Alice Lee Moqué

Alice Lee Moqué (née Hornor; formerly Snelling; October 20, 1861 – July 16, 1919), was an American traveler, writer, newspaper correspondent, photographer, and suffragist. She was also one of the first women cyclists in America.

Alice Lee Moqué
Born
Alice Lee Hornor

(1861-10-20)October 20, 1861
New Orleans, Louisiana
DiedJuly 16, 1919(1919-07-16) (aged 57)
Washington, D.C.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesAlice Lee Snelling
Occupation(s)Writer, Traveler, Suffragist
Known forDelightful Dalmatia[1]
SpouseWalter Comonfort Snelling m.(1879–d. 1893)
John Oliver Moqué m.(1894–1919)

In addition to newspaper articles on a wide variety of topics, and a novel, she published Delightful Dalmatia (1914), an account of traveling through Dalmatia prior to World War I. She was elected to the League of American Pen Women in 1915.

Early life

Alice Lee Horner was a daughter of Judge Charles West Hornor, a lawyer and abolitionist from a Philadelphia Quaker family,[2] and his second wife Sarah Elizabeth Smith from Augusta, Georgia.[3][4][5] Alice Lee Horner was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the American Civil War.[2]

There is some confusion over Alice Lee Hornor's birth year. Who's Who for 1916 gives her birth date as October 20, 1865.[4] However, Library of Congress authority records list her birth year as 1863,[6] and the Congressional Cemetery, where her ashes were buried, reports 1861.[7]

The politics of the Civil War made it difficult for abolitionists like Judge Hornor to practice in the south.[8] His original legal partner in Louisiana, Thomas J. Durant, moved to Washington, D.C., around 1848.[9] After the war, in 1865, the Hornor family also moved, first to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[2][8] and later to Washington, D.C. There Judge Hornor reestablished his practice with Durant and served before the United States Supreme Court.[3] Alice attended public school at Washington High School in Georgetown.[10]

Mrs. Walter Comonfort Snelling

Alice's first marriage occurred "while in her teens and still a school girl."[2] She married Walter Comonfort Snelling (1859–1893) on October 20, 1879, in Washington, D.C. Snelling was an inventor who patented an adding machine.[11] They had at three sons, chemist Walter Otheman Snelling (1880–1965), Henry H. Snelling,[12] and Charles Hornor Snelling (1887–1907).[13]

Alice apparently took university classes, including two years of law and three years of medicine.[4][14] She was interested in chemistry, and became a skilled photographer, doing her own developing and platemaking. By 1890 she was publishing articles on the technique of photography in major photography magazines such as Wilson's Photographic Magazine and The International Annual of Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, as A. Lee Snelling and Alice Lee Snelling.[2][15][16] These interests were shared by her son Walter, a chemist who later developed a light-sensitive coating for photographic paper using TNT.[17]

Her first husband, Walter Comonfort Snelling, died on July 1, 1893, in West Chester, Pennsylvania.[11]

Mrs. John Oliver Moqué
Alice & John Moqué with bicycles, St. George's Square, London

Alice married her second husband, John Oliver Moqué, on June 27, 1894.[4][18] John Oliver Moqué was born March 26, 1868, to Catherine Araminta Joyce (1837 - 1918) and James E. Moqué.[19] Alice and John Oliver Moqué had a daughter, Voleta Alice Moqué.[12][20]

Alice became increasingly publicly active after her first husband's death. She joined the American Authors Guild in 1893.[2] She wrote for the newspapers on a wide range of topics from Washington society news[21] and suffrage reports to bicycling and travel.

Bicycling

Alice Lee Moqué was an avid sportswoman. "An enthusiastic follower of all out door sports, Mrs. Moqué not only skates, rows and cycles, but is an expert swimmer and a fair shot with a rifle."[2] She was one of the first women in America to be a bicyclist, in the face of strong social opposition.[2][22] With John Oliver Moqué, Alice toured England and the continent "by wheel", publishing accounts of the trip in Outing: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Sport, Travel, and Recreation in 1895.[2][23] She describes the awkwardness of early bicycling costumes for women, which required long skirts.[22]

I would have been absolutely ostracized socially had I dared to appear on the wheel in such cycling garb as I now wear. The bloomered and short-skirted women of to-day, who merrily ride away in freedom and comfort, do not dream of what we of earlier days went through.  – Alice Lee Moqué[22]

Health and eugenics

Alice Lee Moqué was a founding member of the National Congress of Mothers[24] and at one time its vice president.[25] She spoke at the first convocation of the National Congress of Mothers in Washington, D.C., held February 17–19, 1897.[2] The congress was attended by over 2,000 people: "mothers, but also fathers, teachers, laborers and legislators".[26]

