Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People

Location

862 Philadelphia Ave, Chambersburg, PA 17201, USA

Lat/Long

39.947025, -77.653713

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

Pennsylvania civic and political leader Hannah J. Patterson (1879-1937) was a national advocate for women’s suffrage and served as chair of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Party during the fight for women’s right to vote. Patterson was a leader in the campaign for a women’s suffrage amendment to the Pennsylvania state constitution that would secure women’s right to vote in the state. Thanks to the efforts of Pennsylvania suffragists, in 1913, the state legislature passed a women’s suffrage amendment and in 1915 it went before voters of the state for ratification.

In the September 15, 1914 edition of the Harrisburg Telegraph, Patterson voiced her confidence in the state legislature and the voters of Pennsylvania in passing the proposed suffrage amendment:

We are sure of winning at the next session of the Legislature … and after that the question will be up to the voters. We know they will help us win in November, 1915.

Despite the assurance of Patterson in securing a suffrage victory that November, voters of the state rejected the proposed amendment. After this defeat, Pennsylvania suffragists shifted strategy to work toward the passage of a federal women’s suffrage amendment.

Finally, on June 4, 1919, the United States Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment which states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” On June 24, Pennsylvania ratified the federal amendment. By August 1920, the necessary 36 states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, securing women’s right to vote across the United States.

During World War I, Patterson served as a director of the Women’s Committee of the Council of National Defense. Upon her appointment to the post, the Harrisburg Telegraph published the appraisal of Patterson given by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national suffragist and chair of the Women’s Committee:

The addition to the headquarters staff of a woman of such marked ability greatly increases the efficiency of the committee’s work, and we are to be congratulated upon her appointment.

For her work in service to the United States during the war, Patterson was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

Patterson graduated in 1901 from Wilson College in Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. She served as a trustee of Wilson College from 1913 to 1917 and again from 1922 until her death at 58 years old in 1937. Her obituary published in the August 22, 1937 edition of the New York Times stated that she was the first woman trustee of Wilson College.