Women | US-VT | Vermont

1800s

Mary Ann Frost Stearns Pratt (14 jan 1809 – 24 aug 1891 | Groton VT – Pleasant Grove, Utah Territory) midwife, essayist, early feminist, Mormon folk figure, legal / political activist, allegedly married to one or two original Church of Latter-day Saints founders

Laura Maria Sheldon Wright (10 jul 1809 – 21 jul 1886 | Saint Johnsbury VT – Iroquois NY) missionary, Seneca Iroquois rights activist / educator


1810s

Clarina Irene Howard Nichols (25 jan 1810 – 11 jan 1885 | West Townshend VT – Potter Valley CA) author, abolitionist, journalist, lobbyist, public speaker, temperance worker, women’s rights activist, Underground Railroad conductor

Esther Sumner Damon (01 aug 1814 – 11 nov 1906 | Bridgewater VT – Plymouth VT) farmer, lay nurse, school teacher, seamstress, last American Revolutionary War widow state pensioner in US

Lucinda Hinsdale Stone (30 sep 1814 – 23 mar 1851 | Hinesburg VT – Kalamazoo MI) educator, feminist, suffragist, abolitionist, aka Mother of Clubs, Ladies Library Association leader, autobiographical author, women’s education program innovator

Harriet E. Bishop (01 jan 1817 – 08 aug 1883 | Panton VT – St Paul MN) writer, educator, suffragist, temperance activist

Delia Ann Webster (17 dec 1817 – 18 jan 1904 | Vergennes VT – Jeffersonville IN) teacher, abolitionist, Underground Railroad activist, girls’ school founder, aka The Petticoat Abolitionist

Ann Eliza Brainerd Smith (07 oct 1819 – 06 jan 1909 | St Albans VT – St Albans VT) poet, author, novelist, essayist, memoirist, honorary lieutenant colonel in Vermont Militia


1820s

Rachel Brooks Gleason (27 nov 1820 – 13 mar 1905 | Winhall VT – Elmira NY) author, physician, essayist, hydrotherapist, anti-slavery activist, hydrotherapy spa administrator, fourth US female to earn medical degree, women’s dress reform advocate

Elizabeth Rowell Thompson (21 feb 1821 – 20 jul 1899 | Lyndon VT – Littleton NH) art collector, philanthropist, anti-slavery activist, model communities funder / founder

Susan Lincoln Tolman Mills (18 nov 1826 – 12 dec 1912 | Enosburg VT – Oakland CA) educator, missionary, co-founded Mills College for Women

Achsa W. Sprague (17 nov 1827 – 06 jul 1862 | Plymouth Notch VT – Plymouth Notch VT) poet, essayist, medium, lecturer, Spiritualist, abolitionist, suffragist

Abby Maria Hemenway (07 oct 1828 – 24 feb 1890 | Ludlow VT – Chicago IL) Vermont historian, religious convert, pioneering author / editor / publisher

Agnes Harrington D’Arcambal (08 mar 1829 – 14 feb 1899 | Burlington VT – Detroit MI) social activist, prison reformer, humanitarian,founded D’Arcambal Home of Industry for discharged prisoners


1830s

Almira [Myra] Willey Colby Bradwell (12 feb 1831 – 14 feb 1894 | Manchester VT – Chicago IL) attorney, publisher, political activist, founding editor Chicago Legal News, first woman admitted to Illinois Bar, denied initial admittance to IL and US Supreme Court

Mary Olivia Nutting (01 jul 1831 – 13 feb 1910 | Randolph Center VT – South Hadley MA) librarian, journal keeper, Mount Holyoke College’s first librarian

Mary Jane Safford-Blake (31 dec 1834 – 08 dec 1891 | Hyde Park VT – Tarpon Springs FL) author, teacher, novelist, translator, Civil War Union field nurse

Angelia [Angie] Louise Thurston French Newman (04 dec 1837 – 15 apr 1910 | Montpelier VT – Lincoln NE) poet, editor, author, teacher, lecturer, Spanish-American War hospital inspector

Calista Robinson Jones (22 mar 1839 – 28 jan 1913 | Chelsea VT – Bradford VT) educator, civic / social activist, president of Woman’s Relief Corps, founding chair / fundraiser for Woods Public Library Book Committee in Bradford

Belle L. Pettigrew (08 apr 1839 – 14 jul 1912 | Ludlow VT – Sioux Falls SD) educator, missionary, world traveler, head of missionary training department of American Baptist Home Mission Society


1840s

Fanny Hallycarnie Titus Hazen (09 may 1840 – 20 jan 1930 | Vershire VT –  Cambridge MA) Civil War nurse, suffragist, president Army Nurse Association of Massachusetts, member of Woman’s Relief Corps / Cambridge Equal Suffrage League

Martha George Ripley (30 nov 1843 – 18 apr 1912 | Lowell VT – Minneapolis MN) suffragist, feminist, woman’s physician, women’s rights advocate, public health activist / educator, founder / administrator Minneapolis Maternity Hospital [later renamed Ripley Memorial Hospital]

Agnes Salm-Salm (25 dec 1844 – 21 dec 1912 | Franklin VT – Karlsruhe, Germany) memoirist, war / political activist, US Civil War field nurse, Prussian Princess by marriage, born Agnes Elisabeth Winona Leclerc Joy

Isabel Chapin Barrows (17 apr 1845 – 25 oct 1913 | Irasburg VT – Croton-on-Hudson NY) editor, activist, novelist, essayist, lecturer, missionary, political activist, hydrotherapist

