(1853–1941) Mary lived much of her life in Rochester, NY where he was an active member of several community and political organizations, often taking on a leadership role. In 1893, she was elected as first vice president of the Political Equality Club of Rochester, working alongside her friend Mary Stafford Anthony who was the organization's secretary. She later took the position of recording secretary for the New York State Suffrage Association, continuing her service for several years.

(1850–1909) Maria and her sister, Christine Boughton Dunning, were founding members of the Pittsford Political Equality Club. Maria’s family is an example of the connections between women’s suffrage and abolition. Maria’s father-in-law and husband were ardent abolitionists who aided runaway slaves. Maria and her husband had nine children. Their son, Dr. Walter Crump, was a Trustee of the Tuskegee Institute, the historically Black college founded by Booker T. Washington.

(1890–1972) At just 23 years old, Katharine reforms the dormant Political Equality Club of Glens Falls in 1914, and is elected President. She is then elected Vice Leader of Warren County Suffrage under Susan M. Bain, former president and co-founder of the original PECGF. In 1915, Katherine was vice president, and served on the finance committee. Meetings were often held at the Bowden family home on Maple Street, where her mother, Margaret McEchron Bowden was also active in the cause.

Under Katharine’s leadership, the club participated in the June 1914 Suffrage Parade in Albany. “The Political Equality Club of Glens Falls had the largest delegation in line in the big suffrage procession in Albany Saturday. The local suffragettes led by Miss Catharine Bowden, president of the club, made a fine showing. More than 500 women marched in the parade, the first of its kind in the Capital district, and later a mass meeting was held in Odd Fellows’ hall, during which addresses were delivered by Mrs. [Gertrude] Brown, president of the New York Suffragette [sic] association; Miss Elsie Lincoln Vandergift, of Colorado, Mrs. [Harriet Burton] Laidlaw, George Foster Peabody, James Less Laidlaw, president of the National Men’s League; and Miss Florence Roberts. Mrs. Katherine H. Gavit presided.” Post-Star (Glens Falls, NY Warren County). June 8, 1914. P.5. Bio by Tisha Dolton.

(1878–1945) Ella was an African American activist who worked for black women's suffrage in the early twentieth century. She was especially active in 1917, when suffragists in New York State organized to pressure the state's voters to pass a women's suffrage amendment.

Born in South Carolina, Ella spent her adult life in New York City. She married at 19, but it ended in divorce. Despite her busy family and work life, as a domestic servant and laundress, Ella made time for political activism. She had no formal education; still she was literate and was determined to help black women gain the right to vote.

During World War I, Ella and other African Americans in New York City contributed $350 to the war fund for the Colored Men's division of the YMCA; remarkable considering her own income. At this same time, Ella was a member of the Colored Women's Suffrage Club of New York, participating in a statewide suffrage convention in August of 1917. The New York Age wrote an article about the event, which met in Saratoga in hopes of garnering support for a suffrage amendment, which was on the November ballot in New York State.

Women—black and white—traveled together to Saratoga. While suffragists had separate organizations, for this meeting, they united as affiliates of the New York City Woman Suffrage Party. The governor of New York and the mayor of New York City also attended the meeting. A reporter for The New York Age wrote that woman suffrage is one of the vital issues of the day to be given serious consideration. The State Suffrage party now has one million women enrolled under its banners.

The state convention was significant for black women in particular. While black and white women united to garner support for women's suffrage, black women had long been treated as inferiors to their white counterparts. Some black women openly demanded equal treatment, nonetheless, they supported the New York Woman Suffrage Party because it was their best opportunity to gain the right to vote.

The efforts of Ella and the other members of the Colored Women's Suffrage Club of New York City paid off. After hosting and attending meetings, sending postcards, knocking on strangers' doors, and even finding transportation for male allies to get to the polls on Election Day, Black women suffragists succeeded as New York voters made women's suffrage the state law in November 1917 three years before the Nineteenth Amendment required all states to grant women the right to vote.

Ella continued to live in New York City with her adult children and worked the same jobs that she had before she won the right to vote. But she experienced a significant difference: she was able to—and did—vote. (Bio courtesy Alexanderstreet.com)

(1861–1914) The daughter of Anna Shaw and George William Curtis, who was a famed author, orator, abolitionist and suffragist in his own right, Elizabeth proudly carried on the progressive legacy of her family as a vocal advocate for voting rights and civic education for women.

Elizabeth was a speaker at the New York State Constitutional Convention in 1894, echoing her father's 1867 speech "Equal Rights for Women." Her pleas went unanswered, but she was undeterred by the loss. Elizabeth founded the Political Equality Club of Staten Island, and Susan B. Anthony visited Staten Island to support Elizabeth's efforts. In 1898, Elizabeth testified before the Senate Select Committee on Woman Suffrage.

