By Liv Stecker
Young Edie had no idea
what she was missing. Growing up with her mother and stepfather, she didn’t
meet her biological father and his family until she was 19. It was 1957, and
young Edie decided it was time to meet her grandmother. Cassea Orsborne was no
ordinary grandmother. Serving as the President of the Ladies of The Grand Army
of The Republic, Mrs. Orsborne was also a teacher of great notoriety in the
Northwest and general mover and shaker in the political realm of the early 20th
century. 
Cassea Hopper Orsborne was born March 3, 1870 in Missouri, where she later attended The Warrensburg State College, going on to graduate studies at Utah State University before she moved to Seattle to teach for the public schools. While still in Missouri, she became the first ordained female deaconess in the Springfield Presbytery, one of the earliest of her many memorable accomplishments. She was the head of “Americanization” in the Northwest during her teaching career, first in Seattle, and later in Idaho after she moved to Weiser with her mail carrier husband, O.J. Orsborne. Americanization was a movement in the beginning of the 20th century to bring immigrant children into the United State’s cultural system. Mrs. Orsborne championed this cause and led the northwest region in the Americanization effort in public schools and received commendations from local leaders for her efforts. In a July 27, 1923 visit to Seattle by United States President Warren G. Harding, Mrs. Orsborne and her husband were invited as guests of honor at a reception for the President.
In 1928, Cassea Orsborne
was elected as the National President of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the
Republic, an organization that she had become heavily involved in through her
career. The Grand Army of The Republic was founded in Decatur, Illinois in 1866
as a support group for union veterans from the Civil War who found themselves
struggling to find understanding and relief in the civilian world after
enduring the grueling misery of the war together. What began as a veteran’s
relief organization soon burgeoned into a political force to be reckoned with,
and in 1881 an auxiliary group called the Loyal Ladies League was formed as the
female support network to the GAR. In 1886 this group was renamed the “Ladies
of the Grand Army of The Republic”, and by 1910 the group was 60,000 members
strong and providing $30,000 annual relief to veterans organizations. In
addition to programs for struggling and disabled veterans, the GAR championed
voting rights for African-American Veterans and other civil liberty causes.
Eventually, the Grand Army of the Republic was succeeded by an heir – the Sons
of Union Veterans of The Civil War, but the Ladies of The Grand Army of the
Republic have persevered on under the same name until present day, where they
operate out of a National Headquarters at the Ohio Veteran’s home in Sandusky.
Mrs. Orsborne’s passion for this organization and her heavy involvement are
chronicled in an impressive collection of well preserved panoramic photographs
dating back to the 1910s.
Edie Sevy recently
opened a scrapbook and was stunned to find decades of memorabilia from her
Grandmother’s illustrious career, spanning shore to shore and involving major
political movements of her time. A wooden box full of campaign ribbons and
medals, beautiful photographs of the annual encampments of the Grand Army Of
the Republic, and a cane that is said to have belonged to President Woodrow
Wilson himself, who is a distant relative of the late Mrs. Orsborne, were all
part of Mrs. Orsborne’s estate. Edie has reached out to the current historian
of the Ladies of the Grand Republic in Ohio and hopes to find a museum to
showcase some of her grandmother’s collection.
As Edie has poured over
her grandmother’s scrapbook and box of mementos, she talks about her misgivings
as a 19 year old, just meeting this side of her family. “I had allowed bitterness
and resentment toward my father to keep me from meeting this wonderful lady.
Think of the opportunities I would have had if I had been more forgiving. I
thought by avoiding them I would hurt my father for not being there for me, but
it turns out that I was the only one who got hurt!” She says humbly. Edie lives
in Kettle falls with her husband John, surrounded by her children both by birth
and by “choice”, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Much like her
grandmother once was, Edie has become a pillar in the lives of the people
around her and in the community.
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