{"id":111440,"date":"2020-03-06T10:44:15","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T15:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=111440"},"modified":"2020-03-06T10:44:15","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T15:44:15","slug":"matt-urtz-takes-on-pro-and-anti-suffragists-at-the-opl-march-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=111440","title":{"rendered":"Matt Urtz takes on pro-and anti-suffragists at the OPL March 11"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Madison County Historian
Matthew Urtz<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

At 7 p.m. March 11, 2020, Oneida Public Library will host\nMadison County Historian Matthew Urtz, who will present a program on women\u2019s\npolitical activism in the county during the years leading up to passage of\nwomen\u2019s right to vote in New York state in 1917 and, in 1920, a right\nguaranteed nationally by the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular, Urtz will highlight the female pro-suffragist\nforces in Oneida and among the descendants of the Oneida Community and contrast\nthem with the ladies of Cazenovia who adamantly opposed women\u2019s suffrage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, either side had to persuade the men of the county,\nsince only eligible males could vote for state and federal legislators and for\nor against the state referenda on women\u2019s suffrage. In 1917, the male voters of\nMadison County by a slight majority joined the majority of voters in the state\nwho passed the referendum to give women 21 years of age and older the right to\nvote in local and state elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, as Urtz will describe, the county\u2019s anti-suffrage\nforces did not give up and lobbied their federal and state representatives to\nvote no on a women\u2019s suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution. They lost.\nCongress passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919; in August 2020, after\nratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures, the right of women to\nvote became the law of the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urtz, who was appointed county historian by the County Board\nof Supervisors in April 2010, has published articles on local history in many\nlocal and regional publications and regularly gives historical presentations\naround Madison County. He serves on the Cabinet of Freedom for the National\nAbolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro and on the Preservation\nAssociation of Central New York Board of Directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is first vice president and Region 9 coordinator for the\nAssociation of Public Historians in New York State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As county historian, Urtz has worked to make county\ngovernment archives and local primary documents available to educators and the\npublic through partnerships with the schools, archival exhibits and ambitious\ndigitization projects, including a current project to digitize the Highway\nDepartment\u2019s photographs from the 1940s on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the renovation of the county courthouse in Wampsville,\nhe organized the restoration of the courthouse\u2019s numerous portraits and led\npublic tours at its re-opening. Around the county he has organized historical\nre-enactments at local cemeteries in a program dubbed \u201cIf Tombstones Could\nTalk\u201d and, since 2018, he has led tours of the county\u2019s historically\nsignificant restaurants, complete with \u201chistoric\u201d dinners. In 2020, Urtz will\nexpand his tours to sites and buildings in the county of historic significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urtz\u2019s lecture is another in a series of special programs in\nthe OPL\u2019s 2020 Centennial Celebration of the Women\u2019s Suffrage Amendment. It is\nfree and open to all. For more information, stop by the Oneida Library, 220\nBroad St., or call 315.363.3050.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 7 p.m. March 11, 2020, Oneida Public Library will host Madison County Historian Matthew Urtz, who will present a program on women\u2019s political activism in the county during the years leading up to passage of women\u2019s right to vote in New York state in 1917 and, in 1920, a right guaranteed nationally by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22367,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}