Cole County History: Clara Binder, early local advocate for women

This year, our nation marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. That landmark event was the culmination of years of activity in communities across the country that laid the groundwork for that momentous event. One of those early, unrecorded local advocates in Jefferson City was Clara Binder. And she was only 16 years old.

Clara was born Feb. 6, 1866. Her mother was Katharine Hugershoff, born to the Blochbergers, immigrants from Muenchberg, Germany, in the Brazito neighborhood. Her father was Franz Hugershoff, a Civil War veteran, who had moved to Missouri after the war. Sadly, Franz died six months after Clara's birth and was buried in Jefferson City's Woodland Cemetery. In 1868, widow Katherine married Fred Binder, who had just arrived in Jefferson City as a single young man from Germany. Though Fred Binder treated baby Clara as his own daughter and she was known as Clara Binder, he never legally adopted her.

We assume Clara's mother was a typical, pioneer woman - a hard-working farmer's wife, who deferred to her husband in all matters and had no schooling. In contrast, stepfather Fred Binder was an energetic, progressive young man who set out immediately to make his mark in Jefferson City. Within a few years, he had his own contracting business and in 1873 built his residence in Jefferson City's emerging Southside Muenchberg. He was builder of St. Peter Catholic Church in 1883, Central Evangelical Church (now Central United Church of Christ) in 1891, and several High Street buildings. A public-spirited businessman, he was involved in civic projects like the water works, first Missouri River bridge, Carnegie Public Library, and the first building and loan association. He served on City Council, was mayor and was along-time member of the board of education. Unquestionably, the achievements of this highly successful entrepreneur and progressive civic leader made an indelible impression on his daughter. Clara would have been considered a young woman of privilege who had plenty of books and stimuli around her.

Clara had a public school education through high school at a time when almost all women ended schooling after eighth grade. Further education for women was not deemed necessary. The nature of Clara's high school courses and competencies of her teachers is unknown. Did they encourage independent thinking, or was it rote learning as commonly thought for the time? And how did she become concerned with the education of women?

Clara graduated from Jefferson City High School in May 1882. She gave her commencement speech in beautiful, literary English in front of a male-dominated assembly of parents, the school board (her stepfather was secretary) and city leaders. The full text of her speech has been preserved, thanks to the memoirs of her husband, music professor Francis Joseph Zeisberg, whom she married in 1887. Her speech showed her boldness and precociousness in liberating women to be themselves in a male-dominated society.

Clara's speech, "Earnest Purposes," was entirely about what a woman's education should be. She opened by saying women have two possible careers in life. One is to hunt for a husband then be his dutiful wife, which she dismissed as unfulfilling to her. The other is to expend her energies on trivialities, like painting, that also would not be fulfilling. She would have "nothing to be in earnest about. A wholly purposeless existence is a despicable one." The woman would exist "in a cocoon woven of her own dreams."

Young Clara ended her speech by arguing, in contrast to what she experienced, a woman's education should prepare her for a life of her own, independent of her husband or anyone else: "Parents give your daughters from their earliest years the physical training that will give them healthy bodies for healthy minds. Give them an education and an occupation that will give them independence of thought and action and that pure earnest purpose, without which no life is rounded or complete." She was arguing for a purposeful life for women.

Imagine a 16-year-old girl of that time having the audacity to admonish the audience of her seniors - composed of her male teachers, the male school board and parents - to change the way girls are taught, to be themselves and not appendages of their husbands.

While big events like passage of the 19th Amendment make the history books, we must not forget that in every town, women - even a 16-year-old high school girl in Jefferson City - were quietly laying the groundwork to change minds toward women's rights.

Walter Schroeder grew up in Jefferson City's historic German Southside now known as Old Munichburg. A retired professor of geography, he is devoted to preserving cultural history and is the author of three books on the history of the Old Munichburg neighborhood.