A Local Footnote on Woman Suffrage

Note: Gossips is on the hunt for information about the origin of Oakdale Lake, which, as we discovered recently, is an artificial lake that was created in 1915. As always happens during such a search, many things of interest, irrelevant to the purpose at hand, are stumbled upon along the way, and it is one of those chance finds that inspires this post.    

New York can be thought of as the birthplace of woman suffrage. The Seneca Falls Convention, held in July 1848, was the first women's rights convention ever to be held in the United States. Women won the right to vote in New York three years before the 19th Amendment, which gave women throughout the country the right to vote, was ratified in 1920. 

Hudson played its own part in the struggle for woman suffrage. Readers will recall that when General Rosalie Jones and her army of suffragettes made their epic march from New York City to Albany in December 1912, they stopped to spend Christmas in Hudson, and after the mission had been accomplished, General Jones returned to Hudson, as the guest of Mrs. Morgan Jones, "to organize suffragettes in this district." (Before their marriage, Mrs. Morgan Jones's husband built his Jacobean and Dutch inspired his dream house at 317 Allen Street).

Not only suffragists visited Hudson. Our little city attracted prominent anti-suffragists as well. On May 18, 1915--six months before a statewide referendum on woman suffrage was defeated--this story appeared on the front page of the Hudson Register.

     

Lucy Price, who worked as a newspaper reporter in Cleveland, was reportedly the youngest and one of the most effective crusaders against suffrage. The Ultimate History Project recounts her achievements: "When Ohio was adopting a new constitution in 1913, giving voters the opportunity to include a clause that would give women the vote, [Price] handled the fight. She presented her side so well that suffrage was defeated in a conclusive manner. Like military leaders going from one battlefront to another, Lucy Price and others traveled the country voicing their opinions." In the spring of 1915, Price was in New York, working to defeat the 1915 referendum on woman suffrage.

The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage officially formed in 1911 and was headquartered in New York City. The "antis" believed that women were the equals of men but saw the role of women to be in philanthropy and social betterment. In a letter to the New York Times, dated February 11, 1915, Alice Chittenden wrote: "Opposition to woman suffrage is not merely an effort on the part of a few women to keep other women from voting, as is sometimes foolishly said, but that it is based upon principles which are so fundamental that women have organized a movement which is daily growing in strength, and which is directed wholly against the enfranchisement of their sex. The Woman Suffrage Movement is, in fact, the only woman's movement in history which women themselves have banded together to oppose one another."

The women who opposed suffrage believed that by voting and becoming involved in politics, they would surrender the moral high ground they claimed, so it is interesting to see who were the "vice presidents" for the anti-suffrage meeting in Hudson. All of them were men.

The group included a judge and seven lawyers, five doctors, eight merchants, two druggists, a cigar manufacturer and a pork packer, two of the principals of the Gifford-Wood Company, two bankers, the publisher and the assistant editor of the Columbia Republican, one of the sons of the brewery C. H. Evans & Sons, one of the developers who created Oakdale Lake, and the minister of the First Presbyterian Church. One wonders how their wives felt about getting the vote. 
COPYRIGHT 2016 CAROLE OSTERINK

The Great War: May 8, 1917

Not only was 1917 the year the United States entered the Great War in Europe, it was also the year women won the right to vote in New York. Although the news suggests the people of Hudson were preoccupied with wartime readiness, the suffrage movement soldiered on. On May 8, 1917, the Hudson Evening Register reported on a suffrage meeting that took place in Hudson.

An interesting meeting of the Woman's Suffrage party of this city was held last night at the residence of Mrs. William I. Gray on Green street. Several important communications from the New York headquarters were read and discussed at length.

It was decided to order a number of suffrage buttons which will be worn by those members of the Suffrage party who assist in the taking of the military census in Columbia county. It was also decided to obtain a large and attractive poster to be placed in some conspicuous place, thus signifying that the suffrage campaign has not been abandoned.

An eloquent address was made by Miss Katherine Dodd, of Boston, who is assisting the County Home Defense committee in its work in Columbia county. She stated that the existing troublesome times and the war situation had taken precedence over many propagandas, and as a result many persons may be laboring under the impression that the suffrage campaign is either at a standstill or has been given up. Such is not the case, however, Miss Dowd declared. . . .  

Several significant incidents, tending to show that the concerted efforts of suffragettes is being appreciated were pointed out in a very comprehensive manner by the speaker.

She declared that this State has asked the service of a widely known suffrage organizer to work with the attorney general in getting the men's and women's clubs to co-operate with the government coincident with the war.

The house where the suffrage party met that evening in May was 95 Green Street, where, in 1917, Susanna McKinstry Gray lived with her husband, William, the youngest of their three children, and her widowed sister Nellie McKinstry Hankes.

William Gray, the son of Rensselaer Gray, was the proprietor of R. Gray's Sons furniture store, which on March 8, 1902, suffered a disastrous fire. A newspaper account of the fire, which came to be known as "Gray's Fire," declared: "It was a fire that for fierceness has probably never been equalled in this city." The picture below appeared the next day in the Columbia Republican.

