campaigning for votes:
wOmAn suffrage in allen county
SUFFRAGE DAY: OCTOBER 20, 1914
PARADE FOR "PEACE AND JUSTICE"
How many people marched? Where were they from? Hover over the image below to find the answer.
OVER 1,000 SUFFRAGISTS MARCHED
Suffragists came from across Allen, Hardin, Auglaize, Van Wert, and Hancock Counties.
Lima, Elida, Delphos, Bluffton, Harrod, Wapakoneta, Findlay, Bellefontaine, Van Wert, Beaverdam, Cridersville, Columbus Grove, and other cities had delegations represented.
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Excitement grew late in the afternoon on October 20, 1914. Stores throughout Lima, including members of the Grocers and Meat Dealers Association, closed to allow their clerks to participate in the day’s parade. As marchers lined up, mothers brought young children to the Political Equality Club’s Lima Day Nursery on the corner of West High and Elizabeth Streets to be cared for during the march.
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Spectators, suffragists, and anti-suffragists lined the streets of Lima to witness the parade for “peace and justice.” Sent off by Du Pere’s band playing “Onward Christian Soldiers,” at least one thousand suffragists began to march at 4 p.m. “The suffrage colors of gold and white were everywhere,” Lima Republican Gazette read on October 21, 1914. Many women dressed in white, carried banners or pennants, and wore ribbons demanding “Votes for Women,” “Equal Suffrage,” and “Political Equality.” Many people—marchers and spectators—wore yellow roses to support voting equality.
Image labelled "Suffrage Rally," but that is believed to be of the Suffrage Day Parade in 1914. Allen County Museum Collection.
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Suffragists marched within divisions and under area banners, while others rode in the fifty cars in the parade. As marshal of the parade, Gail Watson led the “Mounted Division” where young women marshals rode horses. Mildred Rudy drove the evening's speakers, Carrie Chapman Catt and Harriet Taylor Upton, in a decorated car from her father’s garage. Then came a “Peace” float decorated in white with four suffragists representing peace, justice, abundance, and generosity. Suffragists who were unable to walk in the parade rode in the Decorated Automobile Division. The Delphian Club Division showcased the growth of women’s enfranchisement by showing states and countries where women had the vote. Twenty veteran suffragists over sixty to sixty-five years old rode in vehicles in the Suffrage Pioneer Division.
The largest division—the Homemakers Division led by Isabelle Kahle, an 83-year-old veteran suffragist—was for all women, especially those who were not involved in clubs, because "women are all homemakers," Sara Douglass said to Lima Republican Gazette on October 17, 1914. Civil War Veterans marched in support of women’s suffrage carrying the flags that they fought under. School girls carried a banner with the words “Future Voters,” while school boys carried signs that said “Let Our Mammas Vote.” College women dressed in their caps and gowns marched in the College Women Division. African American women’s clubs and men from the Second Baptist Church formed another division. One of the largest divisions included business women.
"We are not marching for effect but it is to be a band of serious, earnest women, striving to show the injustice of the present voting system of the state."
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-Bessie Crayton
Lima, Ohio
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As quoted in
The Lima Daily News
on October 15, 1914
How did Bessie Crayton, President of the Allen County Political Equality Club,
describe the marchers?
(Hover over this photo to find out.)
School teachers also marched. Although organized under Captain Frank Bell, the Men’s Division “failed to materialize,” according to Lima Republican Gazette on October 21, 1914.
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In addition to these divisions, the women also marched under area banners. Elizabeth Pflum held the Allen County banner. Bessie Crayton walked under the Shawnee township banner.
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Lima City Band and the Mandolin Club directed by Willard Ohler provided music during the parade.
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Click here to read a detailed account of Suffrage Day.
Read "With the Band" a poem dedicated the to Suffrage Day parade.
parade route
The start of the parade and gathering location for the suffragists is in green. Follow the route of the parade by the blue arrows. The purple dot signifies the end of the parade.
Parade Start
Marchers lined up here
Lillian McFarland
of Wapakoneta
Stop: City Bank
Augusta Steiner
of Bluffton
Stop: Y.M.C.A.
Members of the Soap Box Brigade carried soap boxes and stopped on corners.
They stood on their soap boxes, giving speeches and advertising the evening’s talks.
Hover over the map to reveal their locations.
Florine Folsom
of Bellfountaine
Stop: Court House
Sara Douglass' speech location is unknown.
Harriet Ragland
of Lima
Stop: Cincinnati Building
Mabel Breese
of Lima
Stop: Buckeye Building
Parade End
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Lima Day Nursery
Map of Lima, date unknown. Allen County Museum Collection, 1513.37.
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Renowned Speakers
In the evening, two thousand people crowded into Memorial Hall in Lima, Ohio. Performing on the stage decorated in white and gold, a girls choir directed by Millie Sontaag sang suffrage-themed songs. Martha and Marcella Pflum played the violin and piano, and Fraser Austin performed a solo. Prominent women involved in the planning of the day’s events—Bessie Crayton, President of the Political Equality Club and who presided over the meeting; the evening's performers; and the soap box brigade—sat on the stage among suffrage banners flown in the parade.
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Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, and Harriet Taylor Upton, President of Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, gave speeches. President Upton was confident that women would get the vote in the fall. However, Allen County women were unable to vote in any election other than those for school boards for another six years.
Scroll over the photographs below to read quotes from Harriet Taylor Upton (left) and Carrie Chapman Catt (right).
"Woman Suffrage is applying the principles of the home to the state. The country has been 'daddied' to death. We have had Pilgrim Fathers and every other kind of fathers until we feel more than half orphaned. Now we will mother the state for a while."
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-Harriet Taylor Upton
Memorial Hall, Lima
October 20, 1914
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As quoted in Lima Republican Gazette on October 21, 1914
"The world is shaken by a calamity that seems to prove that there is no longer evolution, civilization or progress. It is the duty of the Ohio voter to prove that progress does still exist [...]​
No woman is asking for the franchise as a privilege, nor an honor. No man is granting it as a gift. It is a solemn duty of man to extend suffrage to woman and it is a solemn duty of woman to accept."
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-Carrie Chapman Catt,
Memorial Hall, Lima
October 20, 1914
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As quoted in Lima Republican Gazette on October 21, 1914