Marion Foster Washburne

Marion Foster Washburne
Washburne in 1902
Born
Marion Guyon Foster

Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.
August 31, 1863
Died1944
EducationChicago Froebel Association Training School
Occupations
  • author
  • journalist
  • editor
  • lecturer
  • educator
Employers
Movement
Criminal charges
indictment but never tried under the Espionage Act
Spouses
  • George Foote Washburne
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1886, divorced)​
  • William A. Wotherspoon
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1915; died 1933)​
Children4, including Carleton Washburne
Relatives
Signature

Marion Foster Washburne (née Foster; after first marriage, Washburne; after second marriage, Wotherspoon; 1863-1944) was an American author, journalist, editor, lecturer, and educator.[1] She was the first trained teacher employed to look after education news for a Chicago newspaper.[2] Washburne was associated with the Back-to-the-land movement, serving as president of the national association.

Early life and education

Marion Guyon Foster was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, August 31, 1863.[3][4] Her father was Dr. Richard Norman Foster (d. 1922). In his day, his record showed the largest number of babies born to a physician in private practise and the lowest mortality.[5] Her mother was Anne (Halsted) Foster.[1] Marion's sister, Edith Burnham (nee Foster) Flint (1873-1948), was one of the first women faculty members at the University of Chicago.[6] John Willock Noble, Secretary of the Interior, was an uncle.[7]

Washburne graduated from Central High School, Chicago, Illinois, 1881; and Chicago Froebel Association Training School, 1893.[1][3][4]

She completed an editor course of study at Colonel Parker's Chicago Institute.[1]

Career

Washburne in 1911

Illinois

She sold her first story, "Boarding School Adventure" when she was thirteen years old.[8]

Since 1894, Washburne was a newspaper and magazine writer.[3][4] As school editor of the Chicago Evening Post, she conducted a campaign which resulted in giving Chicago its first Normal School (now Chicago State University). As the delegate from the Little Deaf Child's League, she was instrumental in securing passage by the Illinois State Legislature of a bill providing for public day school oral education of the deaf.[3][4] She was State organizer and delegate to the National Congress of Mothers (now Parent-Teacher Association).[1]

At Hull House,[8] she taught kindergarten training.[8]

She served on the editorial staff of Harper's Bazar; associate editor, Mothers' Magazine; editor-in-chief, Little Farms Magazine; education editor, Chicago Times-Herald (now Chicago Times) and the Chicago Tribune;[1][a] and Children's and Mother's department, Sunday Times-Herald.[2]

As a writer, she wrote chiefly on educational subjects in magazines and newspapers. She was the author of: Success Library (Vol. II.), 1901; Everyday Essays, 1904; A Little Fountain of Life, 1904; Study of Child Life, 1907; Family Secrets; Mother's Year Book, 1908; The House on the North Shore, 1909; Old Fashioned Fairy Tales, 1910;[1] Old Fashioned Fairy Tales, 1909; Indian Legends, 1915.[3][4]

She was the director of esoteric work in the Elgin, Illinois branch of the Oriental Esoteric Society, as well as a student and non-professional lecturer on the philosophies and religions of the East and West.[1]

Besides her writing, in Chicago, Washburne was known as a social worker.[9] With her husband, Dr. Washburne, she founded "Resthaven",[10] a rest sanatorium at Elgin.[11]

Washburne favored woman suffrage; she lectured on suffrage in Illinois and California.[1]

She served as president of the National Back-to-the Land Association;[12] vice-president, Illinois Congress of Mothers;[13] director, Cooperative Commonwealth Company; member, Chicago Woman's Club; member, woman's branch, Republican State Central Committee, Illinois; and member, Chicago Civic Equality League.[1]

During the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, she was one of a committee of women who went to protest in behalf of the laboring men and women against the Sunday closing of the Fair.[7] She also served as a delegate representing the Chicago Woman's Club before Congress at Washington, D.C.[13] In the same year, she befriended Indian anti-colonialist activista at the World's Parliament of Religions. Her association with Indian nationals led to an indictment but never tried under the Espionage Act.[14]

California

After removing to Los Angeles County, she became a member of the Friday Morning Club,[1] and also became a member of the American Civil Liberties Union; Pasadena League of Women Voters; Women's Civic League of Pasadena; Pasadena Cooperative Society; and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.[8]

In 1911, she began plans in Sierra Madre, California for a model village, Havilah, the Valley of Blessing. It was not a community, but rather a corporation; not a charity, but a business; not a philanthropy, yet is was to have far-reaching beneficence.[11] In October 1911, Dr. and Mrs. Washburne took over the management of El Reposo Sanitorium at Sierra Madre.[10] By 1928, she was residing in Pasadena, California.[9]

