Votes for Women! : Concord Suffrage League
- Emma Leuschner
- 13 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Considering Concord Township's longtime, strong Quaker presence, the area has long championed equality. Women’s suffrage movements gained traction nationally at the end of the 19th century, and the topic was certainly discussed and advocated for at the village level in Concordville.
As early as the 1880s, suffrage and women’s rights were debated and discussed in Concord’s public forums, such as the Concordville Lyceum.
The rise of the Prohibition political party, especially during the 1898 National Election, made women’s suffrage a supported item on their platform. Beloved Concord Township resident and business owner, Pennock E. Sharpless, received the 1898 Prohibition Party nomination for Congressman at Large, and endorsed “equal suffrage, regardless of sex” as a principle of the Prohibition party.
The national rise of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union through the late 1800s and into the turn of the century gave women the platform to advocate for themselves and on political issues. The Concord WCTU was particularly active and influential, supported by Quaker ideals and strong Prohibition political figures, such as Pennock E. Sharpless, Lewis Palmer, and Frank P. Willits. The Concord WCTU was organized in 1888, before an official Concord suffrage organization formed.
The Concord Suffrage League (also known as the Concord Women’s Suffrage League) had significant crossover with the Concord Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Concord Township residents such as Mrs. Isabel Shortlidge, Mrs. Jennie H. Patterson, and Mrs. Hannah H. Palmer were active in the Concord WCTU, the newly formed Concord Suffrage League, and the county-level Delaware County Woman Suffrage Association. Women’s suffrage groups were organized in the county by the late 1890s. The Delaware County Woman Suffrage Association (also known as the Delaware County Equal Suffrage Society) held public meetings and brought in guest lecturers from around the region.
Other local suffrage groups took root alongside the Concord League. The Thornbury Woman Suffrage Party was organized around the same time. It comprised Concord township residents who lived close to the Thornbury area, such as Mrs. Samuel Newlin Hill and Mrs. Ulysses G. Cornogg.
The Concord Suffrage League held various public conventions, lectures, and debates in the township. In the Spring of 1909, the Concord hosted a public discussion on suffrage that featured acclaimed suffragist Rachel Foster Avery, best known for working alongside Susan B. Anthony and serving as the corresponding secretary for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The "Angel of New York's Chinatown," Ms. Rose Livingston, addressed suffragists including Concordville residents, at Media in May 1915. Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston, acclaimed suffragist, addressed the members of the Concord WCTU in September 1915.
Rachel Avery; Deborah Knox Livingston; Rose Livingston
The husbands of many Concord women were also involved in supporting suffrage efforts. Concord resident Frank P. Willits, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture, was a steadfast suffrage activist and husband to a Concord WCTU officer, Elizabeth Willits. Lewis Palmer, a Quaker leader and influential Concord farmer, served as the Treasurer of the Concord Suffrage League in the early 1900s and held League meetings in his home. His wife, Hannah Palmer, was one of the founding members of the Concord WCTU and the Concord Suffrage League. Area political figures such as Harry R. Heyburn, a Pennsylvania State Representative, and Richard J. Baldin, a Pennsylvania State Representative and Senator, supported women’s suffrage and voted in favor of the issue.
While women’s suffrage was largely supported in Concord, not everyone was keen on advocating for women’s rights. Ms. Ethel Lee Rankin, a suffrage activist and lecturer, was denied the ability to speak at the Brandywine Summit Camp Meeting in the summer of 1915. Rankin was previously making the rounds in the area on the WCTU lecture circuit and stirred up much support and conversation around women’s suffrage. Rankin came to the Brandywine Summit Camp Meeting grounds to arrange a lecture on suffrage and was immediately denied and warned that such a lecture was against the ethics of the camp.
The fall of 1915 marked the arrival of the Suffrage Bell, also known as the Justice Bell or Women’s Liberty Bell, to Concord Township. The Suffrage Bell was cast as a replica of the Liberty Bell and commissioned by Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association leader Katharine Ruschenberger in 1915. The bell was mounted on the back of a truck and traveled to every county in Pennsylvania to bring awareness to women’s suffrage. When the Bell arrived in Concordville, there was a large celebration and parade from Concordville to Chelsea along Concord Road. Seventeen vehicles, a 25-piece band from Elwyn, and a large crowd of prominent Concord citizens lined Concord Road to celebrate “Votes for Women.” Family names represented in the affair were Shortlidge, Brinton, Haws, Scott, Sharpless, Hill, Willits, Styer, Pascall, Harvey, Kelly, Temple, Hull, Cheyney, Cornog, Darlington, Broomall, Bishop, Taylor, Green, and Fairlamb. The Suffrage Bell is currently housed at Valley Forge National Park.
Suffragists' struggles eventually paid off with the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 18th, 1920. Women finally had the right to vote. However, the work of area suffragists and WCTU groups did not stop following this landmark decision. Suffragists continued to advocate for women to exercise their new rights and undertook efforts to encourage voter turnout among women in subsequent elections.
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