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Women in the West Virginia Woman Suffrage Movement


Annie Caldwell Boyd
Born in Wheeling in 1842, Annie Caldwell was the daughter of Alfred and Martha Caldwell. Her father, a lawyer, served as mayor of Wheeling and Virginia State Senator before the Civil War. Annie married George Edmund Boyd in 1863, and the couple had three children, including Beulah Boyd Ritchie. A lawyer, George Boyd held positions as county and circuit court judge. Annie Boyd was active in the woman suffrage cause from its organizational beginning in 1895, holding office in the state association and with the Wheeling group. She did not live to see women obtain the right to vote, dying in Wheeling on February 9, 1918.

Izetta Jewell Kenney Brown
Izetta Jewell Kenney was born in 1883 in New Jersey. An actress, she married West Virginia Congressman William Gay Brown in 1914. After his death in 1916, she turned the Preston County farm into a modern dairy operation. She was active in the suffrage movement and served with the National Woman's Party. A Democrat, Brown spoke at both the 1920 and 1924 Democratic National Conventions and she ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1922 and 1924. In 1927, she married Hugh Miller. During the New Deal, she worked as a regional director for the WPA. She died November 15, 1978, in California.

Picture: Izetta Jewell Kenney Brown, Brochure For Candidacy of John W. Davis For Presidency

Izetta Jewell Kenney Brown

Irene B. Bullard
Irene B. Bullard was born in Radford, Virginia, about 1877 and received a degress in medicine from the University of Michigan in 1903. She moved to Charleston, West Virginia, and remained for 25 years. She became active in the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. Bullard died in March 1947 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Cara (Cora) Little Ebert
Cara (Cora) Little was born in Maryland in 1886 and attended the Allegheny County Academy and the Beethoven Conservatory of Music. She married J. Gale Ebert of Parkersburg in 1906. Active in the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association, she served as president 1914-1915. Ebert later was active in the Republican Party and served 12 years as the National Republican committeewoman from West Virginia, succeeding Lenna Lowe Yost in 1932. In Parkersburg, she was district manager for the Mutual Life Insurance Company. She subsequently managed the family business, S. T. Little Jewelry Company, in Cumberland, Maryland. Ebert died in February 1977 in Florida.

Picture: Cora Ebert, West Virginians of 1934-1935

Cora Ebert

Ada Enid Haldeman Ford
Ada Enid Haldeman was born in Minnesota in 1883. She graduated from Fairmont Normal School and taught school before marrying Gene Worth Ford in 1909. She helped organize the Women's Suffrage League in Taylor County. Ford later was active in Democratic politics and served on the Democratic State Executive Committee 1924-1936. She died January 22, 1979, in Bridgeport.

Henrietta Arbenz Romine Fulks
Born in Wheeling in 1890, Henrietta Arbenz was the daughter of Henry J. Arbenz and Carolina Knobloch, and she married Edward S. Romine in 1910. Romine was active in the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association and served as the congressional chairman. She was a charter member of the West Virginia League of Women Voters and served as its second president. Romine, a widow, married George Fulks in 1937 and died November 1, 1985.

Picture: Henrietta Arbenz Romine, Charleston Gazette, January 24, 1926

Henrietta Arbenz Romine

Margaret J. Harn Grove
Born in Maryland in 1832, Margaret Harn attended Shippensburg Academy and taught school. She married Martin Luther Grove in 1858 and was the mother of four children, including Jessie Manley. She was active in the suffrage movement and served as the first president of the Fairmont Political Equality Club. Grove died in Fairmont in 1933.

M. Anna Hall
Margaret Anna Parker was born in Ohio County in 1847. During the Civil War, she worked as a nurse at Sprigg House in Wheeling and at Grafton. She married Joseph Hall in 1869 and they had four children. Hall served as national president of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, 1902-1903, and was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Active in the cause of woman suffrage in Wheeling and at the state level, she was elected president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association in 1904. She died May 17, 1928, in Wheeling.

