John Shearer: 19th Amendment Centennial, Part 4 – The Nationally Significant Role Of A Future McCallie Parent

  • Friday, April 10, 2020
  • John Shearer
Harry T. Burn
Harry T. Burn

On Aug. 18, 1920, one of the tensest and most dramatic days in the history of the Tennessee General Assembly occurred.

 

That was when the state House voted for the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Since the Tennessee state Senate had already approved the measure, Tennessee became the 36th and final state needed to give women the right to vote.

 

The ayes and nays yelled out during the vote that day created a nerve-racking atmosphere reflective of an important football or basketball game for onlookers.

But because letting women vote is seen today as the just and correct step in hindsight by virtually everyone, the right team was victorious.

 

As the fourth part in this series continues to look at the Chattanooga area aspects of the women’s suffrage movement on its centennial anniversary in 2020, a glance at the House vote that day shows some more local connections.

 

Not only did 24-year-old Harry T. Burn of McMinn County become a legendary figure by helping break the tie years before sending his son to McCallie, but two of the three members of the state House of Representatives from Hamilton County voted to support the amendment. And the lone state senator from Hamilton County did as well a few days earlier.

 

Efforts to give women the right to vote had been ongoing for decades before that 1920 vote.

 

In 1878, with the admission to the Union of more Western states with more liberal views toward women voting, a suffrage proposal was introduced to Congress.

 

Not until President Woodrow Wilson announced his support of the 19th Amendment, though, was it passed by Congress in 1919. However, for it to become part of the Constitution and a law, 36 of the then-48 states had to accept it.

 

At that time, people around the world were just getting over the last worldwide health pandemic – the Spanish influenza outbreak. And World War I had just ended, so they were ready to focus on important issues at home that had been put on the backburner.

 

By the summer of 1920, 35 states had voted for ratification, although none since Washington in March. Eight states had rejected it and five had not voted. Suffragists soon came to the realization that the best chance to ratify it rested in the hands of one state. Yes, that is right – Tennessee.

 

Tennessee Gov. Albert H. Roberts, a Democrat and ratification supporter, called a special session on Aug. 9, and supporters on both sides of the issue flooded Nashville. President Wilson even encouraged Gov. Roberts from afar to help get the amendment ratified.

 

Chattanooga suffrage leader Abby Crawford Milton was among those supporting the ratification, as was national women’s suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt. But some Tennessee women were against the measure, including Monteagle educator Josephine Pearson.

 

On Friday the 13th, the state Senate voted for ratification by a 25 to 4 vote, with Republican Finney Carter from Chattanooga voting for it.

 

As a result, it all came down to the state House. Ninety six of the 99 legislators were in the hall that day on Aug. 18, and after House Speaker Seth Walker of Wilson County tried to table the vote, he was defeated twice by a 48-48 vote.

 

During what was sort of a chaotic atmosphere, the roll call vote was taken about noon. This time, onlookers noticed that someone had changed his vote from nay to aye in support of the amendment.

 

It was the young legislator from Niota, Harry Burn. And Speaker of the House Walker also changed his vote, in part so that he could solely have the right to have the House reconsider the measure within the next 48 hours. But that never materialized.

 

Talk that Mr. Burn must have been bribed to vote that way soon filled the state capitol and beyond. That was accented by the fact he was seen talking to House member and pro-suffrage leader Joe Hanover.

 

But Mr. Burn soon clarified the situation himself. No, he had not been bribed, he said. He had been in support of the suffrage movement all along, but he had initially voted against it thinking that was what his constituents back home wanted.

 

What helped him change his mind was a letter his mother had written him, and which he had reportedly received just before the vote. Among comments about the weather, the large family farm the locally prominent family owned, and an upcoming wedding, she encouraged him to vote in support of the measure.

 

This member of Niota Methodist Church and graduate of U.S. Grant University (now Tennessee Wesleyan) in Athens told him, “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.”

 

He followed suit, and the rest as they say is history. As a result, Tennessee would hold an enviable and cherished place in the uplifting story of the long and never-say-die efforts to get the 19th Amendment on the books.

 

In a follow-up interview with one newspaper reporter in a story carried in the Chattanooga News, she simply said that she was not that actively involved in the suffrage movement. But she supported it.

 

As she reasoned at the time, she had to pay taxes but could not vote, but some of her male employees at the farm did not have to pay taxes but could vote.

 

Also helping ratify the amendment were two Hamilton County House members – Republican C.E. Lynn from what was called the Hamilton-1 district and Democrat L.D. Miller from Hamilton-3. Voting nay was Democrat J.O. Martin from Hamilton-2.

 

Part of the rush in the amendment was that the 1920 presidential election was looming.

 

Warren G. Harding would end up getting elected, and Harry Burn would go on to immortality, even though he later lived a somewhat quiet, small-town life. After serving in the House until 1922, he later became an attorney, state senator from 1948-52, and state bank president in Rockwood. He lived until 1977.

 

During his second marriage to Ellen Cotterell Burn, he had his only child – Harry T. Burn Jr., who would go on to attend McCallie School.  After the younger Mr. Burns’ death in 2016, fellow 1955 McCallie graduate and retired school head Spencer McCallie III recalled him as a very quiet classmate and fellow alumnus.

 

The former Harvard and UT-Knoxville student was known as a historian, working on the Andrew Johnson papers project at UT and also being involved with the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum.

 

But his father’s efforts in 1920 were not done quietly, or with the perspective of someone only 24 years old. And as a result, women have been on equal footing with the men at the ballot box for 100 years.

 

* * * * *

 

To see the previous story in this series, read here.  

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2020/3/4/405142/John-Shearer-The-19th-Amendment.aspx

 

* * * * *

Jcshearer2@comcast.net

Front of 1920 Chattanooga News after 19th Amendment vote
Front of 1920 Chattanooga News after 19th Amendment vote
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