Elizabeth Lyle Saxon Fierce Suffragette Soldier
E Sharon fox
BACK IN THE DAY Sharon Fox is the curator at the Elmore County Museum in Wetumpka.
12
She and her husband were reunited in 1864 and lizabeth Lyle Saxon was born on a cold moved together to New Orleans, where their last night in early December 1832 in Tennestwo children were born. Elizabeth began travelsee. Her mother, Clarissa (Crutchfield) ing between New Orleans and Memphis, speakLyle died when Elizabeth was only 2 years old. Elizabeth’s father was Andrew Lyle, architect and ing at conventions, conferences and to women everywhere about voting rights. builder of at least one church in Elmore County. She had made a name for herself by 1878 and Andrew encouraged his young daughter to be that same year was elected president of the Laindependent and to love reading and the outdies Physiological Association, giving her more doors. He also taught her to hate oppression. access to not only the public Elizabeth was a published but also politicians. One year writer by the time she was 12, Elizabeth Lyle Saxon later, Elizabeth helped suffragwriting under the pen name of ettes in New Orleans promote a Annott Lyle. She was marpetition for the right for women ried by the time she was 16 to vote. to a South Carolinian named She spoke at the Louisiana Lydell Saxon. The two lived Constitutional Convention and in Wetumpka during the cold gave a speech so moving it was winters in the 1850s and by the published in the 1879 New Ortime Elizabeth was 23 she was leans Times. Elizabeth traveled the mother of two children. with Susan B. Anthony across Elizabeth described herself New England, quickly earnas, ‘Southern in every vein and ing a national reputation as a fiber of being,’ but when the powerful speaker. American Civil War began, She served both as state she and her husband made president of the Tennessee it known they were strong Unionists. Lydell was quickly becoming unpopu- Equal Suffrage Association and vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Aslar due to his well-known stance on the war, so sociation. She spoke to more than 5,000 women he left his young family behind and moved to New York. Elizabeth stayed and became a South- about social purity at the International Council of Women in Washington, D.C. ern Mother helping suffering soldiers whenever In March 1885, Elizabeth returned to her she was needed. She was later accused of being a beloved Wetumpka to speak to the women of Confederate spy but was never charged. Alabama. She spoke with state politicians during The Confederates were losing significantly by her stay and lectured on temperance and the 1863, and Elizabeth decided to take her young advancement and progress of her gender in 34 family to New York to join her husband. She first states and several territories. The press loved traveled to Memphis to find her father, whom her, and women everywhere read her books and she hadn’t been able to contact since before the articles, becoming enlightened by her eloquent war began. She discovered he was being held lectures. in Irving Block Prison in Memphis after having Lydell died in 1901 and Elizabeth in 1915. Five been accused of being a Confederate spy … and years after her death, American women were he was dying. Elizabeth arranged for his release given the right to vote. She is often cited as “inand remained in Memphis to take care of him strumental to the social changes leading up to the until his death. His last words to her were to ask for a promise to never cease working for unfortu- amendment’s passing…” She is listed as one of the most important suffragist leaders of her day. nate women, so long as her life should last. Elizabeth took her father’s words to heart.
ELMORE COUNTY LIVING
