#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 10 Strong Woman: Louise Gwynn Scrivener Suffragette

In this 100th anniversary of women's suffrage, it seems a good time to celebrate the efforts of my great-grandmother, Louise Carmelite Keene Gwynn, as an advocate for women.  Louise, called "Lulie" or "Lulu" as a young woman, was born in Brooklyn NY 27 February 1872, the daughter of Captain Andrew Jackson Gwynn, a Confederate veteran, and Marie Louise Keene, both native Marylanders.  Her grandfather, Benjamin Gaither Keene, served as member of the Maryland House of  Delegates.

Although she was born in Brooklyn, Lulie grew up in Spartanburg SC where her parents ultimately settled after the Civil War, along with her five brothers and sisters. The family was deeply Catholic.

Mount St. Agnes

Lulie, along with her older sister Effie Gwynn,  attended Mount St. Agnes College in Baltimore (founded in 1890 by the Sisters of Mercy.) Following her graduation, Lulie became a fierce advocate of Catholic education and women's education.  She served as president of the Mount Saint Agnes Alumnae in the early 1900's.  (The 1901 Reunion program notes that she gave a vocal solo and a toast to "Woman's Place in the World of Song." )

She later (1915) founded the Maryland chapter of the International Federation of Catholic Alumnae and was its first governor. In 1919, she was awarded a medal for leading her chapter in the Liberty Loan campaign during WWI.  At the same meeting, she urged her members to work in support of the vote for women:

 "Let us then, as women of Maryland, face the problems of the future squarely....Let us prepare ourselves to take up the right of suffrage, wisely using it to promote legislation for the good of humanity. " (Baltimore Sun, 22 June 1919)

Great-grandmother took up the challenge soon after women received the right to vote.  She became one of the first women in Maryland to run for elective office, campaigning for the Democratic State Central Committee, the governing body of Maryland's Democratic Party.

Mrs. B.J. Byrne, Mrs. Samuel K. Thomas, and Louise Gwynn Scrivener

In July 1921, the Democratic Women's Club of Baltimore nominated 12 women to run for the Committee, marking the first time that a political organization of women had "definitely taken action toward making a fight to get women into office" (Baltimore Sun, 30 July 1921).  On 11 August 1921, Louise was one of three women from the Second Legislative District who filed for candidacy with the supervisor of elections.


The Women's Club put a tremendous effort into the election, sending out more than 9000 mailers and knocking on doors of voters to encourage participation.  In addition, Louise was in charge of the "automobile brigade" to round up voters and bring them to the polls. Of the three women, two of them (Louise and Mrs. Byrne) won election in September's primary.  (This being a party office, candidates only had to run in the Democratic primary.)

When election day came in November, Louise was again working hard to get women voters to the polls, running the "automobile brigade" that would ferry women voters to and from the polls.  Their aim was to get every last registered woman to vote.

I never knew my great-grandmother; she died before I was born.  But judging from the copies that I have of various speeches she made and the comments of my parents and uncles and aunts who did know her, she was a force to be reckoned with.  I have no doubt that if Louise Gwynn Scrivener told someone to get in the car and go vote, that person got in the car and voted.

She was fierce in defending her opinions and worked tirelessly on many civic projects in Baltimore and throughout the state.  She served on a number of Gubernatorial Commissions such as the Commission for the reorganization of State Departments (1922), the Commission for the Bicentennial of George Washington's Birthday (1924) and the Maryland Tercentenary Commission (1929).

As a Regent of the DAR, founder of the Pilgrims of St. Mary's, and member of the Colonial Dames, Daughters of the Confederacy and other hereditary societies, Louise was devoted to local and family history.  I was lucky enough to inherit her voluminous scrapbook as well as the bulk of her notes and that led me to a lifelong interest in genealogy and Maryland history.