(1877–1956) Anna was an educator and an active member of the Gorham Presbyterian Church. Along with her mother, Hannah and sister-in-law, Maud, she became involved in local and county efforts to support women. Anna was a member of the Ontario County Political Equity Club. This organization of men and women discussed local issues as well as women's rights. From 1919-1920, Anna is listed as a member of the Ontario County League of Women Voters.

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

(1868–1948) May was also known as Mrs. Charles E. Simonson. She was active in the Political Equality Club of Richmond County. After the passage of the 19th amendment, she was the Director of the League of Women Voters. She was also a member of many women's organizations. In 1921, May founded the Woodrow Wilson Foundation--a fund-raising and award-granting organization for those who aspired to Wilsons ideals for world peace.

(1841–1923) Chloe was a founding member of the Easton Political Equality Club in 1891, along with her sister Emily Peckham, sister-in-law Mary Eddy Peckham and seven others. Additionally Chloe was the first female Washington County delegate to the Republican State Convention following passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. (Information from "Strength Without Compromise", Teri Gay 2009)

(1889–1952) Alberta was secretary to the Women's Political Union, which was once known as the Equality League for Self-Supporting Women. It merged with the Congressional Union and later became the National Woman's Party under Alice Paul.

Alberta was audacious in her beliefs. She rode on horseback in the Woman Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C., March 3, 1913. The parade was the brainchild of Alice Paul and marked the first significant public event that re-energized the suffrage movement. Over five thousand women marched in that parade.

Alberta is well known because her wedding was headline news. By itself that was not surprising. Both she and her husband were involved in politics. She worked on Woodrow Wilson’s presidential campaign in 1912. Her husband was secretary to the Secretary of the Navy. After the ceremony, the officiating priest asked if she planned to obey. With good humor and a gracious bow she said "no". The New York Tribune headline read, “Alberta Hill, Suffrage Bride, Laughs Refusal to ‘Obey Him.’”

(1877–1965) School teacher and librarian, Margaret was an active member of the The Victor Equal Suffrage Association founded October 4, 1913 at the home of Miss Mary L. Draper. Members held monthly meetings, had bake sales, marched in parades in Rochester and New York City, and went to county and state suffrage conventions. All of the known members were also members of the Victor Unity Club, nearly half went to the Universalist Church, and most were in their 40s and 50s when most active.

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

(1806–1893) Elizabeth was a poet, fiction writer and women's rights activist.

Born in Maine, Elizabeth had dreams of attending college and starting a school. Under pressure from her mother, she married young. Her husband was a publisher who supported her writing career. In 1850, Elizabeth attended the National Women's Rights Convention in Worcester. This motivated her to leave fiction writing for essays on women's need for economic opportunity, higher education and voting. Her work was published in Horace Greeley's New York Tribune.

Elizabeth was a candidate for president of the National Women's Rights Association at their 1852 convention in Syracuse. Her selection was opposed when she appeared in a dress showing her neck and bare arms. Elizabeth continued to attend conventions, write and lecture in the following years. Interest in her work waned after her death but saw a resurgence in the 1970s as advocacy for women's rights welcomed new generations.

(1797–1874) Gerrit Smith was widely known as a philanthropist and social reformer of the mid-nineteenth century. As a nationally prominent and influential abolitionist, he played a critical role in the operations of the Underground Railroad. Gerrit sold farm tracts for one dollar each to 3,000 African Americans, many of whom he had helped escape into freedom, with approximately 140,000 acres transferred between 1846 and 1850.

Gerrit was also an advocate for women's rights. He was highly regarded in the early years of the movement, including being mentioned in Elizabeth Cady Stanton's address at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.*courtesy Gerrit R Wynkoop

(1851/52–1903) Lucy was active in a number of organizations in Rochester that were known to support woman suffrage; including AME Zion Church and Susan B. Anthony Club. The prominent activist Hester Jeffrey organized the Susan B. Anthony Club for Colored Women in Rochester and served as its first president. The club drew many members from the AME Zion Church, including Lucy. She and Jeffrey were colleagues and supporters in their church work as well as in their suffrage and civil rights activism. They both sought to bridge the divide between black and white suffrage activists.

