{{Short description|American attorney (1883–1964)}} {{Infobox person |name= Fern Hobbs |image= Fern Hobbs of Oregon.png |image_size= |caption=Hobbs in 1913 |birth_date= May 8, 1883 |birth_place= Bloomington, Nebraska, US |death_date= {{death date and age|1964|4|10|1883|5|8|mf=y}} |death_place= Portland, Oregon, US |resting_place = Hillsboro Pioneer Cemetery |resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|45.52029|N|123.00524|W|type:landmark||display=inline}} |occupation= secretary, attorney, commissioner |spouse= }} '''Fern Hobbs''' (May 8, 1883 – April 10, 1964) was an American attorney in the U.S. state of Oregon, and private secretary to Oregon Governor Oswald West. She was noted for her ambition and several accomplishments as a young woman, and became the highest-paid woman in public service in America in her mid-twenties.<ref name=sunset>{{cite news |title=A secretary and her salary |first=Will T. |last=Kirk |work=Sunset |volume=31 |date=August 1913
}}</ref>
Hobbs made international news when Governor West sent her to implement martial law in the small Eastern Oregon town of Copperfield. The event was considered a strategic coup for West, establishing the State's authority over a remote rural community and cementing his reputation as a proponent of prohibition.
Hobbs later worked for the American Red Cross in Europe and at ''The Oregon Journal'' newspaper. She died in Portland in 1964.
==Early life and career in public service== Hobbs was born on May 8, 1883, in Bloomington, Nebraska, to John Alden Hobbs and Cora Bush Hobbs.<ref name=argus>Kirby, Jo Ann. Hillsboro lady pursues career in politics, law. ''Hillsboro Argus'', October 19, 1976.</ref> Her family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah when she was six years old; she lived there for 12 years, finishing high school.<ref name=sunset/> Her father then met with financial difficulties, and she moved to Oregon,<ref name=sunset/> settling in Hillsboro. There, she put her younger brother and sister through school, while studying stenography and working for a living,<ref name=sunset/> initially as a governess in a Portland home.<ref name=OrJourn13-06-01>{{cite news |title=Here's a $3,000 a Year Woman With Nothing Old-Maidish About Her | work=Oregon Journal |date=June 1, 1913 }}</ref>
She soon became a private secretary to the president of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company.<ref name=sunset/> The bank, which held many assets of the Oregon Common School Fund, failed during Hobbs' time there. Ben Olcott, was appointed by Governor Chamberlain to represent the state in investigating the bank over the state's assets.<ref name=sunset/> He took note of Hobbs' strong loyalty to her employer.<ref name=sunset/>
[[File:Fern Hobbs profile.png|thumb|left|Fern Hobbs, prior to her trip to Copperfield, Oregon]] After the bank's failure, Hobbs worked as a governess for J. Wesley Ladd (brother of William S. Ladd) in Portland.<ref name=argus/> She also continued to help raise her younger brother and sister, studied stenography and the law, and worked as a secretary.<ref name=argus/> In 1913, Hobbs graduated from Willamette University College of Law with a Bachelor of Laws degree,<ref name=WU>{{cite journal|last=Swenson|first=Eric D.|date=Spring 2007|title=The Intrepid Miss Hobbs|journal=Willamette Lawyer|volume=7|issue=1|pages=15|url=http://www.willamette.edu/wucl/pdf/lawyer/spring2007.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607122837/http://www.willamette.edu/wucl/pdf/lawyer/spring2007.pdf|archive-date=2011-06-07}}</ref> and was admitted to the Oregon State Bar.<ref name=trails>Terry, John. Oregon’s Trails: Spotlight was not intoxicating for envoy who downed saloons. ''The Oregonian'', January 9, 2005.</ref>
Olcott, who managed Oswald West's successful 1910 campaign to become Governor of Oregon, recommended that West hire Hobbs as his private stenographer.<ref name=sunset/> She was hired, and impressed West to the point that he hired her as his private secretary two years later, making her the first Oregon woman appointed to an important political office following the passage of the Oregon Equal Suffrage Amendment.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ralph A. Watson Gets New Position: Miss Hobbs Honored |work=Daily Capital Journal (Salem, Oregon) |date=March 19, 1913 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn99063957/1913-03-19/ed-1/seq-1/ |access-date=2019-04-30 |archive-date=2019-04-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430202849/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn99063957/1913-03-19/ed-1/seq-1/ |url-status=live }}</ref> This also made her, at age 27, the highest-paid woman in public service in the United States, earning $3,000 per year.<ref name=sunset/> While West was a prominent supporter of woman suffrage, Hobbs was quoted opposing the policy early in her career.<ref>{{cite news |title=Miss Hobbs Spurns Votes for Women |work=Medford Mail-Tribune |date=July 19, 1911 }}</ref> West soon dispatched her to Washington, D.C. to represent the state in various land matters; she was the first woman to represent a governor's interests in Washington,<ref>{{cite news |title=Governor's Secretary is Home from East |work=Oregon Journal |date=November 22, 1913 }}</ref> and local coverage in the nation's capital expressed some surprise that a woman would be given an assignment of such gravity.