S02 E19 Connecticut: No Taxation and Munitionettes

In this episode, we talk about the suffrage movement in Connecticut.
 
● Abby & Julia Smith–two sisters who farmed refused to pay the unfair increase in their taxes declaring: no taxation without representation.
● Mary Townsend Seymour was a Black suffragist who worked as a union organizer as well as creating inter-racial coalitions to address issues including working conditions, segregation, education, and housing.
● Elsie Vervane worked in a munitions factory during WWI to support her family and was active in the union as well as promoting women’s suffrage.
● Helena, Elsie and Clara Hill were three sisters who worked in the suffrage movement with Helena and Elsie picketing the White House and serving jail time.
● Emmeline Pankhurst visited Connecticut in 1913 and gave her most famous speech, “Freedom or Death” in Hartford’s Parson’s Theater.

About our Guest:
Joanie DiMartino has spent decades in the museum profession, specializing in the history of women in social justice movements. She has a MA in public history from Rutgers University. She serves as the CT Coordinator for the National Votes for Women Trail through the National Collaborative of Women’s History Sites, which she represented on the Connecticut Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission. She now serves as co-President of the NCWHS.

Links to People, Places, Publications:
Connecticut & the 19th Amendment (here)
Abby & Julia Smith story (here)
Mary Townsend Seymour Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Mary Townsend Seymour marker (here)
Elsie Vervane Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Elsie Vervane historical marker (here)
Katherine Houghton Hepburn Biographical Sketch (here)
Emmeline Pankhurst Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Katherine Houghton Hepburn–Emmeline Pankhurst marker (here)
Elsie Hill Biographical Sketch (here)
Visit the Hill Sisters’ marker (here)
Visit the Katherine Luddington marker (here)
Visit the Emily Pierson marker (here)

CM Marihugh is a public history consultant and currently conducting independent research for a book on commemoration of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement. She has an M.A. in Public History from State University of New York, and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Learn more about:

• National Votes for Women Trail (here)
• National Votes for Women Trail - William G. Pomeroy historical markers (here)
• National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (here)

Do you have a question, comment, or suggestion? Get in touch! Send an e-mail to NVWTpodcast@ncwhs.org

Transcript

CM Marihugh  00:00

Welcome to Her March to Democracy, where we're telling stories along The National Votes for Women Trail. I'm CM Marihugh, and this podcast chronicles the fight for voting rights for women. The suffragists were the revolutionaries of their day, and they battled the powers that be. These foot soldiers cut across the lines of geography, race, ethnicity, class and gender and numbered in the many 1000s, over 70 plus years. 

Earth Mama  00:51

We are standing on the shoulders 

Of the ones who came before us. 

They are saints and they are humans. 

They are angels. They are friends. 

We can see beyond the struggles 

And the troubles and the challenge, 

When we know that by our efforts, 

Things will be better in the end.

CM Marihugh  01:01

Each episode is a tour along the trail to the places of struggle, the states, the cities, the towns where wins and defeats happened over and over again. Our theme music is Standing on the Shoulders by Joyce Johnson Rouse recorded by Earth Mama. Join us on our travels to hear about these incredible activists in the stories along The National Votes for Women Trail. 

CM Marihugh  01:27

Today, we're going to Connecticut to hear stories about the women's suffrage movement along The National Votes for Women Trail. Now, Connecticut has at least 16 sites on the trail database, and it has at least nine historical markers at sites that are related to suffrage across the state. I am welcoming Joanie DiMartino, who is going to share the stories along the trail. And she is the museum curator and site superintendent of The Prudence Crandall Museum, which is a national historic landmark and international site of conscience. Joni, welcome. 

Joanie DiMartino  02:07

Thank you so much for having me here today. 

CM Marihugh  02:09

Could you start by giving us an overview of the suffrage movement in Connecticut?

