Woman Suffrage in Essex County 
by Sandra Weber

A Judge and his wife arrived home from a suffrage meeting and found a hen sitting calmly on the running board of their automobile. Looking closer, they realized it was one of their hens. “When it gets to a point that a hen will ride nine miles on the running board of a car after dark to attend a suffrage meeting, we old roosters should be able to see the handwriting on the wall and give in as graceful as may be. Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis.” Times change, and we change with them.

​
​THE  NORTH COUNTRY REGION resembled most of upstate New York in the 1800s, rural and a hotbed for reform movements: abolition, prohibition, forest preservation, and women’s rights. Of course, there was also opposition to some of these changes. Resistance to women’s rights emanated from long-held conventional notions about the roles of men and women, the roles of blacks and whites, and the interpretation of the Bible. In general, these views supported a white patriarchy and contested any threat to the perpetuation of its authority.

There were other individual reasons for opposition to suffrage, just as there were various opinions supporting it. Even among suffragists, there was no consensus about what other rights they wanted nor what strategies or tactics to use. Over the years, there were disagreements about advocating for black suffrage without woman suffrage, pursuing federal suffrage and/or state suffrage, employing persuasion tactics versus protest, and so forth.

In 1890, the original “National” and “American” suffrage groups merged to form the largest woman suffrage group in the country --- the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The New York State Woman Suffrage Association was under the NAWSA umbrella, though its “chapters” were often called Political Equality Clubs. Around 1893, suffragists in Essex County were energized by prominent suffrage leaders, such as Mrs. Henrietta Banker and Miss Alice Lee, who came to the region for the summer months.
​

Why 1893? and more about Local Clubs

Not to be outdone, the anti-suffragists formed associations, and came to Essex County, too. Anti-suffragist and socialist Prestonia Mann Martin welcomed the president of the NY Anti-Suffrage Society, Alice Hill Chittenden, who debated suffrage in Keene Valley.
​

New suffrage leaders, Inez Milholland and Mrs. Katherine Notman, burst onto the scene in Essex County in the 1910s. They welcomed guest speakers, such as Mrs. Raymond Brown, president of the NYS Woman Suffrage Association, who spoke at outdoor meetings in Westport, Mineville, and Elizabethtown. The crowd in Elizabethtown numbered more than 200 people and all were kept captivated for almost an hour.

“Elizabethtown has become Suffrage Headquarters in the Adirondacks,” declared the New York Tribune in July 1914.

A local paper commented, “It is interesting to watch the tireless efforts of all Suffrage workers . . . [It] proves beyond a doubt that the modern woman can accomplish wonders when her purpose is actuated by high ideals and a real desire to help humanity.”
​

Essex County Suffragists and "Committee of 100" men

Three years later, in 1917, a curious group appeared: the Committee of 100, comprised of a hundred prominent Adirondack men who supported suffrage. The simplistic notion that woman suffrage was a battle of the sexes is a myth. Some men stood with the suffragists, while some women argued against them. And clearly, there were ideological conflicts among suffrage supporters such as John Milholland, first treasurer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Melvil Dewey, founder of the exclusive and discriminatory Lake Placid Club. Like other social movements, the suffrage movement was not a “harmony of opinion.”​

Suffrage in the 1910s - Lewis, Elizabethtown, Westport, Lake Placid

​
The suffragists gathered support slowly, bit by bit, over many, many decades. They campaigned for bill after bill, in state after state, until New York became the first state east of the Mississippi to grant full voting rights to women in 1917. The tremendous support in New York City overcame the lack of support in most upstate counties.

​Essex County was one exception, approving woman suffrage by a margin of 15 votes. “Newcomb is the Banner Suffrage Town” announced the Adirondack Record. The town “did her bit” for the ladies, casting 73 votes for suffrage and only 6 against. “Newcomb is certainly most chivalrous.”
​

---

Minerva, North Elba, St. Armand, Ticonderoga and Westport also approved the suffrage measure, but regardless of whether your town voted for or against suffrage, it is time to celebrate. This year we commemorate the state suffrage victory and the 100-year anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment (enacted August 26, 1920). Having postponed our celebration due to health restrictions, we are ready in 2021 to visit towns throughout the Champlain Valley to pay tribute to suffragists. From rallies to pageants, re-enactments, and songs, the events celebrating the suffrage centennial will be informative and energizing.
​
We come together this year to honor all of the women and men who fought for the suffrage cause. Whether wearing a white/gold/purple sash, sipping from a “Votes For Women” teacup, riding in a Model A, or visiting the grave of Inez Milholland, the presence and power of suffragists will be in the air. Though many of the words and ideas may be more than 100 years old, they are still relevant today. ​The right to vote is a powerful and fragile entity. Let us be vigilant to protect that right.
​​