West Virginia Women's Suffrage Trail
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Description
This digital map includes sites in West Virginia related to the history of the Women's Suffrage Movement.
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1. Women's Suffrage at the West Virginia State Capital
West Virginia’s 1863 state constitution limited the vote to white men (African American men were given the vote with the 15th Amendment, but WV laws largely prevented them from voting). In 1867, state senator Samuel Young attempted to introduce a resolution in favor of women’s suffrage, but it failed. The West Virginia women’s suffrage movement formalized in 1895 with the organization of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association (WVESA). The work of the WVESA in tandem with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union created enough support that the House of Delegates passed a women’s suffrage amendment in 1913. It failed to pass the Senate, but when introduced again in 1915 the amendment was passed by both houses of the state legislature. The amendment then went to a statewide referendum in 1916 where it was soundly defeated.
2. Harriet B. Jones Home / Political Equality League
Dr. Harriet B. Jones (1856-1943) was the first woman in West Virginia licensed to practice medicine in the state. She lived and operated her practice here and ran a woman's hospital down the street. Jones campaigned for the improvement of healthcare in West Virginia, including Hopewell Sanitarium and the West Virginia Colored Tuberculosis Sanitarium, the West Virginia Children's Home and West Virginia Industrial Home for Girls, and general education about healthcare. Dr. Jones was active in the suffrage movement, including serving as president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. The Wheeling Political Equality League was formed here November 14, 1895.
3. Home of George K. and Fannie Josephine Doane Wheat
909 Main Street was the home of businessman George K. Wheat and state suffrage leader Fannie Josephine Doane Wheat. George K. Wheat is known for his involvement in the Wheeling pottery, brick, iron, and banking industries. Fannie J. Wheat was an officer of the Wheeling Political Equality League and served as president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association.
4. Home of M. Anna Parker Hall
2214 Market Street was the home of Joseph and M. Anna Parker Hall during the time that M. Anna Hall was a leader in the West Virginia suffrage movement. M. Anna Hall was National President of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic 1902-1903, president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association 1904-1905, and president of the Wheeling Political Equality Club in 1905.
5. Home of Annie Caldwell Boyd
55 14th Street was the home of George E. and Annie Caldwell Boyd from around 1898 to the end of their lives in 1913 and 1918 respectively. Annie Caldwell Boyd was prominent in the West Virginia women’s suffrage movement, including serving as an officer in the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Movement and as secretary and president of the early Wheeling Political Equality Club. The house was demolished sometime between 1921 and 1951 and the Fort Henry Club building expanded.
6. Aul Building / 1916 Headquarters of the Ohio County Equal Suffrage League
The Aul building was constructed in 1906 for Charles A. Aul as a store and apartment building. Construction cost $25,000. For a period of time the Aul Building was the headquarters of the Ohio County Equal Suffrage League. The League was formed in 1913 and campaigned for women’s suffrage in West Virginia and the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
7. Second Ward Market House (1822-1911) & New Market Auditorium (1913-1964)
Wheeling’s first market was built at this location in 1822 and consisted of a town hall on the second floor and a market that operated twice a week on the first floor. For many years prior to the Civil War, hundreds of enslaved persons were sold at the market. The market was demolished in 1911 and was replaced by the Market Auditorium shortly after. The Market Auditorium was in use from 1913 until it was demolished in 1964.
8. Home of Henrietta Arbenz Romine Fulks
During the early 20th century, West Virginia suffragist Henrietta Arbenz Romine Fulks lived at this residence. A leader in both the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association and West Virginia League of Women Voters, Romine Fulks served as president of the West Virginia League of Women Voters while she lived in this Wheeling home with her husband, Edward Romine. Born in 1890, Henrietta Romine was the youngest state president of the League of Women Voters in the time period when the 19th Amendment was ratified. While Edward passed away in 1937, Henrietta, lived until 1985 and also survived her second husband, George William Fulks.
9. Home of Florence Hoge and Ellen D. Hoge
Sisters Florence and Ellen D. Hoge were both West Virginia suffragists. Florence Hoge was a leader in the Wheeling Women’s Municipal League, the Ohio County Equal Suffrage League, and the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. Later, she was the first Chairman of the West Virginia National Women’s Party. Ellen D. Hoge marched in the 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C.
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10. Home of Jesse A. Bloch
This Georgian-style brick home was constructed between 1905 and 1907 for Jesse A. and Jessie M. Bloch. Jesse A. Bloch was elected as a Republican to the WV House of Delegates in 1913 and 1915 and then the WV Senate in 1918. In 1920, Jesse A. Bloch cast the deciding positive vote to ratify the 19th Amendment in West Virginia.