The Columbia Republican recounts William Gray's actions during the fire, although it erroneously identifies him as William R. not William I.

William R. Gray, one of the members of the firm of R. Gray's Sons, went into his furniture store at this stage of the fire to save something, and as he emerged one of the large plate glass windows on the second story cracked with heat and fell, and he barely escaped being hit with the big jagged pieces of heavy glass that fell to the pavement and broke into fragments. 

The crowd that gathered in Warren street now fell back, the trolley wire was cut, and everybody in the vicinity began to make preparations to move out. The heat of the flames as they sprang outward melted the electric light and telephone wires in short order and down they fell on the heads of the people, who scrambled again to get further away. The jingle of falling glass was now heard across the street, and one after another the window panes cracked and fell to the sidewalk from the upper stories of the buildings. The heat got more intense and crash followed crash, as one after another the plate glass windows in the Farmers' Bank building and the stores east of it began to break and fall. The scene was an awful one, and at this time it began to look as if the whole block to the east would be swept by fire.

The building where R. Gray's Sons had their furniture store was rebuilt after the fire. Both before the fire and after the fire, the store was located at 547-549 Warren Street, in the building that is now Stair Galleries. The first picture below shows the building in 1905, three years after the fire. The second picture shows the building today.

COPYRIGHT 2017 CAROLE OSTERINK

The Army in Albany: Another Perspective

The coverage of the pilgrimage that appeared a hundred years ago today in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was considerably more sympathetic to the suffragist army than the account in the New York Press--curious because, according to the report that appeared in the Hudson Evening Register on December 26, the reporter from the New York Press who was traveling with the suffragists was a woman and the reporter from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was a man. 

The article in the Eagle reports on the same plans and strategies for delivering their message to Governor Sulzer but makes only passing reference to Bishop Doane's denunciation when it reports that "Colonel Ida Craft of Brooklyn was considerably nettled today over the statement made by Bishop Doane of Albany, one of the most prominent Episcopal divines in the country, who declared that the hiking suffragettes were a band of silly women."  Of particular interest is this message from the pilgrims to their supporters in Brooklyn which introduces the Eagle article.

PILGRIMS GREET BROOKLYN FOLLOWERS THROUGH THE EAGLE

Headquarters of the Suffragist Pilgrims, 

Albany, N. Y., Dec. 30.

To our Brooklyn suffragists and friends--Heartiest greeting and the happiest New Year in the history of woman suffrage, from the Albany pilgrims.

To the Brooklyn Eagle--A Happy New Year and many thanks for its constant interest in our work, and especially for its splendid treatment of this pilgrimage.

We take this opportunity, through the courtesy of The Eagle, to assure our Brooklyn friends that New Year greetings is not a hollow, meaningless phrase. The prospects for suffrage are better than ever before. This trip through the country has given us an insight into the state of suffrage sentiment in the up-state districts which has been a constant delight. Everywhere we found interest, just waiting to be crystalized into real suffrage enthusiasm. The people came to their doors and open windows to wish us Godspeed.

There was little ridicule and no open hostility. Of course, we cannot say that everybody we saw was a believer in women's cause, but the attitude even of the anti-suffragists is best explained by incidents such as this.

It was the day we walked from Peekskill to Fishkill, 22 miles, through six inch mud, with a cold rain beating in our faces. In the muddiest corner of a country road we met two men, evidently residents of the nearby farms. They gave us cheery greetings and as they passed we heard one say, "Gee whiz, Bill, they're doin' more for their cause than we men would."

On this trip hundreds of people have heard the votes for women gospel whom we never could have reached through ordinary meetings. We distributed thousands of rainbow leaflets at farm house doors, and made immediate speeches at cross roads gatherings.

New York State cannot be carried for woman suffrage in 1915 without the upstate vote, and this is the method of reaching the country voters. Every section of the state will have to be canvassed in similar pilgrimages. We have only three years to do it. Awake, sisters, and help us. It won't do to sit back and say, "Yes, I think women ought to vote." We must pack up our knapsacks and say, "We've got to get it."

Wishing you all could have had the inspiration of this pilgrimage, we are yours for the cause.

ROSALIE GARDNER JONES, Huntington.

IDA CRAFT, Brooklyn.

  

On December 30, 1912, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle also reported this story about an unexpected and happy consequence for one of the suffragists, Lieutenant-Colonel Jessie Hardy Stubbs.

Left to right: Rosalie Jones, Jessie Hardy Stubbs, Ida Craft

MRS. STUBBS GETS SOME JOYFUL NEWS

Suffrage Marcher Finds Father From Whom She'd Not Heard in Years

RESULT OF ALBANY MARCH.

Major Hardy Located His Daughter by Means of Newspaper Stories of the "Hike."

