Smith, Abby Hadassah; and Smith, Julia Evelina

▪ American suffragists

Respectively,

 

born June 1, 1797, Glastonbury, Conn., U.S.

died July 23, 1878, Glastonbury

born May 27, 1792, Glastonbury

died March 6, 1886, Hartford, Conn.

      American suffragists (woman suffrage) who relentlessly protested for their property and voting rights, drawing considerable national and international attention to their situation and their cause.

      The Smith sisters, the youngest of five children, lived almost their entire lives at the Connecticut farm homestead where they were born. They were active in temperance work and local charities, and, reflecting the influences of their parents, they were notably independent in judgment and action.

      By 1869 Abby and Julia were the only surviving members of the family. In that year, aroused by inequities in local tax rates, they attended a woman suffrage meeting in Hartford, and in 1873 Abby traveled to New York to attend the first meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Women. A month later, at a Glastonbury town meeting, Abby read a spirited protest against the taxation of unenfranchised women. She and Julia thereafter refused to pay taxes unless they were granted the right to vote in town meetings.

      In January 1874 seven of their valued Alderney cows were seized and sold for taxes. At a second town meeting in April, Abby was refused permission to speak, whereupon she mounted a wagon outside and delivered her protest to the crowd. In June authorities seized 15 acres (6.1 hectares) of the Smiths' pastureland, valued at $2,000, for delinquent taxes amounting to about $50. The sale of the land was conducted irregularly, however, and after a protracted suit, during the course of which the sisters had almost to study law themselves, they succeeded in having it set aside. Their cows, which they had been able to buy back, were twice more taken for taxes and soon became a cause célèbre throughout the country and even abroad as newspapers spread the story. Published versions of Abby's speeches, along with witty and effective letters by both sisters to various newspapers, brought them considerable prominence. In 1877 Julia edited and published an account of the events, Abby Smith and Her Cows, with a Report of the Law Case Decided Contrary to Law.

      Both sisters spoke at numerous suffrage meetings and also testified before state and federal legislative committees concerning woman suffrage. In 1879, a year after her sister's death, Julia married and moved to Hartford.

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