Alice spoke on "Reproduction and Natural Law."[2] She asserted that childhood health should no longer be seen as a result of some ineffable divine design but rather as a logical and predictable result of natural laws governing parental health. She advocated for universal health education to promote a higher standard of health. People looking for a prospective mate should assess their "mental, moral and physical status" and suitability as parents. Prospective parents should educate themselves and follow a healthy lifestyle, insofar as it is possible, so as to produce healthy children. Such a duty was owed both to one's children and to society at large. According to this line of reasoning, the health and education of the mother were essential to the health of her children, and women were therefore encouraged to educate themselves and become physically fit. Moqué explicitly states that those who do not wish to become parents should be free not to do so; informed and willing motherhood is hailed as "an intelligent realization of the divine plan of reproduction, a perfect, purposed maternity."[27][28]

At the second convocation of the National Congress of Mothers in Washington, D.C., held May 2–7, 1898, she spoke on "The Mistakes of Mothers".[29][30]

Alice was the first woman to be invited to address the American Medical Association,[12][14] which she did at a conference held June 6–9, 1899. Her address, "Restrictive marriage legislation from the standpoint of the wife, mother and home" was printed in The Journal of the American Medical Association." Again, her address dealt with science, society, and eugenics. She criticized "blind conservatism", arguing that "to the student of biology, sociology, and ethnology, the institution we call marriage... is identical in purpose" to mating in the lower animals.[31]: 526  She advocated mandatory blood tests before marriage to detect sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, which was untreatable and caused horrific birth defects. She asserted that ethicists must someday recognize "rights of the unborn",[31]: 528  and supported sterilization if heredity or disease was likely to cause "a crime against progeny".[31]: 527 

In her article "An educated maternity", published in The Westminster Review of 1900, it is clear that she looks to science as a means of progressive change and remediation of society's ills.[32]

The true spirit of philanthropic effort recognises the necessity of not only alleviating the evils we have, but the urgent obligation to seek for and discover their cause, that ultimately a cure may be effected, whereby the whole race will be benefited.  – Alice Lee Moqué, 1900.[32]

Suffrage

Alice's ideas about suffrage, health, and eugenics are closely intertwined. Women's health was a goal in itself, a means to a better future through eugenics, and a justification for women suffrage.[32]

Women, as a class, know but little of themselves. Their minds are being freed from the narrow limits formerly fixed by an absurd sex-bias as "women's sphere", and with her enlightened mind has come a wider horizon, and the old fetters that held captive the sex are broken; but her emancipation has not come, and will not come until her education is complete. This education of the future must begin at the beginning with body, and not as is now attempted at the end, with mind. – Alice Lee Moqué, 1900[32]

Alice was energetically involved in the suffrage movement by 1914-1915. Who's Who lists her as the press representative in Washington for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the press chairman for the Washington Woman Suffrage Council, and the editor of Washington's "Pot Bouille" (the boiling pot) news.[4] This news and suffrage feature was reprinted in publications such as the San Antonio Express,[33] The Farmer and Mechanic[34] and The Tennessean.[35]

Moqué's articles describe in detail a 1914 "Melting Pot" campaign in which the women of Washington donated gold and silver items to be melted down to raise money for the national suffrage campaign.[33][34] The Washington Herald of March 7, 1917, reports Alice as being "at home" at her new residence at 1641 Harvard Terrace, Washington, D.C., in between suffrage activities including the Mi-Careme Suffrage Ball and Bazaar and a reception at the National American Woman's Suffrage Headquarters at 1626 Rhode Island Avenue.[36]

Women in wartime

In 1897, Alice was elected the adjutant-general of the newly formed Woman's Cuban League.[37][38] She felt strongly about the Spanish–American War, wrote patriotic poetry[39] and was quoted in the newspapers.[40]

Her position, then and during World War I, was that a "physically fit, patriotic woman" was capable of serving in the same positions as a man. She noted that nurses had already demonstrated their "nerve, heroism, and fearlessness" in battlefield conditions facing the same risks as men. She exhorted "Columbia's splendid daughters" to take jobs at home as "aeroplane scouts, ambulance drivers, observers, machine gun corps" and others, to enable more men to go to the front.[41] She set an example by serving in the Women's Volunteer Aid of the Motor Corps during World War I.[12]

She was one of the women delegates to the National Security Congress in January 1916, an open forum on national defense.[42]

