The Road to Women’s Suffrage in Sharon
The Road to Women’s Suffrage in Sharon, Connecticut documents the combined efforts of women and men from cities and small towns, like Sharon, across the state of Connecticut. The exhibition illustrates the stories of the Suffrage Movement in Connecticut’s Litchfield County, the petitioners from the town of Sharon, and the movements for equal rights being fought today.
A Closer Look at the Petition
Elizabeth Darling
Elizabeth Darling is buried in Hillside Cemetery, near the graves of Katherine Hotaling and Beatrice Fay. She and her husband, David, ran a livery/stage business transporting people to and from the train station. After her husband’s death in 1913, Elizabeth continued to operate the stage business. She outlived David by 34 years and never remarried.
Beatrice Fay
Beatrice Fay was the proprietress of the Bartram Inn. Both the 1910 and 1920 census state that her
occupation was boarding house and public trade. In 1910 Beatrice was renting a house and employed at the
Bartram Inn. By 1920, she owned her own home and was the Owner of the Bartram Inn. Beatrice was unmarried, but her parents were a part of her household and it appears she supported them financially. Beatrice died at age 83 in a Pennsylvania nursing home. She is buried in Hillside cemetery, near the graves of Katherine Hotaling and Elizabeth Darling.
Katherine Hotaling
Katherine Hotaling is not cited as an example of a taxpayer in the 1918 petition, but she was certainly prominent in Sharon government after the passage of the 19th Amendment. Town Clerk from 1930-1952, she was responsible for recording and preserving Sharon’s history. We suspect that Katherine was the scribe of the petition. Katherine is buried in Hillside Cemetery, with her parents William and Temperance. Her brother Fred is buried in Kensico Cemetery but is commemorated on the family stone.
Elizabeth Crowe Hoag
Elizabeth Crowe Hoag and her husband Henry owned a grocery store in Sharon. She is listed as a taxpayer on the petition, but in Sharon tax records she is not listed. We assume that Henry was listed as the taxpayer and char Elizabeth was the “silent partner”.
The Women Who Signed It
Nina Jackett
Nina Juckett was nor a taxpayer bur signed the petition. In 1918 she was a single working woman. Nina attended Danbury Normal School and caught in Sharon Distriet Schools. She then worked as a clerk in the Sharon Post Office and was appointed Postmaster
in 1949.
Nina married Maynard C. Bartram in 1925. They had two children, Maynard Jr. and Barbara. Barbara is a Sharon resident and active member of the SHSM. We thank her for helping us bring her mother to life.
Clementine Tiedeman Wiley
Mrs. Allen Wiley’s full name is Clementine Tiedeman Wiley. She was listed as a taxpayer (she paid $21.00 in 1918) but did not sign the pertition sent to Senator McLean. Clementine was a member of the Sharon Woman’s Club and registered and voted as soon as the 19th Amendment was passed. Clementine ran the Village Tea Room in Sharon. Eventually an addition was built onto the Bartram Inn, run by Miss Beatrice Fay, to house it. Bills were carefully written out for patrons who wished to charge their meals and its trade sign is a part of the Sharon Historical Society and Museum’s permanent collection. Clementine and her husband Allen are buried in Hillside Cemetery, near the grave of her father, Dr. Otto Tiedeman (who collected Clementine’s taxes).
Frances (Fannie) Jewett
Frances (Fannie) Jewett was 50 when she signed the petition. In both the 1910 and 1920 census, Fannie is listed as “single” and the “head of the house.” Her occupation was farmer and she was also was classified as an employer.
Fannie did pay taxes, though 1918 may have been a difficult year financially. The 1918 tax records show that Fannie made several payments towards her tax bill. The final payment must have been a bit
late because she was charged an additional 8 cents in interest.
Research Creates More Questions
Sometimes research brings more questions than answers and shows that primary sources are not as clear as one might wish. Such was the case with the 1918 petition from Sharon residents to Senator McLean.
The petition and signatures are clearly al written by the same person. The text was fairly easy to transcribe, as were most of the signatures, except for the last signature in the center column: “Mrs. John . .”
What Could That Last Name Be?
Going letter by letter, there are two theories: the first theory argues that the name begins with a “C” and reads as Mrs. John Conie or some similar name, but definitely beginning with a”C”. This will be referred to as “Theory C”. The second theory argues that the first letter is an “L” and that the surname is Liner.
So, the search began.
We could find no evidence of a Conie family, but the 1920 Census shows the following married men whose name begins with a “C”: John Carley, who did sign the petition, John Caesar, and John Clayton. The hunt for information about Liner was much more fruitful:
Observe the tax records for 1918 and the gravestone in the cemetery…
Theory C argues that the dot over the name is way of for a second letter “i and points out that that second letter doesn’t look like an “i.” Theory C also examined the last two letters and claims that they do not resemble an “er”. They also read hte first leter as a,C” although slightly less curvy than the one which begins the Carley signature.
The Liner theory compares the first letter of the signature with the “L” in McLean and the “L’ in Landon. The Liner camp also looked through the petition and found several floating dots over words that have an “i” in them. And in response to Theory C’s distrust of the final two letters, the Liner camp points ot hte last two letters in the word “consider” above the signature “Robinson”.
Despite their differences, both camps observed that the scribe of this petition was running out of ink as they composed the final lines where the contested signature lies. Perhaps this was also a contributing factor in the illegibility of the signature.
Some Background on the Liners
John and Mary Liner
Whether or not Mrs. John Liner signed the petition, her family certainly was a presence in Sharon. The Taghkanic Inn, purchased in 1868 by Isaac Bartram (who also owned the Bartram Inn until Beatrice Fay bought it in 1910) went through several metamorphoses before John Liner bought it in 1913. He renamed it the Brookside Inn, and his son Charles applied for a license to sell “Spirituous and Intoxicating Liquors” in October of that year.
The Brookside Inn is now the Volunteer Fire Company’s headquarters. Another Liner hostelry, The Charles Liner’s Hotel, remains a mystery. We have a photocopy of a postcard noting its name but cannot find any more information.
Both John and Charles and their families are buried in Hillside Cemetery.