At the 1903 celebration of Susan B. Anthony's birthday, club members joined other special guests in presenting Anthony with an enamel green and white pin in the shape of a four-leaf clover bearing the initials of their club. In general, the Susan B. Anthony Club for Colored Women met to discuss the importance of obtaining woman suffrage, but the members also sought to get young black women admitted to the University of Rochester. The first young black man had graduated from the university in 1891. When Lucy died in 1903, she was still fulfilling her duties for both the church and the club.

(1866–1956) Cora was the Recording Secretary of the Erie County Political Equality League--an organization of Erie County women’s clubs. In 1904, there were ten women’s clubs under the umbrella of the Erie County organization. Cora attended annual conventions in 1912 and 1913.

After the passage of the 19th amendment, Cora was a member of the Collins Town Election Board. She was also Noble Grand of the St. Clair Rebekah Lodge, an Odd Fellows women’s auxiliary, whose ceremony and lectures are based on women in Biblical history who exemplified the nobility and character of women.

(1858–1915) May was one of the founding members of the Pittsford Political Equality Club, formed in 1902. The first Political Equality Club was formed in 1885 at the Rochester home of Mary Anthony (sister of Susan).

These clubs worked not only on securing women the right to vote, but also on other issues of women’s equality. In Rochester that included gaining the right for women to be admitted to the University of Rochester, providing legal assistance to women in need, and improving working conditions for women.
While Rochester was the center of suffrage activity in that region, the movement included Political Equality Clubs in Pittsford, Charlotte, Chili, Churchville, Irondequoit, and Geneva.

May was one of the five founding members of the Pittsford Club who died before the 19th Amendment was ratified. She, along with nine other founders are buried in Pittsford Cemetery between East Avenue and Washington Road. From her obituary in the Fairport Herald-Mail: Wednesday, June 9, 1915. "She was a very bright woman, keeping up in all the latest literature, and had studied several different languages."

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

(1815–1902) Elizabeth was a suffragist, social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early women's rights movement. Her Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the Seneca Falls Convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, NY, is often credited with initiating the first organized women's rights and women's suffrage movements in the US. Stanton was President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1890 until 1892.

Before Stanton narrowed her political focus almost exclusively to women's rights, she was an active abolitionist with her husband Henry Brewster Stanton (co-founder of the Republican Party) and cousin Gerrit Smith. Unlike many of those involved in the women's rights movement, Stanton addressed various issues pertaining to women beyond voting rights. Her concerns included women's parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce, the economic health of the family, and birth control.

After the Civil War, Stanton's commitment to suffrage caused a schism in the women's rights movement when she, together with Susan B. Anthony, declined to support passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. She opposed giving added legal protection and voting rights to African American men while women, black and white, were denied those same rights. Her position on this issue led to the formation of two separate women's rights organizations that were finally rejoined, with Stanton as president of the joint organization, about twenty years after her break from the original women's suffrage movement.

(1887–1965) Kathryn graduated from Albany Law School in 1914 and served as Saratoga County Chair of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party between 1916 and 1918. She compiled a list of laws relating to women and children for The History of the Woman Suffrage Movement volumes. The list of laws was not included.

In 1918 Kathryn was among the first women named to the Executive Committee of Democratic State Committee. The same year she ran unsuccessfully for a New York State Assembly seat from Saratoga County on the Democratic ticket and remained active with the state Democratic Party the rest of her life. After 1920, Kathryn served on the Committee for the Uniform Laws For Women of the National League of Women Voters and campaigned in New York State to allow women serve on juries. *courtesy alexanderstreet.com

(1823–1904) Catherine was involved in the abolition movement from a very young age and in 1848 was at the first Woman's Rights Convention, where she was an active participant and contributed a resolution to the Convention.

When the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was founded in 1861, Catherine joined. In 1871, she attempted to register to vote in Michigan, but was denied. She then went with Nannette B. Gardner, who was asserting her right to vote as a widow and a taxpayer. Nannette was given the right to vote, but Catherine was never able to register.

In 1880, Catherine was on the committee to work on The Woman's Bible, in addition to being in charge of the Detroit National Woman Suffrage Association convention.

