In my last post I looked at an "Around Home" column and wondered who the mysterious Mrs. Frisinger was who had been brought in to "clean up" Hoopeston. Hoopeston was a small town near Danville that was frequently mentioned in the Pantagraph. In June of 1915 the town elders had decided that Hoopeston had a problem with unmarried mothers and that a female police matron should be brought in to deal with the problem.
I think any modern reader can see where the town elders saw a problem.
The problem was the women.
Agnes Frisinger was associated with the Hull House in Chicago and was hired as the Hoopeston police matron. A couple of months later, a divorce suit had been filed, half a dozen prominent men and women had been arrested and the council discharged Mrs. Frisinger from her duties.
But Mrs. Frisinger had other ideas. She went to the court and had herself declared probation officer, threatened to sue the city for her wages and arrested the church sexton after finding him in the church cemetery "basking in the smiles" of a woman who was not his wife. The entire police force resigned in protest. Mrs. Frisinger was brought before the council and told that she had only been hired to police the "north" side. She responded that she would police the north side, the south side and then turn her attention to the country clubs of the county and indictments would FLY.