Fern Hobbs

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Fern Hobbs (1913)

Fern Hobbs (* 8. May 1883 in Bloomington , Nebraska ; † 10. April 1964 ) was the private secretary of Oswald West of the Governor US state of Oregon , which made national headlines when he them into lying to the east of Oregon City Copperfield sent so that she enforced the establishment of a state of emergency there. Later in life, she worked for the American Red Cross and the Oregon Journal .

Early life

Hobbs was the daughter of John Alden Hobbs and Cora Bush Hobbs. In 1904 the family moved from Nebraska to Hillsboro and Fern began working for J. Wesley Ladd in Portland . In addition to her work, she also took part in the education of her younger siblings and studied shorthand and law. In 1913 she graduated from Willamette University College of Law , which she received with an LL.B. left.

Copperfield, Oregon

After graduating from law school, Hobbs began working for Oswald West , governor of Oregon , as a private secretary. In this capacity, West sent her to Copperfield , Oregon, with a group of six armed men on January 2, 1914 . This included BK Lawson, a guard at the Oregon State Prison. Her instructions included restoring law and order to the small town in eastern Oregon. Copperfield, located on the Snake River in Baker County , had grown due to various railway and power station- related construction projects. Bars, brothels , dance halls and gambling dens came along with the workplaces . 1500 workers had come to the region for the construction of the railway or the power station. As a result, general lawlessness had spread as the city no longer had any police force and local government officials were also becoming bartenders. At the time, the sale of brandy in the state of Oregon was illegal. Because of these problems, some residents asked the state government for help.

Because of this appeal, Governor West had asked the county's leadership to restore order, shut down the saloons and force the corrupt town leadership to resign by December 25, 1913. However, those responsible in the county administration remained inactive and therefore West Hobbs dispatched the site. Hobbs was a petite woman who was only six feet tall and weighed less than fifty pounds. The woman arrived with her companions to restore order and with orders, if necessary, to impose a state of emergency . After the city officials gathered for a meeting at 2:30 p.m. on January 3, 1913, the officials refused to resign and as a result, on Hobbs' orders, they were arrested and a state of emergency declared. The city was then disarmed and order restored by confiscating arcade equipment and weapons and closing the saloons . Hobbs left Lawson in charge and took the 4:00 p.m. train out of town. She made a detour to the County Seat in Baker City to have the city officials officially deposed before a judge before returning to the Oregon State Seat in Salem . The events were the first time Oregon had declared a state of emergency since the American Civil War .

These events made her the most famous woman in Oregon at the time. Hobbs also made national and international headlines with the affair. As writer Stewart Holbrook noted, "In provincial New York City, for example, and for three days in progress, the Copperfield affair has made the Becker-Rosenthal front-page cover."

Next life

In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, it began its long association with the Red Cross . From 1917 to 1922 she worked in Europe , among other things as head of the department for victims in Paris . In this position, Hobbs was responsible for notifying the families of the fallen. Hobbs later returned to Europe and worked in the Rhineland when it was occupied by France in the 1930s . After she returned to Oregon, she began working as a secretary for the Oregon Journal . Hobbs retired in 1948.

Oregon-born author Stewart Holbrook interviewed Hobbs in the early 1950s, several years after she retired, and found that she “still weighs 104 pounds. Her eyes are clear and blue behind the glasses. There is no gray hair on her head. She lives quietly as she always has, except in those dreadful days so long ago. ” Holbrook noted during his interview that “ she is bored with the subject of Copperfield ” and finishes his account of her:

“She much preferred to talk about her two years with the Red Cross in World War I, in France, and with the American occupation army in Germany. That , she says, and her eyes light up, was a real adventure. It is understood (gathers) that she is viewing the Copperfield matter as just a deplorable incident. "

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e Kirby, Jo Ann. Hillsboro lady pursues career in politics, law. Hillsboro Argus, October 19, 1976.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f The Intrepid Miss Hobbs. Willamette Lawyer , Spring 2007.
  3. ↑ a b Horner, John B. (1921). Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature. The JK Gill Co .: Portland
  4. ^ Fern Hobbs Takes on Wide-Open Copperfield
  5. ^ The Affair at Copperfield , reprinted in: Wildmen, Wobblies and Whistle Punks (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1992), 80
  6. ↑ a b Holbrook, p. 82

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personal data
SURNAME Hobbs, Fern
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Private Secretary to the Governor of Oregon, Oswald West
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Bloomington , Nebraska
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1964