Page 20, "Haddam's Hundred 1869
- 1969"
....."When women get riled things get
done as the election of 1901 clearly proved! Remember at that time
women did not have the right to vote, but as any woman will tell you
there is more than one way to "skin a cat."
How did all those females get elected
at a time when males dominated the political scene? Now-a-days we would
call it bribery and coercion, but in those days they called it wifely
persuasion, for something got the men out to vote in that election.
There were 142 votes cast for mayor
with Mrs. Elizabeth Vedder receiving 100 of them. This was over twice
as many votes as were cast in the previous election. The other officers
elected were Mrs. William Kennedy, clerk; Mrs. Fannie Liebel, police
judge; Mrs. Henry Ochiltree, Mrs. J. M. Teague, Mrs. George Foster,
Mrs. Elias Hawk and Mrs. W. H. Taylor, council members.
The ladies got right to work on
the business of the day and June 4 they voted to advertise for bids for
the erection of a jail. They accepted Mr. Sherm Peabody's bid of $325
and by October 7 the new stone jail was ready for occupancy.
Fritz Zenger and Andy
Rosendranz quarried the rock and Sherm Peabody did the blacksmithing
and iron work on it. The ladies equipped the jail with a $3 stove, a
pair of handcuffs costing $3.50 and blankets.
....."Yes, indeed, the
hand that rocks the cradle can truly rule the world if given half a
chance! Either the women weren't fully appreciated or the men had taken
all the progress they could stand for one year. Whatever the reason the
ladies were defeated in the 1902 election, and the city settled back
into its dull routine once again."
Dora Hoffman Brown
That
isn't all the women did. But that is another story.