Books
Library resources about
Alice Lee Moqué
By Alice Lee Moqué

In addition to numerous articles, Alice published two books under the name Alice Lee Moqué. The Body Master's Daughter (1897) was referred to in The New York Times as a "brilliant and thrilling" novel.[43][44]

More popular was Delightful Dalmatia (1914), an account of traveling with John Oliver Moqué in Dalmatia prior to the first World War.[1] Alice explains that Dalmatia is their ninth "wedding tour," since they take one "every year". She writes of Dalmatian women: "I'm so glad I wasn't born a Dalmatian – or I feel sure I would be a bomb-throwing, acid-pouring, Croatian suffragette!" Although she portrays herself as somewhat flighty, her descriptions of Dalmatia are careful, detailed, and knowledgeable. That she describes Dalmatia just prior to the first World War adds extra interest to her account. The book is illustrated throughout with her photographs, in spite of military prohibitions against taking pictures in many of the places they visited.[1] It "had a great success as one of the war books of the year".[45]

A member of the American Authors Guild since 1893,[2] Alice was elected to membership in the League of American Pen Women in May 1915.[46] She was awarded a medal by the Société Académique d'Histoire Internationale.[25]

Death
Alice Lee Moqué gravestone, Washington's Congressional Cemetery

Alice died on July 16, 1919, of complications following a broken leg. A funeral service was held on July 18, 1919. She had planned her own funeral rites and requested cremation.[12] Her ashes were interred in plot R61/261 of Washington's Congressional Cemetery on August 23, 1919.[47][48] To her sons Walter and Henry, who were already independent adults, she left $100 each. The balance of her estate went to her second husband, John Oliver Moqué.[49]

John Oliver Moqué later married Mary Ida Cole. He died on January 13, 1942. Although his name and birth year were listed on Alice Lee Moqué's headstone, he was buried with Mary Ida Cole in Fort Lincoln Cemetery, Brentwood, Maryland.[50]

