Stratford: The Stories We Tell
By David Wright
Town Historian
Stratford has always been an amazing town, and it has often been a pioneer in many aspects of Connecticut history. Stratford was one of the only towns, if not THE only town in Connecticut, where the men supported, and encouraged, women’s right to vote.
From The Bridgeport Evening Farmer, March 25, 1909: “There is a petition at the library which is being signed by many prominent gentlemen and ladies in town, in favor of granting female suffrage. It is to be sent to Hartford”.
The Bridgeport Evening Farmer, January 30, 1912: “After sleeping over fifty years, the woman suffrage movement awoke in this town last night with a whoop and bounded into immediate popularity. In spite of the bad weather and the fact that there were other attractions in the town last night, every seat in the town hall was filled and many stood through the meeting which opened the campaign of the suffragists in this town. Over half of the audience were men, and they evinced as much interest as the ladies.”
Consequently, Stratford women were involved in Connecticut’s equal suffrage movement from the outset. Stratford’s first and longest serving town librarian, Frances Russell, and Agnes Elizabeth Thompson Hawley, Stratford’s eldest suffragist, were two of the women who attended the first organizing meetings of the suffrage movements in America. Frances Russell attended those meetings in Hartford in 1870, and Agnes attended the organizing meetings in Michigan in 1872.
Agnes Hawley was born in 1837 in Salem, New York. Sometime after her marriage to George F. Hawley, she moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she dwelt until about 1900. In 1899 the National American Woman Suffrage Association met in Grand Rapids. Agnes attended the convention. “The convening of so many suffragists in Grand Rapids generated massive media interest. Local newspaper readers were well aware that Susan B. Anthony, Anna Howard Shaw, and other suffragists of international stature would soon convene at their city’s famous St. Cecilia auditorium. Local institutions and businesses put in extra effort to make the suffragists welcome. Bissell CEO Anna Sutherland Bissell even offered delegates factory tours and miniature carpet sweepers engraved with ‘National American Woman Suffrage Association.’”
Agnes and George moved to Stratford to live with their son, Douglas, about 1900. Douglas lived on Park Street. George passed away in 1902. Later, Agnes moved in with her daughter, Emma Dosch, who lived at 1422 Broadbridge Avenue.
Agnes was the first woman in Stratford to be registered to vote following the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, granting women the right to vote. Agnes was 84 years old at the time. She recalled, for the Bridgeport Telegram, meeting Susan B. Anthony and Julia Ward Howe in Grand Rapids, MI in 1899.
Of life for women in America prior to the passage of the 19th Amendment, Agnes stated, “(Women) had no redress from the bad working conditions and small wages. At that time, women took active part in prison reform measures.”
Agnes was active in the Stratford Suffrage Association from the time she moved to Stratford. She died October 9, 1924, and was buried in Union Cemetery.
