Washington's women have shown compassion and caring for orphaned children, unwed mothers, the elderly and other groups since day one. In 1887 women lost their bid for the right to vote, but still found a way to help "fallen women." Members of the Western Washington Women's Christian Temperance Union through a proposal from Maude E. Turrell of Tacoma opened a home, the White Shield Home in Tacoma, for unwed mothers and their infant children in 1899.
Donations came in by the droves and the home was able to move to a place overlooking Puget Sound in 1892. The home's purpose, as stated, was "...to redeem our erring sister from her life of shame into a life of pure, true womanhood, by surrounding her with the influence, comfort and Christian teaching of a home. She whose peculiar sin shuts her out from any other home can find shelter here till she can prove her worthiness to take her place again in the world as a woman and not as an outcast."
Women in Spokane, Washington, organized similar homes. May Arkwright Hutton, along with her husband Al, contributed dearly to the Spokane Children's Home in the same vein as the White Shield Home. May was an illegitimate child and her husband was raised in an institutional orphanage. They endured hardship in their backgrounds strived to help unwed mothers and children.
May was a member of the Crittenton board, formed after evangelist Charles Crittendon, and had the vehicle to make her wants known. She offered unconventional alternatives to keeping mother and child together. Though wanting them to have a home and get a decent job, she went one step further.
May became cupid's sidekick!
In her early years she worked as a miner's cook and knew how lonely the miners got. So she got an idea.
She boarded her chauffeured Thomas Flyer (the model that won the Great Race in 1908) and rode around in the Palouse country of eastern Washington looking for farmers who wanted a wife and a family. She played cupid and arranged for these men to meet the rebounding women. If all worked as planned, the wedding would be in her parlor with Al giving the bride away. She even followed up later to make sure all was working out right.
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