Lucy Carlisle Watson

(1855–1938) As a graduate from the Utica Academy in 1872, Lucy presented an essay entitled "The Pressures of Society upon Beliefs," indicating her resolve to effect change. Susan B. Anthony came to Utica in 1894 to address suffrage at the Utica Opera House. "Women of Oneida County," she declaimed, "you are paid less than men doing the same job as you because you do not have the ballot. You are denied the right to a voice in government because you do not have the ballot. What you have is a whole white male aristocracy."

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, the orator of the cause, addressed women in Utica in 1900 and urged them to stand up for themselves and make a difference. She also maintained that men did not represent women at the ballot box. After her speech, the local suffrage movement began in earnest with the formation of the Utica Political Equality Club with Lucy as its president.

She promoted the cause for 20 years, encouraging more women to join the movement. She helped to bring the New York State Suffrage Convention to Utica in 1912. In the August 31, 1912 Utica Herald Dispatch she was quoted: "Women suffrage appealed to my sense of justice, and during the past five years the feeling of equal suffrage for men and women is an essential feature in a democracy, and the hope it will aid in making better conditions for women and children will have strengthened my belief in the necessity of votes for women."

In 1915, a suffrage liberty torch was carried throughout New York State with Lucy (at age 60) carrying the torch nineteen miles from Utica to Verona.