Besides Alice Paul, weren’t other Ridgefielders involved in passage of the 19th Amendment?
In July 1920 Laura Curie Allee got a call from the headquarters of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association, soon to be the League of Women Voters, asking help in getting the 36th and last state, Tennessee, to ratify the 19th Amendment. Mrs. Allee had been a regional leader in the suffrage movement. She, Mary Olcott and Florence Stokes headed to Ohio to persuade U.S. Sen. Warren G. Harding, candidate for president, to convince neighboring Tennessee to favor the amendment.
The women were met at the senator’s office by Harding’s campaign manager, “a fuming, hot, red-faced, fat, sweaty Irishman,” Mrs. Allee said later.
“Well, what do you want?” he asked.
“As Mary Olcott was the most imposing personality of our group, she was to speak first,” Mrs. Allee said. “His rude manner, and repulsive look so antagonized Mary that she answered him back in the same brusque tone.
“This got us nowhere, and dear, genteel Mrs. Stokes, in a soft voice, tried to interpose a remark, and he said, ‘One at a time, please.’ So she shut up. I thought I’d best keep still, so I said nothing.
“Before I knew what was happening, he had asked a young man to show us to the door.”
As the downhearted trio departed, Mrs. Allee realized she’d been so rattled by the goings-on she’d left her purse behind. She returned, apologizing for her forgetfulness.
The manager said, “Well, you didn’t say a word. Now that you are here, maybe you can tell me what you came for.”
She explained.
“Why the hell didn’t you say that before!” he exclaimed. “Why didn’t you do the talking? Don’t send that other woman anyplace when you want anything.”
They were ushered in to meet the senator, who, when he learned where the women came from, said, “I have an aunt who lives in Ridgefield. Do you know her? Mrs. Northrop.” Mrs. Allee knew her well — both belonged to the Congregational church. “That was open sesame,” Mrs. Allee said later.
The group explained their mission convincingly and, on July 21, Sen. Harding urged Tennessee to ratify the amendment. Tennessee did so Aug. 26, and three months later, Mr. Harding was elected president — with a plurality that no doubt included three newly enfranchised Ridgefield women.
Mrs. Allee was the wife of Dr. William H. Allee, who died in 1929. In 1933, she married James Van Allen Shields. She was a supporter of good schools, and several community organizations, and helped in the effort to preserve the Keeler Tavern.
In 1953, The Press reported a comment about Mrs. Shields: “It is said that a good woman does not always find flowers in her footpath, but they are always growing in her footsteps.” She died in 1968 at the age of 97. —J.S.