Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People

Location

505 E 1st N St, Morristown, TN 37814, USA

Lat/Long

36.216725, -83.289086

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

In 1911, Hannah J. Price (Hardy) (1872-1931) founded the Equal Suffrage League (ESL) of Morristown, Tennessee. The October 29, 1911 edition of the Knoxville, Tennessee Journal and Tribune reported on Price’s part in the formation of the Morristown ESL:

Some weeks ago, Miss Price made a canvass of the club women of the city in the interest of the suffrage movement. As a result of this canvass, it is stated that thirty ladies have promised to become members of the club. From the interest manifested, it is believed that the membership may be increased to a hundred within a short time after the organization is formed.

Shortly after this, the Knoxville Sentinel published an interview with Price in which she stated:

The prospects are very bright for a good organization in Morristown. In fact, I have met with little opposition, and that which I have met with is not serious for it arose from prejudice or ignorance, and both can be dispelled.

Many who were against this great cause fifteen years ago are for it now. Those against it now will be for it eventually. And so we work on cheerfully, knowing that the cause of woman will triumph in Tennessee some day soon.

On November 5, 1911, the Journal and Tribune reported that the Morristown ESL was established at a meeting of both men and women interested in the cause of women’s suffrage. Initial membership in the ESL numbered twenty-four supporters. The Journal and Tribune noted that Price was “chiefly instrumental in securing the organization” and was elected president.

Price led many meetings of the Morristown ESL in her family home on East First North Street in Morristown. Her sister Annie Laurie Price was also an active suffragist and held leadership positions in the Morristown ESL. In 1913, while still living in her family home in Morristown, Price published a novel entitled The Closed Door, in which she advocated for women’s right to vote. The September 10, 1913 edition of the Morristown Gazette described the newly published work:

The theme is of a young woman raised in the South, fighting against the narrow conservatism of our people on all subjects where women are concerned, the conservatism of a people who still rule their women by the harsh rules of the common law. The heroine of the story is a thinking woman of the Joan of Arc type, willing to sacrifice herself for her ideas.

Around 1925, the Morristown Women’s Club House, Inc., purchased the Price family home in Morristown to use as headquarters for local women’s clubs. As of 2022, the Morristown Women’s Club House, Inc., composed of two General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC), the GFWC Ladies’ Reading Circle and the GFWC Somo Sala Circle, continued to maintain the club house property on East First North Street in Morristown.