BUTLER COUNTY COURTHOUSE RECOGNIZED ON TRAIL

CELEBRATING WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Courthouse recognized on trail

 

Courthouse

Bonelli

Jacobs

 

The City of Greenville and the Butler County Courthouse are listed on the National Votes for Women Trail. The Trail seeks to celebrate the diversity of people who supported the struggle for women’s suffrage.

It collects sites from across the country to tell the story and currently has over 1,100 entries on its database. Greenville is one of only eight Alabama cities on the Trail. There are 14 sites listed for Alabama.

Many of the documented places across the country were previously unknown to have been connected with the fight for equal voting rights.

By anchoring the history of women’s suffrage in specific locations, the movement is brought to life by highlighting the commitment of hundreds of thousands of people.

Participants who worked to gain women the right to vote comprised all ethnicities, classes and geographic locations.

Two lectures on suffrage were held at the Butler County courthouse. Julia Oakes Randall Bonelli, of Montgomery and Suffolk County, N.Y., spoke at the courthouse in April 1914. She was Organizing Secretary for the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association (AESA).

The President of the AESA, Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, lectured here in December 1914. Both occasions were well-attended and covered by newspapers.

The Greenville entry for the Trail was submitted by Pamala Nolan on behalf of the Alabama Women’s Suffrage Centennial Committee. Nolan said, “Each time we enter our beautiful courthouse we walk through history. How cool is that?”

The Butler County Courthouse was designed by architect B. B. Smith and built in 1903.

For more information, please see ncwhs.org/votes-for-women-trail/.