(1823–1913) Mary was a leader in the suffrage movement. She became an anti-slavery activist as a young woman, and in 1842, joined the newly-formed Western New York Anti-Slavery Society (WNYASS), a group which her parents had helped to found. After she married, her home, like that of her parents, provided a refuge for fugitive slaves as part of the network of the Underground Railroad.

Mary’s fight for suffrage and equality for women spans over sixty years. She was present at the first women's rights Convention held in Seneca Falls in July of 1848 and a signer of the Declaration of Sentiments. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Mary supported revisions to the 14th Amendment that would allow women, as well as African-American men, the right to vote. Mary attempted to vote in the presidential election of 1872 and was unable to register. She later donated to Susan B. Anthony’s defense after Susan was arrested for voting. She was also present at the founding meeting of Rochester's Women's Political Club (later the Political Equality Club) in Susan's home in December of 1885.

Mary's suffrage activities were buttressed by a close personal friendship with Susan B. Anthony. Ida Husted Harper, Susan's biographer, describes the home of William and Mary Hallowell as a place where the "doors never were closed" to Susan.

(1857–1929) As an active member of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, Ella S. Hammond served as a delegate to the national convention held in Minnesota in 1900. While chairman of the School Suffrage Committee, Hammond encouraged women to become active in their local school districts. On June 28, 1902, she published a circular that prompted women throughout the state to exercise their right to vote for school district trustees, and to aid in securing a woman trustee wherever possible.

(1829–1921) This activist leader and groundbreaking female minister said of herself, "I was born a suffragist." Phebe served in an organizational or leadership capacity in the American Equal Rights Association American (AERA), the Woman Suffrage Association, the Women's Press Club, and Sorosis, the first professional women's club in the United States.

She was the first woman ordained a minister in New England, the second in the United States, and the fourth in the world. A long-time friend to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she preached at their funerals.

Phebe wrote a total of fourteen books, one titled Lucretia The Quakeress, inspired by her cousin Lucretia Mott. She also wrote Women Of The Century, and later, an expanded version, Daughters Of America.

After separating from her husband, Phebe lived for 44 years with Ellen Miles, her female companion.

(1862/63–1938) Evanetta played a prominent role in the New York State suffrage movement and the local movement in Troy. In 1894, she attended the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (NYSWSA) convention in Ithaca and was named a press officer representing Rensselaer County. She was a founding member of the Political Equality Club of Rensselaer County and served a stint as the club's vice president. In 1913, she earned an appointment from NYSWSA as chairman of the Empire State Campaign Committee for the eleventh district in the Keene Valley region. As a district chair, Evanetta coordinated publicity for the 1915 referendum vote in her region and led a conference and school for suffrage workers where she collaborated closely with National American Woman Suffrage Association president Carrie Chapman Catt.

Evanetta spoke frequently in favor of suffrage and proved a formidable opponent in debate against anti-suffragists. Just days before the November 2, 1915 referendum vote in New York, she engaged in a memorable clash with Margaret M. Crumpacker of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. In her eloquent defense of suffrage, Hare described a woman's right to vote as "part of the eternal forward march of the human race toward complete democracy."

Evanetta labored diligently for the improvement of salaries and working conditions for teachers in the Troy area as another extension of her activism. She was elected treasurer of the Troy Teachers Association in the 1890s and later chaired the legislative committee for the Teachers' Welfare League of New York State, spearheading lobbying efforts in Albany on behalf of teachers. Additionally, she was a founder and an administrator of the Troy Teacher's Pension Fund.

Until her death at the age of 75, Evanetta Hare maintained active membership in countless community organizations, particularly the welfare of women and children, including those concerned with improving housing conditions in Troy. (Courtesy of AlexanderStreet.com)

(1857–1950) Martha was born in Canada and immigrated to the US as a domestic servant. Though not well educated and without wealth, Martha became a successful entrepreneur and created the first business franchise system in the United States. With a "secret" hair tonic recipe she most likely obtained from her late Canadian employer, a doctor and herbalist, Martha opened the Harper Method Shop in the Powers Building in downtown Rochester. Susan B. Anthony was a customer of Harper's.

