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FeedStanding Alone
Back in 1915, Chester was the only county in the state to say “yes” to women’s suffrage.
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Borders are only imaginary lines on the ground, but they can mark some very real differences. Locally, county borders once indicated positions on women’s suffrage. In 1915—five years before passage of the 19th Amendment, giving all U.S. women the right to vote—Chester County was the only county in Southeastern Pennsylvania to approve suffrage in a statewide referendum. Of 13,464 votes cast, 55 percent of the county’s voters (all men, of course) voted “yes.”
In neighboring areas, it wasn’t even close. In Delaware County, the pro-suffrage vote was 46 percent. And it went down from there: 40 percent in Montgomery County, 38 in Philadelphia, 33 in Lancaster and 32 in Bucks. The referendum passed in northern and western counties, but it failed statewide.
Trying to put a good face on it, suffragist leader Katherine Ruschenberger of Strafford naturally pointed out Chester County. “The Woman Suffrage Party of Chester County desires to thank the men of Chester County for the uniform kindness shown women at the polls, and for placing themselves on record by such a large majority as in favor of justice and fair play,” wrote Ruschenberger, the party’s secretary for propaganda, two weeks after the election. “The first suffrage meeting was held in Chester County in 1852. The share taken by her men and women in aiding the slave to achieve freedom and justice is well known. It is fitting, therefore, that in this second struggle for justice, Chester County should again lead the eastern counties.”
Tradition, politics and demographics made Chester County different. It had a long history of educated and politically active women, along with strong support for temperance, a movement closely allied with suffrage. In addition, the county was WASPier than most of its neighbors. WASPs (white Anglo-Saxon Protestants) were behind most 19th-century social reform movements.
The trend favoring women’s suffrage began in Chester County’s earliest days. The county was settled by Quakers, who had unique ideas about women. The Delaware River communities—including Philadelphia—were always diverse. But inland Chester County was unsettled territory—and Quakers put their stamp on it.
“The Quaker element largely predominated in this part of the country,” wrote Chester County poet and travel writer Bayard Taylor. “And even the many families who were not actually members of the sect were strongly colored with its peculiar characteristics.”
Writing of early 19th-century West Chester, historian Douglas Harper put it this way: “What [Quakers] shunned found little light or air in West Chester. Their dominance was symbolized by the failure of other churches to take root.”
Quakers believed anyone could know God if divinely inspired. That included females who, as a consequence, had been active socially and in the church since the 1650s. Quaker women traveled in the ministry and, within the church, sometimes had authority over men. All this virtually mandated that they be educated, and made the county receptive to later innovations like the lyceum movement.