Joanie DiMartino  02:15

Sure, the suffrage movement in Connecticut started when Frances Ellen Burr began the early work for suffrage in Connecticut in 1853. She attended a women's rights convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and by 1867 she had secured enough petitions to bring the issue before the Connecticut House of Representatives. The bill was defeated, but only by 18 votes showing some interest by the state legislature. Suffragists themselves were hard to find in Connecticut at this time, Burr was unable to successfully start an organization, and actually wrote to Susan B Anthony that she was, quote, "pretty much alone here these days on the Woman Suffrage question." Unquote. 

Joanie DiMartino  03:01

Isabella Beecher Hooker, sister to the famous novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, founded the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, the CWSA in 1869 and she worked with Frances Ellen Burr in hosting Connecticut's first suffrage convention in Hartford later that year. She organized one suffrage convention in Washington, DC, and many in Connecticut throughout her tenure. In 1871 she published A Mother's Letter o her Daughter on Woman Suffrage, and was a close collaborator with Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Beecher Hooker served as president of the CWSA for 36 years, and during that time, suffrage bills were introduced in the legislature, and suffragists also spoke at legislative hearings. 

Joanie DiMartino  03:50

But all of this work led to a paltry gain of the right to vote for school boards and libraries by 1909 but the state never put it into effect, leaving it meaningless. Isabella Beecher Hooker died two years before in 1907 and the CWSA was by this point a rather stagnant organization. There were only three suffrage clubs in the state and only 50 members, five zero. Between 1910 and 1915 a suffrage Renaissance blossomed. New charismatic leaders were stepping up to take the reins of state and national organizations, and they had firm ideas that strongly differed about how both suffrage for women should be won and why it should be won. Katherine Houghton Hepburn, was the mother of the famous actor, formed the Hartford equal franchise league in 1909 and that organization gets absorbed into the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, the state branch of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, or NAWSA and Hepburn was elected president in 1910. 

Joanie DiMartino  04:54

Alice Paul once referred to Houghton Hepburn as, quote, "the unquestioned leader of suffragists in Connecticut", unquote. That was in part because of another suffragist with a historical marker in Cromwell, Connecticut, Emily Pearson. Pearson was head of the English department at this time at Bristol high school, and she served as a Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association organizer for several years, and as a CP, NWP, National Woman's party organizer for three years in paid positions as a suffrage organizer. When she joined the CWSA, membership was around 300 people. When she resigned to join the NWP in 1917 the membership was 38,000 and that's not a mispronounced word. Membership under her leadership went from 300 to 38,000 members in seven years. 

Joanie DiMartino  05:46

Pearson created tactics such as the voiceless speech in 1912 for a show window campaign, and used it also once street corners, where the noise prevented open air talks. In 1913 she was invited to Washington, DC by Lucy burns to give a presentation on her methods to what at the time was the congressional union, the branch of the NAWSA working on a federal amendment. Pearson worked with wage earning women and established five branches of a new CWSA Affiliated Organization called The Equality League of Self Supporting Women. She secured guest speakers such as Jeanette Rankin and Rose Winslow for Connecticut venues. Katherine Houghton Hepburn brought a level of leadership not seen since Isabella Beecher Hooker's time to her role as president of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association. 

Joanie DiMartino  06:39

In 1913 she published What Kind of Men Want Women to Vote and Why?, a pamphlet. Hepburn was also invited and involved in plans for Connecticut in National Suffrage Day, which was devised by Alice Paul. National Suffrage Day would serve as a single day where suffrage events would take place throughout the United States, illustrating the collaborative purpose of women all across the country. And again, increasing interest and publicity for the suffrage cause. Announcements for a parade were beginning to appear in Connecticut newspapers in late 1913 and on May 2, 1914 National Suffrage Day,  over 1400 suffragists from across the state marched in Hartford. Throughout the nation, the May 2 National suffrage day was a huge success, but in Hartford, in particular. 

