This year marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which ensured women the right to vote. It is also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, in honor of the 19th-century women’s rights advocate. Local historians say there were many notable women, like Anthony, in Bartholomew County who helped lead the fight.
According to Diane Robbins, executive director of the Bartholomew County Historical Society, Bartholomew County’s suffrage movement began in the late 1800s. The city was nationally recognized in the fall of 1879 when Anthony visited and spoke to the largest crowd to ever attend a lecture in Columbus.
As the movement gained momentum, Columbus had two dynamic women, Vida Newsom and Miranda Hinman, who believed in women’s rights and were instrumental in the movement, Robbins says.
Local Columbus historian Paulette Roberts has studied Columbus’ past since she first moved to the area in 1970. She says learning the history of Columbus’ key figures in the movement is essential to understanding and appreciating the city today.
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“I think it was extremely important to see they were willing to put their character and gender up front,” Roberts says. “And that women, no matter their race, would be willing to do the same thing.”
Newsom, whom the Evening Republican newspaper once described as “one of the most active civic workers of her sex in Indiana,” was born in Sandcreek Township in 1873. A graduate of Indiana University, she was a pioneer in the local suffrage movement.
Active in the community from the early 1900s on, Newsom worked tirelessly for change in the arenas of social work, mental health and women’s clubs. Among her numerous civic roles, she served as vice president of the Legislative Council of Indiana Women from 1915 to 1921.
As a proponent for the suffrage movement, Newsom focused her energy on the local and state levels. Locally she served as president of the Columbus Franchise League (1912 to 1920) and president of the Columbus League of Women Voters (1920 to 1924). She would later go on to be a founding member of the Bartholomew County Historical Society. She died in 1938.
Hinman, who was born in Kentucky in 1825, was socially minded and active in the community. A charter member of Columbus Culture Club, she also served as president of the local suffrage organization, and in 1882 she gave the welcome address at the 22nd annual Women’s Suffrage Convention of Indiana, which was held in Columbus that year.
At the time, it was reported by the Evening Republican that although the convention was met with elements of ridicule, profanity and general angst by some, those who came to denigrate instead left with a better understanding of women’s rights. And what might be considered even more important, those whose minds were changed realized the importance of women exercising those rights. Hinman remained a Columbus resident until her death in 1907.
Although records are scarce, other than obituaries, there were two additional women Roberts found in her research who had a direct impact on suffrage locally. Fannie Davis and Elizabeth Hubbard were Black women who registered to vote in 1917, she says.
“They were the first women to actually register even though they were African Americans,” Roberts says. “I found that very interesting.”
As in other parts of the country, Davis and Hubbard’s bold actions weren’t well accepted, Roberts says.
“I know they married and were members of Second Baptist Church,” she says. “Elizabeth’s dad was a pastor there. I know they lived the rest of their lives in Columbus.”
Roberts says Davis and Hubbard weren’t the only newsmakers at the time.
“We find, also, that even though most of the women wanted to vote, there was another group who felt women should not be allowed to vote,” Roberts says. “I think that there is always going to be an element that thinks women should still be in the home and not out working. But I also think it is the idea that women have a mind and they can exercise the thought that working alongside men can improve society as a whole.”
Roberts adds that anytime women do things above and beyond what is necessary to ensure equality, it is extremely important for women of all backgrounds.
Robbins says the success of the movement locally and nationally is due directly to the persistence of these women, their colleagues and others like them who contributed to the freedoms women now enjoy.
“As it is with so many pieces of history, we not only gain knowledge, we also learn that the rights we enjoy today are often due to our ancestors’ willingness to fight for them so many years ago,” Robbins says. “This is a perfect example of the forward-thinking initiatives Columbus and Bartholomew County have always strived for.”
