Making Local History

 

Mary Lydia Doe was a key figure in the suffrage movement in Michigan from 1880 to 1900.  She lived at 922 N. Monroe in Bay City close to May Stocking Knaggs, who had a house not more than a few blocks away. 

 

She, like May, was president of the Equal Suffrage Association.  She was chosen at the founding meeting in Flint in 1884. 

She was a member of the Bay City School Board  in 1890-91 when it was very unusual for a woman to hold office. She was the second vice president of the Michigan Federation of Labor.

 

This is only a beginning of the achievements of this remarkable woman.

Abolitionists and Women's Rights

Bay City was never more central to the national stage than when James Birney, its' most promenent citizen, ran for President as a third party candidate. Although, he was older than most of the participants of the early women's movement and the movement to free the slaves, he know many of them and influenced how these movements were conducted. The link above will give more information on some of the people he knew.

Tags: Birney, James Birney, Abolitionists, Woman's Rights, Bay City, Michigan

James G. Birney and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in England

Books.live.com came up with another gem. The link tells the story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the great sufferatette, and James G. Birney on their trip to England in about 1840. The books says that Birney was a man of very conservative manners and that he spent a good deal of time on the voyage training the young Stanton in how to be a proper lady. In doing that, he had a hand in yet another great cause, the cause of women's rights in America.