Women Vote in Bovina

On November 6, 1917, the efforts to extend the right to vote to all New York citizens was successful. Not only did it carry state-wide, but it won in Delaware County, 5546 for vs. 4443 against. The county ranked about in the middle of how the counties voted in New York. And Bovina voted in support – 97 for and 84 against.

The first opportunity for women to vote in Bovina came on September 3 in the primary. I’ve tried to figure out who the first woman to vote in Bovina was, but given there were three party primaries, we can’t be sure who that was. There was only one woman voting as a Democrat, Florence Henry. The Republican and Prohibition parties had considerably more people voting. Margaret Boggs was the first woman to vote in the Prohibition primary, being the sixth voter. Margaret Archibald was the first Republican female vote, being the fifteenth Republican voter.

In the general election on November 5, 1918, 98 of the 212 women registered in Bovina voted (out of 284 total voters), and we do know who the first woman to vote in Bovina was – Margaret T. Gladstone. Born Margaret Ana Thompson in Bovina, she was the daughter of James and Jennett Thompson. She married Robert R. Gladstone in 1868. They lived for a number of years in Andes but in 1915, sold their home there and took rooms in Jennie Miller’s home in the Bovina Center hamlet. This is where they were living when Margaret (and her husband) voted in the general election in 1918. They later bought a home in Bovina and both died there. Robert died in 1925, Margaret in 1928. Both are buried in Bovina.

The last woman to vote in Bovina in the first general election open to women in New York was Mina (pronounced 'minee') Wilson. In 1921, she became the first woman in Bovina to be elected to office. See the November 11, 2013 entry in this blog for more about Mina (https://bovinanyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/11/bovinas-first-female-office-holder.html).

Here is the full list of the women in Bovina who voted in the September primary and November general election in 1918: 

Primary election

Democrat primary

#05 – Florence Henry

Prohibition primary

#06 – Margaret Boggs

#07 – Nell Cable Hunt

#08 – Hattie Smith

#12 – Lee Lucy Alta

#13 – Margaret Davidson

#14 – Vera Davidson Storie

#15 – Jane Dickson

#16 – Jeannette Thomson

#19 – Ida Ayers

#20 – Christina E. Miller

#21 – Ida E. Miller

#22 – Jule A. McPherson (?)

