Message from Monmouth County Clerk 2020 Monmouth County Offi cials Christine Giordano Hanlon, Esq.

As you may be aware, this year marks the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Since my offi ce oversees a large part of the elections process for Monmouth County, I am very excited to launch a recognition program of the 19th Amendment Centennial, to commemorate this historic milestone.

Throughout the next year, I encourage you to visit our elections website at www.MonmouthCountyVotes.com and to follow the Monmouth County Clerk’s Offi ce on Facebook, From left to right: Deputy Director Susan M. Kiley, Pat Impreveduto, Director Thomas A. Arnone, Lillian G. Burry and Nick DiRocco Twitter, and Instagram. We will update our pages about the latest news and with historic fl ashbacks honoring the 100th Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, using the hashtag Thomas A. Arnone, Director Susan M. Kiley, Deputy Director #WomensVote100Monmouth. Lillian G. Burry Pat Impreveduto VeryVery ttrulyruly yyours,ours, Dominick “Nick” DiRocco Monmouth County Constitutional Offi cers Christine GGiordanod HHanlon,l EEsq. Monmouth County Clerk

Connect with the County Clerk’s Offi ce: Facebook.com/MonmouthCountyClerk Instagram.com/MonmouthCountyClerk Twitter.com/MonmouthCoClerk Flickr.com/MonmouthCountyClerk Monmouth Monmouth Monmouth Monmouth County Clerk County Sheriff County Surrogate County Prosecutor Christine Giordano Hanlon, Esq. Shaun Golden Rosemarie Peters Christopher Gramiccioni

Special Acknowledgements This 19th Amendment Centennial Commemorative Booklet was written and developed by Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon, Assistant to the County Clerk Jennifer Collins, and 2019 County Clerk Summer Intern Victoria Cattelona. Thank you to Aaron Townsend of the Monmouth County Public Information Offi ce for designing the booklet and to Monmouth County Document Services, under the direction of Mark Allen, for printing the booklets. “Pink Tea” Recognition Event General History of the Suffrage Movement

In commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of New Jersey ratifying the 19th Amendment on February 9, 1920, The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention marked the formal beginning of the American women’s suffrage movement. Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon hosted a “Pink Tea” on February 6, 2020 at the historic Notable suffragists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, demanded legal recognition of women’s Woman’s Club of Matawan. The event was an opportunity for women elected offi cials and election offi cials in political rights and sought to educate the public about women’s suffrage. An outgrowth of the abolitionist Monmouth County, as well as members of the Monmouth County League of Women Voters chapters and the movement, women’s suffrage efforts recognized each individual’s political liberty regardless of gender. The Woman’s Club of Matawan to gather, meet, and collectively recognize the centennial of the women’s suffrage movement coincided with other reforms in a period of American history known as the Progressive Era, which movement. featured public and legislative initiatives to protect laborers, ensure children’s rights, improve public education, mandate temperance, and advance consumer protection. New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way, who is the top election offi cial in the State of New Jersey and oversees the State Division of Elections, served as the keynote speaker and discussed the importance of the historic Multiple organizations formed to support women’s suffrage. Prominent leaders included Carrie Chapman Catt, milestone and the State’s “NJ Women Vote” 19th Amendment Centennial Organization. who led the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and Alice Paul, a New Jersey native, who headed the National Woman’s Party (NWP). Numerous demonstrations, which occasionally involved arrests and Peggy Dellinger, President of the League of Women Voters’ Southern Monmouth Chapter, as well as a trustee physical harm, and lobbying efforts occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. and the exhibit chair for the Township of Ocean Historical Museum, spoke about her “Votes for Women: New Finally, with support from President Woodrow Wilson, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment on June 4, Jersey and Beyond” museum exhibit and provided a historical overview of the women’s suffrage movement. 1919. New Jersey ratifi ed the Nineteenth Amendment on February 9, 1920 and the States ratifi ed the amendment Also, Jesse Burns, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey informed about the national on August 18, 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment prevents the federal government and the states from denying organization’s 100th anniversary. any individual the right to vote on the basis of sex, ultimately extending the right to vote to women and marking the success of a sustained movement that lasted more than seven decades. Timeline of Key Events 1848, July 19-20: Seneca Falls Convention held in New York 1857: Harriet Lafetra petitions New Jersey state legislature to support women’s suffrage 1869: Wyoming becomes fi rst territory to grant women voting rights 1872, November 5: Susan B. Anthony illegally votes in presidential election; later arrested 1873, December 23: Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) founded 1878: Woman Suffrage Amendment proposed to Congress 1884: Therese Walling Seabrook meets with New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee 1887: WTCU’s New Jersey chapter endorses women’s suffrage 1890, February 18: National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) founded 1913, March 3: Suffragists parade on Pennsylvania Avenue 1916, November 7: First congresswoman, Jeannette Rankin, elected 1918, January 9: President Wilson announces support for women’s suffrage 1919, May 21: House passes Nineteenth Amendment 1919, June 4: Senate passes Nineteenth Amendment 1920, February 9: New Jersey ratifi es the Nineteenth Amendment 1920, August 18: States ratify Nineteenth Amendment (L to R) Freeholder Lillian G. Burry, County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon, Surrogate Rosemarie Peters, 1920, August 26: Nineteenth Amendment is offi cially signed into law and Freeholder Deputy Director Sue Kiley Monmouth County and the Suffrage Movement County Clerk’s Archives and History Day and Week

