Senator John Sanford represented Mendocino County’s interest in state government from 1894 to 1908. Well respected as a teacher and a journalist, “He has an unusually powerful mind capable of analyzing motives behind deeds” the Mendocino Democrat Dispatch newspaper claimed in 1898.
When Sanford entered the legislature in 1894 he was the youngest man there. When he retired 18 years later he’d served longer than any man of that era. While an advocate for schools, good roads, and modern improvements, he abhorred women’s suffrage and Asian-Americans.
Sanford made sure Asian immigrants obtained as few rights as possible to limit immigration. And votes for women? In 1905 he wrote “Men and women are constituted differently and have different spheres of usefulness. We all despise mannish women and effeminate sissy men…the bedside prayer of one pure Nobel Christian woman far outweighs the work of any female politician on earth.”
Votes for women were “political hysteria” and a “backward step in the progress of civilization,” he said. “Women have no need to vote as men will represent and protect them.” Well, women got the vote in California in 1911 much to his chagrin. In his opposition, the press noted “His speeches were masterpieces of insult to the women of the state and Mendocino County.” By 1914 he was out of politics and running the Ukiah Democrat Dispatch newspaper. Later appointed as a registrar in the U.S. Land Office in San Francisco to his indignation he was replaced by a woman in 1922.
He lived at 306 S. Pine St. which became Ukiah’s first bed & breakfast. He also had an unusual death. In 1928 he fell to his death from the window of a San Francisco hotel. He fainted while leaning out a window and died instantly.
“Remember when”? Since he made the remark in 1905 I’d guess there is no one alive that remembers.
That was the obvious initial reaction here also.
Seems like picking at very old wounds, now a popular current trend.
Artistic license?