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Lillie Devereux Blake

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Lillie Devereux Blake

Birth	:	12 Aug 1833 Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, USA
Death	:	30 Dec 1913 Englewood, Bergen County, New Jersey, USA
Burial	:	Union Cemetery, Stratford, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate	:	41.1973000, -73.1295000
Inscription	:	Lillie Devereux Aug 12, 1833 - Dec 30, 1913 Married Frank G Q Umsted June 20, 1856 Grinfill Blake May 9, 1866 Writer, Lecturer. Pioneer Woman Suffragist Beautiful, brilliant, lovable.
Description	:	Lillie Devereux Blake (August 12, 1833 - December 30, 1913), the woman for whom P.S. 6 is named (in New York City), was a prominent author and leading suffragist in the late 19th century. In the 1870s she commenced a campaign to open Columbia College to women, a campaign that ultimately led to the founding of Barnard College. Her daughter, Katherine Devereux Blake, was herself a suffragist, as well as a teacher and P.S. 6's first principal Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, daughter of planter George Pollock Devereux and Sarah Elizabeth Johnson, Lillie spent her early... Read More	Lillie Devereux Blake (August 12, 1833 - December 30, 1913), the woman for whom P.S. 6 is named (in New York City), was a prominent author and leading suffragist in the late 19th century. In the 1870s she commenced a campaign to open Columbia College to women, a campaign that ultimately led to the founding of Barnard College. Her daughter, Katherine Devereux Blake, was herself a suffragist, as well as a teacher and P.S. 6's first principal Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, daughter of planter George Pollock Devereux and Sarah Elizabeth Johnson, Lillie spent her early childhood in the South. Following the death of her father in 1837, her mother decided to return home with her daughters to Connecticut and Lillie grew up with her Johnson relatives in New Haven. The Johnsons had long occupied a lofty position in university and political life. Lillie was the great great granddaughter of Samuel Johnson, the first president of Columbia University, when it was still King's College (1754-1763), and the great granddaughter of William Samuel Johnson, the first president of Columbia after the American Revolution (1787-1800), a member of the Continental Congress, a delegate to the Constitutional convention, and a senator from Connecticut. A brilliant and spirited young woman, she attended Miss Apthorp's school for girls in New Haven until she was fifteen and then studied the Yale College curriculum with a tutor. In 1855, she married Frank Umsted, a lawyer from Philadelphia, and settled briefly in St. Louis, where, after the birth of her first daughter, Bessie, in 1857, she began writing short stories and essays for Harper's Weekly and the Knickerbocker. After giving birth to her second daughter, Katherine, in 1858, she published her first novel, Southward, in February 1859. Three months later her twenty-six year old husband, having lost her inheritance, killed himself. Traumatized by the suicide of her husband, she resisted remarriage as a solution to her financial predicament and began writing again. She became a war correspondent during the Civil War, and went on to write hundreds of stories and articles, as well as four more novels. Her novel Fettered for Life (1874) is still in print. In 1866 she married Grinfill Blake, who worked for a manufacturing firm in New York, and kept on writing. The couple had no children. Lillie Blake embarked on a second career as a women's right advocate in 1869, when she joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in the fight for woman suffrage. Widely known for her personal charm and beauty, she also proved to be a powerful orator, a talent that she parlayed into the presidency of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (1879-90) and the New York City woman Suffrage League (1886-1900). Lillie Blake always insisted, however, that the vote was only one of the goals women should pursue in their search for complete social, political, and economic equality. Access to higher education, in particular, attracted her support. On October 4, 1873, she petitioned President F. A. P. Barnard, on behalf of her daughters and other qualified young women, to open Columbia College to females. Invoking the authority of the college's charter, which dedicated the institution to the training of the "youth of the city," she argued that "youth" should be understood to include women as well as men. Barnard presented her plea to the Columbia Board of Trustees with his endorsement two days later, and the board referred the matter to a committee chaired by the Reverend Morgan Dix. The Rector of Trinity Church, a leading Columbia Trustee, a fervent opponent of woman suffrage, and an equally determined opponent of coeducation, Dix persuaded the board at its next meeting that "it is inexpedient to take any action on the subject." Undaunted, Blake enlisted the help of Sorosis, the pioneering New York club for professional women, which renewed her plea in 1876, the year of the nation's centennial. Again, she met defeat. In early 1883, as public debate over the possibility of opening Columbia College to women students reached an emotional peak, she entered the fray once more in a famous battle with the Reverend Dix. During Lent that year, the Reverend Dix gave a series of semons, published as "Lectures on the Calling of a Christian Woman and Her Training to Fulfill It" (1883), in which he warned the public that educating women and men together would lead to communist revolution. Blake promptly issued a rebuttal in a series of withering lectures of her own, published as "Women's Place Today"(1883), in which she insisted on women's right to full economic, educational, and political equality with men. While Blake failed in her ambition to open Columbia College to women, the Columbia Trustees finally capitulated to public opinion in 1883 by authorizing a "Collegiate Course," whereby women could qualify for a Columbia College degree by studying on their own and passing the requisite exams. A small handful of women did so before a campaign led by Annie Nathan Meyer led to the founding of Barnard College in 1889. A Biographical Sketch by Rosalind Rosenberg Ann Whitney Olin Professor Department of History Barnard College, Columbia University