Ocean Grove - Ocean Grove was a vibrant center for women’s suffrage and On Saturday, October 12, 2019, Clerk Hanlon and the Monmouth County temperance activism. Women in the community were uniquely independent as Archives Division of the County Clerk’s Offi ce hosted the 24th Annual early as the Civil War; women owned 69 percent of properties in Ocean Grove, Monmouth County Archives and History Day at the Monmouth County Library and a female doctor practiced medicine there. Sarah Jane Corson Downs, New Headquarters in Manalapan. Jersey’s second state president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), moved to Ocean Grove in the 1880s and served the organization During the event, which celebrates local history, more than 60 local and state when it endorsed women’s suffrage in 1887. Some of the most famous suffragists, history organizations put up displays relating to New Jersey history and their among them Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul, visited Ocean Grove. Margaret organizations. The event’s theme focused on “Four Centuries of Monmouth Wilson, President Wilson’s daughter and a prolifi c singer, performed in the community in 1916 and in 1919. County Women,” to which there was an accompanying exhibit catalog. Shrewsbury - New Jersey was a popular destination for Quakers as early as the The keynote speaker was actress Michele LaRue who presented an anti-suffrage 1670s. The Quakers’ emphasis on the “equality of souls” contributed to an early satire titled “Someone Must Wash the Dishes.” During the event, Clerk Hanlon recognition of women’s value in colonial communities, where women performed hosted a panel discussion featuring volunteers from the Monmouth County in leadership roles and engaged in social activism in regards to abolition, family Historical Association who portrayed fi ve of the women featured in our catalog, Margaret Haskell, Caroline Gallup counseling, and education. Harriet Lafetra, a Hicksite Quaker whose views and Reed, Molly Pitcher, Geraldine Thompson, and Dorothy Hill. Thank you to our performers for bringing the practices were more liberal than those of orthodox Quakers, petitioned the New history and time period of these prominent Monmouth County women to life. Jersey State Legislature for women’s political rights in 1857. Lafetra is buried at the Left – Carrie Chapman Catt, Right – Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Courtesy cemetery located at the Shrewsbury Friends meetinghouse. Library of Congress Clerk Hanlon and the Archives Division also hosted Archives Day Seminars the following week on October Asbury Park - New Jersey women rallied around the 16, 2019, which included actress and storyteller Carol state to promote women’s suffrage. After several years Smith Levin, who performed as suffragette Lillian of political maneuvering, suffrage advocates convinced Feickert. Levin’s performance showcased the career the state legislature to hold a referendum for a women’s suffrage amendment to the state constitution. The of Feickert who served as the New Jersey Women referendum was to be held October 19, 1915. During Suffrage Association’s president between 1912 and the year leading up to the referendum, suffragists 1920. Levin’s presentation also covered the trajectory worked a booth on the Asbury Park Boardwalk to rally of New Jersey women’s involvement in the national support for the passage of the referendum. They also suffrage movement. advertised a pro-suffrage event that was to take place on August 26, 1914 at the Asbury Casino, featuring The County Clerk’s “Four Centuries of Monmouth the prominent Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of County Women” Exhibit Catalog is available online at the National American Women Suffrage Association. MonmouthCountyClerk.com/Archives and in paper copy Unfortunately, the referendum was defeated, despite at the Monmouth County Archives Division, please call their best efforts, and the suffragists turned instead to Volunteers from the Monmouth County Historical Association: (L to R) pursuing a federal women’s suffrage amendment to the Pati Githens who portrayed Margaret Haskell, Maria Hill as Dorothy 732-308-3771. U.S. Constitution. Parker, Kim Brittingham as Caroline Gallup Reed, County Clerk Asbury Park Boardwalk - Courtesy of Library of Congress, Corbis Christine Giordano Hanlon, Carol Filippi as Molly Pitcher, and Cat Historical Collection, 1914 Felix as Geraldine Thompson. 19th Amendment Centennial Essay Contest for Monmouth Suffragist Spotlight Middle School Students Sarah Jane Corson Downs, Ocean Grove At the County Clerk’s 24th Annual Archives and History Day on Saturday, October 14, 2019, Clerk Hanlon Downs became president of the New Jersey Woman’s Christian honored the First, Second, and Third Place Winners of the Middle School 19th Amendment Centennial Essay Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1881. Audiences listened with Contest, sponsored by the Monmouth County Clerk’s Offi ce. rapt attention when Sarah Downs, a social reformer with a booming voice and daunting appearance, condemned alcohol as In recognition of the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, seventh and eighth grade students in Monmouth “the enemy.” Despite her tough demeanor, “Mother Downs” was County were asked to highlight an activist who had a connection to Monmouth County or New Jersey and to kind and loving. explain the importance of his or her role to the ratifi cation of the 19th Amendment. Clerk Hanlon was extremely impressed by the numerous entries we received from students across Monmouth Sarah was born in 1822 to an old Philadelphia family, members County. The winning essays can be viewed on our website, MonmouthCountyVotes.com/Centennial . of the Dutch Reformed Church. When she was fi ve, her father died and, in the 1830s, her widowed mother moved the family Congratulations to our winners: to New Jersey, initially in Pennington. Sarah experienced “a conversion” at seventeen and became an Evangelical Methodist. First Place: Isabelle Chapman - Eighth Grader at Maple Place Middle School, While teaching school in New Egypt, she met a widower, Oceanport Methodist circuit minister Rev. Charles S. Downs. After they Teacher: Mrs. Cathy Kornek married in 1850, Sarah left teaching and cared for their children. “Alice Paul’s Fight for Suffrage” When Rev. Downs retired for health reasons, the family relocated to Tuckerton. To make ends meet, Sarah resumed teaching and wrote newspaper articles. After Rev. Downs died in 1870, she Second Place: Ayush Bobra - Eighth Grader at Marlboro Memorial Middle School raised funds for a new church and became increasingly interested Teacher: Mrs. Amanda Hendrickson in women’s welfare. “Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Push for Women’s Rights” In the mid-1870s, Downs moved to Ocean Grove, the dry Courtesy of Karen L. Schnitzspahn Methodist seaside town that would become known for its women activists and entrepreneurs. In 1882, she purchased a house lease at 106 Mount Tabor Way for $490. Third Place: Jillian Basile (pictured left) - Eighth Grader at Saint Jerome School, West During her Ocean Grove years, Downs signifi cantly increased the WCTU membership. Loyal to Frances Willard, Long Branch national WCTU president, Downs supported suffrage as “a means for women to better protect their homes and Teacher: Mrs. Madeline Kerns children” and to help achieve the prohibition of alcohol. “The Fight for Women’s Rights” After a brief illness, Downs died in 1891. She was working on WCTU affairs even during her fi nal hours.

