Courtesy of Exeter Historical Society Three suffragettes stand with a large horse-drawn wagon while traveling for the cause in the early 20th century. The location is unknown.

Longtime Nashua resident Ken Mayo’s paternal grandmother, a “small, dainty, no-nonsense” wife, mother and school teacher named Louise Parker Mayo, was without doubt the last person one would expect to find in jail doing a 60-day stint.

But Parker Mayo, the hard-working farmer’s wife who pretty much ran the family farm but always made time to instill the value of education in her seven children, was far from a criminal. Instead, standing on her principles and personal convictions, Mayo took to the road one July day in 1917, quite willing, as the late iconic Congressman John Lewis would say, to get herself into some “good trouble.”

Louise Parker Mayo, who lived in Framingham, Massachusetts at the time, was almost 50 when she joined “a small group of militant women willing to go to jail for their cause,” according to documents kept at the Framingham Historical Society.

The cause was suffrage, the national movement that picked up enough steam over its more than 70-year campaign to finally succeed in getting legislation passed to allow women to vote in elections of every level from the local school board up to the president of the United States.

Pioneers like Louise Parker Mayo, who died in 1952 at age 84, are back in the spotlight these days, as Americans of all stripes and genders mark the 100th anniversary of the passage of suffrage, along with its so-called Susan B. Anthony amendment.

Courtesy photo by Pamela Tafe Michael Dozens of Nashua suffragettes climbed aboard a truck, trailer and cars for a journey, possibly to Washington D.C., during the suffragist movement of the late 1910s. The man standing outside the truck is Frank E. Tafe Sr., who was probably the driver, and the woman in white sitting inside the truck is Deliah Lefavor Tafe.

In Nashua, a committee of city and civic representatives is teaming up with the folks at Nashua Community Television to present a virtual version of a long-planned celebration that was originally intended to take place in person at different city locations.

Regardless, all the original elements are in place for the virtual event, which is scheduled to debut on CTV’s Channel 16 at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16.

Expected to run roughly an hour, the program will also be streamed live on CTV’s Facebook page as well as Mayor Jim Donchess’s Facebook page.

The program is expected to be rebroadcast on CTV, perhaps later Sunday. Check CTV’s Website for dates and times.

Those who tune in will see a number of guests, from state office-holders to members of local acting and musical groups, some of whom will read passages from important documents of the era.

Dean Shalhoup

Longtime reporter, columnist and photographer, is back doing what he does best ñ chronicling the people and history of Nashua. Reaching 40 years with The Telegraph in September, Deanís insights have a large, appreciative following.

Period photos, artifacts and a slideshow of suffrage leaders will be presented, accompanied by music selections popular at the time.

Meanwhile, Ken Mayo, a retired engineer and longtime Historical Society member, said he recalls hearing stories as a youngster about his grandmother.

The suffrage movement “impressed” Louise Parker Mayo, he said, and “she got caught up in” the initiative as it grew increasingly popular.

She joined the National Women’s Party shortly after it was formed in 1914. Three years later, she was part of a contingent of NWP members tapped to go to Washington, D.C. to “picket” the White House on behalf of the suffrage cause.

At some point, she and 15 other suffragettes were arrested for obstructing traffic and marched off to jail to serve 60 days.

Ken Mayo said family lore has it that his grandmother and others were handcuffed, or chained, to a fence or similar structures as they were taken into custody.

President Woodrow Wilson, who had just returned to the White House from Europe when the women were arrested, pardoned several of them, including Parker Mayo.

In recognition of her activism, Parker Mayo was presented a “Jailed for Freedom” pin by NWP president Alice Paul. While there are replicas of the pin floating around, the original, handed down through Ken Mayo’s side of the family, is currently in the possession of his daughter, Mary Ann, a lawyer in New York City.

The Nashua Historical Society, meanwhile, has some artifacts of the era that include a photo taken in either 1917 or 1918, showing a large rack-body truck, a trailer, and a passenger car all filled with women, wearing mainly white dresses.

Standing next to the truck is Francis (Frank) E. Tafe Sr., who was employed as a chauffeur by Nashua Manufacturing Company, and was presumably the driver.

Sitting inside is his wife, Delia Lefavor Tafe, herself a suffragette. It appears the photo was taken in the Nashua Millyard, but where this caravan was headed isn’t known.

On Sept. 8, 1920, the day after that year’s primary election, an editorial titled, simply, “The Woman’s Vote,” appeared in the then-Nashua Telegraph.

“One of the outstanding features in yesterday’s primary vote was the interest – the very intelligent interest – which women took, not (just) in their vote but the principles under which that vote (was) cast,” the editorialist wrote.

“So recent was the age-long fight” over suffrage, the writer continued, it “was to be expected” that the suffrage issue would overshadow the political issues on which voters were to decide at the polls.

But the writer praised the newly minted female voters, stating that they “looked squarely at the issues” that would influence America’s future.

Also interesting is a Telegraph item of May 22, 1919, reporting on the House of Representatives’ vote approving the suffrage resolution – with its so-called “Susan B. Anthony amendment.”

The writer, noting that suffrage supporters, following their success in the House, had already begun “to carry their fight to the Senate,” included a list of Congressmen from the New England states and how they voted. (My only gripe is the writer used only last names – but he at least included party affiliation).

In New Hampshire, Wason and Burroughs, both Republicans, voted in favor.

But Vermont had a little trouble: Greene voted against it, while Dale was either absent or didn’t vote. Both were Republicans.

In Maine, which had four Representatives at the time – Goodall, White, Peters and Hersey, all Republicans – voted in favor.

Massachusetts’ small army of Representatives were just about split on the vote.

In favor were Republicans Treadway, Winslow, Rogers, Lufkin, Dallinger and Fuller, and Democrats Phelan and Fitzgerald.

Voting against were Paige, Tinkham, Luce, Greene and Walsh, all Republicans.

And Democrats Gallivan and Olney, and Republican Gillett, were either absent or didn’t vote.

In Connecticut, Republicans Freeman and Merritt, and Democrat Lonergan, voted in favor, while Tilson, a Republican, voted against. Glynn, a Republican, was absent or didn’t vote.

And in Rhode Island, its three Representatives, Burdick, Stiness and Kennedy, all Republicans, voted in favor.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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