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The women’s suffrage movement was at times associated with the temperance movement, though some groups tried to distance themselves from the other. Some felt that the goals of the other might alienate their own followers, and there was, at times, dissension within a group because of those who wanted to combine efforts, and those who did not. In the end, Prohibition was passed first, in 1917, and was ratified in 1919; women’s suffrage was submitted for ratification in 1919, and ratification completed in 1920.

The above story is a good example of how prevalent alcohol use was in the late 1800s.

It is very impressive that Prohibition passed without women having the right to vote.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Postcard in the collection of the author.

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[Editor’s Note: It may seem silly to post the back of the card especially when it does not have an address or note, but postcard enthusiasts can date and sometimes even determine manufacturer of the card by the way the back is divided, typeface, stamp box, etc.]

Frances was able to support herself on lecture fees, and she traveled to every state then in the Union in 1883. She traveled 30,000 miles per year (before airplanes!) and gave an average of 400 lectures per year for  period of about ten years. In 1886, the WCTU provided her a salary to continue her work. The WCTU was the largest organized group of women in the 19th century.

The platform used by Willard to gain acceptance of women’s suffrage by the average woman was “Home Protection.” By having the right to vote, women could protect their home and family from the “devastation” caused by legal, strong drink. Additionally, if women had a voice in choosing civic leaders and therefore the laws they made, men would not be able to so easily get leniency for the crimes they committed against women and children. Patriarchal ministers, press, and society tried to turn women away from the suffrage movement, but Frances also used her interpretation of Scripture to argue for equality between the sexes: “God sets male and female side by side throughout his realm of law.”

Politics was a world that women should be a part of, per many of the speeches Frances gave. About 1893, a large painting was commissioned that showed Frances with an American Indian, an “idiot” or mentally disabled man, a convict, and an insane man. It was entitled “American Woman and Her Political Peers.” Henrietta Briggs-Wall, a Kansas suffrage and temperance advocate, had commissioned the painting, and exhibited it at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1894 she said, of its display:

“It strikes the women every time. They do not realize that we are classed with idiots, criminals, and the insane as they do when they see that picture. Shocking? Well, it takes a shock to arouse some people to a sense of injustice and degradation.”

Frances learned to ride the bicycle in the 1893, when she was 53- quite a rebellious feat for a woman in those days!  (How did they kept those long skirts out of the way??) She wrote a sweet little book about it, which shows us that the bicycle was a key to freedom for many women, as well as men. She felt that mastery of the bicycle would help women to gain mastery over their lives- the ‘wheel within a wheel’concept.

A popular speaker around the world, and especially in England, Frances also drew attention to the international drug trade with the “Polyglot Petition.”

Trips to Europe and new Socialist thought intrigued Frances, and she became a Socialist in her later years. Her political and social thoughts again paralleled those of Edward B. Payne- he declared himself a Socialist as well in the 1890s.

The work of Frances Willard was pivotal in the passage of the 18th (Prohibition) and 19th (Women’s Suffrage) Amendments. Sadly, she did not live to see the passage of either, as she died of influenza in 1898 in New York City while waiting to embark upon a ship for a lecture tour in England and France.

In 1905, a statue of Frances Willard was submitted by the state of Illinois (she lived in Evanston for many years) to Statuary Hall in the US Capitol. It was the only statue of a woman in the hall until 1958. Today, there are just eight women represented among the 100 official statues placed in Statuary Hall and throughout the Capitol.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Frances Willard entry in the Encyclopedia Brittanica: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/643926/Frances-Willard

2) http://www.franceswillardhouse.org

3) Wheel within a Wheel. How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle with some reflections by the way. Frances Willard, 1895.Fleming H. Revel Company. https://archive.org/details/wheelwithinwheel00williala

Republished in 1991 as How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle: Reflections of an Influential 19th Century Woman, Carol O’Hare, editor.

