Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-05-20
TO DIE
UNTIL SHE SEES
WOMEN VOTING
Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, So Today,
Expresses Surprise at
Suffrage Delay.

The Rev. Mrs. .Antoinette Brown
Blackwell, the first woman minister
ordained in the United States, is cele-
brating at her home in Elizabeth today
the eighty sixth anniversary of her
birth. She is alert in mind and body
and apparently has before here many
more years of useful effort. She said
today to an Evening STAR man that
she did not feel her age by twenty
years.
Mrs. Blackfell, who witnessed the
despised beginnings of the woman suf-
frage movement, in which campaign
she has always been one of the active
spirits, rode down Fifth avenue the
other day In a carriage with the Rev.
Howard Anna Shs~, at the head of
the woman suffrage parade, in which
5000 women participated.
81 expect that women will soon have
a vote she said today. Il refuse to
die until / see that come to pass"
Mrs. Blackwell saw the start of the
propaganda against slavery and vas
associated with some of the great fig
ures of that era. Once as q delegate
to an early anti-slavery convention in
New York city she was refused the
privileges of the platform to make a
speech, but held her ground for two
days and finally she was given the OPP
portunity to speak.
Invited TO speak.
1t was shortly after that Horace
Greeley and some other noted New
| Workers. offered her a large salary to
| come to New York to preach in a hall
that they would place at her disposal,
! but she felt at that time that she was
too young to assume such an important
task, and she declined the offer. She
was then principal of the Henrietta
| Academy at Henrietta, n. y.
She knew Harriet Beecher stowe and
Henry Ward Beecher. conversed with
Ralph Waldo Emerson n Henry W.
Longfellow, discussed politics with the
elder Garrison and had more than a
passing acquaintance With Thomas
Wentworth Higginson, who, the last of
the giants of the abolitionist school.
died the other day at his Rhod Island
home. AT college she was a classmate
OF Lucy Stone. She and Miss Stone
married brothers. Both of the Black
wells were distinguished a%gitators.
Looking back over the period that
has been the scene of her activity, Mrs.
Blackwell said today:
More Progress Than She Expected.
There has peer more progress in
the world than l anticipated there
would be half a century ago. Slavery
has peel abolished. but hat is an old
story. The progress has been broader
- -1I Iaxy1 ina n ~ ~nd
There is one thing that | did not ex-
pect-that the success of the woman
suffrage movement would be deferred
so long. II Is ure to come. l refuse
to die till II does come"
L. Mrs. Blackwell was born at Hen
rietta, n. Y. In 1925. As a student a
Oberlin College, Ohio, she was the
cause of a controversy that shook thai
institution almost to its foundation
After finishing the regular course there
she decided to enter the theological de-
partment Of the college. Permission
was refused. She insisted. Some of
the authorities were IN her side. Final
" because the constitution of the col
lege forbade any distinction in race OF
color she was allowed to pursue her
studies.
First. Preached In South
Her first charge was a Congregational
church In South Brooklyn. Subsequent
ly she was the minister of a church In
Rochester, Mich. Since her marriage
to the late DR.. Blackwell she has had
no regular charge. but has preached
and lectured necessarily throughout the
United states. She became a Unitarian
shortly after her marriage and is now q
member Of the Unitarian congregation
In this city, to which she has recently
gwen a plot of land upon which to
build a church.
Today at her home she received many
congratulatory messages and this after
noon her relatives are giving her a
birthday party.