(1837–1921) A lifelong resident of Churchville, NY and an educator, Martha was a member of the New York State Woman's Suffrage Association. Martha wrote letters of support and participated in fundraising for New York State Senators who supported the vote for women. Examples of her work are archived in letters written to Mariana Wright Chapman in 1900. Chapman then served as the president of the New York State Woman's Suffrage Association. These letters are part of the Chapman collection at Swarthmore College.

Martha represented New York at the National Conventions during the 1890-1910 time period. At the 1910 state convention, Martha Stebbins was awarded a lifetime membership to this organization through the Mary Anthony Fund.

(1847–1930) Adaline was the corresponding Secretary of the Woman Suffrage Party of New York City, Associate Editor of The Woman Voter, and President-General of the General Section of the Daughters of the Revolution (not to be confused with the Daughters of the American Revolution).

After many years as a teacher, in 1897, Adaline ran for a position on the Board of Education in Englewood and was vigorously supported by the Woman's Club. It was unclear whether or not she was actually legally eligible for the position after an 1894 Supreme Court decision took away school suffrage, arguing that women could not vote before a formal amendment was added to the Constitution. It appears that Adaline won her race, and by 1899 was serving as President of the Board.

Adaline increased her suffrage activism in the 1910s. She joined the Woman Suffrage Study Club of New York City and the Women's Political Union. She became the leader of the 19th Assembly District in the Woman Suffrage Party of New York City, for which she also served as the Corresponding Secretary. Furthermore, Adaline was active in the New York Campaign of 1917, which won New York women the right to vote. *courtesy alexanderstreet.com.

(1893–1983) Florence graduated from Buffalo State Teachers College, Columbia University, and took courses at Harvard in education, psychology. She was active in founding the Ontario County League of Women Voters, and served on the Board of Ontario County Mental Health.

Florence founded Lochland School for disabled children, in Geneva, and was widely recognized as a pioneer in the education of children with developmental disabilities. She remained Executive Director for over fifty years until her death in 1983.

(1864–1929) May was a lifelong resident of the Finger Lakes region. Little is known of her contributions to suffrage but she is mentioned in a publication by the Ontario County Historical Society. We do know that by the year 1900, May was a single parent raising two daughters. She taught in local schools and owned a home. It is easy to believe that she was a supporter of women's rights.

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

(1899–1981) Theresa was born in New York City to Russian immigrants. In 1919, she was one of fourteen participants in an anti-Wilson march held in Manhattan. Organized by Alice Paul, these women protested Woodrow Wilson and the Democratic Party's inability to pass a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. Theresa's participation in the March 1919 demonstration is detailed in "6 Anti-Wilson Suffragists Are Arrested Here," New York Tribune, 5 March 1919, p. 4.

There is no other record of Theresa's involvement with the National Women's Party or any suffrage activities. The 1940 US Census states that Theresa was then working for the city Department of Welfare as a social investigator. Perhaps this was the avenue she used to help other's obtain their rights. If you know more about her, you can help us tell her story. Please use our Add a Suffragist form to submit your information.

(1841–1925) Kate is best known for being the first woman lawyer in the state of New York, admitted to the bar in 1886 before being the first female graduate of Albany Law School in 1898. She was very involved with the local and state woman suffrage movement for many years and was the first woman to legally vote in Albany in 1880 when New York women were granted the right to vote in school elections.

Kate was friends with Susan B. Anthony and worked alongside Lillie Devereux Blake, Mary Seymour Howell and other prominent suffrage leaders. She lived long enough to witness New York women voting in 1918 and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1920. *courtesy alexanderstreet.com.

(1858–1932) Fannie served in many women's organizations: President of the New York City Federation of Women's Clubs, President of the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs, Vice President of the Washington Headquarters Association, a member of the Society of Colonial Dames of the State of New York, President of the Woman's Republican Club, and served as the Daughters of the American Revolution's (DAR) Ninth President General from 1913–1917.

During her DAR presidency Fannie inaugurated a movement to organize members of the DAR for war work, advocating for universal military training and other progressive warm measures. As President of the State Federation of Women's Clubs in 1910, she sat on the Cooperating Suffrage Committee with suffrage supporters from many other organizations. Additionally, while Fannie presided over the Woman's Republican Club, the club declared for women's suffrage. *courtesy alexanderstreet.com