Gertrude Wilmarth Lash

(1861–1910) Pittsford residents worked actively to win women the right to vote. The Monroe County Mail on September 19, 1901 described how at a meeting of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Gertrude Wilmarth Lash “... spoke in the interest of the Political Equality Club, with the object of starting a club in Pittsford among members of the W.C.T.U.”

The Club had its first meeting on September 6, 1902. Like so many who worked for suffrage, many of the founding members never lived to see women vote; including Gertrude, who in addition to her political work, was a mother of eight children.
(courtesy of www.townofpittsford.org/19thAcentennial/ppec-founders)