#23 – Maggie Storie

#24 – Laura Quinn

#25 – Mary R. Gordon

#26 – Alice Boggs

#28 – Anna Bell Calhoun

#29 – Mabel Fiero

#30 – Ida J. McCune

#31 – Elizabeth Strangeway

#32 – Mrs. Guy Rockefeller

#34 – Agnes Draffen

#37 – Nellie Johnson

#38 – Mina B. Wilson

#41 – Christina Ackerly

Republican Primary

#015 – Margaret E. Archibald

#020 – Viola J. Russell

#021 – Jane Strangeway

#028 – Elizabeth J. Blair

#029 – Mary B. Currie

#032 – Elizabeth Irvine

#033 – May E. Johnson

#034 – Mary Armstrong

#035 – Bulah Armstrong

#036 – Margaret E. Liddle

#037 – Ida Burgin

#038 – Nettie Doig

#042 – Jennie E. Archibald

#050 – Margaret J. Gladstone

#052 – Helena S. Hilson

#055 – Lucy Coulter

#059 – Lillie May Brown

#073 – Jane Hilson

#079 – Mabel King Doig

#083 – Nancy Belle Burns

#085 – Elizabeth Burns

#090 – Clarie(?) McPherson

#098 – Jannet Kinch

#101 – Edith Liddle

#102 – Oliver Stella

#103 – Marion Crosier

#107 – Margaret C. Banuat

#108 – Janet M. Biggar

#113 – Mary Scott

General Election

#019 – Margaret T. Gladstone

#035 – Alvah Shultis

#040 – Katie K. Muller

#052 – Margaret Banuat

#055 – Agnes Coulter

#056 – Lulu McFarland

#058 – Rose B. McPherson

#067 – Maggie Ormiston

#068 – Agnes Draffen

#070 – Margaret J. Gladstone

#074 – Christina Miller

#075 – Ruth Elliott

#077 – Etta Mab on

#080 – Hannah Coulter

#081 – Loruhannah Jocelyn

#087 – Jane Dickson

#096 – Pearl M. Eton

#101 – Anice Seacord

#103 – Jennie Ringholm

#110 – Mary B. Currie

#111 – Nelle Cable Hunt

#112 – Mabel Fiero

#113 – Elizabeth J. Russell

#114 – Viola J. Russell

#117 – Jennie B. Elliott

#120 – Hazel M. Hoy

#121 – Robena Hoy

#127 – Lillie M. Brown

#128 – Laura Quinn

#129 – Margaret Whitson

#131 – Eva McPherson

#134 – Irene F. Thomson

#135 – Jennie Storie

#141 – Beulah Decker

#142 – Shirley Miller

#143 – Leila Miller

#146 – Jane Strangeway

#149 – Nellie Tuttle

#150 – Mary Hafelle

#151 – Bessie Fuller

#152 – Lois Ormiston

#153 – Edith Barnhart

#154 – Christina Ackerly

#154 – Ruth Ormiston

#155 – Anna B. Calhoun

#173 – Vera Davidson

#176 – Maggie Davidson

#177 – Maggie Storie

#178 – Margaret E. Liddle

#179 – Jennie Biggar

#181 – Ida J. McCune

#182 – Mayme B. McNair

#183 – Janet Kinch

#184 – Nancy Campbell

#185 – Evelyn E. Campbell

#186 – Florence Henry

#189 – Alice Boggs

#192 – Mary K. Raitt

#194 – Margaret C. Boggs

#198 – Agnes Forrest

#199 – Lizzie Burns

#200 – Nancy B. Burns

#207 – Julia McPherson

#208 – Stella Oliver

#209 – Edith M. Liddle

#210 – Lizzie Burgin

#219 – Jennie C. Thomson

#220 – Jennie B. Crosier

#221 – Elizabeth J. Irvine

#222 – Jessie Bouton

#226 – Marion Crosier

#227 – Hattie Smith

#229 – Mary Thomson

#230 – Mary J. Robson

#231 – Minnie C. Thomson

#232 – Nelle Francher

#233 – Ida E. Miller

#234 – Ida T. Burgin

#243 – Augusta Lifgren

#246 – Anna S. Thomson

#248 – Helen S. Hilson

#249 – Henrietta Boyd

#255 – Nellie Johnson

#256 – Jean Hume

#261 – Lucy Lee

#262 – Laura M. Robson

#263 – Margaret E. Archibald

#264 – Isabell A. Hilson

#265 – Sarah Phyfe

#266 – Jennie Hoy

#268 – Mary Scott

#270 – Carrie M. McPherson

#271 – Mary R. Gordon

#272 – Ida Ayers

#273 – Delle Rockefeller

#274 – Helen B. Thomson

#275 – Elizabeth J. Blair

#280 – Mina B. Wilson

Bovina in the Civil War - Bovina and Abraham Lincoln

Many historians consider the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 as the catalyst for South Carolina and other states to leave the union. In Bovina, Lincoln won handily with 179 votes vs. 60 votes for the Northern Democrat candidate Stephen Douglas (the other two candidates from the Southern Democrat and Constitutional Union parties were not on the ballot in New York). The Republican candidate for governor also carried Bovina, 177 votes vs. 68 for the "Douglas Democratic" candidate. (In this same election, a constitutional amendment was submitted to voters to allow 'negro suffrage.' The amendment failed statewide by almost two to one, but in Bovina, the amendment carried with 160 votes for and 50 votes against.)

