Mary Garrett Hay, ca. 1857-1928
Location: Charlestown City Square, intersection of Main St. and Short St., Charlestown (Clark County), Indiana 47111
Installed 2021 Indiana Historical Bureau, League of Women Voters of South Central Indiana, and Friends of Mary Garrett Hay
ID#: 10.2021.1
Learn more about Hay’s work for women’s rights with the Indiana History Blog.
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Side One
Women’s rights activist and political strategist Mary Garrett Hay was born in Charlestown. She worked with the WCTU here and in Indianapolis in the late 1800s, honing her leadership and speaking skills and advancing women’s suffrage. Susan B. Anthony chose Hay to help lead a suffrage campaign in the West, where she founded local leagues and spoke at rallies.
Side Two
Hay moved to New York City by 1900, where she organized for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She lived and worked with companion Carrie Chapman Catt for decades. Their nationwide speaking tours proved crucial to the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment. Hay educated newly-enfranchised voters by helping establish the NYC League of Women Voters.
Annotated Text
Side One
Women’s rights activist and political strategist Mary Garrett Hay was born in Charlestown.[1] She worked with the WCTU here and in Indianapolis in the late 1800s, honing her leadership and speaking skills and advancing women’s suffrage.[2] Susan B. Anthony chose Hay to help lead a suffrage campaign in the West, where she founded local leagues and spoke at rallies.[3]
Side Two
Hay moved to New York City by 1900, where she organized for the National American Woman Suffrage Association.[4] She lived and worked with companion Carrie Chapman Catt for decades. Their nationwide speaking tours proved crucial to the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment.[5] Hay educated newly-enfranchised voters by helping establish the NYC League of Women Voters.[6]
* All newspaper clippings were accessed via Newspapers.com.
[1] "Mary Hay," 1860 United States Federal Census, Clark County, Indiana, accessed Ancestry Library.; "Mary G Hay," 1900 United States Federal Census, Manhattan, New York, accessed Ancestry Library.; "Mary G Hay," 1910 United States Federal Census, Manhattan Ward 22, New York, accessed Ancestry Library.; "Mary Hay," 1920 United States Federal Census, Manhattan Assembly District 11, New York, accessed Ancestry Library.; “Mary Garrett Hay,” New Rochelle, Westchester County, New York, accessed Find-A-Grave.
[2] Minutes of the Ninth Annual Meeting, of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, of Indiana, Held at Indianapolis, May 15, 16, 17 and 18, 1882 (Lafayette: Our Herald Company, 1882), 1, Indiana State Library (ISL).; “Superintendents of Departments,” Annual Report and Constitutions of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Indiana, 1884, ISL.; Minutes of the Indiana Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, at the Fourteenth Annual Meeting, Held in Richmond, Indiana, May 20 to 24, 1887 (Indianapolis: Organizer Publishing Company), 6, ISL.; Minutes of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of the State of Indiana, at the Eighteenth Annual Meeting, Evansville, October 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th, 1891 (Indianapolis: Organizer Print), 8, ISL.; Minutes of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of the State of Indiana at the Twenty-First Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, October 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1894 (Indianapolis: Organizer Print), 8, ISL.; Minutes of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of the State of Indiana at the Twenty-Second Annual Meeting, Vincennes, October 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1895, 8-9, ISL.
[3] “Woman Suffragists,” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (West Virginia), November 29, 1895, 2.; “Mrs. Shaw in California,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 14, 1896, 8.; “Suffragists Open Fire,” San Francisco Call, March 22, 1896, 25.; Telegraph to the Tribune, “Topics in California,” New-York Tribune, March 29, 1896, 24.; Daily Independent (Santa Barbara, CA), October 24, 1896, 2.; “Woman Suffrage Crusade,” Sioux City Journal, October 20, 1897, 3.; Ponca City Democrat (Oklahoma), September 29, 1898, 1.
[4] "Mary G Hay," 1900 United States Federal Census, Manhattan, New York, accessed Ancestry Library.; The Thirty-Third Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association . . . May 30 and 31, and June 1, 3, 4, 5, 1901, Image 6, Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911, Scrapbook 3, Rare Book and Special Collections Divisions, accessed Library of Congress.; Clipping, Lillian Gray, “Mary Garrett Hay, Organizer of Women’s Associations,” 1903, New York Public Library, submitted by marker applicant.; Train Schedule, Mary G. Hay, Railroad Secretary, National American Woman’s Suffrage Association, New Orleans, March 19th to 25th, 1903, Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911, Scrapbook 3, Rare Book and Special Collections Divisions, accessed Library of Congress.; “Great Procession in New York,” Woman’s Journal and Suffrage News 41 (May 28, 1910): 86, accessed HeinOnline.; “30,000 Women in Monster Parade,” Woman’s Journal and Suffrage News 44 (1913): 137, 144, accessed HeinOnline.; “New Committee Outlines Plans,” Woman’s Journal and Suffrage News 47 (February 12, 1916): 50, accessed HeinOnline.; “Woman’s Hour Strikes at Big National Convention,” Woman’s Journal and Suffrage News 47 (September 16, 1916): 304?, accessed HeinOnline.; Program, Sixth Annual Convention of the Woman’s Franchise League of Indiana, Claypool Hotel, Indianapolis, April 17-18-19, 1917, n.p., Women in History Digital Collection, ISL.
[5] “Mary Garrett Hay,” Excerpt from Maud Wood Park, More “Rampant Women,” NAWSA Records, 2 of 3, submitted by marker applicant.; “Miss Mary Garrett Hay,” Weekly Gazette (Colorado Springs), October 1, 1903, 7.; "Mary G Hay," 1910 United States Federal Census, Manhattan Ward 22, New York, accessed Ancestry Library.; “Mrs. Catt Here to Train the Suffragettes,” Arkansas Democrat, August 18, 1913, 2.; "Mary Hay," 1920 United States Federal Census, Manhattan Assembly District 11, New York, accessed Ancestry Library.; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 25, 1921, 2.; “Mary Garrett Hay Dies at 71; Noted Suffragist Leader,” New York Evening Post, August 30, 1928, submitted by marker applicant.; Amanda Hillard Beam, “A Lost Daughter: How Charlestown’s Mary Garrett Hay Changed the World,” News and Tribune (Jeffersonville, IN), September 1, 2015, accessed newsandtribune.com.; Hope C. Tarr, “The Boston Marriage that Won the Vote for U.S. Women,” August 18, 2020, accessed medium.com.
[6] Mary Garrett Hay, “Meetings,” New-York Tribune, January 4, 1920, 17.; “A Modern-Minded Senator,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 17, 1920, 6.; Washington Herald, November 18, 1920, 7.; “Chautauqua Institute Holds First School of Political Education,” Standard Union (Brooklyn), July 6, 1921, 11.; “New York Women’s League Holds Activities Exhibit,” Indianapolis News, September 23, 1922, 21.; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 20, 1923, 22.