Joanie DiMartino  07:33

Supporters who came out in significant numbers to participate were at that time, the largest amount of women ever to march in the city. Now what we see here between 1914 and 1916 in Connecticut is a sharp increase in suffrage organization membership and activities from parades to open air or soapbox beaches. Yet in Connecticut, neither the state Democrats nor Republicans had a platform that included a formal commitment to support suffrage until 1918. The most significant occurrence in the suffrage movement in 1916 was the formal split by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns from The NAWSA to form the National Woman's Party. The major disputes, although there were others, were over strategy and ideology, picketing the White House, a major National Woman's party strategy was controversial, and after much of the CWSA leadership condemned to the picketers, indeed, The NAWSA considered the banners and picketing treasonous, Katherine Houghton Hepburn resigned as president stating, quote, "The NAWSA is an old fashioned and supine organization. I am in sympathy with the principles and aims of The Woman's Party" unqoute. When Houghton Hepburn left the CWSA and formed the Connecticut National Woman's Party branch, Katharine Ludington took the helm of the CWSA. 

Joanie DiMartino  08:57

Now what's interesting here is that the two women work together to maintain a strong working relationship between both organizations. They had the same goal after all, a noted difference from the bitterness between the two national organizations which filter down into most states. I want to briefly mention too that Katharine Ludington also has a marker, which can be found in the notes section to this podcast. With so much support from Connecticut suffragists now for the tactics of The NWP, it's not surprising that some suffragists headed down to Washington, DC to participate in tactics such as picketing the White House, burning President Wilson's words in the Watch Fires for Freedom and serve jail time for doing so between 1917 and 1919. I will be talking about other suffragists who picketed, along with some markers, but at present, I just want to mention two other suffragists. 

Joanie DiMartino  09:52

Catherine Flanagan from Hartford was one of 13 women from Connecticut who participated in picketing the White House and served jail time. She was on the picket line in August 1917 when the suffragists were attacked by the crowds. Flanagan, after arriving back in Connecticut, commented herself to reporters. Quote, "I am perfectly willing to go back to the picket line. I feel that it is a little thing to do toward the accomplishment of such a great purpose, especially since it seems to be the only thing left for us to do now", unquote, Katherine Houghton Hepburn very much wanted to serve as a Silent Sentinel, but she was pregnant and afraid to risk arrest. She paid for Edna Purtell, another young woman from Hartford, to go to Washington to participate instead. Purtell, at age 18, was one of the youngest women arrested on the picket lines, and she talked years later about her experience. Quote, "we had banners or sashes, purple, white, gold. I had that on. The police got orders to take the banners away from us. Oh, I can't give you my banner. This is my banner of liberty. He bent back my fingers and broke two of them, taking it away," unquote.

CM Marihugh  11:06

That's an incredible overview. I actually looked up Houghton Hepburn's pamphlet, and I thought the way it was titled, that she was describing the type of men that would want women's suffrage, but she's it's actually listing prominent men of the era from all spheres, and their quotes on why they support suffrage. I know it was paltry, but the fact that women in Connecticut at least gained the right to vote for library issues and school officials, was a step. But if that's the case, if the state didn't even implement it, then it was virtually not a step.

Joanie DiMartino  11:49

Yeah, it was pretty much just on paper.

CM Marihugh  11:51

The fact that the organization fell for three suffrage clubs to 50 members, that was a real drop. So it's admirable that these leaders were able to shoot up the membership so quickly. So Joanie, where are we starting first on our journey through Connecticut?

Joanie DiMartino  12:11

Well, hitch up the horses. We are traveling by wagon first to the city of Glastonbury, in the northeast corner of the state, to 1625, Main Street where there is a house. It's a private residence, not open to the public, but it was part of the farm of Abby and Julia Smith. Abigail Abby Smith and Julia Smith were the last remaining daughters of Hannah Hickok Smith and Zephaniah Smith. The Smiths, who were the wealthiest landowners in Glastonbury at this time, were staunchly abolitionist, and they also believed in women's rights and women's education. They had five daughters who were well educated and were raised to be independent thinkers. By 1873 Abby Smith and Julia Smith were living together in the family home, having inherited the family's wealth, they were involved in both temperance and suffrage, they attended local meetings. They could not vote, but they paid their town taxes every year. That year, however, 1873 the town leaders, made a decision to selectively raise taxes. They only raised taxes for two local widows and the Smith sisters, no male property owner received a tax increase. The sisters were outraged and called it what it was right taxation without representation. To add insult to injury, when the sisters refused to pay the increased tax and attended a town meeting to explain the injustice, they were denied a voice, not allowed to speak at the town meeting on their own behalf. 