Third Place: Amanda Sun (pictured right) - Eighth Grader at Marlboro Memorial Excerpt by Karen L. Schnitzspahn from the Monmouth County Archives “Four Centuries of Monmouth County Women” Middle School Exhibit Catalog, which is available online at MonmouthCountyClerk.com/Archives and in paper copy at the Monmouth Teacher: Mrs. Amanda Hendrickson County Archives Division, please call 732-308-3771. “Alice Paul: The Journey of a Leader” Monmouth Suffragist Spotlight Did You Know?

Achsah Cannon Dunham • The New Jersey State Constitution of 1776 gave the right to vote to “Free inhabitants of the State…” New Achsah Dunham, born in 1924, was elected to the Neptune Township School Jersey was unique in permitting women, who met the criteria, to vote. The other twelve original states all had Board in 1888 after moving to Ocean Grove with her husband in 1882. After constitutions that explicitly stated that voters had to be male. the New Jersey legislature initially gave women the right to vote in local school board elections, the legislation was invalidated by the New Jersey Supreme • In Margaret Crocco’s Reclaiming Lost Ground, the author claims that as many as 10,000 women voted in New Court in 1894 in the case of Allison v. Blake. Full suffrage for women in New Jersey between 1790 and 1807. Jersey became a reality when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratifi ed in August of 1920. Dunham was an auxiliary to the National Women’s • After an election in 1807 raised concerns about voter fraud, Suffrage Association (Courtesy Historical Society of Ocean Grove). New Jersey’s Constitution was modifi ed and “reinterpreted” so the term voters was defi ned to “adult white male Esther Hymer taxpaying citizens” only. Born in 1898, Esther Hymer began fi ghting for women’s rights from the time she was a student at University of Wisconsin-Madison where she marched • The more than 70 year campaign for women’s suffrage is for women’s suffrage. Throughout believed to have formally began in 1848 in Seneca Falls, Achsah Cannon Dunham - Courtesy of her life, Esther was dedicated to Ancestry.com New York. At the Seneca Falls Convention, the Declaration of improving the status of women and Sentiments, modeled after the Declaration of Independence, served on many boards and commissions relating to her cause, including was adopted. The Declaration of Sentiments famously states, the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women. Esther lived in “He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right Shrewsbury from 1941 until her death at the age of 103 in 2001. to the elective franchise.”