<ref>{{cite news |title=Woman Lawyer is Here for Oregon: Miss Fern Hobbs is Authorized Lobbyist Attending to State Land Affairs |work=The Washington (D. C.) Times |date=October 22, 1913 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1913-10-22/ed-1/seq-1/ |access-date=2019-04-30 |archive-date=2019-04-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430211057/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1913-10-22/ed-1/seq-1/ |url-status=live }}</ref> She negotiated successfully with congressional committees and the U.S. Department of the Interior to untangle ownership issues around various parcels of land.<ref>{{cite news |title=Worth While Folk: A Stateswoman of Oregon |work=The Evening Star (D.C.) |date=August 9, 1914 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1914-08-09/ed-1/seq-34/ |access-date=2019-04-30 |archive-date=2019-04-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430220431/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1914-08-09/ed-1/seq-34/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Martial law in Copperfield, Oregon== West ordered Hobbs to Copperfield, Oregon to restore law and order on January 2, 1914, along with a group of six militia that included Oregon State Penitentiary warden B.K. Lawson.<ref name=argus/><ref name=WU/> Copperfield, located on the Snake River in Baker County, had grown up around construction projects for a railroad tunnel and power plant.<ref name=argus/> Fifteen hundred jobs in the area came from the railway project of E. H. Harriman or the power generation facility.<ref name=WU/>
The town had descended into lawlessness with a number of saloons, brothels, dancing halls, and widespread gambling.<ref name=argus/> The town had no law enforcement officers, and the local government officials had become bar keepers.<ref name=WU/> Governor West had extended prohibition laws, but they were widely ignored in Copperfield.<ref name=Horner>{{cite book |last=Horner |first=John B. |year=1919 |title=Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature |publisher=The J.K. Gill Co.|location=Portland |chapter=Epoch V}}</ref> Some local residents had appealed to the state government for assistance.<ref name=argus/> Over half the residents of the town had signed a petition, addressed to West, alleging that saloons owned by the mayor and City Council members were selling liquor to minors and staying open later than their posted hours.<ref name=NYT1914>{{cite news |title=Girl puts town under martial law |date=January 3, 1914 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1914/01/03/archives/girl-puts-town-under-martial-law-miss-hobbs-for-oregons-governor.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=July 4, 2008 |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726010325/https://www.nytimes.com/1914/01/03/archives/girl-puts-town-under-martial-law-miss-hobbs-for-oregons-governor.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Governor West responded by ordering county officials to restore order, close the saloons, and force the resignations of the corrupt city leaders by December 25, 1913.<ref name=WU/>
{{Quote box | width=300px | align=right | quote= "Armed? Well, yes; I am. I have a dressing bag, a portfolio and an umbrella. I don't believe I could do much damage with these. Do I look like a Carrie Nation to you?" | source= —''Fern Hobbs, en route to Copperfield, addressing whether she was armed''<ref name=trails/> }}
County officials did not take care of the problem, so West sent Hobbs, hoping the presence of a woman would prevent any outbreak of violence.<ref name=trails/> She was dispatched with orders to restore order and to implement martial law if necessary.<ref name=argus/> While Hobbs was traveling to Eastern Oregon, both she and Governor West were coy with reporters about the presence of the militia, suggesting that Hobbs might be acting alone.<ref name=trails/>
The saloon keepers, who received word that Hobbs was accompanied by law enforcement officers only shortly before her arrival,<ref name=NYT1914/> greeted her by dressing up the town with bunting, blue and pink ribbons, and flowers.<ref name=trails/> A town meeting was arranged at 2:30 p.m. on January 3. Hobbs presented resignation letters prepared on behalf of city officials, but the officials refused to sign.<ref name=Heritage>{{cite news |title=Hells Canyon: Man, Land, and History in the Deepest Gorge on Earth |first=William |last=Ashworth |work=American Heritage |date=April 1977 |volume=28 |number=3 |page=12}}</ref> Hobbs then ordered Lawson to declare martial law.<ref name=WU/> It was the first time in Oregon since the Civil War that martial law was put into effect.<ref name=Horner/>
Soon the town was disarmed and order restored, with the gambling equipment and weapons confiscated, and the saloons closed down.<ref name=WU/> Hobbs then left Lawson in charge and caught the 4:00 p.m. train out of town that same day.<ref name=WU/> The residents did not openly resist Hobbs or the militia, although nearly all were armed and had been prepared to offer non-violent resistance.<ref name=NYT1914/> She stopped at the county seat in Baker City to officially remove the town's officials in front of a judge before returning to the state capitol in Salem.<ref name=WU/> The Baker County Circuit Court quickly enjoined the militia from holding the town under martial law; Sheriff Rand began assembling a posse to carry out the court order. Governor West requested a hearing, seeking Rand's temporary removal from office, and appointed Hobbs to represent the State as special counsel.<ref>{{cite news |title=Miss Hobbs to Act Again for Governor; Will Represent the Oregon Executive at Hearing for the Removal of Sheriff. |work=The New York Times. |date=January 4, 1914 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1914/01/04/archives/miss-hobbs-to-act-again-for-governor-will-represent-the-oregon.html |access-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726012637/https://www.nytimes.com/1914/01/04/archives/miss-hobbs-to-act-again-for-governor-will-represent-the-oregon.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
