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  • Annie Lorraine Rose Fitch

    Annie Lorraine Rose Fitch (1868–1940) Annie was born in Flushing, New York. The wife of a prominent lawyer, Joseph Fitch, she was known to be involved in charitable works in her community. Annie served as the Vice President of Flushing's Equal Franchise Association leading up to women earning the right to vote in New York State. Volume six of the History of Woman Suffrage (p. 462) lists Mrs. Joseph Fitch as one of many "capable officials" who in 1915 helped with various activities on behalf of the cause, including canvassing and clerical work. (Courtesy alexanderstreet.com) Joseph died in 1917, the same year New York gave women the right to vote, and any record of Annie Fitch's suffrage activities ends there. As suggested in the Alexander Street document, "she may have lost her energy at that time." Or perhaps we don't know more because it appears she had no grandchildren or great-grandchildren who would document her life on a genealogy site. If you know more about her, you can help us tell her story. Please use our Add a Suffragist form to submit your information. Annie is buried with her husband. Flushing Cemetery ​ 163–06 46th Avenue, Flushing, NY 11358 Queens County Learn More

  • Grace Edna Lewis Cornwall

    Grace Edna Lewis Cornwall (1877–1957) Born in Beaver Falls, NY, Grace was the daughter of Julia Slocum and James Polk Lewis, founder of J. P. Lewis Paper Company. She was actively involved in the paper industry for years, inheriting shares of her father’s company. Grace married Harold D. Cornwall in 1911, and devoted her time to several community organizations throughout Lewis County. As an advocate for women’s suffrage, Grace served as the district leader of the Lewis County Woman’s Suffrage League from 1914–1916. During her chairmanship, the number of suffrage clubs throughout the county increased from only two to sixteen. Once she was able to vote, Grace continued her civic involvement by becoming a member of the Lewis County Women’s Republican Club. Riverside Cemetery (AKA Beaver Falls Old Cemetery, Salem Cemetery) ​ 9586 Beaver Falls Road, Beaver Falls, NY 13305 Lewis County Learn More

  • Lucy Earle Sprague

    Lucy Earle Sprague (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. Mount Hope Cemetery Range 1, Surnames L-Z, Lots 101-280 1133 Mount Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620 Monroe County Learn More

