Collier, Janet McCornack

From Lane Co Oregon

Janet McCornack Collier (1857-1938) was the first woman elected to the Eugene School Board, even though she couldn’t vote in elections herself. She visited all the classes, evaluated the teachers, and lobbied for funds to build a new high school — while raising six children. “I don’t know if she was especially interested in women’s suffrage,” said a granddaughter in 1976. “But she lived it.”

Her surveyor husband was often away, so Mrs. Collier was household carpenter, craftsperson and nurse all rolled into one. She built shelves, made the children a baseball out of an old shoe, and saw them through typhoid and scarlet fever epidemics. She also found the time for church and neighborhood activities. “It wasn’t just her own family that she worked for,” said daughter Dorothy in 1976. Son Alfred added, “She wasn’t afraid of man or the devil.”