11. Home of Lenna Lowe Yost
This was the home of Ellis A. and Lenna Lowe Yost. Lenna Lowe Yost was an important suffragist and overall activist in the state of West Virginia. Yost was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. Yost was also the first woman to preside over the Republican state party convention. Lenna Lowe Yost was president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association during the referendum campaign of 1916, and she largely ran that campaign from her Morgantown home.
12. Women's Christian Temperance Union Community Building
This building was constructed in 1919 in the Neoclassical Revival style, which was popular for public buildings in the early 1900s. The idea behind the community center was to create a place that could provide a recreation alternative to saloons and could offer educational programs to alleviate the conditions that drove people to drink. Several notable West Virginians were involved in the temperance and women's suffrage movements, including suffragist Lenna Lowe Yost. An extraordinarily intelligent organizer, Yost dedicated her adult life to pursuing a variety of causes including a successful campaign that led West Virginia to be among the states that ratified the 19th Amendment. In addition to promoting equal political rights for women, she labored on behalf of temperance. Her activist work extended past the borders of the state of West Virginia; she worked in the nation's capital and even served as a delegate in international temperance conventions.
13. Fairmont Normal School / Fairmont Political Equality Club
This was the second location of the Fairmont Normal School, operating from 1893 to 1916. Fairmont Normal School provided training and degree programs for K-12 teachers and eventually moved to its third location, which is now Fairmont State University on Locust Avenue. On November 28, 1895, the Fairmont Political Equality Club was organized at Fairmont Normal School. The Fairmont Political Equality Club was one of the most active and long-lasting suffrage clubs in West Virginia.
14. Home of Anna Belle Ayers McKinney and Margaret Ellen McKinney
This was the home of Owen S. and Anna A. McKinney in the early 1900s. Anna Belle Ayers McKinney and their daughter Margaret Ellen McKinney were both West Virginia suffragists involved with the Fairmont Political Equality Club and West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. The McKinney family hosted many speakers and suffrage events at their First Street home, including organizational meetings for a 1915 conference of the WVESA in Fairmont. Anna and Margaret witnessed the 1920 vote to ratify the 19th Amendment in Charleston.
15. Home of Anne Manley Southern
Anne M. Manley Southern was a West Virginia suffragist and served as president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association in 1905. She was also a member of the Fairmont Political Equality Club alongside her sister-in-law Jessie G. Manley. She died not long after her presidential term and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
16. Home of Beulah Boyd Ritchie
403 Gaston Ave was the home of suffragist Beulah Boyd Ritchie (1864-1939) and her husband, Charles M. Ritchie. Beulah Boyd Ritchie was a charter officer for the Fairmont Political Equality Club and later served as the organization’s president for many years. Between 1900 and 1904, Ritchie also served as president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. She was a state leader for women’s suffrage through the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
17. Manley Hotel / Jessie G. Manley & Margaret J. Grove
The Hotel Manley opened in February 1903, owned by Charles E. and Jessie G. Manley. The Manleys operated the hotel at least through the 1910s. Jessie G. Manley and her mother, Margaret J. Grove, were leaders of the West Virginia woman suffrage movement. Grove served as the first president of the Fairmont Political Equality Club and Manley was the first president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association.
18. Home of Alice "Allie" Comerford Haymond
Alice (“Allie”) Comerford Haymond was a West Virginia suffragist who served as president of both the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association and the Fairmont Political Equality Club. She often hosted meetings, events, and parties in her home at 318 Main Street, including a large celebration the night that Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment.
19. Izetta Jewel Brown Miller
Izetta Jewel Brown Miller, born in 1883, was an actress turned political activist. In 1914, Izetta Jewel married West Virginia Congressman William G. Brown and moved to Kingwood. During her time in West Virginia, 1914-1927, she served as state chairperson for the National Woman’s Party, was active in state and national Democratic Party politics, and ran for Congress twice. Miller was known as having been in the first televised play and the first woman to second a nominee for President of the United States.
20. West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association
After a visit in 1895 by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, a combination of nine different local clubs came together to form the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association in Grafton, West Virginia. An organization criticized by Carrie Chapman herself would come to be one of the states largest influencers in the passing of the 19th Amendment.
21. Home of Ada Enid Haldeman Ford
Ada Enid Haldeman Ford was an advocate for women's suffrage in the town of Grafton, West Virginia. She founded the Taylor County Women’s Suffrage League, was involved with the West Virginia Equal Suffrage League, and was active in the Democratic Party after 1920. This house was the home of Gene W. and Ada Enid Halderman Ford from 1926 to their respective deaths.
