Helen: Her Last Years and her Legacy

Helen

In contrast to Caroline’s peaceful and quiet final years, Helen found herself becoming increasingly more active. By 1910, she had an empty nest, but had refilled it over and over again with students and teachers from her school. The Starrett School for Girls was thriving, and Helen’s reputation as an educator and woman’s rights worker were widely known. The Starrett School had associations with many different colleges and universities, and “Mrs Starrett’s girls” were encouraged to further their studies beyond high school or to take up some form of employment so that they would could be independent if they chose to be.
She often referred to her school as a “home school” because she wanted it to feel as a second home to both her boarding and day students. Consequently, these girls thought of her as a second mother, and considered no school event a success unless and until she arrived.

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Her seven children, by then, were scattered around the country. Theodore, Paul, and William were in New York; Katherine, Ralph and Goldwin were in Chicago; and Helen was in Oregon. She had educated and raised seven successful children of her own. Education was her calling, and even in her advancing years, she was determined to continue doing what she loved.

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In June of 1910, several newspapers in Kansas ran a story praising the amazing success of a “Lawrence Boy.” At this time in American history, newspapers still published the comings and goings of local residents, and it was big news in Lawrence when John M. Starrett (Rev William Aiken Starrett’s brother) took a trip to New York City with plans to visit his nephew, Paul, during his stay. Paul’s success was no small news. As the president of the George A. Fuller Construction Company, Paul was building one of the largest, and most expensive hotels in history. The newspapers lauded Paul for his meteoric success, and his uncle recounted that Paul was the same lovable nephew of his memories—even though he was now at the helm of a multi-million dollar company.

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Just a week later, the Lawrence Daily Journal ran a follow up story: Paul wasn’t the only successful Lawrence Boy. There were others, and they were all from the same family. Theodore Starrett was also in New York, running one of the largest firms of its kind, the Theodore Starrett Construction Company. William A Starrett was the president of the Thompson-Starrett Company in New York, and Frederick Whitton (who was from Topeka, and, though not noted, was Katherine Starrett’s husband) was the vice president of Thompson-Starrett in Chicago. The architect, Goldwin Starrett, was quickly rising to prominence in Chicago, and Ralph Starrett was on his way up in the construction business as well. Not noted in the paper was that Helen’s other son-in law, Will Dinwiddie, had gone out to Portland, Oregon, as the VP of Thompson Starrett to begin rebuilding after the 1906 earthquakes. Thompson Starrett would begin building some amazing fireproof and earthquake proof skyscrapers on the west coast.

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Helen’s children were definitely making history, but she wasn’t ready to stop her work quite yet. She continued her writing, and published (at least) nine books and countless articles in national magazines, journals, and newspapers. She became more and more active in the community, with leadership roles in societies, clubs, professional associations and social groups. She performed musicales, gave lectures, hosted receptions and teas for incoming students and alumnae of the Starrett School, and travelled across the country to visit her seven children and sixteen grandchildren.

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By 1914, the Starrett School for Girls had become one of the oldest, and best-established private schools in the Chicago. Having relocated from the Scoville Mansion nearly a decade earlier, the school now occupied an historic home at 4707 Vincennes Avenue in Chicago. Helen’s dream of having a home-like school had become a reality. Located near the University of Chicago on two and a half acres, the Starrett School for Girls occupied a large family home with twenty-six rooms and large sleeping porches—enough to accommodate twenty resident students as well as Helen and six of her staff. In addition to the residential students, the school enrollment had grown to 150 day-students. It was accredited to Vassar, Smith, and Wellesley colleges, and had been for over 25 years. Starrett School graduates were being admitted to the State Universities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois, and to Leland, Stanford, and Northwestern Universities.

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The “city school in a country environment” offered several on-campus athletic opportunities such as basketball, tennis, and croquet, as well as close proximity to social and cultural opportunities in literary, musical, artistic, and social arenas, and they were in close proximity to fine art, opera, orchestra and conservatory concerts. The Starrett School for Girls was not the ordinary Victorian finishing school—it was a rigorous college preparatory school with both literary and scientific courses of study. Helen’s graduates would have social graces and brains.

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In early 1915, a fire destroyed the end of one of the buildings at the Starrett School, causing the evacuation of all faculty and students. Instead of immediately leaving the burning building, two of the girls returned to the burning building to help Helen down the stairs and outside to safety. She had been convalescing in her room following a broken hip, and had been unable to get out to the street safely on her own. The two girls even ran back inside to try to save some of Helen’s papers and belongings. Unfortunately, the building was completely destroyed, and classes were relocated to other buildings on the property.

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Later that year, at the age of 75, Helen retired as principal of her school and relocated to Oregon. Her children built her a beautiful home across the street from her younger daughter, Helen, in Portland. She had every intention of winding down, and enjoying her books and her view of Mount Hood and her growing brood of grandchildren—by then numbering 18. Her kids had even bought her her own car. Shortly after her arrival in Portland, she was invited to speak to the Ainsworth Parent Teacher Association, and by the meeting’s end, she’d been elected president of the PTA. She began teaching Sunday school, and soon had a class of 80 mothers and teachers.

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In September of 1917, her oldest son, Theodore, suffered a stroke, and four weeks later passed away at the age of 52. Losing her firstborn was nothing short of devastating to her. To compound her sorrow, seven months later, her second son Goldwin contracted pneumonia and died in his home in New Jersey at the age of 44.