References
  1. Moqué, Alice Lee (1914). Delightful Dalmatia. New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls Company. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  2. Wilson, Gertrude (9 March 1897). "A Bright Woman". Harrisburg Telegraph. p. 2. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  3. Kendall, John Smith (1922). History of New Orleans. Vol. 3. New Orleans (La.): Lewis publishing Company. p. 939. ISBN 978-1-230-10139-2. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  4. Leonard, John William; Marquis, Albert Nelson (1916). "Moqué, Alice Lee (Mrs. John Oliver Moqué)". Who's who in America. Vol. 9. Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company. pp. 1741–1742. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  5. Hornor, William S. (1932). This old Monmouth of ours : history, tradition, biography, genealogy, and other anecdotes related to Monmouth County, New Jersey. Freehold, New Jersey: Moreau Brothers. pp. 142–143. ISBN 9780806348605. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  6. "Moqué, Alice Lee, 1863-1919". Library of Congress Authorities. Archived from the original on 13 March 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  7. "Congressional Cemetery Walking Tour" (PDF). Association for the Preservation of Historical Congressional Cemetery. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  8. "A New Philadelphia Lawyer". The Norfolk Post. 11 Oct 1865. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  9. "Finding aid for Durant-Hornor Correspondence, 1848-1850". William L. Clements Library University of Michigan. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  10. "School Days". National Republican. 22 June 1876. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  11. "Walter Snelling". History of Computers. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  12. "Services Held for Mrs. Alice Lee Moqué Funeral Oration and Music for Deceased Were Prepared by Herself" (PDF). The Evening Star. July 18, 1919. p. 7. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  13. "Alice Lee Moque". Find-a-Grave. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  14. Snelling, Charles Darwin (December 7, 2011). "The Life Report: Charles Darwin Snelling". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  15. Snelling, A. Lee (April 19, 1890). "What life and where?". Wilson's Photographic Magazine. XXVII (368): 225–230. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  16. Snelling-Moqué, Alice Lee (1894–1895). "Mr. French's First Photo - The King of the Zoo Succumbs to Feminine Audacity". The International Annual of Anthony's Photographic Bulletin. E. & H.T. Anthony Company. 7: 121–124. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  17. "TNT used in making novel photograph". The Gazette and Daily. 26 Dec 1942. p. 3. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  18. "Married: Moque-Snelling" (PDF). The Washington Times. June 29, 1894. p. 3. Retrieved 4 June 2016. MOQUE-SNELLING-At the residence of the bride's parents, by Rev. E. O. Eldridge, on Wednesday, June 27, 1894, JOHN OLIVER MOQUE TO ALICE LEE SNELLING
  19. "Catherine Araminta Joyce (1837 - 1918)". The Maryland Joyce Project. Archived from the original on 17 May 2016. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  20. "In the Circle of Society" (PDF). The Washington Times. November 12, 1906. p. 5. Retrieved 6 June 2016. Mr. and Mrs. J. Oliver Moque, and their daughter Voleta, are registered at the Hotel Westminster, New York, NY. Mrs. Moque will return to the city and be at home informally November 1 and 2, at ?1807? Thirteenth street northwest.
  21. Moqué, Alice Lee (6 June 1897). "The World of Women: A Woman's Letter from Washington". The Wichita Daily Eagle. p. 12. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  22. Herlihy, David V. (2004). Bicycle : the history. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. p. 298. ISBN 978-0300120479.
  23. Moqué, Alice Lee (1896). "A Bohemian Couple Wheeling Through Western England". Outing: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Sport, Travel, and Recreation. W. B. Holland. 28: 186–191. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  24. "Oregon women back Mrs. Evans for place with National Board". The Sunday Oregonian. Portland, Ore. October 31, 1915. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  25. "Planned Own Rites". The Washington Times. July 19, 1919. p. 14. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  26. "National PTA History". National Parent Teacher Association. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  27. "The Congress of Mothers". Public Opinion. XXII: 245. 26 February 1897. Retrieved 6 June 2016. Her name is given incorrectly as Alice Le Moyne but the quotations are from Alice Lee Moqué's address.
  28. Moqué, Alice Lee (1897). "Reproduction and Natural Law". The Work and Words of the National Congress of Mothers. (1st Annual Session) Held in the City of Washington, D. C., February 17, 18, and 19, 1897: Including the Journal of Proceedings, the Addresses and Discussions, and Other Miscellany of the Meetings. New York: D. Appleton & Company. pp. 123–130. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  29. Moqué, Alice (1899). "The Mistakes of Mothers". Report of the Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention of the National Congress of Mothers, Held in the City of Washington, D.C., May 2nd-7th, 1898. Philadelphia, PA: Geo F. Lasher. p. 43.
  30. "The Second National Congress of Mothers". The Peacemaker. 17 (1): 16. 1898. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  31. Moqué, Alice Lee (March 3, 1900). "Restrictive marriage legislation from the standpoint of the wife, mother and home". Journal of the American Medical Association. 34 (9): 526–530. doi:10.1001/jama.1900.24610090012001f. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  32. Moqué, Alice Lee (1900). "An Educated Maternity". The Westminster Review. 153: 53–60. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  33. Moqué, Alice Lee (September 20, 1914). "Washington's Pot Bouille". San Antonio Express. Vol. 49, no. 263. San Antonio, Texas. p. 37. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  34. Moqué, Alice Lee (18 August 1914). "Washington's Pot=Bouille". The Farmer and Mechanic. p. 11. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  35. Moqué, Alice Lee (7 March 1915). "Washington Pot-Bouille". The Tennessean. p. 19. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  36. "White House Visitors Depart; Marshalls Guests at Theater Party" (PDF). The Washington Herald. March 7, 1917. p. 8. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  37. "Helping Hand for Cuba". The Evening Times. 29 May 1897. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  38. "Woman's Cuban League". Harrisburg Telegraph. 20 Aug 1897. p. 2. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  39. Witherbee, Sidney A. (1898). Spanish–American War Songs: A Complete Collection of Newspaper Verse During the Recent War with Spain. Detroit, MI: Sidney A. Witherbee. pp. 608–609. ISBN 9780722279403. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  40. "A Regiment of Women". The Indianapolis News. August 6, 1898. p. 6. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  41. Moqué, Alice Lee (February 28, 1917). "Repudiates interview in morning paper, and makes plea to women" (PDF). The Washington Times. p. 8. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  42. Proceedings of the National Security Congress ; under the auspices of the National Security League, Washington, January 20-22, 1916. New York City: The National Security League, Inc. 1916. p. 392.
  43. "The Body Master's Daughter". The New York Times. October 23, 1897. p. 19. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  44. Moqué, Alice Lee (1897). The Body Master's Daughter. New York: G.W. Dillingham Co.
  45. "Washington". The Indianapolis Star. Indianapolis, Indiana. October 24, 1915. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  46. "With the Women's Clubs". The Washington Herald. Washington, District of Columbia. May 9, 1915. p. 23. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  47. "Click on the family name link, if available, to view obituaries". Congressional Cemetery. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  48. "Congressional Cemetery Interments" (PDF). Congressional Cemetery. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  49. "Leaves bequests to her sons". The Washington Herald. Washington, District of Columbia. July 24, 1919. p. 7. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  50. "John Oliver Moque". Find A Grave. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
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