Joanie DiMartino  13:45

According to one local newspaper, Abby Smith said she was, quote, "refused a hearing in the town hall, for which they had paid more than any voter in the town." Both Smith sisters then promptly climbed onto the back of a wagon, and Abby Smith gave a speech. Keep in mind at this time, she was 76 years old, and her sister, Julia Smith was 81 the town then seized the seven cows owned by the Smith sisters and put them up for auction. The Smith sisters were ultimately able to reclaim four of them. Now I keep referencing the fact that all of this happened in the year 1873 because it turns out that that year was the centennial of the Boston Tea Party, and many newspapers picked up on the similarities of no taxation without representation. And these events garnered a lot of publicity. I want to mention too that the Smith sisters responded with peaceful resistance. They did not destroy property. They did, however, pointedly, name two newly born calves, Martha Washington and Abigail Adams. 

Joanie DiMartino  14:53

The town then sold $2,000 worth of their property for $80 at which. Point, the Smith's lawyer sued the town because the law stated that land could not be seized against unpaid taxes until all movable property was sold. The case went on for two years, but Abby Smith and Julia Smith eventually won the case. Both sisters died before the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920 but the publicity surrounding the injustice of the cow auctions and trial really cemented for many people the need for women to be able to vote for their elected officials to hold them accountable. The Centennial mirroring of the Boston Tea Party tied the injustice to that faced by the founding fathers and mothers for even more emphasis on the need for each citizen to have a voice in their government.

CM Marihugh  15:46

So the town council decided to raise taxes selectively, but not on any male landowners. 

Joanie DiMartino  15:54

Yes, unbelievable. 

CM Marihugh  15:55

They had no inkling that someone would oppose it, and even if they did, they knew they didn't have to worry because women could not vote, it would have no repercussions. 

Joanie DiMartino  16:07

That's right. 

CM Marihugh  16:08

In all our discussions, the echoes of the revolutions are brought up so many times throughout the suffrage movement, and this story is perfect for illustrating how women showed a clear link between what they were demanding and the founding principles of the country. I don't know if it's the speech that you referenced, but I did read she gave a speech, and I'm paraphrasing where she said here where liberty is so highly extolled and glorified by every man in it, one half of the inhabitants are ruled over by the other half who can take all they possess, which is what they tried to do.

Joanie DiMartino  16:50

Yes, yes. And that's an excellent quote. I'm not sure if it was part of that speech or something that she had mentioned afterwards, but what a poignant quote. Thank you.

CM Marihugh  16:59

And I read that this home is a National Historic Landmark, although it is a private home, want to say that again, not open to the public. I'm very happy that it got that kind of recognition.

Joanie DiMartino  17:11

Yes, and I should mention too that it does not have a historic marker I checked not through the National Votes For Women Trail yet, or through the state, but it certainly deserves one.

CM Marihugh  17:23

It does deserve one. Where are we heading to next?

Joanie DiMartino  17:27

I think we'll grab the next stage coach and head north to Hartford and into the 20th century. We're going to the Women's League Child Development Center, which is at 1695 main street, where there is a historical marker for Mary Townsend Seymour, who is an African American suffragist from Connecticut. The Women's League was formed in 1917 by the wives of local African American ministers to provide quality childcare for both immigrant and migrant women in Hartford at the beginning of the Great Migration, which was the mass movement of African Americans from the South to the North and other areas of the US. Mary Townsend Seymour was a member of the Women's League, but she also worked tirelessly as a union organizer. She created interracial coalitions to address issues such as unemployment, working conditions, segregation, lynching, poor housing, education and suffrage. 

