The Women’s Suffrage Movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. The effort finally succeeded with passage of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote in 1919. A group of Ohio women from the South Newbury Woman’s Suffrage and Political Club took part in the planting of a Centennial Oak tree in South Newbury on July 4, 1876, during the struggle. Today, a crew from Independent Tree, LLC, an accredited, 14-year TCIA member company based in Newbury, Ohio, is proud to help care for the Centennial Oak.
“We are privileged to be able to donate services to care for this tree and preserve a local living monument to women’s history,” says Lisa Carrelli-Kraus, who, along with her husband, Alan Kraus, is co-owner of Independent Tree.
“We do a few services for the Centennial Oak, including oak-wilt treatments, fertilizer and dormant-season pruning. We will be going back soon to do some additional deadwood pruning and replacing some old cables.”
“In addition to the oak, we also are donating tree work to the South Newbury Union Chapel,” she adds. “They have a few dead or dying ash trees on the property that pose a risk to the building.”
Julia Porter Green
The following information is excerpted from a description on www.neohiosuffrage.org of the Suffrage movement in northeast Ohio.
Julia Porter Green was born May 8, 1847, in Mantua, Ohio. In 1874, she was corresponding secretary of the South Newbury Woman’s Suffrage and Political Club, and took part in the planting of the Centennial Oak tree in 1876. In 1879, Green relocated to Michigan to attend Hillsdale College, where she obtained her medical degree and practiced medicine until 1910.
In 1919, Dr. Green returned to northeast Ohio and became president of the newly organized Newbury Memorial Association. She was the only surviving charter member of the South Newbury Woman’s Suffrage and Political Club to attend the August 23, 1919, procession at the South Newbury Union Chapel. She hung a commemorative wreath upon the Centennial Oak, which she helped plant 43 years prior.
