The Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library’s Central Library will soon be home to a new marker on the National Votes for Women Trail, dedicated to local suffrage leader, Lucia Blount.
The marker will be installed in a dedication on Tuesday, May 10 at 1:00 pm at the corner of Chestnut and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, the location of Blount’s home where she held suffragist meetings.
EDITED May 25, 2022
The marker has been unveiled and can be viewed outside of EVPL Central.
Lucia Blount History
According to her obituary, Lucia Blount was an instigator of the first Evansville suffrage group in 1886.
Lucia Blount was born on June 7, 1841, in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. She came to Evansville in 1864 with her husband, Henry Blount, who was a founder and owner of one of Evansville’s biggest industries, Blount Plow Works.
In 1874, she organized the city’s first book group known as the Ladies Literary Club. The club grew from 21 members to 82 in ten years’ time.
In May of 1886, she hosted a meeting in her home for women “known to be interested” to discuss the formation of a local suffrage organization. The special guest speaker was May Wright Sewall, an Indianapolis teacher and social reformer who led the Indiana Woman’s Suffrage Association. Mrs. Sewall spoke at Evans Hall the next evening to speak about “Domestic Legislation and Its Relation to Temperance and other Moral Reforms,” according to an article from The Daily Courier, published on May 25, 1886. In an article in the next day’s The Daily Courier, there were 200 ladies at Evans Hall to hear Mrs. Sewall speak for two hours.
After a local suffrage group was formed in Evansville, Mr. and Mrs. Blount took their children to Europe to be educated for two years. They then settled in Washington, D.C., where they spent the rest of their lives.
Once in D.C., Lucia became involved in the national suffrage movement and even hosted Susan B. Anthony.
The Blounts would travel back to Evansville every year for Mr. Blount’s birthday on May 1 where they hosted an annual birthday dinner and celebration for the employees of their business and their families.
Lucia Blount passed away at 84 in her home in Washington, D.C. According to an obituary printed in The Evansville Press, she had a number of nieces and nephews who lived in Evansville.
About the Marker
Made possible thanks to the League of Women’s Voters of Southwestern Indiana, the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, and the William G. Pomeroy Foundation, the marker will be part of the National Votes for Women Trail, which seeks to recognize and celebrate the diversity of people and groups active in the struggle for women’s suffrage.
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Shannon Grayson, EVPL Community History Librarian, contributed to the research of this post.