Albany, December 30--Mrs. Jessie Hardy Stubbs, one of the most prominent organizers in the New York State Woman's Suffrage Association, today received a letter at the Hampton Hotel from her father, Major A. L. Hardy, whom she hasn't seen or heard from since she was 8 years old. Mrs. Stubbs, who has been with the pilgrim army on and off since it started out from New York, collapsed from sheer joy today when she received a long-looked for word of some kind from her father, who is living in Pittsburgh, and who located his daughter's whereabouts through the newspapers.

Major Hardy was one of the most prominent newspaper editors in Central Illinois when trouble arose between him and his wife in Chicago, twenty-five years ago. They separated, and Mrs. Hardy took her daughter and came East, and from the day they parted neither has heard a single word from the Major, who dropped out of sight as if swallowed up by the earth. He was graduated from the Peekskill Military Academy, and when a youth entered and fought all through the Civil War. Inclosed [sic] in a brief letter, which Mrs. Stubbs received in the first mail this morning, reading: "I am proud of the position you have acquired. Hope to hear from you soon," was a newspaper clipping saying he was formerly histographer of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburg [sic].

There was also a clipping showing that he had written several books, among them "Pertaining to Pittsburg" and "The Story of Pittsburg." Mrs. Stubbs was too upset to-day to talk about the long separation, but she declared that she would immediately go into communication with her father, whom she hasn't seen in twenty-five years.

"No matter what fruit the pilgrimage may bear," she said, "it has done one thing that fills my heart with joy today--it has restored my father to me, and that is the greatest gift that heaven could bestow upon me."

The Army Enters Albany

This account appeared in the Syracuse Herald one hundred years ago today, on December 29, 1912.

Little Band of Pilgrims Arrive Two Days Ahead of Their Schedule. 

FIVE LEFT IN THE PARTY

General Jones to Present Message to Governor-elect Sulzer Next Week.

Albany, Dec. 29—Tired and footsore, but still enthusiastic and glorying in the fact that they reached their destination two days ahead of the schedule, the little band of suffragette pilgrims who walked 174 miles from New York to present a message to Governor-elect Sulver advocating votes for women, arrived in Albany shortly after 4 o'clock this afternoon.

The 174 miles, which "Gen" Rosalie Jones said was the record shown by the official registers, although railroad maps show some twenty-five miles less, were covered in twelve days of walking, an average of fourteen and a half miles a day.

Of the six "pilgrims" who started from New York on the morning of December 16th, five, Miss Jones, "Surgeon General" Livinia [sic] Dock, "Colonel" Ida Craft, "Corporal" M. N. Stubbs and Private Sibyl Wilbur, completed the long hike. Mrs. Inez Craven, who was one of the sextette to make the start, dropped out en route.

Contents Still Secret.

The "message," the contents of which will not be known until Governor-elect Sulzer reads it, will be placed in his hands by "General" Jones at his convenience as soon after his arrival as possible Miss Jones said. The Governor-elect is expected here Monday.

All of the marchers reported none the worse for their long trip, with the exception of "Surgeon" Dock. She is suffering slightly from rheumatism and limped noticeably.

"I should like to have everybody form a New Year's resolution that they shall at least consider seriously the proposition of votes for women, if they are not at the present time absolutely in favor of it," said "General" Jones to-night. "We feel that we have touched the people along the line of march in a way that could have been effective by no other method. We feel that the people realize that this is no idle notion. The pilgrimage has always stood for the highest ideals of the cause it represents, and we are sure from the receptions we have been accorded that our march has not been in vain."

Escorted into Albany.

To-day's journey was from Niverville, a distance of 18 miles. A score of local workers for the cause, headed by Miss Elizabeth M. Smith, president of the Albany Equal Suffrage club, met the marchers at East Greenbush shortly after noon and escorted them to Albany. There was no brass band, the only real demonstration in the musical line being "Everybody's Doing It" from a bugle, behind closed doors in a house on the outskirts of Rensselaer.

The marchers were met at the bridge over the Hudson leading into Albany by two policemen and Dr. C. M. Culver, a local suffragist, who prides himself upon the fact that he has been "for the cause" since 1867, and who incidentally paid the toll for all in the band.

When the pilgrims reached the city it was decided to have a short parade up to the Capitol and down State street to the hotel where they will make their headquarters in the city. There was no demonstration during the march, although there was a bit of grumbling "in the ranks" at the extra tramp up Albany's steepest hill.

Arriving at the hotel, "General" Jones made a brief speech, thanking all friends and sympathizers. All the marchers were besieged by admiring friends and congratulated upon the successful conclusion of the journey.

For every good effort, there are always detractors, as this article, which appeared in the New York Sun on the same day, gives evidence.

"GEN." DE FOREST BEATS "GEN." JONES IN SEEING SULZER

Asks Governor-elect to Tell His Views on Suffrage Question.

WASHINGTON HIKE IS NOT APPROVED

Women Believe Most of Work for Cause Must Be Done in This City.

"A picturesque thing to do, and splendid to stir up sentiment," is the characterization of General Rosalie Jones's Albany hike, by Nora Blatch De Forest, who stayed in New York and beat the Jones army in reaching Governor-elect Sulzer.

