Nevada City Suffragist Ellen Clark Sargent

Ellen Clark Sargent

Fought for Women’s Right to Vote
Local couple played key role in 19th Amendment history
By Judith Hurley Prosser

evada City resident Ellen Clark Sargent never got Broad and Pine streets. They paid 50 cents to join and a fee of
to vote in a national election. But she helped shape 25 cents a month - a significant sum at that time, especially for
the very first legislation calling for a constitutional women. Throughout her life, Ellen Sargent presided over similar
amendment that would give women the franchise. Her organizations and at conventions that gathered women and
life-long fight for the vote and her work with leaders of the encouraged them to continue fighting for the vote.
suffragist movement helped push through the 19th Amendment The Sargents had been living and raising a family in Nevada
to the United States Constitution. City for many years. Aaron Sargent had come to California with
It took nearly five decades. And, it the Gold Rush and arrived in Nevada City in 1850. He had built a
all started with a train ride. house at the top of Broad Street before going back East to marry
Ellen. Back in Nevada City, Aaron Sargent owned and operated
BLAME SNOW ON a newspaper, the Nevada Daily Journal, became an attorney and
THE TRACKS moved into politics. Today, a
In late December of 1871, plaque is posted at the location
women’s suffrage campaigner of the original homestead, in
Susan B. Anthony got onto the the front garden where it can
Union Pacific Railroad train be seen from the street. By the
in Ogden, Utah, headed for time the Sargents met Anthony
Washington, D.C. The train was on the train, Aaron Sargent was
packed to capacity, but she was serving his third term in the U.S.
able to share a semi-private House of Representatives.
compartment with Ellen Clark Susan B. Anthony What happened next led to
Sargent and her husband, Aaron a lifelong friendship between
Sargent, then a U.S. representative from California. They made Anthony and the Sargents that
Anthony feel welcome, sharing the food and tea they had would change the course of
brought with them. Ellen knew of Anthony’s work, and Aaron, history. Nevada County resident
too, supported women’s right to vote. and New York Times best-selling
Ellen Sargent already had been working for women’s rights. Aaron A. Sargent author Chris Enss describes that
In 1869, she had founded the first women’s suffrage group in journey in her book, “No Place
Nevada City. It was the same year that Anthony and Elizabeth For A Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West.”
Cady Stanton had established the National Woman Suffrage Anthony kept a daily journal, and her notes covered the next
Association in New York. Members of the Nevada City group ten days of their trip. It took longer than usual because of heavy
met in the Library Hall of the Brown & Morgan Building, at snow on the tracks. The conversation between Anthony and

(Library of Congress/Harris & Ewing Collection)

This 1914 photograph shows American women

insisting on their right to vote.

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 the Sargents focused on how to advance the cause of women’s Elizabeth Cady Stanton, seated,
suffrage. They explored ways to unify a split between radicals and Susan B. Anthony led
and conservatives in California. They discussed the influence the decades-long fight to win
of other women in the movement, such as Laura de Force suffrage for American women.
This photo shows them sometime
Gordon, who helped unite suffrage society members scattered
between 1880 and 1902.
across northern California. They discussed what should be
included in everyone’s natural rights. The trio thoroughly
reviewed the 14th and 15th Amendments. Anthony and Ellen
Sargent argued the wording in those amendments made it
clear that women already enjoyed the enfranchise. But Aaron
maintained that a new amendment would have to be drafted to
secure rights for women. He began working on the text for that
amendment on the trip.
AMENDMENT FIRST INTRODUCED IN 1878
By the time the Sargents and Anthony parted company
in Washington, they had forged a lasting friendship well-
documented by the many letters they exchanged over the
next 20 years. Anthony would travel throughout the country
promoting the suffrage movement. Aaron Sargent would go
back and forth from California to the Capitol, and Ellen Clark
Sargent would focus her efforts on cultivating the movement
in northern California.
In 1872, Aaron Sargent won election to the U.S. Senate. At
the urging of Ellen Sargent, Anthony and Stanton -- who also
Continued on Page 8

(Library of Congress)
(Library of Congress)

Women in San Francisco registering to vote. California

adopted women’s suffrage in October 1911.
(Library of Congress)

(Library of Congress)

Cartoonist George Yost Coffin drew “The Apotheosis of Suffrage” in

1896. The caption reads: “From the famous fresco by Brumidi in
Suffrage envoys from San Francisco are greeted in New Jersey on their way the Rotunda of the Capitol.”
to Washington, D.C., in 1915 to present a petition to Congress containing more
than 500,000 signatures.
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 (Searls Historical Library)

