Timeline of women's suffrage in Vermont

1850s

1852

• Clarina I. H. Nichols petitions the state legislature for women's right to vote, but was unsuccessful.^[1]

1854

• Lucy Stone gives a women's rights speech in Randolph.^[2]

1858

• A Free Convention held at Rutland creates a petition for women's suffrage, but the state legislature does not take up the issue.^[2]

1860s

1869

• During the state constitutional convention, a women's suffrage amendment was proposed by the Vermont Council of Censors, first as a joke, but was later taken seriously by the State Legislature; the amendment still fails.^[3]

1870s

1870

• January: The Vermont Woman Suffrage Association (VWSA) is formed by men.^[4]
• February: American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) members arrive in Montpelier to campaign, going on to other cities including Burlington, Montpelier, St. Albans, and St. Johnsbury.^[5][6]
• June: VWSA presents the women's suffrage issue to the Council of Censors' convention to update the state constitution.^[7] It is defeated with only one yes vote by legislator, Harvey Howes.^[7]

1872

• Two women's suffrage proposals go to the state legislature: one for taxpaying women to vote in school elections and the other for full equal suffrage.^[8] Neither passes.^[8]

1879

• The Vermont Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is formed and advocates for women's school suffrage.^[9]

1880s

1880

• Women in Vermont are able to vote on "all questions pertaining to schools and school officers in cities, towns and graded school districts."^[10]
• The Vermont WCTU successfully advocated for women taxpayers receive the right to vote at school district meetings.^[1]

1881

• Summer: AWSA plans a series of suffrage meetings for the state.^[11]

1883

• September: Hannah Tracy Cutler speaks on temperance and women's suffrage in Cambridge.^[12]
• November 8-9: First state suffrage convention is held at St. Johnsbury.^[13][14]

1884

• January: VWSA executive committee meets and announces they will petition the state legislature for municipal suffrage.^[15]
• May: Twenty nine Vermont towns have organized suffrage groups by May.^[16]
• November 22: A municipal suffrage bill is introduced to the state House.^[16]
• The Municipal Suffrage bill does not pass.^[17]

1886

• November 3: A municipal suffrage bill is introduced to the state House and passes by 135 to 89.^[18]
• The suffrage bill does not pass.^[17]
• The Vermont WCTU endorses women's suffrage.^[19]

1887

• The VWSA proposes a municipal suffrage bill.^[20]
• September: Frances Willard visits and speaks in Vermont.^[21][22]

1888

• April: The Vermont Republican Party endorses women's suffrage.^[23]
• The Vermont WCTU publishes the series, "Resolutions Relating to Women's Rights, Temperance, and Other Reforms.^[24]
• November: Another Municipal Suffrage Bill is introduced to the state House, but does not pass.^[17][23] Defeated 37 to 192.^[25]
• The Prohibition Party forms a Vermont chapter that has backing from the state temperance and suffrage activists.^[26]

1890s

1890

• The Vermont Methodists and Free Baptists come out in official support for women's suffrage.^[27]
• A Municipal Suffrage Bill is introduced to the state House and does not pass.^[17]

1892

• Wendell Phillips Stafford introduces a Municipal Suffrage Bill in the state House, but it does pass the state Senate.^[28]
• Women are allowed to vote on school issues at town meetings.^[29]

1894

• A Municipal Suffrage Bill is reintroduced in the state House by Hosea Mann, but it is defeated.^[28]

1896

• The Municipal Suffrage Bill is introduced in the state Senate, where it passes, but it does not make it through the state House this time.^[30][27]
• VWSA has its greatest membership in this year at 276 members.^[27]

1898

• Over 2,500 Vermont citizens present a petition for women's Municipal Suffrage to the state legislature, and though a bill is introduced, it is unsuccessful.^[31]

1900s

1900

• Petitions for women's suffrage lead to another bill being unsuccessfully introduced into the state legislature.^[31]
• June 12-13: Henry Browne Blackwell speaks at the state suffrage convention held in Waterbury Center, Vermont.^[32]

1901

• June 25-26: The state suffrage convention meets in Rochester.^[32]

1902

• The Vermont Baptist Association comes out in favor of allowing women to vote on limited issues relating to prohibition.^[33]
• The Universalist Church in the state endorsed full equal suffrage for women.^[34]
• Both Municipal and Presidential suffrage bills are introduced into the state legislature, but do not pass.^[35]
• June 18-19: The state suffrage convention is held in West Concord.^[32]

1903

• June 9-10: The state suffrage convention is held in Barton.^[34]

1904

• June 22-23: The state suffrage convention is held in Woodstock.^[34]
• November: The state legislature considers a Municipal Suffrage bill, but it does not pass both houses.^[36]

1905

• Around 10,000 copies of a pamphlet, "Opinions on Equal Suffrage by Vermont Men and Women," was distributed throughout the state.^[34]
• June 7-8: State suffrage convention takes place in Springfield.^[34]

1906

• June 6-7: The state suffrage convention is held in Brattleboro.^[34]
• October 24: An attempt to change the statues for voting by substituting "person" for "male" passes the state House, but is later narrowly defeated in the state senate.^[36]

1907

• June 13-14: The state suffrage convention takes place in Burlington.^[34] Anna Howard Shaw is a featured speaker.^[37]

1908

• December: Annette W. Parmelee addresses the Vermont state house on the subject of women's suffrage and "taxation without representation."^[38]

1910s

1910

• May 28: Parmelee requests a proposed amendment to the State Constitution for women's suffrage.^[39]
• A Municipal suffrage bill fails to pass in the state legislature.^[40]

1911

• May: Parmelee and the Vermont WCTU stage a suffrage satire called "Man's Suffrage Bill," in Bristol.^[41][42]

1912

• A bill to allow women to vote in town meetings about taxes and fund appropriates is introduced and passed in the Senate, but fails in the House.^[36]

1914

• May: VESA hosts meetings and picnics in fourteen Vermont towns.^[43]

1915

• January 21: A public hearing on bills for women's Municipal and Presidential suffrage is heard.^[44]
• February 2: Anti-suffrage speakers attend the senate hearing, the suffrage bill eventually fails.^[44]

1917

• February 27: A municipal suffrage bill comes out of the state House committee.^[45]
• March 8: The same bill is reintroduced and amended.^[45]
• March 21: The bill passes.^[45]
• March 30: The bill is signed into law.^[45] Vermont women earned partial suffrage at the city and town level, where they could vote for officers, except for "road commissioners."^[46]
• November 10: L. J. C. Daniels marches and protests at the White House with other women in the NWP.^[47]

1919

• February 20: Governor Percival W. Clement vetoes the presidential women's suffrage bill.^[48]
• February 24: Daniels and twenty one other women from the NWP protest President Wilson's Boston visit.^[49]

1920s

1920

• April: Around 400 women demand that Governor Clement call a special session to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment; Clement refuses.^[19]
• July 1-2: The state suffrage convention is held in St. Albans.^[35]
• July 2: The Vermont League of Women Voters is formed.^[50]

1921

• February 8: Vermont ratifies the Nineteenth Amendment.^[51]