{"id":379,"date":"2014-03-11T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T15:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/historyapolis.com\/?p=379"},"modified":"2024-01-10T13:43:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T19:43:37","slug":"where-are-the-men-who-make-these-girls-what-they-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/2014\/03\/11\/where-are-the-men-who-make-these-girls-what-they-are\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhere are the men who make these girls what they are?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Published March 11, 2014 by Tamatha Perlman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Today’s guest blogger is Tamatha Perlman, a writer and museum professional, who is working\u00a0on a book about murder, madness and unrequited love in 19th century Minneapolis. In this post she\u00a0describes one of the city’s most colorful founding mothers, the indomitable Charlotte Van Cleve, who\u00a0established the Sisterhood of Bethany in 1874 and helped to challenge social prejudices against women\u00a0who had worked as prostitutes in the city’s burgeoning commercial sex industry. Tamantha writes:<\/p>\n

The man behind the bar let out a string of profanities. Charlotte Ouisconsin\u00a0Van Cleve took the\u00a0lily-shaped horn she used to amplify conversation out of her ear and rested it on the counter,\u00a0hands folded over the curved neck.<\/p>\n

Charlotte wasn\u2019t easily ruffled.<\/p>\n

She was the daughter of Charlotte and Lieutenant\u00a0Nathan Clark, who had travelled from Connecticut to \u201ca bend in the St. Peter River\u201d in 1819 to\u00a0found what became Fort Snelling. When Charlotte was born along the way at Prairie du Chien,\u00a0her father’s compatriots insisted that the new baby–the first “American” born in an area still\u00a0controlled by Native Americans–should be called \u201cOuisconsin,” to commemorate her Wisconsin\u00a0territory birthplace. <\/span><\/p>\n

Blessed with native intelligence, her childhood as a military daughter at a\u00a0frontier outpost shaped her into a woman of both persistence and compassion. She brought\u00a0these considerable gifts to bear on the early social structures of Minneapolis, nurturing\u00a0institutions that would change life for women and children in the growing city.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the saloonkeeper finished his barrage, Charlotte smiled serenely. \u201cYes, yes. I\u00a0agree with everything you say,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd now I\u2019ll take your donation, please.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The man reached into the till and handed Charlotte his donation for the Sisterhood of\u00a0Bethany.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sisterhood of Bethany was established in 1874 to create a refuge for “fallen\u00a0women” by Charlotte and a trio of female compatriots. Harriet Walker (wife of lumber magnate\u00a0T.B. Walker) represented the Methodists in this effort; Euphoria Outlook brought her Adventist\u00a0beliefs to this moral reform work; and Abby Mendenhall put her Quaker principles into action\u00a0through the Sisterhood, which sought to help women who had worked as prostitutes in the\u00a0city’s burgeoning commercial sex industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Charlotte always asserted that if you’re “fallen” you can always get back up. The\u00a0Sisterhood extended a helping hand for women seeking to climb back into respectable society.\u00a0They defied those who believed that sex workers bore a moral stain that could never fade.\u00a0And they asserted that prostitutes should not bear the sole blame for their situation. \u201cWhere\u00a0are the men who make these girls what they are?\u201d Charlotte demanded. \u201cGo find them in our\u00a0business marts, drawing rooms, and churches…Men are getting rich on the toil and tears of\u00a0famishing women and children.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sisterhood made an arrangement with the city to rehabilitate women arrested for\u00a0prostitution. In 1875, Charlotte rented a small house at 316 Sixth Street SE and accepted her\u00a0first two “inmates.” A few days later, two more women arrived. They were met with a message\u00a0of moral reform that was undoubtedly tiresome. Of the original four women, two took their\u00a0complimentary bibles to the pawn shop and themselves out on the town.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"bethany<\/a><\/p>\n

Charlotte was undeterred. Bethany Home grew and in expanded to accommodate the\u00a0inevitable children who arrived as well. As president of Bethany Home, Charlotte replied to\u00a0letters from desperate women, reunited repentant daughters with agonized fathers, nursed\u00a0countless babies and spoke throughout the region on behalf of \u201cher girls.\u201d In addition, she was\u00a0the first female elected to the Minneapolis Board of Education in 1876 after a law was passed\u00a0to allow women to run for offices \u201crelating to the education of children.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time Charlotte died in 1907, she had raised 22 children–her own biological\u00a0children and those she adopted. By 1914, the Sisterhood claimed that it had helped 7,500\u00a0women and children leave the sex trade.<\/span><\/p>\n

This photo shows Charlotte on her 80th birthday. It is from the Minneapolis Photo collection at the Hennepin County Central Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published March 11, 2014 by Tamatha Perlman Today’s guest blogger is Tamatha Perlman, a writer and museum professional, who is working\u00a0on a book about murder, madness and unrequited love in 19th century Minneapolis. In this post she\u00a0describes one of the city’s most colorful founding mothers, the indomitable Charlotte Van Cleve, who\u00a0established the Sisterhood of Bethany…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[42,71,141,155,194],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4133,"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions\/4133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mvt.rpw.mybluehost.me\/.website_3d6664ec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}