May Arkwright
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May Hutton née Arkwright (July 21, 1860 – 1915) was a suffrage leader in the early history of the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
Hutton was abandoned by her parents to be raised by her blind grandfather, Aza. As an adult in the 1880s, she owned and operated a boarding house in Idaho. In 1887 she married Levi Hutton (one of her customers) and they moved to Wallace, Idaho where she oversaw the dining hall of the Wallace Hotel. In 1896 she helped gain voting rights for women in Idaho. In 1897, the Huttons, along with August Paulsen, Harry Day, teamster Harry Orchard, butcher F. M. Rothrock, lawyer Henry F. Samuels and C. H. Reeves, invested in the Hercules Mine, Idaho. After many years, they became millionaires in June 1901. In 1906 they moved to Spokane, Washington, and she became a member of the Spokane Equal Suffrage Club.
In 1903 when President Teddy Roosevelt visited the Northwest, May and her husband served him coffee in their home when he toured Wallace. [1]
May Hutton was a candidate for the Idaho State Senate, but was defeated. She attended the Democratic National Convention in 1912. The last year of her life she was ill with Bright's disease. She was known to travel in her chauffeured Thomas Flyer to farm communities, meeting farmers and trying to make matches to keep single mothers and their children together.
In her memory, Levi Hutton started the Hutton Settlement orphanage in the Spokane Valley.
[edit] External links
- The Hutton Settlement
- HistoryLinkHutton, May Arkwright (1860-1915)
