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Chelan County Officials and employees standing in front of the former Chelan County Courthouse on Wenatchee Ave during the move to the new courthouse. Bessie Lewis is identified with the red circle in the middle of the group. This picture was taken on July 7, 1924, which happened to be Bessie's 44th birthday.
The portrait hanging in the window is of President Calvin Coolidge. Authorization to use photograph was given to for the WSACT Newsletter by the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center, #90-56-73. Reproduction of this photograph requires the written permission of the WVM&CC.
Bessie Lewis, Former Chelan County Treasurer Elizabeth (Bessie) Carr was born June 7, 1880 to Irvine T & Emma Carr in Evansville, Indiana where her father was employed as a rail-road engineer. At 22 years old Bessie married Chester Lewis in Chicago, but soon the couple moved to Chelan County, where Chester was employed as a carpenter. After raising her family, Bessie sought employment in the Chelan County Treasurer’s office and later was elected the County Treasurer. Bessie was a longtime member of the Washington Business & Professional Women and served as their president and presided at the state convention of that organization in Yakima in June 1926. She was very involved in the campaign efforts for Herbert Hoover in eastern Washington. She was a lifetime Rebecca Lodge member of the IOOF Lodge as well as a member of the Astral Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star (Masonic) in Wenatchee.
Bessie was president of the Washington State Association of County Treasurers in 1931. After serving as the first president of the Wenatchee Soroptimists she was later elevated to the regional director position for the Pacific Northwest region in 1934. Her husband Chester passed away in 1934. After two terms as County Treasurer she did not run for re-election and in 1936 she married the former Chelan County Assessor, and recent widower, Ernest G Spencer. Together they operated an orchard outside of Wenatchee but later relocated to Los Angeles, California. Bessie was later a nurse and medical office manager. She passed away at 93 years old on August 10, 1973 in California.