  • SuffragistsHelen Probst Abbott

    Suffragist Gravesites in New York State Helen Probst Abbott (1879–1970) Helen was President of Rochester Political Equality Club and Chair of Monroe County Woman Suffrage Association. She was also one of the founders of the Woman's City Club, a leader in women's civic activities, and served as Vice Chair of the City Manager Committee. Named on the Democratic ticket in 1927, Helen ran unsuccessfully as the first female city council candidate of the East District of Rochester. Very active in civic and political affairs, she occupied the office of chairman of the Christmas Bureau, Council of Social Agencies, was president of the Rochester Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and served on the Board of Directors of the YMCA. Her work in organizing the Rochester Woman's City Club attracted the attention of Miss Anne Morgan, founder and the executive director of the American Woman's Association and daughter of financier J. P. Morgan. In 1932, Helen left Rochester for New York City when Anne Morgan appointed her as the executive director of the American Woman's Association (AWA), an organization which helped women invest their own money for leisurely pursuits. Helen directed the activities for over 4,000 women of the AWA, who took part in study groups, lectures, and other activities ranging from art to music and drama. Helen challenged women not to hide behind their roles as homemakers. She reminded women that the modern woman does not have to choose one role over the other, but to embrace the idea that she can have a career and a family. She urged women to get involved in politics and civic matters on a consistent basis and, plan to meet the challenges of modern times and modern freedom. *courtesy alexanderstreet.com Riverside Cemetery Section I William Street, Gouverneur, NY 13642 St. Lawrence County Learn More Mary Jane Ashley Abel (1867–1957) Mary Jane Ashley was born in Richmond Center and died in Canandaigua, New York. She was a member of the Political Equality Club where her sister Alice Ashley was President. There were only 15 club members in 1906 when they agreed to help Harriett May Mills, the President of the New York State Women's Suffrage Association in Syracuse bring the issue of suffrage to their group in Honeoye. Mary Jane was 41 in 1906 when the Honeoye Political Equality Club was formed. She was Captain of the First Election District of Richmond, and in 1909 served a term on the Executive Committee of the Ontario County Woman Suffrage Association. That same year she attended the State Convention as a delegate. Her daughter Theresa, at age six, was recognized in 1910 as the youngest member of the Club. Lakeview Cemetery Memorial ID #62579133 West Lake Road, Honoeye, NY 14471 Ontario County Learn More Bella Savitzky Abzug (Battling Bella) (1920–1998) Born in the Bronx, Bella predated women’s right to vote by one month. A tireless and indomitable fighter for justice and peace, equal rights, human dignity, environmental integrity and sustainable development, she advanced human goals and political alliances worldwide. Known by her colleagues as a “passionate perfectionist,” Bella believed that her idealism and activism grew out of childhood influences and experiences. From her earliest years, she understood the nature of power and the fact that politics is not an isolated, individualist adventure. At a time when very few women practiced law, Bella graduated from Columbia University’s law school, was admitted to the bar in 1947, took on civil rights cases and was also an activist in the Woman's Movement. Known as "Battling Bella" in the 1960s, she became involved in the antinuclear and peace movements and helped organize the Women Strike for Peace. Carrying on as a feminist advocate, in 1971, she was elected as a Democrat to the 92nd Congress and to the next two succeeding Congresses, serving until 1977. She was the first Jewish woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress and was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to co-chair the National Advisory Committee for Women, serving from 1977–79. After leaving politics, she remained active in the feminist movement, addressed international women's conferences as well as establishing the global organization, Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO). As co-creator and president of WEDO, Bella galvanized and helped transform the United Nations agenda regarding women and their concerns for human rights, economic justice, population, development and the environment. WEDO represented the culmination of her lifelong career as public activist and stateswoman. Bio based on the work of Blanche Wiesen Cook and John J-Cat Griffith. Mount Carmel Cemetery Section 1, Block C, Map 14, Grave 28 83-45 Cypress Hills Street, Glendale, NY 11385 Queens County Learn More Mary Jane Austin Agate (1849–1933) Born in Glens Falls, NY, Mary Jane was a mother of three children. Notably she was first secretary and treasurer of the Pittsford Political Equality Club, which was organized September 6, 1902 in Pittsford, NY. In 2019 Mrs. Stevens-Oliver's 4th Grade Class at Thornell Road Elementary School created a site in honor of Mary, based up the 1881 diary she kept, which is in the Town Historian’s collection. The students focused on the malt business John ran with his brother William, the Agate’s historic house, and Mary’s interest in woman suffrage. A quote from their project: "In the Pittsford's Political Equality Club's minutes from 1902, kept by Mary Agate, she wrote what Miss Anthony talked about at one of their meetings. Miss Anthony asked the ladies to protest when