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Today in Herstory: Suffrage Hikers Cross into Maryland (20 feb 1913)
Today in Herstory: Suffrage Hikers Cross into Maryland
February 20, 1913: Another day and another State line crossed for the suffrage hikers!
The hikers taking a break and talking to a few local residents earlier today at the Deer Park Hotel in Newark, Delaware.
Today’s 18-mile march to Elkton, Maryland, was as eventful as it was long. It began in that most friendly city of Wilmington, Delaware, where the mayor and 20 police officers gave General Jones and her Army of the Hudson an escort out of town. Mayor Howell also wrote a personal letter of introduction for the hikers to give to the Mayor of Baltimore.
The day’s first encounter was with the Green family. William Green proudly presented Ruth and Esther, age three, as future voters. Their mother shouted her support for the hikers from a window of the house, regretting that she couldn’t go to Washington, D.C., but said: “I am doing my share, for I am bringing up two new voters.”
The next stop was to visit Martha Cranston in Newport. She is one of the most active – and at over 70 years of age among the most senior – suffragists in Delaware. She gave the troops a fine welcoming speech. The City of Newport was decorated for the occasion with flags and bunting on many of the houses, and the city’s greeting even featured thirty schoolchildren, each carrying a banner. Two of the banners were inscribed “LET WOMEN VOTE” and “FOR PRESIDENT, GENERAL JONES.” Speeches were given in appreciation of the welcome, and then it was back on the road again.
As they approached Newark, the troops were met by the cadet corps of Delaware College. What made this reception especially noteworthy was that unlike similar encounters at other schools, these students were not given permission to miss classes and go out to meet the marchers, but did so anyway. One hundred and seventy-five uniformed students and band members “presented arms” as a salute, then escorted the hikers into Deer Park. After bidding the hikers a fond farewell, the band played “The Girl I Left Behind Me” and marched back to their campus and an unknown disciplinary fate.
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http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/02/20/today-in-herstory-suffrage-hikers-cross-into-maryland/