Bovina continued to support Republican candidates during the Civil War.  In the 1862 gubernatorial contest, the Republican-Union candidate, James Wadsworth, carried the town 180 votes vs. 57 for the Democratic candidate, Horatio Seymour.  Statewide, however, Seymour won in a close contest.  Two years later, Seymour lost the governorship to Reuben Fenton.  And again, Seymour lost in Bovina, 66 votes to 212 votes for the Republican Union candidate.

In the 1864 Presidential election, Lincoln ran for re-election with Andrew Johnson on a National Union ticket. The Democrats nominated former Union general George McClellan. Both parties had their supporters in Bovina.  A McClellan Club was formed in Bovina on October 3.  Officers included Frederick McFarland as President,  James McFarland and Michael Dickson as Vice Presidents, Edward A. Boggs as Secretary and R. P. Scott, as Treasurer.  On October 19, a Lincoln and Johnson meeting was held at the hotel of D.G. Landon at The Hook.  It is likely that Bovina voters made a better showing at the Lincoln and Johnson meeting, for three weeks later, the ticket of Lincoln/Johnson received 210 votes vs. 67 votes for the Democrats.  And as reported in my November 2, 2010 blog entry, Bovina stayed firmly in the party of Lincoln for over a century.

Bovina Goes to the Polls

It's election time. 150 years ago was the historic 1860 Presidential election, in which Abraham Lincoln, in a four way race, was elected President. His election precipitated the succession of southern states from the union. In Bovina, only two of the four candidates running nationally received votes. Abraham Lincoln received 179 votes, while Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas received 60 votes. 100 years later, the Republican candidate again carried Bovina. When John F. Kennedy was elected President by a close margin, he received only 65 votes in Bovina, to 238 for Richard Nixon.

But this year is a gubernatorial election year. When Bovina was created in 1820, governors served two year terms, so the elections were more frequent. In Bovina's first year, the choices for governor were Daniel D. Tompkins and Dewitt Clinton. They both were of the Democratic-Republican Party, but of two different factions. Tompkins was a Bucktail while Clinton was a Clintonian. In a close election in Bovina and statewide, Clinton was elected. He carried Bovina by one vote, 37 to 36. Clinton carried Bovina each subsequent time he ran. In 1824, running as the People's party candidate, he got 93 votes, to 43 votes for Democratic-Republican candidate Samuel Young.

When the Whig party came into being in the late 1830s, Bovina regularly voted for Whig candidates. The first time was the 1838 election for governor, when William Seward was elected. In Bovina, he received 131 votes to 87 for William Marcy, the Democratic candidate. The one exception to the Whig trend was in 1848, when the Democratic Barnburner candidate, John Dix, received 204 votes in Bovina, while the Democratic Hunker candidate got only 6 votes and the Whig (Hamilton Fish) received only 13 votes. Fish won statewide. Bovina was back in the Whig column in 1850, when Washington Hunt, running as a Whig and Anti-rent candidate, received 194 votes, to only 30 for the Democratic candidate, Horatio Seymour.

Bovina went firmly into the Republican column in the 1850s when that party came into being. In 1856, the Republican candidate for governor, John King, received 174 votes in Bovina, while Erastus Brooks, the Know Nothing candidate, received 59 votes and Amasa Parker, the Democrat, only 19 votes. Throughout the rest of the 19th century and for the entire 20th century, whether for President, Governor, or for other statewide or national offices, Bovina leaned strongly Republican. Even in years when the Democrats made strong showings nationwide, Bovina generally went with the GOP. When Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected in 1936 in a landslide against Alf Landon, Landon received 319 votes in Bovina to only 79 for Roosevelt. One exception to that trend was in 1996 when, in a three way Presidential race, Bill Clinton carried Bovina.

The trend has started to change in the 21st century. In the 2006 Gubernatorial race, Elliot Spitzer carried Bovina by about 40 votes. In the 2008 Presidential election, John McCain edged out Barack Obama in Bovina, but by only five votes.

Whatever your political affiliation, be sure to take your part in history today - VOTE!