The League of Women Voters, founded as an outgrowth of the women’s suffrage movement and the passage of the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote, continues today as one of our country’s oldest and strongest nonpartisan citizens’ organizations. As the League celebrates its 100th birthday, its commitment remains the same: to empower all eligible voters to register, vote and engage in the hands-on improvement of their local, state, and national government.
Membership in the LWV Montgomery County carries with it membership in the LWV-US and the LWV-MD, all of which share the same 1920 birthday and the same goals for citizen involvement and good government. Learn more about the League of Women Voters’ Mission and about our local League’s activities in our newsletter, Newsletter: Montgomery Voter.
Women’s Suffrage Project. In honor of the League’s 100th anniversary, the Maryland–National Park and Planning Commission staff tells the story of Montgomery County women, places, and events that were important to women’s suffrage. In the Women’s Suffrage Project you can read about places like Quaker Village in Sandy Spring, the Chevy Chase Equal Suffrage League, and “The Maryland Suffrage News” and how each effort helped bring voting rights to our neighborhoods right here in Montgomery County. The Women’s Suffrage Project involves us in places we well know and shows how local successes had an impact on the national struggle. https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/historic/womens-suffrage/
Our Stories: LWVMC Historical Profiles
During the 100 year history of the Montgomery County League, many women have worked tirelessly to ensure the success of the League's mission. Here are some of their stories.
#1. Lavinia Engle
"Some of those sessions in Congress were really delightful. I think it too bad in history that we always, or sometimes, stick to the factual data and you miss some of the colorful and delightful episodes that went through it."
Lavinia Engle made this comment in January of 1971. She was doing the first of five interviews for the Marie Bennett Library of Local History, part of a joint effort by the LWV of Montgomery County and the Department of Public Libraries. Lavinia's interviews are part of a treasure trove of stories and anecdotes and lost history that help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the League and of women's suffrage.
Lavinia was recruited as a field secretary for the National Suffrage Association when she was fresh out of college in 1912. She and Susan B. Anthony testified before Congress on behalf of the suffrage movement. "The suffrage campaign had a sense of—a profound sense of values," Lavinia told the interviewer, "It was never a dour campaign. It was never bitter. There were no attacks. Dr. [Anna Howard] Shaw said to me once when I was in my early stages giving women's suffrage speeches throughout the country, 'Lavinia, never try to convince a person that he or she should come to your point of view. Find a point on which you mutually agree and then move the point." Shaw was a physician, a leader in the suffrage movement, and the first ordained female Methodist minister in the U.S.
That was a lesson Lavinia took to heart not only during her time working to win the vote for women, but also when she moved on to her work with the League. As it became clear that the suffrage movement would be eventually successful, she says discussion at the national conventions would often turn to "what we will do when the Amendment was ratified."
Lavinia and her colleagues decided to create a League of Women Voters, in which women could teach each other "the things they needed to know [how] to be effective citizens, and that this organization should be non-partisan, but should encourage women to go into the political parties and work."
At the final convention in Chicago in 1920, the National American Woman's Suffrage Association decided to turn over its assets to the new League of Women Voters, totaling well over half a million dollars. Lavinia's interview is filled with stories that reflect both the stubborn determination of these women and their sense of humor, things she learned while fighting to win the vote for herself and her sisters around the nation.
It's important to remember, especially as the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage approaches, that the League inherited more than financial assets from the suffrage movement. We were also bequeathed decades of organizational experience and sheer grit. Many women didn't end their activism when the 19th Amendment was ratified in August of 1920, they simply joined their local League office and continued to advocate for civil rights.
Lavinia clearly felt the influence of those who had gone before her. In her interview, she describes one of the first meetings she attended, when her mother (also named Lavinia) took her to a suffrage convention in Baltimore. Little Lavinia was seven or eight at the time. "My mother took me up to the chair in which [Susan B. Anthony] was sitting and said to her, 'Aunt Susan,' as they all called her, 'This is my daughter, Lavinia.'
And [Susan] said, 'Oh, another Lavinia!' and reached out and drew me over to her and said, 'And you'll be another Lavinia who campaigned for woman's suffrage.' And I said, 'Oh yes, Aunt Susan, I will.' And she patted me on the head and laughed, and my mother said, 'Well, I'll raise her up to the faith, Aunt Susan.'"
Lavinia Engle kept the faith until her death in 1979, first in the suffrage movement, and then during her nearly 60 years working for the League of Women Voters.
Celeste Headlee
#2. Alice Hostetler. LWVMC 1942-43 president
Alice Hostetler was a civic leader in Montgomery County. She was president of the Montgomery County League of Women Voters 1942-43. She was elected a member of the Maryland House of Delegates for 1961-62 and 1966. (Montgomery County Archives)
Mrs. Hostetler's own words follow. (The portion in italics was written by the author to explain what Montgomery County was like in the 1930’s and 40’s.)
"They (WWI veterans) came back to this county with the finest intentions, they felt that they had learned some things that we should know in this country and maybe avoid another war. So they were very united in their feeling about - you must do something about government. Then they became the controlling influence, but they didn't want to listen to anyone else.
Prominent Montgomery County citizen Col. E. Brooke Lee and his associates organized a Democratic Club/Congress that controlled Montgomery County government for several decades. According to a Colonel Lee obituary in the Baltimore Sun (August 5, 1999) "The Democratic Club (Congress) ruled with authority. He recognized the importance of helping friends with patronage, his own money and public projects. He turned out the vote as efficiently as any Baltimore ward boss".
The Democratic Congress met once or twice a year when they had a piece of business. In the 30's for women it was just a social affair, they furnished food and went to the parties. You were very much honored if you were included in that exclusive group.
During elections they (Democratic Congress) only brought the people out to vote that they wanted. Somebody was always there with a bottle of whiskey and two bucks and that is the way the precincts were run back in those days. If you belonged to the right group, you got a nice snort of whiskey, and maybe even got a half pint. But people don't believe that Montgomery County was ever like that. They always say, Oh, Montgomery County's different.
When Mr. Roosevelt lost his fourth election in Montgomery County. That really got my back up and I decided it was time for us to stand up for the things we believed in. I believed in the Democrat party and in Mr. Roosevelt, we could get nothing done in the legislature, unless we were working in the party. When I went to my first Democrat meeting that Col Lee presided over, he was not only an excellent presider, but a very dominant one, and he would not give you the floor unless he wanted to. I was president of the League at that time [and I] wanted to make an announcement on a subject the meeting was considering and he would not recognize [me] until the meeting was over. I had that happen more than once. He felt that only his views were important, nobody else's counted.
Col. Lee and I always had a very pleasant social contact. I always had the feeling that I was being taken for a ride; he was so cordial and so nice. We never quarreled and got along ostensibly.
I remember one meeting when the rank and file democrats, who were getting very active, came to a meeting because they wanted to have a vote on an education bill. The man who was presiding over the meeting for Colonel Lee promised to let these people have the floor later, but he wanted to finish the business of the meeting first and when the business of the meeting was finished he adjourned it. All the good old guys got up and walked out and that the people who wanted this piece of legislation sat there.
Members of the old guard slipped in again. They were not going to miss anything that was going on. The bill was adopted by the voice vote. It was the first big action that gave us a little taste of success. – Karen DeThomas