BY JIMMY LAWTON

North Country This Week

St. Lawrence County legislators honored several local women for their achievements in honor of women’s history month.

Surgeons, suffragettes, soldiers, nurses, ministers and administrators were among those recognized for their contributions at a Finance Committee Meeting Feb. 27.

The women who were celebrated hailed from Lisbon, Canton, Richville, Potsdam, Depeyster, Norwood and Heuvelton.

“Throughout the history of the United States, men and women have worked together to build this nation, but too often the women were unsung and their contributions sometimes went unnoticed, but the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well,” a resolution approved by the county said. “American women have been and continue to be leaders in the forefront of the establishment of early charitable, philanthropic, and cultural institutions; led the efforts to secure suffrage and equal opportunities for women; and also served in the abolitionist movement, the emancipation movement, labor movements, civil rights movements, and other causes to create a more fair and just society for all.”

The resolution also honored the local women with brief descriptions of their achievements including:

• Dr. Mary Bryan born in Lisbon in 1854 became a skilled surgeon. She ran a hospital in India as a missionary, and upon her return to the United States she was not allowed to perform surgeries because she was a woman, even though she had all the credentials to do so. She became the Medical Director for the Society of United Helpers instead.

• Carrie Chapman Catt, a well-known Suffragette, came to Canton to run a Suffrage Workers school for the first Women's Suffrage Convention in St. Lawrence County, and with relentless campaigning she won the respect of President Woodrow Wilson whose help passed the Nineteenth Amendment.

• Lt. Col. Dr. Mary Stella Lawrence of Lisbon was working at North Sector General Hospital, Schoffield Barracks, Hawaii, during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After witnessing the devastation and severe injuries of the soldiers and civilians, she immediately joined the Army, and continued working there. In 1943, after lunch with Eleanor Roosevelt, she was promoted to Second Lieutenant PTA-AUS and Head Physical Therapist. She eventually returned to the mainland to work with the Surgeon General in Washington, DC. She became Captain in 1953, a Major in 1956 and returned from an assignment in Germany as Lt. Colonel in 1962. There were very few female Lt. Colonels in those days and even fewer female Lt. Col. Drs.

• In 1863, Olympia Brown was the first woman to graduate from theological school at St. Lawrence University and became the first woman to be a fully ordained minister. She was an ardent Suffragist and one of the few who became eligible to vote after the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment.

• Helen Morton Barker of Richville, born December 7, 1834, was a social reformer in the Temperance Movement. For twelve (12) years, she served as treasurer of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

• Linda Richards, born on July 27, 1841 in West Potsdam, was the first professionally trained American nurse. She established nursing training programs in the United States and Japan and created the first system for keeping individual medical records for hospitalized patients.

• Senator Patricia Ritchie, born and raised in Depeyster, was elected as St. Lawrence County Clerk in 2000 and continued in that position until 2010 when she was elected to the New York State 48th Senate District, which covered the eastern shore of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River shoreline. In the Legislature, she served as Chair of the Agriculture Committee, Co-Chair of the bi-cameral Legislative Commission on Rural Resources and Deputy Vice-Chair of the Senate Health Committee working to improve public health particularly in rural counties, like those she represented.

• Ruth A. Doyle was appointed by the Board of Legislators to serve as County

Administrator to St. Lawrence County in 2015 for a term of four (4) years. She was reappointed to a second term in 2019, then reappointed again in 2023 beginning her third term of office and earning her the distinction of being the only County Administrator appointed to more than two terms in St. Lawrence County.

• Minnie Josephine Reynolds (Scalabrino) was born in Norwood in 1865. She continued to use her maiden name after marriage. She moved to Colorado where she was an American journalist, women's rights activist and organizer. She founded the Denver Women's Press Club and the Denver Woman's Club. She advocated for equal rights, women's suffrage and temperance. She was instrumental in the passage of laws that gave women the right to vote at the state level and in 1920 throughout the United States.

• Bessie (Pickens) Abott was one of twin daughters born in Heuvelton to John Pickens Jr., and his wife, Frances Josephine Button. However, she used her grandmother's maiden name of Abbott, later dropping one of the b's from the name. Bessie was an American operatic soprano who had an active international career during the early 20th century. She was associated with the Paris Opera and the Metropolitan Opera and excelled in performances of Italian and French operas of the Romantic Period.

The resolution will go before the full board of legislators March 6.