A short book that really is about learning to ride a bicycle- sounds silly, but in the 1890s that was a really outrageous thing for a woman to do! The first 10 pages or so give quite a glimpse into life as it was for women. The “Wheel within a Wheel” portion of the title has to do with a Bible verse in Ezekiel, showing the many layers of an action or spirituality.

4) Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Willard_(suffragist)

5) American Woman and Her Political Peers: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004681894/

http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/cool-things-american-woman-and-her-political-peers-painting/10294

6) Statue of Frances Willard: “Statue of Frances Willard in the US Capitol” by RadioFan at English Wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Frances_Willard_in_the_US_Capitol.JPG#mediaviewer/File:Statue_of_Frances_Willard_in_the_US_Capitol.JPG

7) The featured postcard is owned by the author. It is one of a trio of postcards on American suffragists. (Would love to own the other two!) The seller of this postcard was kind enough to send me scans of those two in her collection, and has given permission for them to be posted in an upcoming “Suffrage Saturday” post.

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➡      Name    Address Ex-Teacher X Miss Nettie Dibble Downsville Mrs. Jennie Williams        “ Ex-Teacher X    “ Rachel Carpenter        “ X Miss Cora Bogart        “ X Miss Anna Bogart        “ Ex-Teacher X Mrs. Sarah Loos        “ Ex-Teacher X    “ Cora Gladstone        “ X    “ Nancy Wilson        “    “ Adelia Fuller        “ X    “ Callista Jennings        “ X    “ Ophelia McDonald        “ X    “ Edith Hoy        “ X    “ Alice Lindsley        “    “ Alice Bogart        “ X    “ Adelia Hubbell Colchester X    “ Katherine Peck Downsville Ex-Teacher X    “ Jennie Shane        “ X    “ Julia Russell         “ X    “ Elizabeth Warren Colchester Ex-Teacher X  Miss Jennie Fuller Downsville Teacher X    “ Inez Suttle        “

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.

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➡  Name Address Ex-Teacher X Mrs. Barbara Betts Downsville  Teacher X Miss  Minnie Holmes        “  Ex-Teacher X       “  Emma Lindsley        “  Mrs.  Amelia Schaufler        “     “  Amelia Fuller        “     “  Mary White        “  X     “  Lydia Wright        “     “  Caroline Wilson        “     “  Amelia Wilson        “ X     “ Lylvia Wardell        “ X    “ Mary E. Barber        “    “ Ellen Teed        “    “ Cornelia Flemmings        “    “  Sarah Odwell         “ Ex-Teacher X    “ Eva Mae Lindsley         “ X    “ Mary Conlon         “ X Miss Hattie Bogart         “ X Mrs. Helen Bogart         “    “ Mary Edward         “    “ Katherine Elwood         “    “ Alice Signor         “    “ Elvina Signor         “    “ Jessie Elwood         “ X Miss Emma Hartman         “  Mrs.  Katherine  “          “ X    “ Josephine Hulbert         “ X    “ Sabra A. Bull         “  Teacher  X     “  A. H. H. Shaw          “

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.’

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➡  Name Address Mrs. Jessie Loran Downsville    “ Rebecca Finch       “    “ Rachel Russell       “    “ Phebe J. Redmond       “ X    “ Permelia Fuller       “  X   “  Julia Williams        “    “ Adah Bogart       “ Mrs. Mary Fuller       “ X Mrs. Marcia Crispell       “    “ Melissa White       “ X    “ Addie Thompson       “     “ Alice Baker        “ Mrs. Loretta Baker       “  X  Miss Sarah Fuller        “ X Mrs. Ann Hawk       “ Ex-Teacher X Miss Annie Bogart       “ X Mrs. Letta Shelly       “ X    “ Helen Hunter       “ X    “ Mary Sprague       “ Ex-Teacher X    “ Lillie Hartman       “ X Miss Minnie Baker       “ X Mrs. Elizabeth Gladstone       “    “ Martha J. Hitt       “ X Miss Jennie Turnbull       “ Teacher X    “ Anna Chrisman       “ Mrs. Ann Brasee       “ X    “ Corrie Hulbert       “  X    “  Jennie Hulbert

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/

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