Lavinia and Lucy Snow; Olive Rose, the nation’s first female elected official

Mon, 08/17/2020 - 13:35

George Harvey

Pre-election suffrage parade, New York City, October 23, 1915. 20,000 women marched. Date 23 October 1915 Source Library of Congress Author Bain Collection

Suffragettes at the White House, Washington, D.C. (Photo courtesy Library of Congress / Public domain)

Pre-election suffrage parade, New York City, October 23, 1915. 20,000 women marched. Date 23 October 1915 Source Library of Congress Author Bain Collection

Suffragettes at the White House, Washington, D.C. (Photo courtesy Library of Congress / Public domain)

One hundred years ago, on Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment providing women the right to vote was ensured when the State of Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment. The action by Tennessee on Aug. 18, 1920, provided the three-fourths majority needed to amend the nation’s constitution.

Roughly one week later, on Aug. 26, the amendment became law and provided suffrage to more than 27 million women across the United States.

The Suffrage Movement began in 1848 when women demanded the right to vote be extended to them during the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York.

During the next 72 years, women around the nation continuously worked to propel the suffrage movement to fruition.

Before the 19th Amendment was ratified, there were a trio of women from the Midcoast important to the Suffrage Movement.

Olive Rose is believed by numerous scholars, according to articles by Slate and Time Magazine, to be the first woman elected to office in the United States when she was elected as Register of Deeds in 1853 by Warren voters, defeating her male opponent on the ballot 73 votes to 4 votes.

Since women were not permitted to vote in the 1850s, all of Rose’s 73 votes were cast by males.

“She did not have the right to vote for the position she held, but she won it nonetheless,” Rebecca Onion detailed in an article for Slate.

Rose held the position from 1853 to 1857 when her brother was elected to replace her, according to the town history section on the Town of Warren website.

An interesting question was posed by Onion to Jill Norgen and Wendy Chmielewski, co-founders of the website Her Hat Was in the Ring: How was it possible, legally, for women like Rose to run for office when they did not have voting rights?

“In some places, women had been awarded suffrage for specific elections — in particular, for school elections,” Onion reported. “If this wasn’t the case, but an office had been created after the drafting of a state’s constitution (which often explicitly restricted jobs to men only), women might make an argument for their eligibility. And legislatures sometimes passed laws allowing women to run for particular offices that were considered appropriate for their gender [...].”

Onion, furthermore, posed the question of how women were able to persuade men, in Rose’s case 73 men, to allow a woman to hold office.

Norgen told Slate electing a “given woman for a given job might have been less threatening to many male voters than extending suffrage to all women.”

“A single woman running, who was known to her community, was a known entity,” Norgren told Slate. “She was vetted all the way along.”

Meanwhile, Rockland sisters Lavinia and Lucy Snow established a legacy of promoting women’s rights and were cofounders of the Rockland Equality League, the state’s first local women’s suffrage group, in 1868.

“I well recall the feeling of degradation that seized upon me when my younger brother arrived at the age of 21,” Lavinia Snow once said, according to the Maine State Museum. “That he … should have a voice and a ballot, while I, at least his intellectual equal, should be condemned to silence and political inaction, was deep injustice that I never have been reconciled to.”

The 1912 obituary for Lucy Snow noted though she was pleased to see six states enfranchise women, she regretted Maine had yet to extend the same. Maine’s ratification of the 19th Amendment did not come until Nov. 5, 1919.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, on May 21, 1919. Two weeks later, the U.S. Senate gave the amendment its support, leaving the decision in the hands of states.

A trio of states — Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan — were the first to ratify the amendment June 10, according to a timeline compiled by the National Parks Service.

Kansas, New York and Ohio followed June 16 before Pennsylvania (June 24), Massachusetts (June 25) and Texas (June 28) ratified the amendment in the last few days of June.

States ratifying the amendment in July included Iowa (July 2), Missouri (July 3), Arkansas (July 29).

Montana and Nebraska both ratified the amendment Aug. 2.

States ratifying the amendment in September included Minnesota (Sept. 8), New Hampshire (Sept. 10) and Utah (Sept. 30).

Interestingly, no states ratified the amendment in October.

California (Nov. 1) and Maine (Nov. 5) were the only states ratifying the amendment in November.

In December, North Dakota (Dec. 1), South Dakota (Dec. 4) and Colorado (Dec. 15) ratified the amendment.

Kentucky and Rhode Island ratified the amendment Jan. 6, followed by Oregon (Jan. 13), Indiana (Jan. 16) and Wyoming (Jan. 27).

In February, Nevada (Feb. 7), New Jersey (Feb. 9), Idaho (Feb. 11), Arizona (Feb. 12), New Mexico (Feb. 21) and Oklahoma (Feb. 28) ratified the amendment.

West Virginia (March 10) and Washington (March 22) were the final two states to ratify the amendment before a lull between April through July of no additional ratification.

Then, in a narrow 50-47 decision, Tennessee became the last state needed to ratify the amendment on Aug. 18.

States that belatedly ratified the amendment were Connecticut (Sept. 14, 1920), Vermont (Feb. 8, 1921), Florida (May 13, 1969) and North Carolina (May 6, 1971).

States that ratified the amendment after initially rejecting the amendment were Delaware (March 6, 1923), Maryland (March 29, 1941), Virginia (Feb. 12, 1952), Alabama (Sept. 8, 1953), South Carolina (July 1, 1969), Georgia (Feb. 20, 1970), Louisiana (June 11, 1970) and Mississippi (March 22, 1984).

Alaska and Hawaii were not states at the time of ratification.

Today, more than 68 million women cast ballots in elections, according to the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission.