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 Roach, but with my research using various historical documents and records, I failed to verify which one she may have been married to or whether she had been married at all.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

Fulton County Tribune (Wauseon), October 15, 1915

OHIO WOMAN SUFFRAGE PARTY CONVENTION

Call For Meeting to be Held in Cleveland Thursday and Friday, November Eleventh and Twelfth

Western Newspaper Union News Service.

     Cleveland.- Upon the invitation of the Woman Suffrage party of Greater Cleveland, the Ohio Woman Suffrage association will hold its 30th annual convention Thursday and Friday, Nov. 11 and 12, at Hotel Hollenden. The executive committee will be in session on the evening of the 10th, but the convention proper will begin at 10 a. m. on the 11th. At 1 p. m. a luncheon will be served to delegates, visitors and friends, the delegates being the guests of the Woman Suffrage party. Mrs. Ethel Snowden, the wife of the Liberal member of the English parliament, will be the only speaker at the luncheon. Mrs. Snowden is a brilliant, beautiful woman of great oratorieal powers. One hour on the 12th will be set aside in memory of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was born Nov. 12, 1815. and who was responsible largely for the calling of the first woman’s rights convention in 1848.

Ohio speakers and workers now in the campaign states will tell of their experiences.

All suffrage associations are urged to send delegates, and attention is called to the following articles of the bylaws, article 2. section 1: “Local dues paying societies may become auxiliary to the state association by paying into the treasury annually 25 cents for each of their paid-up members. Such local auxiliary societies shall be entitled to three delegates by virture of such auxiliaryship, and to one additional delegate for every 25 members. Section 2. Non-dues paying local societies, such as campaign committees, men’s leagues, woman suffrage parties, etc., may become auxiliary to the state association by the payment of a fee of $2 annually into the state treasury. Such auxiliaryship shall entitle such societies to two delegates in the state convention.” All delegates signifying their intention of attending the convention before Nov. 6 will be entertained by Cleveland people. Those wanting further particulars in regard to the convention generally should address Mrs. Upton, state headquarters. Warren, O. Those wanting information in regards to local matters address Mrs. Rufus P. Ranney, general local chairman convention committee, 1706 Euelid-av, Cleveland. The call is signed by Mrs. Francis M. Casement, Painesville; Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, Warren; Miss Zara Dupont, Cleveland; Mrs. Dora Sandoe Bachman, Columbus; Mrs. Helen Wise Molony, Cincinnati; Mrs. Ethel R. Vorce, Cleveland; Mrs. Zell Hart Deming, Warren; Mrs. O. F. Davisson, Dayton.

 
The Fulton County Tribune was created in 1883, after sentiments divided for the local Republican Party. The newspaper typically covered local events and interests. 

In 1915, Cleveland held the 30th annual Ohio Woman Suffrage association convention after being invited by the Woman Suffrage party of Greater Cleveland, now called the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland. The Ohio Woman Suffrage association was organized May of 1885 in Painesville with the goal of changing laws preventing women from voting. 

The guest lecturer mentioned to be speaking on the 11th was Mrs. Ethel Snowden. Snowden is the wife of Philip Snowden, a British Labour Party politician and the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1924 and between 1929-1931. Ethel Snowden was active in the support of woman suffrage and later became a speaker for the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. 

An hour was set aside in the memory of Elizabeth Cady Stanton because she was a prominent supporter of woman suffrage who passed away in 1902. Harriet Taylor Upton and she was an important member of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, she even served as treasurer of the Association from 1894 to 1910. From 1899 to 1908 and from 1911 to 1920, Upton also served as the president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association. 

Mrs. Rufus P. Ranney could be the wife or relative of Democratic Ohio politician, Rufus Putnam Ranney. Francis M. Casement was a suffragist from Painesville, Ohio, who has been inducted in the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame. Mrs. O. F. Davisson was the president of Dayton and Montgomery county Woman Suffrage Association. The remaining women were suffragist that helped organize and promote the cause for suffrage. 

