Sara Bard Field

Sara Bard Field (September 1, 1882 – June 15, 1974) was an American poet, suffragist, free love advocate, Georgist, and Christian socialist. She worked on successful campaigns for women's suffrage in Oregon and Nevada. Working with Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, Field drove across the country from California to Washington, D.C. to present a petition containing a reported 500,000 signatures demanding a federal suffrage amendment to President Woodrow Wilson. She was known as a skilled orator and became a poet later in her career, marrying her long-time partner and mentor, poet and lawyer C.E.S. Wood.

Early life and marriage

Sara Bard Field was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 1, 1882, to Annie Jenkins (''née'' Stevens) and George Bard Field. Her mother had a Quaker background and her father was a strict Baptist. Their family moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1885. Sara graduated from Detroit Central High School in 1900. She married minister Albert Ehrgott, a man twice her age, in September 1900. She traveled with Ehrgott through India to Rangoon, Burma. She gave birth to a son, Albert Field, in 1901 and sustained injuries from childbirth. She returned to the United States in 1902 and the family settled in New Haven, Connecticut.

Ehrgott relocated to a parish in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1903. The pair were influenced by the Christian socialism and Georgism movements. Sara started a kindergarten and soup kitchen there and came to the attention of Progressive Cleveland mayor Tom L. Johnson. Her sister, Mary Field, introduced her to lawyer Clarence Darrow. Sara gave birth to a daughter, Katherine Louise, in 1906. Field's son died in an automobile accident while she was driving in October 1918. She suffered a breakdown from which she never completely recovered.

Western Suffrage Activism

Following the birth of their daughter, the Ehrgotts moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1910. Sara was introduced to C.E.S. Wood by Clarence Darrow. The two became friends and she was hired to be Wood's assistant, offering critiques of his work. Their friendship grew into a love affair. She joined the Oregon College Equal Suffrage League and continued the work of Abigail Scott Duniway, campaigning for suffrage throughout Oregon. She toured the state giving speeches during the summer of 1911 and that fall she worked as a reporter for the ''Oregon Daily Journal'', covering the trial of the McNamara brothers, who had bombed the ''Los Angeles Times'' building. She toured Oregon again during the summer of 1912 and her marriage began to crumble.

During 1913–1914, she established residency in Nevada in order to pursue a divorce and used her time there to campaign for women's suffrage in Nevada. Over the objection of her husband, she was granted a divorce in November 1914, reverting to her maiden name. Ehrgott was awarded custody of their children and moved to Berkeley, California. Field moved to San Francisco to be close to her son and daughter.

Field became involved in the national movement for women's suffrage and became a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association's Congressional Union and later the National Woman's Party. Field participated in suffrage activities at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (or World's Fair) in San Francisco, where suffragist leader Alice Paul selected Field and California suffragist Frances Jolliffe to drive across the country to hand-deliver to President Woodrow Wilson a petition of signatures gathered demanding a federal suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Field, Jolliffe, and two Swedish women (Ingeborg Kinstedt and Maria Kindberg) left San Francisco on September 16, 1915 in a celebratory kick-off event at the Panama-Pacific International Expo. Jolliffe left the car in Nevada, because of illness, but rejoined the group on the East Coast. Suffragist and Congressional Union (CU) organizer Mabel Vernon traveled by train ahead of the envoys and organized parades, receptions, and meetings with local politicians, all in an effort to garner publicity for the road trip and the suffrage cause. The trip was reported in the CU's weekly journal, The Suffragist, as well as in local and national newspapers. The suffrage envoys completed their journey on December 6, 1915 and presented the petition to President Woodrow Wilson in Washington D.C.

Field spoke at the Chicago convention of the National Woman's Party in 1916, and on behalf of Anne Henrietta Martin during Martin's bid for the U.S. Senate from Nevada. Field also suggested the suffragist slogan "No votes, no babies!" In the summer of 1917, Field stayed in Newport, Rhode Island, where she helped millionaire socialite Alva Belmont write her memoirs. In February 1921, Field represented the NWP in presenting a women's rights statue to the U.S. Congress, a statue currently on display in the Capitol Rotunda.

Later life and poetry

Field began living with lawyer and poet Charles Erskine Scott Wood in San Francisco after 1918. His wife refused to grant him a divorce. Field focused on her poetry and the couple hosted local artists at their home such as Genevieve Taggard, Benny Bufano, Ralph Stackpole, Llewelyn Powys, and George Sterling. Wood was wealthy and the couple were patrons of the arts and supported political causes, including the pardon of Tom Mooney and a birth control clinic. In 1923 Field moved with Wood to a estate named "The Cats" in Los Gatos, California.

Field's first collection of poetry, ''The Pale Woman'', was published in 1927. She followed the collection with the epic poem ''Barabbas'' in 1932. ''Barabbas'' earned her a gold medal from the Book Club of California. Her second collection of poetry, ''Darkling Plain'', was published in 1936.

Following the death of his wife, Wood married Field in 1938. Wood died in 1944 and in 1955, Field moved near her daughter in Berkeley. Field died from arteriosclerotic heart disease on June 15, 1974.

Selected works

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Further reading

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See also

* List of suffragists and suffragettes
* Timeline of women's suffrage

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Sara Bard
1882 births
1974 deaths
20th-century American poets
20th-century American women writers
Activists from California
Activists from Ohio
American Christian pacifists
American feminists
American suffragists
American women poets
American women's rights activists
College Equal Suffrage League
Female Christian socialists
Free love advocates
Georgists
National Woman's Party activists
Poets from Oregon
Proponents of Christian feminism
Writers from Cincinnati
Writers from Portland, Oregon
Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area