Trumbull County

The Harriet Taylor Upton House on Warren's "Millionaire's Row" was home to Mrs. Upton from 1873 to 1931, and served as the temporary NAWSA headquarters from 1903-1905. The Upton Association was formed in 1989 with the mission to preserve the memory of Harriet Taylor Upton, to collect and preserve significant materials related to Harriet, the suffrage movement, and women who have made an impact on Ohio history, and to provide educational services to the community.

Elizabeth Hauser was born in Girard, OH, to David and Mary (Bixler) Hauser on March 16, 1873. Hauser was an active participant in the Women’s Suffrage Movement beginning at the young age of 16, when she became involved in local, state, and national suffrage organizations. Hauser received a high school education and began a career in journalism working at the Girard Grit for three years.

In 1895, Harriet Taylor Upton, President of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association (OWSA) and Treasurer of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), asked Hauser to become Assistant Treasurer of NAWSA. In 1903, the headquarters were moved to Warren, OH, where Hauser made extensive connections to other leading suffragists. When the headquarters again relocated, this time to New York City in 1909, Hauser followed and transitioned to Vice Chairman of the National Press Committee for the organization.

In late 1910, Hauser left her post in New York City to return to northeast Ohio to organize Cuyahoga County women to achieve equal suffrage. She served as Director of the Cuyahoga County Women’s Suffrage Association, later known as the Cuyahoga County Women’s Suffrage Party. The organization developed strong grassroots support through their organizational framework and Hauser’s amiable character and aptitude for leadership, influencing socially prominent women of the region to attend lectures and luncheons supporting suffrage. The Suffrage Party collected 15,000 signatures to present at the 1912 Ohio Constitutional Convention, calling for a special election to vote on Amendment 23: Ohio women’s right to vote in presidential elections. Hauser registered as a lobbyist with the Ohio Secretary of State and campaigned in Columbus for eight weeks to push for the amendment. Despite her efforts, the campaign lost the vote. Though the 23rd Amendment was unsuccessful, it paved the way for further equal suffrage campaigns.

From 1914-1916, Hauser strengthened state organization efforts as the OWSA Literature Committee Chairman, and was chosen by Harriet Taylor Upton to be the Organizational Committee Chairman for the Cleveland campaign for statewide voting in 1917. The committee transitioned their focus from seeking an amendment to influencing “municipal rule” through local legislation, emphasizing the importance of congressional district support and changes in tactics.

Six months prior to the passage of the 19th Amendment, Hauser and other suffrage leaders transitioned the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) into the League of Women Voters, to continue encouraging women to have informed and active participation in government and politics. Hauser co-founded the Cleveland chapter and was elected Vice President at its first national convention in 1921. Hauser and other women of the LWV pushed for world disarmament in the wake of WWI, and she became the chairman of the Committee on the Reduction of Armament by International Agreement. She continued as a journalist, writing editorials for the League publication, Women’s Journal, until 1929.

Researched and written by The Upton Association and Kayla Metzger.

Harriet Taylor Upton was born December 17, 1853 in Ravenna, OH, the daughter of Ezra Taylor, an Ohio judge. The Taylor’s moved to Warren, OH, in 1861, and later purchased the home now known as the Harriet Taylor Upton House in 1873 from the Perkins family. Harriet graduated from Warren High School in the same year. Harriet’s father was appointed to Congress in 1880, and she accompanied him to Washington, D.C. while Congress was in session. She became known in society for her literary ability and amiable character. She married Attorney George Upton in 1884.

Upton emerged as one of the leading voices of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the early 1890s, and spent thirty years dedicating herself to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. In 1891, she hosted a gathering of women seeking equal rights, known as the Ohio Women in Convention, within her home. Upton served as a key organizer and the first president of the Suffrage Association of Warren, as well as the president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association from 1899 to 1908 and again from 1911 to 1920. She stated in a 1912 letter to a friend on Ohio Woman Suffrage Association letterhead, “Not for our sakes alone, then, but for the success of our cause throughout the land is it our duty to make ‘Ohio Next;’” referring to the vote to provide women equal suffrage.