Picture: M. Anna Hall, 1903. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Kansas, 1903

Anna Hall

Alice Comerford Haymond
Alice, better known as Allie, Haymond was born in 1853 and married Lindsay B. Haymond in 1872. She was a registered pharmacist and served as president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association, 1911-1912. She also held office with the Fairmont suffrage club and was its president when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920. Haymond died in 1943 in Maryland.

Florence Hoge
Florence Hoge was born in Wheeling in 1873 to William and Virginia Hyland Hoge. She was active in the woman suffrage movement, holding positions with the Wheeling and West Virginia equal suffrage organizations. Hoge was the first chair of the West Virginia branch of the National Woman's Party. She died March 25, 1951, in Clearwater, Florida.

Picture: Florence Hoge, Wheeling Intelligencer, May 1, 1916

Florence Hoge

Harriet B. Jones
Harriet Jones was born in Pennsylvania in 1856 and grew up in Terra Alta, West Virginia. After graduating from Wheeling Female College in 1875, she graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Baltimore in 1884. In 1886, she opened a private medical practice in Wheeling, then became assistant superintendent of Weston State Hospital in 1888, and returned to Wheeling to establish a women's hospital in 1892. Harriet Jones was the first woman in the state to be a licensed physician. She was instrumental in the establishment of the West Virginia Industrial Home for Girls in 1897 and served on the board of directors. Jones was an active crusader against tuberculosis, helped form the West Virginia Anti-Tuberculosis League in 1907, of which she served as executive secretary, and advocated for establishment of a state sanitarium (Hopemont Sanitarium), opened near Terra Alta in 1913. Prominent in the West Virginia woman suffrage movement from 1895 to 1920, she was elected president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association in 1906. She also was active in the Woman's Club, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the League of Women Voters. Jones was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1924, serving two terms. She died in Marshall County on June 28, 1943.

Picture: Harriet B. Jones. Boyd B. Stutler Collection, West Virginia State Archives

Harriet Jones

Jessie Grove Manley
Born in Maryland in 1858 to Margaret J. Harn Grove and Martin Luther Grove, Florence Jessie Grove came to West Virginia with her mother and sisters after her father died in 1870. After attending the West Virginia College at Flemington, Jessie entered Fairmont Normal School, graduating in 1877. She taught school before marrying Charles E. Manley, then deputy sheriff of Marion County, in 1878. Charles Manley later became county clerk, during which time she served as his assistant. Jessie Manley was active in the West Virginia suffrage movement from 1895 to 1920. She and her mother were longtime members of the Fairmont Political Equality Club, and Jessie served as the first president of the West Virginia Woman Suffrage Association in 1895. She died in 1940.

Picture: Jessie Grove Manley, The Woman's Edition of Fairmont Index, 1896

Jessie Grove Manley

Nancy Murray Mann
Nancy Murray was born near Bridgeport in 1868, graduated from the Western College for Women in Ohio, and married Frank Nixon Mann in 1892 in Monroe County. She and her husband moved to Huntington in 1910, where she was active in the WCTU and Woman's Club. She also was active in the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association, serving as one of the group of speakers who travelled around the state in support of the state referendum in 1916. Mann founded the Huntington Chapter of the YWCA and also served on the board of governors for the Greenbrier College for Women. After women got the right to vote, she was active in first Democratic and later Republican politics. Mann died in Huntington on August 27, 1961.

Anna Belle Ayers McKinney
Anna Belle Ayers was born in 1852 to Daniel and Hannah Bunner Ayers. After graduating from Fairmont State Normal School in 1872 and teaching for a few years, she married Owen S. McKinney in 1874. She was a charter member of the Fairmont Political Equality Club, established in 1895, and later served as president. She was among the group of women who went to Charleston for the special session of the legislature called to ratify the 19th Amendment. McKinney died in 1921.

Margaret Ellen McKinney
Born in 1877 to Anna and Owen S. McKinney, Margaret Ellen McKinney attended the Pennsylvania College for Women. She was connected to the Associated Charities of Fairmont for several years, serving as secretary, and later worked with the State Board of Children's Guardians. She held several positions with the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association and was president in 1913. McKinney died in 1963.

