Carol Fisher-Linn
The Buffalo Six
On August, 1920, the 19th Amendment was adopted giving women the right to vote. It was a long, painful battle. The campaign for women’s suffrage began long before the Civil War in the 1820’s-1830’s when most states granted all white men to vote regardless of wealth or property ownership. In a history.com article about women’s suffrage updated in May, 2025, something was happening over 100 years ago that sounds vaguely like today’s news cycles: “Cult of True Womanhood”: that is, the idea that the only “true” woman was a pious, sub-missive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family. In a nutshell, reform groups led by women had popped up all over the United States and the campaign for women suffrage was still being waged in 1917 when a group of Buffalo women took their beliefs directly to the White House (where picketing was a no-no). The Buffalo Six (part of a much larger organization) made the decision to stand up against the law and marched on the White House hoping to change President Woodrow Wilson’s views on women voting. The Buffalo Six consisted of a home economics teacher named Margaret Fotheringham, a nurse named Hattie Kreugger, student Janet Fotheringham, Ada Kendall, a journalist with the Buffalo Express, Amy Jeungling, a teacher from Black Rock and Edith Ainge, a worker with the national women’s party. They knew their civil disobedience would put them behind bars, and it did, several times, in filthy, inhumane conditions with the Federal government hoping to make an example of them to deter other women from doing the same. It backfired and more joined the campaign for suffrage. Their protests and World War I proved the importance of women to the entire country, but most dramatically to President Wilson. The 19th amendment passed in 1920 due to the efforts of the Buffalo Six and others like them all over the U.S. proving the overwhelming power of small acts.
Arthur Eugene Bestor Jr., Chautauqua, NY
Arthur Eugene Bestor Jr. (1908 –1994), born in Chautauqua NY was the eldest son of Arthur E. Bestor, Sr., who served as president of the Chautauqua Institution for twenty-nine years. Bestor, Jr. was raised and educated in Chautauqua. He went on to NYC’s Horace Mann School then Yale University for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees (Ph.D. in history, 1938). Until his death in 1994, he published widely in historical and law journals on constitutional history and was several times invited to testify before Congress on constitutional matters. At the time of his death, he was working on an intellectual history of European philosophical influences on the framers of the US constitution, with particular focus on the writings of Montaigne. Bestor was one of the first specialists on American constitutional law to publicly call for the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon, in a piece published in The New Republic in May 1973. In 1963 he joined the faculty of the University of Washington, Seattle, where he taught until his retirement. He died in 1994 in Seattle. Bestor Plaza at Chautauqua Institution is named after his father who held the longest standing presidency in CHQ history.
Alta Jackson King, Franklinville, NY
Alta “Altie” Jackson King, of Franklinville, NY, was born January 6 1865 to a Methodist preacher and his wife. She attended Ten Broeck Academy, then married Dr. Clarence King, a country physician and surgeon for the B.R. & P. Railway Company. First living in Machias for twenty-five years, they then moved to Franklinville in 1911, purchasing The Miners Cabin on 9 Pine Street in Franklinville. Two years later she organized the Franklinville Women’s Exchange in her home. The exchange was a way for the local women to sell their hand-made articles. This led to a membership in the Buffalo Society of Artists where her own work was exhibited, with honors. She occasionally left the confines of Franklinville to paint in Buffalo and New York City, where she specialized in china painting and also did some teaching. Some of Altie’s painted teacups can be seen in the dining room cabinet of the Miner’s Cabin which is open to the public, limitedly. She died in 1926 and is buried at Maple Grove Cemetery in Machias, next to her husband. The Miner’s Cabin is a three-story, Queen Anne style wood frame dwelling built in 1895. The building features three towers. It is currently used as a museum and meeting space by the Ischua Valley Historical Society. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.