they paid their taxes. She wanted them to protest against the injustice of, "taxes without the privilege of the Ballot." This means why are they paying taxes if they don't get to choose their representative. This was a lot like the quote, " No taxation without representation!" This quote was from the Revolutionary War, it is like what Mary Anthony said because they both don't have a representative. Also the ladies had marches for political equality. They did this to recruit more people to their cause. They also marched so the men in charge would listen to them. This shows that what the ladies were doing meant a lot to them. We know this because they were doing so many things for what they believed in and they wouldn't give up. " Pittsford Cemetery L 179 38 Washington Road, Pittsford, NY 14534 Monroe County Learn More Edith Mary Ainge (1873–1948) Edith was an American suffragist and a Silent Sentinel, the title given to the women because of their silent protesting. She joined the National Woman's Party (NWP) led by Alice Paul, aiming to get the 19th Amendment ratified. From September 1917 to January 1919, she was arrested approximately five times for unlawful assembly at NWP protests. Edith worked for the movement to gain suffrage in New York state in 1915. She spearheaded participation in The Torch of Liberty event where suffragists from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, organized events to gather more participation and awareness about the cause, and to raise funding for the suffragist movement and for the political rallies. With suffrage in New York secured, Edith rallied for national voting rights for women. On November 10, 1917, she and Eleanor Calnan were two of 33 suffragists arrested after stationing themselves in peaceful protest in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. They carried a sign that read, "How Long Must Woman Be Denied a Voice in a Government Which is Conscripting Their Sons?" Edith and other suffragists were sentenced to 60 days in jail at the Occoquan Workhouse in Lorton, Virginia, for Unlawful Assembly. She was given solitary confinement while others endured torture. The event has been named the Night of Terror. On August 15, 1918 at the Watch Fire Demonstrations in Lafayette Square, members of the NWP burned copies of President Woodrow Wilsons speeches in urns. Edith was the first to light her urn. Lake View Cemetery Sect LLA, Lot 9, Row SP, Grave 4NE 907 Lakeview Avenue, Jamestown, NY 14701 Chautauqua County Learn More Margaret Livingston Chanler Aldrich (1870–1963) Margaret became president of the Woman's Municipal League. She founded the Churchwoman's Club, a suffrage club; headed the Law Enforcement League, and was treasurer for the Woman's Suffrage Party in New York. In 1917, she was elected president of the Protestant Episcopal Women's Suffrage Association. When she met Susan B. Anthony, she asked her advice for a suffrage speaking engagement in Albany. Anthony told her, "Always address the farthest man on the farthest bench. Some of those in between are agreeing with you." She is noted as one of Carrie Chapman Catt's capable officials in the campaign for suffrage in New York State. Trinity Church Cemetery ​ 770 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032 New York County Learn More Nellie Grainger Aldrich (1838–1920) An article appeared in the Geneva Daily Times on Saturday, October 25, 1913 stating that a political equality club had been formed with the assistance of Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Beard from Geneva. Mrs. Nellie (Nettie) Aldrich was chairman. If you know more about her, you can help us tell her story. Please use our Add a Suffragist form to submit your information. Little Church Cemetery ​ 4948 Little Church Road, Stanley, NY 14561 Ontario County Learn More Zobedia Alleman (1848–1940) Zobedia she served multiple terms as an officer in the Cayuga County Political Equality Club, was a delegate to the State Suffrage Convention, and was the state chair of the School Suffrage Committee of the NYS Woman Suffrage Association (NYSWSA). At the age of 90, Zobedia was still active in community affairs, giving, according to newspaper accounts, a “pleasing senior program” at a meeting of the Sherwood Orange Grange No. 1034, which described her as the oldest Granger in Cayuga County. A side note: Her obituaries misspelled her last name as Allerman; a mistake that perhaps helped to obscure her legacy in the movement. (Ruth Bradley April 2020 auburnpub.com) Maple Grove Cemetery ​ 41 W Main Street, Waterloo, NY 13165 Seneca County Learn More Lucy Phillips Allen (1851–1946) Lucy was a founding member of the Easton Political Equality Club in 1891. She was president of the club during its most active years. Here is her quote from 1910 regarding the women of the PEC: "The majority of us are farmers' wives here in Easton and our husbands are perfect - we are so well-housed, so soft-bedded, and so loving cared for that our tendency is to forget that Easton isn't the whole world, that there are other women not as we are. Yet industrial [economic] conditions are open to some slight criticism even in this paradise of Easton. First of all, we want to get rid of this fallacy that marriage is a state of being supported. Since our men are mainly the gatherers of money - we mistakenly assume that they are the creators of wealth. They are not. The man gives his daily labor toward earning board and clothes, but what he receives cannot be eaten or worn. It is nothing till he puts it into his wife's hands and her intelligence, energy, and ability transforms the raw material. Until this is done no man can receive