Harriet May Mills House

A lifelong resident of Syracuse, Harriet May Mills was a committed political activist who dedicated her life to the cause of women's suffrage. The daughter of social reformers Charles DeBeard Mills and Harriet Smith Mills, she was one of the first women to graduate from Cornell University and was the first woman to run for a statewide political office. She developed one of the largest suffrage organizations in the United States and spent much of her life traveling and speaking on the issue of suffrage. The home that bears her name was built by her parents in 1857. The property is now operated by Syracuse Behavioral Health and functions as a home for women recovering from addiction.

It could be argued that Harriet May Mills was born to be a reformer. Her parents, Charles DeBeard Mills and Harriet Smith Mills, were outspoken abolitionists as well as adherents of the Free Thought Movement. The Millses built their home in Syracuse in 1857, the same year that their daughter Harriet was born. Over the years, the home became a frequent gathering place for social reformers and thinkers of every stripe, including Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The elder Millses lived in several towns throughout upstate New York, where Charles worked as a teacher and a minister. His unorthodox views often cost him his ministerial positions, however, resulting in frequent moves. In 1851, the couple moved to Syracuse, where they met and married a few years earlier. By the 1850s, Syracuse had a reputation for progressive views, particularly regarding the cause of slavery, and a number of abolitionists made a home in the city and its environs.

Harriet May Mills was very much the product of her open-minded parents. She was one of the first women to attend Cornell University after the university admitted women in 1872. While a student at Cornell, Harriet met Isabel Howland, who was also enrolled at Cornell and was a niece of the women's rights advocate, Emily Howland. Harriet and Isabel became lovers at Cornell and worked together on various political issues for the rest of their lives.

Harriet lived briefly in New York City but returned to Syracuse where she orgaized the twenty-fourth annual New York State Woman Suffrage Association statewide suffrage convention in 1892. By this point, she was living in her childhood home and was shortly thereafter elected recording secretary of the NYSWSA. She was also traveling and speaking on the issue of suffrage frequently, with her own reputation for political activism eclipsing that of her parents'. She remained active in political issues for the rest of her life. She campaigned for Attorney General of New York in 1920, becoming the first woman to run for a major statewide office. She also served on the Electoral College that elected Franklin Roosevelt as President in 1932 and attended his inauguration as an honored guest.

Despite its illustrious history, by the turn of the twenty-first century, the Mills home was in poor condition and facing demolition. It was eventually purchased and saved by the Preservation Alliance of Central New York and is now used as a halfway house for women who are recovering from addiction.

Harriet May Mills , Freethought Trail. Accessed August 28th, 2022. https://freethought-trail.org/profiles/profile:mills-harriet-may/.

Charles De Berard -Harriet May Mills House , Freethought Trail . Accessed August 28th, 2022. https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:charles-de-berard-harriet-may-mills-house/.

Harriet May Mills House , Harriet May Mills . Accessed August 28th, 2022. http://www.harrietmaymills.org/millshouse.html.

Harriet and CDB Mills House , Preservation Alliance of Central New York . Accessed August 28th, 2022. https://pacny.net/freedom_trail/Mills.htm.