Thank you, Phoebe King Ensminger Burn
It was 100 years ago today that Harry T. Burn did what he was told.
He listened to his mama.
And the result of doing that simple thing was historic in every sense of that word.
It was precisely 100 years ago today that Harry T. Burn, a young politician from McMinn County, cast the deciding vote in the Tennessee House of Representatives on a proposition of monumental consequence.
The proposition: votes for women.
By the spring of 1920, 35 states had voted to ratify the proposed constitutional amendment granting suffrage to women: Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan had been the first in June of 1919, and Washington State had been the 35th in March of 1920.1
But 36 states were needed for the amendment to become law. And eight of the remaining 13 states had already voted it down.2
When it reached the House of Representatives in Tennessee in August of 1920, the vote on the amendment was deadlocked at 48-to-48.3 Burn — just 24 years old at the time4 — had expressed serious doubts about the issue that had come before the House for a vote. He’d initially taken a position against it.5
But then the moment came when that young Tennessee representative changed his mind, cast his vote and broke the tie.
That one vote made Tennessee the 36th state to ratify the amendment. And women acrtoss the United States won the right to vote.6
So… what happened on that day in August 1920? What changed young Harry T. Burn’s mind?
The story is that he listened to his mother. He had received a note from her, dated the 17th of August. A note both utterly mundane and utterly earthshaking.
“Dear Son,” it begins. “I wish you were home too. We have had nothing but rain since you left.”7 After more complaints about the rain, and talking about visitors, she changed the subject:
Hurrah and vote for Suffrage and don’t keep them in doubt. … I’ve been watching to see how you stood but have not seen anything yet.8
Then it’s back to routine matters. The sale of a house. Getting ready for a wedding. Someone being sick.
And then once more:
Don’t forget to be a good boy, and help Mrs. “Thomas Catt” with her “Rats.” Is she the one that put rat in ratification? Ha! No more from Mama this time. With lots of love.9
“Mama” was Phoebe (or Febbie) King (Ensminger) Burn. Born in Tennessee 23 November 1873,10 she married James Lafayette Burn the day after Christmas in 1894.11 Harry was the first of their four children.
And she was a remarkable woman in every way:
Phoebe, or Febb, … held a degree from U.S. Grant University, now Tennessee Wesleyan University, unusual for women of her day. … (H)er husband was stationmaster at Mouse Creek (Niota) for the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway. He was founder of Crescent Hosiery Mill and associated with the Bank of Niota.
After her husband passed Febb ran the family farm, which she renamed to “Hathburn” … She was an important influence in all her children’s lives and passed away in 1945.
Febb served as a local school teacher, attended Niota Methodist Church, and was an avid reader. She read three newspapers each day, enjoyed magazines, novels and classic books and was a supporter of suffrage for many years, following those she called “the militants” and other leaders of the women’s movement.
She said she wrote the famous letter to her son while sitting on the porch of her Niota home.12
Burn was quoted later in life as saying that, in the end, he couldn’t vote against suffrage for women when his college-educated mother was denied the vote while illiterate tenant farmers in the district he represented could vote. So maybe it wasn’t the note from his mother that made the difference.
But he had it in his pocket when he voted.
When he did as he was told.
And listened to his mama.
Thank you, Phoebe King Ensminger Burn. Even if the note itself didn’t make the difference, you did. You raised a good boy indeed.
And we will all vote, this year and every year, to celebrate this incredible anniversary.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Doing as he was told,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 18 Aug 2020).
SOURCES
Image: Envelope, Letter to Harry Burn from Mother, Knox County (Tenn.) Public Library.
- See Wikipedia (https://www.wikipedia.com), “Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” rev. 18 Aug 2020. ↩
- Ibid. ↩
- Mike Steely, “Niota, where one vote counts,” The Knoxville Focus, posted 9 Dec 2013 (http://knoxfocus.com/ : accessed 18 Aug 2020). ↩
- Delayed Certificate of Birth No. D-343860, Harry Thomas Burn, 12 Nov 1895; Tennessee Division of Vital Statistics, Nashville; digital images, “Tennessee, Delayed Birth Records, 1869-1909,” Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 Aug 2018). ↩
- Mike Steely, “The Woman Behind Women’s Right to Vote,” The Knoxville Focus, updated 18 Aug 2020 (http://knoxfocus.com/ : accessed 18 Aug 2020). ↩
- See “Women’s Suffrage: Tennessee and the Passage of the 19th Amendment,” Tennessee State Library and Archives (https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/ : accessed 18 Aug 2020). ↩
- Letter to Harry Burn from Mother, page 1; Digital Collection, Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, Knox County Public Library (https://cmdc.knoxlib.org/cdm/ : accessed 18 Aug 2020). ↩
- Ibid., page 2. ↩
- Ibid., page 6. ↩
- Niota Cemetery, McMinn County, Tennessee, Febb Burn marker; digital image, Find A Grave (http://findagrave.com : accessed 18 Aug 2020). ↩
- McMinn County, Tennessee, Marriage Book 5: 121, Burn-Ensminger, 26 Dec 1894; County Clerk, Athens; digital images, “Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 18 Aug 2020). ↩
- Steely, “The Woman Behind Women’s Right to Vote.” ↩
Actually…Harry Burn voted twice to table the Amendment – with his Mama’s letter in his pocket – before his change of heart.
