(1848–1930) Katherine was a supporter of women's suffrage. She was a member of the Geneva, NY Political Equality Club. She was an associate of Carrie Chapman Catt and in 1903 invited her to speak at Geneva's Smith Opera House. Over 1,000 tickets were sold to the event.

A newspaper article "A Sketch of the Life of Mrs. Catt" includes extensive reference to a letter that Katherine wrote to the Buffalo Commercial newspaper to address anti-suffrage sentiment. In 1908, she contributed $10,000 to the National American Women's Suffrage Association in honor of the anniversary of Susan B. Anthony's death. It was the largest contribution made up to that time to the organization. The Bell Memorial Library in Nunda, NY (her birthplace) is named after her.

(1833–1902) Mary Helen lived on a farmstead near where Oak Hill Country Club is today. The mother of six children, she managed to be the first President of the Pittsford Political Equality Club, which was organized September 6, 1902 in Pittsford, NY. Notes from the Club’s meeting on November 4, 1902, paint a picture of her energy and enthusiasm for suffrage:

“The president, Mrs. Light, presided. She was in her brightest mood. Eager to be doing something. Very desirous of arranging for a course of lectures. Mrs. Light and Mr. and Mrs. Charles True attended the state convention at Buffalo. Both ladies were extremely enthusiastic over the exercises, addresses, & c.”

Mrs. Light’s leadership was cut short by her death only a few days later. She was found dead in the buggy in front of her son’s home in Brighton. The obituary described her as “one of the most known and highly respected women in Monroe County; a woman of unusual mental ability and of a most social nature.” (*from http://www.townofpittsford.org)

(1867–1937) Ruth was a suffragist and advocate for women's rights. Widowed young, she became a successful farmer in rural Suffolk County and put her energy into promoting business opportunities for women.

Ruth became a member of the New York State Republican Committee and served as chairperson of the GOP in Suffolk County. In 1924, she was denied an opportunity to represent her area in the Republican National Convention. Ruth responded by setting off on a worldwide tour supporting business opportunities for women.

In 1929, Ruth was an organizer of the Open Door International. This organization was dedicated to having women viewed equally to men in industry.

(1809–1872) Abolitionist, minister, bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and author, Rev. Jermain served as one of the vice presidents at the 1853 New York State woman suffrage convention. Jermain was once hailed as the “Underground Railroad King,” and assisted the Rev. Samuel J. May, a Unitarian clergyman in Syracuse, with his Underground Railroad work but gradually took the lead. The Loguen house near the intersection of Pine and Genessee Streets was a principal station or depot on the Underground Railroad.

Jermain placed letters in the Syracuse press openly discussing his activities and asking for donations to assist fugitives and is said to have aided more than 1500 freedom seekers.

(1844–1944) Mary spent fifty years battling for women's rights. In 1869 she was elected a secretary of the Brooklyn Equal Rights Association and selected in May of that year as a Brooklyn delegate to the first convention for the American Suffrage Association.

Elected as chairman of the Legislative Committee in the New York State Woman Suffrage Association in 1898, Mary helped lobby the legislature from 1902-1905 to allow all tax-paying women in cities with a population of less than 50,000 to vote on all special taxation questions, a campaign that did not succeed. In 1899 Mary was accompanied by the then Governor of New York State, Theodore Roosevelt, to one of the many suffrage conventions which she attended over the course of her lifetime. She was also able to meet privately with Roosevelt, along with a small group of New York activists, to consult about enfranchising women in New York.

Mary led the Brooklyn Woman's Suffrage Association between the years 1899 and 1919 and was heavily involved in the logistics of the League of Women Voters after women's enfranchisement. *courtesy alexanderstreet.com

(1883–1948) Lula May was born in Port Leyden, where she lived her entire life. There she married J. Clark Loomis in 1905, and continued to be active in several community organizations. She was a member of the Port Leyden Woman’s Suffrage Club, often hosting meetings in her home. In 1915, the club proposed starting a “melting pot” for the suffrage cause, encouraging members to donate odd pieces of gold, silver, or other metals.

If you know more about Lula May, you can help us tell her story. Please use our Add a Suffragist form to submit your information.

(1886–1976) Huldah was born at Locust Grove, near Port Leyden, NY. She attended Syracuse University for 2 years and graduated from the University of Wisconsin. Later, she trained at the Cornell School of Nursing in New York City, eventually being employed as a registered private nurse.

Huldah was very involved in the suffrage movement, serving as President of the local Equal Franchise League and a leader of the Port Leyden Woman’s Suffrage Club. She spoke at the Lewis County Suffrage Convention in 1915, providing a report on the club’s work.

(1813–1888) As New York State barred women as physicians in hospitals, in 1863 Dr. Clemence Lozier founded a medical school exclusively for female students, the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women, which was staffed and supervised by the College’s male faculty.

In 1860, prior to opening the school, Dr. Clemence began a series of lectures from her home on anatomy, physiology, and hygiene as these topics were regularly neglected in women’s education. Seeing high demand for the lectures and tired of seeing qualified women get turned away from medical school, Dr. Clemence, with the help of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was able to persuade the New York State legislature to grant her a charter for a women’s medical college. In 1863, the New York Medical College for Women opened with seven female students in the inaugural class, and a faculty of eight doctors, four men and four women.

