At the End of the Career of Susan B. Anthony, The Women Whose Cause She Advanced Stand up to Support Her

A grateful Anthony writes: “I hasten to thank you for thus helping to lift me financially above the need of earning the necessary sum to meet my simple home expenses. For myself and my only surviving sister, Mary S. Anthony, who has ever made it possible for me to go and do and be for our good cause.”

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From the 1870s into the 1890s, Anthony gave speeches and lectures throughout the country at a grueling pace, and seemed always on the move. She lived for years in hotels and with friends and relatives. These speeches and lectures had, of course, a political purpose, but she was paid for them, and...

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At the End of the Career of Susan B. Anthony, The Women Whose Cause She Advanced Stand up to Support Her

A grateful Anthony writes: “I hasten to thank you for thus helping to lift me financially above the need of earning the necessary sum to meet my simple home expenses. For myself and my only surviving sister, Mary S. Anthony, who has ever made it possible for me to go and do and be for our good cause.”

From the 1870s into the 1890s, Anthony gave speeches and lectures throughout the country at a grueling pace, and seemed always on the move. She lived for years in hotels and with friends and relatives. These speeches and lectures had, of course, a political purpose, but she was paid for them, and those monies made up a sizable part of her income. Meanwhile, she was also working on the magnum opus of the women’s suffrage movement, History of Woman Suffrage, four volumes of which would appear in her lifetime. Finally, in 1891, at the age of 71, she was prevailed upon to settle with her sister. But she still maintained a full speaking schedule.

Rachel Foster Avery was active in the women’s suffrage movement, and by the 1890s was corresponding secretary of Anthony’s National American Woman Suffrage Association. Though almost four decades separated them in age, the two became so close that Anthony referred to Rachel as her niece. As Anthony’s 75th birthday approached in 1895, Avery became concerned about her doing so much speaking and traveling, and did not want finances to play a role. So she orchestrated a plan to provide the aging Anthony $800 on an annual basis in the form of an annuity. 202 friends of women’s suffrage, mostly other women, contributed, and $5000 was raised, a very large sum back then; the annuity was established.

Anthony reached Washington on the morning of her 75th birthday, February 15, 1895. The National Woman’s Council was to open its second triennial meeting on the 18th, and its official board and many delegates were already in the city. When she arrived she found that “her girls,” as she was fond of designating the younger workers like Avery, had arranged for a banquet in her honor at the Ebbitt House that evening. Some 50 people attended, and it was a beautiful affair. After a number of speeches were made, Avery arose and stated that the friends of Miss Anthony from ocean to ocean and the lakes to the gulf had placed in her hands sums of money amounting to $5,000. This she had put into a trust fund, purchasing therewith an “annuity” of $800, which she now took great pleasure in presenting. There were 202 contributors and although Avery had been for several months collecting the money, incredible as it may seem, the whole matter was a complete surprise to Anthony. Realizing that during the last 45 years she had spent practically all she had earned, and so much of what she had received she had given to advance the cause to which she had devoted her life, they determined to put these funds into such a form as would make it impossible to expend it. She was greatly overcome and for once could not command the words to voice her feelings. This annuity was a great relief to her, and made it possible for her to cut back on lecturing and concentrate on her book. From Avery’s suburban home, Anthony sent grateful letters to the contributors to her annuity.

This is one of those letters. Typed letter signed, on the letterhead of Rachel Foster Avery, Philadelphia, April 19, 1895, to a Mrs. Madole. “My dear Mrs. Madole: At my seventy-fifth birthday dinner, Ebbitt House, Washington, D.C., my loving and loved first adopted niece, Rachael Foster Avery, surprised and delighted me by the announcement that she had secured an $800 annuity for me, and now, a month later, at her own lovely country home, she has read to me the names of the dear friends who contributed to the generous gift. Among them is yours and I hasten to thank you for thus helping to lift me financially above the need of earning the necessary sum to meet my simple home expenses. For myself and my only surviving sister, Mary S. Anthony, who has ever made it possible for me to go and do and be for our good cause, I am Most gratefully yours, Susan B. Anthony”.  We obtained this from the Madole descendants and it has never before been offered for sale.

This is a moving memento of that wonderful moment when the supporters of women’s suffrage stepped up to support Anthony in her old age and time of need, and also made it possible for her to have more free time to work on her book.

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