On that last vote, Harry Burn cast his vote in favor early in the roll call. Banks Turner’s vote, in the order it was cast, broke the tie. But Harry Burn gets all the credit for the note from his Mama that he – eventually – took to heart.
Well, then, thanks to them all — with the nudge from Harry’s Mama.
Possibly he had just received his mother’s letter and just not opened it to read it until after the first two votes, thus it was in his pocket. I’m still giving Phoebe Ensminger Burns the credit. Women like her and Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Dora Lewis, and Mary Nolan fought for and earned it for us. 72 years to force the vote unwillingly from the clenched hold of men. Thank you, Phoebe!
PS Highly recommend a visit to the Women’s Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls, NY, where it all began. And remember, the struggle for equality still continues with the ERA amendment.
Thanks so much for this informative and significant piece of history. I’ve passed it on to my genealogy group and posted it on Facebook. This is one of your best Judy. Keep them coming!
This is a great post Judy. I loved the story of one man doing what he thought was right by his mother and other women. Men supporting the vote for women have been few and far between. In New Zealand, the first attempt in 1878 to give women the vote failed by a very narrow margin and it wasn’t until 1893 that it finally passed the NZ Parliament. Australia was slower – 1902 – the second country to give women the vote and the first in the world to allow them to stand for Parliament. BUT it took until 1997 for an NZ female Prime Minister and 2010 for an Australian one. The US may have a female President in the not too distant future – we can only hope!
We sure can hope… I would just adore living long enough to see a woman elected President here.
Small acts can make a difference.
South Australia was the second country in the world to give women the vote – on 18 December 1894. It was an independent colony then, and made its own decisions on such subjects. Sadly, the reasons were not just about the women’s right to vote, but what they wanted to do with it: improve the lot of women and children. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was a prime lobbyer. Drink was seen as removing money from household finances as much as removing support for running the household and child raising. And drink was linked to domestic violence. The evidence of those influences in South Australia are there in public debates, newspaper articles and private writings. During WW1 they succeeded in restricting drinking hours – to close at 6 o’clock with the idea that a worker would be able to do a hard day’s work the following day to support the war effort.
(And get home to his family at a reasonable time on the day itself.)
If I remember correctly, the South Australian WCTU had great support from their sisters in USA in their initial struggle.
Harry T. Burn was my great-grand uncle and his mother Febb Burn was my great-great grandmother. Last year, my comprehensive biography of Harry published. Titled “Tennessee Statesman Harry T. Burn,” it tells the complete and true story of their small but crucial role in the ratification of the 19th Amendment in Tennessee.
A few corrections:
Febb was her given name. It was not Phoebe.
Banks Turner did NOT cast the tie breaking vote. He twice voted against the resolution to table the amendment. Harry Burn, on the other hand, voted twice to table. But on the third roll call (on the “merits”of the resolution) Burn voted “aye,” breaking the tie. Anti-suffrage House Speaker Seth Walker then switched his vote to “aye,” because voting on the prevailing side gave him the opportunity to bring it up for reconsideration a few days later (which failed).
That Harry Burn voted to break the tie is historic fact that has been accepted for a century. Primary sources prove this, including pages 91-92 of the 1920 House Journal. Newspapers from August 1920 also properly credit Burn with the deciding vote.
Lastly, my great-great grandmother had the letter mailed to her son Harry Burn on Monday August 16. A House page delivered the letter to Harry on the steps of the state capitol BEFORE the legislature convened that morning. He had already read the letter before he cast his two votes for tabling and the tie-breaking vote.
Febb Ensminger Burn indeed deserves a lot of credit for helping her conflicted son make the decision to vote in favor of ratification. These two ordinary citizens from Republican Unionist East Tennessee played small but crucial roles at the very end of the woman suffrage movement. The work of the Suffragists for over seven decades made Harry Burn’s deciding vote possible.
People get really confused by it all, so I try to explain it like this: The suffragists had been keeping a tally of who they exected to vote “aye” and “nay” on resolution to ratify. After Turner had a change of heart earlier in the day, he added to the list of men to vote “aye” on ratification, making the expected votes a tie. But because Harry also changed his vote, it was Burn’s UNexpected “aye” that broke what would have been a tie.
And please do not use “Phoebe” as it is incorrect. Febb was her name.