Susan B. Anthony and Trial Courthouse Get NVWT Marker

It was a windy chilly day on June 18, but everyone had so much fun at this marker dedication on the anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s conviction for voting. Dignitaries present at the event were the Mayor of Canandaigua, representatives from the Canandaigua City Council and the Ontario County Board of Supervisors.

This marker specifically commemorates Anthony’s trial here in the Canandaigua County Courthouse on July 17-18, 1873, for voting in the 1872 presidential election. Anthony based her argument on the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which asserted that “all persons born and naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States.” In what became known as the New Departure, Anthony and others argued that women as citizens had the right to vote.

 (L to R—Rosemary Sweitzer, Ontario County Archivist; Judith Wellman, NCWHS; Preston Pierce, Ontario County Historian; Allison HInman from the Susan B. Anthony House)

Anthony was one of 14 women in Rochester to register successfully to vote on November 5, 1872. Afterward, she wrote exultantly to her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Well, I have positively gone and done it—voted the straight Republican ticket!”

Preston Pierce, Ontario County Historian, and Judy Wellman, NCWHS Vice-President, read the transcript of Anthony’s speech at her trial.  A video of this will be posted on the website for the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse (www.farmingtonmeetinghouse.org). Her speech is as powerful today as it was in 1873.

Article: Susan B. Anthony’s trial marked at Ontario County Courthouse

Submitted by Judy Wellman, NCWHS Vice-President and NY State Coordinator, NVWT