Over the next twenty-five years, the school grew and placed more than 200 female graduates in medical practice throughout the U.S. and abroad. The school’s hospital was the first place in New York where doctors of their own gender could treat women, and its clinic attracted up to 2,000 female patients each year.

Dr. Clemence was President of New York Woman’s Suffrage Society from 1873-1886, and very active in other suffrage organizations. She gave the commencement address at the medical school’s 25th graduation ceremony in 1888 and passed away two days later at the age of 74.

(1859–1945) Romaine, one of the founding members of the Pittsford Political Equality Club, hosted the Club’s meeting at her home on South Main street on December 2, 1902. This meeting memorably followed the sudden death of the Club’s first President, Mary Helen Shepard Light.

At the meeting “letters from Mary Anthony (sister of Susan B. Anthony) expressing sympathy for us in our great loss were read and remarked upon. It was cordially agreed that each member would contribute a share of the flowers sent to Mrs. Light’s funeral in the name of the PEC.”

Romaine Lusk’s life reflects the hardships women faced at the turn of the 20th century. Her husband died in 1891, leaving her to raise their only surviving child, 5-year old son Stephen, on her own. She supported herself and by working as a housekeeper in various homes in Rochester.

Romaine spent her time in a quest for knowledge, taking classes on china painting and physical culture and participating in a Pittsford book club. "I am proud that Romaine Lusk was part of the effort to bring women a voice in the political system, including the right to vote—a right I recently exercised for the first time.”–Riley Jane Lusk

(courtesy of www.townofpittsford.org/19thAcentennial)

(1848–1929) Maritcha was an American educator, civic leader, suffragist, and public speaker. In 1892, she founded the Women’s Loyal Union of New York and Brooklyn. one of the first women's rights and racial justice organizations in the United States. The organization helped fund the printing of Ida B. Wells’ anti-lynching pamphlet, "Southern Horrors: Lynch Laws in All Its Phases."

In 1897, Victoria Earle Matthews, a journalist for the New York Age, and Maritcha Remond Lyons founded the White Rose Association, a social settlement that provided assistance to southern, black women migrants in Manhattan. She was also a member of the Colored Women's Equal Suffrage League of Brooklyn, an organization dedicated to voting rights for African-American women.

Maritcha was a dedicated teacher for 50 years and rose to the position of assistant principal of an integrated public school. She was the second African-American to hold such a position.

(1873–1951) Maud was an ardent believer in equal rights and is best known for her aggressive campaign tactics. In 1905, she organized the Harlem Equal Rights League. She believed in interrupting speakers by yelling “what about votes for women?”

At one point, Maud was arrested and spent a night in jail for heckling President Woodrow Wilson during one of his speeches. She also advocated for provocative street corner speeches, which others rejected as inappropriate. Maud was a member of the Progressive Woman Suffrage Union, but resigned over their unwillingness to embrace members from all races, colors, or creeds.

Maud Malone worked for the New York Public Library and was a founding member and spokesperson of the Library Employees' Union. Her ongoing advocacy for “equal pay for equal work” irritated the public library management, so they dismissed her from her job. Later in life she worked as librarian for the newspaper The Daily Worker.

(1859–1917) The wife of a stockbroker, May was a socialite in New York City and Eastern Long Island. She and her husband, Thomas Manson, supported the suffrage movement. May chaired the Executive Committee Women’s Suffrage League of East Hampton and later on led the Suffolk County organization. She organized a 1913 march in her town with Harriet Stanton Blatch as the keynote speaker. In 1915, May kicked off the Torch Relay Crusade, an auto rally from Montuak to Buffalo. She drove from Montauk to Nassau County, stopping along the route to give speeches to waiting crowds. Although May died before passage of the 19th Amendment, today a historical marker at her former East Hampton home honors of her contributions.

(1844—1937) Rachel served as the Vice President of the New York Chapter of Women Suffragists, as established at an 1869 Convention in Saratoga.

(1861–1908) Abbie was a wife, mother and temperance reformer. In 1888, she married Rev. James E. Mason, a pastor at Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (Zion), the oldest African American church in Rochester, New York. Beyond her family life, she participated in the women's rights movement. Specifically, she was a founding member and the inaugural president of a branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) in August of 1901. Eight women joined the chapter along with her. The majority attended Zion, which had a storied history of fighting for advancements for women and African Americans.

Abolitionists and women's rights advocates, including Abbie, contributed to Zion's distinguished legacy. Abbie held W.C.T.U. meetings in Zion's basement and participated in a church conference that highlighted the achievements of Frederick Douglass. Douglass published his anti-slavery weekly, the North Star, in Zion's basement. He also led the efforts to make the original church building a stop on the Underground Railroad, which sheltered Harriet Tubman and other escaped enslaved people. Furthermore, Douglass's friend and leader of the suffrage movement, Susan B. Anthony, gave her last public speech at Zion before her death in 1906. *courtesy of alexanderstreet.com

(1861–1907) Victoria was a journalist, author, clubwoman, and social worker. She was born into enslaved status in Fort Valley, Georgia, and was largely self-taught, using the library of the house in which she worked. She was first a "sub" for reporters on the large dailies of New York City, later for other newspapers and magazines. In 1879 she married William Matthews, a coachman, and settled in Brooklyn with their one son, Lamartine.

