Trending
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a weekly series on our region's history coordinated by the Trumbull County Historical Society.
Harriet Taylor was born in 1854 and was raised in the small town of Ravenna in Northeast Ohio.
Her father, attorney Ezra B. Taylor and her frail mother, Harriet Frazer Taylor, gave her unconditional approval and love and she, along with her younger brother, Hal, experienced an idyllic childhood.
The family moved to Warren, once the capitol of most of northern Ohio, in 1862, when Harriet was 8. The stories of her youth explain much of the woman she was to become. She graduated from Warren High School in 1872 in a class of six. After a winter trip south, she came home and spent the next two years nursing her mother and managing the home, until her mother's death. Her father became a circuit judge and Harriet accompanied her father on his journeys through the district, learning much about the law and making many contacts.
Her father then was appointed to Congress to fill the vacancy left by General Garfield's election to the Senate and then to the presidency. She accompanied her father to Washington and served as his hostess.
It was during her early years in Washington that Harriet met and married George Upton, a West Pointer and lawyer. She also wrote many articles for magazines, children's stories and a book titled "Our Early Presidents, their Wives and Children."
She had met Susan B. Anthony but was herself very much opposed to suffrage. While doing the research, she converted herself to the cause.
She never looked back. She spent the next 30 years of her life working for the cause.
She worked with Anthony on the national level, attending hearings and organizing the presentation of the cause to the legislators.
She was head of publicity, auditor and then treasurer of the National American Woman Suffrage Association for 15 years. She brought the national headquarters to Warren for six years (1903-1909).
It was housed in her home on Mahoning Avenue.
She was present at almost every suffrage convention and event. She was in the Senate gallery when the 19th Amendment legislation passed. She was in Tennessee when that state ratified the amendment.
On a personal level, Mrs. Upton was considered to be an excellent cook, housekeeper, needlewoman, gardener, author, realtor, orator, humorist, politician and journalist.
She was known throughout the country for her warm and witty sense of humor. During the Depression, Mrs. Upton struggled to maintain her home on Mahoning Avenue, but it eventually was sold.
She moved to Pasadena, California, where she died in 1945. Her remains were brought back to Warren and buried in her beloved gardens on Mahoning Avenue.
From the age of 4 -- when she would help her father write in the poll books the party affiliation of the voting men of the village of Ravenna -- to the day she died, Harriet Taylor Upton loved politics. The struggle for the vote, the campaigns and even the hard work, were all a joy to her. Her contributions to the advancement of women are enormous. She was a woman for whom Warren, and indeed the nation, can be very proud.
Conklin is the vice president of the Upton Association.