The village of Still Pond in Kent County, MD today appears to be just an old crossroad village. In the early years of the 20th Century is was an incorporated town.
In the municipal election of 1908 three women, Mary Jane Clark Howard, Anne Baxter Maxwell and Lillie Deringer Kelley cast their ballots. It wasn’t until August 18, 1920 that the 19th amendment guaranteed all American women the right to vote.
The Maryland Roadside Historical Marker at the location where the former Town Hall stood reads:
“Maryland’s First women Voters — In the village of Still Pond, twelve years before the 19th amendment established women’s suffrage, Mary Jane Clark Howard, Anna Baker Maxwell, and Lille Deringer Kelly cast their ballots in the municipal election of 1908. That year, an act for incorporation of the town had provided the right to vote to any male or female resident taxpayer over age 21. Fourteen women were registered to vote, two of them African Americans.”
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Steve (SG) Atkinson