"I think Rosalie Jones's message is one of greeting more than anything else," continued Mrs. De Forest. "I felt we should speak to the Governor-elect before he finished his message. That meant to reach him before he left New York. So we called on him. He was delightful.

"'You ladies have my assurance that you will be entirely satisfied with the reference to suffrage which you will find in my message,' he said. Of course, no one believes our success rests with Governor Sulzer. He hasn't the power to give us suffrage, but we want his indirect influence."

Suffragists are interested in the move of the De Forest "army," that has taken the edge from the Jones achievement. General Rosalie Jones has led a footsore, weary "army" all the way to Albany to say to Governor-elect Sulzer exactly what General De Forest and her army told him after a fifteen minutes' ride from the headquarters of the Women's Political Union to his office in No. 115 Broadway.

Mrs. De Forest thinks the farmers and people of small villages must have been "tremendously impressed" by Rosalie Jones and her followers.

"I can't see much real use in walking to Washington, if that is a serious plan," she said. "We want to concentrate our efforts on New York State."

Mary Garrett Hay says she is confident New York State women will vote for President of the United States in 1916.

"It isn't necessary to chase to Albany or hound the Governor-elect," she said yesterday. "He sent me a letter a week ago telling me where he stands. I am willing to take his word. No use in chasing after him. You'll never find Mary Hay in anything sensational. I'm too busy doing real work."

Nora Blatch Barney in 1921

Gossips Note: Nora Blatch De Forest, the daughter of Harriot Eaton Stanton and the granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a third generation suffragist. She graduated from Cornell University in 1905 with a degree in civil engineering--the first woman in the United States to earn a degree in any kind of engineering. She married inventor Lee De Forest in 1908, but they separated after only a year owing in large part to De Forest's insistence that Nora give up her profession and become a conventional housewife. They were divorced in 1911. In 1919, she married marine architect Morgan Barney. 

In 1912, Mary Garrett Hay was the president of the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs, and she is credited with bringing the woman's club movement to suffrage. Despite her scorn for "anything sensational," as president of the New York Equal Suffrage League and the New York City Woman Suffrage Party, Hay undoubtedly had a hand in organizing the Suffrage Parade held in New York City on October 23, 1915, which, with 40,000 marchers, can still claim to be the largest parade ever held in New York City.

Hay's prediction that "New York State women will vote for the President of the United States in 1916" did not come true. It wasn't until 1917 that New York women achieved the right to vote in state elections--three years before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified giving women the right to vote in national elections.

Suffrage, Temperance, and the Great War

A hundred years ago, the United States was fighting a war in Europe, and the country was moving--slowly but inexorably--toward granting women the right to vote. In November 1917, New York had joined eleven other states that already permitted women to vote in state and local elections. The increased role of women during the war in matters outside the home gave new impetus to the suffrage movement. On October 1, 1918, a month before the war ended, President Woodrow Wilson declared his support for suffrage, telling the Senate, "I regard the extension of suffrage to women as vitally essential to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we are engaged." 

Another issue of public concern a hundred years ago was temperance. Many of the great suffragists were also active in the temperance movement. In 1852, four years after the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the New York State Women's Temperance Society. Anthony, who visited Hudson three times during in life to speak on the topic of woman suffrage at the Hudson Opera House, also spoke in various places around the county on the subject of temperance.

An item discovered in the Columbia Republican for January 15, 1918, suggests how the temperance movement insinuated itself into the war effort.

The Methodist Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church were especially zealous about temperance. In 1917, the latter's Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals published The Cyclopedia of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals. It was the third such book produced by the board. Complimentary copies of the previous editions had been sent to every Methodist preacher in the world and to the editor of every daily newspaper in the United States. The following is quoted from the cyclopedia's entry for "Army":

Since the abolition of the canteen in the army by act of Congress approved February 2, 1901, the morals and health of the soldiers have shown a distinct advance, and at the present time it is probable that the sobriety of army men is considerably above the average of civilians. During the Spanish War the canteen was in full blast, soldiers were detailed, willingly or unwillingly, to act as bartenders, and disease ran riot. Conditions were so scandalous that various temperance organizations conducted a notable congressional fight, resulting in the abolition of the army bar. Annual appropriations aggregating more than $4,000,000 have been made since the canteen was abolished for the establishment of permanent recreation halls which have schools, libraries, lunch, amusement rooms, and gymnasiums. Before that time no appropriations for this purpose had been made. . . .

The mobilization of the national guard in 1916 showed the excellent results of a no-drink policy. Every effort was made to keep drink away from the soldiers, and splendid success was achieved. A typical order is that of the New York division, who were instructed as follows:

"Officers and enlisted men of this division are directed not to use or have in their possession alcoholic drinks in any form during their service on the border except on prescription of a medical officer in the line of duty. Soldiers are prohibited entering houses of prostitution and saloons where liquors is sold except under orders for the performance of duty."

An excerpt from a chapter called "Fighting Boredom: Life at Camp Wadsworth," in a history of the camp discovered while preparing Sunday's update on the fortunes of Hudson's Company F, describes how temperance was encouraged in training camps during World War I.  

