I am doing a talk for the Cecil County Public Library on Women’s Suffrage soon and as some business took me through Kent County, I visited the Still Pond Historic District for a few minutes. This rural crossroads community has a significant history related to the campaign that gave women access to the ballot box.
One of the locations on the Register of Historic Places is the site of the former Still Pond Town Hall, which burned in 1916. The hall was the location where women first voted in Maryland. The parcel now contains a historic marker and a frame warehouse currently in use as a pottery studio, according to the National Register Report.
The marker was erected at the site in 2003 by the Maryland Historical Trust and the Maryland State Highway Administrations.
it reads as follows: “Maryland’s First women Voters — In the village of Still Pond, twelve years before the 19th amendment established women’s suffrage, Mary Jane Clark Howard, Anna Baker Maxwell, and Lille Deringer Kelly cast their ballots in the municipal election of 1908. That year, an act for incorporation of the town had provided the right to vote to any male or female resident taxpayer over age 21. Fourteen women were registered to vote, two of them African Americans.”
“Local coverage of this unprecedented event reflected mixed attitudes towards this new civil right gained for women. On April 4, 1908, the Kent News reported that women taxpayers in Still Pond were being given the right to vote, noting that “This is the first time the glorious privileged has been conferred on the fair sex in Maryland. Is it the opening wedge?”
” After the vote, the paper’s coverage highlighted that Mary Jane Howard was “one of the best known residents of the town,” and that Annie Maxwell and Eliza Kelley were “wives of physicians and leaders of thought in the community.” The paper pointed out that two of the women voted losing tickets, and also reported that some of the men present had offered to write tickets for these new voters. The women refused the help (Kent News, 9 May 1908).”
“A Baltimore Sun editorial of the time speculated as to why only three of the fourteen registered women voters showed at the polls. The quote below illustrates the attitudes early women voters faced: “One was kept away by the appearance of rain. She had recently procured her spring hat, and she could not assume the risk of getting it wet. Another found that to go to vote would interfere with the preparation of her husband’s supper.”
“But the reason which kept the third on the list from voting about to start for the polls, the rains having ceased, the baby woke and began to cry. That put the idea of voting out of the Mother’s head. The town of Still Pond might be able to get along comfortably without a woman’s vote; but the baby could not get along comfortably while its mother was voting and talking politics at the polls. So, the good lady, like a good mother as she doubtless is, let the election go and took up the baby and comforted it.”
“And that is just the reason why women’s suffrage does not make a better headway. The women – most of them – have something for [sic] more important than politics to occupy their time. Men can attend to the voting, but they cannot attend to the baby and other duties which require the greater ability of women.” (Kent News, 9 May 1908).”
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Notes:
For more on the Cecil County Public Library program on Women’s Suffrage click this link
https://www.facebook.com/cecilcountyhistory/posts/2219073698357545?__xts__[0]=68.ARBCeGIT3kYgMZ8mfWy2soEkJOXrB91otWbFaJUMtRZ0WomyksTf2oDVCsTxaXTOw1OWrdP_yPaHRaYh61EHSeOPkfj_vK3eWME5iRF-s31mUK5s-n2azECjbxrD2WEV6ifWTNOcSiLnlyxPWjsIpp78tONtl3_wVnwthUzcqNlofKRzBJhgi6m9gVQTomW9oYTahRaUMPmQd2ZLrBU6bdH4LSr0GoPr0VE4MzZg90P4M-jH0vt_LLfZojUsp2zAQ9w0xSAObyQJZZLhdDPV2dmbq_1kXOW5u99Kym34rymdhGIaNWZfis_oA6EpOlVPUeq894Wtnr18JOxx1u-IzTgpdW-m&__tn__=-R
The research information is from the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form — Still Pond Historic District
https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/…/NR_PDFs/NR-1486.pdf
Also see In Historic Election in Rising Sun Women Vote for the First Time in Cecil County