Shock reverberated across rural Iowa and beyond during early September of 1895 when it was reported in newspapers large and small that Albia-based elocutionist, impersonator and dramatist Lucia B. Griffin had walked through the streets of her hometown, climbed aboard a horse and ridden it ASTRADDLE through the streets wearing --- gasp --- knickerbockers.
Here's the brief item, published in all of Iowa's dailies and many of its weeklies, similarly in Minnesota, then picked up and republished from coast to coast:
LUCIA B. GRIFFIN
She Appears in Knickerbockers and Creates a Sensation
A Sunday special to the Minneapolis Tribune from Albia, Iowa, says: Miss Lucia B. Griffin, an elocutionist, exemplified the rights of the new woman in this city, and created quite a stir in social circles. She abhors Mrs. Lease's costume of Syrian trousers (aka bloomers), but this morning she appeared upon the streets in full dress knickerbockers. Not to be outdone or abashed in her practical ideas of dress reform and the freedom of her sex from fashion's dictates, she went to a livery barn, ordered a horse saddled, astride in her knickerbockers rode over the city and made many calls upon her lady friends. Some of them fled from her in dismay, and none went to the pavement to greet her. The elocutionist is positive the new woman has come to stay.
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Born during 1865 or 1866 in Knoxville, Lucia had moved with her family to Albia as a child where her father, John W.H. Griffin, served as superintendent of schools, later clerk of district court.
By 1895, she already had defied convention and rejected marriage outright, traveling instead to Chicago and then Boston to study oratory. She then, during the mid-1880s, launched a career on stage with her one-woman show, traveling from town to town across America to perform dramatic readings, costumed dramatizations and widely acclaimed impersonations.
She had many friends in Chariton, home to her occasional understudy, Miss Nelle Cowles, and performed here frequently when she returned to Albia during the off-season to develop new material, write scripts and edit compilations for publication of material that she found interesting.
This is the only decent image of Lucia that I could find (top), held by the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum in North Bend, Washington. The satirical photograph below, from the 1890s, will remind you what knickerbockers look like.
They're worn here by the brazen hussy on the right, looking on as her emasculated spouse does the laundry.
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As it turns out, reports of Lucia's progressive costuming had been substantially exaggerated and she was quick to correct misinformation while visiting a few days later with a reporter for The Des Moines Register. His report was published in The Register on Sept. 10, 1895, and republished in The Chariton Democrat to reassure her friends:
DID NOT WEAR KNICKERBOCKERS
Miss Lucia B. Griffin Placed in a Very Embarrassing Position
Miss Lucia B. Griffin, of Albia, is a guest of friends in the city and will remain here possible a week. She was seen upon her arrival in the city by a reporter for The Register and asked to relate the facts relative to her recent appearance in Albia in the costume which is now generally accepted by sensible people as the correct thing for ladies --- bloomers --- and concerning which the newspapers have made a considerable sensation, basing their articles on a false understanding of the matter.
It is evident that the newspapers which started the story determined to make it generally readable, even if they were forced to exaggerate and magnify it in order to accomplish that result. They did make a readable article and did it by careful concealment of the truth which, if told, would have made the tale neither one of interest, nor one of offense.
Miss Griffin --- who is perfectly known to the public on account of her success as a reciter and reader --- appeared at several summer resorts during the summer and observed that the ladies there wore divided skirts and bloomers when riding bicycles and horses, and riding the latter, as well as the former, astride, using men's saddles. As Col. Ingersoll said when he was here Saturday in reference to this very matter: "You never heard of women riding a bicycle with a side-saddle, did you?"
The great utility of the costume appealed to Miss Griffin and on return to her home in Albia it occurred to her to introduce the bloomer costume there. With the assistance of the captain of the bicycle club, the wheelmen of the city made arrangements to parade in masks with escorts on a certain Saturday evening. Each young woman was pledged to secrecy; the streets were strangely filled with people on the given night, however, and the young women did not have the courage to make their debut in bloomers.
Miss Griffin did and from that innocent fact has arisen what has been to her a very embarrassing situation, owing to the erroneous exaggeration attached to the matter by the persons who first wrote of the event for the newspapers.
Her friends, upon her appearance in the divided skirt, dared her to ride in the costume.
the young lady is courageous, and at once secured her own horse and her father's saddle at her own home and rode into the country. She did not wear knickerbockers, as stated in the sensational stories set afloat, and she did not walk to the livery stable. She did nothing of the kind. Her appearance was everything that modesty and taste required, as acknowledged by the people of Albia. They were not shocked and they did not refuse to speak to her. They admired her for her good sense and courage. Miss Griffin called on her friends and they did not refuse to meet her and did not flee from her as stated. They greeted her warmly, and her appearance in the business streets did not create a tithe of the sensation the mongers who sent out the falsehoods about it like to have it appear.
As for riding astride, it is known by physicians to be the only way that anyone should ride, and it is known by everybody to be the only sensible way. Miss Griffin did not anticipate making any sensation, believing that the people of Albia had as good sense as the people of Chicago, New York and other cities. She was right about it, and that fact makes it all the more embarrassing that false impressions have been scattered abroad.
Knickerbockers are not bloomers. The former are tight trousers reaching to the knee and are rarely seen except on stage. With bloomers all sensible people are as contented as familiar. Miss Griffin wore a divided skirt, which is even more modest than bloomers. It was therefore an injustice to her that it should be sent broadcast that she wore knickerbockers on the occasion referred to, that she walked through the streets in them and that her friends were horrified at her conduct, when the very exact opposite is the truth. The article in question was reprinted by The Register from The Dubuque Herald. Had it been suspected that the article was a misrepresentation it would not have been reprinted.
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Soon after the turn of the 20th century, Lucia retired from the stage and settled down permanently in Albia to lead a quieter life. She died there on Jan. 8, 1940, at the age of 75, when fire destroyed her cottage, presumably destroying, too, all of her theatrical memorabilia. She is buried with her family in Oak View Cemetery.
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