Vermont Women and the Right to Vote: A Personal History

[Postcard issued in a campaign by the National Woman Suffrage Association, circa 1915]

This account comes from Donna Rae Heath of Waterford, a member of the Vermont Suffrage Centennial Alliance. She would have presented a talk in March of this year for the Waterford Historical Society, but with the coronavirus precautions in place, she's sharing it here, instead. Thank you, Donna!

A Short History of Suffrage

By Donna Rae Heath

I became a voter when I turned 21.  I took the Freeman’s Oath from Earle Whittemore in the kitchen of the restaurant that the Whittemores owned on Route 18 in Waterford.  Later, I had to take the Freeman’s Oath again in the 1970s when I went to register to vote in Montpelier.  I had moved back to Vermont from Boston.  Even though I had moved back to Vermont, the election officials insisted I take the Oath again. 

Community is one of my favorite words.  My interest in my community of Waterford goes back to my elementary school days when I joined my parents at the Town Meeting.  I watched my mother mark on the Warning of the Town Report the results of the various articles.  She wrote who was elected Selectman, Town Clerk, Town Treasurer, and the appropriations and the budget. I still have those reports. 

My mother has always had the right to vote.   She was eight years old in 1920 when Suffrage was passed by Congress.  [Editors' addition: Because the Suffrage Amendment reached ratification only nine weeks before the Presidential election of 1920, there was enormous pressure to get women registered to vote, resulting in about one-third of eligible women casting their vote in 1920, when Warren Harding was elected president, with Calvin Coolidge as vice-president, stepping in as President when Harding died in office in 1923.] Women have been allowed to vote in national elections in 31 of 58 Presidential elections.  Calvin Coolidge’s election [to continue as President] in 1924 was the first Presidential election in which women were seen as significant to the vote.  They could not vote for Teddy Roosevelt, but they could vote for Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Edna Beard of Orange, Vermont, was the first woman elected Representative in the Vermont Legislature in 1920, and she won the Orange County Senate seat in 1922.

There are many significant years in the history of woman’s Suffrage.  One hundred years is not a long time that women have had the right to vote.  Look at these significant dates in the history of women in their Vermont community:  1900, women were allowed to be town clerks, library trustees, and Superintendent of Schools; 1917, women who pay taxes were allowed to vote in municipal elections; 1942, women were allowed to serve on juries; 1964, the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women was established; and in 1988, the United States Congress passed the Women’s Business Ownership Act, which allowed women business owners to obtain loans in their own name.  That was only 32 years ago.

Women’s issues go back to the early years of the country.  The Temperance Movement began in 1826 when the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance was formed.  By 1869, two organizations were promoting voting rights for women: The National Woman Suffrage Association fought at the national level through Congress, while the American Woman Suffrage Association worked for Suffrage through the states. 

Locally, the Vermont Woman’s Suffrage Association (VWSA) was formed in St. Johnsbury in 1883–1884. Nationally known activists like Lucy Stone, editor of the Woman’s Journal, and Julia Ward Howe, President of the Massachusetts Suffrage Association, attended the meeting.  Laura Moore of Barnet was elected Secretary and documented the VWSA’s work in very thorough minutes. She served as Secretary from 1883 until her death in 1902.  The minutes are available for viewing at the University of Vermont website. 

Moore wrote about the fight to give Vermont women the right to vote in municipal elections.  It was a petition drive throughout the state during 1883–1884.  Volunteers, men and women, spread across the state and obtained 3,278 signatures.  Some of the towns returning petitions were:  Barnet with 187 signatures; Barton, 164; Burke, 110; Concord, 277; Danville, 6; Hardwick, 89; Lyndon, 68; Peacham 61; St. Johnsbury, 258; Ryegate, 9; and Sheffield, 26.  Waterford was not listed in Moore’s report.  The right to vote in municipal elections was not passed by the Vermont Legislature until 1917, and that right was allowed only for tax-paying women.

A different petition that came from Waterford probably closer to 1920 asked the Vermont Legislature to ratify the “Federal Suffrage Amendment.” The signatures had Waterford and St. Johnsbury addresses, and there was no date on the petitions. Many of the signatures were written in the same handwriting ,with a note at the bottom that they were taken over the telephone.

The amount of information on Suffrage in books, magazines, libraries and archives is immense. Celebrations for the 100th anniversary of Suffrage are being planned by the Vermont Suffrage Centennial Alliance (VSCA), a committee of about 25 women who represent several organizations.  Sue Racanelli of the League of Women Voters chairs the committee.  On August 22, 2020, a parade of people, floats, and bands will march down Main and State Streets in Montpelier to the State Capitol lawn.  There will be speeches, exhibitor booths, games, food, and music.  Other events include a traveling exhibit on woman’s Suffrage that will go to schools, a traveling play, and programs in various towns.  Check out the VSCA website at vtsuffrage2020.org for details on programs, how to volunteer, and the status of all activities that may be impacted by the coronavirus. 

[Donna Rae Heath is vice-president of the board for the Waterford Historical Society.]