The United States government considered boredom to be one of the foremost enemies of soldiers in the training camps. It was feared that a soldier who was not properly entertained and morally educated would succumb to temptations of drink and debauchery. In order to prevent this, civilian and military officials sought to create a wholesome environment within each training camp that would keep the soldiers both mentally and physically healthy. The YMCA, YWCA, Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Board, and the Red Cross were the key agencies in this crusade for morality. All of these organizations opened up facilities in the training camps, with the YMCA being by far the most important participant. Government officials hoped that the soldiers would patronize these organizations within the camp instead of visiting the town saloon or brothel. Alcohol was completely banned within a five-mile radius of all training camps.

Soon after the end of World War I, both the temperance and suffrage movements achieved their sought-after goals. Interestingly, temperance was first. In December 1917, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the sale, manufacture, and distribution of alcoholic beverages, passed the House and the Senate, and was ratified in January 1919, just two months after the armistice that ended the war. The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, was passed in the House of Representatives on May 21, 1919, was passed by the Senate on June 4, 1919, and was ratified in August 1920. Of course, the 18th Amendment was the only amendment to the Constitution ever to be repealed.
COPYRIGHT 2018 CAROLE OSTERINK

The Great War: May 17, 1917

Two events distinguish 1917: the United States entered World War I, and the women of New York got the vote. In the news, the two events often intertwine, with stories of the suffragist activity on behalf of the war effort. Such is the case with this story, which appeared in the Hudson Evening Register for May 17, 1917.  

Miss Catherine Dodd, publicity agent for the Home Defense committee of Columbia county, and who is furthering suffrage work in this vicinity, has received the following telegram from Mrs. Gordon Norrie, of Staatsburg:

Please announce that in response to the request of the Liberty Loan committee of the Second Federal Reserve bank, the New York State Woman's Suffrage party at a meeting of the State Board held at 303 Fifth avenue, New York city, yesterday afternoon, voted to offer the help of the State suffrage organization in advertising and placing the Liberty loan for this district.

It will be remembered that it was Catherine Dodd, of Boston, who addressed a gathering of the members of the local Suffrage Party on May 7, at the home of Mrs. William I. Gray, 95 Green Street, declaring that the suffrage campaign was neither at a standstill nor abandoned. 

COPYRIGHT 2017 CAROLE OSTERINK

Curious About the Past

We know that the suffragettes of General Jones's army, on their hike from New York to Albany in 1912, celebrated Christmas here in Hudson. We also know that after delivering the suffragist message to Governor William Sulzer, Rosalie Jones returned to Hudson on New Year's Day 1913 to organize a suffrage movement here. It's intriguing to contemplate the extent of support for woman suffrage that existed among Hudson women in the final decade of the struggle before the Nineteenth Amendment was passed and ratified in 1920. 

The women of Hudson may well have been staunch suffragists. The city was, after all, was founded by Quakers, and Quakers believed that men and women were equal before God. Remarkably, in 1784, the list of Proprietors includes a woman--Deborah Jenkins. But were those Quaker precepts of gender parity still part of the collective consciousness 130 years later?

The search for evidence of the suffrage spirit in Hudson a hundred years ago uncovered this tantalizing tidbit. In January 1913, Edmonds Hose Co. No. 1 was planning a fair to be held in February, around Valentine's Day. A fair was a common fundraising event in that era, and the fair that Hudson's oldest fire company was planning was quite an extravaganza. It would go on for three days, and it was to be kicked off by a parade--in the middle of February--that started at the Washington Hose Co. firehouse at the foot of Warren Street and marched up the street to the Edmonds firehouse on Park Place. 

As was the tradition at such fairs, there would be contests to pick the "Most Popular Lady" and, in the case of this fair, the "Most Popular Fireman." The winner of the latter contest would receive a gold watch, which, the Evening Register announced, could be viewed in the window of the Maratskey jewelry store. The prize for the ladies' contest was another thing. The usual prize for such contests seems to have been a diamond ring. Just a few weeks before the Edmonds fair, Miss Minnie Diamond, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Max Diamond, won a diamond ring at the fair in aid of the synagogue. Edmonds Hose Co. No. 1, however, decided to break with tradition. Here's what the Hudson Evening Register reported on January 6, 1913:

The committee has decided to drop the proposed diamond ring contest for the most popular lady, and instead of this contest the committee has decided upon another one, which it feels should be most popular with the ladies of this city.

It has been decided to give a contest, the winner of which, with a companion, will have a trip to Washington, D. C., at the time of the inauguration of President Wilson.

What, we may ask, made a trip to Washington for the inauguration an appealing prize for the ladies of Hudson? Was Woodrow Wilson such a popular presidential candidate that every woman in Hudson wanted to be there to witness him taking the oath of office? Probably not. Women couldn't vote in 1913, so it's not likely that most women paid a lot of attention to elections. What's more likely is that the women of Hudson wanted to be in Washington to see or be part of the elaborate Woman Suffrage Procession that was to take place on Pennsylvania Avenue the day before the inauguration.

