Mary Barr Clay (1839-1924) - Find a Grave Memorial

Suffragist. A daughter of Kentucky Emancipationist Cassius Marcellus Clay and Mary Jane Warfield. She was born in October 1839 in Lexington, Kentucky. Mary married John Francis "Frank" Herrick, in 1866. The couple had three sons and then divorced. The lack of Women's Rights at the time of her parent's 1869 divorce left her mother homeless and destitute, propelling Mary Barr Clay and her sister Laura into the Women's Rights Movement. In 1879, Mary went to St. Louis, Missouri to attend the tenth anniversary of the National Woman Suffrage Association. There she met Susan B. Anthony and arranged for the suffrage leader to speak in Richmond, Kentucky. In 1883, Mary was elected President of the American Women Suffrage Association. Mary was one of the pioneers of the Kentucky feminist movement. Eventually, thanks in part to the hard work of women like Mary Barr Clay and the members of LERA, Kentucky women did receive the vote with the ratification of the nineteenth amendment in 1920.

Bio by: Shock