Early Gilroy Promotion Societies
included Women’s Suffrage Efforts
Written By Elizabeth Barratt
O
George Dunlap
72
n the cusp of the Twentieth
Century, the Southern Pacific
Railroad was urging towns to
participate in an advertising campaign to
entice East Coast dwellers to settle in the
West. Pitching the notion of splitting large
land holdings into two- to ten-acre parcels,
the railroad reasoned that newcomers could
afford to purchase their own property. After
building a house, digging a well, and plant-
ing market-bound produce on their acreage,
folks would relish the good California life.
Gilroy’s Board of Trade was the first
group to work toward these goals. Soon,
efforts dissolved after local land barons
turned deaf ears to sales pressures to part
with their properties.
With renewed purpose, and concerned
over stagnant local growth, on April 12,
1905, Gilroy’s civic leaders and business-
men met at the Vigilant Fire Company’s
conference room. That evening, they
discussed ways to encourage the division
of large ranch landholdings. Other topics
included the need for adequate citywide
public improvement efforts as well as a
revitalized dairy industry.
Known as the Promotion Society of
Gilroy, the group elected a local real estate
developer, cattleman and agricultural
producer, George Dunlap, as its first
president. Other officers included Vice-
President, E.D. Crawford, Secretary Dr.
J.W. Thayer, who was also Gilroy’s health
officer, Assistant Secretary John M. Hoesch,
and lumber mill owner L.A. Whitehurst
who was Tresurer.
The Promotion Society was determined
to place Gilroy on the state’s economic
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
MARCH/APRIL 2016
map. To begin, the association suggested
constructing roads through the large land
tracts east and southeast of town, in an effort
to push the landowners into acquiescence.
Redirected by May 1905, the Promotion
Society narrowed its plans to a more
controllable level and approached the
City Council to request a bond election.
The suggested $66,000 bond issue, at
4% interest, was planned to address four
main city issues: a sewer system, an electric
lighting plant, water reservoir improvements
and completion of a new city hall on
Monterey Street.
A front-page letter appeared in the June
3, 1905 Gilroy Advocate arguing the benefits
of a bond drive. Signed by 24 prominent
businessmen and one woman, the letter
emphasized the town’s sanitation concerns.
Gilroy residents still relied on outhouses,
cesspools and septic wells. Residents had a
“crying need” for a sewer system, the letter
proclaimed, citing seasonal odors arising
from the slough south of town. Lacking a
civilized means of waste matter disposal was
deemed “palpably obnoxious to a refined
sense of dignity...no consideration of
economy can longer justify the maintenance
of filthy germ-breeding cesspools.”
In an era ripe for, but still lacking,
women’s suffrage, Gilroy females jumped
into the planned drive. Even though
they didn’t yet have the right to vote,
many Gilroy women were either wid-
owed, or owned separate property. As
a consequence, these individuals were
independent taxpayers, and in a position
to prompt legislation. By mid-June, sixty
ladies met to form the Woman’s Auxiliary
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