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After Theodore and Ralph died, the New York Sun ran a two-page feature about the Starrett Brothers that is as flattering to them as it was to their parents. “In the sphere of steel skeleton construction their surname means as much the nation over as Edison’s name in the sphere of electromechanical invention.” In those days, skyscraper building was a captivating event, and the Starretts were pioneers and superstars of their craft. The Sun article not only sung the praises of the brothers, but sung the praises of their parents. (The problem of this article is that it makes absolutely no mention of the “Remarkable Starrett Brothers'” TWO SISTERS, Katherine and Helen. Since the article focuses mainly on skyscraper construction and the parents who sired this group of talented men, it is almost understandable.
However, as Katherine and Helen were children #4 an #5 of seven, AND they BOTH married builders who were each professionally associated with their brothers– both of their husbands served as vice presidents of the Chicago branch of Thompson Starrett during significant projects. Since we’re leaving out the sisters and talking about the builders here, the two photos are of the brothers in law. The one on the left is William Dinwiddie, Helen’s husband, and the one on the left is Frederick Whitton, Katherine’s husband.)

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Throughout everything that life threw at her, Helen maintained her cheerful demeanor and continued doing the things she loved. The Oregon Daily Journal quoted her as saying, “the real and permanent pleasures of life are those that come through service to others.” Paul wrote in his memoirs that his mother’s school was a great success, in terms of enrollment, but that “she was far too generous to get ahead financially. Her house during vacation time was always full of hapless folk whom she had taken under her roof out of the goodness of her heart. But it was a happy household…”
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On May 21, 1919, the US House of Representatives voted 304-42 in favor of National Women’s Suffrage. On June 4, the Senate followed suit with a 56-25 vote. The dream of millions of American women had finally come to pass—the 66^th Congress of the United States would add the 19^th Amendment to the US Constitution. The annual convention scheduled for February 1920, would be unlike any of the other conventions. The 51^st Convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association was entitled the Victory Convention, and Helen was invited to attend as an honored guest.

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Papers around the country hailed her as the only surviving delegate to Susan B Anthony’s national convention in 1869 to attend the Victory convention in 1920. The New York Sun ran a full page article with a large photograph of Helen, describing her as a brisk and happy 80-year old in a prim, velvet bonnet and white silk mitts. Everywhere she went throughout the Convention, she was a magnet for attention, and whenever a group of young suffragists caught up with her, she was encircled by enthusiastic requests for stories of the early years. She shared memories of Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Rev Olympia Brown and Frederick Douglass and Lucretia Mott and Lucy Stone. She reminisced with old friends about former conventions, and met the granddaughters of those who hadn’t lived to see their hard work come to fruition.

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Following the Victory Convention in Chicago, Helen travelled to Washington DC where she spoke at the headquarters of the National Women’s Party, and asked for support in electing Susan B Anthony to the Hall of Fame of Great Americans at New York University. From Washington, Helen next went to New York, where she was one of the Hall of Fame’s one hundred two electors. (Sadly, Susan B Anthony would not be elected to the Hall of Fame until 1950.)

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After five months of travel, Helen finally returned to Portland where she dove right back into her social and academic activities. She spoke to various Parent Teacher Associations about the problems of youth cigarette smoking and the trend of immodest girls’ fashion in high school. She spoke to the Oregon Suffrage Alliance about the Victory Convention and her memories of early conventions. In September of 1920, The Oregon Daily Journal ran a four-part interview series with her about her life. As always, she stayed very busy, though her health seemed to gradually decline.

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In November, she underwent a “serious operation” from which she never completely recovered. On December 16, 1920, Helen Martha Ekin Starrett suffered an apparent cerebral hemorrhage.

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Newspapers across the country eulogized her, yet none were able to fully expound upon the vastness of the imprint Helen left upon the world. Some of the announcements focused on her influence as an educator while a few focused on her literary achievements. Others hailed her social and suffrage work. And others praised her as the distinguished mother who raised five sons who literally changed the face of the earth.

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As her great great granddaughter, my personal favorite notice of her passing ran on Page 2 of The Oregon Daily Journal. In part, it read, “In the passing of Mrs Helen Ekin Starrett… Oregon suffers a peculiar and distinct loss—the loss of a rich and radiating personality that constituted a cultural and ethical asset that was truly priceless. Mrs Starrett was a devoted wife and a wonderful mother, a foremost educator, a contributor to newspapers and magazines, a writer of prose and verse, a patron of the arts and all the other things that go to make a perfectly rounded life, yet all of these attainments and accomplishments were eclipsed by an intangible something that was just Mrs Starrett herself.”

One of her former students wrote of her, ” She had a wonderful life. She lived to have her children, her grandchildren, and young people across this land rise up and call her blessed. We cannot but rejoice in such a life, which has left a noble and lasting impression on the youth of two generations.

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The Starrett School for Girls continued in Chicago as a well-respected private school for 58 years. It became one of the leading institutions of its kind in the midwest, with students from all across the country. The school closed its doors in 1941.

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Helen Martha Ekin Starrett was always a woman ahead of her time. She was cremated, and her remains are interred in the Main Mausoleum at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. She shares an urn with her sister, Katherine, and her sister-in-law, Annie.

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Helen’s legacy can be seen today, not only through her own work, but through the work of her sons, daughters, sons-in-law, and grandsons. (By the way, this blog is written by her great great granddaughter!) Below is but a small fraction of the imprint this amazing woman and her progeny left behind. (There are SO many more, and I will get to as many of them as I can!) These are just a few of the structures bearing Starrett fingerprints:

© Julie Dirkes Phelps

Photographer, Author, Researcher, Archivist, and Storyteller.

© Copyright 2015. 

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