Joanie DiMartino  18:26

She is most known as a founder of the Connecticut chapter of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where she served as Vice President to the organization. The state branch was also founded in 1917 and W.E.B. Dubois, James Weldon Johnson and Mary White Ovington were there to make it official with the charter. Along with Mary White Ovington, three other white suffragists, all from Hartford, Mary Bulkeley, Josephine Bennett and Katherine Beach Day were present as well demonstrating the interracial networking of Seymour's activism, both within the state and nationally. Seymour was a member of the Hartford Equal franchise League, and she refused to accept the intentional exclusion of black suffragists by white suffragists who pandered to racist male voters and suffragists in southern states who did not want black women to vote. She often wrote to national suffrage leaders such as Alice Paul and the National Woman's party, and called them out on their public evasiveness to questions related to suffrage and black women. 

Joanie DiMartino  19:33

On March 10, 1919, Seymour attended a meeting to raise funds for the National Women's party Prison Special which had arrived in Hartford. The Prison Special was a group of suffragists who had served prison time. They traveled around the US by train in their prison garb to share their stories of abuse and forced feedings experienced while imprisoned for demanding the right to vote. A month later, Mary Townsend Seymour wrote to Mary White Ovington about her pledge. Quote, "I pledged $5 in the name of the Hartford branch of the NAACP, urging that the Susan B Anthony amendment without compromise be allowed to stand," unquote. After suffrage was obtained, Seymour was the first African American woman in Connecticut to run for the General Assembly on the farmer labor ballot in 1920 she ran for Secretary of State in 1922 neither of her campaigns were successful, but newspapers in the Midwest, including Oklahoma and Kansas, reported on the impact of her activism and political campaigns.

CM Marihugh  20:39

Do you know, if she was ever able to obtain public office of any type?

Joanie DiMartino  20:45

Not that I'm aware of through any of the research done recently.

CM Marihugh  20:48

But that's amazing. She ran for Secretary of State. I saw in looking at Connecticut for this episode, that the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History has a project called Women of Color and the Right to Vote, and they are documenting their participation of women of color in Connecticut's history.

Joanie DiMartino  21:12

Yes, and they had a very powerful exhibit that was on display in 2020 for the suffrage centennial, titled The Work Must Be Done: Women of Color and the Right to Vote and the title of that exhibit The Work Must be Done came from a line from Mary Townsend Seymour.

CM Marihugh  21:28

So where are we heading to next? 

Joanie DiMartino  21:31

I think we should take a trolley over to Hartford Union Station for our next marker, honoring the meeting of Emmeline Pankhurst and Katherine Houghton Hepburn. When I first proposed this marker, we were not sure it would be accepted by the National Collaborative of Women's History Sites, advisory committee with Emmeline Pankhurst's name on the marker, because Pankhurst was not an American. She was English, head of the Women's Social and Political Union WSPU, the militant branch of suffrage, the suffragettes in England. However, the National Collaborative of women's history sites marker committee was so impressed that this was the only marker submitted that acknowledged the deep and decades long connection between the Woman Suffrage Movement in England and the United States that it was especially noted by the committee and resoundingly approved with Pankhurst name, and to the best of my knowledge, it is still today, the only marker on the national votes for women trail to honor the transatlantic community support and work toward women's right to vote. 

Joanie DiMartino  22:33

This marker honors a unique aspect of Connecticut suffrage history. Pankhurst was such a controversial figure that when she arrived in the United States on a speaking tour, she was detained at Ellis Island for inciting property damage under Section 10 of The Malicious Damage act of 1861 Katharine Houghton Hepburn, as President of the CWSA, fired off a telegram to President Woodrow Wilson, informing Wilson that the CWSA passed a resolution requesting Wilson to quote, "give special consideration to the detention by the immigration bureau of a political leader from England," unquote. And this was on October 23 1913 just three weeks before Pankhurst was to arrive in Connecticut. On November 12, 1913 Pankhurst was greeted at Union Station in Hartford by a crowd of suffragists led by Katharine Houghton Hepburn. 

Joanie DiMartino  23:31

The following day, Pankhurst delivered her quote, "Freedom or Death," unquote speech at the Parsons Theater, which is no longer standing, making Hartford Connecticut not London, England, the location of what became her most famous speech. In addition to Hepburn, other notable suffragists in attendance included state organizer Emily Pearson and national suffrage leaders Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, both of whom worked directly with Pankhurst in England, along with Inez Milholland Boissevain. 