High-powered California women gather at a luncheon on June 28, 1895, to honor suffragist Susan B. Anthony, center, seated next to Ellen Clark Sargent,
right. Pictured are, standing, from left, Louisa Marriner-Campbell, an internationally renowned singer and vocal instructor; Hester A. Harland, lecturer and
secretary of the California Woman’s Suffrage Association; hostess and California Woman’s Suffrage Association President Nellie Holbrook Blinn; and Annie
Kennedy Bidwell, wife of Gen. John Bidwell. Seated, from left, are journalist, lawyer and racial equality advocate Mabel Craft; the Rev. Dr. Anna Howard
Shaw; Susan B. Anthony; Ellen Clark Sargent; and Rachel Andrews, a popular travel writer who published under the pen name of Lillian Leland. At the time of
this photo, Anthony was president and Shaw was vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Continued from Page 7 Continued from Page 7

had become friends with the Sargents -- now-Sen. Sargent
introduced the language that eventually would become the 19th
Amendment into Congress on Jan. 10, 1878. “The right of citizens
to vote shall not be abridged by the United States or any State
on account of sex.” The bill was rejected, though it would be re-
introduced every year for the next 41 years.
In a letter to Ellen Sargent in 1881, Anthony wrote, “How
pleased I am to know that Mr. Sargent will continue to introduce
a bill granting women the opportunity to vote…While the
Senator is ever and ever so much to us – he without his wife
wouldn’t be but the half – would he?”
GOLD RUSH ROOTS
Ellen Sargent and Anthony visited and worked together many
times during the period the Sargents lived in the nation’s capital,
as well as in other periods of their lives. In Enss’ article in Cowgirl
magazine (June 6, 2016), she shared a letter Ellen Sargent wrote
to Mrs. Alice L. Park, a famous campaigner for women’s rights,
in which she recalled her life in Washington. “I have many very
pleasant memories of the place and the people I have met there.
Mr. Sargent and myself, with our family, lived there twelve years. I
learned a great deal while there; dined at the White House many
times with distinguished people; visited at the Public Buildings;
met Miss (Susan) Anthony, (Elizabeth Cady) Stanton, Isabella
Beecher Hooker, all the other great lights of those times: love to
think it over and appreciate the privilege more as time goes on.”
After one term in the Senate and a stint in Germany as
U.S. ambassador, the Sargents resettled in San Francisco in
1884. On Aug. 14, 1887, Aaron Sargent died at home from
complications of an old malarial fever he had contracted
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during his early days traveling across Panama to California.
Throughout his life, he had been a strong proponent for
women’s rights and consistently spoke for women’s right to
vote while in political office.
TAX PROTESTER
After her husband’s death, Ellen Sargent dedicated herself
completely to the suffrage movement. She became the treasurer
of the National Woman Suffrage Association and represented
California at the women’s convention in Washington in early
1888. She was also one of the speakers at that convention.
As a woman of means, Sargent, then 74, filed suit against the
San Francisco County Board of Supervisors for collecting taxes
from her, but not giving her the right to vote on anything for
which she was paying those taxes. Her son, George Sargent,
represented her. She lost the case. Nevertheless, it inspired
women in the same circumstances to join the suffrage
movement, and the northern California suffrage groups saw a
substantial increase in membership.
Sargent continued to work diligently to gain the right to vote
in California. She believed that if California gave women the
franchise, the more conservative East would follow suit. The
California Woman Suffrage Amendment was on the ballot on
Nov. 3, 1896. It lost by a vote of 80,000 for to 95,000 against.
Sargent did not give up. As honorary president of the California
Equal Suffrage Association, she challenged women to educate
themselves about how government worked. She urged followers
to be informed citizens once the right to vote was granted. The
amendment was once again on the ballot for Oct. 13, 1911. This
time, it narrowly passed. But Sargent did not see her victory; she
had died in July at the age of 85.
 On July 25, 1911, More than 2,000 suffragists assembled
to honor Ellen Clark Sargent. This was San Francisco’s first public
memorial for a woman and state flags flew at half-mast.

California’s passage of women’s right

to vote did encourage passage of the 19th
Amendment. The model of suffrage leaders
working with civic and social clubs to
spread the word, as the Sargents had done
in California, was effectively implemented
throughout the country.
The 19th Amendment finally passed
Congress on June 4, 1919, and was ratified on
Aug. 18, 1920. American women at last had the
right to vote.