Upton was also a member (1890) and later the treasurer (1894-1909) of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the product of the merger between the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) and National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1890. She brought the national headquarters to her home in Warren from 1903 to 1905, during which the National Conference was held there in 1904. The organization then temporarily relocated its headquarters to the Trumbull County Courthouse until 1909. Upton served as the chairman of NAWSA’s congressional committee with colleagues Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt, among others, and was instrumental in opening the diplomatic corps to women, in placing women on the Advisory Committee of the Conference for Limitation of the Arms, and in the final reporting out and passage of the Child Labor Bill. Several months prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment, NAWSA transitioned into the League of Women Voters, of which Upton was a charter member. She was recognized by the Washington Post as, “...without a doubt the best liked and wisest suffrage worker in the country. Always in times of stress, the other state leaders have to call in Mrs. Upton.”

Throughout her life, Upton participated in a variety of other state, national, and international organizations, including the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Society. In 1898, she was the first woman elected to the Warren Board of Education. In 1920, she was elected Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Republican National Committee, the first woman to serve on the highest national body of Republican politics. She stepped down from her position in 1924 in order to pursue a position in Congress, like her father, however was unsuccessful in the primary election in Ohio’s 19th District. Upton had a variety of interests and hobbies, and was considered an excellent cook, needlewoman, author, realtor, and orator. She was a prolific author of children’s books and books on historical themes, including but not limited to, “Our Early Presidents: Their Wives and Children, from Washington to Jackson” (1982), “A Twentieth Century History of Trumbull County” (1909), “A History of the Western Reserve” (1910), and an autobiography ”Random Recollections” (2004, written 1927).

Upton passed away in Pasadena, CA on November 2, 1945 at the age of 91. She was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1981.

Researched and written by The Upton Association and Kayla Metzger.

The Trumbull County Courthouse is the third judicial building to occupy historic public square, located at 160 High Street N.W. in Warren, OH. It stands on the site of two former county courthouses, built in 1815 and 1854. The architectural firm LaBelle and French of Marion, Indiana was selected to build the new edifice, and laid the cornerstone on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1895. The county commissioners took ownership of the courthouse on April 5, 1897 and it was dedicated on May 10, 1897. The building was nicknamed “The Stone Quarry” and “The Rock Palace” due to its Richardson Romanesque style and bold stonework.

The Trumbull County Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 31, 1974. The courthouse was then restored in 1976 as a bicentennial gift of Commissioner Lyle Williams on July 4. It was again renovated in 1993 by Dijk, Pace, Westlake and Partners of Cleveland to better serve its twenty-first century occupants.

The temporary headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) assembled in the west wing on the ground floor of the courthouse from 1905-1909; thereafter the organization relocated its headquarters to New York City. NAWSA coordinated the national suffrage movement and was made up of local and state groups throughout the United States. Susan B. Anthony served as President and Harriet Taylor Upton, a Warren resident, as Treasurer of the organization while it assembled at the courthouse.

Researched and written by Kayla Metzger and Sarah Moell.

The Harriet Taylor Upton House is the third oldest surviving home on Mahoning Avenue in Warren, OH, which is also known as “Millionaires’ Row.” The Greek Revival home was built by General Simon Perkins in 1840 for his son, Henry B. Perkins, who sold the home to Ezra Taylor in 1873. The house was originally designed in Egyptian motif, but was modified to a vernacular Greek Revival style sometime prior to the Taylor occupancy. In 1887, Congressman Taylor deeded the house to his daughter Harriet “for love and affection” and it remained in her possession for nearly fifty years.

The original center portion of the house was added to on three different occasions, one occurring after Upton moved out in 1931 due to losing the house to a sheriff’s sale. The center section of the house is three bays wide and contains an added one story wing that served as a library. Both a two story addition and a one and a half story addition are attached to the rear of the central house, the first constructed prior to the Taylor/Upton occupancy. The second addition extending from the rear of the house is a garage, with a room above, likely built in the 1930s.

The house became the temporary headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1903 when the organization moved to Warren at the request of Upton, their Secretary. The headquarters remained at the Upton House until 1905 when it relocated to the Trumbull County Courthouse through 1909. In 1945 the house served as a community center, and in 1952 was converted into five apartments, which involved dividing the dining room in half to serve as a bedroom and kitchen.

In 1989, The Upton Association purchased the house and worked with preservation architects to restore the house to its appearance during Upton’s occupancy. The house achieved National Historic Landmark status in 1992 for its prominence in the Women’s Suffrage Movement, and an Ohio Historical Marker was dedicated to Harriet Taylor Upton on the property for Ohio’s bicentennial in 2003. The restoration of the house and gardens continues today through the efforts of The Upton Association, along with educational programming for all ages and house tours.

Researched and written by The Upton Association and Kayla Metzger.