In 1892 Victoria became the first president of the Woman's Loyal Union of New York, and in 1895, with Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and others, helped found in Boston the National Federation of Afro-American Women. She was the principal planner of the meeting in Washington, D.C., when the federation merged with the National Colored Women's League, organized by Mary Church Terrell, to become the National Association of Colored Women. Under Terrell, it's first president, Victoria served (1897-1899) as national organizer.
*Courtesy of AlexanderStreet.com

(1797–1871) Due to his close friendship with William Lloyd Garrison, Rev. Samuel became an active member of the abolitionist movement, helping to establish the New England Anti-Slavery Society, the American Anti-Slavery Society, and the New England Non-Resistance Society. In 1845, Samuel became the pastor of the Unitarian Church of the Messiah in Syracuse, NY, continuing to fight against the Fugitive Slave Act while aiding escaped enslaved people along the Underground Railroad.

Samuel was also an advocate for women's rights and suffrage. Two years before the first womans rights convention, the Reverend preached a sermon entitled, "The Rights and Condition of Women," which supported equality for women in all aspects of life, including the right to vote. His sermon was later published as the Woman's Rights Tract number one in Syracuse by Lathrop's Print in 1845.

In 1869, Samuel attended the founding meeting of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, held in Saratoga, NY. When asked to assume a role as an officer of the new organization he declined, believing that those positions should be held only by women.

(1845–1937) Described as a community activist and philanthropist, Eliza helped organize the Flushing Equal Franchise Association in 1909 and served as its president in 1913. By 1915 she was involved with the New York Woman Suffrage Party but left the Queens County division of the organization to form a separate Queens-based group, the Woman's Suffrage Central Campaign Committee; they also elected her its president. By 1916, the two groups had been reunited, the president of the other rival Queens organization had been voted out, and Eliza was elected to serve as the Vice President of the united Queens Borough branch.

One of the most noteworthy successes of this branch that year was its “Better Baby Campaign” which recruited 4 volunteer nurses and 7 physicians and gathered over 300 children across Queens who did not otherwise have access to health care to receive free vaccinations and physicals. In 1917 she returned to serve as the branch's director. Also in 1917, Eliza worked as a member of the War Service Committee of the Woman Suffrage Party of New York City. After the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the Women's Civic Club presented her with an engraved silver gavel, “To our beloved pioneer, Eliza MacDonald, Suffrage Victory 1920.” *courtesy of alexanderstreet.com

(1846–1918) Susan was Brooklyn's first black woman physician (who also happened to be the third black physician in the whole country.) Dr. Kinney Steward had a very successful practice with locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan but for her, medicine was more than just treatment. It was a means by which she could further elevate and impact the community she loved and fight for racial inclusion and women's rights. During her life she founded clinics, clubs and suffragette groups. Susan fought daily against the convergence of racism, sexism and professionalization in order to have a great impact on Brooklyn.

Although there is no record that she participated in the women's rights movement or other social reforms, Guelma was in complete sympathy with Susan's activism. In November, 1872, though very ill, she left her sickbed and walked with her sisters Susan, Hannah Anthony Mosher, and Mary Anthony to the voter registration site to register to vote. Four days later, she again walked to the polls to cast her ballot.

At the conclusion of Susan's trial for voting, the United States v. Susan B. Anthony, Susan spent the
rest of that summer and fall of 1873 at Guelma's bedside, taking complete charge of her
nursing care. By all accounts, she was a superb nurse and was determined to make her
beloved sister's final days as comfortable as possible.

(1870–1943) Sara was a member of the Womens Trade Union League and was an early suffragist. Her obituary stated she was reported to have carried the first suffrage banner up Fifth Avenue in a parade in 1907.

In 1909 she organized the Catholic Committee of the New York City Woman Suffrage Party and was chair of the propaganda work among Catholics. Sara carried the leading banner with Inez Mulholland in the 1911 New York City suffrage parade. In 1911 she founded the St. Catherines Welfare Association, which affiliated with the New York State Womans Suffrage Association. The organization devoted itself exclusively to the passage of woman suffrage as a means to obtain remedial legislation for the social benefit of women workers and their children. Under Sara's leadership the Association held public suffrage meetings before Catholic organizations, wrote articles for the Catholic Press and mailed articles written by pro-suffrage priests to every clergyman in the United States.

In February 1917 Sara was chair of the Committee of Arrangements for a delegation of Eastern Catholic women who met with Cardinal Gibbons, the chief prelate of the Catholic Church in the United States, in an attempt to persuade him to cease his opposition to woman suffrage. *courtesty alexanderstreet.com