Eastern Victory was a

Saxon Motor Car Company The Saxon Motor Car Company was located in Detroit, Michigan, from 1914 to 1922. In 1917, 28,000 cars were made, making it the seventh largest car maker in the United States. History Hugh Chalmers of Chalmers Motor Car Company began the comp ...

roadster purchased for

Anna Howard Shaw Anna Howard Shaw (February 14, 1847 – July 2, 1919) was a leader of the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was also a physician and one of the first ordained female Methodist ministers in the United States. Early life Shaw ...

in 1915. It was bright yellow and named "Eastern Victory" by Shaw. Shortly after the car was given to Shaw, it was seized to pay for Shaw's unpaid taxes. The car would be auctioned to pay for the taxes. At the auction, suffragists from Delaware County, Pennsylvania purchased the car. The car made appearances in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

and Georgia suffrage events.

History

General_Federation_of_Women's_Clubs_Magazine,_Anna_Howard_Shaw_August_1915

Shaw received the yellow car from Harriet Burton Laidlaw on June 29, 1915. Shaw was brought into

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

believing she was attending an important meeting, but instead was given the car, a Saxon Roadster, dubbed "Eastern Victory.". It was a gift of New York suffragists. After receiving the car, she and Aimee Hutchinson drove to her home in

Moylan, Pennsylvania Nether Providence Township is a first class township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Many residents refer to the township by the name of its largest community, Wallingford, because the Wallingford postal code is used for most o ...

. In Moylan, Shaw learned to drive the car and crank the engine. Shaw said of cranking the engine: "A man's job is it? I just wish it was as easy to wind up the voters and make them go right on November 2. Let me tell you, sir, to a woman who has been cranking up suffrage forty years, playing with a little toy like this has no terrors."

Car seizure

Shaw resisted paying taxes on her property in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in 1913. It was a form of "passive protest" against the government which was not allowing women to vote, but still taxing their property. Shaw refused to fill out the form listing her property, stocks, and bonds, and in response, the tax assessor evaluated her property at a hugely inflated amount. It was estimated that she owed $126 in taxes based on this assessment. and Shaw then tried to send in her revised property listing, but it was rejected. Shaw then changed her address to

New York state New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. Changing her address protected most of her property. Eastern Victory was seized while Shaw was at home and the car in the garage. After the car was seized by tax officials, Shaw's lawyer instituted equity proceedings to stop authorities from selling the car at

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

. If she paid the $126 tax, authorities would return Eastern Victory to Shaw, but Shaw refused. Seizing the car made it a symbol of the fight for

women's suffrage in the United States In the 1700's to early 1800's New Jersey did allow Women the right to vote before the passing of the 19th Amendment, but in 1807 the state restricted the right to vote to "...tax-paying, white male citizens..." Women's legal right to vote w ...

. Before the car went to auction, suffragists and anti-suffragists started raising money to buy the car. Anti-suffragists revealed they had raised $500 before the auction. Suffragists in Delaware County, Pennsylvania were able to buy the car for $230. Shortly after the car was bought at auction, suffragists Anna Hutchinson and Beatrice Murphy had an accident in Nyack, New York while driving the car. It went into a ditch, drove through a

barbed wire fence A close-up view of a barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is t ...

and hit a

telegraph pole A utility pole is a column or post typically made out of wood used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as electrical cable, fiber optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. It c ...

. The suffragists were not harmed, and the car went to a mechanic to fix.

Eastern Victory No. 2

In August 1915, Shaw received a larger yellow roadster dubbed "Eastern Victory No. 2."

Appearances

Lucy Anthony gave a speech at the

Ho-ho-kus Ho-Ho-Kus () is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 4,258, an increase of 180 (+4.4%) from the 2010 census count of 4,078, which in turn reflected an increase ...

Fair standing in Eastern Victory in September 1915. The car appeared in a Georgia suffrage parade in November 1915. Georgia suffragist, Eleonore Raoul, drove Eastern Victory from

to Georgia for the parade.

References

Sources

* {{Authority control Individual cars Women's suffrage in the United States