Fellsmere, the First City in the South to Grant Women’s Suffrage
Edward Nelson and Anne Fell purchased 118,000 acres of the land on which Fellsmere is located in March 1910, and started developing the Town of Fellsmere in late 1910.1 E. Nelson Fell was born in New Zealand, which became the first self-governing nation in the world (on September 19, 1893) to grant women the right to vote.2 It wasn’t until 27 years later, in 1920, before the United States ratified the 19th Amendment (the Women’s Suffrage Amendment) that granted women the right to vote.3
Nelson Fell wanted Fellsmere to be a progressive, forward-thinking town. Fellsmere was the first master planned community in Indian River County (then St. Lucie County in 1910). It had the first water system, first power plant, first telephone system, first bank, first concrete sidewalks and paved roads, first masonry school building, first library building, first public swimming pool, and first playhouse/movie theater all within seven years of the start of its development.4 Fellsmere also had a drama club, a brass band, orchestra, an athletic association, tennis club, Boy Scout troop, library association, choral society, music club, a needlework club, and Camp Fire Girls.5
By 1915, Fellsmere had a population of about 1000 people.6 The time was right for Fellsmere to incorporate as a town. The Fellsmere Farms Company hired the prominent attorney, Patrick Vans Agnew of Jacksonville (formerly of Kissimmee), to draft the charter for the town to be sent to the Florida legislature for approval.7 In the early part of 1915, a mass meeting of Fellsmere citizens was held to appoint a five man “Committee of Incorporation”. Those selected for the committee were E. Nelson Fell (founder of Fellsmere), Doctor E. T. Moore, Charles Piffard (State Bank of Fellsmere President), George F. Green (businessman and merchant), and Frank Hale (merchant).8
Vans Agnew drafted the charter with a provision that was unique for Florida. It was reported that in all municipal, general, and special elections, married women would have the ballot on the same terms as provided for the male voters.9 Unfortunately, a reporter for the Jacksonville Times–Union, whose article was republished in the February 6, 1915, edition of the Fellsmere Tribune, had erred by saying that just “married” women would be eligible to vote. Patrick Vans Agnew stated his position in a letter written on February 15, 1915, explaining that “the proverbial inaccuracy of newspaper reporters” was responsible for the error”. He said, “The reporter quoted me as restricting the suffrage to married women, but this was simply a mistake. The charter, as drawn and submitted to the committee (of Incorporation), gives equal male and female suffrage to all citizens of Fellsmere without restriction”.10
At the time, Patrick was married to Marian Fell, the oldest daughter of Anne and Nelson Fell, founders of Fellsmere.11 Marian Fell’s mother, Anne, had an older sister, Susan Palmer Dyer, who was elected vice president of the Florida Equal Suffrage Association in 1914. Susan was very active in the suffrage movement and served as a delegate for the Florida Equal Suffrage Association at the National Suffrage Convention in Washington, D.C. in 1915.12 It is quite possible that Patrick Vans Agnew may have been influenced by his mother-in-law’s sister being involved in the women’s suffrage movement as well as his mother-in-law, Anne Fell, and wife, Marian.
Another possible influence was the Florida Equal Franchise League (FEFL). When Patrick Vans Agnew moved to Jacksonville in May 1914 to open a new office, it was located in the Heard Bank Building at the corner of Laura and Forsyth Streets where the FEFL was located.13 Mr. Heard had given the FEFL use of a large front room on the first floor of his building and the FEFL had painted on one front window “Florida Equal Franchise League”, and on the other “Votes For Women.” Nearly every man in the City of Jacksonville passed the building every day as it was in the heart of the banking district near the post office.14
Florence Mai Murphy Cooley was elected president of the FEFL in January 1914, and was very active in pushing for a constitutional amendment in Florida supporting woman’s suffrage. Quite possibly, Florence Cooley influenced Patrick Vans Agnew as well in his writing the Fellsmere Charter to include a woman’s suffrage provision. Once the Florida legislature passed Fellsmere’s charter, Florence Cooley began a systematic campaign to amend charters of other Florida towns to allow women the right to vote in local elections. By 1917, she reported that women had local suffrage in Fellsmere, Delray, Clearwater, and Fort Lauderdale.15
On January 13, 1915, a meeting of citizens was held in the Dixie Playhouse for the purpose of submitting the draft of a charter of incorporation for the town to the next session of the legislature.16 The Dixie Playhouse was the largest building in Fellsmere. The Dixie Playhouse was completed in October 1913 on the west side of Broadway opposite the Fellsmere Inn, and could easily seat 500 people.17 E. Nelson Fell stated that the Fellsmere Farms Company was in favor of incorporation of the town. Attorney Patrick Vans Agnew discussed the relative merits of town charters under state law and by special legislation. A “Committee of Incorporation” consisting of five members was appointed to prepare a draft of a charter to be presented at a future meeting of the citizens. The appointees to the committee included Dr. E.T. Moore (chairman), E. Nelson Fell, Charles H. Piffard, Frank E. Hale, and George F. Green.18
