Last week, this column examined the life of Belva Lockwood, the town of Royalton resident who was the first woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court and run for the U. S. Presidency twice. She died on May 19, 1917 at the age of 86, less than six months before the male voters of New York State approved an amendment to the NYS Constitution in November of that year granting women the right to vote in New York state and local elections. Although Belva Lockwood is well-known in Niagara County for her role in promoting women’s rights, there were many unsung heroes and countless, unnamed suffragists who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to achieve this goal.
The year 1869 was a pivotal one in the history of women’s suffrage in the United States. After working very closely for over 20 years (since the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848), the proponents of abolition and women’s suffrage split that year over the proposed Fifteenth Amendment giving 2 million newly freed African-American men the right to vote before 15 million white women. This split created two rival organizations within the women’s suffrage movement. The first, the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA), was led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The second, the American Women’s Suffrage Association (AWSA), was led by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe. Both organizations continued to campaign for women’s suffrage, but NWSA’s platform was boarder and sought other rights for women including property, divorce, child custody and equal pay for equal work. Their membership was almost exclusively women. AWSA’s focus was mainly on women’s suffrage, with men and African-Americans among their ranks. It would be more than 20 years, in 1890, before the two groups finally merged again to form the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA).
In May, 1870, two separate meetings were held in New York City, in two different halls, as each organization prepared to move ahead independent of the other. The NWSA met at Apollo Hall where “Mrs. Lockwood, of Washington, read a resolution enacting that all public offices should be thrown open to women, and that all examinations for positions in the civil service should be open to either sex.” At Steinway Hall, the AWSA heard Henry Ward Beecher predict “that in fifteen years hence it would seem strange that the rights of woman to suffrage had been denied.” He did not realize it would be almost 50 years before this became law.
A few months later, on July 30, 1870, a notice ran in the Lockport Daily Journal announcing “A National Union Women’s Suffrage Convention, has been appointed to be held at Grant’s Hall, Niagara Falls, Tuesday and Wednesday next. We are informed that prominent and talented speakers will be present and address the meeting.” Another news brief mentioned that Susan B. Anthony would speak at the convention and that she “is as irrepressible than ever, and is everywhere present to do battle for the cause she espoused some twenty years ago…she will give no ‘peace, to the opponents of women’s suffrage.” A few days later, the same paper reported that the Convention had opened “but with small attendance.” It commented that Susan B. Anthony was more “matronly in her style” than the other speakers but then ended the notice with a statement: “The idea of Susan being ‘matronly’.” It did not give a review of any of the proceedings of the convention or what it accomplished. It would be interesting to know if Belva Lockwood attended this meeting as well.
It may come as a surprise to women today, but not every female wanted the right to vote. A few years after this convention, the Lockport Common Council held a public meeting to hear opinions on whether or not licenses should be granted to saloons for the coming year. One woman, identified as Mrs. L. A. Sherman (most likely a misprint and should be Mrs. L. A. Spalding), speaking “on behalf of the women of lower town,” spoke out against the licensing but also stated that “she is not a believer in woman’s suffrage…and made an earnest appeal to women that they should use their influence to induce men to cast their votes for moral men.” Forty years later, in 1917, similar sentiment was still held by many men and women in Niagara County.
Next week: How Niagara County voted on the question of women’s suffrage in 1917