thumb|Newspaper ad for a theatrical reenactment of the Copperfield affair from the ''Oregon Journal'', January 28, 2014. The actions of the governor were later challenged in court, with Hobbs and West among the defendants. The saloon keepers sought remuneration for liquor they claimed was confiscated during the period of martial law.<ref>{{cite news |title=Liquor Men Sue Governor.; Ask $8,000 Damages for Oregon Militia's Seizure of Stock. |date=February 13, 1914 |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1914/02/13/archives/liquor-men-sue-governor-ack-8000-damages-for-oregon-militias.html |access-date=July 5, 2008 |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726103815/https://www.nytimes.com/1914/02/13/archives/liquor-men-sue-governor-ack-8000-damages-for-oregon-militias.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The Baker County circuit court determined the governor's actions were within his powers, and the Oregon Supreme Court ultimately concurred.<ref>[http://records.sos.state.or.us/ORSOSWebDrawer/RecordView/7255149 Governor's Actions Challenged in Oregon Supreme Court.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609224100/http://records.sos.state.or.us/ORSOSWebDrawer/RecordView/7255149 |date=2020-06-09 }} Oregon State Archives. Retrieved on July 4, 2008.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Oregon Supreme Court |author-link=Oregon Supreme Court |title=Reports of Cases Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon: Wiegand v. West |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N8sDAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Fern+Hobbs%22&pg=PA250 |pages=249 |year=1915 }}</ref><ref>''Wiegand v. West'', in {{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uew7AAAAIAAJ&q=Fern+Hobbs&pg=PA482 | title=The Pacific Reporter | volume=144 | page=481 | year=1915}}</ref>
These events made Hobbs the most famous woman in Oregon at that time.<ref name=WU/> Hobbs also made national and international news for these events.<ref name=WU/><ref>Holbrook, Stewart. "The Affair at Copperfield", reprinted in ''Wildmen, Wobblies and Whistle Punks'' (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1992), p. 80.</ref> Writer Stewart Holbrook reported: {{blockquote|In England, the Copperfield story escaped all bounds. One read that Miss Hobbs took off for the hellish place in command of a full battery of field artillery, plus machine gunners, in a special train; that she snapped commands to her troops and had them unlimber and train the heavy pieces on the doomed city.<ref name=trails/>}}
==Later life== After the Copperfield affair, Hobbs continued as Governor West's secretary.<ref name=trails/> She visited the Union County town of Cove in February 1914, also to investigate complaints about a saloon. A local election had declared the town "dry," but a county election had declared the entire county "wet." On advice of a judge, the mayor of Cove stated that he was unable to determine whether the saloon was legal or not, but expressed deference to the governor's wishes. Hobbs did not order the saloon closed down.<ref name="NYTcove">{{cite news |title=Miss Hobbs investigates |work=The New York Times |date=February 24, 1914 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1914/02/24/archives/miss-hobbs-investigates-gov-wests-secretary-visits-cove-but-doesnt.html |access-date=July 4, 2008 |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726010417/https://www.nytimes.com/1914/02/24/archives/miss-hobbs-investigates-gov-wests-secretary-visits-cove-but-doesnt.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Despite speculation around the country that Hobbs would run for governor of Oregon,<ref>{{cite news |title=A Woman for Governor |work=The Ekalaka Eagle (Montana) |date=March 13, 1914 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85053090/1914-03-13/ed-1/seq-6/#date1=1890&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=Fern+Hobbs&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=%22Fern+Hobbs%22&y=15&x=10&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=This Girl Closed Oregon's Saloons—May Be Oregon's Next Governor |work=The Day Book (Chicago) |date=January 13, 1914 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1914-01-13/ed-1/seq-21/#date1=1890&index=0&rows=20&words=Fern+Hobbs&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=%22Fern+Hobbs%22&y=15&x=10&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 |access-date=2019-04-30 |archive-date=2019-04-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430213236/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1914-01-13/ed-1/seq-21/#date1=1890&index=0&rows=20&words=Fern+Hobbs&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=%22Fern+Hobbs%22&y=15&x=10&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> she did not seek the office.
