Folsom, Erminia Thompson, 1878-1967

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Mariana Thompson (Folsom), born a Pennsylvania Quaker, was a graduate of St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. She and her husband, Allan Perez Folsom, were both Unitarian ministers, teachers, and lecturers. By 1879 Mariana was a state lecturer of the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association, living in Marshalltown, Iowa. The family moved to Texas in 1881 following a lecture tour there; the Folsoms lived variously in San Antonio, Hallettsville, and Refugio County before settling in Austin by 1898. They had at least three children: a son Allison Thompson Folsom (born in Foxboro, Massachusetts, 1875; LL.B., the University of Texas; later Terrell County Attorney); a daughter Erminia Thompson Folsom (born in Oswego, New York, 1878); and another son Clarence Stroud Thompson Folsom (born in 1885; B.A., the University of Texas, 1907; licensed as an attorney, 1919). Mariana Folsom was a leader in the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the Texas Equal Rights Association, and a member of the Universal Peace Union and the Texas Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She died sometime before March 26, 1910.

Erminia Thompson Folsom was born in Oswego, New York, on November 6, 1878, the daughter of Allan Perez Folsom and Mariana Thompson Folsom. Her family came to Texas in 1881. After graduating from Austin public schools, Erminia entered the University of Texas by 1900, where she received a B.S. in 1907. She taught school in the Eanes School near Austin (ca. 1903) and also near Fort Stockton. In 1911 she ran one brother's law office for a summer, while both brothers were in California. Most of her career was spent lecturing and writing articles for various reform movements. She was an active member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (she marched in the first suffragette parade in Washington, D.C.), the Texas Equal Suffrage Association, and the Austin Woman Suffrage Association; she was also an official organizer for the Texas League of the College Equal Suffrage League. By 1919 she was on the executive committee (assistant secretary) of the Texas Prison Association, and was acting secretary of the Travis County Prison Association in 1921. In 1928, she campaigned for Herbert Hoover. She was active in the Texas Woman's Christian Temperance Union, being a delegate to the state convention in Galveston in 1939 as well as attending many other Woman's Christian Temperance Union conventions, as late as 1957; in 1948, she was an authorized reporter for the Texas White Ribbon, the official publication of the Texas Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Miss Folsom never married, and continued to live in Austin after her brothers' families moved to California. She was admitted to the Allandale Nursing Home and died on December 31, 1967.

From the guide to the Papers, 1856-1965, (Repository Unknown)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Folsom, Erminia T., 1878-1967. Papers, 1856-1965 and undated University of Texas at Austin. General Libraries
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith American Prison Association corporateBody
associatedWith Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906 person
associatedWith Austin Woman Suffrage Association. corporateBody
associatedWith Billings, Mary C., 1824-1904 person
associatedWith Catt, Carrie Chapman, 1859-1947 person
associatedWith Folsom, Mariana Thompson. person
associatedWith Gillett, Emma M. person
associatedWith Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964 person
associatedWith Love, Alfred H. (Alfred Henry), 1830-1913 person
associatedWith National American Woman Suffrage Association corporateBody
associatedWith National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. corporateBody
associatedWith Ney, Elisabet, 1833-1907 person
associatedWith Shaw, Anna Howard, 1847-1919 person
associatedWith Stone, Lucy, 1818-1893 person
associatedWith Texas Equal Rights Association. corporateBody
associatedWith Texas Equal Suffrage Association. corporateBody
associatedWith Texas Prison Association. corporateBody
associatedWith Texas Woman's Christian Temperance Union. corporateBody
associatedWith Texas Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Prison and Jail Dept. corporateBody
associatedWith Texas Woman Suffrage Association. corporateBody
associatedWith Woman's Christian Temperance Union corporateBody
Place Name Admin Code Country
Subject
Suffrage
Equal rights
Peace movements
Prison reformers
Social reformers
Temperance
Occupation
Activity

Person

Birth 1878

Death 1967

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