VIDEO: Edna Bean, Anoka County Suffragette

Anoka County has quite a few names that have had their start in life here and went on to accomplish nationally important things. One of those humans is Edna Belle Bean. She literally left her calling card with us in Anoka. Now it’s time we reconnect and hear her story, what she’s been doing all these years.

Edna was born in Anoka on March 26, 1871 to Martin and Louisa Bean of Anoka. Martin had served in the Civil War and worked in farming, lumbering, and later, the hardware business. He also served as Sheriff.

After receiving an education in Anoka, Edna enrolled at Carlton College in Northfield. You can see her listed in the 1890 annual catalog of the officers and students in the English Department. It’s likely at this point in her life, she returned home to help care for her sister, Ina, who had tuberculosis. Ina passed away within the year and Edna decided to leave her remaining two siblings and head for Chicago.

Here, Edna really began to make her mark on the world of journalism and women’s rights. She changed her name to “Theodora”, often using “Teddy” or even “Ed” in her bylines—keep in mind how few women there were in the newspaper world then!

In 1901, Teddy obtained an exclusive interview with Carrie Nation by taking her to a women-only bathhouse where other reporters could not go. She traveled in Europe as a freelance reporter, became well-known in artistic circles in Paris, socialized with Gertrude Stein and the artist Janet Scudder.

In 1903, Teddy took up residence in New York and worked as a feature writer for The Morning Telegraph, a paper noted for its theater and horse-racing coverage. She worked closely with suffrage campaign leaders including Ida Blair and Vira Whitehouse, organized and marched in parades, held signs on subway cars and helped with publicity. You can read one of her articles online at suffrage and the media.org. Here she interviews Carrie Chapman Catt, whom she calls, “the greatest woman in suffrage.”

New York gave their women residents the right to vote in state and local elections in 1917. Teddy continued her work as an edgy reporter, even feuding with the composer Oscar Hammerstein after she gave one of his shows a bad review. A fellow reporter, Heywood Broun, recalled Teddy was "forever throwing impertinent visitors out of the window. They would never allow her to have an office above the second floor." While Teddy was tough, she also helped other female reporters break into the business. She was "popular with women. She had a heart. Her helpfulness to girl beginners in the writing field was patient and dependable."

Most of her time in New York City, she lived alone in the Hotel Richmond, although for several years Teddy shared an apartment with another woman named Marjorie Patterson. Marjorie was a noted author and actress who came from a wealthy Baltimore family and their home became a gathering place for writers and theater people.

In 1926, Teddy started her own newspaper syndicate. She served as President of the Newspaper Women's Club, a group she helped to found. She passed away at the age of 50 from complications due to a surgery. Her obituaries were printed far and wide, though the Anoka Union that said it best: "She was a woman of keen perception and wonderful fund of humor. She was also a rapid, indefatigable worker.”