Emeline Smith Hicks (1816-1903)
Oakwood Cemetery section F lot 142 grave 2
MARRIED,
In Ghent, Columbia County, on the 1st instant, by the Rev. Mr. Lester, Mr. Martin W. Hicks, of Troy, to Miss Emeline Smith, of the former place.
Troy Daily Whig. January 4, 1838: 2 col 5.
Martin W. Hicks, a collar manufacturer of Troy, aged 45 years, and residing at 143 Fourth st., hung himself in the garret of his house Friday forenoon. He was discovered by his wife, but not quite dead.
“General News Summary.” Hudson Daily Star. April 29, 1856: 2 col 3.
Martin W. Hicks (1810-1856)
(No County Club.)
President, Mrs. Franklin Hall, 88 Seventh Avenue.
TWO LOCALS. PAID MEMBERSHIP, 16.
Lansingburgh, President, Mrs. Emeline Hicks
Troy, President, Mrs. Franklin Hall
The rallying convention for the introduction of the equal suffrage campaign was held in Rensselaer county in March. just six weeks before the Constitutional Amendment Convention convened in Albany. Harmony Hall, in the city of Troy, opened its doors to receive this historic assemblage. The response in numbers from both city and towns showed the apathy existing on the subject. The time also proved most unfortunate, for it opened on the day after Robert Ross had become the martyr of a degraded ballot-box [March 6, 1894], when the city cared to know nothing but the tragedy and do honor to the heroic dead. A mere handful of women honored the two afternoon business meetings, while the renown of the speakers failed to fill the hall at the evening sessions. The work, however, was organized, being left in the hands of a half-dozen or more men and women.
In Troy, a vigorous effort was made to search out wealthy, influential women, entertaining woman suffrage sentiments, of whom to form a nucleus of the working force required to develop and crystalize a strong sentiment through the county and roll up a list of names worthy of the State. In this effort we most signally failed, most of the ladies assuring us they had “never given the subject any thought” ; and, at last, the scale turned against us, through the influence of an eminent lawyer, an octogenarian, who desired his daughter, already a loosened stone in the opposing wall, not to give her name to our roll.
Subsequently, a strong effort was made to arrange for parlor and public meetings in the city and towns. Five of these were held in the city of Troy, one in West Sandlake and one in Lansingburgh. Three were arranged in the adjoining counties of Albany and Saratoga. The result of these meetings, in point of sentiment created and signatures gained, was most flattering. The effort put forth in this line of work is but dimly represented by the number of meetings held.
We are most happy to acknowledge in this report our indebtedness to our honored president, Mrs. [Jean Brooks] Greenleaf, our vice-president, Mrs. [Martha R.] Almy, Mrs. Carrie E. S. Twing, of the State Grange, Miss Matilda Hindman, of Pennsylvania, and our recording secretary, Miss [Harriet M.] Mills, for assistance rendered at these meetings, by their presence and stirring words. Nor would we fail to mention with pleasure the courtesy extended and suggestions made to us by these ladies in our repeated calls upon them at their headquarters in the Capitol.
From some towns we got no response to our letters; in others it was impossible to secure church or ball.
A club of twenty-two members was formed in Troy. The organization of local clubs and a county club will be the work of the coming year.
The signatures obtained were about 1,900. The returning of some of the books direct to headquarters compel the approximation of their number. The greatest number of names obtained by one canvasser was 412—by Lena MacLean, in Hoosic Falls. The second best record was made by May Gifford, of Valley Falls. Your chairman is most happy to express to the State officers her obligations to the County Committee and to the clubs for their willing assistance; and to those clergymen who extended to us their sympathy and the free use of their churches. The clergy, as a rule, are far in advance of the church membership in their sympathy with this great movement.
We have not continued the work since the close of the convention in Albany because the workers called for rest, and because it seemed best that Rensselaer county, which has never been active in reform work, should repose awhile in the sunshine of the fast-advancing sentiment of the State and the success of woman’s work in the recent political campaign.
EMILY SLOAN HOWE,
County Chairman.
Report of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association. Twenty-Sixth Annual Convention, Ithaca, N. Y., November 12-15. Rochester, NY: Charles Mann, 1895. 204-205.
Conducted by MRS. CARRIE HAWLEY BUCKLIN […]
A handsome silk patchwork quilt, in blocks of black and yellow, somewhat in the order of a log-cabin pattern, with a border of yellow tea rosebuds has been presented to the New York State Woman Suffrage association by Mrs. Emeline S. Hicks of Lansingburgh, N. Y. Mrs. Hicks is over eighty years old, and having no money to contribute to the suffrage movement, has given many hours and days of patient, loving labor to making this quilt. She desires to have the quilt go to Miss Anthony, and it is hoped that one hundred dollars can be raised for the treasury of the New York State Suffrage association by twenty-five cent subscriptions to send it to the national leader. A list of the donors’ names will be sent wit the quilt, and it is hoped to have every section of the country represented. This appeal is published in the Woman’s Journal, that it may reach all Miss Anthony’s admirers. The concluding sentence of Mrs. Hick’s letter is appended:
I hope that showers of blessings may rest upon the quilt in its meanderings to and fro, and that it bless you with a handsome sum for helping lift the burden from the State Suffrage association. When its meanderings are over, and it is nestled quietly in its own home, I would like to know the result.
The Western New-Yorker [Warsaw]. June 25, 1896: 2 col 3.
The hundreds who have furnished the money and the thousands who have served in a quiet way through all the years would require a separate chapter.* […]
* Aside from those elsewhere mentioned, the names which seem to occur most often in looking over the records are those of […] Emeline Hicks
Anthony, Susan B. and Ida Husted Harper, eds. The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 4. Rochester, NY: Susan B. Anthony, 1902. 847.
The Lindseth Collection Of American Woman Suffrage at Cornell University has a letter from Susan B. Anthony addressed to the “Home for the Friendless,” by which was meant the Deborah Powers Home for Old Ladies:
June 13, 1903
Th[e] Matron of the Home for the Friendless, Lansingburg, N.Y.
Dear Friend,–
I had a letter addressed to Mrs. Emeline S. Hicks returned to me today saying she was dead. I send it to you that you may see that I always thought a great deal of her. She was faithful to the cause of Woman Suffrage. She frequently wrote me letters, and a few years ago made a quilt that was struck off for $60 or $70, to help the cause.
If you would write a word with regard to her I would be greatly obliged to you.
Sincerely Yours,
Susan B. Anthony