Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People

Location

Rt 108 Olney Sandy Spring Rd + Meeting House Rd, Ashton-Sandy Spring, MD 20860, USA

Lat/Long

39.1495517, -77.0269221

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

Known as a historically progressive community, Sandy Spring, Maryland served as a base of operations for the woman’s suffrage movement. Between 1883-1915, Maryland Woman Suffrage Association president Caroline Hallowell Miller and future president Mary Bentley Thomas helmed statewide campaigns for women to gain the right to vote. A brief snippet of the early history of Maryland Woman Suffrage Association is found in Annals of Sandy Spring:

 The Maryland Woman Suffrage Association was formed at Strathmore, January 11, 1889. The original members were Caroline H. Miller, Margaret E. Miller, George B. Miler, Sarah T. Miller, Rebecca T. Miller, Jessie B. Stabler, Margaret B, Magruder, Mary Magruder, Hannah B, Brooke and Martha T. Farquhar.

The organization started small but quickly grew, as indicated by the following passage from Annals of Sandy Spring:

The Association, consisting at first of only Sandy Springers, now has about 130 members in all parts of the State, with several local auxiliaries; the one for Montgomery County numbering forty-two in 1900 with Sarah T. Miller president, Mary Bentley Thomas succeeded Caroline H. Miller as president of the State Association in 1893.

Together, these two women, along with many others across the nation, fought for women to gain the right to vote.