Sallie Joy White (1847-1909)
On March 2, 1870 the Boston Post reporter Sallie Joy visited town and wrote “Brattleboro has had a fire and a flood, and now it has a Woman Suffrage Convention. I saw an old farmer yesterday with the inevitable blue woolen frock and cart whip snugly stowed under his arm, reading one of the posters announcing the meeting. Patiently he waded through it, then turned on his heel and wondered aloud, ‘What in the thunder’ll come next.’” In March of 1870 Brattleboro was less than a year removed from a devastating fire that destroyed the west side of Main Street and a flood that roared down the Whetstone Brook, killing two people and inflicting over $300,000 worth of damage. The young reporter went on to write that no one was able to tell the old farmer what might happen next, with women pushing for equal rights, but she offered that local women might see it […]