Gossips is pursuing this story from the past to find out who won the "Most Popular Lady" contest and who went to Washington.

Election Day 1915

A hundred years ago, Election Day was on Tuesday, November 2. On the ballot that year was a referendum to amend the New York State Constitution to allow women to vote. On the eve of the election in 1915, this item appeared in the Hudson Evening Register.

WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE.

Why They Will Vote for Suffrage.

Prominent New York men have issued the following statement:

"On Tuesday, November 2nd, the legally qualified voters of New York will decide whether or not the constitution of the State is to be so changed as to allow women to vote on the same terms as men.

"The questions are essentially those which have arisen whenever suffrage has been granted to any group of people. The world has tried various forms of exclusive government for a long time, and is trying some of them still, but the march is rapid toward universal freedom, and toward the participation in government of all intelligent adults. In the United States that belief in liberty has always been strong, and it is stronger to-day than ever before.

"The emancipation of women is feared by some because they think it threatens the home and those virtues which center around it. When woman asks the vote, she merely asks to keep up with her own work after it has left the house and gone into the community. She gladly admits that her place is in the home, and adds that the home is everywhere.

"In twelve American states women have been voting for periods ranging from one [Montana and Nevada] to forty-six years [Wyoming]. Everywhere the gain has been appreciable. The opinion of enlightened businessmen, statesmen, editors and careful women is overwhelming. And in foreign countries, in many of which the experiment has been fully tried, there is the same preponderance of opinion. No homes are broken up, no reckless legislation is passed, no women desert cradles in order to become politicians. But on the other hand there is a general toning up and liberalizing of life, an improvement in women themselves, and a distinct gain in legislation along such lines as especially affect children, women in industry, morals and municipal efficiency.

"We, the signers of this statement, declaring our intention to vote for the amendment, belong to various political parties, but we are united in our desire to have our state true to the fundamental principle of democracy. We believe that a people is greater when it follows gladly and bravely its underlying convictions than when its political life is inertia and causeless timidity. We believe it is bad for democracy to put a check on the aspirations of a large portion of its citizens. We believe that women should vote, and that the community will derive an appreciable advantage when they do vote."

The statement was signed by Jacob Gould Schurman, the president of Cornell University; Adolph Lewisohn, an investment banker, mining magnate, and philanthropist; Herbert Parsons, a former Republican congressman from New York; Charles L. Guy, a lawyer and justice of the New York Supreme Court; William A. Prendergast, comptroller of the City of New York; John Mitchell; Egburt E. Woodbury, New York attorney general; John K. Sague, delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1916; Robert Adamson, New York City fire commissioner; Samuel Untermyer, lawyer, civic leader, and millionaire who established Untermyer Park in Yonkers; Frederick M. Davenport, Progressive candidate for governor in 1914; Dudley Field Malone, collector of the Port of New York; Norman Hapgood, writer, journalist, editor, and critic; William G. Willcox, president of the New York City Board of Education; Samuel McCune Lindsay, president of the Academy of Political Science at Columbia University; James Lees Laidlaw, president of the Men's League; Ogden M. Reid, owner of the New York Herald Tribune; Frederic C. Howe, commissioner of immigration for the Port of New York; George A. McAneny, newspaperman and president of the New York City Board of Aldermen; Charles A. Beard, historian and chair of politics and government at Columbia University.

The amendment failed in 1915, but it succeeded two years later, in 1917, making New York one of the fifteen states that already had full suffrage when the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed in 1920.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK

Suffragists Meet with Sulzer

A hundred years ago today, on December 31, 1912, Governor-elect William Sulzer arrived in Albany for his inauguration. Soon after his arrival, he met with the suffragist pilgrims. The New York Sun reported on that meeting.

Governor and Mrs. William Sulzer arriving in Albany

SULZER TO AID SUFFRAGISTS

Promises Local Support and Favors Cause in Message.

ALBANY, Dec. 31--Gov. Sulzer cordially received the suffragette pilgrims at the Executive Mansion this afternoon, and after accepting their message told them that he would give his support to their cause.

"I welcomed them with open arms," said Gov. Sulzer after the reception, "and promised them my support and loyalty. I have recommended in my message legislation in favor of the suffrage amendment. Some twenty or more years ago I introduced a bill in the Legislature granting suffrage to women and it went through both houses. It was, however, vetoed by the Governor."

Gen. Rosalie Jones and Major Ida Craft were at the Executive Mansion shortly after the Governor arrived. They lost no time in tendering him the parchment which bore the following message:

"Suffrage hosts of the Empire State send greetings and renewed congratulations to William Sulzer and express the earnest hope that his administration may be distinguished by the speedy passage of the woman's suffrage amendment."

On back of the parchment, which had been set in a mission wood frame was inscribed this explanation.

"Votes for women pilgrims carried this message on foot from New York to Albany, having left Monday, December 16, in order to greet the Governor-elect upon his arrival at the Capitol."