Mary Wooster Sutton • Historically, “pink teas” were ultra-feminine gatherings Mary Sutton, born in 1866, was the second woman attorney in featuring frilly decorations and rose-colored tea. During Monmouth County and the fi rst to have a signifi cant law practice. In the suffrage movement, the pink teas provided a disguise of what was really an opportunity for women, whose the 1914 publication of the Woman’s Who’s Who of America, editor John husbands, relatives, and peers did not want them engaging in politics, to meet and to discuss their voting rights William Leonard listed her as a prominent woman who “favors women’s efforts. suffrage.” • The offi cial colors of the U.S. Women’s Suffrage Movement were purple, gold, and white. Excerpts of Achsah Cannon Dunham and Esther Hymer by Gary D. Saretzky, and excerpt of Mary Wooster Sutton by Randall Gabrielan from the • The yellow rose is a symbol of the women’s suffrage movement. During the historic debate that occurred prior Monmouth County Archives “Four Centuries of Monmouth County Women” to Tennessee becoming the fi nal state to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1920, supporters of women’s suffrage Exhibit Catalog, which is available online at MonmouthCountyClerk.com/ wore yellow roses, while anti-suffragists wore red roses. Archives and in paper copy at the Monmouth County Archives Division, please call 732-308-3771. Mary Wooster Sutton - Courtesy of the Colorado Springs Gazette, 1913 Local Events Commemorating the 19th Amendment Centennial Monmouth Suffragist Spotlight

Alice Paul Institute’s “Alice Paul: In Pursuit of Harriet Lafetra Ordinary Equality” Harriet Lafetra, a quaker from Shrewsbury was, according to records, the fi rst known woman to petition the New Ongoing, Tuesday – Friday @ 12 P.M. – 4 P.M. Jersey State Legislature for women’s political rights in 1857. Lafetra was heavily involved in Shrewsbury Quakers’ 128 Hooten Road, Mount Laurel, NJ meetings and is buried at the cemetery located at the Shrewsbury Friends meetinghouse. Alice Paul Institute’s Second Saturday Tours @ Paulsdale Monthly on the Second Saturday @ 12 P.M. The Seabrook Women 128 Hooten Road, Mount Laurel, NJ Three generations of women’s suffrage activists called Keyport home. Therese Walling Seabrook lived on West Front Street and offered fervent support for Township of Ocean Historical Museum’s “Votes for both temperance and women’s suffrage. Seabrook joined other suffragists at a Women: New Jersey and Beyond” Exhibit meeting of the New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee in 1884 to advocate Through June of 2020 for a resolution for women’s suffrage. She was the Honorary President of the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday @ 1 P.M. – 4 P.M. Thursday @ 7 P.M. – 9 P.M. Monmouth County Suffrage Society and a delegate to the National Women’s 1st and 2nd Sundays of the month @ 1 P.M. – 4 P.M. Suffrage Association. Seabrook’s daughter, Annie Seabrook Conover, was an 703 Deal Road, Ocean Township, NJ active Women’s Christian Temperance Union member in the group’s Monmouth County chapter. Conover also served as the Monmouth County to Honor 19th Amendment fi rst president of the Keyport Literary Club, Centennial which joined the New Jersey and the State Wednesday, August 26, 2020 Federation of Women’s Clubs. Her daughter, Stay tuned for more details. Vera Conover, was a genealogist and served as Keyport Borough’s historian. She preserved Therese Walling Seabrook - Courtesy Please check the following websites for more and recorded local history pertaining to the upcoming events: of Elsalyn Palmisano Women’s women’s suffrage movement. The Monmouth History Papers, Monmouth County MonmouthCountyVotes.com/Centennial Archives DiscoverNJHistory.org/NJWomenVote2020 County Historical Association possesses much of her written work.