Caroline Ardelia Yale (29 sep 1848 – 02 jul 1933 | Charlotte VT – Northampton MA) writer, lip-reading v. signing advocate, deaf educator, autobiographical author, Clarke School for the Deaf principal / administrator

Lucy Jane Rider Meyer (09 sep 1849 – 16 mar 1922 | New Haven VT – Chicago IL) writer, editor, hymnist, educator, social worker, philanthropist, Deaconess leader, chemistry professor | women.born.today


1850s

Helen Maria Winslow (13 apr 1851 – 27 mar 1938 | Westfield VT – Shirley MA) poet, novelist, journalist, Club Woman, co-founded Daughters of Vermont and New England Women’s Press Association

Sarah Sophie Platt Chase Decker (01 oct 1852 – 07 jul 1912 | Barnet VT – San Francisco CA) clubwoman / leader

Lucy Wheelock (01 feb 1857 – 01 oct 1946 | Cambridge VT – Boston MA) author, lecturer, translator, one of first US kindergarten education pioneers, founding director of Wheelock Kindergarten Training School

Phebe Estelle Spalding (13 mar 1859 – 12 mar 1937 | Westfield VT – Pomona CA) author, art historian, first female professor Pomona College


1860s

Effie Louise Smith (06 feb 1861 – 09 aug 1893 | Athens VT – Athens VT) poet

Nettie Maria Stevens (07 jul 1861 – 04 may 1912 | Cavendish VT – Baltimore MD) author, biologist, geneticist, researcher, co-discovered XY-chromosome sex-determination

Julia Hunt Catlin Park DePew Taufflieb (06 jul 1864 – 17 dec 1947 | Bennington VT – Cannes, France) socialite, philanthropist, WWI activist, first US woman awarded French Croix de Guerre and Legion d’Honneur

Anita McCormick Blaine (04 jul 1866 – 12 feb 1954 | Manchester VT – Chicago IL) heiress, philanthropist, early leftist newspaper founder, progressive education activist / supporter


1870s

Mary Agnes [Theodora] Peck (25 oct 1876 – 11 jan 1964 | Burlington VT – Burlington VT) poet, novelist

Rachel Robinson Elmer (28 jul 1878 – 13 feb 1919 | Rokeby [now Ferrisburgh] VT – New York NY) artist, illustrator, art postcard painter, WWI poster artist, WWI Bird and Tree Club fundraiser, aka ‘the woman who changed the world of American postcards’

Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge (03 jan 1879 – 08 jul 1957 | Burlington VT – Northampton MA) US Presidential First Lady, deaf teacher, lip-reading instructor, civic / social / political activist


1880s

Mary Ely Lyman (24 nov 1887 – 09 jan 1975 | St. Johnsbury VT – Claremont CA) author, academic dean, Biblical scholar / professor, sole female student at Union Theological (1916-1919), first female full professor and endowed university chair


1890s

Helen Hartness Flanders (19 may 1890 – 23 may 1972 | Springfield VT – Springfield VT) poet, author, essayist, ethnomusicologist

Adeline Hatch Lavigne(06 dec 1897 – 19 jul 1993 | Pownal VT – Cohoes NY) folk / labor / literary figure, aka Addie Card and The Face of Child Labor Reform

Consuelo [Connie] Northrop Bailey (19 oct 1899 – 09 sep 1976 | Sheldon VT – Burlington VT) attorney, politician, women’s activist, autobiographical author


1900s

Adelma Grenier Simmons (16 dec 1903 – 03 dec 1997 | Sheldon VT – Coventry CT) author, herbalist, food writer, herbal historian, Caprilands Herb Farm company founder, aka The First Lady of Herbs


1910s

Harriet [Virginia] Spencer Cowles (24 aug 1910 – 17 sep 1983 | Brattleboro VT – near Biarritz, France) journalist, biographer, travel writer, war correspondent

Dahlov Zorach Ipcar (12 nov 1917 – 10 feb 2017 | Windsor VT – Georgetown ME) artist, painter, author, sculptor, muralist, children’s book writer / illustrator


1920s

Ursula Bailey Marvin (20 aug 1921 – 12 feb 2018 | Bradford VT – Concord MA) author, retired planetary geologist

Stella Bloomberg Hackel Sims (27 dec 1926 – Burlington VT) attorney, former State of Vermont politician, former Director of the United States Mint

Jacqueline Anne Noonan (28 oct 1928 – 23 jul 2020 | Burlington VT – Lexington KY) pediatric cardiologist, first to describe hypoplastic left heart syndrome and genetic disorder now named Noonan syndrome, first pediatric cardiologist at University of Iowa


1930s


1940s

Martha Ann Miller (07 sep 1940 – 30 jan 2014 | Burlington VT – Randolph VT) poet, columnist, seamstress, social activist, singer / choir director, tv show producer, art / music teacher, short story writer, KatieDid and ElderWise owner / founder

Jeanne Betancourt (02 oct 1941 – Burlington VT) screenwriter, children’s / young adult author

Martha Jane Beattie Kitchel (23 aug 1945 – St. Johnsbury VT) social worker, former Vermont State politician


1950s

Jody Williams (09 oct 1950 – Rutland VT) author, essayist, political activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, women’s / anti-landmine / human rights advocate

Candace Whittemore Lovely (15 mar 1953 – Vermont US) art teacher, social activist, American Impressionist painter

Deborah Beattie Toll (08 aug 1959 – Danville VT) educator, state politician, political family member