared before another women's group, the California Club, and, according to the ''San Francisco Examiner,''"Now She Declines Candidacy for President," ''The Examiner'' (San Francisco), January 29, 1902, image 8
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The ''Examiner'' said that Mrs. Lovell White, California Club president, announced her intention not to accept the nomination for president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs but that "the color-line question has nothing to do with my determination not to accept the nomination."

Craft was put forward in 1902 as a candidate for presidency of the National Federation (then called the General Federation), she said without her knowledge. She rejected the idea in a letter she wrote to Mrs. Robert J. Burdette, who was one of three declared candidates for the office.

Suffrage

In 1896, Craft was treasurer of the Fifth Ward Political Equality Club, a group of women suffragists. In April of that year she sought signatures at the Oakland Hall of Records on an initiative petition favoring granting California women the right to vote.

Along with her husband, Frank P. Deering ''(see below),'' by 1903 she had been made a life member of the National American Women Suffrage Association.

In 1910 Craft was added to the list of contributing editors for the women's rights publication ''Woman's Journal,'' "to take the place made vacant by the death of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe."

In 1911 she was a director of the College Women's Franchise League and chairman of the California state press committee, and in 1913, ''The Citizen'' of Ottawa, Canada, reported that "much of the credit of winning equal suffrage in California" (in 1911) belonged to her. "It is doubtful if suffrage would have secured any material vote in California without this educative work."

Marriage and family

Craft was married on November 22, 1902, to Frank P. Deering in East Oakland. A society article noted that "The bride will be unattended. A number of the groom's friends from the Bohemian Club will act as ushers." She was accompanied to the altar by her father. There were 170 guests."Frank Prentiss Deering Weds Mabel Clare Craft", ''Oakland Tribune,'' November 22, 1902, image 5
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An ''Oakland Tribune'' writer said:"Craft-Deering Wedding Today," ''Oakland Tribune'', November 22, 1902, image 6
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Between 1906 and 1939, the couple lived at 2704–2790 Larkin Street, Russian Hill, San Francisco."Stanford Trustee Succumbs in S.F.," ''Oakland Tribune'', May 19, 1939, image 22
/ref> They had a daughter, Francesca.

Frank Prentiss Deering died on May 19, 1939. Four years later, his widow moved to a new house and, as one of her social entertainments, she invited a dozen "of the most attractive and eligible bachelors in San Francisco" to be in the receiving line. They all accepted.

Death

Mabel Craft Deering died at the age of 80 on July 8, 1953, in her home at 2709 Larkin Street, San Francisco.Funeral home record
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References and notes

Further reading

Mabel Clare Craft, "Work of Women in Journalism," ''Oakland Tribune,'' April 28, 1900, image 8

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deering, Mabel Craft
American magazine editors
American women magazine editors
American magazine journalists
People from Rochelle, Illinois
1953 deaths
1873 births
Journalists from Illinois
19th-century American journalists
19th-century American women journalists
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American women journalists
20th-century American women writers
San Francisco Chronicle people
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco alumni