In early 1915, West appointed Hobbs to the Oregon Industrial Accident Commission in January 1915, just prior to the end of his one term as governor. Hobbs' departure from that post later in the year was not without controversy; she offered her resignation to the Oregon State Senate as a bargaining maneuver, in exchange for its support of a contentious workmen's compensation bill. Senators speculated that her letter was presented in coordination with the ex-governor, in an effort to embarrass the Senate. Subsequently, the legislature passed a law permitting appointive heads (such as the governor) to recall officials from appointed positions. Then-governor James Withycombe accepted Hobbs' resignation. At the time, she expressed regret for not completing her term, and announced her intention to return to Portland.<ref>{{cite news | title=Miss Hobbs' place goes to C. Abrams | work=The Oregonian | date=February 28, 1915 }}</ref>
[[File:FernHobbs1883to1964.JPG|thumb|left|Gravemarker at Hillsboro Pioneer Cemetery]] Upon returning to Portland, Hobbs practiced law.<ref name=trails/> Women's rights groups promoted Hobbs as a candidate to run for governor, but she never ran for office.<ref name=trails/> Within a few years Hobbs became the commissioner of Oregon State Industrial Accident Commission, working on getting taxes due on the Oregon & California Lands.<ref name=argus/> In 1917, with the United States entering World War I, she began a long association with the Red Cross.<ref name=argus/> From 1917 to 1922 she worked in Europe, including time spent as the chief of the casualty division in Paris, France.<ref name=argus/> In that position Hobbs was responsible for notifying dead soldiers' next of kin.<ref name=argus/> She returned to Europe in the 1930s, working in the Rhine Valley when it was occupied by France.<ref name=argus/>
Upon returning to Oregon, Hobbs worked as a secretary for business manager of the ''Oregon Journal'' newspaper, retiring in 1948.<ref name=argus/>
The Oregon writer Stewart Holbrook interviewed her in the early 1950s, a few years after her retirement, observing that she "still weighs 104 pounds. Her eyes are clear and blue behind her glasses. There is not a gray hair on her head. She lives as quietly as she has always lived, except for those dreadful few days so long ago [concerning Copperfield]."<ref name=Holbrook82>Holbrook, p. 82</ref> Holbrook noted during his interview that "the subject of Copperfield bores her" and concluded his account of her as follows: {{blockquote|She had much rather talk of her two years with the Red Cross in World War I, in France, and with the American Army of Occupation in Germany. ''That'', she says, and her eyes light up, was a real adventure. One gathers that she considers the affair at Copperfield to have been a deplorable incident."<ref name=Holbrook82/>}}
Fern Hobbs died on April 10, 1964, at the age of 80.<ref name="argus" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Fern Hobbs, 80, Colorful Leader of Mining Town 'Invasion', Dies |newspaper=The Oregon Journal |date=April 10, 1964 |page=7 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1092194429/ |url-access=subscription |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[http://records.sos.state.or.us/ORSOSWebDrawer/RecordView/7255149 Oregon State Archives: The Copperfield Controversy archived website] *[http://www.moshplant.com/prob/prob02/interview_booth.html An Interview with Brian Booth] *[http://www.oregongenealogy.com/baker/copperfield/index.htm Copperfield, Baker County, Oregon] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070703145334/http://www.onthisdayinoregon.com/01_01.html On this day in Oregon: January 1, 1914] *[http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/dspace/bitstream/1957/4023/1/Oregon+Women_ocr.pdf Oregon Women: A Bio-Bibliography]{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobbs, Fern}} Category:1883 births Category:1964 deaths Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:Burials at Hillsboro Pioneer Cemetery Category:Lawyers from Hillsboro, Oregon Category:Lawyers from Salem, Oregon Category:Oregon lawyers Category:Willamette University College of Law alumni