Susan B. Anthony was known to praise Martha as an example of women's success in business. Martha offered her beauty shop model to help poor women rise up and become entrepreneurs. In time, there were 350 sites worldwide, including hair dressing schools, laboratories, factories for hair products and make up, as well as hair salons. Both Calvin Coolidge and Woodrow Wilson were customers. In the 1920s, Martha married James McBain and joined in a partnership with him. Martha retained the name of her business and her position as president.

In the 1940s, Martha was a generous donor to the Susan B. Anthony House project.

(1875–1953) Oreola was an American activist for suffrage, author, and poet in the early twentieth century. Devoted to the suffrage cause, she worked alongside famous suffragists such as Carrie Chapman Catt and Mary Garrett Hay. Ida Husted Harper, who wrote the introduction to Banner Bearers, commended Oreola for her modesty and lack of interest in the limelight, which was very much in line with the self-sacrificing attitude that Haskell attributed to suffragists in her works. Her quiet, efficient, hardworking attitude was also noted in an interview she had with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1915, as a prime example of the faceless army of diligent suffragists who worked behind the scenes.

Alongside her suffrage activism and high society work (predominantly philanthropy), Oreola was an auditor and recording secretary of the New York Federation for Women's Clubs. Though her contributions to the suffrage movement in New York have not garnered much attention from historians, her plethora of appearances in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper suggest that she was a well-known and respected figure of the time.

(1856–1924) Ella was an innovative thinker and social reformer. She served on the executive board of the New York State Federation of Women’s Clubs. In 1908, she led an effort to lobby the New York State legislature to pass a suffrage amendment to the New York State constitution.

Ella was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and served on the Peace and Arbitration Committee. She was active in the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (NYSWSA) and served on their committees for legislation and education. She addressed the issue of child labor by founding the Society for the Study of Child Nature, an organization dedicated to gaining an understanding of child labor and its impact in childhood development and education.

Following World War I, New York Governor Al Smith appointed Ella and five other women to a commission tasked with planning the reorganization of state government as it reconverted to peacetime. (Source: Alexander Street)

(1819–1902) Phoebe was a member of a Quaker family with deep roots in the Farmington community. As Quakers they were staunch abolitionists; family homes were stops on the Underground Railroad.

Phoebe was an organizer of the Cazenovia Convention on Antislavery where Frederick Douglass spoke. She was the first president of the Western New York Female Antislavery Society. In addition, she helped establish a Bird's Nest school in her town to educate black women.

Being raised in the Quaker belief where men and women were thought to be equal — where women had a “voice” — plus being surrounded by strong-willed, ambitious and hard-working family members and reformers, it is of little wonder how Phoebe’s life was influenced and how she gained the confidence and freedom to pursue her interests. Upon her father’s death, Phoebe inherited property in her own name.

In 1857 Phoebe suffered a stroke limiting her mobility. She continued to write in support of the issues she cared about; temperance, abolition and women's rights. Evidence of her life's work is found in her letters to and from Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Emily Howland. Phoebe's will stated that if she died without descendants 'it is my wish that a fund shall be expended for the education of such needy women.'

(1869–1963) Maria Louisa was born in Maryland, but came to Ilion with her husband who was a Vice-President at the Remington Arms Company, Inc. She became involved in the Women’s Political Union, founded in 1907 by Harriot Standon Blatch (daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton). Its purpose was to educate women on how suffrage could change their lives. Blatch focused her recruiting efforts on wealthy women, who had the time and resources to work for the suffrage movement. In 1912, Ilion hosted its first meeting of the Women’s Political Union. In 1913 Maria hosted a Women’s Political Union meeting at her home. In 1915, she was the Chairwomen on Speakers and Meetings. She was also a suffrage activist for various organizations including the Ilion Suffrage Study Club and the Herkimer County Suffrage Convention.

Equally important, Maria Louisa was a principal participant in the 1915 Suffrage Torch relay. She carried the Suffrage Torch (patterned after the Statue of Liberty torch) from Little Falls to Utica. She was one of only twelve New York State women who were Suffrage Torch carriers.