The message is signed by Harriett May Mills, Katherine Ely Tiffany, Nora Blatch De Forrest, Mary Garrett Hay, Helen Mansfield and James Lees Laidlaw.

The Governor and the suffragettes posed in front of the mansion for their photographs after the interchange of greetings, the governor holding the framed message in front of him when the picture was taken.

The Cause of Suffrage in Hudson

Suffrage shared attention with the Great War in the news during the summer of 1917. (Women would win the right to vote in New York in November of that year.) On July 10, suffragist Margaret Foley delivered an open-air speech in Hudson, at the corner of Warren and Fourth streets. We can only imagine it was delivered from the courtyard in front of 364-366 Warren Street.

An Irish Catholic from Boston, described as "tall and confident, with a powerful classically trained voice," Foley started delivering open-air speeches in support of woman suffrage in 1909. The speech she delivered here in Hudson was printed the next day in the Hudson Evening Register. Because much of it resonates for us a hundred years later, although its central argument seems curious, Gossips publishes the speech again here.

American men are the best men in the world and if it were possible for any men to represent women through kindness and good-will toward them American men would do it. But a man is too different from a woman to be able to represent her. Whatever his good will, he cannot fully put himself in a woman's place and look at things exactly from her point of view. To say this is no more a reflection upon his mental or moral ability, than it would be a reflection upon his musical ability to say that he could not sing both soprano and bass. Unless men and women should ever become just alike, which would be regrettable and I fear monotonous, women must either go unrepresented or represent themselves.

It is not the men alone who have built up this great republic. All woman pay taxes directly or indirectly. Eight million women are engaged in the industry of our nation. Laws are made regulating and controlling their lives and yet their point of view is not considered.

Needed by Laboring Women.

Does the laboring man need the ballot? There can hardly be two answers to this question. But what reason can be given for the ballot in the hands of the laboring man which does not have equal force for the ballot in the hands of the laboring woman? The under-paid woman is a menace to the ranks of labor as a whole. Wherever a woman can be found who will undertake a piece of work for less than living wage, not she alone suffers, but the whole industrial army with her. But why should a woman be willing to undertake a piece of work for scanty wages? Because the market is flooded with women and girls who ought to be living in the comfort of their homes; who ought to be doing housework, mending, caring for the children and cooking their family's food, but who are nevertheless forced out to compete with some other man or some other woman. Where untrained labor can be made to serve an end, untrained labor will be employed.

One by one woman's duties have been taken away from her and placed in the charge of city or State officials, appointed by the Mayor or Governor, who are elected by the votes of men. Every department of a woman's household is regulated or controlled by officials more or less involved in politics. To procure pure milk for babies, pure drinking water, meat from non-tuberculous cattle, non-poisonous canned goods, the housekeeper must depend upon the efficiency and incorruptibility of the various commissioners. She also depends upon the fire, police and street cleaning departments to protect her home.

Changed Conditions.

The old fashioned housewifely tasks are no longer pursued in the home, even the clothing is purchased ready made. Country doctors testify to the outbreak of scarlet fever in remote neighborhoods each autumn after the children have begun to wear the coats and cloaks which have been sent from infected city sweat shops. The sanitary regulation of sweat shops by city officials is all that can be depended upon to prevent such needless destruction. And are not women concerned in the enforcement of such regulations if they would preserve their homes?

Whereas, formerly, women's interests centered in their homes, they must now embrace the public schools, the public hospitals, the public parks and playgrounds. The care of the young, the feeble, the delinquent, the sick, the aged, has always been woman's function, but now the philanthropic activities have gradually changed from private to public auspices women find themselves excluded from their management and with her political status, unable to cooperate.

 Home Always Holds First Place.

The greatest reserve fund of energy in any American city of to-day is the leisure or semi-leisure of certain classes of women. They who fear that woman's fuller development, her enlarged activities, her changed viewpoint will weaken her desire to serve those whom she loves in the home, know little of woman's real nature. Whether she seeks self-culture, strives to become a part of the forces of organized society, combats with the evils of labor conditions, or struggles for personal freedom of action, she does it not for herself chiefly, but to ennoble and endear the home. The home is and always will be, as ever, the place of woman's opportunity and joy; all that she has she gladly lays upon the altar of home; but to the modern woman has come a new vision of herself in relation to the home. The only noble way in which a woman can stay at home and yet express through the home her highest ideals is by sharing, as duty permits, in all the forces which determine home conditions.

Not loss of love and honor for men, not desire for supremacy, marks the great onward march of women; but rather the purpose to live her own life, to be herself, to develop all her faculties, and to cooperate with man in noble enterprise in which she is deeply concerned. To rule alone she would deem as unwise for her as it now seems unwise for him. The trend is not toward separation, but toward a closer union in sympathies and interests, more of a mutual life together.

Woman suffrage reduced to its last analysis always means the protection of the home, the conservation of society's most vital forces.

