I am a lifelong resident of Havre de Grace. My passion for local history was sparked by Mrs. Krieger, my fourth grade teacher at Havre de Grace Elementary. Using Mrs. Krieger (and countless other Havre de Grace teachers) as my role model, I became a social studies teacher. I began my teaching career at Havre de Grace High School, but am now teaching middle school in Baltimore City. In my spare time, I volunteer for the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center documenting the role of Marylanders in the Women’s Suffrage Movement.
As a teacher, I have to give a quiz, right?
- Which of these women were suffragists?
- Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Elizabeth Forbes
- Grace Thompson
D. Lillian Morrison Caponic
E. All of the above
So, maybe this was a trick question. Don’t you hate it when teachers do that?
All of the women above were women suffragists. Most of us know all about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, but very few know that thousands of women across the country worked for women’s rights. And without those grassroots, local level suffragists, Stanton and Anthony’s movement would never have succeeded.
The women of Havre de Grace were among those thousands. The first known suffragist group in our city was formed in 1911. A group of young ladies that lived in the Ontario/Otsego Street neighborhood, formed a literary society and called it “H.D.G. Suffs.”
So far, I have been able to find descendants of two of the ladies.
Laura Morrison Caponic (pictured in quiz above) and May Bauer Lawder (pictured below).
Do you know any of the others? I would love to be able to include their pictures in my records.!
The Harford County Just Government League was formed in 1912 and Havre de Grace was a frequent stop on the women’s suffrage circuit. The Opera House hosted one of those rallies and attendees listened to a speech by Katharine Houghton Hepburn, a suffrage leader from Connecticut and mother of actress Katharine Hepburn. (Picture below)
Havre de Grace suffragists made the national stage in 1913 when the Army of the Hudson stopped here. The Army of the Hudson, led by General Rosalie Jones, marched from New York to Washington, D.C. in order to attend the 1913 Woman Suffrage Parade.
Photo from Cecil County History Facebook Page
Grace Thompson (pictured in the quiz above) and the Wilson Social Club escorted the Army of the Hudson over the Susquehanna and into Havre de Grace. The Army stayed at the Harford House and enjoyed the accommodations and fine home cooking.
Fast forward to 1915 and Havre de Grace was once more the center of Women’s Suffrage in the county. This time, we hosted the Prairie Schooner from the Maryland Just Government League. The Harford County Prairie Schooner Campaign was organized by Elizabeth Forbes (pictured in quiz above), the vice president of the Harford County chapter of the Just Government League.
It is this event that we are commemorating with a historic marker in Tydings Park. For more about that event, visit my blog.
Please join us on March 27 at 1:00 PM in Tydings Park for the dedication of our Women’s Suffrage Historical Marker. We also have a wonderful lineup of events for the week. – Amy Rosenkrans, PhD