anything worth having. He begins and she completes the making of their joint wealth. The man turns his labor into money, the woman turns the money into usable material. Their dependence is mutual. She supports him exactly as he supports her." (Information and quote from Strength Without Compromise, Teri Gay 2009) Easton Rural Cemetery Section 5, Row 8 Meeting House Road, Easton, NY 12154 Washington County Learn More Hannah Marble Angel (1819–1888) Hannah 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. Until the Day Dawn Cemetery Near lot 697 NY Rt-16 East Main Street, Angelica, NY 14709 Allegany County Learn More Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) Susan was the driving force behind the 19th Century women’s rights movement. She was born in 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts to Quaker parents, who believed in abolition, temperance, and the equality of men and women. Susan's work in women’s rights began in 1852, when she co-founded the Woman’s New York State Temperance Society. Their goal was to advocate for state legislation to regulate the sale of alcohol, allow women to divorce their husbands for drunkenness, and permit women the right to vote. For the next half century, Susan labored ceaselessly for women’s rights on the state, national and international levels. She founded the National Woman’s Suffrage Association and the International Women’s Council and lectured throughout the United States and lobbied lawmakers for women’s property rights, divorce laws favorable to women, and women’s suffrage. In fact, Susan drafted the language of the 19th Amendment first introduced to Congress in 1878. She voted illegally in the 1872 federal election for which she was fined $100 but did not pay. In 1906, Susan gave her last speech, where she concluded with her famous quote “Failure is Impossible.” She passed away one month later at the age of 86. It would be another fourteen years before the passage of the 19th amendment. Nonetheless, her efforts laid the foundation for its enactment. Two organizations that she founded exist today and are carrying out her legacy. The National Woman Suffrage Association became the League of Women Voters. The International Council on Women serves in a consultative capacity to the United Nations. In 1921, Susan was commemorated with a statue of her, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott, which is on display in the U.S. Capitol Building. In 1979, the Susan B. Anthony dollar was issued making it the first coin with a woman’s likeness. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan has a sculpture honoring four spiritual heroes of the twentieth century: Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi, and one woman—Susan B. Anthony. " Mount Hope Cemetery Section C, Lot 93 1133 Mount Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620 Monroe County Learn More Lucy Read Anthony (1793–1880) Lucy attended the Rochester Woman's Rights convention in August 1848 and signed the Declaration of Sentiments. She supported her husband's temperance and abolitionist activism, as well as Susan's reform work and decision not to marry. Miss Anthony eulogized her mother. "My mother always said, Go and do all the good you can." Mount Hope Cemetery Section C, Lot 93 1133 Mount Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620 Monroe County Learn More Mary Stafford Anthony (1827–1907) The youngest surviving sister of Susan B. Anthony, Mary was an American women suffragist who played a strong role during the women's rights movement in the 19th century. Anthony was a teacher who was promoted to the position of principal; she was the first woman known to receive equal pay with males in this position in the Rochester City School District in Western New York. She grew up in a Quaker family and became involved in several suffrage and other progressive organizations, such as the New York Women's Suffrage Association, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the National Woman Suffrage Association. Anthony founded the Women's Political Club, later renamed in 1880 as the Political Equality Club. Mount Hope Cemetery, Section C, Lot 93 Section C, Lot 93 1133 Mount Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620 Monroe County Learn More Jessie Ashley (1861–1919) A devoted Socialist, suffragist, and feminist, Jessie was the daughter of a railroad magnate and descended from the Mayflower. She sought to use her resources to make the country more just. Jessie bridged worlds: she was national treasurer of the very mainstream National American Woman Suffrage Association while also an active member of the International Workers of the World (the Wobblies) - not a common combination. Jessie was a 1902 graduate of NYU Law School, and she encouraged the handful of elite women who were gaining traction in the clubby world of New York lawyers. At the same time she was devoted to labor: she was a mainstay of support for striking workers in New York and beyond, notably women striking in Lawrence & Lowell, Massachusetts to Patterson, New Jersey. Her suffrage and feminist activities began with leadership of the College Equal Suffrage League and continued with co-founding, with Margaret Sanger and Ida Rauh, the National Birth Control League in 1915. She was arrested for violating the Comstock Law distributing literature about birth control at a rally in Union Square. In her memoirs, Anarchist Emma Goldman called Jessie Ashley a “valiant rebel.” Jessie died of pneumonia in 1919 at age 57 or 58. Woodlawn Cemetery Section 70, Lawn Plot, Lot 1059 4199 Webster Avenue, Bronx, NY 10470 Bronx County Learn More Harriett