Photographs of and letter to Effie Simmons

Collection

Identifier: Coll 940

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of three portrait photographs of Effie Simmons taken between approximately 1920 and 1930, and a letter to Simmons from Myrtle A. Johnson (signed as Mrs. G. E. Johnson) dated February 10, 1923. In the letter, Johnson congratulates Simmons on her election to the Oregon House of Representatives and says that Simmons has been mentioned in the local papers of Boston, Massachusetts, where Johnson was residing. Johnson also says she misses her friends from Oregon, but expects to return there in 1924, when her daughter Helen has finished studying at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Dates

circa 1920-1930

Creator

Simmons, Effie, 1874-1961 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.

Biographical Note

Effie Decker Simmons, nee Comstock, was born in 1874 in California. In 1897, she married Clayton B. Simmons. She was living in Portland, Oregon, by 1908, when she joined the Portland Woman's Club. Simmons was present at the founding of the National League of Women Voters in 1920 in Chicago, Illinois, and was appointed as a regional director with the task of organizing the organization's Oregon branch. In 1922, she was elected state representative for Multnomah County; she was the first woman to represent the county in the Oregon State Legislature. In 1924, she unsuccessfully ran to be a state senator. Simmons died in 1961.

Sources: Articles in the Oregonian and Oregon Journal, 1922-1986; vital records on Ancestry.com; notice in the Oakland Tribune, December 18, 1897, accessed through Ancestry.com.

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (1 folder in shared box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Three portrait photographs of Effie Simmons (1874-1961), and a letter to Simmons from Myrtle A. Johnson (1875-1935). Simmons was a member of the Portland Woman's Club, a regional director for the League of Women Voters, and the first woman to represent Multnomah County in the Oregon Legislature.