The Suffrage torch relay was a central component in the strategy to win support for the 1915 referendum to add a suffrage amendment to New York State’s constitution. It was the public relations brainchild of Harriot Stanton Blatch, National President of the Women’s Political Union. The Suffrage Torch car relay began on June 8 in Montauk, Long Island and finished on July 31 in Buffalo. The route included major cities and small towns including New York City, Amsterdam, Little Falls, Utica, Canastota, Cazenovia, Syracuse, Cortland, Ithaca, Olean, Salamanca, Jamestown and Buffalo. The automobile that carried the torch was decorated with banners of white, purple, and green and the words “Votes for Women and Victory on November 2,1915.” Suffrage receptions, meetings and conventions were held enroute.

The Haughton family moved from Ilion to Schenectady, New York. While there she continued her leadership role in civic activities, including board member of the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association), the county child welfare board, and the Humane Society.

Maria Louisa died at the age of 93. She is featured in Part 1 of Herkimer County's documentary on Women's Suffrage. Click on Learn More below to see for yourself.

(1855–1929) Louisine was an art collector, feminist, and philanthropist. In addition to being a patron of impressionist art, she was one of the more prominent contributors to the suffrage movement in the United States. The impressionist painter Edgar Degas and feminist Alice Paul were among the renowned recipients of the benefactor's support. After her husband's death in 1907, Mrs. Havemeyer focused her attention on the women's suffrage movement.

In 1912 and 1915, Louisine she lent her artistic collection to Knoedler's Gallery and organized exhibitions of her art works in New York to raise funds to support suffrage efforts. In 1913, she founded the National Woman's Party with the radical suffragist Alice Paul. Louisine became a well-known suffragist, publishing two articles about her work for the cause in Scribner's Magazine. The first, entitled "The Prison Special: Memories of a Militant," appeared in May 1922, and the other, "The Suffrage Torch: Memories of a Militant" appeared in June the same year.

Louisine participated in marches down New York's famed Fifth Avenue and addressed a standing room only audience at Carnegie Hall upon the completion of a nationwide speaking tour. A famous photograph of Louisine shows her with an electric torch, similar in design to that of the Statue of Liberty, among other prominent suffragists. Her attempt to burn an effigy of President Wilson outside the White House in 1919 drew national attention.

(1857–1928) A suffrage activist who worked closely with Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary was also a temperance worker with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She became President of the New York Equal Suffrage League (1910-1918), New York City Woman's Suffrage Party (1912-1918), and the New York City League of Women Voters (1918-1923).

Mary was one of the founders of the National American Women's Suffrage Movement (1910-1918) and, along with Carrie Chapman Catt, was instrumental in obtaining legislation for women's right to vote. Her papers are housed at the Harvard University Library in the Women's Rights Collection. She and Carrie Chapman Catt are buried side by side marked by a single monument inscribed in block letters: "Here lie two, united in friendship for 38 years through constant service to a great cause."

(1864–1935) From her obituary; “Word of the death of Mrs. Dora G. Sedgwick Hazard, 'the First Lady of Syracuse,' which occurred at her summer home in Narragansett Pier, R. I., Tuesday night, was received in sorrow by thousands of men and women in this city—friends who had known her for her social charm and friends in lowly walks of life who knew her only as a benefactress and lover of humankind.”

In 1887, Dora established with four friends the Solvay Guild, a social service group and served as its president for 42 years. She aided the late Rev. Dr. F. W. Betts in the Moral Survey crusade that “monitored vice in the city."

When America entered World War I, she organized the Hazard Hospital Unit, a group of twenty young women who went to London and assisted in the hospital problem. The Huntington Club and Syracuse Memorial Hospital were nearest to her heart.

The daughter of an abolitionist, Dora was a suffragist who helped establish the National Woman's Party in the Central NY area.

(1839–1903) Few records exist of Martha's contribution to suffrage, though she served in various leadership positions including Vice-President-at-Large at the 1891 Convention in Auburn, NY and was a program organizer at the Chicago Columbian Exhibition 1893 Women's Pavilion.

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

(1877–1949) “Lottie” as she was known, was recognized in July 1906 by the New York Age for being an efficient president of the Northeastern Federation of Women's Clubs for two terms while also holding her presidency of the Auxilium Club and the Telephone Club, a club she had founded that paid the expenses of phones for the sick and dying through the parishioners of Dr. W.T. Dixon's church.