Newell Austin, MD (1829–1891) Harriett graduated from Mary Gove Nichols American Hydropathic Institute in 1851. Because mainstream medical schools did not admit women, she and the other women physicians of the era had to seek training at such irregular institutions. Harriett and her contemporaries saw the water cure as the basis for a larger reform movement. They were attempting to expand the role of women in society and improve their status in the public sphere by bolstering their health, through hygienic regimens and reformed modes of dress that minimized restriction of movement for women. At Our Home, female patients wore an American costume that Austin designed: a tunic or shortened dress, with hem landing at the knee, worn over loose pants. It was called American costume as a rhetorical contrast with the fashionable, restrictive French costume that the dress reform movement sought to eradicate. The garments were designed to minimize restrictions on women's movement and promote health and hygiene. Green Mountain Cemetery Jackson lot 10071 Greenmount Avenue, Dansville, NY 14437 Livingston County Learn More Maude Lena Cook Babbitt (1873–1946) Maude lived in Gorham for the duration of her life. Along with additional Babbitt family members, she joined the Ontario County League of Women Voters in 1919. If you know more about her, you can help us tell her story. Please use our Add a Suffragist form to submit your information. Gorham Cemetery ​ Route 245, Gorham, NY 14561 Ontario County Learn More Hannah Francisco Babbitt (1850–1931) Hannah was born in Canada. Her husband was a minister at the Gorham Presbyterian Church and Hannah was active in church affairs until her death. Hannah, along with her daughter and daughter in law, were members of the Ontario County League of Women Voters in 1919. If you know more about her, you can help us tell her story. Please use our Add a Suffragist form to submit your information. Gorham Cemetery ​ Route 245, Gorham, NY 14561 Ontario County Learn More Elnora Monroe Babcock (1852–1934) In 1889, Elnora helped to found the Political Equality Club of Dunkirk and was voted its first president. She was later elected president of the Chautauqua County Political Equality Club. Under her leadership, the county suffrage club expanded to more than 1,400 members, making Chautauqua County the best organized county in the nation for women’s suffrage. Babcock also was noted for convincing the Chautauqua Institution’s management to “proclaim the one day a year that they devoted to discussions of political rights as Political Equality Day.” In 1894, she was instated as the New York State suffrage association’s Chairman for Press Work and in 1899 she rose to the position of Superintendent of Press Work for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In announcing her appointment to the national post, a NAWSA publication pointed to the “wonderful results” she had achieved in her parallel responsibilities in the “conservative state” of New York. It also extolled her “courage, persistence, consecration, tact and level-headed judgment.” *Compiled by Sara Kibbler Levant Cemetery Lot 2, 14E Falconer, New York 14733 Chautauqua County Learn More Caroline Lexow Babcock (1882–1980) From the time she graduated from Barnard College in 1904, Caroline Lexow Babcock was committed to woman's rights. She was a leader in the long campaign to extend voting rights to women, in the National Women's Party, which fought for the Equal Rights Amendment, and in peace movements. When she died at age 98 in 1980, she was wearing an ERA button. Caroline Lexow was born in 1882 in Nyack, New York; after college she became active full-time in the suffrage movement, as Executive Secretary assisting Harriot Stanton Blatch in running the Women’s Political Union, and as President of the National College Equal Suffrage League of New York. “On the day of my graduation,” she told audiences while touring as a suffrage organizer in 1909, "I became actively interested in suffrage work and a member of the League, and I expect to devote the most of my time to the cause until it wins." In 1921, Caroline was one of the members of the Women’s Peace Society who left to start the Women’s Peace Union. In that same year, she chaired a Women’s Peace March in New York City. Caroline and Elinor Byrns drafted a constitutional amendment calling for the power to declare or prepare for war to be removed from the powers of the U. S. Congress. She included the Boy Scouts among her targets, calling scouting a “kindergarten for war”. Caroline was on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Birth Control Federation of America. Her life is explored in a book published by the Historical Society of Rockland County entitled: “Ladies Lib: How Rockland Women Got the Vote” by Isabelle Keating Savell (Historical Society of Rockland County 1979). Oak Hill Cemetery ​ 140 N Highland Avenue, Nyack, NY 10960 Rockland County Learn More Mary Elizabeth Redfield Bagg (1823–1898) Mary was a director of the Association for the Advancement of Women; she represented New York State in this national organization and attended the 13th Annual Congress in October, 1885. Without a doubt, Mary "did the work", fighting for equality in her time. And yet her story is still untold. If you know more about Mary Elizabeth, you can help us tell her story. Please use our Add a Suffragist form to submit your information. Oakwood Cemtery Sect 3 plot 21 940 Comstock Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13210 Onondaga County Learn More First Prev 1 2 3 ... 17 1 ... 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 ... 17 Next Last Back to Top