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is Lillie Devereux Blake's memorial?
Lillie Devereux Blake's memorial is located at: Union Cemetery, Stratford, Fairfield County, USA.
When did Lillie Devereux Blake death?
Lillie Devereux Blake death on 30 Dec 1913 in Englewood, Bergen County, New Jersey, USA
Where are the coordinates of the Lillie Devereux Blake's memorial?
Latitude: 41.1973000
Longitude: -73.1295000

Family Members:

Parent

George Pollock Devereux

(1795 - 1837)

Spouse

Frank Geoffrey Quay Umsted

(1833 - 1859)

Siblings

Fanny Pollock Devereux

(unknow - 1835)

Children

Katherine Devereux Umsted Blake

(1858 - 1950)

Flowers:

Nearby Cemetories:

1. Union Cemetery
Stratford, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1973000, -73.1295000

2. Old Congregational Burying Ground
Stratford, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1911812, -73.1319275

3. Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery
Stratford, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1897202, -73.1286316

4. Saint Michael's Cemetery
Stratford, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1796989, -73.1517029

5. Lakeview Cemetery
Bridgeport, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1955986, -73.1735992

6. Saint Augustine Cemetery
Bridgeport, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1888880, -73.1734890

7. Saint John the Baptist Orthodox Cemetery
Stratford, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2285995, -73.1513977

8. Saint Joseph's of Stratford Church Cemetery
Stratford, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1623802, -73.1177902

9. Putney - Oronoque Cemetery
Stratford, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2336693, -73.1125793

10. Trinity Episcopal Church Memorial Gardens
Trumbull, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2407870, -73.1616710

11. Park Cemetery
Bridgeport, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2024994, -73.1956024

12. Nichols Farm Burial Ground
Trumbull, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2430992, -73.1578903

13. Nichols United Methodist Church Memorial Garden
Trumbull, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2424970, -73.1605450

14. Nichols Farm Burial Ground West Yard
Trumbull, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2410500, -73.1648000

15. Unity Burial Ground
Trumbull, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2364006, -73.1753006

16. Tower Crypt United Congregational Church Cemetery
Bridgeport, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1734370, -73.1977420

17. Saint James Cemetery
Bridgeport, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1762314, -73.2076111

18. Milford Cemetery
Milford, New Haven County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2257996, -73.0513992

19. Trumbull Center Cemetery
Trumbull, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2449989, -73.1947021

20. Saint Mary Cemetery
Milford, New Haven County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2196999, -73.0430984

21. Old Stratfield Cemetery
Bridgeport, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1796989, -73.2178726

22. Mountain Grove Cemetery and Mausoleum
Bridgeport, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.1727982, -73.2200012

23. Kings Highway Cemetery
Milford, New Haven County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2308006, -73.0441971

24. Riverside Cemetery
Trumbull, Fairfield County, USA
Coordinate: 41.2486000, -73.1986008