Home of Cara (Cora) Little Ebert

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

1203 Murdoch Avenue was the home of J. Gale and Cara Little Ebert around 1914-1915 when Cara L. Ebert was the president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. Ebert was also president of the Parkersburg Equal Suffrage Association, a member of the WV State Ratification Committee in 1920, and West Virginia Republican Committeewoman for 12 years.

Images

Cora/Cara Ebert

The Wheeling Intelligencer, May 1, 1916

Location of 1203 Murdoch Ave

The Fairmont West Virginian, July 31, 1914

The Fairmont West Virginian, April 9, 1915

The Clarksburg Daily Telegram, September 21, 1915

Virginia Free Press, October 28, 1915

"WVESA Ratification Committee (Henrietta Romine, Cora Ebert, Julia Ruhl, Nancy Mann, Daisy Peadro, and Lenna Lowe Yost) with petitions for ratification. Huntington Advertiser, September 26, 1920"

"Republican women leaders discuss 1938 election plans with G.O.P. Chairman. Washington, D.C., Aug. 11. Women members of the Republican National Committee from all parts of the country converged on Washington today for a conference with National Chairman John Hamilton. Plans for the party's 1938 election campaign were discussed. In the photograph, left to right: (seated) Mrs. Robert L. Hoyal, Ariz.; Mrs. Worthington Scranton, PA; Chairman Hamilton; Mrs. John E. Hillman, Colo.; and Mrs. Virginia White Speel, Dist. of Col. Standing left to right: Mrs. Grace B. Reynolds, Ind.; Mrs. Cara L. Ebert, W.Va.; Ms. Chris Carlson, Minn.; Mrs. Edna B. Conklin, N.J.; Mrs. Pearl Wates, Ala.; Mrs. Katherine Kennedy Brown, Ohio; Mrs. margaret A. Green, Mass.; Mrs. Doris K. Reynolds, Wyo.; Miss Katheryn Byrne, Conn; and Miss Consuelo Northrop, VT, 8/11/37"

Parkersburg City Directory, 1914

Font, Material property, Publication, Paper

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia, 1916.

Product, Rectangle, Material property, Pattern

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

Cara Little was born to Robert W. and Cara Little in 1886 in Cumberland, MD. She received her education from the Allegheny County Academy and Beethoven Conservatory of Music. Little married Johnson Gale Ebert in 1906 and the couple had three children. J. Gale Ebert was born on May 10, 1872 to Charles W. and Olive Johnson Ebert of Parkersburg. J. Gale Ebert was an assistant business manager for the Parkersburg Daily State Journal for three years, then attended college in Poughkeepsie, NY. Ebert was then employed in the H. P. Moss Company working in the book and stationary business.

Cara L. Ebert was a part of the Parkersburg Equal Suffrage Association that formed in 1914 and served as the group’s president. She helped organize one the state’s larger suffrage rallies, held at the Auditorium Theatre in May 1914. Cara L. Ebert was also a member of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association and served as the organization’s president for 1914-1915. Ebert was a member of the WV State Ratification Committee during the campaign to ratify the 19^th Amendment in 1919-1920.

After the suffrage victory, Cara Little Ebert was active and prominent in Republican politics. In 1920 she was on the Associate Republican State Committee for the Third District. She was the West Virginia Republican Committeewoman for 12 years, 1932-1944, and was a member of the arrangements committee for the Republican National Convention in 1940. Ebert was active until 1950 in encouraging women to vote and participate in politics and that year was a delegate to the Women’s Republican Club of Cumberland.

At some point it appears that J. Gale and Cara Ebert divorced, since J. Gale Ebert is listed as such on his death certificate. He died on August 30, 1948 at 76 years old and is buried at Riverview Cemetery in Parkersburg, WV. Cara Little Ebert remained in Parkersburg until around the time J. Gale Ebert died, then she lived in Cumberland, Maryland and was president of her family’s business, the S. T. Little Jewelry Company, until her son took it over. She then retired to Sarasota, FL. Cara Little Ebert died in 1977 and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Cumberland, MD.

Sources

1910; Census Place: Parkersburg Ward 1, Wood, West Virginia; Roll: T624_1697; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 0123; FHL microfilm: 1375710. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Accessed February 23, 2022.

1920; Census Place: Parkersburg Ward 2, Wood, West Virginia; Roll: T625_1973; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 166. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed February 23, 2022.

1930; Census Place: Parkersburg, Wood, West Virginia; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0017; FHL microfilm: 2342292. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Accessed February 23, 2022.

“Cara Little Ebert.” Find A Grave. Accessed February 23, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122523404/cara-ebert.

“J. Gale Ebert.” Find A Grave. Accessed February 23, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25600903/j.-gale-ebert.