In 1914, Charlotte helped with the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs (ESFWC), as the organization held its annual meeting at Concord Baptist Church. Charlotte was affiliated with the ESFWC through the Dorcas Home Missionary Society as well as through friendships with other notable Concord Baptist Church women, who were also active with the ESFWC. In 1914, the group discussed plans for a Harriet Tubman memorial. This event was a reunion for the New York City delegates at the prior year's meeting as well as Minnie Brown, M.C. Lawton, and Lucretia Freeman. At one point, Charlotte "Lottie" Henderson served as chair of the executive board of the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs. (Courtesy Alexanderstreet.com)

(1866–1948) Elizabeth was a lifelong resident of Gorham, NY. Married twice, Elizabeth was buried with her first husband as Elizabeth Ferguson. Elizabeth and her step daughter, Bessie Hershey, were active in suffrage organizations in their area. She is noted as belonging to the Ontario County 1919–1920 League of Women Voters. No other documentation on Elizabeth's participation has been found.

(1838–1894) Amanda is one of the female physicians listed in the History of Woman Suffrage. A prominent physician in Auburn, NY, she helped form the Auburn Political Equality Club. Amanda also organized the Cayuga County Political Equality Club, whose members consorted with the likes of outspoken suffragists such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Amelia Bloomer.

Amanda's obituary declared her, “an ardent believer and earnest worker in the cause of universal suffrage.” Her dedication to the advancements of women’s health and her advocacy for equality were important and will continue to inspire those headed down the same path.

(1816–1903) As a member of the Rensselaer County Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Emeline Hicks took on several leadership roles and served as president of her local Lansingburgh union. Her temperance work connected her to the suffrage movement with many activists devoted to both issues, and Emeline is listed as president of the New York Woman Suffrage Association’s Lansingburgh club in a report dated 1894. In 1896, as a widow in her 80s, Emeline lacked the resources to make a monetary contribution, so she chose to sew a quilt and donate it to the association. She requested that the quilt be given directly to Susan B. Anthony to help raise money for the cause. In the letter that accompanied the quilt, Emeline wrote: “I hope that showers of blessings may rest upon the quilt in its meanderings to and fro, and that it bless you with a handsome sum for helping lift the burden from the State Suffrage association. When its meanderings are over, and it is nestled quietly in its own home, I would like to know the result.”

June 13, 1903
Th[e] Matron of the Home for the Friendless, Lansingburg, N.Y.
Dear Friend,–
I had a letter addressed to Mrs. Emeline S. Hicks returned to me today saying she was dead. I send it to you that you may see that I always thought a great deal of her. She was faithful to the cause of Woman Suffrage. She frequently wrote me letters, and a few years ago made a quilt that was struck off for $60 or $70, to help the cause.
If you would write a word with regard to her I would be greatly obliged to you.
Sincerely Yours,
Susan B. Anthony

(1844–1870) Edmonia died young, at 26. She did a lot in her young life with the American Abolition Society and spoke at conventions headed by Frederick Douglass. Upon introducing her Douglass was "alarmed by reactions of men in the Syracuse streets" but "urged the convention to follow the thoughts of Miss Highgate declaring that what they were doing "gives offense to none but the sordid haters of our race". Edmonia was in the first class at Syracuse High School and graduated with honors as the only African American in 1861.

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

(1861–1942) For at least two decades, Anna was an outstanding figure in public life in her community and county. She was an active member of Unity Club, and was sent as a delegate to Albany for a meeting of the State Federation of Women's Clubs.

For many years Anna was a member of the Ontario County Commission on Tuberculosis and Public Health and a member of the Board of Directors of Oak-Mount Sanitarium. She also served as local Welfare administrator. During the World War, she was a leader in the work done by the women of this community, and a building on her premises served as headquarters for Red Cross activities , to which she gave untiring effort. At the close of the war, Anna's work was recognized by the award of a special medal. She continued to be a local Red Cross chairman.

(1872–1958) Eleanor was a founding member of the Political Equality Club of Hudson Falls serving as Vice President in 1915, then president 1916–1917. She also served as Chairman of the 1915 Washington County Suffrage Convention. In 1916 she was elected secretary of the Washington County Branch of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party.