Personal life

In Chicago, on June 22, 1886, she married George Foote Washburne, M.D. (1855-1936),[3][4] professor of pathology, Chicago Homeopathic College. Their children were: Norman Foster, Carleton, Dorothea, and John Noble.[1] Herman Stegeman was a son-in-law.[8]

In 1902, Washburne managed to escape during the Park Avenue Hotel fire.[15]

In 1915, while a resident in Berkeley, California,[16] she married the attorney William Arthur Wotherspoon (1861-1933),[17][5][18] of Oceano, California.[3][4] The moved to San Francisco and began a long history as supporters of left-wing politics, including becoming associated with members of the Ghadar movement.[19]

In 1934, Washburne was the Democratic nominee for California's 48th State Assembly district.[8][20]

She was associated with the Christian theosophical movement.[21]

Death

Marion Foster Washburne Wotherspoon died in 1944.[6]

Selected works

Every day essays
The mother's year-book
Study of child life
  • Talks on teaching, 1893
  • Success Library (Vol. II.), 1901
  • Everyday Essays, 1904
  • A Little Fountain of Life, 1904
  • Study of Child Life, 1907
  • Family Secrets, 1907
  • Mother's Year Book, 1908
  • The House on the North Shore, 1909
  • Old Fashioned Fairy Tales, 1910
  • Indian Legends, 1915
  • A Search for a Happy Country, 1940
  • I Share My Life with You (2011; posthumously published)

Notes

  1. ↑ At one time, Washburne was the only woman member on staff at the Chicago Tribune staff.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Leonard, John William, ed. (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada (Public domain ed.). New York: American Commonwealth Company. p. 858. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 "Books and Magazines. The Woman Journalist". The Atlanta Journal (Public domain ed.). 23 January 1897. p. 15. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Who's who in California: A Biographical Directory ... Being a History of California as Illustrated in the Lives of the Builders and Defenders of the State, and the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Molding the Thought of the Present Time (Public domain ed.). Who's Who Publishing Company. 1929. p. 236. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Who's who in America (Public domain ed.). A.N. Marquis. 1930. p. 2417. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Dr. R. N. Foster Dies at Halcyon". The Arroyo Grande Valley Herald Recorder (Public domain ed.). 28 September 1922. p. 5. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  6. 1 2 Gulecyuz, Mehmet Emin. "One of the First Women Faculty at UChicago: Edith Foster Flint (1873-1948) | M. Emin Güleçyüz". voices.uchicago.edu. University of Chicago. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  7. 1 2 "Mrs. Marion Foster Washburne". Chicago Inter Ocean (Public domain ed.). 5 September 1896. p. 11. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Seven Rules To Build a Garden of Eden, by Carolyn McKenzie". The Atlanta Constitution. 31 December 1939. p. 35. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  9. 1 2 "Sees Socialist as Critic of Parties". Pasadena Star-News (Public domain ed.). 30 July 1928. p. 20. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  10. 1 2 "Specialist Takes Charge at El Reposo. Sanatorium at Sierra Madre; Dr. Washburne New Manager". Pasadena Star (Public domain ed.). 9 October 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  11. 1 2 "Spotless Town is Planned for Betterment of Humanity, by Olive Gray". The Los Angeles Times (Public domain ed.). 23 April 1911. p. 27. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  12. ↑ "Will Tell People About Back-To-Land Movement". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record (Public domain ed.). 23 August 1912. p. 11. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  13. 1 2 "Two Noted Writers, Lecturers and Educators. Mrs. Marion Foster Washburne and Prof Daniel Batchellor". Kalamazoo Gazette (Public domain ed.). 27 October 1901. p. 5. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  14. ↑ Kennedy, Kathleen (22 September 1999). Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens: Women and Subversion during World War I. Indiana University Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-253-02849-5. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  15. ↑ "Chicagoans Who Died or Escaped in the New York Hotel Fire". Chicago Tribune (Public domain ed.). 23 February 1902. p. 8. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  16. ↑ "Marriage Licenses Issued". The Sacramento Bee (Public domain ed.). 30 March 1915. p. 5. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  17. ↑ "Pasadenan's Book Lauds Estonia". Pasadena Star-News. 4 September 1940. p. 3. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  18. ↑ "William A. Wotherspoon". Pasadena Star-News. 20 October 1933. p. 2. Retrieved 19 August 2026 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  19. ↑ Miller, Scott (28 October 2025). Let My Country Awake: Indian Revolutionaries in America and the Fight to Overthrow the British Raj. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-374-60968-9. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  20. ↑ Statement of Vote at Primary Election Held on ... in the State of California (Public domain ed.). State Printing Office. 1916. p. 40. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  21. ↑ Mukherjee, Prithwindra (22 December 2017). The Intellectual Roots of India’s Freedom Struggle (1893-1918). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-36362-4. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
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