Mary Ellen Lawson (1853 - abt. 1908)

Born 25 Apr 1853 in Rusk County, Texas, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Joseph Wilks Dabbs — married 17 Mar 1877 in Limestone County, TX

Descendants

Died about 19 Aug 1908 at about age 55 in Logan, Quay County, New Mexico, United States [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Shayne Davidson [send private message] and Joseph Townsley [send private message]

Biography

Ellen Lawson Dabbs, physician, early women's-rights activist, and reform writer, the daughter of Col. and Mrs. Henry M. Lawson, was born in Rusk County on April 25, 1853. She attended school in Rusk and Upshur counties. After a brief teaching stint she enrolled in Furlow Masonic College in Americus, Georgia, from which she graduated first in her class. She returned to Texas and taught school for five years before meeting J. W. Dabbs, a merchant from Sulphur Springs. Dabbs, a widower, had four children from his first marriage; the marriage of J. W. Dabbs and Ellen Lawson produced five more children. After the birth of her children Mrs. Dabbs attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Keokuk, Iowa, and a school of midwifery in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1890 she returned to Sulphur Springs, where she practiced medicine and acquired an interest in a newspaper. In 1891 she moved to Fort Worth, where she wrote in support of various reforms. She eventually became a writer for the National Economist, a National Farmers' Alliance newspaper based in Washington, D.C., and in 1892 she served as a delegate from Texas to the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union convention at St. Louis. That same year she was also a delegate to the state Woman's Christian Temperance Union convention and presided as the state chairman of the Woman's Southern Council.

Ellen Dabbs helped organize the state's first suffrage society, the Texas Equal Rights Association, and served in 1893 as corresponding secretary and a member of the publication committee. The following year she helped found a local auxiliary in Fort Worth and was elected corresponding secretary. She addressed the Dallas chapter on the need for the moral influence of women in politics and legislation and defended women's rights in the Dallas Morning News. In 1893 she organized the Texas Woman's Council (later the State Council of Women of Texas) at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, for the purpose of bringing women's organizations concerned with philanthropy, social reform, education, literature, and the fine arts to an increased awareness of one another's activities. During her second term as president the council became a state affiliate of the National Council of Women, and Mrs. Dabbs was the presiding officer in 1895 when the Texas Woman's Council laid the cornerstone for a permanent women's building on the state fairgrounds in Dallas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY (above information):

Texas Equal Suffrage Association Scrapbook, Austin History Center. Melissa Gilbert Wiedenfeld, Women in the Texas Farmers' Alliance (M.A. thesis, Texas Tech University, 1983). Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, eds., American Women (2 vols., New York: Mast, Crowell, and Kirkpatrick, 1897; rpt., Detroit: Gale Research, 1973-).

After the birth of their fifth child Lady Louise, Ellen and Joseph W. Dabbs became estranged and lived apart for the rest of their lives. Ellen attempted, unsuccessfully, to obtain a divorce from J. W. Dabbs on the grounds of cruelty: she claimed he was physically abusive to her. On the 1900 federal census both Ellen and J. W. described their marital status as widowed.

Ellen may have contracted tuberculosis when she briefly served as a military nurse (she applied to serve as a physician and was rejected) during the Spanish American War in 1898. She moved to New Mexico in the early 1900s in hopes of a cure there and this is where she committed suicide, using chloroform, in 1908. Ellen's burial place, according to author Ruth Hosey Karbach, is on an unidentified ranch in Quay County, New Mexico.

Name

Name: Ellen Lawson^[1]

Birth

Birth:

Date: 25 APR 1853

Place: Rusk Co., TX^[2]

Death

Death:

Date: 19 Aug 1908

Place: Logan, NM

Note: Tuberculosis^[3]

Census

Census:

Date: 2 JUN 1880

Place: Sulphur Springs, Hopkins Co., TX^[4]

Census:

Date: 5 JUN 1900

Place: 800 Bennett, Fort Worth, Tarrant Co., TX

Note: Widowed, Medical Doctor^[5]

Occupation

Occupation: Medical Doctor^[6]

Sources

• WikiTree profile Lawson-627 created through the import of Davidson_Fink.ged on Sep 26, 2011 by Shayne Davidson. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Shayne and others.

• Source: S1120 Type: Census Title: 1900 United States Federal Census Record for Ellen L Dabbs Place: Texas > Tarrant > Fort Worth Ward 4 > District 98 > 8 Date: 5 Jun 1900 Media: digital Source Locality: Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls. DATV Mar 2011
• Source: S1121 Type: Newspaper Title: Waurika News Place: Waurika, Jefferson Co., OK Date: 11-27-1908 Page: 4 Media: digital URL: http://genforum.genealogy.com/lawson/messages/7754.html
• Source: S74 Type: Letter Title: Notes of Julia Bellona Townes Davidson Date: November 1924 Source Locality: Muskogee, OK
• Source: S769 Type: Census Title: 1880 Federal Census Place: TEXAS > HOPKINS > SULPHUR SPRING; 1-PCT- Date: 2 Jun 1880 Media: digital Source Locality: Heritage Quest DATV Oct 2010
• Source: "Ellen Lawson Dabbs, Waving the Equal Rights Banner." Chapter by Ruth Hosey Karbach, from the book "Texas Women: Their Histories, Their Lives" edited by Elizabeth Hayes Turner, Stephanie Cole, Rebecca , 2015, University of Georgia Press.

Notes

1. ↑ Source: #S74
2. ↑ Source: #S769
3. ↑ Source: #S1121
4. ↑ Source: #S769
5. ↑ Source: #S1120
6. ↑ Source: #S1120

"United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXFV-N5P : 12 December 2017), H M Lawson, 1860.

"United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXGC-DJ6 : 12 April 2016), Henry Lawson, Texas, United States; citing p. 191, family 85, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 553,102.