Daisy M. Stephenson Peadro
Daisy M. Stephenson was born in Parkersburg in 1881 and married John Thomas Peadro in 1908. She held several positions with the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association, and she later was active in the Republican Party. Peadro was a charter member of the Parkersburg Business and Professional Women’s Club and the Parkersburg Woman’s Club. She operated Peadro Insurance Agency for a number of years. Peadro was appointed to the State Capitol Building Commission in 1926 and was the only woman to serve on the commission during the years the state capitol was built. She died March 11, 1959, in Wood County.

Picture: Daisy M. Stephenson Peadro, West Virginians of 1934-1935

Daisy M. Stephenson Peadro

Beulah Boyd Ritchie
Anna Beulah Boyd was born in 1864 in Wheeling to Annie Caldwell Boyd and George Edmund Boyd. She attended Wooster University and taught in Missouri and West Virginia, the latter including Fairmont State. Beulah married Charles M. Ritchie in 1893, and they had one daughter. She was a longtime member of the Fairmont Political Equality Club and served as president of the West Virginia Woman Suffrage Association, 1900-1903. In addition, she was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Woman's Club. Ritchie died October 4, 1939, in Warren, Pennsylvania.

Julia Walker Ruhl
Julia Walker was born in Connecticut in 1861 and graduated from Mt. Holyoke College in 1881. She taught at Broaddus College, 1881-1885, before her 1890 marriage to John Ruhl. Julia Ruhl was active in the YMCA auxiliary and helped found both the Clarksburg Woman's Club and the Clarksburg Public Library. She served as president of the West Virginia Federation of Women’s Clubs from 1912 to 1914, as president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association from 1917 to 1920, and as first president of the West Virginia League of Women Voters from 1920 to 1922. She later served on the Clarksburg City Council. Ruhl died on June 2, 1956, in Washington, DC.

Picture: Julia Ruhl, The Silver Gleam, Sc2014-019, West Virginia State Archives

Julia Ruhl

Anne Manley Southern
Anne Manley was born in Marion County in 1857 to Harrison and Sarah Righter Manley, thus making her the sister of Jessie Grove Manley's husband Charles. She married bookkeeper J. Rymer Southern in 1883. Southern was president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association in 1905 and died in Marion County on April 5, 1907.

Alma McWhorter West
Alma McWhorter was born in 1878 near Lost Creek in Harrison County to John M. and Mary Davisson McWhorter. She attended West Virginia Wesleyan College and taught school before marrying Olandus West in 1906. Active in the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association, West served as chair of the Harrison County Equal Suffrage organization. Later, she ran unsuccessfully twice for the House of Delegates. She also was active in the Woman's Club, serving as president of the West Virginia Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1934, the American Red Cross, and the YWCA. West died May 14, 1951, in Clarksburg.

Picture: Alma McWhorter West, Sc2014-019, West Virginia State Archives

Alma McWhorter West

Lenna Lowe Yost
Born in 1878 to Jonathan S. and Columbia Basnett Lowe, Lenna Lowe graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College and in 1899 married Ellis Yost. She became active in the WCTU and rose to the presidency in 1908, a position she held for the next decade. She joined the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association in 1905 and led the state referendum campaign for an amendment to the state constitution in 1916. During that campaign she became president of the WVESA, and she served as president 1916-1917. In 1918, Yost became the national WCTU's legislative representative and the Washington, DC, correspondent for the Union Signal, but she returned to West Virginia to lead the effort to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. She later was active in the Republican Party, serving as the National Republican committeewoman from West Virginia for a number of years. Yost died on May 7, 1972, in Washington, DC.

Picture: Lenna Lowe Yost, Progressive West Virginians, 1923

Lenna Lowe Yost

Names of Women in the West Virginia Woman Suffrage Movement


"Fighting the Long Fight": Introduction