On this day in 1869, at a meeting in Hartford attended by civil rights luminaries including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and William Lloyd Garrison, Isabella Beecher Hooker and her husband John formally established the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association.

Isabella was born into the famous Beecher clan of Litchfield in 1822. She and two of her sisters were destined to leave their marks on American history as influential and nationally renowned 19th century reformers: Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ignited national conversations about the evils of slavery; Catherine Beecher established herself as a pioneer of women’s education; and Isabella Beecher Hooker became an outspoken advocate for woman’s suffrage and legal rights.

During her 36-year tenure as leader of the CWSA, Hooker organized multiple high-profile conventions to draw attention and support to the cause of woman’s suffrage, and tirelessly petitioned both the Connecticut General Assembly and Congress to legally recognize women’s right to vote. Unlike many of her fellow suffragists, Isabella enjoyed the full support of her husband John, a Hartford lawyer who supported her efforts financially and helped her draft a bill which eventually became Connecticut’s first law to address the legal property rights of women. Even though Connecticut did not vote in favor of woman’s suffrage until the 19th Amendment had already passed in Congress, the CWSA was able to gain incremental victories towards woman’s suffrage at the state level, earning women the right to formally vote on local matters like school and library expenditures.

Even though Isabella Beecher Hooker passed away in 1907, thirteen years before her lifelong dream of woman’s suffrage would become a reality, the foundation she laid with the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association proved to be strong: CWSA membership peaked at over 32,000 members in 1917, and the organization remained an influential political force until 1920, when it formally disbanded following the national ratification of the 19th Amendment, which finally gave women across America the right to vote.

Further Reading

Jonetta Badillo, “Isabella Beecher Hooker, Co-Founder of Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association,” New Haven Register

Jessica D. Jenkins, “The Long Road to Women’s Suffrage in Connecticut,” Connecticut Explored

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