 COPYRIGHT 2017 CAROLE OSTERINK

General Jones's Army in Albany

The following article, accompanied by the montage of photographs, appeared a hundred years ago today, on the morning of December 30, 1912, in the New York Press.  

SUFFRAGE "ARMY" IS DENOUNCED BY BISHOP OF ALBANY

Father of Anti-Suffrage Speaker Says They Are "Silly Women."

GEN. JONES TRYING TO PREVENT FIGHTS

Marchers Divided by Strife, but Await Chance to Give Message to Sulzer. 

ALBANY, Dec. 29--General Rosalie Jones, leader of the "army" of marching suffragists that yesterday arrived in Albany, after hiking all the way from New York, is doing her best to-night to preserve peace in the ranks of her "army" until after their message is delivered to Governor-elect Sulzer to-morrow afternoon.

It has been a day in which the strained relations existing between some of the hikers have been so evident that a watchful eye has been kept to prevent the hair-pulling stage from being reached. It was with a sigh of relief that General Jones spoke of disbanding the "army" to-morrow. No other comment was needed as to her private opinion of the squabbling that has cast gloom over all since the arrival in this city than her reply when asked if she would go to the inaugural ball.

"After we disband to-morrow," she said, "I will not be General Jones, but Miss Jones. As Miss Jones, I shall attend the ball with my cousin, James Duane Livingston."

And, as if there were not trouble enough with the doubt of the attitude of the Governor toward the pilgrim "army" and the talk of dissension that has kept groups apart from groups all day, watchfully eyeing each other and discussing what each other may be saying, the final blow was given to-night when they were told what William Croswell Doane, Diocesan Bishop of Albany, had said about them.

There are a dozen or more excited conferences going on in the hotel parlors and writing rooms, the parties being augmented momentarily by equally excited Albany suffragettes, who are rushing in after hearing the news, to join in the expressions of sympathy, condolence and general condemnation of the Bishop's attitude and opinions.

Bishop Attacks Women.

This is what the Bishop had to say this afternoon when seen in his home in Elk street:

"I have no faith in the cause of the suffragists. The women are not as ill-behaved as their sisters in England, but they are directed by the same impulses. Suffragism as we have come to know it in New York State differs from the suffragism of England as comparative differs from superlative. The suffragists who made the pilgrimage from New York to Albany are a band of silly, excited and exaggerated women. Their sole aim in making this pilgrimage, as they are wont to call it, was the attraction of attention. This demonstration will not help their cause."

General Jones was having troubles of her own when this was repeated to her in the suffrage tea given in her honor this afternoon by Mrs. Helen Hoy Greeley of New York and her sister, Elizabeth Raebquin Hoy, in the home of their father, No. 584 Western avenue. There were things of more vital interest at the moment demanding all her diplomacy. She prevented more than one serious verbal clash when challenge was ostensibly given her by one of her officers who insisted on differing with every word she said by quietly asking her not to be serious at a social affair. She stopped long enough, however, to say:

"I'm a good Episcopalian, but I think the Bishop has been misguided. His own daughter, Margaret Doane Gardner, the famous anti-suffragist, goes all over the country making speeches. If we are making a display of ourselves she is doing the same by continual speaking against the cause we represent."

General Jones received a telegram from her mother this afternoon, rejoicing in the fact that the journey is safely over. The leader had but one regret. "She did not even wish our cause success," she mourned.

Plan to Trap Sulzer.

Elaborate military plans have been made for to-morrow for presenting the all-important message. The entire army has been asked to meet in the Hampton Hotel just before the arrival of the Governor. Two pilgrims will be delegated to be at the station. They will not speak to the Governor or annoy him in any way, but will follow along silently wherever he goes to see where to send emissaries.

Reservations have been made for Sulzer in the Ten Eyck, but it is possible he may accept the invitation of Lieutenant Governor-elect Martin Glynn to stay in his Willitt avenue home. When his abode is discovered, the pilgrims will return to the hotel and report. The Chief Aid Gladys Coursen, attended by two more pilgrims, will go forth with a letter for the Governor, asking him to receive their general and their message some time during the day.

The pilgrims will stand at attention outside the doorway while Aid Coursen delivers her letter. Should she have to wait more than two hours before being received the waiting pilgrims will be relieved. Guards will thereafter be changed each two hours.

General Rosalie Jones, still in command of her own army, will present the message. She will not ask for an answer, and will wish the Governor a Happy New Year and tell him that the message has been sent by her sisters in New York City.

Immediately after the army will disband. There will be more than the General who will be glad to end the intimacy that has been forced on them in the journey of the past two weeks, it is rumored.

Sibyl Wilbur, a pilgrim and the official biographer of Mary Baker G. Eddy, was given a big reception after the service in the First Church of Christ Scientist, which she attended this morning. She was forced by enthusiastic admirers to make a speech, telling of some of her experiences on the hike. 

"I had no blisters on the trip," she said, "and I took no medicine. I experienced little fatigue, and what there was was all over after one night of natural sleep. Suffrage is a part of Christian Science, for Mrs. Eddy herself was the first to say 'Our father-mother-God.'"