Remembering Waterbury suffragist Elizabeth Colley: ‘Principal, teacher, rebuker of folly’
October 31, 2020 | By Cheryl Casey
Elizabeth Colley stands far left in this undated photo at the Green Mountain Seminary. Waterbury Historical Society photo.
On the heels of the centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution comes an Election Day fraught with worries about voting in a pandemic, foreign interference in U.S. elections, record early turnout in places hobbled by long lines, and the prospect of possibly not knowing the results for some time.
The contrast between 2020 and 1920 could not be more stark.
As we prepare for what could be a very long November focused on the country’s vote and its result, it may be apropos to introduce and acknowledge the life and accomplishments of Elizabeth Colley, Waterbury’s most renowned suffragist.
Colley was born on January 21, 1840, in Sandbornton, N.H., to Richard and Martha (Clark) Colley. She graduated from the New Hampton Institute in July 1867 and began a career in teaching. After four years teaching at the Institute and three more in Lyndon, Vt., she moved to Waterbury Center where she purchased the Green Mountain Seminary from the Free Will Baptists and became its principal and teacher of Latin and French for the next 20 years.
A Waterbury Record newspaper article from August 1895 described how “her indomitable perseverance built up the school, added the [Minard] Commercial department, built the boarding house, and made the school the equal of any fitting school in our State.”
But newspapers in that day had more to report on than Colley’s efforts in the education of Waterbury Center’s youngsters. By the late 1880s, Colley had become widely recognized across New England for her activism, especially in the women’s suffrage movement and the intertwined movement for temperance.
The suffrage movement in Vermont can be traced back to 1870, and by the end of the decade, its efforts were starting to pay off. In 1880, the Vermont Legislature granted tax-paying women the right to vote in school district meetings. They were also able to hold school offices and serve as school superintendents or town clerks.
Colley was elected president of the Vermont branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1888. Many of the organization’s members also became involved with the Vermont Woman Suffrage Association, providing the suffrage movement in Vermont with a solid contingent of experienced leadership. Colley was among them.
Leadership seemed to come naturally to Colley. A practiced and polished public speaker, Colley delivered a well-received address to the New England Woman Suffrage Association meeting in Burlington in 1893, after the Vermont Senate defeated a woman’s suffrage bill passed by the House.
In 1900, the Vermont Woman Suffrage Association elected Colley as president. That same year, the suffrage movement made another gain when the state Legislature declared women eligible to serve as notaries public and trustees of public libraries. Two years later, the office of town treasurer was added to the list of opportunities for women in public life.
A brochure announcing the 1885-86 school year at the Green Mountain Seminary. Waterbury Historical Society photo.
Meanwhile, Colley pushed on at the forefront of women’s activism in the region. The New England suffrage group members elected Colley as vice president of the Vermont contingent in 1911. She also held leadership roles in the Grand Army of the Republic Woman’s Relief Corps, serving as vice president in 1903 and chaplain in 1913.
By 1917, Vermont’s tax-paying women could vote in town meetings.
On the national scene, momentum was building for the constitutional amendment that would need two-thirds of the states in the union to grant approval. Vermont did not act in time to be in that critical group of states.
When Governor Percival Clement vetoed the Legislature’s 1919 passage of full suffrage and then refused to call a special legislative session to ratify the 19th Amendment to Constitution, Vermont women prepared to deal Clement a punishing blow. Following the federal adoption of the 19th Amendment, more than 10,000 women cast their votes in Vermont’s Republican gubernatorial primary which saw Clement’s candidate lose to James Hartness, a supporter of the 19th Amendment. According to the Vermont Historical Society, an estimated 75% of women’s votes went to Hartness that year.
Vermont eventually ratified the 19th Amendment on February 8, 1921. Later that year, Edna L. Beard, of Orange, Vt., became the first woman in Vermont’s Legislature when she won a seat in the House of Representatives.
Today political campaigns, pollsters and pundits dissect the electorate and its preferences often using the lens of gender to assess popular opinion in the quest to win votes. The fact that votes of women play an integral role in 2020 can be traced back to the watershed moment in history a century ago.
As a Waterbury educator, business owner, and leader Colley stood out in that era for a few important reasons.
First, she never married. For that time, a single, completely self-sufficient woman who was also active in public life was a rarity. Second, she didn’t simply work for a living – she owned her businesses. After Green Mountain Seminary, Colley owned and operated the Green Mountain Lodge, a 15-bedroom house on three acres along Route 100 in Waterbury Center. She hosted visitors from May to December for $9-$14 per week, spending her winters at the home of local friend, Mrs. V. G. Crossett.
And she did these things while playing a prominent role in the suffrage movement in New England.
A 1904 postcard features the Green Mountain Lodge.
The January 6, 1925 issue of the Waterbury Record noted that “owing to the declining health of Miss Elizabeth Colley,” the Lodge was being put up for sale. Colley’s activism had been waning by then along with her health. Her obituary in the Waterbury Record noted that she had seemed in good health until suffering a stroke in early January. A month later, in the early hours of February 2, she died at Crossett’s home.
Funeral services were held at the Baptist Church in town on February 5. Colley was then buried with family in Franklin, N.H., near where she was born. An obituary in the Barre Times referred to Colley as a woman “of great intellectuality” who “put her whole self into her work.” The Waterbury Record proclaimed: “Her ideas were always of the highest and the community has continually felt her influence.”
On February 18, Lewis Moody of the Green Mountain Seminary Class of 1893 published a poem in the Waterbury Record in tribute to both the Seminary and Principal Colley. An excerpt memorializes her:
“Chiefest of all, Miss Elizabeth Colley,
Patiently toiling through many a year,
Principal, teacher, rebuker of folly,
Facing impossible tasks without fear.
Single her purpose, to make men and matrons
Worthy to stand in the presence of God;
Fortunate, all, who have once been her patrons;
Blessed the pathway her footsteps have trod.”
Colley embodied the civic ideals of her day, dedicated to serving others and committed to working for women’s rights to participate at the ballot box as full citizens of the United States.
In 1920, Vermont missed being among the 36 states needed to ratify the 19th Amendment. One can imagine Colley’s frustration and disappointment when suffrage seemed within reach.
In 2020, Vermont’s dedication to ensuring that every eligible voter is able to cast a ballot in the current election is a testament to our state’s commitment to citizen participation in government still rooted in the Town Meeting tradition.
It’s probably safe to imagine that Elizabeth Colley would surely be pleased and even proud of that commitment still strong in what President Calvin Coolidge – who occupied the White House when Colley died – referred to in 1928 as “this brave little state of Vermont.”
Local suffragists march toward Bank Hill on South Main Street in the 1912 Waterbury Fourth of July parade. Waterbury Historical Society photo.
Cheryl Casey is an associate professor of Communication at Champlain College and president of the Waterbury Historical Society. She lives in Waterbury Center.