Alison Turnbull Hopkins

Alison Turnbull Hopkins, picketing at the White House

Alison Turnbull Hopkins (May 20, 1880 – March 18, 1951) was an American suffrage activist, known as one of the "Silent Sentinels" for her protests at the White House.

Early life and education

Alison Low Turnbull was born in 1880, to Frank and Marion Louise Bates Turnbull, in Morristown, New Jersey.[1] Her father was a naval officer. She was privately tutored and received no other schooling.[2]

Activism

Alison Turnbull Hopkins was on the executive board of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and was New Jersey state chair for the National Woman's Party. She was also active in local Morristown charities and women's clubs, and was a member of Heterodoxy, a women's debating club based in New York City.[3] As a Woman's Party leader, she campaigned against Woodrow Wilson in the 1916 presidential election, while her husband campaigned for Wilson.[4] Among her notable political stunts was a speaking tour through Illinois in a car bearing the slogan "Don't Vote for Wilson," following William Jennings Bryan on his lecture tour.[5][6]

On Bastille Day in 1917, she was part of a group of suffrage protesters arrested at the White House.[7] She was sentenced to jail at Occoquan Workhouse, but she was pardoned after three days by Woodrow Wilson, at the request of her husband.[8] She returned to her White House protest after this incident, displaying a sign that read "We ask not pardon for ourselves but justice for all American women."[9][10] Having spent any time at all in Occoquan Workhouse was a matter of pride among American suffragists; Mrs. Hopkins posed in her prison garb for publicity photos, lectured on the experience, and received honors as an imprisoned picket for several years after the event.[11][12]

After suffrage was won, Alison Turnbull Hopkins opened a dress shop in New York City, called Marjane Ltd.[13]

Personal life

Alison Turnbull married John Appleton Haven Hopkins, an insurance executive and suffrage supporter, on October 8, 1901; she was his second wife.[14] The couple lived in New York City, with a second residence at Featherleigh Farms, her father's estate in New Jersey.[15][16] They had three children, John (b. 1903), Marion (b. 1904), and Douglas (b. 1908). The Hopkinses divorced in 1927.[17] Alison Turnbull Hopkins died in 1951, age 70.[18] Her niece was socialite Marjorie Oelrichs.[19]

References

  1. ↑ Morris County Heritage Commission, "Celebrating Exceptional Women from Morris County’s Past," online exhibit.
  2. ↑ Scannell's New Jersey's First Citizens and State Guide (J. J. Scannell 1918): 267-268.
  3. ↑ Bárbara Ozieblo, Susan Glaspell: A Critical Biography (University of North Carolina Press 2000): 138. ISBN 9780807848685
  4. ↑ "Husband and Wife Divided on Wilson: Mrs. Hopkins, Whose Progressive Spouse is for Him, Takes the Other side," New York Times (August 15, 1916): 5.
  5. ↑ "Women's Party to Trail Bryan on Illinois Trip: Feminine Orators Will Hold Street Meetings to Offset Nebraskan's Pleas," Chicago Daily Tribune (October 24, 1916): 9.
  6. ↑ "Taunting Mr. Bryan: Here are Women who Drove their 'Don't Vote for Wilson' Car behind Commoner's at Springfield," Chicago Daily Tribune (October 30, 1916): 17.
  7. ↑ "16 Suffragists Under Arrest," Oshkosh Daily Northwestern (July 14, 1917): 1. via Newspapers.com
  8. ↑ Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom (Boni and Liveright 1920): 362.
  9. ↑ Katherine H. Adams and Michael L. Keene, Alice Paul and the American Suffrage Campaign (University of Illinois Press 2007): 184. ISBN 9780252074714
  10. ↑ "Wilson Smiles As Freed Picket Waves Banner," Chicago Tribune (July 21, 1917): 13.
  11. ↑ "Prison Styles for Washington Suffragists: Prominent Leaders in Picketing the White House as They Appeared in the Occoquan Workhouse," Chicago Daily Tribune (November 19, 1917): 5.
  12. ↑ "Suffrage Pickets to Talk; Stories of Imprisonment to be Told at the Ritz-Carlton," New York Times (November 8, 1917): 4.
  13. ↑ "Mrs. J. A. H. Hopkins Opening a Shop," New York Times (February 27, 1923): 19.
  14. ↑ Wedding announcements, New York Times (October 2, 1901): 9. via Newspapers.com
  15. ↑ Janet Gibbs Albanesius, "Alison Low Turnbull Hopkins," in Joan N. Burstyn, ed., Past and Promise: Loves of New Jersey Women (Syracuse University Press 1997): 153-154. ISBN 0815604181
  16. ↑ Bonnie-Lynn Nadzeika, Morristown (Arcadia Publishing 2012): 34. ISBN 9780738592800
  17. ↑ "Mrs. Hopkins Gains Divorce in Paris Court," Brainerd Daily Dispatch (March 29, 1927): 7. via Newspapers.com
  18. ↑ "Mrs. J. A. H. Hopkins, Suffrage Leader: White House Picket in 1917, Jailed for Day before Pardoned by Wilson, Dies at 70," New York Times (March 20, 1951): 29.
  19. ↑ "Mrs. Alison T. Hopkins," Newport Mercury (March 23, 1951): 3. via Newspapers.com
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