Mar 30, 2022
PAT CROSSLEY/Sun-Gazette Members of the community and elected officials joined in celebrating the placement of a suffrage marker on the lawn of the YWCA of North Central PA. The marker is one of five in the state which represents a significant site in the history of women’s suffrage.
In 1914, a group of area women joined together to organize the Williamsport Suffrage Club at the local YWCA.
“The group was led by strong women that served as organizers with the suffrage movement and became very prominent in conventions and politics,” Caroline Balliet, a representative of the League of Women Voters of Lycoming County, told the crowd which had gathered at the YWCA to celebrate the placing of a Suffrage Marker on the front lawn there.
The recent event was reminiscent of those days in the early 1900’s when momentum was gathering in the country in support of giving women the legal right to vote.
For this year’s celebration, women representing various organizations were joined by local elected officials in the festivities. There was music from that era with titles such as “She’s Good Enough to be your Baby’s Mother and she is Good Enough to Vote with You” sung by retired music instructor Lucy Henry. Women dressed in period costumes and draped with sashes stating “Votes for Women” offered a glimpse into the early days of the Suffrage Movement.
The marker was placed at the YWCA as part of the National Votes for Women Trail, which is a project of the National Collaborative for Women’s Sites. It highlights the fact that the Justice Bell, a replica of the Liberty Bell passed through Williamsport as part of a statewide campaign to promote passage of the Nineteenth Amendment which gave women the legal right to vote.
The Justice Bell was cast in bronze and modeled after the Liberty Bell. It traveled throughout the state with its clapper tied to prevent the bell from ringing until women had won the right to vote, according to Balliet.
Even before that time, several notable members of the early Suffrage Movement had visited Williamsport, including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the founding mother of the movement, Lucretia Mott, of Philadelphia.
The 48th annual statewide convention of the Pennsylvania Woman’s Suffrage Association was also held in Williamsport in 1916.
“The Nineteenth Amendment finally passed on June 4, 1919, though the real celebration would happen the following year when the Constitution was formally amended,” Balliet said.
“Banners were waved, balloons were released, the Williamsport Fire Bell was rung and the fire whistle sounded. All of this was followed by a celebration at Brandon Park, complete with the Repasz Band,” she added.
The following year, following the first presidential election in which women could legally vote, a group of local suffragists gathered at the local YWCA to listen to the radio for the results.
Robyn Young, a board member of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, who along with Mary Sieminski, a local historian, were co-nominators for the YWCA being picked as a site for a marker.
The trail is a project of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, Young explained. For the last five years, the organization has entered over 2,300 suffragists into a national database. The William G. Pomeroy Foundation has paid for five markers to be placed in each of the 50 states to honor women’s suffrage work. Williamsport was one of the five sites chosen.
“Most people know of Susan B. Anthony, Anna Howard Shaw, Lucretia Mott,” Young said, “our focus is on local women who did the actual work of convincing half the population to give them the right to vote.”
One of the reasons that the site at the YWCA was chosen is that there had been a Suffrage march here and there were photos documenting the fact, Young said prior to the unveiling of the marker.
“There really are no markers in Pennsylvania (commemorating) suffrage marches. I thought they were really important because the women went around for two years doing these marches in each of the 67 counties of Pennsylvania,” Young said.
In her closing remarks, Dawn Linn, chief executive officer of the YWCA Northcentral PA, said that having the marker here is a “proud moment for Lycoming County, the [YWCA] and for all that has been done to ensure that the next generations of women and girls are free, empowered to follow their hearts and talents.”
“I am grateful for our history and I am inspired by their strong determination to change the world,” she stated.
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