Excerpt of Harriet Lafetra by Melissa Ziobro and excerpt of the Seabrook Women by Mary Hussey from the Monmouth County Archives “Four Centuries of Monmouth County Women” Exhibit Catalog, which is available online at Township of Ocean Historical Museum’s “Votes for Women: New Jersey MonmouthCountyClerk.com/Archives and in paper copy at the Monmouth County and Beyond” Exhibit Archives Division, please call 732-308-3771.

(L to R) Annie Seabrook Conover (1852- 1943) and daughter Vera Conover, c.1930. Courtesy of the Keyport Historical Society Monmouth County Leads the Way Electing Women to Public Offi ce Former County Clerk Jane G. Clayton Clayton fi rst served on the Monmouth County Board of Elections and was later elected to the Board of Chosen Freeholders in 1976. She was the fi rst woman to be elected Monmouth County County Offi cials Present: Freeholder. In 1980, Clayton was elected Monmouth County Clerk and was the fi rst woman to County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon, Esq. serve in that position. She served as Clerk for 16 years. Hanlon, an attorney, is a former Commissioner on the Monmouth County Board of Elections and in 2015, was elected Monmouth County Clerk, upon the retirement of M. Claire French. As Monmouth County Clerk, Hanlon has initiated the “Honoring our Heroes” Military Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso Appreciation program, implemented the free Property Fraud Alert service, and launched the DiMaso served on the Holmdel Township Committee for ten years, during which she was Mobile County Connection initiative to bring the County Clerk’s government services out on appointed Mayor from 2006 to 2010. She was later elected to the Monmouth County Board of the road to various municipalities in the County. Chosen Freeholders in 2012 and was re-elected for three consecutive terms. DiMaso currently serves as Assemblywoman for New Jersey’s 13th Legislative District, to which she was elected in 2017. Surrogate Rosemarie D. Peters, Esq. Peters was a member of the Middletown Township Committee for 18 years, four of them as Mayor and three as Deputy Mayor. She is currently serving in her thirteenth year as Former County Clerk M. Claire French Monmouth County Surrogate, which oversees probate, wills, guardianship, and adoption French was a member of the Wall Township Committee for seven years, which included two terms services. as Mayor, and also served as a Police Commissioner for the Wall Township Police Department for seven years. In 1997, she was appointed Monmouth County Clerk and was re-elected 4 times eventually retiring in 2015, resulting in an 18 year tenure. Freeholder Deputy Director Susan M. Kiley Kiley was elected to the Hazlet Township Committee in 2014, where she served as Committeewoman, Deputy Mayor, and Mayor. In 2017, she was elected to the Monmouth Former Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno County Board of Chosen Freeholders and currently serves asDeputy Director and the Freeholder Elected to the Monmouth Beach Borough Commission in 2015, Guadagno later became liaison to human services. the fi rst woman Monmouth County Sheriff in 2007. In 2009, she became New Jersey’s fi rst Lieutenant Governor and 33rd Secretary of State. After serving two terms, Guadagno left government offi ce and currently serves as President and CEO of Fullfi ll, formerly the Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties. Freeholder Lillian G. Burry Burry began her public service as a councilwoman in Matawan Borough and later as Committeewoman, Deputy Mayor, and Mayor of Colts Neck Township. She has served on Former Freeholder Barbara McMorrow the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders since 2005, in which she has been McMorrow fi rst served on the Freehold Borough Council, during which she was appointed Council elected four terms. Burry served as the fi rst woman Director of the Monmouth County President and Police Commissioner. In 2006, she was elected to the Monmouth County Board of Freeholder Board in 2008, 2010, 2014, and 2017. Chosen Freeholders, during which she became the second woman to hold the position of Director of the Board of Chosen Freeholders. McMorrow served three terms on the Freehold Township Committee, retiring from that offi ce in 2019. County Offi cials Past:

Former County Surrogate Patricia A. Bennett, Esq. Former Monmouth County Surrogate Marie Muhler Bennett was elected the fi rst woman Surrogate of Monmouth County and served from 1987 to Muhler began her four-decades-long political career serving on her local School Boards of 1991. An attorney by trade, she later opened the fi rst all-women law fi rm in Monmouth County Education and later being elected to the State Assembly in 1975, representing the 11th District. and currently serves as a Commissioner of the Monmouth County Board of Elections. She served six terms as Assemblywoman from 1975 to 1987 for District 11 and what would become District 12. Muhler later returned to Monmouth County politics and was elected Monmouth County Surrogate for three, fi ve-year terms, before retiring in 2006.