Written by Katrina Neff, Class of 2022

Daily Ohio Statesman (Columbus), February 2, 1861

      WOMAN’S RIGHTS ADDRESSES.—The Senate Chamber, last evening, was crowded with a large audience of both ladies and gentlemen, who had assembled to listen to the addresses of Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Cutler and Mrs. Gage, before the Woman’s Rights Committees of the two branches of the Legislature, on an amelioration of the laws in favor of women. So great was the concourse, that many gentlemen, and even ladies were compelled to stand during the delivery of the speeches. Mr. Parish, of Erie, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Woman’s Rights, presided, and introduced the lady speakers to the audience.
      Mrs. Jones made the first address. It was read from manuscript, and was a production of which any man might well be proud. The object was to show that men and women, in regard to property rights, should be placed as nearly as possible upon an equality.
      The next address was made by Mrs. Cutler. She spoke extemporaneously, and in a clear and distinct voice, which could be easily heard in every part of the large Hall. The first part of her address was taken up with a discussion on the propriety of extending the right of suffrage to women, but this point she did not think it judicious to press at the present time. But she contended earnestly that married women, in the guardianship of children and in the property acquired by the joint earnings of themselves and husbands, should have equal rights. Many of her anecdotes and illustrations were pointed, and elicited hearty applause.
      Owing to the lateness of the hour and the crowed state of the Hall, Mrs. Gage, when it came her turn to speak, closed the exercises of the evening in a few very brief, but most appropriate remarks.
      Professor Monroe of the Senate then proposed to return the thanks of the audience to the ladies who had so ably and judiciously advocated the rights of their sex, which met with a unanimous aye from the assembled throng. The crowd then dispersed with expressions of very general satisfaction.

The Ohio Daily Statesman changed hands several times over the years. Throughout most of the paper’s existence it carried a fairly overt Democratic leaning. From 1859-1862 the paper was edited by George Washington Manypenny. Manypenny, a democratic politician, had previously served as the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the United States from 1853 to 1857 and later left the paper to manage Ohio Public works.  

Only a few months before the Civil War, women were rallying around the causes of abolition, temperance and women’s rights. The woman’s rights movement had previously gained momentum in the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. It was a rare occurrence for women to speak in public, particularly to men, yet these three women did so not simply to a few at a church, but to the entire Ohio Senate Committee on Woman’s Rights and guests. This went against the traditional private role of women.   

Jane Elizabeth Jones was a New Yorker by birth, and an avid abolitionist and suffragist who spoke throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New England. In an 1850 lecture, she spoke of her desire for the term “women’s rights” to be replaced with human rights for all. Hannah Tracy Cutler was born in Massachusetts and then moved to Rochester, Ohio as a teen. She was a woman of national and international stature and served as the president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association. While most of her work focused on women’s rights within the United States she also carried her ideas to London while working as correspondent for the Ohio Statesman. Here she gave lectures to the public, parliament members, various organizations, and university students on women’s rights, temperance and physiology. The last woman to speak, Frances Dana Barker Gage of Marietta, Ohio, another well-known women’s rights activist who worked with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton after the close of the Civil War. Central to her beliefs was that of abolition first, women’s rights, second, and temperance third. Frances Gage was an avid writer; she wrote children’s books and poems under the pen name “Aunt Franny” and wrote for numerous journals. Her writings both fiction and nonfiction expressed her values of equality for women and African Americans. She argued that women should have all the rights of men. Under the laws of Coverture married women gave up any right to property and they were considered under the law to not exist. This invisibility under the law and lack of ownership is what Mrs. Hannah Cutler was speaking against. At this time the idea that a woman should be able to hold property and guardianship of her children was more acceptable than her right to vote. Her deliberate conciseness on the topic of woman’s suffrage may have been an attempt to not alienate the senators so they would take their right to property more seriously. It was through these speeches that women influenced legislatures into changing the law to allow married women separated from their husbands to own property and make contracts later in 1861.

Written by Hope Bruce, Class of 2019