Series: 1893 Colchester NY List of Women Voters

➡ Women’s Suffrage

I recently acquired a letter on eBay that has a list of the women registered in Election District 1, Colchester, New York. I wanted to post it here with a transcription, so that some researchers might be able to find their ancestors. The letter is written on legal-size pages, front and back, and notes which of the women are teachers or ex-teachers.

Ray LaFever, the Delaware County [NY] Historical Association Archivist, informed me that women gained the right to vote in 1880 for school elections in New York state. He has seen some records of this in Delaware County.

Transcription:

Next Saturday- Part 2

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Letter in possession of author, purchased on eBay. Seller stated that she bought it from a woman who bought a lot of old furniture in New England/New York, and the letter was found in an old desk. She listed it under ‘woman suffrage.’ It would be so interesting to know what the letter written to these women was about. Many of the local election groups went on to work for state or federal suffrage for women, but this could also have been about a particular issue important to teachers as well as mothers that was coming up for a vote. Looks like more research is needed.

2) Yes, I do need to learn how to stitch together scans- it’s on the list. I have been struggling with getting tables to work properly in WordPress instead (which are really needed for transcriptions), and as you can see by the formatting in the post, tables are still not working properly. This is plug-in number four for tables that I have tried- the first three were even worse. It looked great in my preview, as did the others, but changed when published. I thought of just adding an image of my MSWord document, but then the names would not be picked up by search engines, so this will have to do. Sorry- if any part is unclear due to formatting, please contact me.

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

➡ Women’s Suffrage

Today we continue with the transcription of this letter:

Transcription:

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Letter owned by author.

2) See also post no. 1 in this series, Suffrage Saturday: 1893 Letter with List of Registered Women Voters, Colchester, NY, Part 2: http://heritageramblings.net/2015/01/24/suffrage-saturday-1893-letter-with-list-of-registered-women-voters-colchester-ny-part-1/

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

➡ Women’s Suffrage

Transcription:

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Letter in possession of author, purchased on eBay. Seller stated that she bought it from a woman who bought a lot of old furniture in New England/New York, and the letter was found in an old desk. She listed it under ‘woman suffrage.’

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

➡ Women’s Suffrage

Transcription:

Be sure to send letter to those before

whose name I have marked an X.

Send letter to all if you have

time. I will send list for

other Dists. soon.

E. E. Conlon

This concludes the transcription of this letter.

A good friend of the blog, Lisa, kindly reviewed and enhanced my transcription (thank you!), and researched Miss Nora Terry, to whom this letter was addressed. Nora Terry, age 25, was listed in the New York State Census in the First Election District, Tompkins, Delaware County, New York on 16 Feb 1892. Her occupation was “Teacher” so that may give us some clues as to why she was the recipient of the letter, and why teachers and ex-teachers were noted on the list.

Miss Nora Terry apparently married, as a ‘Mollie Brittain’ is found in the Delaware County, NY Marriage Book 13, page 427, marrying F. Ward Aber; Robert Brittain and Nora Terry are listed as her parents.

Further research finds Robert Brittain, a physician, and his wife Nora in Colchester for the 1905 NY State Census, with their son Robert Brittain, Jr., son Knox Brittain, and daughter Mollie Brittain, age 3. By the 1910 US Federal Census, they had two more sons listed: Evans Brittain and Ned Brittain; a servant was listed in the household as well. Nora and her family are found in many other records of the area.

Unfortunately the author of the letter, E. E. Conlon, has been challenging to track down. The letter has a Downsville postmark on the address side of the envelope, and one for Hamden and another for Walton, NY on the back. Having only the initials for the name makes it difficult- we have been unable to find a person with that name in the 1892 NY State Census, or in any other records. There are many Conlons in the area, but none with the first initials “E. E.” or any names beginning with those letters.

Please do contact us on the blog if you have any additional information about this letter and the subject, or any of the women listed.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Letter owned by author.

2) See also other posts in this series.

3) New York State Census for Nora Terry in 1892: Ancestry.com. New York, State Census, 1892 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. E. D. 01, page 8, column 1.

4) Delaware County Marriage Book 13 Transcription: http://www.dcnyhistory.org/oldnewsidx/marriageslinda13.html

5) 1905 NY State Census for the household of Robert Brittain: New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1905; Election District: E.D. 01; City: Colchester; County: Delaware, page 5, lines 46-50.

6) 1910 US Federal Census, Robert Brittain Head of Household: Year: 1910; Census Place: Colchester, Delaware, New York; Roll: T624_935; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 0004; FHL microfilm: 1374948, page 4A, lines 20-27.

Please contact us if you would like a higher resolution image.

Copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.