After her death in 1914, fellow suffragist Mary Otis Willcox said of Elizabeth's contribution to the movement: "By the force of her personality [she] raised the cause from a subject of ridicule to one at least for serious consideration."

(1818–1919) Dr. Sarah was the first woman doctor in Western New York. She voted at a school meeting of the first district of Lockport, NY, following the passage of the bill to prevent disfranchisement in 1885. 

Dr. Sarah also endowed the Cushing Fund on Dec. 31, 1910, providing Lockport City Hospital with the income "for the benefit of poor and deserving women, young and old, who are residents of Niagara County who shall be in need of hospital care."

(1863–1961) Her resolution to pledge suffrage organizations assistance to Herbert Hoover's Government Housewives League was adopted, and they met once a week in New York City. A newspaper quote of 1917 supported her many activities, writing "Mrs. Danforth brings to the office the advantage of years of experience, both in suffrage work and other forms of service. She is an active participant in the Red Cross and served as local Chairman of the Woman's League for National Services."

(1862–1945) Lavinia graduated from Oberlin College, the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States, in 1886. In 1896, she graduated from Syracuse University's College of Medicine as a physician. The following year, she established a general practice on Main Street in Oneida, NY, becoming the only female physician in the county. She practiced in Oneida for 47 years.

Starting in 1891, Lavinia served as state superintendent of franchise for the New York Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). She addressed WCTU county and state conventions on suffrage and presented franchise reports. She was a charter member of the WCTU local union in Oneida, and in 1900 became president of the Oneida local suffrage club. The watchwords of the WCTU: Agitate—Educate—Legislate fittingly characterize the activities of Dr. Lavinia Davis.

Dr. Lavinia spoke before a New York Senate committee in 1903 and 1904 in support of a legislative measure extending to female taxpayers of third-class cities the right to vote on questions of taxation. She participated on a legislative work committee for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Dr. Lavinia expressed her reasons for supporting suffrage at state conventions. In 1905, she presented the motto for Oneida: "She who is called upon to people the world should be law-giver as well as life-giver."

At the 1908 state convention, she announced that the WCTU and the state Woman Suffrage Association cooperated in bills before the legislature and "a full suffrage measure was introduced but lost though a most enthusiastic hearing was held, women attending from all parts of the state." Her response to roll call in 1915: "Women prepare children for the world, give them the power to help prepare the world for children."

From 1891-1918, Dr. Lavinia "sent out hundreds of suffrage leaflets and appeals to the local unions every year." She established the Davis Loan Fund back at Oberlin College in 1923. The fund provided loans to deserving young women.

In 1931, a Suffrage Memorial Tablet was placed in the State Capitol Building, Albany, NY by the NY League of Women Voters. It honored eighty-four NY women who had labored to gain woman suffrage. The list of names included Lavinia R. Davis. (Courtesy AlexanderStreet.com)

(1820/22–1913) Harriet was named Araminta "Minty" by her enslaved parents, Ben and Rit Ross. Nearly killed at the age of 13 by a blow to her head, Minty recovered and grew strong and determined to be free.

Changing her name to Harriet upon her marriage to freeman John Tubman in 1844, she escaped five years later when her enslaver died and she was to be sold. One hundred dollars was offered for her capture. Vowing to return to bring her family and friends to freedom, she spent the next ten years making about 13 trips into Maryland to rescue them. She also gave instructions to about 70 more who found their way to freedom independently. A lifelong humanitarian and civil rights activist, she formed friendships with abolitionists, politicians, writers, and intellectuals. She knew Frederick Douglass and was close to John Brown and William Henry Seward. She was particularly close with suffragists Lucretia Coffin Mott, Martha Coffin Wright, and Susan B. Anthony.

Harriet traveled to New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. to speak out in favor of women's voting rights. She described her actions during and after the Civil War, and used the sacrifices of countless women throughout modern history as evidence of women's equality to men. When the National Federation of Afro-American Women was founded in 1896, Tubman was the keynote speaker at its first meeting.

(1897–1980) Dorothy picketed the White House with the National Women's Party in 1917. She was jailed along with the Silent Sentinels and beaten during the infamous "Night Of Terror" at Occoquan Workhouse. She served a 30-day sentence and participated in a hunger strike along with her fellow suffrage protestors.

Dorothy detailed her experiences in her memoir The Long Loneliness. She was also the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, and devoted her life to peace, social justice, and directing aid to the poor.

