Seneca Falls

Lately I’ve been thinking about Myrtle and Eloise, two of the strongest, smartest, funniest and most compassionate women I’ve ever known. It was my good fortune to have both as grandmothers and to have them stick around until I was old enough to have the kinds of conversations you don’t always think to have until after you’ve left childhood behind. At 35 I still had three living grandparents. Lucky me!

While it’s normal for me to think of them daily, the focus of my recent musings has been more about the looming presidential election than standard reminiscences of times spent together. Don’t worry people, I am not about to throw myself into the political viper pit and start blogging about my views of the candidates. I just want to chat about my grannies. I have a pretty good idea of what they would have thought about each of the candidates and for whom they would have voted if they were casting ballots on November 8^th. What I don’t know, and what I can only imagine, is what it would have felt like for them, women born before or shortly after the right to vote was something afforded to both sexes, to have the choice to vote for a woman for president of the United States.

Myrtle was ten years old when the 19^th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920. She certainly would have been old enough to understand its significance. Sadly, I don’t believe we ever had a conversation about it. We talked about many other major events, especially the Depression, but not this. I wish I’d thought to ask her what she remembered. I’d like to know how her father felt about it and how that might have compared to the feelings of her mother. And what about Eloise? What did her parents think?

Did their mothers, my great-grandmothers, run out and vote the first chance they got, or did it take them a bit of time to exert their rights? What kind of pressure, if any, did they face from their husbands, fathers, and brothers? What kind of pressure did they face from their mothers, sisters and friends?

I don’t know about you, but I came to the history-is-fun party a little late in life. I had no idea that voting prior to 1920 was even an option for some U.S. women. Believe it or not, in 1869, just four years after the end of the Civil War, the first American women were granted the right to vote in the Territory of Wyoming. Twenty-one years later, when it became a state, they kept the right as part of the state constitution. By 1896, Colorado, Utah and Idaho had amended their constitutions as well. Within the next twelve years the Territory of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington all followed suit. Check out this article at history.com to learn more and see where I got some of my information.

During the summer of 2014, Calvin and I ventured north of Corning on a series of historical day trips. If you’re ever in the Finger Lakes region of the state make sure you take time to stop at some of these attractions. And, as an FYI, if you are going on a historical treasure hunt, Auburn is in close proximity to Seneca Falls and has some fascinating sites to explore as well (Think Harriet Tubman!). You could certainly choose to stay the night nearby and do them all in one shot. I’ll focus on Auburn in a future post; today it’s all about Seneca Falls.

The town sits along the Cayuga-Seneca Canal near the northwestern corner of Cayuga Lake. It’s within easy access of Ithaca, Rochester and Syracuse. Check out this link for more information about all that the town has to offer.

The main reason for our visit was the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. “The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.” – Declaration of Sentiments, July, 1848

The Visitor Center has some interesting displays and artifacts pertaining to women’s rights. Just next-door is one of the most important sites in the suffrage movement, the Wesleyan Chapel. This is where the first Women’s Rights Convention was held on July 19^th – 20^th, 1848. Don’t miss the Waterwall in Declaration Park, a fabulous 100-foot-long wall inscribed with the entire text of the Declaration of Sentiments and the names of the individuals who signed it at the end of the convention. Then drive down the road to the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the five women who organized the convention and the only one who lived in town.

“He has created a false public sentiment, by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated but are deemed of little account in man.” – Declaration of Sentiments, July, 1848

As an interesting side note, the Declaration of Sentiments was signed by 68 women and 32 men, including Frederick Douglass. About one-third of all convention-goers signed the Declaration. Many of the others were afraid to sign their names to a document that was so controversial.

While my grandmothers were certainly not pushing the establishment to accept modern or controversial proposals, they did encourage me to think for myself and do what I believe to be right. And, on November 8^th, that is exactly what I’m going to do.