Three innovations shrank the nation after the Civil War. The railroad moved people across the nation in days rather than months. The telegraph transmitted news faster. The Chautauqua closed the social gap by bringing adult education and culture to small rural towns each summer.
Chautauqua, an Iroquois word, meaning “two moccasins tied together” or “a bag tied in the middle,” is the shape of Chautauqua Lake in New York, where the Chautauqua Institute set up in 1870.
Vancouver never held a gathering until 1913. Gladstone, Ore., seems to have been the single local venue for Chautauqua until then. Local newspapers reported residents traveling to Gladstone. In 1895, the Vancouver Weekly Columbian noted several families headed to Gladstone to take Chautauqua “exercises.” That year, Mrs. W. H. Johnson held a meeting on 10th Street to form a Chautauqua circle. However, her attempt faltered, for further notices of circle meetings weren’t found. Founded by prosperous Atlanta women, a circle’s members explored equality for women and people of color.
In 1896, several people from Vancouver, including Mr. and Mrs. H.H. Gridley, Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Gridley, Miss Graham, Reverend Lamont and others, went to Gladstone Park to attend an annual Chautauqua. In 1899, season tickets with camping privileges ran $1.50 (nearly $48 today), and individual event tickets were 25 cents (about $8 today), with children under 10 free. C.W. Shumway and E. H. Todd biked to Gladstone Park in 1900 to attend a Chautauqua.
Today, Chautauqua festivals are often confused with Christian revival meetings, but their purpose was not religious. A Chautauqua was educational and lasted three to five days. Presentations were conducted in the open air, under huge tents, or in constructed gazebo-like structures like the one in Gladstone. Using musical groups, plays, lectures, elocution and children’s groups, Chautauqua stimulated improvements in community, society and individual lives by reflecting the nation’s ideologies, politics, and views, including women’s suffrage. Yet the schedule was loose enough for attendees to socialize and discuss what they’d seen or heard.
The Vancouver Chautauqua Association hosted events in 1913 and 1914. Its Chautauqua tent would cover 2,000 people. Sixty-three individuals organized and ran the first event. The Columbian passed on a suggestion for residents to have their yards “tip-top” for expected visitors. Attendees heard musical groups including the White City Band and the Chicago Male Quartet; Marietta La Dell, a female comedian; and Benjamin Chaplin, who impersonated Abraham Lincoln.
The following year, people came from around the region. A newspaper notice identified the Whipples of Harmony and others as attending during July 15-20. Spectators heard the Lyric Glee Club, saw an impressionist; a trained dog named Bronte; a recital by the Elwynn Trio; and lectures by Dr. James McLaren, “The Wisest of Fools” and “Flags of the World.” Children spent time playing Seton Indian games. Other highlights included Thaxis Grand Opera Company; Col. Miller on “Farming and Being Farmed,” the Dunbar Singing Orchestra; a war correspondent; a prize fighter explaining why he quit boxing; and Chinese-born publisher and statesman Ng Poon Chew.
After a centurylong hiatus, the Historic Trust sponsored several days of Chautauqua programs in 2019 on women’s suffrage and in 2020 on African Americans in the Columbia Basin.