(1799–1873) Rhoda and her husband Elias were Quakers involved with the Farmington Quarterly meeting that in 1836 sought to make men's and women's meetings more equal. In 1842, she joined the WNY Anti-Slavery Society when it was founded and was active in its annual fairs to support the cause.

The DeGarmos were neighbors of the Daniel and Lucy Anthony family in Gates, NY, and members of a group that met regularly on Sundays at the Anthony's farm to discuss reform issues. They were also active on the Underground Railroad, providing refuge for freedom seekers en route to Canada.

In 1848, Rhoda was chosen as one of the organizers for the Adjourned Woman's Rights Convention held in Rochester that August two weeks after the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. It was she along with Amy Post and Sarah Fish who decided to nominate a woman, Abigail Bush, to preside at the convention in opposition to the opinion of Elizabeth C. Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

Rhoda was selected as one of several vice-presidents of the NYS Woman's Temperance Society in 1852. In 1872, she was one of the women including Susan B. Anthony, who succeeded in both registering and casting their votes in Rochester.

(1890–1989) As a young woman, Bessie was a participant in Ontario County suffrage activities. In 1917, it is stated that Bessie chaired the suffrage committee of the Ontario County Women's Clubs and served alongside her stepmother, Elizabeth Hershey.

(1872–1956) Alice was active in Ontario County in the Unity Club, the Equal Suffrage League, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She had been active in musical circles, as an Organist at Methodist Church for 50 years, and as a teacher beginning at the No. 8 school in Victor. Alice transferred to the high school department in 1895.

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

(1842–1932) Anna was the first woman paid to campaign for political candidates, even though she couldn't vote for them. In thanks for her work getting Republicans elected in the 1860s, she was invited to address Congress. On January 16, 1864, with President Lincoln and Mary Todd present, Anna addressed a joint session of Congress. Speaking for more than an hour without notes, Dickinson critiqued Lincoln's generosity to Confederate states and his meager protection for those formerly enslaved. Grandly, she closed by endorsing Lincoln for a second term, as "the Hour" called for a steady hand.

After the war, Anna toured nationally, delivering a repertoire of 22 different lectures on women's suffrage and the rights of all African-Americans. At the height of her career, she made the equivalent of approximately $400,000 annually in today's dollars.

Anna was one of the most famous suffragists of the day, so the movement's leaders couldn't ignore her, but they couldn't control her either. Both the National and the American Woman Suffrage Association invited her to join their boards, but she wasn't a joiner. Anna did provide the movement with some financial support, though. Her image is the frontispiece of Volume II of the History of Woman Suffrage, with her inscription: "The world belongs to those who take it." Bio by Rachel B. Tiven.

(1846–1928) Ida is noted in a book on Binghamton's Growth and Development as having been born in Candor, NY. In the work "English Women's Review of Social and Industrial Questions," she is noted as one of the signers of a 1886 letter to Pope Leo XIII, thanking him for sanctioning women taking part in politics. In that letter she is cited as secretary of the Women's Suffrage Party of New York State.

Ida signed a petition to urge voting against Leslie Russell, NYS Attorney General, who opposed women's rights and whose recommendation was blocking women's rights legislation in New York State.

In 1887, at 41 years of age, she received a diploma from New York College and Hospital; she became a physician, perhaps in connection with the above activities.

(1829–1909) Dr. Sarah was a woman of rare distinction. In 1847, one year prior to the first Woman’s Rights convention in Seneca Falls, she was already breaking gender barriers. In that year, she began her studies for a medical degree at Central Medical College in Syracuse, NY. She became the second woman in America to become a doctor and the first woman to complete a hospital internship.

After graduation, she became Rochester’s first female physician. It was there that she became friends with Susan B. Anthony. When Susan voted illegally in the 1872 federal election, Sarah and 13 other women voted illegally alongside her.

In 1881, Dr. Sarah was president of the “Ignorance Club," a group of prominent women who met to learn about issues of interest to them. More than just a social club, these women intended to learn about and agitate for social reform on important matters. They advocated for inclusion of women on the boards of Rochester’s schools and the Western New York House of Refuge. They also sought the appointment of a woman as matron for the Rochester City Jail. These reforms were enacted due to their efforts.

In 1893, Dr. Sarah became a founding member of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, an organization whose mission was to address women’s unique needs for better working conditions in factories, job training, education, nutritional support, and legal advocacy. That organization is still active today and is known as the Rochester Legal Aid Society.

(1857–1945) Although Annie had only a grade school education, her involvement with the Women's League of the All Souls Universalist Church led her to become a political activist and leader in the Suffrage Movement. Using the academic skills she gained through the Church, she taught Suffrage History and Argument, Organization, Publicity and Press, Money Raising, and Parliamentary Law to potential women voters in Detroit. This program was so effective that it expanded to 385 schools across 25 states.

