Woman's Suffrage Day (Aug 26th): Justice Bell comes to Cranberry in 1915

Justice Bell in Cranberry, PA in 1915

August 26th is Woman's Suffrage Day, commemorating the date the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by Congress in 1920, giving all American citizens the right to vote. The village of Cranberry, Venango County, Pennsylvania, witnessed a moment of the Suffrage movement's history when the Justice Bell passed through in 1915. The Justice Bell or Woman's Liberty Bell was a replica of the Liberty Bell created to promote the cause of woman's suffrage. Mounted on the back of a modified pickup truck is was taken on the road to all 67 Pennsylvania Counties.

Cranberry residents hear from Woman Suffrage Speaker

At the time, my great-grandparents Jess and Lizzie Melat lived in Cranberry which is located on the main route between the county seats of Clarion and Venango County. Lizzie or Jess captured these photographs of the bell and a woman delivering a speech from the back of the truck to the residents of Cranberry.





According to Wikipedia, the Justice Bell was a replica of the Liberty Bell, but did not have the crack and the words "establish JUSTICE" were added on the top line of the inscription. As a symbol of how women were being silenced, the bell's clapper was chained to the side of the bell until women were permitted to vote. It was rung in Philadelphia following ratification and continued to tour the country. It is on permanent display in the Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge National Park.

Remembering Grandma Melat

Grandma Melat's Flowers

100 years ago today on November 9th, 1913, my grandmother Kathryn Mary Hoffman Melat was born. But what has made anniversary truly amazing is that a plant that belonged to her has a single stalk of flowers in bloom in my home.  Why this is so amazing is that the plant typically blooms much later--in late winter or early spring--with a dozen or so stalks of 2-4 flowers each! I have never been able to identify the plant but is looks like an amaryllis--probably an old fashion version of the flower.  From what I have been told Grandma bought the plant for her in-laws, my Great-Grandpa and Grandma Melat, which would make the original bulbs over 50 years old.  When they passed away, Grandma Melat took the plant to her house which is where I remember it growing up.  Over the years the plant has been divided and shared, but I have several pots of the plant including the original.   Every time I pass by or water it I am reminded of her and while she passed away 23 years ago, today I am very thankful to have had many years with her around.

Tombstone Tuesday: The Last Visit to the Kinzua Cemetery

Gravestone of James Morrison, Willow Dale Cemetery

Kinzua Cemetery had long been the burial ground for my Morrison family, one of the oldest families in Warren County, Pennsylvania.  James Morrison was a Revolutionary War veteran and a millwright from Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.  According to the oft recounted story, James was contracted in 1798 by Seneca Indian Chief Cornplanter to build a mill at State Line in the wilderness along the border of Pennsylvania and New York.  Along the way to the destination, the traveling party camped on an island in the middle of the Allegheny River at the mouth of Kinzua Creek. And the story continues that James Morrison was so impressed with the island that he petitioned the Commonwealth for the island and the surrounding property.  James and his family settled on the island by 1800 and there he died in 1839 and was buried in the Kinzua Cemetery near the small village of the same name that sprung along the southeast bank of the Allegheny River.

Fast forward almost 100 years and with the passage of the Flood Control Acts of 1936 and 1938 it was determined that a dam should be built on the Allegheny River south of Morrison's Island and the village of Kinzua in order to control flooding further south.  Two decades later construction of the dam began and it was completed in 1965.  The resulting reservoir would completely submerge not only Morrison's Island, but the entire Kinzua Creek Valley to include the village and the old cemetery.  The memory of those buried in that cemetery would be preserved by moving the gravestones to the Willow Dale Cemetery, outside Bradford in McKean County, Pennsylvania.

The news of the impending deluge prompted my Great-grandfather Jesse Melat and his nephew Boyd Melat to pay one last visit to the ancient burial ground before the gravestones were moved.  My cousin Karen Campbell Britton remembers that the pilgramage to the cemetery probably took place sometime in 1959 and included my great-grandparents Jess and Lizzie Melat, her grandparents Boyd and Rose Melat, her parents Bruce and Betty (Melat) Campell, herself and her sister Beth.  These photographs, probably taken by my Great-grandmother Melat, document the visit.  Cousin Karen is pictured along with her grandfather Boyd Melat at the grave of our ancestor Zephaniah Morrison (right).  My Great-grandfather Melat is pictured at the grave of his aunt Cynthia Morrison Strong (below).  Karen remembers visiting the cemetery once again when it was "totally surrounded with high barricades [in the midst of] the process of moving the graves." She remembers "thinking how creepy that was."  Those gravestones can be seen today in the Willow Creek Cemetery.  A picture of Zephaniah Morrison's gravestone in its current location can be found at www.findagrave.com.