The Committee of Incorporation met again with about 100 male electors in February 1915 in the Dixie Playhouse.19 It was at this meeting that the male citizens of Fellsmere voted to accept the articles of incorporation which would later lead to the establishment of the first incorporated city in what is now Indian River County.20 In 1915, Fellsmere was in St. Lucie County; Indian River County wasn’t established until May 30, 1925.21
By unanimous vote, the citizens of Fellsmere approved the charter as prepared by Patrick Vans Agnew including the proposal that granted women the full and equal privilege for suffrage in the City’s elections. The articles of incorporation including the charter were sent to the Florida legislature in the form of a bill for approval.22
Local bills of little importance then rarely received close examination from the state legislators and were usually rushed through the Senate.23 As a result, no one senator seemed to notice the full and equal suffrage provision for Fellsmere women in the bill. Thus, the Florida Senate passed the Fellsmere charter bill unanimously on April 23, 1915.24 However, once it was learned that the bill granted women in Fellsmere the unconditional right vote in municipal elections, there was considerable discussion when the bill was brought up in the Florida House of Representatives. The discussion centered around the precedent that would put the House on record as favoring woman suffrage. Since the bill had no bearing on State-wide elections, the House passed the Fellsmere charter bill by a vote of 26 to 16 on May 1, 1913.25
On May 12, 1915, Florida Governor Park Trammell signed the act that incorporated the Town of Fellsmere, and the charter immediately went into effect.26 The governor then sent a telegram to Mrs. Cooley, president of the Florida Equal Franchise League, that he had signed the act. It was received with cheers at the National Association’s convention in Chicago which was being held at the time.27 Passage of the act received national attention in newspapers all over the country.
On June 17, 1915, a special election was held in Fellsmere to elect a Vice Commissioner to fill a vacancy.28 Mrs. Zena M. Dreier, wife of William Dreier (Sales Director for the Fellsmere Farms Company), became the first woman to cast a ballot in a Fellsmere election.29 Not only was her ballot of historical significance in Fellsmere but in all of Florida, since no other city in Florida at the time had an equal suffrage provision in their charters. Even beyond Florida, Zena Dreier’s ballot took on national significance because no other city south of the Mason-Dixon Line had granted women suffrage.31 The Mason-Dixon Line runs along the southern Pennsylvania border adjacent to Maryland and part of West Virginia, and is the north-south boundary between Maryland and Delaware. The “Line” was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. It later symbolized the line of demarcation between the North and the South because it was considered the dividing line between the slave and non-slave states.32 Passage of Fellsmere’s charter was the first woman’s suffrage act of any kind that was ever passed in any Southern state.33 Little did Zena Dreier realize the impact her vote meant for the women’s suffrage movement in the United States.
It wasn’t until May 21, 1919, almost four years later, that the U.S. House of Representatives passed the suffrage amendment proposal by the required 2/3’s majority vote, and on June 4, 1919, it was passed by the Senate by the required 2/3’s majority vote.34 Wisconsin became the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment on June 10, 1919, and on August 20, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to approve the amendment. Since a 3/4’s majority approval of the states is required for an amendment to become law, Tennessee’s vote provided the final ratification necessary to enact the amendment. (There were only 48 states at that time.) Once enacted, the 19th Amendment went into effect on August 20, 1920, granting the right to women to vote in all elections in this country. Section 1 of the 19th Amendment as ratified reads: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”35
It is of interest to note that although the City of Fellsmere, Florida led the way to women’s suffrage in the South, the State of Florida itself did not ratify the 19th Amendment until May 13, 1969, approximately 54 years after Zena Dreier cast her ballot. Mississippi was the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment on March 22, 1984, having rejected it 64 years earlier on March 29, 1920. In fact, the majority of southern states didn’t ratify the women’s suffrage amendment until after 1952, 32 years after 36 states had ratified the amendment. The right for women to vote in the United States wasn’t adopted until 131 years after the Constitution was adopted in 1789.36
The March 18, 1916, edition of the Fellsmere Tribune reported that “The population of Fellsmere is of a high type of intelligence, with lofty ideals and wise execution. Progressive in all things, perhaps no better indication of the fact may be given than the unanimous vote of the town granting unrestricted suffrage to women.” 37
This verbiage can be seen today in the text of the historical marker erected on August 28, 2004, located approximately 275 feet south of South Carolina Avenue on the west side of Broadway in the City of Fellsmere. Sponsored by the National Organization of Women – Indian River Chapter, and the Florida Dept. of State, the marker stands as a testimony that the tiny community of Fellsmere in Indian River County was first and foremost in granting women suffrage in Florida and in the South long before many of the southern states ratified the 19th Amendment.38