Politics the Damnedest: Bourbon County People, Events, & Movements from 1780-1980 Politics the Damnedest: Bourbon County People, Events, & Movements from 1780-1980 View images from the Women’s Suffrage section of our past exhibit. Helen Hutchcraft FERA Member Card [Image Courtesy of University of Kentucky Special Collections] Helen Hutchcraft was the only member of her family to join Fayette County Equal Rights Association, but her mother Dorcas and her sister Mary were also activists. Dorcas introduced Madeline McDowell Breckinridge on February 4, 1910 when she gave a lecture supporting a school suffrage bill in Paris. Helen joined FERA when she was just shy of 18 years old. She was a Wellesley graduate, worked for the Young Women’s Christian Association and was active in the local women’s clubs. Mary Hutchcraft Dawes joined Madeline Breckinridge in 1913 in giving a presentation on woman suffrage to teachers in Cynthiana. Ironically, Helen and Mary’s brother, Reuben Hutchcraft, Jr. voted against a woman suffrage bill while he was serving in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1913. « ‹ of 10 › »