Joanie DiMartino  24:02

Newspaper accounts described the crowd as including 40 to 50 local suffragists. Pankhurst's visit included a series of events, tea, reception, dinner, luncheon, as well as the notable lecture at the theater, which raised about $1,400 for the militant suffrage work in England. Hepburn herself identified so strongly with the militant suffragettes in England that the cwsa also incorporated the purple, white and green suffrage colors into their imagery, as well on items such as pennants, pins and posters. Suffragists from Connecticut never vandalized property, but several later did serve jail time in Washington DC for picketing the White House, a tactic Alice Paul and Lucy burns learned from Pankhurst.

CM Marihugh  24:53

That speech was so powerful, Freedom or Death, and again, we have this parallel of suffrage work to a field of battle, she said, and I quote, "When men use explosives and bombs for their own purpose, they call it war. When women do the same thing, they call it crime." And of course, she's referring to the tactics that she advocated for in Britain because she was tired of the meetings and the debates and the discussions, and felt like she had to bring visibility to the movement.

Joanie DiMartino  25:29

Yes and even Harriet Stanton Blatch, who was a descendant of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she also very much supported a lot of the work with the British suffragettes as well. 

CM Marihugh  25:41

So where are we heading to next?

Joanie DiMartino  25:44

I think we should board the Union Station Train now and head south down to Bridgeport to meet several brave women honored with the next marker. Now this marker honors Elsie Vervane and four women of Bridgeport who traveled with her in 1918 to Washington, DC to demonstrate, knowing that they would face jail time. Now, they took time off from work to do so. All five women were wage earning women. They were not married to wealthy men. They were not gifted with inheritances or daughters of influential people. They were munitions workers during World War One. They worked in factories and they participated in their machinist union and were supported by that union for their suffrage work in return. So while the text of the marker itself may read Elsie Vervane, who served as the organizer and president of the Bridgeport Women's Machinist Union, this marker honors all five women from Bridgeport, including Ruth Scott, Helen Chisaki, Caroline Weaver and her daughter Eva Weaver. This marker is located at 1050, Broad Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 

Joanie DiMartino  26:53

Now these women arrived in Washington, DC on January 10, and the next day they met with White House staff. Vervane expressed her concern for increasing unemployment as well as for suffrage. Now remember, they're munitions workers, and this was two months after the armistice on November 11, 1918, this probably wasn't an issue the White House heard about from most suffragists, but the Bridgeport women shared what concerned them as working women, and in doing so, they perfectly illustrated why having political representation matters. Later that afternoon, they gathered at the headquarters of the National Woman's party, the militant and controversial branch of the suffrage movement led by Alice Paul. They walked with 17 other women to the gates of the White House, and there they set what was called a Watch Fire for Freedom and burned President Woodrow Wilson's speeches. 

Joanie DiMartino  27:48

This was to call attention to the hypocrisy of the Wilson administration in promoting democracy abroad while not working hard enough for women in the United States to have the right to vote, they were promptly arrested and in court, they had the choice of paying a fine or serving jail time, and all five Bridgeport suffragists chose jail. They noted the rats, bed bugs, roaches, and began a hunger strike immediately. Vervane described the hunger strike to a Bridgeport newspaper later as, quote, "ice for food and hot water for dessert," unquote. They sang songs to keep up their spirits. And at 11pm someone was shouting loudly outside their jail cells from the street. It turned out to be Elsie Hill of Norwalk, Connecticut, who had come by to, quote, "cheer up the women from Connecticut," unquote. 

Joanie DiMartino  28:42

A few days later, other suffrage prisoners were falling ill, likely due to contaminated water, and it was decided to release all of the suffragists, those who served prison time were awarded a special Jailed for Freedom pin from the National Woman's party. When she returned to Bridgeport, Vervane spoke to the local order of women's workers about her experiences, which were reported in the Bridgeport times and evening farmer on January 22 1919, and I'd like to close this section with Vervane's words, which summed up why she and Ruth Scott, Helen Chisaski, Caroline Weaver and Eva Weaver took time away from their jobs to demonstrate for their right to vote. Quote, "While we cannot say that we enjoyed our prison time, we do feel that we have done something to help the cause which should be dear to the heart of every woman worker in the country. We have the right of representation in the law making bodies of our country, and we are going to do all we can to impress the men in power that we are in earnest and not hysterical women who are doing these things to be spectacular," unquote.