  • Clara Loew Neymann

    Clara Loew Neymann (1840–1931) Clara was a prominent member of the German reform community in the United States. She spoke at the first convention of the Deutscher Frauenstimmrechtsverein in New York in 1872, which had been established with the help of her sister-in-law, Mathilde Neymann Wendt. In 1882, Clara was a speaker at the Suffrage Convention for New York State Women. That same year, she traveled with Susan B. Anthony to Nebraska to support the Nebraska Woman Suffrage Society's campaign. Clara aided in uniting large numbers of new immigrants who could be reached in the German language. While the German-American women's rights movement operated parallel and, at times, in opposition to the larger US movement, Clara frequently served as a messenger between the groups. Green-Wood Cemetery Lot 24565, Section 202 500 25th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232 Kings County Learn More

  • Margarite (Peggy) Baird Johns

    Margarite (Peggy) Baird Johns (1890–1970) Peggy was a well-known artist and suffragist in Greenwich Village. She was known to mix with radicals, writers, poets, and artists. In 1917 she met Dorothy Day and became close friends for the rest of their lives. They joined the National Woman's Party and picketed in front of the White House to urge the passage of the woman suffrage amendment. Later that day, Peggy, Dorothy, and others were arrested and sent to Occoquan workhouse. Peggy earned the “prison pin,” a symbol of her “sacrifice of individual liberty for the liberty of all women.” Saint Sylvia Cemetery ​ 104 Broadway, Tivoli, NY 12583 Dutchess County Learn More

  • Margaret McEchron Bowden

    Margaret McEchron Bowden (1859–1925) Political Equality Club of Glens Falls met regularly at Margaret's home from 1914-1917 as her daughter Katharine Bowden held a number of elected positions within the club. A headline from that time reads: "Equality Club’s Society Event - Mrs. H. A. Bowden Generously Donates the Use of Her Home for the Occasion". "The first society event given under the auspices of the Political Equality club took place Saturday afternoon in the home of Mrs. [Margaret] Bowden, Maple street, and proved a brilliant affair. Spring flowers were used throughout the house decorations, which were most effective. There were twenty-five tables of auction and five hundred in play... Ice Cream and cake was served. The proceeds amounted to $60, which will be used to carry on the work of the club. The members are exceedingly grateful to Mrs. Bowden, who made the party possible by loaning the use of her home for the occasion and furnishing the refreshments." Post-Star (Glens Falls, NY Warren County). May 4, 1914. P.5. Bio by Tisha Dolton. Pine View Cemetery Wah-tah-wah, Row 1C, Plot 63 21 Quaker Road, Queensbury, NY, 12804 Warren County Learn More

  • Emily DuBois Butterworth

    Emily DuBois Butterworth (1859–1937) Emily was an active member of the suffrage movement. She won a first prize for the best parade hat from the Women's Political Union in 1913 and served as the treasurer of the Co-operative Service League for Woman Suffrage in New York City. She was arrested with two dozen other suffragists of the National Woman's Party on November 10, 1917 during a picketing of the White House. Charged with obstructing traffic, the women were tried and convicted. When Emily, like the others, refused to pay the fine, she was sentenced to thirty days in the Occoquan Workhouse. The arrival of this group of prisoners on November 14 precipitated the infamous Night of Terror. According to Inez Haynes Irwin's account, Emily, for some capricious reason, was taken away from the rest, and placed in a part of the jail where there were only men. They told her that she was alone with the men, and that they could do what they pleased with her. Her Night of Terror was doubly terrifying with this menace hanging over her. No doubt in part due to this harassment as well as the poor conditions, Emily, along with two others in poor health, was released early. Emily was involved in civic work in addition to suffrage work. She was a member of the Woman's Municipal League, which was an organization involved in improving the city of New York as well as providing charity for the poor and less fortunate. Married to an Englishman, Henry Butterworth, the couple lived in Manhattan with her companion, Cora Weeks, who was also a member in the suffrage movement. (Courtesy alexanderstreet.com) Woodlawn Cemetery Elm Plot, Section 38 4199 Webster Avenue, Bronx, NY 10470 Bronx County Learn More

