Lease, Mary Elizabeth

LEASE, MARY ELIZABETH

Mary Elizabeth Clyens Lease (1853–1933) was an activist, writer, and public speaker for many causes, including farmers' issues and women's suffrage. She was actively involved in the creation of the People's Party in Kansas. She gained national recognition during the Populist crusade for reform in the 1890s.

In 1853 Mary Clyens was born in Ridgeway, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrant parents. After she finished her education, she began teaching in rural schools in New York. In 1870 she moved to Kansas to teach and there she met and married a druggist's clerk, Charles L. Lease.

Lease and her husband tried twice to make a living from farming in Kansas, but were unsuccessful both times, blaming their misfortune on the railroads and loan companies. The couple moved to Texas for several years before returning to Wichita, Kansas in 1883. It was back in Kansas that Lease became involved in public life. On St Patrick's Day, 1885, she delivered her first public speech, "Ireland and Irishmen," on behalf of the Irish National League. In the same year Lease was admitted as a lawyer to the Wichita bar.

Lease later became involved in other political issues, particularly those that involved the farming community. In 1888 she spoke before the state convention of the Union Labor Party, a forerunner of the People's Party in Kansas She was the party's candidate for a county office long before women were even eligible to vote. In 1889 Lease became a Farmers' Alliance lecturer and briefly worked as an associate editor for a reform newspaper, the Wichita Journal.

In 1890 the People's Party in Kansas, commonly known as the Populist Party, was formed to fight for better conditions for farmers. There was much discontent among the agrarian community at that time because of declining farm prices and the accompanying declines in income. Since farmers blamed corrupt politicians for their plight, Lease and many agricultural laborers became disillusioned with traditional party politics and believed change would only come through a third party.

In the same year Lease took an active role in the successful campaign to unseat United States Senator John J. Ingalls (1873–91), a Kansas Republican. She reportedly made over 160 speeches during the 1890 election. She was often mistakenly called Mary Ellen, and her enemies dubbed her "Mary Yellin'." During a three-hour speech in Halstead, Kansas, Lease encouraged farmers to "raise less corn and more hell."

In 1892 Lease became involved in the creation of the People's Party of America. She campaigned heavily in the south and west for General James B. Weaver (1833–1912), the party's presidential candidate. In 1893, when the Populists gained control of the administration of Kansas, Lease was appointed president of the State Board of Charities, the highest office held by a woman in Kansas at that time.

By 1896 Lease broke with the Populists because the party was merging with the Democrats to support the presidential candidacy of William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925). She then joined the staff at Joseph Pulitzer's New York World as a political reporter. Lease moved to New York City and became a public lecturer for several causes, addressing women's suffrage, Prohibition, evolution, and birth control. She died on her farm in New York on October 29, 1933.

See also: William Jennings Bryan, Farmers' Alliance, Labor Movement, Labor Unionism, Populist Movement, Prohibition, Joseph Pulitzer, Women's Movement

FURTHER READING

Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs, ed. Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1800–1925. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.

Hardy, Gayle J. American Women Civil Rights Activists: Biobibliographies of 68 Leaders, 1825–1992. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 1993.

Johnson, Gerald W. The Lunatic Fringe. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott, 1957.

La Forte, Robert S. Leaders of Reform: Progressive Republicans in Kansas, 1900–1916. Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1974.

Mayfield, Lydia. "Mary Ellen Lease or 'Yellin' Ellen, the Kansas Tornado." Texas Quarterly, Summer, 1975.

raise less corn and more hell.

mary lease, halstead, kansas, 1890