CM Marihugh  29:52

So apparently, Bridgeport was one of the biggest munition center in the country. 

Joanie DiMartino  29:59

Yes. 

CM Marihugh  30:00

Yes, I was not familiar with Vervane, and I picture, of course, the World War One women factory workers as typically young single women. But she was around 50 at this time, and she'd had eight children and left an abusive marriage, so this was critical to her livelihood, but with all this going on, she's playing a leadership role in the union and pushing for suffrage. I was looking at Houghton Hepburn's pamphlet that we talked about earlier, and one reason it stated for working women to get the vote was that, quote, "disenfranchised, disorganized women lower wages in every trade they enter," end quote. So that gives insight too on why so many working men supported women getting the vote. It was in their own interest as well.

Joanie DiMartino  31:00

Yes, that's an excellent point.

CM Marihugh  31:02

Okay, where are we heading to next? 

Joanie DiMartino  31:04

Oh, I think we should climb into a local mobile car made by women factory workers in Bridgeport and drive east to our next location. We are going to go to the Norwalk River Valley Trail, which is a few 100 feet from the location of the former Hill home, which is no longer standing at 500 West Avenue in Norwalk Connecticut. The Hill family as a whole supported woman suffrage. Congressman Ebenezer Hill served his district for 22 years, and was the first US Representative from Connecticut to speak out on behalf of enfranchising women. With his wife, Mary Ellen Hill, he assisted Alice Paul in obtaining approval to access Pennsylvania Avenue for the 1913 march, the day before President Wilson's inauguration. And I have to share that I love this Connecticut connection to enabling the suffragists to exercise their right to peaceful assembly, a First Amendment right that the police superintendent tried to withhold from the suffragists. When Alice Paul first requested a permit and was told it was, quote, "totally unsuitable for women," unquote. 

Joanie DiMartino  32:14

However, it was the three Hill daughters, Helena, Elsie and Clara, who made the strongest contributions to the suffrage movement. These sisters were fearless. I don't have time to share with you all their endeavors and activities for suffrage, but Elsie Hill and Helena Hill Weed both joined the National Women's Party in Washington, DC, where they picketed the White House, served jail time and endured forced feeding for hunger striking. Helena Hill Weed, one of the first female geologists in the United States, served three prison sentences between 1917 and 1918 with the National Woman's party. Her first sentence lasted three days for holding a banner that read quote, "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," unquote. 

Joanie DiMartino  33:05

Elsie Hill participated in a suffrage demonstration on March 4, 1919, at the New York Opera House, there was a confrontation with onlookers, and Elsie Hill managed to access the building's balcony. She addressed the crowd calling out to veteran World War One soldiers. Quote, "did you men turn back when you saw the Germans coming? What would you have thought of anyone who did? Did you expect us to turn back? We never turn back either, and we won't until democracy is won," unquote. Now this, of course, was the Elsie Hill mentioned regarding the previous marker, who sang outside the jail where the other suffragists from Connecticut were held. 

Joanie DiMartino  33:48

Clara Hill remained in Connecticut, where she engaged in suffrage work, requesting activities that were, quote, "hard to do," unquote, she spoke with a French translator to immigrant workers at Mills and handed out leaflets while giving a speech outside the thread mill in Willimantic, a runaway horse raced by and kicked the box she was standing one sending her tumbling under wagon wheels. Clara Hill was unhurt and went back to speak again the next day after the 19th Amendment passed, Helena and Clara became involved in the League of Women Voters. Elsie Hill chaired the National Woman's party and continued to work closely with Alice Paul for over 40 years.