  • Horace Greeley

    Horace Greeley (1811–1872) Horace began his career as a printer's apprentice at the age of fourteen. After working for several newspapers, he founded the New York Tribune, a city newspaper which was highly regarded for its in depth stories and excellent writing. By 1860 its circulation had reached almost 288,000, and Horace enjoyed a national reputation as political savant, social crusader, moralist, and eccentric. The paper supported the Whig party and was emphatically anti-slavery. It shaped public opinion at the time. Horace was involved in Whig politics but was disappointed when they failed to support nominating him for office. He ran for president of the US as a "new liberal" Republican candidate but lost to US Grant. He died before the electoral college met; with a change in politics and society as well as a shift in how he was perceived by the public. At one point he was so abused that he was asked whether he was running for the presidency or the penitentiary. Horace's saying "Go West Young Man" is well known. Green-Wood Cemetery Section 35, Lot 2344 500 25th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232 Kings County Learn More

  • Katherine Lincoln Brougham

    Katherine Lincoln Brougham (1893–1969) Katherine became very involved with the woman suffrage movement and supported the National Woman's Party. On November 10, 1917, she was arrested and, after refusing to pay a fine, sentenced to prison in the Occoquan Workhouse. During this time, she and many others challenged the notion of inequality through participation in hunger strikes. After women won the right to vote, Katherine campaigned for Anne Martin, a candidate for the United States Senate from Nevada. She then seems to disappear from the historical record. Kenisco Cemetery ​ 273 Lakeview Avenue, Valhalla, NY 10595 Westchester County Learn More

  • Zobedia Alleman

    Zobedia Alleman (1848–1940) Zobedia she served multiple terms as an officer in the Cayuga County Political Equality Club, was a delegate to the State Suffrage Convention, and was the state chair of the School Suffrage Committee of the NYS Woman Suffrage Association (NYSWSA). At the age of 90, Zobedia was still active in community affairs, giving, according to newspaper accounts, a “pleasing senior program” at a meeting of the Sherwood Orange Grange No. 1034, which described her as the oldest Granger in Cayuga County. A side note: Her obituaries misspelled her last name as Allerman; a mistake that perhaps helped to obscure her legacy in the movement. (Ruth Bradley April 2020 auburnpub.com) Maple Grove Cemetery ​ 41 W Main Street, Waterloo, NY 13165 Seneca County Learn More

  • Rosina Flanly (Flannelly, Flanelly)

    Rosina Flanly (Flannelly, Flanelly) (1863–1937) Rosina (Rose) along with her sister, Fanny, was a member of the St. Catherine Welfare Association, a Manhattan-based Catholic organization of young women advocating for suffrage that grew out of the work of the Catholic Committee of the New York City Woman Suffrage Party. Rose and Fanny were listed in the History of Woman Suffrage: 1900-1920 among several members who "helped [promote suffrage] unceasingly by writing, speaking and in many other ways." Calvary Cemetery ​ 49-02 Laurel Hill Boulevard, Woodside, NY 11377 Queens County Learn More

  • Dorothy May Day

    Dorothy May Day (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. Cemetery of the Resurrection (AKA Resurrection Cemetery) Section 10 361 Sharrott Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10309 Richmond County Learn More

  • Elizabeth Burrill Curtis

    Elizabeth Burrill Curtis (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." Moravian Cemetery ​ 2205 Richmond Road, Staten Island, NY 10306 Richmond County Learn More

  • Susan Fiske Rumsey

    Susan Fiske Rumsey (1857–1941) Susan's close friend, Carrie Chapman Catt, was a frequent guest at Susan's house on Buffalo's "Millionaire Row." Susan presided over many women's suffrage meetings at her house. In 1908 the National American Woman Suffrage Association held it's annual convention in Buffalo, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls. She was an active member of the local suffrage group that organized that meeting. In 1909 Susan spoke on behalf of the Western New York Federation of Women's Clubs at a hearing on woman suffrage before the New York state legislature in Albany. In 1913 Susan was elected a Director of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association. In November 1915 she was elected an officer of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party, which organized the 1917 referendum campaign that eventually led to New York women gaining the vote. Forest Lawn Cemetery Section X, Lot 1, Space 19 1411 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209 Erie County Learn More