Miller, Thomas Condit, and Hu Maxwell. West Virginia and Its People. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913. GoogleBooks. Accessed February 23, 2022. https://books.google.com/books?id=Fnk_AAAAYAAJ&dq=johnson+gale+ebert+parkersburg+wv&source=gbs_navlinks_s.

Parkersburg, West Virginia, City Directory, 1914. Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Accessed February 23, 2022.

Parkersburg, West Virginia, City Directory, 1916. Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Accessed February 23, 2022.

Resau, Kaci. “Biography of Cara Little Ebert, 1886-1977.” Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920. Accessed February 23, 2022. https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1010596427.

Virginia Department of Health; Richmond, Virginia; Virginia Deaths, 1912-2014. Certificate Range: 17446-17937. Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Death Records, 1912-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Accessed February 23, 2022.

West Virginia argus. [volume], April 23, 1914, Image 2. Chronicling America. Accessed February 23, 2022. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092245/1914-04-23/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=1913&index=16&rows=20&words=Parkersburg+Suffrage&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=West+Virginia&date2=1917&proxtext=parkersburg+suffrage&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.

“Women in the West Virginia Woman Suffrage Movement.” Fighting the Long Fight: West Virginia Women and the Right to Vote. A West Virginia Archives and History Online Exhibit. Accessed February 23, 2022. http://129.71.204.160/history////exhibitsonline/suffrage/suffragewomen.html.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

"Cora/Cara Ebert, West Virginians of 1934-1935." Fighting the Long Fight: West Virginia Women and the Right to Vote. A West Virginia Archives and History Online Exhibit. Accessed February 23, 2022. http://129.71.204.160/history////exhibitsonline/suffrage/suffrage73.html.

The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume], May 01, 1916, Page 3, Image 13. Chronicling America. Accessed June 24, 2022. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092536/1916-05-01/ed-1/seq-13/.

Google Maps. Accessed March 7, 2022.

The Fairmont West Virginian., July 31, 1914, Page PAGE FIVE, Image 5. Chronicling America. Accessed February 23, 2022. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092557/1914-07-31/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=1914&index=0&rows=20&words=Ebert+Parkersburg&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=West+Virginia&date2=1914&proxtext=parkersburg+ebert&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.

The West Virginian. [volume], April 09, 1915, Page PAGE 3, Image 3. Chronicling America. Accessed February 23, 2022. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072054/1915-04-09/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1913&index=1&rows=20&words=Parkersburg+Suffrage&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=West+Virginia&date2=1917&proxtext=parkersburg+suffrage&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.

The daily telegram. [volume], September 21, 1915, Page PAGE FIVE, Image 5. Chronicling America. Accessed February 23, 2022. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85059715/1915-09-21/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=1913&index=6&rows=20&words=Parkersburg+Suffrage&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=West+Virginia&date2=1917&proxtext=parkersburg+suffrage&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.

Virginia free press., October 28, 1915, Image 1. Chronicling America. Accessed February 23, 2022. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026784/1915-10-28/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1913&index=5&rows=20&words=Parkersburg+Suffrage&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=West+Virginia&date2=1917&proxtext=parkersburg+suffrage&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.

"WVESA Ratification Committee (Henrietta Romine, Cora Ebert, Julia Ruhl, Nancy Mann, Daisy Peadro, and Lenna Lowe Yost) with petitions for ratification. Huntington Advertiser, September 26, 1920." Fighting the Long Fight: West Virginia Women and the Right to Vote. A West Virginia Archives and History Online Exhibit. Accessed February 23, 2022. http://archive.wvculture.org/history/exhibitsonline/suffrage/suffrage71.html.

Harris & Ewing, photographer. Republican women leaders discusselection plans with G.O.P. Chairman. Washington, D.C., Aug. 11. Women members of the Republican National Committee from all parts of the country converged on Washington today for a conference with National Chairman John Hamilton. Plans for the party'selection campaign were discussed. In the photograph, left to right: seated Mrs. Robert L. Hoyal, Ariz.; Mrs. Worthington Scranton, PA; Chairman Hamilton; Mrs. John E. Hillman, Colo.; and Mrs. Virginia White Speel, Dist. of Col. Standing left to right: Mrs. Grace B. Reynolds, Ind.; Mrs. Cara L. Ebert, W.Va.; Ms. Chris Carlson, Minn.; Mrs. Edna B. Conklin, N.J.; Mrs. Pearl Wates, Ala.; Mrs. Katherine Kennedy Brown, Ohio; Mrs. margaret A. Green, Mass.; Mrs. Doris K. Reynolds, Wyo.; Miss Katheryn Byrne, Conn; and Miss Consuelo Northrop, VT, 8/11/37. United States Washington D.C. District of Columbia Washington D.C, 1937. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016872164/. Accessed February 23, 2022.

Parkersburg, West Virginia, City Directory, 1914. Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Accessed February 23, 2022.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia. Sanborn Map Company, Feb, 1916. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn09438_006/. Accessed February 23, 2022.