A HEROINE FOR OUR TIMES

On July 25, 1911, the California Equal
Suffrage Association (of which Ellen
Clark Sargent had been president 7 times)
organized a memorial in Union Square in
San Francisco. More than 2,000 suffragists
assembled to honor her. It was the first time
the City of San Francisco had held a public
memorial for a woman, and state flags flew
at half-mast. Governor Hiram Johnson had
planned to attend, but had to cancel at the
last minute. In his stead, prominent San
Francisco attorney, Thomas E. Hayden made
the opening address, praising Sargent’s life
and dedication.
He honored her by using the same quote
Ellen herself had used throughout her years
as a suffragist leader: “She was one of the wise
women who saw years ago that woman could
not attain her highest development until she
had the same large opportunities and the
Marble bust of Aaron
same large chance as her brothers.”
Sargent. Donated by
Ellen Clark Sargent worked her entire adult
family to the Searls
life for women’s suffrage. Like so many of the Historical Library in
suffragists, she herself never got the chance Nevada City.
to vote, but her daughters and grandchildren
have. Her legacy is the empowerment of
women throughout this country.
By Judith Hurley Prosser
___________________________________________________
Betzi Hart, board president of the North Star
Special thanks to Chris Enss, Nevada County
Historic Conservancy (left), and Chris Enss, local
resident and New York Times bestselling
author of “No Place for a Woman: The Struggle
author, for the use of information from her
book, “No Place For a Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West,” at a February 2020
for Suffrage in the Wild West.” Her books event celebrating the 100th anniversary of women
are available at The Book Seller in downtown winning the right to vote.
Grass Valley and at ChrisEnss.com.
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Local sculptor creating a bronze
bust of Ellen Clark Sargent
By Judith Hurley Prosser

To commemorate the role

Ellen Clark Sargent played
in the women's suffrage
movement, local sculptor Jan-
Michelle Sawyer is creating a
life-sized, bronze bust of the Nevada
City resident. The homage to Sargent
will include a plaque with the words
of the 19th Amendment, information
on her role in the passage of the
amendment and the contribution of (Wikipedia Commons)
her husband, U.S. Sen. Aaron Sargent,
The Portrait Monument, carved by Adelaide Johnson in 1920-21,
in introducing the amendment to portrays (from left) suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott
Congress for the first time in 1878. and Susan B. Anthony.
Jan-Michelle Sawyer
Although the exact date of the
unveiling and the placement of the portrait sculpture are not The real life adventure of
confirmed at this time, there are numerous places of historical
interest in Nevada City that would be appropriate.
Adelaide Johnson’s 1921 Portrait
Sawyer is a retired university professor and a professional Monument at the Rotunda
sculptor whose numerous public works merge art with education. Portraiture of great women in America’s history has, itself, a
She has focused many of past filled with struggle. One day after the 1921 unveiling of
her sculptures on historical a sculpture depicting the nation’s three greatest champions
figures, and she is for women’s suffrage, the Portrait Monument by Adelaide
dedicated to honoring Johnson was moved to a crypt in the basement of the
individuals who United States capitol. It remained there until 1997:
have inspiring
stories that Upon the 75th anniversary of the 19th amendment
have touched in 1995, women’s groups, with the bipartisan support
people's lives. of female members of Congress, renewed the effort to
bring the statue out of storage.
On May 14, 1997, the statue was finally moved
back to the Rotunda using money raised from donors
around the country. The statue is still there today, next
to a John Trumball painting and a statue of Lincoln.

Excerpt from the Smithsonian magazine article, “The

Suffragist Statue Trapped in a Broom Closet for 75
Years,” by Lorraine Boissoneault, May 12, 2017. To
read the original, fascinating article in its entirety, visit
SmithsonianMag.com.

Local sculptor
Jan-Michelle Sawyer
has created a clay
model of the portrait
sculpture to honor Ellen
Clark Sargent, a Nevada
City woman who was key
to the introduction of the
19th Amendment granting
women the right to vote.
SUPPORT THE
SARGENT PORTRAIT
SCULPTURE
To support the creation of a bronze bust
honoring early Nevada City suffragist Ellen
Clark Sargent, or to learn more about the
project, contact sculptor Jan-Michelle
Sawyer at Jan-MichelleSculptures.com.

Photos by Judith Hurley Prosser

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