Local Suffragists and the Vote

We’ve been hearing a lot about the Suffrage Movement in these anniversary years between 2017 when New York State celebrated its 100th anniversary and 2020 when the country celebrates its 100th anniversary. There has been much focus on Seneca Falls and the Convention that launched the Suffrage movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Frederick Douglass and on Susan B Anthony’s famous trial in Canandaigua for the crime of voting—it is almost as if we were there. One welcome side-effect and happy outcome of all the attention is the tremendous and meticulous research that is uncovering the work of local suffragists, brave advocates and activists in counties, towns, villages and hamlets across the region for the cause.

Come to Sonnenberg Gardens on September 16 and learn about some of these local suffragists—male and female. The 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse Museum, and Sonnenberg Gardens, with support from Humanities NY, are bringing together a panel of local historians to share the results of their research.

Facilitated by Donna Hill-Herendeen, Farmington Historian the panel includes: Wilma Townsend, curator of Ontario County Historical Society, on participation of rural women; Beth Thomas, Bristol historian, on Emily Parmely Collins; Rosa Fax, Huron historian, on James Cosad, a local “Freethinker”; and Carol Bailey, Lyons historian, on the Grange Movement’s action for suffrage.