HEBRON — Ann Gass of Gray recently addressed the Hebron Historical Society on her great-grandmother, Florence Whitehead, and her leadership role as an advocate for women’s voting rights. She believed that the social ills affecting women and children could best be addressed by giving women the right to vote on laws affecting them.

From the year 1914 on, Whitehead was a leader in Maine’s efforts to win equal suffrage. She also obtained national notoriety by becoming active in the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and the National Woman’s Party (NWP) and participated in picketing the White House and demonstrating against President Wilson, who opposed the suffrage movement.

Aside from this endeavor she was a playwright, a painter, a poet and a published author.

In the process of debate and arguments between the suffragists and the anti-suffragists there was an exchange of poetry that a newspaper labeled as a “war of flowers.” From this, Gass’s book on suffrage was named” Voting Down the Rose” as that flower had become the symbol of the anti-suffrage group.

In the end Whitehead succeeded in the struggle by helping convince the legislature to make Maine the 19th state to ratify the constitutional amendment on suffrage.

The next society meeting will feature local historian Ben Conant detailing the history of Hebron’s participation in World War I in this its 100th anniversary year. The meeting will be held at the Town Office, 351 Paris Road at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 23. The public is invited.

Ann Gass speaks at the Hebron Historical Society on her great-grandmother Florence Whitehead, pictured on the right on the right, and her leadership role as an advocate for women’s voting rights. Whitehead is pictured with her mother Mary CarolineWhitehead, center, and sister Daisy Whitehead. 

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