This week in history: Cloquet's Olesen was suffrage champion

The nation marked 100 years this week since women finally won the suffrage battle. A key player in getting women the right to vote hailed from Cloquet, Anna Dickie Olesen.

She was the first female nominee of a major party for the U.S. Senate and was a celebrated orator and passionate social reformer who became one of the most prominent Democratic women of the early 20th century.

Anna Dickie was born on July 3, 1885, to Peter and Margaret Dickie and grew up in rural Waterville in southern Minnesota's LeSueur County. Intelligent and talkative from a young age, Anna showed signs early on of the oratorical power she would wield as a public speaker. The Dickies, teetotalers and staunch Republicans, switched their party allegiance in the 1890s and became avid supporters of three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, whom Anna would admire as a political idol.

After graduation from Waterville High School, she taught briefly before marrying Peter Olesen in 1905. Olesen had come through the area selling books to help finance his education at Hamline University and was one of many travelers her father had offered hospitality to in their home.

The couple settled in St. Paul before moving to Pine City, where Peter had accepted a job as superintendent of schools. He soon accepted the same position in Cloquet, once again uprooting a family which now included a year-old daughter, Mary.

Anna became involved in the social and political affairs of Cloquet, leading women's clubs and tutoring area immigrants in English.

By 1913, Olesen had been elected president of the Federation of Women's Clubs in Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District. In 1914, she was appointed a delegate to the International Child Welfare Congress in Washington and in 1916 was elected state vice president of the Women's Clubs, a position she held for two years.

In 1916, she accepted the most high-profile invitation to date, delivering a speech advocating women's suffrage at the state Democratic Party convention.

As her busy schedule put pressure on her single-income family, Olesen sought an additional income source by auditioning for the Chautauqua circuit-a travelling, tent-based speaker series that drew thousands across the country.

In 1918, the Olesens lost their home in the fire. Despite the setback, they remained in Cloquet and Anna began a 17-year crusade to secure federal aid for fire victims.

Olesen's oratorical skills and political acumen on the circuit soon caught the attention of national Democrats, and in 1920 she was the first woman invited to speak at the national Democratic Party's Jackson Day Dinner.

In 1922, at age 36, Olesen ran for and won the endorsement of the state Democratic Convention in Minneapolis for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Frank Kellogg, making her the first woman in the country nominated for the body by a major party.

Driving a Ford sedan given to her by friends, Olesen, sometimes accompanied by her brother or daughter, maintained an exhaustive campaign schedule across the state. Some days she would make as many as12 stops, delivering speeches that earned her comparisons to populist former governor John A. Johnson.

Olesen and Kellogg fell short to Farmer-Labor candidate Henrik Shipstead, who had 47 percent of the vote. He was the first Farmer-Labor candidate to win a statewide race. Oleson had 18 percent of the vote.

The defeat did not keep her from continuing her political work. She continued to be a popular speaker on the Chautauqua circuit and achieved a degree of financial independence through her speeches.

She moved to Northfield with Peter in 1923 when he became a Carleton College registrar and German professor.

In 1932, she was elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. By now known nationally as one of the party's preeminent orators, Olesen was invited to give a speech seconding the nomination of House Speaker John Nance Garner for vice president. She also campaigned vigorously for Franklin Roosevelt in the lead-up to Election Day.

After the Democratic sweep of federal offices in 1932, President Roosevelt appointed Olesen to lead the new National Emergency Council in Minnesota in 1934. As state director (the only woman to serve in the role nationwide), Olesen coordinated the efforts of various New Deal agencies in Minnesota during the Great Depression. In addition to her role as state director, Olesen also continued lobbying for funding for the Cloquet fire victims. Perhaps her single greatest political achievement was helping steer an aid bill through Congress and pressuring Roosevelt to sign it, which he did on Aug. 27, 1935. In total, $10.8 million would be paid out to fire survivors as a result of the law.

In 1942, at the age of 57, Olesen retired from public life. In 1960, Peter Olesen died. The next year, Anna married Chester Burge, a family friend, only to lose him to a gas explosion two years later. Olesen passed away in Northfield on May 21, 1971, at the age of 86. She is interred in Sakatah Cemetery in Waterville, next to Peter.

Christian Bjornson wrote the bulk of this profile for MNopedia, the web site connected to the Minnesota Historical Society. Pine Knot News writer Mike Creger contributed some of the historical background with help from the Carlton County Historical Society.