CM Marihugh  34:33

I love that image of Elsie Hill yelling from the balcony to the soldiers and making that clear link from the battles they had taken part of overseas for democracy to the battles that suffragists were fighting for democracy. One thing that we do see changing in the war years is that women are seen in a new light. They are organizing, fundraising, working in factories and men of all ages are seeing them, and at least some of them are thinking, "Yes, oh, why can't they vote? They're doing everything citizens are meant to do." So Joni, could you give an overview of what happened in Connecticut after the 19th Amendment?

Joanie DiMartino  35:19

Yes, I'd be happy to. So in late May of 1919, President Wilson called a special session of Congress, and by early June, both houses had passed the Susan B Anthony amendment, which was then sent to the states for ratification. Both the CWSA and the CNWP worked together to press Governor Marcus Holcomb to call a special session for state ratification. They were unsuccessful in doing so, until after, Tennessee ratified on August 18, 1920 becoming the 36th and final state. Now Connecticut ratified the 19th Amendment on September 14, 1920 which of course, is after the amendment had become effective. But when the opposition to women's suffrage began to question the legality of Tennessee special session, the ratification by Connecticut became necessary to cement Tennessee as the 36th vote. 

Joanie DiMartino  36:17

Suffrage organizations in Connecticut largely transformed their mission from winning the vote to educating and mobilizing new women voters. Voter registration in 1920 was a little bit different than today. It was a multi step process. Women and men first had to apply to be made a voter. Individuals would send in applications, and the deadline that year was October 4. Then the registrar had five days to compile the list of voters. On October 9, the doors were open for those who had applied to come and take the oath, a group would stand and hear the oath and be sworn in. In Hartford in October 1920, women began registering, and many of those registration cards have been preserved. The Hartford Public Library has an online exhibit on suffrage, which features a number of cards and describes some women that registered, including Fannie M Earl, an 80 year old woman who worked as a librarian, and as previously mentioned, Mary Townsend Seymour. 

Joanie DiMartino  37:16

Even businesses started promoting voting. The major department stores in Hartford actually, each installed a voting machine, and women shoppers could hear instruction on how to use the machine. They were offered to try the machine out for themselves, and this helped reduce women's reluctance to go to vote in case they were unsure of how to use the machines. And at least one department store, G Fox and company, had an advertisement announcing that women's voting was an event to be celebrated and to give their employees, quote, "plenty of opportunity to vote" unquote, the store would not open until 10am on voting day. 

Joanie DiMartino  37:53

Of course, the political parties were also involved. One newspaper ad from the GOP offered to take Republican Women in an automobile to register. Many women of color registered and voted throughout the state. The newspaper Hartford Current observed that it appeared that most of the black women in Hartford, who primarily lived in the second and third wards, had voted in the 1920 election. And many local newspapers also commented on the high number of women throughout the state that took their opportunity to cast a vote in 1920 and many suffragists stayed active in public life throughout other organizations and even themselves running for office.

CM Marihugh  38:34

I love hearing these stories when women started to vote, and I have to say it is very new. Something we have not heard yet is department stores having a voting machine and demonstrating how it worked. And at least the photo that I saw, it was a very complex machine, so I can see why some women would have been intimidated. And I also thought that's business, because regardless of how the owners felt about women's suffrage, they quickly saw an opportunity to get women in the store. 

Joanie DiMartino  39:07

Yes. 

CM Marihugh  39:08

So Joni, thanks so much for being with us today and talking about these stories of the suffrage movement in Connecticut.

Joanie DiMartino  39:17

Thank you so much for having me today. CM, this was wonderful to share these stories.

CM Marihugh  39:22

Thank you for joining us this week. We hope you contact us with comments or questions. The National Votes for Women Trail Project is a work in progress. Please click on the support the project link to contribute to our ongoing work. The trail is a project of the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites, a nonprofit organization dedicated to putting women's history on the map. Our theme is standing on the shoulders by Joyce Johnson Rouse and recorded by Earth Mama, be sure to join us next time. 

Earth Mama  40:43

I am standing on the shoulders 

Of the ones who came before me. 

I am honored by the passion

For our liberty. 

I will stand a little taller. 

I will work a little longer. 

And my shoulders will be there to hold 

The ones who follow me. 

My shoulders will be there to hold

The ones who follow me.