[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 49 (Thursday, March 27, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E457-E458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. FRED UPTON

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 27, 2014

  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, Women's History Month is a time for all 
Americans to pay tribute to the generations of women who have made our 
world a better place in which to live. Today, it is my great honor to 
recognize Kalamazoo, Michigan's Lucinda Hinsdale Stone for her efforts 
to advance education reform and women's rights.
  Lucinda was born 200 years ago this year, at a time in our history 
when women did not share the same rights as men.
  Upon moving to Michigan in 1843 with her husband, Dr. James Stone, 
Lucinda became the first principal of the Ladies Department at the 
Kalamazoo Branch of the University of Michigan, which would soon become 
Kalamazoo College. Together, Lucinda and James Stone helped shape the 
school's direction, in part by introducing coeducation and promoting 
abolitionism and women's rights.
  Lucinda flourished in her role and assisted in the education of a 
variety of professions and skills for women who came through her 
school. When Lucinda was ultimately forced to resign her office because 
of her advocacy for women's rights, she devoted her life to women's 
education and founded the Women's Club Movement in Michigan. As our 
country faced a turning tide of abolition and women's suffrage, Lucinda 
took it upon herself to educate and lecture from in her own home and 
doubled her efforts to give women everywhere a better chance.
  Lucinda quickly became one of the foremost individuals in the state 
promoting women's rights and soon her tireless battle to bring higher 
education to women spread her reputation from coast to coast. Susan B. 
Anthony would share the works of Lucinda Hinsdale Stone and 
affectionately gave her the title, the ``Mother of Women's Clubs in 
Michigan.''
  In the more than 50 years that she served as a leader in Michigan, 
Lucinda watched her groups expand as the rest of the country

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caught on to the women's rights movement. Twenty years before areas in 
the Northeast formed associations for women, Lucinda was leading the 
Kalamazoo Ladies' Library Association as a model for the rest of the 
nation. That Association and its present members like Betty Lee 
Ongley--the first female mayor of neighboring Portage, Michigan--have 
continued to play a major role in keeping Lucinda's legacy alive today.
  Lucinda would go on to work in social reform movements and women's 
organizations throughout the state and became a pillar for American 
women to turn to for strength and guidance. Her life's work was 
recognized in 1890, when the University of Michigan bestowed upon 
Lucinda their first honorary doctorate to a woman.
  She lived to watch her very own pupil, Madelon Stockwell, become the 
first woman to be granted admission to the University of Michigan, and 
watched as Kalamazoo College granted its first academic degree to a 
female student. The legacy of her work for women and education remains 
evident today.
  Throughout her extraordinary life, Lucinda became friends with other 
suffragist and abolitionist leaders including Susan B. Anthony, 
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Antoinette Brown 
Blackwell, and the Grimke sisters. She was also a lifelong friend and 
admirer of Helen and Frederick Douglass, and even played host to Ralph 
Waldo Emerson.
  Lucinda Hinsdale Stone represents the strength that we all hope to 
have in the face of oppression and inequality. Her lasting impacts have 
motivated women for generations and her name lives on in Michigan lore 
as one of the finest Americans to stand up for what they believe in.

                          ____________________