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22. Home of Julia Walker Ruhl
Julia Slocum Walker Ruhl was president of the West Virginia State Federation of Clubs, president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association (1917-1920), first chair of the West Virginia League of Women Voters (1920-1922), and the first West Virginia woman elected to a city council. She also taught for a period at Broaddus College and helped found the Clarksburg Public Library.
23. Home of Alma McWhorter West
Alma McWhorter West was a West Virginia suffragist who was chair of the Harrison County Equal Suffrage Organization and a member of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. She was a board member of the West Virginia League of Women Voters and unsuccessfully ran for House of Delegates in 1942.
24. Masonic Temple
The Masonic Temple was built between 1911 and 1914. Masonic presence in the Clarksburg area dates back to 1814, when the original Virginia charter was granted. As Clarksburg became one of the most important and populous cities in western Virginia and later West Virginia, the need for a dedicated Masonic building was apparent. This seven-story Neo-Classical Revival building was designed by E.E. Pruitt of Columbus Ohio. The building was constructed by the Clarksburg Masonic Building Company, a corporation formed of organization members for the sole purpose of funding the structure. The completed building lives up to its temple title. The bottom two stories serve as a colossal base for four attached Doric columns, which stretch another three floors. The columns support a classical pediment which spans the building’s facade. The already unorthodox configuration is further exacerbated by two stories rising above the pediment — they were added in 1928. Though the building continues to serve as the location of Clarksburg’s Masonic Lodge, it also contains space for commercial offices.
25. Coralie Franklin Cook House
Coralie Franklin Cook was an 1880 graduate of Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. She taught Elocution and English at Storer College from 1882 through 1893. According to Historic Harpers Ferry, Coralie Franklin Cook purchased this home in Harper's Ferry in 1884. Coralie Franklin Cook, having been born into slavery, is notable as the first descendant of a Monticello slave to graduate college. Additionally, she became a distinguished professor at Howard University, writer, and suffragist.
26. Home of Daisy M. Stephenson Peadro
Daisy Stephenson Peadro was a West Virginia suffragist and leader in the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. After women won the right to vote, Peadro was very active in West Virginia Republican politics as well as Parkersburg business. Daisy and her husband John Thomas lived here at 1058 Market Street during the period where she was most active in the suffrage movement and politics. In the late 1930s the couple moved to 941 Juliana Street.
27. Home of Cara (Cora) Little Ebert
1203 Murdoch Avenue was the home of J. Gale and Cara Little Ebert around 1914-1915 when Cara L. Ebert was the president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. Ebert was also president of the Parkersburg Equal Suffrage Association, a member of the WV State Ratification Committee in 1920, and West Virginia Republican Committeewoman for 12 years.
28. Home of Hunter H. (Jr) and Anna B. Moss
1210 Ann Street was the home of Representative Hunter H. and Anna Moss when they advocated for women’s suffrage. Hunter H. Moss, Jr. was a Representative in U.S. Congress between 1913 and 1916. In May 1914 Hunter H. Moss spoke in support of suffrage at a rally in Parkersburg and in June of that year Anna and Hunter Moss were part of a delegation to travel to Washington to support a federal amendment.
29. Parkersburg Suffrage Rally, May 1, 1914
The Parkersburg Equal Suffrage Association and local suffrage supporters held a rally meeting at the Auditorium Theatre on May 1, 1914. This large gathering was part of a national effort to support consideration of the 1914 Bristow-Mondell Federal Woman Suffrage Resolution. Speakers included Representative Hunter H. Moss and Doris Stevens.
30. Chancellor Hotel
The Chancellor Hotel was constructed in 1901 on the previous site of a Methodist Episcopal Church (1858-1900). With 220 rooms, the Chancellor Hotel was one of Parkersburg’s premier hotels. The West Virginia Democratic Party held its 1916 state convention at the Chancellor Hotel. During this convention national suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt addressed the party leadership and the Democrats adopted a pro-suffrage plank in their state party platform. The hotel was demolished in 1977.
31. Huntington City Hall
Huntington's City Hall was completed in 1915 and reflected the rapid growth and optimism of the city at that time. The Neoclassical building features terra-cotta details, large Corinthian columnns, and an elaborate public auditorium with ornate chandeliers, woodwork, and marble staircases. It was the third city hall built for Huntington, and replaced a structure on Fourth Avenue that also housed the police department, fire department, jail, and county courthouse. City Hall, the Cabell County Courthouse, the Post Office Building (today a federal courthouse), and the Carnegie Public Library were all built between 1899 and 1914 and formed a concentration of governmental and civic architecture in Huntington’s downtown area. City Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as part of the Downtown Huntington Historic District.