In 1919, Annie became the Fourth Vice Chairman of the New York City Woman Suffrage Party, a branch of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association. Its purpose was to unite all the New York City suffrage and equality organizations. It had 500,000 members, 20 city officers, 50 borough officers, 63 leaders of assembly districts and 2,127 captains of election districts. The party was so well led and organized that it became to be known as a “political machine.”

Annie was an instructor with the party’s “Suffrage School” organization that sent educators throughout the country to train women on how to organize, work with the press, raise funds, canvass voters, and handle objections. There were 385 Suffrage Schools in 25 states. She also served on a committee that interviewed candidates for public office and then publicized their stance on vital issues. This activity continues to be carried out today by the League of Women Voters.

(1818–1895) Frederick was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his oratory and anti-slavery writings. Frederick was a firm believer in the equality of all peoples, be they white, black, female, Native American, or immigrants. He was also a believer in dialogue and in making alliances across racial and ideological divides.

In 1848, Frederick was the only African American to attend the Seneca Falls Convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton asked the assembly to pass a resolution asking for women's suffrage. Many of those present opposed the idea. Frederick stood and spoke eloquently in favor of women's suffrage; he said that he could not accept the right to vote as a black man if women could not also claim that right. He suggested that the world would be a better place if women were involved in the political sphere.

After Frederick's powerful words, the attendees passed the resolution. When the 15th Amendment giving Blacks the right to vote was being debated, Frederick split with the women's rights movement. He supported the amendment, which would grant suffrage to black men. Many suffragists opposed the amendment because it limited expansion of suffrage to black men; they predicted its passage would delay for decades the cause for women's right to vote. On February 20, 1895, after returning to his house from a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, DC, Douglass died of a heart attack at age 77.

(1813–1882) Anna Murray was an American abolitionist, member of the Underground Railroad, and the first wife of American social reformer and statesman Frederick Douglass, from 1838 to her death. Anna was a member of the Anti-Slavery Society as well as a regular donor. Like her husband Frederick, she was committed to the emancipation of her people. In Rochester, she was also an agent on the Underground Railroad – where she provided food, clean clothes, and a safe place for fugitive enslaved people to stay on their journeys to freedom in Canada. 

An early advocate of Women’s Suffrage, Anna Murray's husband Frederick Douglass is often called a Suffragent. His enlightenment was said to be influenced by relationships with some of the movement’s founders. But the example of his wife Anna Murray Douglass must have also been a major and earlier influence. She was among the most fearless and independent women in his life and had been so even before they met. 

The records of Caroline County, Maryland, held at the state archives show that 17-year-old Anna and three of her siblings requested official "Certificates of Freedom" from the county court on 29 May 1832 attesting to their free status. The certificates enabled them to travel freely in Maryland, because the law required they provide proof that they were free people, or risk being enslaved. It is likely that Anna and her brother and sisters were planning to move to Baltimore, where Anna eventually met Frederick Bailey [Douglass] and helped him escape. A resourceful young woman, she established herself as a laundress and housekeeper and became financially secure. Murray's freedom made Douglass believe in the possibility of his own. When he decided to escape enslavement in 1838, Murray encouraged and helped him by providing Douglass with some sailor's clothing her laundry work gave her access to. She also gave him part of her savings, which she augmented by selling one of her feather beds. After Douglass had made his way to Philadelphia and then New York, Murray followed him, bringing enough goods with her to be able to start a household.

Anna's daughter Rosetta reminded those who admired her father that his "was a story made possible by the unswerving loyalty of Anna Murray."

(1838–1903) Helen was born in Honeoye, Ontario County, to abolitionists and suffragists parents. She went to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, NY, and graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1859. She taught at the Hampton Institute in Virginia until poor health forced her to return home.

In 1882, Helen moved to Washington D.C. where she was active in the women's rights movement and co-edited the Moral Education Society's paper, The Alpha. Helen was hired as a clerk in the recorder of deeds office, run by Frederick Douglass. They were married on Jan. 24, 1884. He was 66 and she, 46. Neither his children nor her family approved. When asked about her marriage, she responded, "Love came to me, and I was not afraid to marry the man I loved because of his color."

Helen and Frederick traveled extensively and lived in Haiti when Douglass was appointed Minister by President Benjamin Harrison. After Frederick's death in 1895, Helen worked to save their home in Washington, named Cedar Hill, as a memorial to her husband's legacy. She died there in 1903. No services were held and her remains were interred in the Douglass family plot in Mount Hope. (Bio by the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery)