The Lombard Historical Society (LHS) and Tim Frakes Productions Inc. announced the premier and showings of a new documentary – All Citizens: The Lombard Women who Voted 29 Years Before the 19th Amendment and the Story of Those Who Made it Possible.
All Citizens is a reenactment of the day that Lombard women made history and voted on April 6, 1891. Ellen Martin, a Chicago lawyer and Lombard resident, played a pivotal role in starting the women’s suffrage movement in DuPage County, Illinois. On April 6, 1891, Martin led a group of fourteen of the most prominent Lombard women to vote in a town election.
Although the town charter had been written to include “all citizens” in 1869, it wasn’t until 1891 that Lombard women felt safe to vote. Several factors were aligned to empower them to make that decision: a woman attorney (Ellen Martin) lived in their midst, a critical mass of well-connected prominent women were willing to incur the wrath of their menfolk, and there was a national upsurge of interest and activism advancing women’s rights.
In addition to Ellen Martin, the other women who voted, as reported in the Apr. 18, 1891 Chicago Tribune, were: Miss Margaret Towne, Mrs. N. Cushing, Mrs. S. R. Thurston, Mrs. C. B. Vance, Mrs. H. S. Rand, Mrs. J. H. Patterson, Miss Maria Reade, Mrs. Isaac Claflin, Mrs. Cynthia Williams, Mrs. H. B. Rand, Mrs. W. R. Plum, Mrs. B. R. Reynolds, Mrs. C. L. Towne, and Mrs. H. W. Plum.
TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/1rw3mWyagog
TO WATCH ON TV: Channel 7.2 Live Well Network on Sundays in the month of June
TO WATCH IN LOMBARD: Comcast TV-6, AT&T Channel 99
You can purchase a copy of the DVD here.
Suffrage 2020 Illinois 