New Hampshire’s Suffrage Anniversary: 18 & 26 August 2020

Posted on 18 August, 2020 by Janice Brown

Women’s Suffrage League Poster of 1915.

Today is a landmark day not only for New Hampshire but for the United States–the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. By a vote of 50-47, Tennessee became the last state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment on 18 August 1920.

Eight days later on 26 August 1920, then-Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby issued a proclamation declaring the 19th Amendment ratified and part of the US Constitution. This amendment protects American women’s right to vote.

That new national amendment declared: ““The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

Note that some states (and territories) already recognized women’s suffrage before 1920, i.e. Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Continue reading →

Posted in History, New Hampshire Women | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

100 Years Ago: Poems and Prose Of Women’s Suffrage

Posted on 12 August, 2020 by Janice Brown

The desire to vote was a passionate topic among women for many decades. It was not a surprise to discover that volumes of poetry and prose were composed with suffrage as the theme. For this article, I have selected a variety of poetry, from more than one artist, along with an interesting article of newspaper headlines, pre-suffrage, during suffrage and post-suffrage (today). Continue reading →

Posted in History, Poetry, Really Old News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

100 Years Ago: Anti-Suffrage New Hampshire Women

Posted on 8 August, 2020 by Janice Brown

Offering prizes for best answer if women should be allowed to vote.

Today and with our current mindset, I know it is difficult to grasp that some women in New Hampshire did not want any women to have the right to vote in local and national elections. They did exist, but seemingly in lower numbers than the pro-suffrage women.

I’ve seen it written that many of these so-called “anti-suffrage” women were well-off, either by a marriage to a wealthy, prominent man, or by having money and prestige in their own right. It is implied that they did not want their “lesser” female counterparts to rise in influence.  Several newspaper stories of the time, if they can be completely believed, paint the anti-suffrage women as rich, privileged females not wanting to share their societal prestige, and feeling that equal voting rights would lessen their ability to influence. It would be unfair to state this is always true, though my research does seem to point to it being mostly true. Continue reading →

Posted in History, New Hampshire Women | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

August 2020: Celebrating a Women’s Suffrage Anniversary in New Hampshire

Posted on 1 August, 2020 by Janice Brown

Collage of New Hampshire’s more famous suffragists. Copyright by J.W. Brown.

A special celebration of suffrage is approaching (actually two)!  One hundred years ago, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote was finally ratified (meaning resolutions were passed by the required 36 State legislatures to accept it). Then the resolution was presented to the President of the United States (Woodrow Wilson) for his assent and approval.

Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby issued a proclamation declaring the 19th Amendment ratified and part of the US Constitution on August 26, 1920, protecting American women’s right to vote.

Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, History, New Hampshire Women | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

New Hampshire Missing Places: Daniel Webster Airways, Merrimack

Posted on 22 July, 2020 by Janice Brown

Photo of Mattie (Kilborn) Webster, the compiler of Merrimack’s Bicentennial history, with her granddaughters, Janice and Kathleen. (One being the blog editor) from the 1960s. Colorized.

During the Town of Merrimack’s Bicentennial Celebration, my grandmother, Mattie (Kilborn) Webster helped to research, write, and also to compile the stories of others, for the historical presentations on 30 June 1946.   She kept a notebook, and in cursive handwriting collected a particular story that was written by Arnold Sidney Butler, one of New Hampshire’s pioneer aviators. The topic was Daniel Webster Airways.

Butler ran that business from about 1946 into the 1950s. He moved to Florida where he started another business, and Merrimack’s only airport was sold to Sanders Associates, Inc, New Hampshire’s largest electronics industry in the 1970s. Today it is BAE Systems. Continue reading →

Posted in History, New Hampshire Aviation, New Hampshire Men | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments