This undated and incomplete clipping from our family archives profiles Mollie Mahaffie. From context give, it is from 1937. Presumed to be from a Kiowa County, Oklahoma newspaper.
Pioneer Woman Had Important Part in Settling County
Mrs. Mahaffie Drove Wagon into Territory
Her Husband Had Made Run Ahead of Family
In spite of the fact the men of pioneer days drew allotments for land and made runs into this new country, it is doubtful they could have done it had it not been for courageous wives who were not afraid to drive the wagons loaded with their possessions and children alone into this strange territory to the lot staked by their husbands.
Which is exactly what Mrs. G. B. Mahaffie did when her husband and his brother made the run at the Enid opening. With the wagon loaded with their household materials and the four children, Mrs. Mahaffie found the place which her husband had staked, pitched camp and had supper cooked over an open fire before Mr. Mahaffie returned to the lot after looking for his family.
The Mahaffie family didn’t keep their claim as they didn’t think it was worth the trouble building a home there when they had their place in Kingfisher county. they later regret ed that decision.
Mrs. Mahaffie, one of Hobart’s oldest pioneers, was born in Parkville, Mo., in 1855, the oldest child of O. F. and Sallie P. Williams. From Parkville, the family moved to Olathe, Kan., where Mrs. Mahaffie received her education, taught school nine years and married Mr. Mahaffie.
Following the Enid run the family returned to Kingfisher county and in 1903 came to Hobart and
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. . . Kingfisher County to move Mrs. Mahaffie and two smaller children to Hobart the two older children remained here to look after the business.
Mrs. Mahaffie has a picture of Hobart taken March 1, 1902 by a young photographer who dated her daughter. The picture showed the Methodist church clearly, the parsonage, the Mahaffie home, and a Mrs. Sitton’s home.
Laughingly, Mrs. Mahaffie remarked “That Mrs. Sittons was the washingest woman I ever saw in all my life. Not one day did I look out my door but what sh had a line full of clothes; believe she even hung them out on Sundays.”
In the picture behind Mrs. Sitton’s house was a clothes line covered with clothes which would do a “Helpy Selfy” laundry justice.
The night before the picture was taken a storm came up and damaged a few buildings. The roof had been blown off the Methodist preacher’s stable.
“What I mean we had storms in those days. In these times we don’t have much to complain about.” She said the storms were frequent and fierce.
In a few years after coming to Hobart the Mahaffie family moved to the Pioneer district east of Hobart. Credit for naming the school “Pioneer” goes to Mrs. Mahaffie who made the suggestion after the neighborhood couldn’t decide upon a suitable name for the new school building.
From bits gleaned from Mrs. Mahaffie’s reminiscences, I could clearly see the rise of women from behind the kitchen apron to active parts of community social and political life.
Literary societies and spelling bees played prominent parts in the community social life. At the literacy meets the men debated and made speeches and the women made up the attentive audiences, but in the spelling bees the women were in their glory. Mrs. Mahaffie’s eyes gleamed as she recalled how she and her best girl friend were always chosen on opposite sides because hey were the best spellers.
But then came the day when the women of the Pioneer district objected to the way their school system was being run, so at a school election 12 women bonded together and decided to elect Mrs. Mahaffie as a member of the school board. When heir husbands learned what they were doing they refused to go to the meeting and said they wanted to to have no dealings with anything women were planning to do in politics.
So at the school election there were 12 women present and one lone man, Mr. Jobe Castle, president of the school board.
“Never will I forget the expression of surprise and chagrin on that poor man’s face when he saw us come in,” said Mrs. Mahaffie.
“When he learned what we were up too he said, ‘I don’t know whether we can get along with a woman member or not.’”
“Well, we’ll try it,” chorused the women and so Mrs. Mahaffie was probably the first woman member of any school board in the state. In two or three years there were several other women members on other boards, but they were a little timid about it.
For 34 years, Mrs. Mahaffie had one of her children in school, which seems to be something of a record. Every child attended Kingfisher college which later became a part of the University of Oklahoma.
Mrs. Mahaffie is the only charter member of the Yamparika club left in Hobart. The Yamparika was one of the first clubs organized in Hobart.
Charles Mahaffie is a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission and last year President Roosevelt appointed him for another seven year term. Beatty Mahaffie is a chemist of the bureau of industrial alcohol in Pittsburg, Penn., and Mrs. Mahaffie has a daughter in Pomona, Calif.