  • Roxana Bradley Burrows

    Roxana Bradley Burrows (1853–1922) Roxana assumed the presidency of the Lucy Stone Club and in 1904 was elected vice president of the Allegany County Political Equality Club, a county-wide organization devoted to the passage of woman suffrage and affiliated with the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (NYSWSA). In 1907 Roxana was elected president of the Political Equality Club and would lead the county suffrage organization until the passage of the suffrage amendment in 1917. She served as recording secretary and Chair of the Legislative Committee for NYSWSA in 1910 and 1911. Roxana became the Assembly District Leader covering all of Allegany County when the Political Equality Club reorganized into the Allegany County Woman Suffrage Party (ACWSP) before the 1915 state-wide woman suffrage referendum. In June 1917, she announced at the annual ACWSP convention that there was a chairman in each election district and an enrollment of 5,000 women in force of suffrage in the county, an impressive number given that there were a little over 40,000 inhabitants in the county at the time. Roxana was a member of the Andover Baptist Church, the Andover Hawthorne Club and active in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She also served on the Allegany County Republican General Committee from 1920 until her death. *courtesy alexanderstreet.com Valley Brook Cemetery ​ NY-RT 417, Andover, NY 14806 Allegany County Learn More

  • Caroline A. Bassett

    Caroline A. Bassett (1882–1926) Caroline attended several of the National Women's Rights Conventions in the 1850s. She signed a petition to urge voting against Leslie Russell, a New York State Attorney General—who opposed women's rights and whose recommendation was blocking women’s rights legislation in New York State. He was defeated. Caroline served as Michigan's state superintendent of the Women's Temperance Union for three years. Frances Willard, later president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, spoke of the problem in a 1874 speech known as “Everybody’s War:” “There is a war about this in America, a war of mothers and daughters, sisters, and wives.” Frances described how a man goes to a bar and “loiters away his time” and “fritters away his earnings” and then goes home, “to the house where he is best loved…he inflicts atrocities which imagination cannot picture and no tongue dare describe.” As Anthony put it in 1899, “the only hope” for Prohibition was, “putting the ballot into the hands of women.” In that way, Prohibition and women’s suffrage went hand in hand, with the latter actually happening when the 19th Amendment was ratified seven months after Prohibition went into effect on August 18, 1920. In addition to her Temperance work, Caroline trained as a teacher at Albany Normal School. Later she became the second woman to be an ordained minister in the Free Baptist Church and ministered in West Fall, NY, near East Aurora. Bio by Mary Ellen Capineri. Pine Hill Cemetery Plot C-29 Cemetery Hill Road, Gowanda, NY 14070 Erie County Learn More

  • Anna Elizabeth Dickinson

    Anna Elizabeth Dickinson (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. Slate Hill Cemetery ​ South Church Street, Goshen, NY, 10924 Orange County Learn More

  • Ida Louise Dildine

    Ida Louise Dildine (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. Spring Forest Cemetery ​ 51 Mygatt Street, Binghamton, NY 13905 Broome County Learn More

  • Florence Gibb Pratt

    Florence Gibb Pratt (1872–1935) Florence graduated from the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn in 1894. Florence Gibb Pratt and Helen Sherman Pratt were sisters-in-law and well-known members of the Glen Cove community. In addition to other philanthropic causes, they used their considerable wealth and political influence to work for women’s suffrage and help secure political equality for women. Florence and husband Herbert’s summer estate was called Braes. (It is now the home of Webb Institute of Naval Architecture). Helen and husband George’s summer estate was Killenworth. Their homes were right around the corner from each other and were often sites of parties, dances, and fundraisers – all to benefit suffrage. In December of 1917 Florence held the post of Treasurer of the Woman Suffrage Party of New York City, as well as Third Vice-Chairman of the Manhattan Borough. That same month she joined a group of delegates from New York State and traveled to Washington DC for the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Pratt Cemetery (also known as Dosoris Cemetery) ​ Old Tappan Road, Lattingtown, NY 11560 Nassau County Learn More

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