Heritage/History Lifestyle

Leaving a Mark(er): League of Women Voters Honors 19th-Century Suffragist

Charlotte Street marker. Photo by Lauren Stepp

By Lauren Stepp

On November 22, 1894, the Asheville Daily Citizen published excerpts from an article written by Rev. Millard A. Jenkins. In the passage, the preacher admonishes North Carolina’s budding women’s suffrage movement, comparing it to an “old toothless crone” who is “waving her banners and claiming her liberties and freedom.”

Much to the preacher’s chagrin, the women’s suffrage movement did, in fact, have teeth. In a response published in the Asheville Daily Citizen on November 26, an Asheville woman by the name of Helen Morris Lewis bit back.

Helen Morris Lewis. Photo courtesy of LWVAB

Lewis described the reverend’s column as “narrow, prejudiced and personal” and the expressed views as “shallow and effete.” For a final jab, she wrote, “Such men as the writer have no real influence in an age like this.”

By “an age like this,” the Buncombe County resident was referring to a turning point in American culture. In the late 1800s, women started pushing against gender norms, questioning their supporting role.

For Lewis, this involved demanding more say—socially, economically and, of course, politically. According to Josephine K. Henry’s 1895 text, “A New Woman of the New South,” Lewis wanted to vote because “so long as women are prevented from legislation, so long they will be cramped and paralyzed by powers over which they have no control.”

Simply put, “Helen was not simply content with living out her days quietly in the mountains,” says Katherine Cutshall, the collections manager at Buncombe County Special Collections. “She wanted to leave a mark on the world and influence women’s lives for the better.”

And so, in 1894, she rallied some of Asheville’s most prominent citizens to advocate for women’s suffrage at the county courthouse. That same month, she was elected as the first president of the North Carolina Equal Rights Association at a meeting held at Mayor Thomas Patton’s home.

“Helen was the motivating force behind the women’s suffrage movement in NC in the 1890s,” says Suzanne Fisher, president of the League of Women Voters of Asheville-Buncombe County (LWVAB). “She traveled throughout the state, often addressing audiences that numbered in the hundreds.”

In 1895, Lewis ventured beyond NC, speaking on women’s rights before the US Senate Committee. In 1896, she won five unsolicited votes for the US House of Representatives. Three years later, she announced her candidacy for Superintendent of Waterworks in Asheville, making her the first woman in NC to seek public office.

Unfortunately, Lewis lost the campaign for office. Even worse, local interest in the suffrage movement had waned by 1900. “However, the fight did not end there, and Lewis’ impact was not insignificant,” says Cutshall.

Way ahead of her time, Lewis paved the way for other local women to make their mark on the world. With this in mind, LWVAB partnered with the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites to celebrate the installation of a roadside marker honoring Helen Morris Lewis at the Patton Parker House earlier this year.

According to Cutshall, the Charlotte Street marker is a physical reminder of Lewis’ commitment. “As founder and president of North Carolina’s first official suffrage organization,” Cutshall says, “Lewis opened the door for women across the state to make their voices heard in the political sphere.”

The roadside marker is located at the Patton Parker House (95 Charlotte Street, Asheville). For more information, visit LWVAB.org.

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