The Stark Couty Democrat (Canton), October 10, 1902

CANTON WOMAN

Honored at Convention of Ohio Woman’s Suffrage Association in Cleveland.

     At the seventh annual convention of the Ohio Woman’s Suffrage association, which opened yesterday in Cleveland, Mrs. E. M. Hall, of Canton, was given a position on the committee on courtesies. Mrs. Sue S. Roach, of Alliance, was honored by a place on the committee on finance. Mrs. Alice Danner Jones will deliver an address before the convention.

The Stark County Democrat, was distributed weekly in the Ohio city of Canton within Stark County. This newspaper ran from 1833 until 1912. The Ohio Woman’s Suffrage Association (OWSA) was a group founded in 1885 as a way for women to organize throughout the state of Ohio for suffrage. At the time of this newspaper’s release, the group’s primary focus was on laws at the local and state levels. The OWSA held this convention in Cleveland in 1902 beginning on October 9, 1902, the day prior to the release of this newspaper article. This convention’s guests included Susan B. Anthony who was honored there. Little is known of Mrs. Sue S. Roach outside of what is mentioned of her in this newspaper clipping. There were a variety of individuals named Mr. Roach, but with my research using various historical documents and records, I failed to verify which one she may have been married to or whether she had been married at all. Prior to this convention, Mrs. Eleanor Millar Hall, addressed in the article as Mrs. E. M. Hall, was recognized in the meeting minutes on June 3, 1901 for a suffrage convention that was led by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, so she had some connections with individuals leading the suffrage movement in the years that followed. Mrs. Alice Danner Jones resided in Canton, Ohio, and she was related to and friends with President William McKinley’s wife, Ida, so she too had connections with lots of power and influence. Danner Jones gave lectures, was well educated, a writer, and involved with her church. A book she wrote entitled “A McKinley Romance” talked about President McKinley falling in love with and marrying his wife, Danner Jones’s relative. 

Written by Hannah Reikowsky, Class of 2021