A marker mystery

From Celoron, New York, and the two Lucille Ball statues (see previous post), we drove along Lake Chautauqua to the county seat of Chautauqua County—the village of Mayville, located at the northwest end of the lake.

(Since my growing-up years, I've passed through Mayville many times on the way—about eight miles northwest—to Barcelona Harbor, a

small harbor on Lake Erie with a commercial fishing fleet. My mother would buy a whole white fish to bake surrounded by tomatoes, and smoked white fish from a small shop with a rickety wood smoke house. Countless flat stones of multiple shapes and sizes worn smooth by the lake comprised the beach. After a day of swimming in the waves of Lake Erie, at bedtime my muscle memory of the rhythmic motion lulled me to sleep.)

Our destination in Mayville was the old courthouse, on the corner of North Erie Street (Route NY 394 W) and West Chautauqua Street. That is where on the afternoon and evening of December 26, 1854, thirty-four-year old Susan B. Anthony gave a "Woman's Rights" speech.

She had left her home in Rochester, New York, 141 miles north, on Christmas Day, traveling in mid-winter by train to Dunkirk, New Yor, and horse-drawn sleigh to Mayville.

It was her first meeting of a four-month speaking tour in all 54 counties in New York. According to her carefully kept expense account, she paid "56 cents for four pounds of candles to light the courthouse." The afternoon session was free. The fee for the evening was a York shilling (12 1/2 cents). People traveled from eight of the surrounding villages to hear her advocate for woman's rights.

One account of Anthony's tour described her as “neither too tall nor too short, too plump nor too thin . . . the perfection of common

sense physically exhibited." The left image is a postcard that was sent in 1910. The picture is of the courthouse (1834-1909) where Susan B. Anthony spoke in 1854.

In 2018, a historic marker was erected in front of the current courthouse with the inscription—"In 1854, Susan B. Anthony began an organized, statewide effort to establish a suffrage committee in each county in New York State, beginning with Chautauqua County."

Now six years after the dedication, I was going to visit the landmark. I was excited!

But it wasn't there.! The Susan B. Anthony historic marker was missing!?! There was just one to Ellen Y. Miller.

I looked here and there. I scrutinized the ground for evidence of a hole, a base . . . I looked for someone to ask.

Finally, I called the Mayville library. The librarian was clueless, but she gave me the name of Dave, a man who "might know something." I called him. He assured me that the marker was there. I assured him that it wasn't. He said he would drive by and check for himself.

He also elaborated on the marker that was in front of the courthouse for Ellen Y. Miller. I had seen it and read that she was the first woman to be elected County Clerk in New York. The male clerks, Dave told me, refused to work for a woman and quit. So, Miller promoted the women in the office to do the men's jobs, and got legislative approval for the women clerks.

Dave gave me the phone number of the Chautauqua County Historian, a position, he said, that was in transition between a retiring historian and a new historian. I called and left message, hoping to get a call back. I was determined solve the mystery of the missing Susan B. Anthony historic marker.

From Mayville, our next destination was Lily Dale Assembly, about 14 miles away, and the "World's Largest Center for the Religion of Spiritualism." Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw spoke there for the first time in 1891. Supposedly there was a historic marker

commemorating their appearance.

Although we didn't know it, another surprise awaited us that I'll explain in my next post.

Images

Top image: A clipping from a British newspaper, Stockport Advertiser, Stockport, England, Dec. 29, 1854, p. 3. The article appeared in many newspapers in England, although not so in America. As best I can tell, the source, American Courier, was a newspaper in Philadelphia. It reads: "WOMAN'S RIGHTS—Miss Susan B. Anthony, one of the "strong-minded," lately delivered a very powerful address on 'Woman's Rights,' but unfortunately, upset her argument for woman's independence of the other sex by passing around a man's hat to take up the collection.”

Left image: Driftwood on Barcelona Harbor Beach, photo by Penny Colman

Left image: 1910 postcard courstesy of Norman Courlson, Chautuaqua County Historian

Right Image: Ellen Y. Miller Historic Marker, photo by Penny Colman

Bottom image: Entrance to Lily Dale Assembly, photo by Penny Colman