32. Home of Irene Drukker Broh / Huntington Equal Suffrage Association
332 5th Avenue was the home of Ephraim and Irene Drukker Broh between approximately 1915 and 1920. During that period, Irene Broh was a local leader in the women’s suffrage movement. The Huntington Equal Suffrage Association was founded here in Broh’s home in 1915 and Broh is believed to have been the first woman to cast a vote in Cabell County in 1920. According to images from GoogleMaps the home was still standing in 2019 and it appears to have been demolished between 2019 and 2021.
33. Home of Frank Nixon Mann and Nancy Murray Mann
1621 Fifth Avenue was the home of Frank Nixon and Nancy Murray Mann from around 1920 Nancy Mann's death in 1961. Nancy Murray Mann was a West Virginia suffragette, serving as president of the Huntington Equal Suffrage Association and campaigning for the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. After the suffrage campaign, Mann was active in national politics, first with the Democratic Party and then with the Republicans, supporting the election of Herbert Hoover.
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34. Minnie Buckingham Harper
Minnie Buckingham Harper served in the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1928 representing McDowell County and was the first African American woman in the United States to serve in a state legislature. Minnie and her husband E. Howard Harper lived in Keystone where he was a lawyer. When he died during his third term in the House of Delegates, Minnie B. Harper was appointed to complete his term.
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35. West Virginia Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage
The West Virginia Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage organized in the summer of 1916 during the lead-up to a referendum on women’s suffrage that fall. Its headquarters was published as 808 Kanawha and its president was Florence M. Gallaher of Charleston. The Association continued to oppose suffrage through the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
36. Union (Alderson-Stephenson) Building
The Union Building was constructed from 1909 to 1911 along Kanawha Boulevard in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. Upon completion, the structure was the tallest building in the state. The structure is also known as the Alderson-Stephenson Building, named after the two men who financed the project, Charles Alderson and Samuel Stephenson. The building originally house the Union Trust Company, but was later converted into office space. The construction of the Kanawha Boulevard demolished most of the buildings alongside the structure and separated the Union Building from the business district in Charleston; the building was spared due to high demolition costs.
37. Home of Anna Johnson Gates
Anna Johnson Gates was a West Virginia suffragist and was the first woman elected to a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates, representing Kanawha County. She served one term and remained active in Democratic Party politics until her death in 1939.Anna and Thomas Gates lived at 7 Gates Place, or Apt. 7 of the Gates Apartments, on Broad Street. Gates Place was located between Lee and Washington Streets on Broad Street. Broad Street was renamed Leon Sullivan Way in 2000.
38. Charleston Woman's Improvement League
In 1898, black women in Charleston, West Virginia, organized a self-help civic organization called the Charleston Woman’s Improvement League. The League sponsored cultural events, supported education, and promoted a variety of causes that were important to members of the city's African American community. The women were particularly active in mentoring young women, creating two auxiliary organizations: Polly Pigtails for children and the League Teens for young women.
39. Charleston C&O Depot
Charleston's historic C&O Depot is currently served by Amtrak's Cardinal line and home to Laury's Restaurant, General Corporation, and the Maier Foundation. The station was originally owned by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and constructed in the early 1900s to replace the original passenger station that had been previously constructed in the late 1800s. In September 2010, the station was acquired by General Corporation, a commercial real estate company based in Charleston. The building also serves as the office of the Maier Foundation, a private charity that supports education in Wst Virginia. The station is located on the south bank of the Kanawha River, opposite downtown Charleston which lies on the north bank. This location provides patrons of Laury’s restaurant, which is located upstairs, with a view of the river and downtown Charleston.
40. West Virginia Ratifies the 19th Amendment, March 10, 1920
West Virginia’s 1863 state constitution limited the vote to white men (African American men were given the vote with the 15th Amendment, but WV laws largely prevented them from voting). In 1867, state senator Samuel Young attempted to introduce a resolution in favor of women’s suffrage, but it failed. The West Virginia women’s suffrage movement formalized in 1895 with the organization of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association (WVESA). The work of the WVESA in tandem with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union created enough support that the House of Delegates passed a women’s suffrage amendment in 1913. It failed to pass the Senate, but when introduced again in 1915 the amendment was passed by both houses of the state legislature. The amendment then went to a statewide referendum in 1916 where it was soundly defeated. Once Congress passed the 19th Amendment in 1919, West Virginia had possibly the most dramatic ratification process. The tension was already high because women needed three more states to ratify the 19th Amendment and it was not clear which way West Virginia would vote.
