Other notable area activists

Helena Neilson Simmons (1876-1942)

Social reformer and political activist Helena Neilson Simmons and husband Harriman N. Simmons moved to Elizabeth in 1898, where she began her involvement in the suffrage movement in 1914. In 1915 she was elected president of the Elizabeth Equal Suffrage League, an affiliate of the Equal Franchise Society of New Jersey (EFSNJ), founded in 1910 at Castle Point, Hoboken. In 1915 the EFSNJ voted to disband and merge with the NJWSA. Simmons maintained her presidency until 1920, when the Elizabeth League reorganized as the Elizabeth League of Women’s Voters and elected her as the first president.

Fannie Elizabeth Bates (1879-1980)

Fannie Elizabeth Bates, proprietress of the historic Hampton Hall of Cranford, was the town’s leading suffragist. In 1912, she was a founder of the Equal Franchise League of Cranford. Like the Elizabeth League, the Cranford League was modeled after the EFSNJ. Although similar to the NJWSA in method and ideology, Bates’ Cranford League was allied with the more militant New York Equality League, a small, centralized organization made up of business and professional women. The primary focus of both Leagues was to win Republican and Democratic endorsement of a suffrage amendment to the state constitution.

Bates represented the Cranford League at the hearings for the suffrage bill in Trenton. She marched in the May 4, 1911 New York City suffrage parade and the October 25, 1913 parade in Newark.

New Jersey Men’s League for Equal Suffrage

Several prominent Union County men, some married to leading suffragettes, were key figures in the suffrage movement. Champlain Lord Riley of Plainfield, husband of Louisa Riley, announced the formation of the New Jersey Men’s League for Equal Suffrage at the March 23, 1910 state convention of the NJWSA held in Plainfield. Three of the League’s elected officers were Plainfield residents, including the President, William L. Saunders, M.D.; Secretary, Edward S. Krans, M.D.; and Treasurer, Edward F. Feickert, local businessman and husband of Lillian Feickert. The organization had a start-up membership of seventeen and within a year, a membership with representation from all 21 New Jersey counties and one member of Congress on its rolls. C. R. Riley and Arthur B. Jones, both of Plainfield, would later be elected to the offices of president and secretary, respectively.

The Men’s League passed resolutions that reaffirmed their expressed sympathy with the movement for woman suffrage; appointed a state committee of 63 members which met monthly; appointed a committee that marched in the 1913 Newark suffrage parade; and held a mass meeting in Elizabeth at which Mayor George L. LaMonte spoke.

Victory

In 1920, after decades of political organizing and aggressive advocacy by Union County suffragists and others throughout the state and nation, ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women’s suffrage was achieved. New Jersey was the 29th state to ratify when the legislature voted affirmatively on February 10, 1920.

For The Complete Story of the County’s creation, click here to purchase a copy of the Union County 150th Anniversary Magazine.