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History talk to focus on Rogue Valley’s wayward girls By Vickie Aldous Jan 02, 2023 12:45 AM A A Rogue Valley girls who broke society’s rules were sometimes sent away to places like Magdalen House in Portland. [Oregon State Archives photo ID OAE0018] Historian Jan Wright is fascinated by how society has reacted to wayward girls — whether those who get pregnant, commit crimes or just don’t fit into the mold of acceptable, ladylike behavior. “I’ve been interested in the subject of wayward girls for a very long time. I’ve been gathering stories that piqued my interest and fell into this category for years,” she said. Wright will discuss case studies of Rogue Valley girls — from the 1880s to the 1920s — Jan. 4 and Jan. 11 for the free Windows in Time history lecture series. She’ll talk about contributing factors to what was considered delinquency among girls, society’s response and attempts to reform their behavior. “Wayward girls interest me because the definition of wayward changes over time. Many things kids do today are not considered wayward. Sassy maybe — but not serious enough to be sent somewhere else to be reformed,” said Wright, an archivist for the Southern Oregon Historical Society. One of the most common ways for girls to land in trouble was to get pregnant out of wedlock. “If they got pregnant, they had to hide it or get married right away,” Wright said. Some girls were sent out of the area while they were pregnant and were only allowed to return home after they’d gone through childbirth and given their babies up for adoption. The Magdalen House run by Catholic Services was a reform school of sorts that took in girls who were pregnant or who had gone against society’s rules in other ways. Wright will describe one Jacksonville girl who got sent there. “There’s a collection of letters from her to her mother in Jacksonville. She was in Portland for almost three years. There was a lot of heart-wrenching back-and-forth between her and her mom,” Wright said. She said some girls were dangerously wayward — like one who set fire to a building. But society didn’t have a system of reform schools for girls like it had for boys. “Boys did go to a more organized, structured reform school, but they didn’t get sent lightly. Mostly there was an attitude of, ‘Boys will be boys.’ But when it got serious, they could be sent away to reform school. They taught them trades and gave them something to do when they got there to try and rehabilitate them,” Wright said. Abigail Scott Duniway, a prolific Oregon writer who pushed for women’s right to vote, was an advocate of creating humane places for girls to go if they got into trouble. Bills were introduced year after year in Congress to fund aid for girls, but they were repeatedly rejected. “Senators and Congressmen would take advantage of girls on the streets, but they would never try to reform them. They would just use them,” Wright said. “Boys got a place to go. But if girls were rejected by their families and society, they sometimes ended up as prostitutes who lived on the streets without shelter or protection.” Wright said members of Congress didn’t want to spend taxpayer money helping wayward girls. “It was a national issue, not just a Rogue Valley issue,” she said. Wright will present her history talk in person and via the free videoconference service Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 4, at Medford Library, 205 S. Central Ave. The lecture will be repeated from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11, at Ashland Library, 410 Siskiyou Blvd. Preregistration is needed to attend the online program and can be found at jcls.libcal.com/calendar/jcls_event/WIT-Jan-2023 . A recording of the program later will be available on the Jackson County Library Services YouTube channel at youtube.com/c/JCLSBeyond . Past Windows in Time lectures and other videos can be viewed on the YouTube channel, as well. The monthly Windows in Time lunchtime lectures feature writers and historians who bring alive the people, values and events that shaped Southern Oregon history. The lectures are jointly sponsored by Southern Oregon Historical Society and Jackson County Library Services. For more information, contact Southern Oregon Historical Society at 541-773-6536 or sohs.org or Jackson County Library Services at 541-774-8679 or jcls.org . Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @VickieAldous .